there are an awful lot of scientists that first became interested in science watching star trek. as soon as they get half a chance, they always seem to try to create the technology they saw captain kirk use. there should be a special nobel prize awarded to the people who created the series.

life imitating art i suppose

[edit on 20/3/10 by pieman]

I thought Star Trek was a documentary.

Seriously:

Alot of things that were science fiction, are now science fact. It's a constant source of entertainment to read about this kind of stuff.

But also, I like to read about the things that are now obsolete. Like video stores!

Of all the Sci-Fi technology, this was one that I always thought should be possible in the near future! Fascinating and exciting, but a bit of a catch 22 when you think of who controls it!

Theres also the old 'if this is public then how much more advanced might it actually be?' arguement. Who knows

S+F

That's cool as hell, but its more like polarizing the hull plating from Star Trek: Enterprise than raising the shields from The Next Generation.

Could this be a development of the Ionising done on B2 bombers and such? I've read the article, I just have no idea if Ionising involves similar processes!

(Edit to add)

Another thought.. As this system will need some sort of tracking device, would it not then be possible to create projectiles which encorporate stealth technology?

I doubt TERRORISTS would have the resources for that but I also question the UKs arms dealing scruples..

[edit on 20-3-2010 by March of the Fire Ants]

on a side note. this is just another example of technology being limited by our lack of ability to store large amounts of energy. It is going to take a major leap in some form of battery technology before we see things really begin to take off. I remember reading scifi when I was younger that used something called a "shipStone" or something like that. they were small devices that stored large amounts of energy.


With a battery that could store large amounts of energy wind, solar, hydro, geothermal, energy sources become viable, effective and cheap. Just being able to do away with the power lines to every house and business and the maintance in keeping them working would be a tremendous savings.

Eh.

Scientists have been saying stuff like this for decades, if not centuries. They always get ahead of themselves, or get a "pie in the sky" dreamy outlook and create something highly underwhelming, only to brag about it as if it is a fully functional and noteworthy item only conjured up in past science fiction.

Cloaking, high-tech armor, laser guns, anti-gravity, etc, are a handful of the popular ones where "scientists" say they have achieved the technology, since the 1950's, but in fact are never anywhere close to it.

Edit:

I should correct myself. Usually, it's a very competent scientist who explains his or her work, amongst his peers, and a journalist butts in and creates an imaginative and explosive article about it and doesn't stick to reality.

Also, this isn't anything new to be totally honest. There has been armor fitted on tanks and APCs called "reactive armor". It's the same principle as the cited article, except it uses conventional explosives to repel the round when the armor is struck. High force kinetic vs. kinetic reaction. It works, but it is expensive, and requires heavy maintenance. This new "electromagnetic reactive armor" is quite dreamy, and I don't see this being applied anytime in the near future.

[edit on 20-3-2010 by SyphonX]

[edit on 20-3-2010 by SyphonX]

Originally posted by March of the Fire Ants
Of all the Sci-Fi technology, this was one that I always thought should be possible in the near future! Fascinating and exciting, but a bit of a catch 22 when you think of who controls it!

Theres also the old 'if this is public then how much more advanced might it actually be?' arguement. Who knows

S+F

By the standards of what has actually been available for many years but kept strictly 'under military enforced secrecy', the above technology is already outdated ... which is why it's now suitable for public revelation.

The 'as you've seen it in scifi' and full blown 'wrap the object to be protected in a transparent force field' technology is already in existence.

Guaranteed this is ET technology, probably from the Greys when they made that pact back in the early 50s. How many people had to die before they finally gave us something like this? Millions? Billions?

This is what is so great about the way such companies as DARPA operate
on a 99% fail rate on the think out of the box tech but that 1% WOW just WOW.

Well no matter how high tech they get with their inventions there is always a dumber than dirt way of getting around it. for example
One molitov cocktail makes a tank useless, a couple million dollars gone for about 50 cents (or free if you stole the gas)
Bullet proof glass is bullet proof but if you can put a nail in it and tear the window out in under a min.
laser powered missle defence is useless if reflective coating is used on the missle.

So a force field would have an easy work around. If it was made to be solid as in impenetrable someone could just throw some paint on it, yeah it is invincible but then it would be blind. If the force field was magnetic then the molotov cocktail would still work.