Huygens Was Right - Titan Is Wet
Coming down through the clouds, the probe took pictures of what looked like river channels, beaches and islands - and landed in the mud! (re: Various)

Solar Tadpoles Explained By Boffins
Solar "tadpoles" - dark shadows that seem to wiggle down toward the surface of the sun during flares - may have been explained by University of Warwick astrophysicists. (re: Various)

Dyson Intelligent Vacuum Cleaner Is Self-Diagnosing
James Dyson has added a new feature to his vacuum cleaners - they can tell service personnel exactly what the problem is. All you need to do is "phone home" - that is, call the service center. (re: Arthur C. Clarke)

Demolition Robots Help Destroy Building
Robots suspended from cranes will be used to demolish the structure of one of Madrid's tallest buildings. The building was damaged by fire; the ruined structure is too dangerous to be handled by human workers. (re: Isaac Asimov)

Augmented Reality Cemetery Tour - The Dead Speak
An Augmented Reality tour of Atlanta's Oakland cemetery will let the dead speak to visitors. In a recent trial run, users carried laptops in backpacks and used game controllers to navigate the cemetary. (re: Rudy Rucker)

CSS Skywalker - First Step To SF Orbital Resorts
CSS Skywalker, an orbital hotel designed by Bigelow Aerospace, will consist of a 22x45 foot inflatable space habitat that can be easily configured for its guests. In the configuration shown below, the top level is set aside as a lounge; the middle le (re: Arthur C. Clarke)

America's Army And The Last Starfighter
America's Army, the official U.S. Army game, is an online video game that has registered about 4.7 million users. More than 30,000 people log onto the game's servers every day; thousands more play in unofficial leagues. It claims to present the most (re: Various)

Mouse With Human Brain May Live
Stanford University has given researcher Irving Weissman permission to create a mouse-human hybrid. The intent is to inject human brain cells into the brains of developing mice to see what happens. (re: H.G. Wells)

Rotundus And Rover: Robotic And Fictional Guardians (Updated)
The Rotundus robot is a rather unusual spherical bot that moves using an internal pendulum. The robot was originally designed for planetary exploration at the Ångström Space Technology Center, part of Uppsala University, Sweden. (re: Niven and Pournelle)

RFID Tags Proposed To Halt Blackmarket Cadaver Trade
An investigation into illegal sale and distribution of cadavers and body parts at the University of California, Los Angeles, has lead to recommendations that include implanting cadavers and individual body parts with RFID tags. (re: Larry Niven)

Earth To Mars In A Month With Painted Solar Sail
Gregory Benford, professor of physics at UC Irvine (and noted science fiction author) believes that a spacecraft powered by a special kind of solar sail could reach Mars in just one month. (re: Gregory Benford)

First Star Seen Leaving Our Galaxy
Astronomers have spotted a star moving at faster than the galactic escape velocity. It is leaving our galaxy, never to return. (re: Arthur C. Clarke)

Drive To Musical Wege House On Musical Road
Wege House is a unique house built along a Lake Michigan beach. The core of the house consists of massive beams forty feet in length. They are the basis for the core musical instruments of the house - two long stringed instruments. When played, the l (re: George RR Martin)

The Origins Of Cyberspace Up For Auction At Christie's
If you happen to be in NYC on February 23rd, you might want to bid on the amazing items in Christie's The Origins of Cyberspace: A Library on the History of Computing, Networking and Telecommunications. (re: William Gibson)

Space Rescue Technology In Fact And Fiction
NASA is preparing a backup shuttle and rescue crew in case shuttle Discovery has problems in May. Rescue flights have been become more of an issue since shuttle Columbia broke up in reentry two years ago. SF writers have been working on this since th (re: Various)

Eunicycle Single-Wheel Gyro-Stabilized Scooter
Dr. Trevor Blackwell has constructed a self-balancing, powered unicycle he calls the Eunicycle. It's pretty close to what Robert Heinlein had in mind in 1940 in The Roads Must Roll. (re: Robert Heinlein)

Water-Repellent 'Bumpy' Glass Mimics Lotus Leaves
The lotus is a good model for a water-repellent surface; they are waxy and covered with tiny bumps that make water roll off. Surfaces like ordinary glass are naturally wettable; when water is poured onto it, its surface tension is reduced so it sprea (re: Frank Herbert)

