![]() When the ship's supply of copper is exhausted, it is able to refuel and return home by visiting the Green System, which has oceans containing copper sulfate.Ĭopper is indeed used in rocket engines, but for its high thermal conductivity, not as a power source. In these stories, copper is used as spaceship fuel, being catalyzed by 'element X' directly into energy. Fortunately, cobalt bombs have remained in the domain of science fiction. ![]() This combination of properties makes a cobalt bomb an excellent doomsday weapon. ![]() The 5.27 year half life of 60Co is short enough to produce intense radiation, but long enough for it to disperse world-wide, and impractical to wait in shelters for it to decay. Īpocalyptic fiction such as The Moon is Green, " Exhibit Piece", and On the Beach. NASA has sponsored a prize ( MoonROx) for the first working prototype, and at least one has been built. There is serious work in extracting oxygen from moon rocks for life support and propulsion. When made in suitable rocks such as calcium carbonate oxygen is produced as a by-product during the formation of Crystal tunnels by the Tokra allowing time to set up life support. īeryllium's use in these fictional applications may arise from its actual use in some types of nuclear bombs. Also, beryllium is needed for the creation of a bomb and found by investigating the metal components of a supposed "beryllium coin" in The Shadow (1994). The starship NSEA Protector is powered by large spheres of beryllium. In real life, scientists have announced a ceramic, aluminum oxynitride (trade name Alon) which is as strong as steel, but transparent. Sapphire, an aluminium oxide (Al 2O 3), is transparent, and used as window material in some scientific applications. In the 1986 film Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Scotty gave instructions for the creation of the fictional material transparent aluminum. Here are some examples, and their relationship to real world materials science usage, if any. In many cases, the materials science aspect of a fictional work was interesting enough that someone other than the author has remarked on it. In the professional materials science journal JOM, for example, there are articles such as The (Mostly Improbable) Materials Science and Engineering of the Star Wars Universe and Personification: The Materials Science and Engineering of Humanoid Robots. On the other hand, there is criticism of the unrealistic materials science used in science fiction. This is also the theme of many technical articles, such as Material By Design: Future Science or Science Fiction?, found in IEEE Spectrum, the flagship magazine of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. The predictive aspects are emphasized, for example, in the motto of the Georgia Tech's department of materials science and engineering – Materials scientists lead the way in turning yesterday's science fiction into tomorrow's reality. Scrith has unreasonable strength, and is unsupported by known physics, but needed for the plot.Ĭritical analysis of materials science in science fiction falls into the same general categories.
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