Science Fiction in the News Articles
related to the works of

E.E. 'Doc' Smith

Edward Elmer Smith (1890-1965) was the science fiction author who wrote the Lensman series and the Skylark series. He was born in Idaho; he received his doctorate in Chemical Engineering from George Washington University in 1919. He worked as a 'food technologist' for the Dawn Doughnut Company, then worked for the US Army from 1941-1945. His novels are considered by most fans to be the progenitors of the 'space opera' genre; Smith himself stated that he preferred to invent fictional technologies that are not strictly impossible.

Science fiction in the News articles describe real-world events that relate to the ideas and inventions in sf novels and movies. Select a news article:

Planets May Wander Alone
   Astronomers at the Royal Observatory in Edinburgh claim that planets can be created by the same processes that create stars.
Polymeric Nitrogen: Science Fiction Explosive
   Researchers of the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry have synthesised a polymeric cubic form of nitrogen where all atoms are connected with single covalent bonds, similar to carbon atoms in diamond, creating what may be the most powerful explosive e
Hypersonic Sound (HSS) - Loudspeaker Just For You
   Hypersonic Sound (HSS) technology does for sound what lasers did for light - provide a far more focused stream of energy over a greater distance with less dispersion.
Traversable Wormholes And Time Machines May Not Be Usable
   According to a new paper by physics researchers by Roman Buniy and Stephen Hsu, traversable wormholes and time machines cannot be both stable and predictable.
DARPA's Radiation Decontamination (And 'Doc' Smith's Dekon)
   DARPA and a host of scientists are working on decontamination techniques for dirty bombs.
DARPA Radar Scope Can Sense Thru Walls
   New DARPA device senses you breathing through a twelve inch thick concrete wall.
Boeing Thermal Protection System For Orion
   Boeing will develop an ablative heat shield for the Orion space craft.
Wireless Power For Laptops, Cellphones?
   An old concept perhaps made new with "non-radiative" wireless power transmission.
Femtosecond Laser Pulse Turns Metals Pitch Black
   Remarkable process creates a perfectly black finish without paints or other coatings.
Deflector Shields For Spacecraft?
   Interesting idea from the UK on how to protect space travelers Star Trek-style.
Rhenium Diboride Like Metal, Crystal
   Tip for creating latest super-tough material found in Doc Smith.
Space Diving By Orbital Outfitters (And 'Doc' Smith)
   Someday, when this has become commonplace, we'll have space diving Elvises returning from orbit.
Yabafo Brings Free Fall Experience To Jaded Shoppers
   This amazing amusement park ride is the first of its kind to bring free-fall excitement to shopping in a vertical mall.
Carbon Nanotube Blackness Blacker Than Black
   Absorbs 99.9 percent of incident light, and good enough for Zaphod Beeblebrox - maybe.
DARPA Vulture Five Year Flying Wing
   DARPA sets yet another ambitious goal; I don't understand why nobody remembers the amazing prototype aircraft that reached 100,000 feet on solar power alone a few years ago.
Lower Limit Of Quantum Communication Speed
   Interesting work determines a lower limit for the impossible communication that Einstein called 'spooky action at a distance.'
Diamagnetic Cavity Shield For Spacecraft?
   New research provides a way to protect space travelers heading out past Earth's atmosphere and magnetosphere.
New Super-Wipe Best On Stains, Mustard Gas
   Sure, you've got your favorite brand of wipes; we all do. But give this new product a try. Especially for those really tough spills.
Prism 200 And See Through Walls 3 Other Ways
   The Prism 200 is just the latest way to see through walls; I show you three (now FOUR!) other X-ray spec-worth devices.
Axel Rover Robotic Crater Explorer Yo-Yo-Bot
   Nifty video shows the Axel rover, a tethered marsupial rover. Yes, you read that right.
Gravity Tractor Research By British Scientists
   It would take some planning and advance tracking, but a gravity tractor might actually work.
'Space Diver' To Leap From 121K Feet
   120,000 feet is not quite as high as sf movies depict, but when done in reality, will be quite high enough.
Terahertz Remote Sensing Detectors
   See through walls, containers and clothes from hundreds of feet away - and identify the unique signature of different substances.