Asteroid Named After Douglas Adams
Douglas Adams, author of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, now has an asteroid to call his own. Asteroid Douglasadams was among the 71 newly named celestial objects announced by the International Astronomical Union this past Tuesday. (re: Douglas Adams)

Ion Drive Spacecraft Also Takes Good Pictures
SMART-1, the European Space Agency ship equipped with ion drive propulsion, is now sending back great pictures from the lunar surface. SMART-1 is the first craft to return to the moon in over 5 years. (re: George Lucas)

Throwbot - Pocket-Sized Recon Robot
Redstone Arsenal is developing the Throwbot, a soda can-sized robot to aid soldiers in quickly gathering more information about their immediate environment. (re: Robert Silverberg)

SWORDS - First Robots To Break Asimov's First Law Of Robotics
Next month, the US Army will be putting robot soldiers in the field in Iraq. The SWORDS robots are fully armed, and thus the first to break Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics. (re: Isaac Asimov)

Massive Planetoids From Beyond The Solar System
New calculations reveal that large planetoids may have formed hundreds of times farther from the Sun than previously thought. Some may have been captured from other stars. (re: George R.R. Martin)

ERNIE The Robot Pharmacist - More Accurate Than Humans
A robot pharmacist named ERNIE dispenses more than 90 percent of Evergreen Hospital Medical Center's drugs. ERNIE has packaged nearly 400,000 doses in the past nine months and works twenty-four hours per day. (re: Larry Niven)

Sega idog Robot Puppy (Update)
Sega unleashed its newest creation in Tokyo; a robotic dog called idog that can compose, play and dance to music. (re: Ray Bradbury)

Speegle Serves Up Verbal Search Results
Let Speegle read your search results in a restful voice. (re: Harlan Ellison)

Toshiba Ubiquitous Viewer Lets Phones Control PCs
Toshiba says it has developed software to let users control computers in their homes or offices from their mobile phones. (re: William Gibson)

Hit Song Science (HSS): Finetune Your Tracks
A computer program called Hit Song Science (HSS) from Polyphonic HMI, is being used to predict success or failure for music. And it is being used by musicians around the world to "finetune" the music to which every one of us listens. (re: William Gibson)

Technovelgy Top Stories For 2004
This past year, Technovelgy reported on hundreds of stories about real-life events that were presaged by science fiction stories. The following ten stories showed the most remarkable correspondence between sf and reality in 2004. (re: Various)

Electrical Barrier To Keep Asian Carp Out Of Great Lakes
A permanent electrical barrier will go into use in February to protect the Great Lakes from Asian carp that are moving up the Mississippi river. (re: Roger Zelazny)

Mac Mini and KITT The Knight Rider
the 6.5"x2" Apple Mac Mini is just the right size to fit into a car stereo single-DIN compartment. Let the Mac Mini custom auto conversions begin! (re: Neal Stephenson)

Saudi Arabian Mobile Phones
The Islamic Saudi Mobile Phone has a number of unusual, built-in features to serve the religious needs of its intended audience - faithful Muslims. It will provide Qibla direction as well as prayer times in over 5,000 cities worldwide. (re: Roger Zelazny)

Tweel - (Almost) A Smart Wheel
Michelin is introducing the Tweel - a combination of wheel and tire that could offer a number of benefits to owners of wheeled vehicles. Unlike most Michelin tires sold in the past century, the Tweel is unique - it does not use air to cushion the rid (re: Neal Stephenson)

Niven's 'Black Power' Now Available In Infrared
A team lead by University of Toronto scientist Ted Sargent has created a sprayable plastic composite that could harvest as much as thirty percent of the solar power that strikes a surface. (re: Larry Niven)

A Sleeping Bag That Walks
Japanese mail-order magazine Tsuhan Seikatsu offers a new kind of sleeping bag experience for you jaded hikers and backpackers - the Arukeru Nebukuro, literally 'the sleeping bag you can walk in.' (re: Clifford Simak)

Magnetic Fields Found To Shape Planetary Nebulae
A team of German astronomers have detected magnetic fields in the central stars of four planetary nebulae. Astronomer and sf writer Fred Hoyle wrote about this fifty years ago. (re: Fred Hoyle)

