Page 8 - June 2024 Newsletter

discovered that the compound thiotimoline will dissolve in
water—in the proportions of 1 g/mL—in minus 1.12 seconds. That
is, it will dissolve before the water is added.

A Venerable Tradition
Asimov’s thiotimoline did not come out of nowhere, of course.
There has always been a blurred boundary between fiction on the
one hand and spoofs and hoaxes on the
other. A famous early example is Gulliver’s
Travels, written by Jonathan Swift and
dating from as long ago as 1726. Although
the book recounts the title character’s
adventures in outrageously far-fetched
parts of the world like Lilliput, where the
human inhabitants are only a few
centimetres tall, it is written in the style of
many other, perfectly factual, traveller’s
accounts of its time. In this sense, Gulliver’s Travels might almost
be considered a deliberate hoax.
During the 19th century, it was quite common for authors of
horror fiction to present their stories in pseudo-factual form in
order to give them added credibility. For example, both Mary
Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818) and Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897)
contain numerous letters, diary entries and other supposed “real-
world” documents—all of which are, of course, entirely fictitious.
Other writers, such as Edgar Allan Poe and H. P. Lovecraft also
used such a “realistic” approach to their fiction writing.
But these authors were obviously exponents of fiction writing.
What made Isaac Asimov different was that his fiction appeared
to come from a very deep understanding of real science. He wrote
so convincingly that there were many real scientists who took
thiotimoline seriously. One wonders who are the science writers
of today who are currently playing the same trick on their readers.
Only time will tell!

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