Technological innovations such as the Curiosity probe on Mars and self-driving cars have emerged over the past decade. And they talked a lot about them in the media. But at the same time, there are technologies that are much less popularized and covered in the media, which seem to be taken from the science fiction novels of Isaac Asimov. Only today they already exist in reality.
1. Hoverboards
The engineers and researchers of the renowned automobile manufacturer Lexus managed to create a working prototype of a real flying board. SLIDE flies thanks to magnets and superconductors cooled by liquid nitrogen. It works in much the same way as the Maglev train, which uses super-cooled, powerful magnets to hover over the tracks.
Fantastic technology: hoverboards.
In this case, Lexus has built an incredibly expensive skate park in Barcelona, Spain, with many magnets embedded in the ground. Unfortunately, in the near future, it will clearly not be possible to fly on such a hoverboard, since the SLIDE platform will not go on sale, and the construction of special skate parks is too expensive.
2. Helicopters turning into planes
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Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey is an American tiltrotor. It takes off and lands like any conventional helicopter (the engines are directed vertically), but in flight it turns into a turboprop aircraft, tilting its engines forward so that they act like conventional aircraft engines.
Fantastic technology: helicopters transforming into airplanes.
The cruising speed of this model is 446 km / h (compared to the cruising speed of the Chinook helicopter of 240 km / h), and the Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey has a much longer flight range without refueling, compared to modern helicopters (the tiltrotor is capable of delivering up to 32 a person at a distance of up to 722 kilometers).
3. Bionic limbs
Artificial limbs have been around for centuries, from pirate wooden legs to Terry Fox's clumsy prosthetic leg, who used the artificial leg during a charity marathon. They were heavy and did not know how to bend, but in the 21st century they began to be quickly improved. Today, there are ultra-lightweight limbs made of carbon fiber and titanium, which cost up to $ 45,000, and bionic legs that can be controlled … with the power of thought.
Fantastic technology: bionic limbs.
Gudmundur Olafsson lost his leg at an early age when he was hit by a truck. He recently received a robotic leg made by Icelandic company Ossur, which Olafsson has been using daily for over a year. She can move like a real leg, for which special sensors were implanted into the stump of his limb. They pick up impulses in the muscle tissue of the thigh when Olafsson starts to move his leg and force the prosthesis to bend like a real leg.
4. Invisible devices
In the Crysis games, gamers play as a super soldier in a suit that has a stealth function. In real life, scientists from the Dallas NanoTech Institute used sheets of carbon nanotubes (which are sheets of carbon 1 atom thick rolled into microscopic tubes) that light "bends around" rather than reflected from them.
Fantastic technology: carbon nanotube sheets.
The key to the technique used in their invention is the same effect that makes emaciated desert travelers think that an empty stretch of sand is an oasis, i.e. mirage effect. The difference in temperature between sand and air plays a key role here, because of which the light rays are distorted and directed towards the eyes of the unfortunate traveler instead of reflecting off the surface. Because of this effect on the sand, people see a "piece of the sky" and mistake it for water.
The carbon nanotubes were submerged in water and heated (which also heated the water), which caused the light to bend around the sheet and reflect off what is behind it. From a military point of view, this is impractical, since you have to wear a super hot suit that must be submerged in water, but it sounds cool to say the least.
5. Electromagnetic railguns
Surely, everyone who played computer shooters or watched science fiction films knows what a railgun or an electromagnetic railgun is. For the uninitiated, a railgun is basically a bunch of magnets used to accelerate a projectile.
Fantastic technology: electromagnetic railguns.
After years of research, the United States Navy is exhibiting at the Science and Technology Expo a real railgun that can fire projectiles seven times faster than the speed of sound and engage targets 180 kilometers away. Moreover, for tests on the USNS Trenton ship, a rail … machine gun was installed. Construction of the combat rail guns for the next generation of US Navy warships is expected to begin in 2028.
6. Laser weapons
There has never been anything comparable to the astonishing destructive power of the Death Star from Star Wars, but the US Naval Research Administration has developed a currently operational Laser Weapon System (LaWS) that was installed on the USS Ponce with 2014 year.
Fantastic technology: laser weapons.