Green Comet Machholz - Hopefully, Without Cometeers
In his 1936 classic The Cometeers, science fiction Grandmaster Jack Williamson writes of a sinister green comet; now you can look up and see one. (re: Jack Williamson)

Shuffle Master Bets On RFID Poker Chips
Casinos have sought in vain to accurately track table game bets and rate a player's wagering tendencies - until now. Shuffle Master has acquired two RFID patents that will allow them to track every chip on the table. (re: Bruce Sterling)

Ticketed Passengers Only Aboard Soyuz ('TANSTAAFL' Says Roskosmos)
Russia's space agency Roskosmos announced that it would stop giving free rides to US astronauts beginning in 2006. US space shuttles have been grounded since February of 2003, when the shuttle Columbia burned up on re-entry. (re: Isaac Asimov)

Biojewelry Bone Ring To Go With Your Jeweleye
Looking for an accessory for your Jeweleye eyeball jewelry? Here it is! (re: Frank Herbert)

Bring On The Hush-A-Phone!
We've all read about the studies being conducted on the airlines, that perhaps one day soon we will all be forced to sit cheek-by-jowl with people who will conduct loud conversations on their cell phones. Isn't there some way to fend off this disaste (re: Robert Heinlein)

The Loneliest Whale and Ray Bradbury
In 1989, a very unusual set of whale calls were noticed in the North Pacific basin; the calls have been consistently recorded since 1992. (re: Ray Bradbury)

Gated Communities Flourish - Offline and Online
Gated communities are gaining popularity - online and off. (re: Neal Stephenson)

Heliodisplay - Futuristic Display Technology
Films like Star Wars show how images projected into the air might be used. The Heliodisplay from IO2Technology projects images - both still pictures and video - into mid-air. It works with most video sources. It is also interactive, forming a floatin (re: George Lucas)

Shadow Sculptures Of Shiego Fukuda
Sculptor Shiego Fukuda created an apparently abstract three-dimensional object - However, the image that Fukuda wants you to see is the shadow of the sculpture - a motorcycle that can be seen when a light is passed through. (re: Jack Vance)

Robots and Emotion: Tetchy the Turtle Meets HAL-9000
In 2001: A Space Odyssey and in I, Robot, robots had the ability to understand human emotion. Affective Media, based in Scotland, is working on it now. (re: Arthur C. Clarke)

Finally, Good Graphics For SF E-Paper
Science fiction writers have been talking about the virtues of electronic paper for decades; finally, mobilepc magazine has given us the graphics we've been waiting for in their "Wonders That Will Be" issue. (re: Neal Stephenson)

World's Fastest Elevator Now In World's Tallest Building - Going Up?
Toshiba Elevator and Building Systems Corp announced the installation of the world's fastest passenger elevator just exactly where it is needed - in Taipei 101, the world's tallest building. The elevator runs at a top speed of 1,010 meters per minute (re: Isaac Asimov)

Man vs. Machine: Surviving Compaction In A Garbage Truck
In a classic story of man versus machine that took place right in my own home town, a homeless man in Ann Arbor, Michigan survived compaction in a garbage truck. (re: George Lucas)

Encyclopedia Googleactica - Google To Put All Human Knowledge Online
Google to put ten million books online; thank goodness for google. Of course, we're still waiting for Google Audio (TM) and Google Video (TM)... (re: Robert Heinlein)

ROKVISS Telepresence Robot Heading To Space Station
The ROKVISS robot will leave Earth aboard the Progress M-51 spaceship on December 24th. Russian cosmonaut Salizhan Sharipov and astronaut Leroy Chiao will install the German robot on the outside of the International Space Station. (re: Niven/Pournelle)

Imagine The Future Of The Space Elevator
Here's your chance to help science meet fiction. The 2005 Clarke-Bradbury International Science Fiction competition has just been announced by the European Space Agency's Technology Transfer and Promotion office. (re: Arthur C. Clarke)

Superconducting Magnetic Bubble To Protect Astronauts From Radiation
Astronauts on long voyages through the solar system will be exposed to lethal doses of radiation from cosmic rays. Former astronaut Jeffery Hoffman has recieved funding from NASA through NIAC (NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts) to research the ide (re: Larry Niven)

