Materials scientists have created fabrics that can both detect light and conduct electricity, suggesting new light-detecting textiles and novel projection screens.
Nature
March 2, 2005
From Imagination to Reality
We've done two challenges involving scifi villains and their evil plots (Creating Science Fiction Villainy and More SciFi Villainy). We've played with a real science idea—a fabric that can detect light and conduct electricity—trying to imagine how a fictional character could use this fabric in evil ways. While this is all part of a day's work for a scifi writer or game designer, it wouldn't be routine for a scientist, inventor, or entrepreneur. Or would it?
Imagination is what lets our minds explore possibilities beyond what we know. New ideas and products were all once floating around in someone's head. Daydreams. Silly notions. Speculations. What if . . .? Think of your imagination as an Idea Muscle. The more you exercise it, the bigger and better your ideas will become!
 | A hot-air balloon requires a huge amount of fabric. | |
Challenge: Exercise Your Imagination
- Think about fabric and how we use it in everyday life. Clothing. Shelter. Packaging. Art. Bags. Boats. Nets. Airplane wings. Upholstery. Jot down some ideas in a list.
- Now, think about what we use electronic devices to display. Movies. Games. Images. Maps. Graphs. Information of all kinds. Make a second list of your ideas.
- People living on board the International Space Station, at a moon base, or on Mars will have to bring everything they need from Earth for some time to come. Fabric is light and can be folded very small, so devices, objects, anything made of fabric would be particularly useful. Look at your lists from 1 and 2. Think about the environments in each of these places. Imagine what you could do with a marvelous new fabric that can detect light or be used as an electronic device to display whatever you might want displayed.
 | International Space Station | NASA |
Stretch that imagination! Give your Idea Muscle a workout! It only gets stronger with use!
Create an image to show your idea or describe in a paragraph. If you wish, send it to us at challenge@snkids.com. Please include your first name, age, city or town, and state. If you are under 13 years old, get your parent's permission to write to us. You may be eligible to win a prize.
This week's recommended scifi books
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