The ship's crew regularly carries out exercises, destroying targets with laser weapons. The LaWS is 6 lasers combined into one deadly 30 kilowatt beam capable of roasting drones and ships for $ 59 a shot, much less than a $ 759,000 rocket that can only be used once.
There are also other laser systems, such as the Lockheed Martin Anti-Bombardment System (ADAM), which knocks down bombs, and a 10MHz mobile display device for Boeing's ground vehicles.
7. Ion engines
In the original Star Wars trilogy, the ubiquitous TIE fighters are powered by twin ion engines. Many may be surprised to learn that ion thrusters are not unique to science fiction, although they are not nearly as powerful as the movies show. For example, the automatic interplanetary station "Dawn" took 4 days to accelerate from zero to 100 km / h.
NASA scientists were able to create a working prototype of the ion engine in 1959, and they installed it on the Deep Space 1 and Dawn space probes. Deep Space 1 flew a total of 263 million kilometers at a top speed of 4.5 kilometers per second, and NASA's new HIPEP engine could theoretically accelerate the spacecraft to 90 kilometers per second.
Fantastic technology: ion engines.
Ionic thrusters work by expelling inert gas at high speed in order to obtain a slight acceleration. Despite the fact that the thrust generated is quite small, an ion-driven ship can reach very high speeds because the ion-thrusters produce little thrust over a long time.
8. Bionic eyes
Scientists have managed to cure 80-year-old Briton Ray Flynn from the most common form of blindness (age-related macular degeneration) using the Argus II implant (it costs, however, very expensive - $ 150,000).
Surprisingly, Ray was able to see the outlines of people and objects immediately after surgery by closing his eyes when the device was turned on. The doctor who operated on him, Dr. Paulo Stanga, is optimistic that this will only get better over time.
Fantastic technology: bionic eyes.
The Argus II, manufactured by California-based Second Sight Medical Products, works by converting the video stream from a camera attached to glasses into signals that are sent to tiny electrodes attached to intact cells in the retina. These intact cells are then stimulated and send signals to the brain.
9. Homing bullet
A real-life sniper, unlike Call of Duty, needs to take into account factors such as range to target, bullet-to-target flight time, bullet stall, gravity, wind speed, humidity, and even the rotation of the Earth.
Fantastic technology: homing bullet.
In the future, snipers can simply aim at a target and pull the trigger, as geniuses at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) developed EXACTO (Extreme Accuracy Tasked Ordnance), a.50 caliber homing bullet.
The EXACTO system is capable of both aiming at a target at 2000 meters, and making sharp turns in close combat. And she can also hit moving targets even if an untrained person fired her from a rifle. EXACTO uses some sort of guidance system (details are classified), taking into account weather and other factors that can lead to a miss.
10. Organs grown in the laboratory
In the distant future, people won't have to worry about things like organ failure. Researchers at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland have managed to grow an entire functioning organ in an animal, in this case a mouse.
Fantastic technology: Wakanti Mouse.
Scientists managed to "trick" the cells of the mouse embryo, forcing them to turn into the thymus, an organ that is part of the immune system. Then these cells were injected into laboratory mice, and they turned into a fully functional thymus.
11. Thermonuclear reactor ITER
Finally, it is worth mentioning fusion reactors such as the European JET Tokamak and the ITER under construction, which use the same reactions that occur in the sun to generate electricity. This may seem incredible to many. Hydrogen atoms collide on the Sun, which then fuse into heavier helium atoms, releasing an incredible amount of energy in this process. On Earth, energy is obtained from the fusion reaction of two isotopes of hydrogen, deuterium and tritium.
Fantastic technology: the ITER fusion reactor.
The reaction requires a temperature 10 times higher than the temperature in the sun's core. At these temperatures, electrons separate from the nuclei and form a very hot, electrically charged gas called plasma. Plasma is confined using giant magnets, and the neutrons created by the reaction are used to generate heat to turn turbines that generate electricity.
It may seem rather difficult to generate electricity compared to existing technologies, but fusion reactors release helium and a minimal amount of radioactive waste that can be recycled after 100 years, unlike conventional nuclear reactor waste.