Nomad Virtual-Cockpit Helmet-Mounted Display
Commanders in the field need better situational awareness; Microvision has created the Nomad Virtual-Cockpit Helmet-Mounted Display. (re: David Drake)

Delta IV Heavy Lifter - Space Freighters In Fact And In Fiction
The twenty-three story Delta IV Heavy rocket vehicle will go aloft sometime this week (if the weather holds). (re: Robert Heinlein)

Solar Ultrasound - Bass Note In Music Of The Spheres
Ancient cosmologiests talked about the music of the spheres. Turns out that astrophyicists have found that the Sun is putting out a constant beat - the solar ultrasound. (re: Various)

Burj Tower In Dubai To Be World's Tallest Building
What is the tallest building in the world? Right now, it is the TFC 101 building in Taiwan - 509 meters tall. Not for long, though; Emaar Properties has awarded a contract to Samsung for $847 million to build the Burj Tower. (re: Isaac Asimov)

Universal Whistling Machine - The Future Of Non-Verbal Communications
Canadian artists Marc Bohlen and J.T. Rinker want to change the way that you interact with your favorite electronic devices. Tired of tiny keyboards, poor speech recognition or incomprehensible interfaces? (re: George Lucas)

Robotic Fish From China
A robotic fish designed for underwater archaeology, mapping, water cultivation and even fishing has been co-developed by the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics. (re: Michael Swanwick)

Skeletar And Dragon Lyre ExoticGuitars - Science Fiction Instruments
Luthier Peter McGilton has used his Masters Degree in Fine Arts, and post graduate studies in classical instrument construction, to take the guitar-maker's art to truly science-fictional levels. Jack Vance would love this guy. (re: Jack Vance)

Union Of Driver And Vehicle (and Astronaut And Spacecraft?)
Toyota has announced a concept vehicle that is seeks the union of car and driver. How about the union of astronaut and spacecraft? (re: Samuel R. Delany)

Crime-Fighting Computer - The Game's Afoot 24x7
Computer scientists in Chicago have created the Classification System for Serial Criminal Patterns (CSSCP), a computer system that uses pattern-recognition software to sift through case records to find the link (and the perpetrator) connecting differ (re: Harry Harrison)

Ornithopters In Fact And Fiction
An ornithopter (a flapping wing aircraft) under development at the University of Toronto's Institute for Aerospace Studies may yet make Leonardo da Vinci's dream a reality. Frank Herbert fully visualized them in Dune. (re: Frank Herbert)

Robotic Tomato Harvester Ready For Space
Astronauts on space missions are busy - too busy to tend the hydroponic gardens that will keep them alive on long trips to distant worlds, or on the surface of the Moon or Mars. So, NASA has developed a robotic tomato harvester to pitch in and bring (re: Gregory Benford)

Collapsing The Wave: An Interview with J. Frederick Arment
I really liked J. Frederick Arment's Backbeat - A Novel of Physics. This is a novel that demonstrates real writing power; the characters are touching and memorable. He makes the ideas behind quantum mechanics come alive in a fascinating story about r (re: J. Frederick Arment)

Planetary Parks Proposed For Mars Conservation
A set of seven 'planetary parks' have been proposed for the conservation of the martian environment by two European scientists. (re: Alfred Bester)

First Methuselah Mouse Rejuvenation 'M Prize' Awarded
The first Methuselah Foundation Rejuvenation 'M Prize" for Reversing Aging in Middle-Aged Mice Using Techniques Applicable to Human Beings has been awarded to Dr. Stephen Spindler, who lead an experiment to make mice biologically younger while extend (re: Robert Heinlein)

Imperial Probe Droid And NFL Robotic Skycam - Separated At Birth?
Maybe I've had too much turkey and science fiction, but I was watching the Detroit Lions play yesterday, and I suddenly thought that the Skycam system, created by CF InFlight, bore a remarkable resemblance to the Star Wars Imperial Probe Droid. (re: George Lucas)

Genesis Inflatable Space Module Gets Go-Ahead
Bigelow Aerospace has been given payload approval for its Genesis inflatable space habitat by FAA-AST. Genesis weighs in at 1,360 kilograms and is approximately 4.6 meters in length by 1.9 meters in diameter; this is a one-third scale model. (re: Larry Niven)

