Preon - Popular Culture

Popular Culture

• In the 1948 reprint/redit of his 1930 novel Skylark Three, E. E. Smith postulated a series of 'subelectrons of the first and second type' with the latter being fundamental particles that were associated with the gravitation force. While this may not have been an element of the original novel (the scientific basis of some of the other novels in the series was revised extensively due to the additional eighteen years of scientific development), even the edited publication may be the first, or one of the first, mentions of the possibility that electrons are not elementary particles.
• In the novelized version of the 1982 motion picture Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, written by Vonda McIntyre, two of Dr. Carol Marcus' Genesis project team, Vance Madison and Delwyn March, have studied sub-elementary particles they've named "boojums" and "snarks", in a field they jokingly call "kindergarten physics" because it is lower than "elementary" (analogy to school levels).
• James P. Hogan's novel "Voyage from Yesteryear" discussed preons (called tweedles) the physics of which became central to the plot. Hogan's "tweedle" physics was patently derived from the Rishon model.