Science Fiction in the News:
Science and Technology News

Breathable Carbon Nanotube Membrane For 'Smart Uniforms'
'The 'skin's got these reflexes, changes its permeability...' - Peter Watts, 1999. (re: Peter Watts)

Record 1007 Robots Dance In Harbinger Of Doom
Okay, Sonny, I know you're out there. (re: Various)

Cicret Makes Your Skin Into A Display
'On the translucent mica-like coverings over the orifices, appeared reddish characters...' - Schachner and Zagat, 1931. (re: John Varley)

Tesla To Eye Future With New Sensors?
'I want to show you something new in the way of an automobile.' - David H. Keller, 1935. (re: David H. Keller)

Industrial Robot Tattoo Artist Is World's First
Let's get cut together. (re: Various)

Festo's AquaJellies 2.0
'It was a chemotactic artificial jellyfish designed to slither into undersea vents...' - Rucker/Sterling, 1994. (re: Rucker/Sterling)

SPIDER Repair Robots From Lockheed Martin Blimps
'The repair robots had started out on their rounds... making sure that the hull had not been damaged.' - Stanislaw Lem, 1954. (re: Stanislaw Lem)

Io's Sulphur Dioxide
'All the water in the air froze first and made a blanket ten feet thick or so...' - Fritz Lieber, 1951. (re: Fritz Lieber)

Would You Converse With Your Autonomous Car?
What's that, Artoo? I shouldn't be driving right now? (re: George Lucas)

Would Movable Houses Make Cities Better?
'He saw a house in the suburbs gently slide out of its place...' - Jane Webb Loudon, 1828. (re: Jane Webb Loudon)

Drone 100, Coordinated Drone Performance Team
'The real border was... a swarm of quasi-independent aerostats.' - Neal Stephenson, 1995. (re: Neal Stephenson)

Tethers Unlimited Satellite Mini-Thrusters
'They combined the absolute maximum of sheer thrust with the irreducible minimum of flyability.' - Murray Leinster, (re: Murray Leinster)

Sophie, Your Virtual Assistant
'What would you do, right now, if you were me? ...The joymaker answered without hesitation.' - Frederik Pohl, 1966. (re: Frederik Pohl)

Satellite Surveillance Reveals Guerrilla Drug Trade
'A photograph, taken from space, of part of the state of Chihuahua, Mexico. And see!' - Jack Williamson, 1931. (re: Jack Williamson)

Aerochromics Shirt Makes You An Air Quality Monitor
Clothing really should do more. (re: William Gibson)

Robots That 'Feel' Real Emotions
How do you feel about emotional robots and computers? No, really, you should share. (re: Arthur C. Clarke)

In Vitro Meatballs For SciFi Spaghetti
'Large laboratories in every city had produced synthetic food and meats, grown in large test tubes..." - David H. Keller, 1933. (re: David H. Keller)

NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) Looks Nearby
'I... set my automatic astronomical instruments to searching it for a habitable planet.'- Edmond Hamilton, 1936. (re: Edmond Hamilton)

Jackrabbit, The Polite Robot
Who doesn't want a more polite robot? (re: Various)

Mobility Scooters Go Offroad
'Noiselessly, on rubber-tired wheels, they journeyed down the long aisles...' - David H. Keller, 1928. (re: David H. Keller)

RAMST - Robotically Assembled Modular Space Telescope
'The eight thin metallic legs were pointed downwards, balanced delicately...' - Charles Sheffield, 1979. (re: Charles Sheffield)

Terminal Snooping At Bloomberg
'The evidence began with a slowed response at her computer terminal.' - Frank Herbert, 1977. (re: Frank Herbert)

Will There Be A Digital Afterlife?
'A quick exchange of energies resulting from the relocation of discorporate states.' - Samuel R. Delany, 1968. (re: Samuel R. Delany)

ROCKY - Resistive Overload Combined With Kinetic Yo-Yo
'Joe got out the gravity-simulator harnesses..' - Murray Leinster, 1953. (re: Murray Leinster)

China Bans Self-Driving Car Testing
Innovation hits some bumps. (re: Arthur C. Clarke)