Holo-Dek - A Unique Real-World Virtual Venue
The Holo-Dek center in Hampton, New Hampshire, may not quite have the same features as the holodeck from Star Trek - but when you see your favorite computer games unfold at human scale, you might just buy into their business. (re: Gene Roddenberry)

Self-Cleaning Fabric - Polymer Film Sprinkled With Silver Nanoparticles
Researchers at Clemson University are trying to make your clothes cleaner - permanently. The secret is a polymer film of polyglycicidyl methacrylate sprinkled with silver nanoparticles. (re: Neal Stephenson)

Pioneer Space Probes Unexpectedly Slow Down In Deep Space
once Pioneer 10 and 11 passed beyond the orbit of Uranus, the radio signals sent back by the aging craft have been shifted to progressively shorter wavelengths. This implies that they are decelerating slightly; no one knows why this is happening. (re: Poul Anderson)

Carbon Nanofiber Makes Smart Yarn
Carbon nanofiber can now be spun like yarn to make an amazing variety of new inventions possible. (re: Neal Stephenson)

RoboCoaster G2 - Extreme Robot Roller Coaster
RoboCoaster G2, the next generation of rollercoaster ride, was demonstrated in Orlando on Friday. It's an industrial grade robot and it moves on a configurable track. (re: Various)

iBand Exchanges Data With Handshake But Lacks Hand Jive Recognition
As the makers of the new iBand remark, initial meetings and introductions build relationships, but only if you can remember whom you shook hands with. That's why the iBand gathers and processes information automatically when it registers a handshake (re: Neal Stephenson)

SMART-1's Ion Drive Not Science Fiction
SMART-1 has made it all the way to the Moon using an ion drive. (re: Jack Williamson)

Geo-View ECG-Shirt - So Close To A Heartshirt
Geo-View has created a new shirt for sports enthusiasts (and others) called the ECG-Shirt. It has incorporated high-tech foil containing sensors that measure heart rate, yielding an electrocardiogram. (re: Rudy Rucker)

Terminator Tether - EDT Solution To Space Debris Update
Studies have shown that low Earth orbit is not a limitless resource and should be managed more carefully. Some sort of debris-mitigation measures are needed to solve the problem of old, unusable satellites and space junk. (re: Various)

White Box Robotics 'Apache' - More Punch Than R2D2
New concept robot from White Box Robotics - the Apache is just the thing to guard the presents under your tree this year. (re: George Lucas)

Beer Drinking Elephants Wish For Draco Tavern
Wild elephants shouldn't trample villagers to get at rice beer - they should try the Draco Tavern. (re: Larry Niven)

Afroditikrassa World View LED Cluster Lamp
Industrial design consultants Afroditikrassa have created a virutally weightless lighting fixture called 'world view.' It's pretty close to Frank Herbert's suspensor lamp from Dune. (re: Frank Herbert)

Bluetooth Star Trek Communicator On eBay (Again!)
I couldn't resist checking out yet another working Star Trek communicator for sale on Ebay. (re: Gene Roddenberry)

Interactive Face For Big Brother
Tired of stiff, unmoving, iconic images of Big Brother? Take a look at Jeremiah, a virtual face that interacts with the people around him. (re: L. Frank Baum)

Cosmos 1 Sets Solar Sail - Update
Cosmos 1, the world's first solar sail spacecraft, is scheduled to be launched on March 1, 2005 - Car Sagan's birthday. The mission of the flight is to perform the first controlled solar sail flight. (re: Jules Verne)

Tumblin' Tumbleweeds Lend Hand In Depleted Uranium Roundup
An early study indicates that the humble tumbleweed (the Russian thistle) may be able to help humans round up depleted uranium from contaminated soil (re: Gregory Benford)

Non-Conductive Tethers - Free Artificial Gravity In Orbit
Tethers connecting satellites or space stations have some interesting effects even if they are not conductive - a non-conductive tether made of a very strong, light material like Kevlar can be used to connect two objects in orbit, one farther away fr (re: David Brin)

WiFi Hog - Early Xmas For Nihilistic Technofetishists
Do you long to stake your claim to the wireless wide open spaces? Here's the tool for the bandwidth hog (cybersquatter?) in all of us. (re: William Gibson)

