Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Latest By
Category:
Armor
Artificial
Intelligence
Biology
Clothing
Communication
Computers
Culture
Data Storage
Displays
Engineering
Entertainment
Food
Input Devices
Lifestyle
Living Space
Manufacturing
Material
Media
Medical
Miscellaneous
Robotics
Security
Space Tech
Spacecraft
Surveillance
Transportation
Travel
Vehicle
Virtual
Person
Warfare
Weapon
Work
"The germinal societies like Singapore and communist Hong Kong may give us a mutant capitalism that is both virulent and efficient. This is a significant cultural danger."
- Gregory Benford
 |
| Unobtainium | ||
| A humorous reference to a substance both rare and unlikely. |
Although Brin did not coin the word "unobtainium" he might well be the first user of it in science fiction. See the discussion below.
| None of the other moons in the Kthsemenee system had the one attribute this one possessed: a core of almost one percent unobtainium. Already thirty of the Brothers' ships had landed, to begin construction of the Weapon. |
| Technovelgy from Startide Rising,
by David Brin. Published by Bantam in 1983 Additional resources -
|
The best guesses as to the origin of the word place it in the field of aerospace, which has been pushing the envelope in the field of materials science for at least a century.
As reported in the Marshall Evening Chronicle (Marshall, Michigan) on February 27, 1956:
However, it can be found even earlier in a 1930 German work "Dechema-Monographium Vol 39 page 12 link:
[Google Translate: ...Weight equal to zero. An American has jokingly called this material once the element "Unobtainium".]
The earliest reference to something like this (that is, a humorous name for a material that does not exist) is as far as I know "Bolognium" from Transactions of Amer Soc for Steel Treating, by Edgar Bain, in 1926.
Scientists are now working on a new metal to be used in making the noses on intercontinental ballistics missiles. The metal is so hard to come by that the scientists have devised a lugubriously-humorous name for it. They call it ‘unobtainium’.
...Gewicht gleich Null. Ein Amerikaner hat diesen Werkstoff scherzhafterweise einmal das Element "Unobtainium" genannt.
Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Startide Rising
More Ideas
and Technology by David Brin
Tech news articles related to Startide Rising
Tech news articles related to works by David Brin
| Harvard Metamaterials Change Structure Instantly |
| Nano-Chainmail 2D Mechanically Interlocked Polymer |
| Goldene - A Two-Dimensional Sheet Of Gold One Atom Thick |
| FlexRAM Liquid Metal RAM And One Particular SF Movie Robot |
Want to Contribute an
Item?
It's easy:
Get the name of the item, a
quote, the book's name and the author's name, and Add
it here.
| <Previous | Next> |
|
|
|
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 Science Fiction Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
|
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
'Then she looked up with a smile and moved closer to the camera.'
'... folios and tapes and playable discs of platinum alloy.'
'... another corner of his mind began to think about the shields.'
'Michel Ardan, as a Frenchman, was declared chief cook, an important function, which raised no rival.'
'Sapiro’s computer just kept dialing at random, hanging up on humans, until it got a fellow computer of the same type as itself.'
'I request that you feed the correlation between those dots and the levers of the panel into my memory banks.'
