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"In my mind I have gone all over the universe, which may make it less important for me to make piddling little trips... I did enjoy seeing Stonehenge. It looked exactly the way I thought it would look."
- Isaac Asimov
 |
| Twing | ||
| Used in the hold of spaceships to keep articles all together, and to prevent them from floating around in free fall, or falling during periods of acceleration. |
NASA worked hard on the problem of what to do with loose items in space ships. They float around when you are in free fall, and they might hurt someone (or damage something else) while you are accelerating.
The answer? Twing! It's kind of like a string netting that keeps everything in its place, but can easily be released for access.
| He picked up the flat-nosed softener key...
Twing was tough, but not invulnerable...Phssthpok applied the softener key to the twing. Thump - and a foot of crude glass rod slammed through the twing. |
| Technovelgy from Protector,
by Larry Niven. Published by Del Rey in 1973 Additional resources -
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| Harvard Metamaterials Change Structure Instantly |
| Nano-Chainmail 2D Mechanically Interlocked Polymer |
| Goldene - A Two-Dimensional Sheet Of Gold One Atom Thick |
| FlexRAM Liquid Metal RAM And One Particular SF Movie Robot |
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'...there's a narrow belt where the climate is moderate.'
'He wore spectacles with thick wavy lenses. The spectacles were intended to make him not only half blind, but to give him whanging headaches besides.'
'... with the Master-operator all you have to do is push one! A remarkable achievement!'
'Not like me. A T-1000, advanced prototype. A mimetic poly-alloy. Liquid metal.'
'It was riddled with holes that were the mouths of tunnels.'
'The massive feet working the pedals, arms and hands flashing and glinting...'
