"The Secret" is a science fiction

Science fiction

Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

 short story

Short story

A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...

 by Arthur C. Clarke

Arthur C. Clarke

Sir Arthur Charles Clarke, CBE, FRAS was a British science fiction author, inventor, and futurist, famous for his short stories and novels, among them 2001: A Space Odyssey, and as a host and commentator in the British television series Mysterious World. For many years, Robert A. Heinlein,...

, first published in 1963

1963 in literature

The year 1963 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*First United States printing of John Cleland's 1749 novel, Fanny Hill . The book is banned for obscenity, triggering a court case by its publisher.*Leslie Charteris publishes his final collection of stories...

. 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

The Wind from the Sun

The Wind from the Sun is a 1972 collection of short stories by science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke. Some of the stories originally appeared in a number of different publications...

.

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.