10x10 News Interface Cooler Than Google's By Factor Of 10
I love Google, but 10x10 is a Flash-based news interface created by Jonathan Harris that presents a grid of pictures in the news. (re: Various)

Spray: First Underwater Autonomous Vehicle To Cross Gulf Stream
A small self-propelled ocean glider named Spray is the first underwater autonomous vehicle (UAV) to cross the Gulf Stream underwater. (re: Irwin Allen)

Electrodynamic Tethers: Clean Up Debris - Power or Boost Spacecraft
An electrodynamic tether (EDT) is a simple idea, but one with an amazing number of uses. You can power your ship, speed up or slow down. (re: David Brin)

Solar-Powered Interplanetary Shock Tracked To Saturn
In a dramatic proof that solar coronal mass ejection (CME) events affect even the outermost portions of the Solar System, scientists have traced an interplanetary shock from the Sun to Earth to Jupiter to Saturn. (re: Roger Zelazny)

Marine Worm Has Insectile And Vertebrate 'Eyes' (Update)
It turns out that Nature is both creative and generous with her gifts. Recent research has shown that the tiny marine worm Platynereis dumerilii has two types of light-sensing cells. (re: Various)

Stealth Now Old Hat - USAF Looks Into Teleportation
Lest you think that our friends at DARPA are the only ones interested in science-fictional possibilities, the USAF recently took delivery on a new study regarding the military potential of teleportation. (re: Frank Herbert)

AlertBox Wireless Device Warns The Neighbors
A wireless device called an AlertBox is going on sale in the United Kingdom this week; it allows neighbors to warn each other about "dodgy characters" on their street. (re: Jack Vance)

Virtual Retinal Displays Get All Geordi With It
Scientists have been hard at work; the Human Interface Technology Laboratory is continuing work on virtual retinal displays - and building in a very Star Trek look while they're at it. (re: Frederik Pohl)

Slow Light Will Speed Communications
Physicists at the NIST believe that a new class of light soliton may help speed up communications networks. (re: L. Sprague de Camp)

White Box Robotics 912 - Hackable Home Robot
The White Box Robotics 912 is a rugged, all-purpose, hack-it-yourself robot - just like R2D2. (re: George Lucas)

Chips In Your Head - Artificial Brain Prosthesis Under Development
In the spirit of works by William Gibson, a silicon chip implant that mimics the hippocampus is under development. (re: William Gibson)

Leaked USAF Report Targets European GPS Satellites
A leaked report indicates that the US will attack and destroy the European Union's Galileo positioning satellites in time of war, if necessary. (re: John Brunner)

Hey Epsilons! Brave New World Getting Closer
Researchers have found they can make monkeys work their hardest and fastest all the time by manipulating a specific gene so they forgot about rewards. No complaints or slacking off. You have that gene, too. (re: Aldous Huxley)

Rat Neurons In A Dish Now Playing Flight Simulator
In his 1999 sf novel, Peter Watts wrote about cultured neurons that could fly planes. Now, a University of Florida researcher makes it a reality. Almost. (re: Peter Watts)

Nap-Cap - How About A Hat-Tip For Larry Niven?
Maybe it just uses the name, but Heads Up(TM)'s Nap-Cap should at least mention Larry Niven, who thought of it. (re: Larry Niven)

Graphene - Nanofabric One Atom Thick
A nanofabric called graphene just one atom thick has been created at The University of Manchester. (re: Roger Zelazny)

Using Bad Movies To Teach Good Science
Science News has a good article on how bad science movies are being used by good science educators. (re: Various)

Future Face - The Principal Eigenface?
Will the widespread use of digital enhancement to "improve" faces in photographs suggest the kind of face that people will have in the future? (re: William Gibson)

Minority Report-Style 'Discovery Informatics' At Purdue University
Purdue University researchers are developing a Minority Report-style environment with high-performance computers and artificial intelligence software. The new 'data CAVE' takes a new approach to data-mining. (re: Stephen Spielberg)

Alter Ego Exhibit - Avatars Revealed
Earlier this month, an exhibition of avatars and their real-life counterparts opened in London. Is there a relationship between the visage of the avatar and the form of the real person? (re: Neal Stephenson)

