P
eople of a certain age will recall
poring through the ad pages of
comic books, coveting X-Ray Specs
and InvisibilityHelmets.Today’skids,
of course,derive similar fantasies from
the CGI-jinks of films like
X-Men
and
The Avengers
. But these science
fictions, it turns out, are quickly
becomingnonfictions.
Recently, researchers across the
world have started making noise
about the prospect of superhuman
vision, robotic blood cells that allow
us to breathe underwater and a kind
of living superglue that would enable
tech
ComingSoon:X-RaySpecs
Newbiotechmaterials could turnusall into superheroes
BYBOYDFARROW
HEMISPHERESMAGAZINE.COM
•
MARCH2015
•
ILLUSTRATIONBYDANIELHERTZBERG
57
Take graphene, which is a mil-
lion times thinner than paper and
200 times stronger than steel.This
wonder stuff—described as “the new
silicon”—also conducts power and
heat more efficiently than anything
everdiscovered.Tech firms likeApple
and Samsung are betting that it will
transform the digital arena. Some
believe itwillmakeenergyproduction
drastically cleaner and less expensive.
Graphene,theysay,will save theworld.
ZhaohuiZhong,anassociateprofessor
ofelectrical engineeringandcomputer
science at the University of
broken bones to “regrow.”Andwhile
it’s unlikely that anyonewill be leap-
ing tall buildings in a single bound
anytime soon, there has been talk of
an invisibility cloak.
If you think this stuff will get pre-
teen kids worked up, you should see
the scientists who are working on it.
The research community is abuzz
with flappy fanboy excitement over
the emerging field of metamaterials,
a range of synthetics that can be pro-
duced in labs on an atomic scale, and
whose properties seem to confound
basicnatural laws.
bright ideas