Robotic Lawnmower Fulfills SciFi Homeowner's Dreams
'The mower reached the edge of the lawn, clucked to itself like a contented hen...' - Clifford Simak, 1944. (re: Clifford Simak)

7-Eleven Drone Delivers Chix Sandwich And Slurpee
'It was a smooth ovoid floating a few inches from the floor...'- H. Beam Piper, 1962. (re: H. Beam Piper)

Beta-Ti3Au Titanium-Gold Alloy Hardest Tissue-Compatible Metal
It needs a more science-fictional name! (re: Various)

Solar Plane Circles The Globe
'Tropism-like pursuit of the sun across the sky as they recharged their batteries...' - Roger Zelazny (re: Roger Zelazny)

Audiobooks - Fastest Growing Format In Publishing
'The public preferred lectons...' - Stanislaw Lem, 1961. (re: Stanislaw Lem)

SuperMeat - Crowdfunding Pohl/Kornbluth's Chicken Little
'Chicken Little, who would be sliced and packed to feed people from Baffinland to Little America.' - Pohl and Kornbluth, 1952. (re: Pohl - Cornbluth)

Martian-Grown Food Might Be Fine
'I don’t want to come off as arrogant here, but I’m the best botanist on the planet.' - Andy Weir, 2014. (re: Andy Weir)

MARLO Robot Attempts Wave Field
'It is apparent that he will walk before his human brother.' - Henry Slesar, 1958. (re: Henry Slesar)

3RDiTEK Lifeblogging Headband Camera
'It's logging anyway - everything you see on duty goes into the black box.' - Charles Stross, 2007. (re: Charles Stross)

3D-Printed Biohybrid Is A Tissue-Engineered Robot
'The directing neurological tissue that forms the basis of the swibble is alive...' - Philip K Dick, 1955. (re: Philip K. Dick)

Steerable Locusts Detect Explosives
Science fiction writers again provide a blueprint for the future. (re: Thomas A. Easton)

No Human Drivers By 2040 - Israel
'It's been a criminal offense... to drive manually on a public highway.' - Arthur C. Clarke, 1976. (re: Isaac Asimov)

Graphene Ultracapacitor Airships For Heavy Lifting
'The war-balloons were to be kept for purposes of transportation of heavy articles...' - George Griffith, 1893 (re: George Griffith)

Uber Hires Robot Security Guard
'The robot studied the identification clip.' - Philip K. Dick, 1955. (re: Philip K Dick)

Mind-Altering Drugs Administered Deep Into The Brain
'Happy to serve!'- Greg Bear, 2015. (re: Greg Bear)

Are There Diamond Planets?
'I believe the whole central portion of the earth is one great diamond.' - Frank Stockton, 1897. (re: Frank Stockton)

Robot Lawyers And Robot Judges Now Everywhere
'The law clerk arrived, a smallish robot with a battered stainless steel hide and dull coppery features.' - Frederik Pohl, 1954. (re: Frederik Pohl)

Roam-e Flying Selfie Drone Cam
'Tight mid-shot and pull out on but behind me...' -Karen Traviss, 2004. (re: Karen Traviss)

Chemputer To Grow Bespoke Drones Through Chemistry
'These are your rudimentary seed packages...' - Greg Bear, 2015. (re: Greg Bear)

Walmart Shopping Cart Robots Will Follow You
'...the machine would carry his bag in its soft plastic jaws...' - John Brunner, 1975. (re: John Brunner)

DoNotPay Lawyer Program Contests Parking Tickets
'I want my lawyer program.' - David Brin, 1990. (re: David Brin)

Real Leather Without Cows Modern Meadow Biofabrication
'Plastissue, as any fool can see...' - WF Wallace, 1952, (re: )

City Made Of Bone
'The cheapest building material known...' - Larry Niven, 1968. (re: Larry Niven)

SpotMini Robot Pierson's Puppeteer-Style
Now they're kind of cute, right? (re: Larry Niven)

Brick By Brick, Building Martian Bases
Don't try to boost everything from the surface of the Earth. (re: John W. Campbell)

