These machine translations produced quirky slogans like "Towards the Dream Forward" and "Marching Towards Science".
Though encouraged into medicine, Islam veered towards science simply because he was good at it.
The concern about public apathy towards science is widely shared among scientists - and in media circles too.
It's a bellwether moment and the pendulum is swinging away from the Abbott government, towards restoring our democracy, towards science and towards a clean energy future.
"I had no O-level or A-level in music," he says, "and my school was always pointing me towards science.
He complains that fears of creating "Frankenstein" are typical of the British attitude towards science: "There's a presumption of guilt in the UK.
"There is a developing hostility towards science, fuelled by half-truths and false arguments easily disseminated on the internet, which feed a suspicion that the truth is somehow always being deliberately hidden".
In the decades since, as rockets became more reliable, and the emphasis of space exploration swung from politics towards science and international cooperation, selectors have looked for rounder personalities.
According to Edelman, budget cuts and hostility towards science are symptom of a deeper provlem: the mutual ignorance between science and the law, which together hold the reins of power in our society.
With scientific advancements playing a larger role in our lives in every year that goes by, we can't afford for the public to become as antipathetic towards science and scientists as it has towards finance and financiers.