Tractor Beam Works Over Longer Distances
   Still a prototype, and it only works in an atmosphere. But still, we're making progress.
Gold Nanoparticles To Make Trees Into Street Lights?
   What would a forest of luminous trees look like?
New Black From NASA Uses Nanotubes
   This new material is blacker than black paint.
Invisibility Cloak Fools Naked Eye
   interesting new technique uses naturally-occurring materials to form an invisibility cloak.
Curvilinear Camera Combines Your Eye With Zoom
   Going beyond the human eye? Someday, we will rebuild you better than you were before
Our Galaxy's Habitable Zone
   How many habitable planets are there in the Milky Way? This paper presents interesting research in this area.
Blacker-Than-Black Corrugated Metamaterials
   This idea also fascinates sf authors; can you think of sfnal materials that are darker than black?
Worlds First Intelligent Absorbent For Radioactive Contaminants
   The material uses titanate nanofiber and nanotube technology.
NASA's Super-Black Now Even Blacker
   'Our material is darn near perfect across multiple wavelength bands, from the ultraviolet to the far infrared.'
NASA's Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator
   From the Office of the Chief Technologist.
Red Bull Stratos' Freefall From 24 Miles High
   'He gasped as the air rushed out into near-vacuum...'- EE 'Doc' Smith, 1934.
Valerians, Your Heavy Gravity Planet Has Been Found
   '...of extraordinary size, strength, and agility because of the enormous gravitation of the planet Valeria'- EE 'Doc' Smith, 1938.
Army Wants Black Blacker Than Black
   'Well, we have a black coating now that’s ninety-nine percent absorptive...'- Doc Smith, 1940.
Augmented Reality Ship's Bridge From Rolls Royce
   '... the immense, three-dimensional, minutely cubed model...'- 'Doc Smith, 1934.
Vantablack Is Blacker Than Your Black
   'Well, we have a black coating now that’s ninety-nine percent absorptive...'- Dpc Smith, 1934.
Physicists Build Repulsor / Tractor Beam
   'Brandon swung mighty tractor beams upon the severed halves of the Jovian vessel...'- EE 'Doc' Smith, 1931.
Invisible Drones Will (Not) Appear Over Your Town
   'Light-waves are bent around it without loss or distortion.' - Doc Smith, 1939.
ADEPT Heat Shield Works For Mars
   '...A synthetic which air-friction would erode away...' - EE Doc Smith, 1934.
MIT's Microwave Camera Sees Through Walls
   'Through the lenses of those goggles Costigan's keen and highly-trained eyes studied every concealed detail...' - EE 'Doc' Smith, 1934.
Blackest Black? New Disordered Nanostructured Material
   'Well, we have a black coating now that’s ninety-nine percent absorptive...' - Doc Smith, 1934.
Experimental Flying Wing
   'The ship was a tremendous flying wing.' - Doc Smith, 1934.
Tractor Beams? They're Working On It
   'Brandon swung mighty tractor beams...' - Doc Smith, 1931.
Vantablack Now IMMEASURABLY Black
   'a black coating now that’s ninety-nine percent absorptive...' - Doc Smith, 1934.
NASA's Astronaut Rescue Ball
   'Ball and closely-prisoned man plummeted downward..' - Doc Smith, 1934.
Moving Whole Planets, Revisited
   There was a lot of work done on this idea over the years.
Amazing Kepler Space Telescope Decommissioned By NASA
   'Thus it came about that the search for a planetiferous sun... was not unduly prolonged...' - Doc Smith, 1934.
Would You Swallow An Origami Robot?
   'Swallow it in an emergency--it goes down easily and works just as well inside as outside.' - Doc Smith, 1934.
Mercury Capsule Ablative Shielding
   '...a synthetic which air-friction would erode away.' - Doc Smith, 1934.
MOOSE: Man Out Of Space Easiest or Manned Orbital Operations Safety Equipment
   'And as the ball bulleted downward on a screaming slant, it shrank!' - Doc Smith, 1934.
M-Dwarf Stars May Not Have Habitable Planets
   'Thus it came about that the search for a planetiferous sun near a white dwarf star was not unduly prolonged...' - EE 'Doc' Smith, 1934.
Deflector Plasma Screen For Drones ala Star Wars
   'If the enemy persists in attacking or even intensifies their power, the density of the plasma in space will suddenly increase, causing it to reflect most of the incoming energy like a mirror.'
Orbital Mechanics, The Liftoff, The Turnover, The Retrograde Burn
   '...the huge vessel had spun, with a sickening lurch, through a complete half-circle, the instant the power was reversed.' - EE 'Doc' Smith, 1928.

 

 

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