Elon Musk et. al. OpenAI Household Robot
'Any work a human being does around a house.' - Robert Heinlein, 1956. (re: Robert Heinlein)

BRUISE Smart Injury Detection Suit
'... Bee could see that three of them were disabled and two of them damaged.' - Orson Scott Card, 1985. (re: Orson Scott Card)

Tesla Model S Is Also A Boat (Sort Of)
'This Dick Dare contraption of yours...' - Robert Heinlein, 1941. (re: Robert Heinlein)

Promobot, The Runaway Russian Robot!
'Got yourself a runaway, Jack?' - Michael Crichton, 1985. (re: Michael Crichton)

Rowbot Small Autonomous Farm Robot
'...The tiny red glints of self-guided tractors.' - Larry Niven, 1966. (re: Larry Niven)

Amazon's Alexa To Recognize Emotions
Oh, Hal understood their emotions, all right. (re: )

Cool 'Single-Person Spaceships' Have Better SF Name
'A cabin so small, you couldn't stand up with the air lock closed..' - Larry Niven, 1969. (re: Larry Niven)

First Robot Suicide Has Science Fiction Roots
'What had happened to prevent my death?' - Eando Binder, 1940. (re: Eando Binder)

First US Clinical Trial For Wearable Artificial Kidney
'Wholly mechanical organs...' - Philip K. Dick, 1964. (re: Philip K. Dick)

Open Bionics To Produce Deus Ex Prosthetic Designs
Be a part of a science fictional future. (re: Square Enix and Eidos-Montréal)

Human-Carrying Drone Taxi 184 Approved For Test Flights
'The cab was an egg-shaped bubble...' - James Blish, 1957. (re: James Blish)

Skating On Mars' Frozen Pools
'They went down, put on their skates, and started.' - Robert Heinlein, 1949. (re: Robert Heinlein)

Google Working On A 'Cutoff Switch' For AI
'A remote control, so you can pull the plug on Hal whenever you want to.' - Arthur C. Clarke, 1982. (re: Arthur C. Clarke)

Vi Artificially Intelligent Personal Trainer
Wakey wakey! (re: Manga Clamp)

Bigelow To Offer Inflatable Lunar Bases
Arthur C. Clarke would be thrilled. (re: Arthur C. Clarke)

Space Station Room Inflated! (Time-Lapse Video)
'Letting it inflate from the air-flasks...' - Raymond Z. Gallun, 1961. (re: Raymond Z. Gallun)

Jeff Bezos Wants Orbiting Factories (Clarke-style)
'Only in the orbiting factories...'- Arthur C. Clarke, 1978. (re: Arthur C. Clarke)

Autonomous Cars: The Year Of Driving Dangerously
'The Lincoln was weaving from side to side...' - Daniel Suarez, (re: Daniel Suarez)

Kuka Robots Mastering Tennis Now
'The robot solemnly hit a ball against the wall...' - Frederik Pohl, 1954. (re: Frederik Pohl)

Skingun Now More Advanced, Apparently
'Over her lacerated right shoulder he sprayed art-derm...' - Philip K. Dick, 1960. (re: Philip K. Dick)

Railguns For Surface Ships
'It was simply a long solenoid that threw little steel bullets...' - John W. Campbell, 1933. (re: John W. Campbell)

Six Amazing Surgical Robots In One Video
Micro-surgery, as imagined by Raymond Z. Gallun, 1939. (re: Raymond Z. Gallun)

Ignition Interlock Devices Stopped 1.7 Million Drunken Tries
'Maybe the car was right...' - Philip K. Dick, 1963. (re: Philip K. Dick)

Man Filmed Sleeping In Tesla On Autopilot
'Mary Risling settled back for a little nap...' - Robert Heinlein, 1941. (re: Robert Heinlein)

Otto Self-Driving Truck Kits
'Trucks gulped packages and scurried like beetles...' - Poul Anderson, 1956. (re: Poul Anderson)

Humans Help Robots Identify Recyclables
'You give it a good look... then press the right button and in she goes.' - Harry Harrison, 1956. (re: Harry Harrison)

