Home | Glossary | Timeline | New

Science Fiction in the News Articles related to the works of Murray Leinster

Murray Leinster (b. 1896 - d. 1975) was the nom de plume of William Fitzgerald Jenkins, born in Norfolk, VA. He served in WWI in the Army, also serving in WWII in the Office of War Information. His science fiction output was voluminous, starting in 1919 and continuing until 1970; he used the Leinster name almost exclusively for sf writing (except of course for A Logic Named Joe, which he wrote under the name Will F. Jenkins). (Murray Leinster) He won a 1956 Hugo for Exploration Team and a retro-Hugo in 1996 for First Contact. 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:

Astronaut Tim Peake Completes Space Marathon
   'Joe got out the gravity-simulator harnesses...' - Murray Leinster, 1953.
Contour Crafting: 3D House Printer
   Perhaps you've used those programs that let you design your dream house, creating a Computer Aided Design (CAD) file. Not quite ready to take up the hammer and start building? What if you could just "print" your house?
Sketch Furniture Ultra Rapid Prototyping
   Amazing technology so advanced only children's fantasy could predict it; the purple crayon is included.
Squid Robot Underwater Inspector Has Unique Propulsion
   This underwater robot has a completely unique biomimetic means of propulsion.
Motorola AUDEX Jacket With Sleeve Controls
   Love those Leinster sleeve controls; the jacket does have a 1940's appeal to it.
Digital Lederhosen MP3 Player Bavarian-Style
   At last, traditional Bavarian lederhosen are now available with MP3 controller buttons.
Space Station Gets Shielding, Not Blasters
   Sure, you can bolt on some special protective shielding against space debris. But blasters are better.
Keyboard Pants
   I think I understand the jackets - and even lederhosen - with controls for your MP3 player built into them. But keyboard pants?
Our Futuristic Data-Net Is In Trouble
   Several articles have come out recently about how the U.S. is falling behind the most advanced nations in the area of Internet broadband. Our sf was more advanced, anyway.
GPS Lingerie 'Find Me If You Can'
   Misplaced your girlfriend? No problem - if she wants to be found. With video.
Launch-Abort Motor For NASA: The Next Generation
   Testing the 'ejection seats' for the new Constellation space craft. And thanks to readers who made 2,000 SF in the News articles possible!
RoboClam Smart Anchor
   Another fascinating biomimetic robot; researchers want to know how Nature can do ten times better than human ingenuity.
COLBERT Treadmill Long SF History
   Here are at least three references to early exercising strategies in space. How many can you think of - before people actually spent much time in orbit?
Underwater Robot With Touch Sensitive Skin
   Divers with active imaginations may want to stay topside while this robot goes down below.
TV-B-Gone Hoodie
   I've been at the Google I/O conference this week, and this was just one of the cool devices featured at their after party.
Bowlingual Translates Canine Speech
   Just in time to be tied into a major motion picture, this upgrade to a classic device now lets your dog speak at last.
Underwater Mine Detection Robots Vs. Wabbler
   The Navy is trying to create a smarter mine hunting robotic system. I think I can predict the logical countermove.
Nano-Particle Field Extraction Thruster
   A nanoFET is essentially a micro-thruster; a postage stamp-sized rocket engine. Great flexibility combined with long operational life make it perfect for small devices on long missions.
Femphonic Audio Jacket With On-Sleeve Controller
   Electronic ontrols built into clothingis an idea that is at least sixty years old. I still like it.
Adaptability Training System Helps Space Travelers Return
   Not just for return to Earth, systems like this could help astronauts after a long weightless voyage to Mars.
Tweet Sleeve Displays Your Emotions
   Insights into your heart, one hundred and forty characters at a time.
M-Dress Has Phone, SIM Card And Antenna Embedded
   This dress is a wearable phone.
Sony Internet TV Foreseen In 1946
   'It looks like a vision-receiver used to, only it's got keys instead of dials and you punch the keys for what you wanna get.'
Textile Energy Storage
