Holography is one of those "it's-2012-where-is-my-holodeck" kind of sciences - long promised by science fiction, still far from a practical communications tool. But the field is moving forward in fits and starts, even if a complete technology package that will beam moving holograms onto our tabletops, Princess Leia-style, is still on some far horizon. Example: Researchers at Cambridge in the U.K. have recently generated holograms with carbon nanotubes for the first time, generating the smallest hologram pixels ever.
Getting around in the future is going to be something of a trip, at least to let classics of science fiction like TRON, Blade Runner, Aliens, and Star Trek tell the story. In a rare glimpse into the mind of the man that largely shaped Hollywood's sci-fi representation of the future of transport, a collection of visionary designer Syd Mead's paintings is currently on display in Manhattan.
Today is World Meteorological Day, and across the North American continent, records have been smashed: from the Great Lakes to the Atlantic, a heat wave like nothing we've ever seen before is hitting the US and Canada, while out west, Oregon has gotten a new record for snowfall. Just what is going on here?
Tiny machines that can enter our bloodstreams and do work inside of our bodies are a staple of both science fiction and real-world biomedical science, as MEMS and other micromotor devices become increasingly small and effective. A team from the University of California, San Diego USA, is taking the idea even further by creating what it is calling "microrockets": tiny self-propelled motors that can zip around an acidic environment, like the human stomach, without the need for an external fuel source.
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