Is This Robotic Hand As Quick As Yours?
'V-Stephen's surgeon-hand, a self-contained robot of precision quality...' - Philip K Dick, 1955. (re: Philip K. Dick)

DARPA's XS-1 Spaceplane
'They were more airplane than spaceship...' - Robert Heinlein, 1951. (re: Robert Heinlein)

Douglas Adams Your Babel Fish Is Ready - The Pilot By Waverly
'You'll need to have this fish in your ear.' - Douglas Adams, 1979. (re: Douglas Adams)

OMG! DIY Arduino Robot Vacuum Cleaner Like Bradbury's Mice
'Out of warrens in the wall, tiny robot mice darted.' - Ray Bradbury, 1950. (re: Ray Bradbury)

NASA Culturing ISS Walls For Microbes
'Collect organisms and dust for study...' - Michael Crichton, 1969. (re: Michael Crichton)

Siemens 3D Printing Robot Spiders
'The eight thin metallic legs were pointed downwards, balanced delicately...' - Charles Sheffield, 1979. (re: Charles Sheffield)

Implants Melt In Your Brain, Not In Your Hands
Implant and forget - they melt in your brain, not in your hands. (re: Greg Bear)

Baby Boomers Will LOVE Autonomous Cars (Trust Me!)
'Old people began to cross the continent in their own cars....' - David H. Keller, 1935. (re: David H. Keller)

ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet Tests His Suit
'The interior will be like airless and pressure-less space.' - Otto Willi Gail, 1929. (re: Otto Willi Gail)

DIY Method To Summon Tesla With Amazon Echo
'Thomas focussed the violet beam of a hand flash on a plate...' - Schachner and Zagat, 1931. (re: Schachner and Zagat)

AI Lawyer 'Ross' Gets First Job
'Why don't we just feed the bloody thing to LEX...' - Greg Egan, 1991. (re: Greg Egan)

MIT's Second Skin Enhances Original Skin
'I must care, or I wouldn't live in this lying skin suit...' - John Varley, 1983. (re: John Varley)

CommU Robot Children Scare Me
'Is David malfunctioning?' - Brian Aldiss, 1967. (re: Brian Aldiss)

VelociRoACH Insect Robots Cooperate
'They wheeled and turned in macabre simultaneity...'- Isaac Asimov, 1944. (re: Isaac Asimov)

Best Surgeon? The Smart Tissue Autonomous Robot
'The fingers were long and were shaped into artistically metallic, looping curves...' - Isaac Asimov, 1976. (re: Isaac Asimov)

Turing's Nose - Was That Scent Real Or Artificial?
'Rippling arpeggios of thyme and lavender...' - Aldous Huxley, 1932. (re: Aldous Huxley)

Xian'er Buddhist Monk Robot
'Getting to his feet he crossed the waiting room to the Padre booth...' - Philip K. Dick, 1969. (re: Philip K. Dick)

AnBot Security Robot WILL Tase You, Bro
Michael Crichton right again. (re: Michael Crichton)

A Baker's Dozen Of Autonomous Car-Related Revolutions
'Old people began to cross the continent in their own cars.' - David H. Keller, 1935. (re: David H. Keller)

Hover Camera - Unfold Drone, Shoot Selfie
'He set his camera to follow him...' - Karen Traviss, 2004. (re: Karen Traviss)

Would You Date A Robot? 1 in 4 Say 'Yes'!
'My hands touched a great keyboard, whence, perfect through long practice, I could direct lifelike motion.' - Manly Wade Wellman, 1938. (re: Manly Wade Wellman)

Sophia, The Personable Robot From Hanson Robotics.
'The de luxe model... has fifty different facial expressions...' - Fritz Lieber, 1954. (re: Fritz Lieber)

Swimming, Slithering Snake Robot
John Connor, how do you feel about swimming snakes? (re: Various)

The First 'Drone Cafe' Started By Dutch Students
'It was a smooth ovoid floating a few inches from the floor...'- H. Beam Piper, 1962. (re: H. Beam Piper)

