Science Fiction and Science Fact

I think we need a new term to describe science-based writing, something a bit more truthful sounding than "science fiction" but not as confident as "science fact".

In science, plenty of things start out fictitious only to end up becoming reality. Flying, space travel, 3-D printing (aka replicators in Star Trek). Robots.

Even worse, many science "facts" turn out to be fiction. Milk, eggs, even fish have each gone from good to bad and back again.

This is why we need a new phrase, a word or two that captures both the uncertainty and the inevitability of discovery. For example, it is inevitable that we discover a cure for cancer but it is uncertain what this will look like.

In the strictest of scientific terms, we could say that all of science itself is Schroedinger's cat. Throw a cat in a box and leave it there for a while. Before you re-open the box, the cat is both dead and alive, a middle-ground of existence, purgatory as perception. This, to me, is the inevitability of discovery.

So what do we call science fiction? Science writing? Pop science? Futurism?

What do we call science fact? True-for-now? Proven until proven otherwise?

Stay tuned.