RocketScore Tells You Your SAT Essay Score
You now have an online teacher and evaluator - RocketScore, the artificially intelligent grader that provides a prediction of the score your essay will get on the SAT. (re: James Blish)

Electronic Underwear Monitors Your Heart
Philips Research in Germany announced on Friday that they have developed underwear that monitors your heart. The underwear can also dial 911 for you. (re: Rudy Rucker)

MagBeam Propulsion - To Mars And Back In 90 Days
Magnetized-beam plasma propulsion, or magbeam propulsion, could cut the time required for long journeys around the solar system from years to weeks. (re: Larry Niven/Jerry Pournelle)

Northwestern Researchers Can Remember It For You Wholesale
Researchers are working on making Rekal, Inc. a reality - false memory research is progressing. (re: Philip K. Dick)

BrainGate - Earth Scientists Begin To Crack Krell Secrets
BrainGate, a tiny sensor array implanted in the brain, has allowed a quadriplegic man to check e-mail and play computer games. (re: Irving Block)

Dragon Runner Robot Always Lands On Its Feet
Enough about dog-like robots - the more feline Dragon Runner always lands on its feet. (re: Ray Bradbury)

The Future Of Time Was Written In The Past
Timex should have consulted science fiction writers before running their 150 year anniversary timepiece of the future contest. (re: Larry Niven)

NEEMO 7 - NASA Undersea Robotic Telemedicine Experiment
The Zeus robotic surgical system will be used in an unusual experiment to give NASA additional options. (re: Peter Watts)

MEMSwear Fall Fashion - Bluetooth-enabled Motion Detection Shirt
Fallen and you can't get up? This shirt has already called for help. (re: Rudy Rucker)

Is Your Candidate Human?
In San Francisco they've been testing candidates for mayor with the Voight-Kampff empathy test from Bladerunner. I think they detected a politician... (re: Philip K. Dick)

RFID To Fight Entropy In The Home
Fortunately, minute RFID tags attached to everything you own will be used by household robots to identify a place for everything and put everything in its place. (re: Jetsons)

Amateur Innovators - This Is Your Century!
the 21st century could mark the return of the talented (and obsessed!) amateur to the first ranks of science. This is a fantastically useful and interesting observation; this observation could be as important as the ideas in The Structure of Scientif (re: Arthur C. Clarke)

SpaceShipOne - The First Strato-Yacht?
Is SpaceShipOne a modern incarnation of a Joy-boat Junior, from Methuselah's Children? (re: Robert Heinlein)

Flag Of The Solar System Created
Students and scientists at the Long Future Research Group at the Technical University of Budapest, Hungary, set themselves the task of creating a flag for the solar system. (re: Gene Roddenberry)

Boudreaux - Extra Vehicular Activity Robotic Assistant
It seems that mankind has always sought the companionship of a faithful canine, particularly when venturing into unexplored lands. (re: Isaac Asimov)

Motosk8 - Next Best Thing To Tele-Motor-Coasters
Motosk8 is a very special kind of personal transportation, designed by extreme sports enthusiast Tim Gendle. (re: Hugo Gernsback)

Animaris Rhinoceros Transport
The Animaris Rhinoceros Transport is - well, I don't know what it is. It stands about 4.7 meters tall, and is constructed with a steel skeleton covered with a polyester skin. (re: George Lucas)

Dogs Sniff For Cancer
Dogs can detect cancer through their sense of smell, according to a study published last weekend in the British medical journal BMJ. (re: John Brunner)

The Smart Construction Site Of The Future
The future construction site detailed in Bruce Sterling's Distraction is closer than you think. (re: Bruce Sterling)

Spaceflight Club For Space Enthusiasts
The Spaceflight Club has been organized by Space Adventures, a private space experiences company. The club will make sure members get the tools, experience and training they need to be ready for commercial space travel. (re: Jules Verne)

Biomimetic Robot Animals - Not All Are Cute
Sure, they've got robot lobsters, elephant trunks and even big dogs. But what about robotic lamprey parasites? (re: Philip K. Dick)

SubjuGator: Flying Sub From Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea
The SubjuGator is an autonomous underwater vehicle based on the design of the Flying Sub (re: Irwin Allen)