Astronaut Tim Peake Completes Space Marathon
'Joe got out the gravity-simulator harnesses...' - Murray Leinster, 1953. (re: Murray Leinster)

Aerojet Rocketdyne 'Ion Drive' To Reach The Asteroids? (Update!)
'It has its own ion drive...' - Jack Williamson, 1947. (re: Raymond Z. Gallun)

Beatie Wolfe's Album Is A Deck Of NFC Cards
'The greater trumps ready to step right out through those glistening surfaces.' - Roger Zelazny, 1970. (re: Roger Zelazny)

Is Social Media Saving Space Travel?
'Officially, they were delighted to share their experiences with the public.' - Michael Swanwick (re: Michael Swanwick)

iBubble Scuba Drone Follower
'Hovered behind him like a large tame bee...' - Karen Traviss, 2004. (re: Karen Traviss)

Ironing Robot May Fulfill Russian Science Fiction Dreams
Sometimes, the old inventions are the best. Listen to your old Russian grandmother. (re: Mikhail Mikheev)

Organic Photonic Skin Display
'A strip of readout skin on my wrist...' - John Varley, 1992. (re: John Varley)

The Bigelow Expandable Activity Module Attached to ISS
'John Endlich and his wife were setting up an airtight tent...' - Raymond Z. Gallun, 1951. (re: Raymond Z. Gallun)

Hydrogen Leak Detection By HySense
'Feathered wisps of tell-tale vapor whisked through...' - Leo Zagat, 1932. (re: Leo Zagat)

All Your Prior Art Are Belong To Us
'...how laborious the usual method is of attaining to arts...' - Jonathan Swift, 1726. (re: Jonathan Swift)

The Next (Computer) Rembrandt
A new, Old Master. (re: JG Ballard)

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 (re: Murray Leinster)

Cost Effective Smart Windows To Replace Curtains?
'The polawindow, which he tuned to clear transmission.' - Frank Herbert, 1972. (re: Frank Herbert)

Breakthrough Starshot Sends Chip Craft To The Stars
'There was a laser cannon big enough to punch a hole through We Made It's moon.' - Larry Niven, 1966. (re: Larry Niven )

SpaceX Falcon Water Landing Presaged By Russian Sci-Fi Film
Yes, you've seen it before - in science fiction! (re: M. Karzhukov/A. Kozyr)

Asteroid Cleaner Robot To Sweep Up Dust Around The Solar System
'JPL was designing a satellite to enter the fringes of space and collect organisms and dust for study...' - Michael Crichton, 1969. (re: Michael Crichton)

Samsung Patent For Smart Contact Lens Camera Granted
'He realized that it was not quite a clear lens.' - Vernor Vinge, 2001. (re: Vernor Vinge)

Autonomous Tractor Harvest-Ready
'[He] dropped the handles of the plough that was plugged into the robomule...' - Harry Harrison, 1965. (re: Harry Harrison)

Face2Face Is Bradbury's Spot-Wavex Scrambler
'A special spot-wavex scrambler also caused his televised image... to mouth the vowels and consonants beautifully.' - Ray Bradbury, 1953. (re: Ray Bradbury)

Chris Brewer Speaks at Michigan Robotics
'As the beautiful old car cruised in almost perfect silence under the guidance of its automatic controls...' - Arthur C. Clarke, 1976. (re: Arthur C. Clarke)

AgileQuad Object Avoidance Drone
Perfect for forest moons. (re: Various)

Artificial Skin Grows Hair
'Plastissue, as any fool can see...' - WF Wallace, 1952. (re: WF Wallace)

Cortana Clip - The New In-Ear Wearables
'And in her ears the little Seashells, the thimble radios tamped tight...' - Ray Bradbury, 1953. (re: Ray Bradbury)

Tesla Unveils Affordable Model 3 Electric Car
'They can therefore roam over the roads of the entire hemisphere [combining] the sensations of coasting with the interest of seeing the country well.'- John Jacob Astor IV, 1894. (re: John Jacob Astor)

