The word, that is. Czech playwright, novelist and journalist Karel Čapek didn’t invent an actual working robot, but he did invent “robot” — from the Czech robota, meaning “work.” He introduced the word in his 1920 hit play, R.U.R., or Rossum’s Universal Robots, which you can read here.

Our resident “Science Diction” guest, historian Howard Markel, will be on Science Friday tomorrow to talk about “robot.” For more, check out Markel’s essay explaining the word’s origin, below. Read more