Killer robots are a reliable staple of science fiction, a culmination of humanity's technological prowess turned against civilization as a cruel, cosmic joke. While this is a good premise for a movie, developments in military robotics are often seen as heralding a once-fictional robocalypse. However, a video released today, from Russian state-owned news channel RT, is a reassuring sign that deadly robots are still at best a thing of the future.
The recipe for creating a habitable planet turns out to be surprisingly simple: Just add water—and atmospheric gases. Mars has both, relics from four billion years ago when the planet was warm and wet. “When it comes to Mars, and only Mars, the notion of terraforming is no longer in the realm of science fiction,” says NASA astrobiologist Chris McKay. Humans could warm the planet and restore a thick atmosphere in a matter of decades, but producing breathable levels of oxygen would take 100,000 years with today’s best technology: plants. New inventions could, in theory, speed that along too. “Living off the land is going to be essential for long-term human explorers beyond Earth,” says Laurie Leshin, a geochemist on the Mars Curiosity team. “We have to figure out how to do this stuff.”
Tractor beams (short for "attractor beams," which can bring one object closer to another from a distance) are a common trope in science fiction. But could they be made in real life? Researchers made news earlier this year when they created a kind of tractor beam, or "optical tweezers," that can move around nano-sized objects with light. NASA scientists are also working on a project to reel in objects with light; Australian researcher have moved small objects a total of 5 feet with lasers. Most of this work has involved light, but now, a separate group has made an acoustic tractor beam that can move much larger objects with sound waves.
Science fiction is defined by pushing boundaries - of inner and outer space, as well as time and imagination—which is what makes it great for the theater, according to actor David Dean Bottrell. “Stage is such a unique medium,” he states in email, “because the audience is a participant in the proceedings.”
Call it an instance of science fiction begetting science fiction. Physicist Adam Weigold wants to build a laser weapon that he believes might change the face of warfare should the U.S. find itself tangling militarily with a certain people's republic across the Pacific at some point in the near future. And to fund the research for said weapon, Weigold is releasing a science fiction novel about - wait for it - the U.S. tangling militarily with a certain people's republic across the Pacific in the near future.
Our science fiction isn't always on the nose. 1984 didn't look exactly like 1984, and 2001 didn't bring us the kind of Space Odysseys we envisioned. So forgive us for being skeptical about predictions pegged to dates that haven't been reached yet - the subject of this terrific visualization by Italian designer Giorgia Lupi.
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