The Secret (short story)

"The Secret"
Author	Arthur C. Clarke
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Genre(s)	Science fiction
Published in	This Week
Publication date	August 11, 1963

"The Secret" is a science fiction short story by Arthur C. Clarke, first published in 1963. It was first titled "The Secret of the Men on the Moon" when published in This Week magazine. It was collected in The Wind from the Sun.

Plot summary

"The Secret" is about a science reporter, named Henry Cooper, who went to the moon in 1959, to write a series of publicity articles for the U.N.S.A space division. Although he was invited by the U.N.S.A to provide favorable articles that might sway public opinion before the beginning of the budget deliberations, he finds that he is much less welcomed than he was on his last trips there. He begins to suspect that a secret is being kept from him, and becomes increasingly curious. A few days later he is being taken by his friend, the police commissioner, to a remote lab.

In the lab he confronts one of the head scientists who becomes convinced that the only way to keep the reporter silent is to bring him in on the secret. The secret, the scientist explains, is rather obvious when you come to think about it, and it's a wonder humankind hasn't thought of it in advance. On Earth the human heart pumps - over several decades - many gallons of blood up stream. Gravity tucks and pulls on the organs and tissues. On the moon, however, everything is six times lighter than on earth. The erosion of gravity is six times weaker. Who knows, concludes the scientist, how many years that might add to the human life expectancy? To up to 200 years of age.

The reporter is then confronted with the sheer numbers of earth's population - over ten billions huddled together with not enough food and not enough space. What will they do when they'll hear that the moon offers longevity? How could the moon support them? The story ends with the sounds of a baby monkey crying. The ending is a little strange to most of the readers.