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"A science fiction story is a story built around human beings, with a human problem and a human solution, which would not have happened at all without its scientific content."
- Theodore Sturgeon
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| Artificial Transparent Element | ||
| A substance as strong as metal that you can see through. |
| Windows of an artificial transparent element, scarcely less strong than the metal of the hull, enabled the voyagers to look around them. |
| Technovelgy from Last and First Men,
by Olaf Stapledon. Published by Not known in 1930 Additional resources -
|
This is an obvious precursor to the idea with which all Star Trek fans are familiar, that of "transparent aluminum".
Also, it turns out that the helio-beryllium from Out Around Rigel, a 1931 story by Robert H. Wilson, also has a transparent variant.
Compare to glassite from Brigands of the Moon (1930) by Ray Cummings,
neo-crystal from Master of the Asteroid (1932) by Clark Ashton Smith,
transparent car roof from Sinister Barrier (1939) by Eric Frank Russell,
plani glass from Crystalized Thought (1937) by Nat Schachner,
thermalite from Planet of Eternal Night (1939) by John W. Campbell and slow glass from Light of Other Days (1968) by Bob Shaw.
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Last and First Men
More Ideas
and Technology by Olaf Stapledon
Tech news articles related to Last and First Men
Tech news articles related to works by Olaf Stapledon
Artificial Transparent Element-related
news articles:
- Transparent Aluminum Vs. .50-Cal Bullets
- New Glass Tough As Steel
| Goldene - A Two-Dimensional Sheet Of Gold One Atom Thick |
| GNoME AI From DeepMind Invents Millions Of New Materials |
| Omniphobic Liquid-like Surfaces And de Camp's Telelubricator (1940) |
| MXenes - Atomic-Thin Metal Sheets Now Easier To Make |
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'... the expressionless face before me was therefore that of the golem-wrestler, Rolem, a creature that could be set for five times the strength of a human being.'
'Waldo put his arms into the primary pair before him; all three pairs, including the secondary pair mounted before the machine, came to life.'
'... the glittering little rocket bolted to the black iron behind him.'
'The slender stalks of a sunshade-photocell collector...'
'The operation that had transformed half his body... had located the control switchboard in his teeth.'
