Science Fiction Becoming Reality

One of the great materials concocted in the Star Trek lore is transparent aluminum. It was a central feature to the plot of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, since the crew of the Enterprise needed something that was lightweight and able to be able to withstand tremendous pressures. Scotty "invented" transparent aluminum, using his knowledge of the future.

Now, scientists have developed a super-strong glass that mimics many of the properties of that fictional transparent aluminum.

That's why researchers have created a new type of glass that is stronger and tougher than steel.

In fact, this new type of damage-tolerant glass has actually demonstrated a durability greater than any known material.

The new metallic glass is a microalloy that features palladium, a metal with a high "bulk-to-shear" stiffness ratio that counteracts the intrinsic brittleness of glassy materials.

An initially sharp impact does not develop into a fully opened crack. (Image courtesy Robert Ritchie and Marios Demetriou)Those findings come from experiments conducted at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the California Institute of Technology.

Robert Richie is the materials scientist who led the Berkely contribution to the research. In a press release, he says the new glass is stronger than steel because "that glass undergoes extensive plasticity in response to stress, allowing it to bend rather than crack."

For now, the sample sizes are quite small, but the scientists figure to enlarge the size and work on making their discoveries marketable.

Technology Gets Closer to Sci-Fi Exosuits

The military has been fascinated with trying to develop exosuits to give its soldiers enhanced speed, agility, and strength. A new exosuit design by Raytheon has managed to leapfrog over past iterations of exosuits, but it's still a long way off from the Iron Man suit worn by Tony Stark in the comics and movies.

The new robotic suit called Exoskeleton (XOS 2) – released by Raytheon Company – is lighter, faster and stronger than its predecessor, yet it uses 50 percent less power. Its enhanced design also means that it is more resistant to the environment.

Raytheon is developing the robotic suit to help with the many logistics challenges faced by the military both in and out of battle. Repetitive heavy lifting can lead to injuries, orthopedic injuries in particular.

Instead, the XOS 2 does the lifting for its operator, reducing both strain and exertion. It also does the work faster. One operator in an exoskeleton suit can do the work of two to three soldiers. Deploying exoskeletons would allow military personnel to be reassigned to more strategic tasks.

While the new suit doesn't have the grippers of the Aliens' inspired power lifters, the motivations behind the design are the same - to give a single person the ability to lift far more than they could otherwise do unassisted with greater agility and mobility.

We're still a long way off from the Iron Man suit, let alone the power suit in Starship Troopers (the book, not the movie).Yet, we're seeing the technology finally catching up with the science fiction.

Shades of Heinlein?

Service brings citizenship?

Stretched thin in Afghanistan and Iraq, the American military will begin recruiting skilled immigrants who are living in this country with temporary visas, offering them the chance to become United States citizens in as little as six months.

Immigrants who are permanent residents, with documents commonly known as green cards, have long been eligible to enlist. But the new effort, for the first time since the Vietnam War, will open the armed forces to temporary immigrants if they have lived in the United States for a minimum of two years, according to military officials familiar with the plan.

Recruiters expect that the temporary immigrants will have more education, foreign language skills and professional expertise than many Americans who enlist, helping the military to fill shortages in medical care, language interpretation and field intelligence analysis.

“The American Army finds itself in a lot of different countries where cultural awareness is critical,” said Lt. Gen. Benjamin C. Freakley, the top recruitment officer for the Army, which is leading the pilot program. “There will be some very talented folks in this group.”

The program will begin small — limited to 1,000 enlistees nationwide in its first year, most for the Army and some for other branches. If the pilot program succeeds as Pentagon officials anticipate, it will expand for all branches of the military. For the Army, it could eventually provide as many as 14,000 volunteers a year, or about one in six recruits.

About 8,000 permanent immigrants with green cards join the armed forces annually, the Pentagon reports, and about 29,000 foreign-born people currently serving are not American citizens.

Robert Heinlein wrote about themes including service, citizenship, and voting in his science fiction works, including Starship Troopers. There, a person could not vote unless they had completed federal service.

Here, the reasons extend to the fact that the military continues to look for qualified people in a wide range of disciplines and will use a path to citizenship as a benefit to be accrued by those wishing to join the all-volunteer military.

Doctor Who Gets New Face

Doctor Who, a British sci-fi show and one of the longest running television programs in history, will welcome a new face as the venerable Doctor in 2010. Matt Smith, age 26, will replace David Tennant who has been the Doctor for the 2005-2010 seasons.

I became a fan of the show while Tom Baker and Peter Davison were in the lead role, having watched reruns and when it was available on US television.

What Would You Do If You're The Last Man On Earth?

The Omega Man. I Am Legend. Homega Man. All are riffs on the same general theme. What if some catastrophe kills off all humans, except one person, except that one man is not alone. What would that person do?

Hey, it's worked for Charleton Heston and Homer Simpson, so why not Will Smith? First is the trailer for Heston's Omega Man (which is based on the story, I Am Legend):



This is the trailer for the Will Smith movie, I Am Legend:


In this version, note the location - New York City. Various scenes were shot on location, including lower Manhattan near the Brooklyn Bridge, which gets blown up to prevent the spread of the disease.

Finally, here's Homer Simpson, doing his turn as Homega Man:


What would you do if you were the last man on earth?