Other "tele-romance" devices that are still in the prototype phase are even more science fictional--and bizarre.

FORBES: Magazine Article

Hadfield also talked about the inspiration that science fictional exploits of space exploration provided to him.

FORBES: William Shatner Calls The Space Station

"How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe" features a down-on-his-luck time machine repairman, living in Minor Universe 31.

CNN: How to escape a time loop

Who would have thought that advanced machinery and electronics such as GPS navigation tools, which only a decade ago would have seemed completely science fictional, would now be a part of our everyday lives?

BBC: Viewpoint: The small business of 2063

Harvesting asteroids, creating a radically transparent virtual world state and replacing workers with intelligent robots are all very well, but unless our big tech companies recognize their social responsibilities, I fear that our real future could be as disturbing as the science fictional one presented in Ridley Scott's blockbuster.

CNN: STORY HIGHLIGHTS

But transmitting single particles or, to be accurate, copying the quantum state of one particle on to another, perhaps of a different kind could one day have less science-fictional uses.

ECONOMIST: Don��t look now, I��m teleporting

For science-minded kids, the fictional worlds of Asimov, Heinlein, and Clarke seemed more real than reality, and destined to replace it.

NEWYORKER: No Death, No Taxes

Forensic science has a lot of romantic literature behind it, with many fictional detectives stalking the pages of whodunnits magnifying glass in hand and nicotine-source in mouth.

ECONOMIST: Whose body of evidence? | The