WASHINGTON (AP) -- Newt Gingrich's ideas about science may seem like fiction but experts say they really aren't.

The Republican presidential candidate wants to create a lunar colony that could become a U.S. state. He has a plan to map the human brain to find out what makes it tick. And he's warned about a nuclear electromagnetic pulse attack that literally could leave America in the dark.

Several science policy experts tell The Associated Press those ideas stem from mainstream science. But they add that Gingrich has a way of making them sound way out there by first taking a small step, then a giant leap further than where other politicians have gone.

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