Science Fiction
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Warp Drive Is No Longer Science Fiction

Israel Budz

Einstein’s theory of general relativity puts a speed limit on all matter in the universe, creating a barrier preventing acceleration from below to above the speed of light.

However, an independent group of scientists, inventors, and engineers called Applied Physics recently proposed the first model for a physical warp drive, according to a recent study published in the peer-reviewed journal Classical and Quantum Gravity.

While this could make warp drive more than science fiction, it’s best to take the new study with a grain of salt — because even if warp drive is now mathematically possible, there’s no telling how long it could be until humans could use it to substantially shorten the time of travel between stars — the closest of which would take roughly four years to reach, at light-speed.

Warp drive is no longer science fiction

Applied Physics has announced the first model of physical warp

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Science Fiction
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Lovecraft Country’s Aunjanue Ellis Talks Season One and the Power of Science Fiction

Israel Budz

While quite a lot of TV made a splash in 2020, HBO’s Lovecraft Country undeniably had a major impact. The ten-episode first season, which is inspired by Matt Ruff’s novel of the same name, chronicles the lives of an ensemble of characters in the Jim Crow America of the 1950s, as various supernatural threats and racist horrors collide. Season 1 took the concept of the novel and transformed it into something wholly new and profound, sending each of its characters on a journey they couldn’t have imagined. One of the biggest standouts of the season is undeniably Hippolyta Freeman (Aunjanue Ellis), a housewife and star-gazer whose own personal journey of self-discovery adds a sci-fi inspired and pivotal angle to the series.

With a career spanning nearly thirty years (including an Emmy-nominated performance on the limited series When They See Us), Ellis is no stranger to work that leaves an

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Science Fiction
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A powerful, pocket-sized optical imager, no longer science fiction

Israel Budz
A powerful, pocket-sized optical imager, no longer science fiction
Thomas O’Sullivan, assistant professor of electrical engineering, and Ola Abdalsalam, Ph.D. student. Credit: University of Notre Dame

Before Wilhelm Röntgen, a mechanical engineer, discovered a new type of electromagnetic radiation in 1895, physicians could only dream of being able to see inside the body. Within a year of Röntgen’s discovery, X-rays were being used to identify tumors. Within 10 years, hospitals were using X-rays to help diagnose and treat patients.


In 1972, computed tomography (CT) scans were developed. In the 1980s, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology became commercially available.

Today, engineers like Thomas O’Sullivan, assistant professor of electrical engineering at the University of Notre Dame, continue the quest to improve the quality of medical diagnosis and treatment using near-infrared optical imaging.

O’Sullivan and his team are developing a powerful, pocket-sized optical imager that may once have seemed like the stuff of science fiction.

“When envisioning medicine of the future, many

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Science Fiction
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Nine Deeply Humanist Science Fiction Films

Israel Budz

According to the late film critic Roger Ebert, cinema is one of the most effective venues for bringing people from different backgrounds together. “For me, the movies are like a machine that generates empathy,” he once said:

If it’s a great movie, it lets you understand a little bit more about what it’s like to be a different gender, a different race, a different age, a different economic class, a different nationality, a different profession, different hopes, aspirations, dreams and fears. It helps us to identify with the people who are sharing this journey with us.

Ebert described himself as a humanist, and his idea of film as an “empathy machine” fits perfectly with some of the best works of science fiction. Perhaps more than any other genre, science fiction is connected with humanism, which we can define as an ethical stance that emphasizes the rights, responsibilities, and ultimate value

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