   It's a prototype systematic fiber-based electrochemical micro-supercapacitor.
Sound Charge T-Shirt Uses Sound Energy
   Now, noisy streets and loud clubs are just what you need - to recharge your phone.
Smart Textiles For Wearable Communicators
   'Antenna clothing' for all occasions.
Space Solar Power - A Truly Limitless Source
   SF writers popularized and elaborated on this idea a generation before the first patents were filed.
Handy Zero-G Cup
   Serving tea in space is harder than you might think.
School Kids In Brazil Now Wear 'Chipped' T-shirts
   'Education does not transform the world.' Surveillance does, though.
Astronaut Exercise Video, Predicted By SF Writers
   'Joe got out the gravity-simulator harnesses.' - Murray Leinster, 1953.
Mini Ion Thrusters To Push Tiny Satellites
   Perfect for pushing your cubesat around.
Sean Jean 'Fashion Video Name Tag' Fleece
   Why not a display to go with your sleeve communicator? Murray Leinster would have been down with it.
ARED Keeps ISS Astronauts Fit
   'Joe got out the gravity-simulator harnesses... set for full Earth-gravity simulation.'- Murray Leinster, 1953.
DARPA's Upward Falling Payload Like Leinster's Wabbler
   'The Wabbler plunged into the water... It dived swiftly... slowly, it settled downward.'- Murray Leinster, 1942.
A Forced Air-Cooled Jacket?
   'He went to the hall closet to get his pith helmet and his mandatory cooling-unit...'- Philip K. Dick, 1964.
3D Printing Your Winter Reality
   'It makes drawings in the air following drawings it scans with photo-cells...'- Murray Leinster, 1945.
Eel Robots Ideal For Naval Warfare
   Because anguilliform swimming is more efficient, and stealthier, than thunniform swimming. But you already knew that.
World's First 3D Printed Villa
   'It makes drawings in the air following drawings...'- Murray Leinster, 1945.
CreoPop 3D Pen Draws In Midair
   'It makes drawings in the air...'- Murray Leinster, 1945.
Protopiper Lets You Sketch Full-Size Objects In Real Space
   'Plastic comes out of the end of the drawing arm and hardens...'- Murray Leinster, 1945.
XYZprinting 3D Pen Used, Reviewed By Terrible Artist
   'Plastic comes out of the end of the drawing arm and hardens...' - Murray Leinster, 1945.
3D Cocooner From Festo Spins Web In Mid-Air
   'It makes drawings in the air following drawings it scans with photo-cells.' - Murray Leinster, 1945
ROCKY - Resistive Overload Combined With Kinetic Yo-Yo
   'Joe got out the gravity-simulator harnesses..' - Murray Leinster, 1953.
Tethers Unlimited Satellite Mini-Thrusters
   'They combined the absolute maximum of sheer thrust with the irreducible minimum of flyability.' - Murray Leinster,
LBNP Device Not Quite 'Artificial Gravity'
   'Joe got out the gravity-simulator harnesses..' - Murray Leinster, 1953.
Space-Based Sustainable Energy Policy
   'The Power Planet, of course, is that vast man-made disk of metal set spinning about the sun to supply the Earth with power.' - Murray Leinster, 1931.
Ad Astra! JPL's Autonomous Undersea Drones
   'Splash! The Wabbler plunged into the water...'
Wearable Smart Jacket
   He pressed the button in his sleeve communicator and snapped: 'Action stations!' - Murray Leinster, 1945.
Space-Based Solar Power Roundup
   Who first thought about this concept?
3D Printed Dubai Building Is World's Largest
   'This thing will start at one end of ...a house and build it complete to the other end, following drawings only.' - Murray Leinster, 1945.
Solar Power Beamed From Space Studied By Brit Boffins
   'Our beams feed these worlds energy drawn from... the Sun.' - Murray Leinster, 1931.
Tiangong Space Station! Exercise Like It's 1953
   'He couldn't imitate actual gravity, of course...' - Murray Leinster, 1953.
Space-Based Solar Power A Priority - European Space Agency
   '...vast man-made disk of metal set spinning about the sun to supply the Earth with power.'
Taikonaut Tai Chi Foot Loops
   'Jimmy Cardigan and Harlowe, staring through the darkside port, had their feet in the foot-loops...' - Murray Leinster, 1931.
3D Printing In Mid-Air
   'It makes drawings in the air...' - Murray Leinster, 1945.
Will Whales Be Our First Contact?
   'He had piloted the Adastra to its first contact with the civilization of another solar system.' - Murray Leinster, 1935.

New on Site