Cream Encourages Your Immune System
A cream that encourages the body's immune system to destroy cancer cells has been released for general use in Australia. (re: David Brin)

Hydraulic Robo-Slab
Made from Brotonium a practically indestructible space metal, the Brotron Robo-Slab comes equip with; a seven ton magnetic field restraint, a 50THz decontamination lamp, a variable 6000 rpm bone saw, TIG welding arm. and a push button remote for tilt (re: Larry Niven)

Smart Tag Art In London
This site showcases hundreds of examples of tag art - they're too cool to scrape off. (re: William Gibson)

Robot Crab: Crustacean Clockwork Automata
This robot crab is more clockwork than automata, but be sure to see the cool and menacing video. (re: William Gibson)

Mattress Alarm Perfect For Sleepy Students
Who needs jarring alarms? Try rising (literally) each morning with the mattress alarm. (re: Larry Niven)

Cockroach-Controlled Mobile Robot
Garnet Hertz has created a cockroach-controlled mobile robot. A hybrid biorobotic system, the robot consists of a mechanical system that amplifies and translates the bodily movements of a live giant hissing Madagascar cockroach. (re: Vernor Vinge)

Computer Key Rings
Marché Noir's Computer Key Rings are spring mounted to accurately reproduce the action on your favorite key - so you can hit it whenever you need to reboot your cool. (re: Robert Heinlein)

Secom Robot X Security Guard Works For Less
The Secom Robot X security guard, which can be controlled remotely or pre-programmed, will not be sold to customers; it will replace human security guards for half the cost. (re: Philip K. Dick)

SpaceHouse: Jetson's Skypad Apartment
SpaceHouse, an ESA-designed structure designed for space is being examined for use here on earth. The German Antarctic station Neumayer-III must meet stringent laws intended to protect the Antarctic environment. (re: Hanna-Barbera)

CirculaFloor - Smart Tile Holodeck?
The CirculaFloor is a computer interface; it consists of a set of movable floor tiles. As the user walks in a chosen direction, the floor tile maintains the position. (re: Gene Roddenberry)

Aluminate Glass: Did Scientists Create Transparent Aluminum?
Scientists at 3M in Minnesota have alloyed aluminum oxide with rare-earth metal oxides to create a strong glass with good optical qualities - it really is transparent alumninum. (re: N. Meyer/H. Bennett)

Solar Sails Unfurled Over Japan
Two different solar sail designes were unfurled from a small rocket launched from Kagoshima, Japan on August 9th. (re: Jack Vance)

uFR-II Micro Flying Robot - (Lighter) Son of Micro Flying Robot
Micro flying robot enthusiasts rejoice! Now you can revel in the (lighter) son of the uFR Micro Flying Robot - uFR-II. (re: Neal Stephenson)

VeriChip RFID Tag Patient Implant Badges Now FDA Approved
The Federal Drug Administration has approved a final review process to determine whether hospitals can use VeriChip RFID tags to identify patients. The estimated life of the tags is twenty years. (re: Alfred Bester)

Fatal Vision Goggles - Simulate Impaired Driving
Fatal Vision Simulator Goggles are designed to help you see poorly. They simulate the experience of driving while under the influence. (re: Rudy Rucker)

RFID-Maki: Easy Payment Sushi
In Japan, eating and automation go together like, well, like raw fish and rice. (re: Harry Harrison)

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 (re: E.E. )

Electronic Number Plate RFID Keeps Tabs On Vehicles
A South African company now offers Electronic Number Plate RFID technology to keep track of your comings and goings in your car. (re: Robert Heinlein)

Sky Ear Works!
Sky Ear, a thousand sensitive helium balloons, finally took flight last month after a slight delay due to bad weather and other problems. (re: Roger Zelazny)

Kaori Web: Odorophonics Comes To A PC Near You
Kaori web creates odorophonics - a science fiction idea of the fifties. (re: Ray Bradbury)

Can Computer Tapeworms And Viruses Be Your Friends
Computer tapeworms and viruses are feared by computer users today. But the creator of the term "computer virus" conceived of them as being helpful (as well as potentially harmful). (re: John Brunner)

PC Case Mod Contest: Sandbenda Contenda
The ExtemeTech extreme case mod contest heats up - see the dragon. (re: William Gibson)