Sometimes it takes a work of art to give the inspiration for advances in science. For example, Elon Musk’s dream of humans living on other planets was first inspired by Isaac Asimov’s Foundation book series. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, a massive fan of the Star Trek television series, founded his very own space company Blue Origin. Let’s explore some of the technologies from science fiction that have been brought to life.

Remote control

Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel Dune features a small flying robot device that is piloted remotely, one of the earliest appearances of drones in science fiction. With the first permit for commercial drone use in the US given in 2006, drones became a reality, and can now be found taking on multiple roles in photography, farming and military.

From thin air

The television show Star Trek, first appearing on screens in 1966, inspired science. One of the most unexpected examples may be the 3D printer. In the program, a device can create any object desired within a matter of seconds. Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, US, developed a 3D printer in 2019 that shapes objects using rays of light. The device uses light to alter the density of resin (树脂), changing the material from a liquid to a solid in order to shape the desired object.

Starting the heart

One of the first sci-fi novels, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley has had a huge impact on science. Earl Bakken, the inventor of the pacemaker (起搏器), a device placed into the chest that helps the heart to pump blood using small electrical impulses, was inspired by the 1931 movie adaptation of the book. “What impressed me the most... was the creative spark of Dr Frankenstein’s electricity,” Bakken told the Atlantic. Defibrillators (除颤仪), which restart the heart with an electrical current after a cardiac arrest (心脏停搏), also resemble the electric shock that gave the monster life.

As the planet gets hotter, the need for cool living environments is becoming more pressing. But air conditioning (AC) is the main cause of global warming since AC units use lots of energy. Now, researchers from McGill University have found in a new study an inexpensive and green solution to AC in hot climates.

The researchers set out to answer how to achieve a new benchmark (基准) in natural cooling inside naturally conditioned buildings in hot climates such as Southern California. They checked the use of roof materials that radiate (散发) heat into the open air, even under direct sunlight, and how to put them together with temperature driven ventilation (通风). These cool radiator materials and coatings are often used to stop roofs overheating. Researchers have also used them to improve the performance of coolers. There is a real possibility of applying the materials to housing design more fully, so they can not only radiate indoor heat into the outside of a house in a natural way, but also drive regular and healthy air changes.

“We found we could maintain air temperatures several degrees below the surrounding temperature,” said Remy Fortin, lead author of the study. “We did this taking healthy ventilation air changes into consideration.” This was a significant challenge, considering air exchanges are a source of heating when the aim is to keep a room cooler than the outside.

The researchers hope the findings will be used to positively impact communities suffering from dangerous climate heating. “We hope that materials scientists and engineers will be interested in these results, and that our work will inspire more creative thinking for how to make breakthroughs in radiative cooling materials while finding simple but effective housing design solutions,” said Salmaan Craig, who took part in the project.

Steve Davies, a 23-year-old board designer in Wales, is developing a surfboard made from mycelia (菌丝体) instead of plastic.

A 2022 report showed that more than 400, 000 boards are made each year. The global market for surfboards reached $2.2 billion in 2020 and is expected to reach $3.2 billion by 2027. But about 80% of boards are made from plastic, which can take hundreds of years to break down. This will be a serious problem for the environment as the market grows.

“And even when it does break down, it can go into fish’s ecosystem (生态系统), which means that humans will end up eating this plastic,” Davies said.

Davies made his first surfboard in 2020, but the experience showed him many harmful materials were produced in making each board. During his final year at university, he started looking into mycelia and making his beloved sport more environment-friendly.

“My family owns a farm with horses, so I was quickly able to collect substrate material (基料) in the form of horse bedding, to allow the mycelia to grow in,” Davies explained. “This gave me an idea to start a surfboard business—growing surfboards on a farm near the beach and using waste materials from that very same farm, reducing the transport of materials, and therefore reducing carbon (碳) given out into the environment.”

“In the right conditions, we will grow a mycelium board in around 21 days,” Davies said. “The dream would be to make it the new standard. Connecting with nature would be the new design rules and that would be really cool. We’re using the sea and we should give back to the sea.”