One Third Of Young Canadians Prefer Robot Boss
`Sit, old son. We have a lot to talk about.' - William Gibson, 1984. (re: William Gibson)

Epigenetic Memory's On/Off Switch Found
'They tied the memory to the bloodline and that was their record!' - Barbara Hambly, 1982. (re: Barbara Hambly)

Lit Motors C-1 Gyro-Stabilized 2-Person Motorbike
'It was a small affair, ovoid in shape, and poised on two centerline wheels…' - Robert Heinlein, 1940. (re: Robert Heinlein)

Picobug Robot Flies, Runs And Grabs
'About it, as it scrambled forward, were weeds and bushes and grass...' - Raymond Z Gallun, 1936. (re: Raymond Z. Gallun)

Comedian Robot Named Data
'[The] capacity to distinguish between gags that are partly funny and gags that are very funny' - William Tenn, 1951. (re: William Tenn)

Is Space In The Brain Limited?
'...Some totally different method of memory association in order to be eclectively time-binding.' - Robert Heinlein, 1941. (re: Robert Heinlein)

Here's Your Man-Made Quake Danger Map
Never thought I'd see this in my lifetime. (re: Various)

Scanify 3D Scanner For You!
'... Feeler-planes brushed down...' - Jack Vance, 1954. (re: Jack Vance)

Textiles Self-Cleaning In Sunlight
'You could thrust your gloved hand into mud, and it would be white a few seconds later' - Neal Stephenson, 1995. (re: Neal Stephenson)

Virtual Reality Therapy Helps Patients With Depression
Entering the virtual reality dreams of patients. (re: Roger Zelazny)

IBM Tone Analyzer - Like HAL 9000
'I can tell from your voice harmonics...' - Arthur C. Clarke, 1968. (re: Arthur C. Clarke)

'Eye In The Sky' Movie Borrows 35, 80 Year-Old SF
SF writers don't have a problem seeing decades into the future. (re: Roger Zelazny)

FingerIO Active Sonar Smartphone Finger Tracking
'Wave your hand in the general direction of the components and hope.' - Douglas Adams, 1979. (re: Samuel R. Delany)

Computers Learning To Read Lips
No, it's safe, HAL can't read your lips now... (re: Arthur C. Clarke)

Metal That Morphs
'A mimetic poly-alloy.' John Cameron, 1991. (re: Philip K Dic13k)

Chromat Misfit Shine Tracks Health And Glows
'Show me your hand, Logan...' - Nolan and Johnson, 1967. (re: Nolan and Johnson)

3D Modeling And Virtual Reality Tech Patents For Body Labs
'... Another small figure in a more voluminous type of robe marched on to the dial.' - HG Wells, 1899. (re: HG Wells)

Experimental Flying Wing
'The ship was a tremendous flying wing.' - Doc Smith, 1934. (re: EE Doc Smith)

Tay, Microsoft Chatbot, Offline To 'Absorb It All'
'If you spoke English, results might be whimsical...'- Robert Heinlein, 1966. (re: Robert Heinlein)

3D Printing Dinner
'The food slot gave him flat reddish-brown bricks.'- Larry Niven, 1970. (re: Larry Niven)

The Remotely-Operated Cold Atom Laboratory
'Hello, Europa... Is this your robot I'm looking at?' - James Blish, 1957. (re: James Blish)

Closer To An Artificial, Organic Heart
Closer to this phildickian future every day. (re: Philip K Dick)

Meet Hugh, Your Robot Librarian
'You'll find them only in the greatest libraries...' - Harry Harrison, 1962. (re: Harry Harrison)

FlexEnable OLED Bracelet SmartPhone Concept
'The tiny screen in the bracelet's center...' - Roger Zelazny, 1980. (re: Roger Zelazny)

Cyborg Cardiac Patch Combines Organics And Electronics
'[It] had not yet objected to being made over into a portion of an electronic system... '- Philip K. Dick, 1964. (re: Philip K DIck)

Nadine Robot Cares For Dementia Patients
'The robant and the tiny old woman entered the control room slowly...' - Philip K Dick, 1953. (re: Philip K. Dick)

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