Forum:Science Fiction to Science Fact

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It is said that truth is stranger than fiction, and in no field is this more true than in the sciences. Recently, life seems to be imitating art more than art imitates life. The power of SCIENCE! is bringing into existence technologies that would not look out of place in the Halo Universe.

Take this new medical discovery, for instance. A college student has invented a gel that when applied to an open wound stops bleeding almost instantly and jump-starts the healing process. It can even rapidly heal burns. This guy's basically invented Optican MediGel. A video of the gel stopping bleeding is included in the link, though be warned, it may be NSFW.

And in December we had this news from DARPA. A foam is being developed that can be used to pack combat wounds and stop internal bleeding, which could dramatically improve survival rates on the battlefield. Biofoam 500 years early!

On the slightly more esoteric end of things, we have a new discovery in quantum cooling. A research team used quantum mechanics in a nanostructure to cool a copper block a million times larger than the cooling device. The project leader described as the equivalent of a wall-mounted air conditioner being able to cool down a building the size of the Lincoln Memorial. Naturally, I immediately began thinking of how the UNSC might employ something similar to cool down their Magnetic Accelerator Cannons, or use a compact version to cool the barrels of their machine guns, allowing for fantastically high sustained rates of fire.

And on the subject of heat, a development from January by a Martin Maldovan now allows us to manipulate heat. In the words of the article, an "intriguing possibility is thermal cloaking, Maldovan says: materials that prevent detection of heat, just as recently developed metamaterials can create “invisibility cloaks” to shield objects from detection by visible light or microwaves." The more technically-minded of science fiction fans have always considered stealth in space to be impossible due to the immense amount of easily-detectable heat any realistic starship would produce, yet when I read this article, I knew that the world's men of science had again been kind to us and made our Prowlers possible. ONI thanks them.

Our world is full of technological developments, many of them almost fanciful in nature. I encourage anyone who has found articles about similar Halo-like developments to post them here.--The All-knowing Sith'ari (talk) 07:23, 14 March 2013 (EDT)

We are advancing too fast. At this rate, the Covies will invade five hundred years early! Missing Mandible (talk) 10:13, 14 March 2013 (EDT)

Let them!--The All-knowing Sith'ari (talk) 13:19, 14 March 2013 (EDT)

I wonder how our current Warthogs will fare against them... :P -- Qura 'Morhek ^{The Autocrat of Morheka} 16:50, 14 March 2013 (EDT)

Probably a damn sight better than our current SPARTAN Lasers. Yes, this is a patent for a laser rifle for modern infantry. From what I read of it, the designer seems to have gone for the principle of "complexity for its own sake", as it doesn't seem to offer any advantages over an assault rifle, but it's certainly interesting that someone thought that the time and the technology are ripe for laser weapons.--The All-knowing Sith'ari (talk) 17:03, 14 March 2013 (EDT)

And I'm sure we've all seen the powered exoskeletons we're making. Always use the DMR. This is craZboy557, signing off. 07:15, 16 March 2013 (EDT)