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Science Fiction in the News Articles
Related to material in Triplanetary
by E.E. 'Doc' Smith

Triplanetary is the first in E. E. "Doc" Smith's series of six Lensman books; this novel provides necessary background information for the grand space-opera that follows. The patient reader will learn how the good-guy Arisians and the bad-guy Eddorians battled it out over eons. These novels set the standard for many other writers, including Isaac Asimov's Foundation trilogy.

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.

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.

Space Diving By Orbital Outfitters (And 'Doc' Smith)
   Someday, when this has become commonplace, we'll have space diving Elvises returning from orbit.

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.'

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.

'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.

Invisibility Cloak Fools Naked Eye
   interesting new technique uses naturally-occurring materials to form an invisibility cloak.

Our Galaxy's Habitable Zone
   How many habitable planets are there in the Milky Way? This paper presents interesting research in this area.

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.

Augmented Reality Ship's Bridge From Rolls Royce
   '... the immense, three-dimensional, minutely cubed model...'- 'Doc Smith, 1934.

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.

Experimental Flying Wing
   'The ship was a tremendous flying wing.' - 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.

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.

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