1. Trekkies rejoice: Vulcan could exist!
Yes, you read correctly. Spock’s home planet could actually exist. Maybe. Epsilon Eridani, the planetary system located about 10 light years (62 trillion miles) away from us, supposedly holds the planet Vulcan within its confines. Astronomers speculate that the two asteroid belts around Epsilon Eridani are being held together by planets like our own Jupiter, who does the very same job for our solar system. The Epsilon Eridani solar system is thought to be a much younger but similar version of ours, which would contradict Star Trek because Vulcans are supposed to be an advanced civilization. Do I smell a time-travelling, parallel-universe-creating plot-twist?
2. Me, myself, and I, Robot
Dishwashers were invented to wash dishes for people, TiVo was invented to watch TV for people, and the Electric Monk, from Douglas Adams’s novel Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, was invented to believe things for people. In 2011, we’re one step closer to the Electrick Monk: robots are now doing surgery, fighting for the military, and even befriending your toddlers. No, I’m not talking about Furbies or Tomagachis – I’m talking about a 2-foot tall metal human.
In 2007, a toddler-sized robot named QRIO was placed in a Californian educational center 45 times over a 5-month observational period. After only 11 sessions, these toddlers were interacting with QRIO as if he (or she?) were a real person. There’s also a robot called Kompai being developed to help take care of elderly people who are confined to their homes. I’m just waiting for people to start complaining about robots taking their jobs.
3. Set phasers to “stun”
Remember when Kirk and Han Solo were shooting people with lasers? Well, this reality may not be as for off as we think. Weapons engineers have developed laser technology – literally “laser cannons” that could be mounted on planes, naval ships, or tanks, that could zap enemies even many miles away. The advantages of this technology is supposedly a clean way to destroy your enemies: it’s quick, and it doesn’t cause much collateral damage. At the 2010 Farnborough International Air Show, a defense technologies company called Raytheon showed a video demonstrating the US Navy Laser Weapon System’s technology – an unmanned aircraft being shot down by lasers. Star Fleet, here we come.
4. Harry Potter might not be so special, after all: invisibility!
When you ask kids what super power they want, the majority of them will say “invisibility!” Well, in the next few years, it might just be possible. Physicists are employing the phenomena of light refraction to guide light around things. You know when you put a pencil in a glass of water, the pencil looks like it’s bent? That’s light changing speeds as it goes through a new medium – in this case, water – and that’s what refraction is. They’re using the idea of a “refraction index,” which will cause the light to refract around something and then return to its original course. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a technique using a highly common material – calcite crystals – that refract light. They use the calcite crystals to bend light around an object, making it disappear in front of the naked eye.
5. Planetary stalking – blame Neal Stephenson
Before manned spaceships and satellite imaging, no one knew what the Earth looked like from space. Now we can type in any address we want from our personal computer and be there. There are rumors that origins of Google Earth are based in science-fiction. Particularly in the novel “Snow Crash,” published in 1992, written by Neal Stephenson. In the novel, the main character uses an application (wait, there were apps before Apple?!) to look at Earth from above – well, from above, around, and under. Some of Google’s Co-founders have been rumored to say that this was the inspiration for Google Earth.
3. Set phasers to “stun”
Remember when Kirk and Han Solo were shooting people with lasers? Well, this reality may not be as for off as we think. Weapons engineers have developed laser technology – literally “laser cannons” that could be mounted on planes, naval ships, or tanks, that could zap enemies even many miles away. The advantages of this technology is supposedly a clean way to destroy your enemies: it’s quick, and it doesn’t cause much collateral damage. At the 2010 Farnborough International Air Show, a defense technologies company called Raytheon showed a video demonstrating the US Navy Laser Weapon System’s technology – an unmanned aircraft being shot down by lasers. Star Fleet, here we come.
4. Harry Potter might not be so special, after all: invisibility!
When you ask kids what super power they want, the majority of them will say “invisibility!” Well, in the next few years, it might just be possible. Physicists are employing the phenomena of light refraction to guide light around things. You know when you put a pencil in a glass of water, the pencil looks like it’s bent? That’s light changing speeds as it goes through a new medium – in this case, water – and that’s what refraction is. They’re using the idea of a “refraction index,” which will cause the light to refract around something and then return to its original course. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a technique using a highly common material – calcite crystals – that refract light. They use the calcite crystals to bend light around an object, making it disappear in front of the naked eye.
5. Planetary stalking – blame Neal Stephenson
Before manned spaceships and satellite imaging, no one knew what the Earth looked like from space. Now we can type in any address we want from our personal computer and be there. There are rumors that origins of Google Earth are based in science-fiction. Particularly in the novel “Snow Crash,” published in 1992, written by Neal Stephenson. In the novel, the main character uses an application (wait, there were apps before Apple?!) to look at Earth from above – well, from above, around, and under. Some of Google’s Co-founders have been rumored to say that this was the inspiration for Google Earth.
