2B Science Fiction to Fact.0:01
Science fiction has always shown us the impossible.0:15
Colonizing worlds on the other side of the galaxy, meeting alien species, or traveling back to key moments in history.0:18
Until now, though, this was all a world of the imagination.0:26
But that's changing as new scientific discoveries move ever closer to science fiction.0:29
A: Mind Control Device.0:38
Unlike Yoda, the Jedi Master in The Empire Strikes Back, we probably won't be levitating a spacecraft out of a swamp anytime soon.0:41
But it is now possible to control electrical items with just a thought using a new device.0:50
At first, the Emotiv headset used brain signals and facial movements to enable the user to wirelessly control video games.0:56
However, its possibilities now go far beyond just the gaming industry.1:04
When it's connected to a computer, it allows the severely disabled to communicate, and scientists are even working on a chip that they will insert directly into the human brain.1:09
They hope that one day paralyzed people will be walking again, simply by thinking about moving their limbs.1:19
Some have expressed doubts about all this, however.1:25
One scientist asks, "Imagine such a device in your head that you'll be using for mind control.1:29
What if people hacked into that?1:34
What could they do to you?1:36
The possibilities are literally mind-boggling."1:38
B. Invisibility Cloak.1:42
Harry Potter's invisibility cloak proved very useful on all his adventures.1:45
But how far are scientists from developing this outrageous idea into a real prototype?1:49
Well, quite close actually.1:54
Ali Aliev of the University of Texas demonstrated on YouTube how to make something invisible at the flick of a switch using the same principle as a desert mirage.1:57
In a mirage, heat bends light out of shape creating the illusion of water, a trick that has fooled many hot and thirsty travelers.2:08
Alyev has done the same, but at much higher temperatures.2:16
By heating carbon nanotubes, which look like strands of thread, he was able to bend light enough to hide the tubes from view.2:20
Does this mean that we'll be buying fully working invisibility cloaks sometime in the near future?2:28
Well, perhaps, and we won't even have to go to Hogwarts to get one.2:33
The only problem is, so far the cloak only works underwater.2:37
C) Three-course chewing gum.2:43
Violet Beauregarde paid the price after she ignored warnings not to eat the sweets in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.2:46
The invention wasn't completely ready, and the stick of gum that tasted of tomato soup, then roast beef and baked potato, followed by a mouthwatering dessert of blueberry pie and ice cream, turned her into a huge human blueberry.2:53
But now, food scientist Dave Hart thinks that soon he will have cracked the secret to turning this weird invention into a reality and creating a similar 3-course meal-flavored chewing gum.3:07
Hart's invention will use nanotechnology to replicate a starter, a main course, and a dessert in that order.3:19
"Tiny nanostructures within the gum will contain each of the different flavors," says Hart.3:26
"These will be broken up and released upon contact with saliva."3:31
or after a certain amount of chewing.3:35
Unfortunately, it could be some time before the gum is created.3:37
The mechanism exists, but the technique and flavors need perfecting, Hart adds.3:41
Traveling back or forward in time in Doctor Who's TARDIS may seem far-fetched, but Einstein stated that time travel was possible in theory.3:48
While this hasn't been proven yet, Ronald Mallett, an American professor of physics, believes he can do it with today's technology.3:57
And for as little as $250,000.4:05
Ronald's plan is to use circulating lasers to swirl space and time around like a spoon stirring milk into coffee.4:08
The time traveler will step into the beam of light and emerge in the past, but not the distant past.4:16
He'll only be able to travel back to the point in time at which the machine was switched on.4:21
Some physicists are skeptical, saying that the machine would have to be very large or powerful to work.4:27
But Mallett still believes that he'll live to see the first time machine.4:32
By the time Mallett creates his machine, he'll have worked on it for most of his life.4:36
But then, he'll be the most famous inventor in history.4:41
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