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"I prefer working by artificial light."
- Isaac Asimov
 |
| Inter-Universal Messenger | ||
| A device intended to travel to another dimension. |
| As it eventually worked out, the inter-universal messenger had to be constructed from the sub-microscopic level on up out of fundamental nuclear particles which came as close to being nothing at all as either universe would ever be likely to provide: zero-spin particles with various charges and masses, and neutrino/anti-neutrino pairs. Even detecting that the object was present at all after it had been built was an almost impossible task, for neutrinos and anti-neutrinos have no mass and no charge, consisting instead partly of spin, partly of energy of translation; it did no good to try to visualize such particles since like all the fundamental particles they were entirely outside of experience in the macroscopic world. Matter was so completely transparent to them that stopping an average neutrino in flight would require a lead barrier fifty light years thick. |
| From Cities in Flight,
by James Blish. Published by Avon in 1957 Additional resources -
|
Cities in Flight is a set of novels; this item is taken from The Triumph of Time.
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- AMANDA May Find Probes To Other Dimensions
| Elon Musk Tweets Versions Of Clarke's Operation Cleanup |
| Espresso Telescope Searches For Exoplanets |
| Manned Maneuvering Unit From 1984 |
| Astronaut Gets Younger In Space |
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Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
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'A worker replaced by a nubot... had to be compensated.'
'... forcing the energy transfer which allowed him to regrow his lost fingers.'
'The car surged and lifted, clearing its top by a negligible margin.'
Science fiction authors are serious about sleep, too.
'I had explained," said Nessus, "that our civilisation was dying in its own waste heat.'
'Just what did I want Flexible Frank to do? - any work a human being does around a house.'
SF writers have thought about this since the 19th century.
