Things I Like - Sciences

Pretty much everyone I know has seen an episode of Star Trek at some point in their lives – either the original or one of the many spinoffs. I have a question for you – what technology or machinery first comes to mind when you think of the show?

For me, it’s the transporter followed immediately by the replicator and the Romulan cloaking device. These were all technologies that didn’t exist in our world and were specific to Star Trek. I dreamed of the day that I could travel to another location – it didn’t even have to be on another planet – via the transporter. I still dream of it, every time I have to sit in a departure lounge waiting to board an airplane.

So why am I talking about a science fiction television program from the 1960’s in a Science post? Guess what the engineers at NASA’s Langley Research Center have just come out with? A replicator. Yep, they’ve developed a machine that will generate metal parts based on a diagram or drawing. The Electron Beam Freeform Fabrication, or EBF3

…works in a vacuum chamber, where an electron beam is focused on a constantly feeding source of metal, which is melted and then applied as called for by a drawing -- one layer at a time -- on top of a rotating surface until the part is
complete.
~Science Daily

But wait, there’s more. It seems that real scientists are also working on a Romulan cloaking device. Alright, maybe it’s not Romulan but there are several groups of researchers working on a cloaking or invisibility device.

These devices would cause an object to become invisible to the human eye by guiding light or other electromagnetic waves around the item.

If light can’t touch the object, it can’t be seen.

Have you ever been in a windowless room and turned out the lights? Unless there’s a crack under the door, you wouldn’t be able to see the hand in front of your face.

This invisible business actually started years ago when two researchers in the UK, John Pendry and Ulf Leonhardt independently began work on the concept. They both published papers in 2006 and then things really started to heat up with teams around the world trying to be the first to succeed in making something invisible.

I have to say that these developments give me hope. Perhaps we will eventually make it to Star Trek, maybe even in my lifetime. I also think Gene Roddenberry might actually have been from the future.

Image credits:
Replicator (EBF3) - NASA
Cloaked Man - Cary Wolinsky and Rick Kyle