Sci Fi / Sci Fact

Getting to the science behind the fiction

Listen in to hear New Zealand's brightest scientific minds discuss the merits of pop culture plot-drivers. From Wolverine's adamantium-fused skeleton to Star Trek's dilithium crystals.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

X-Men | Wolverine's Adamantium Claws

Adamantium is the indestructible material infused onto the skeleton of mutant X-Men hero - Wolverine. But what is it really?Marvel's Wolverine first appeared in 1974. He is a gruff Canadian mutant who joins the superhero league of X-Men.Wolverine has super healing abilities and claws that come out when he's angry, which catch the attention of shady military figures who try to turn him into a weapon by fusing Adamantium to his skeletonDr Chris Bumby, Principal Scientist at Victoria University of Wellington's Robinson Institute and Associate Investigator at the MacDiarmid Institute gives us his scientific take on Adamantium.He says adamantium appears to be strong, tough and hard which in scientific terms each have very specific meanings. And about the the time Marvel began writing the Wolverine stories, titanium technology was really taking off.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Star Trek | Dilithium Crystals

Dilithium Crystals have been around since the origins of Star Trek. They regulate matter and anti-matter in the Starship Enterprise's warp core. But what are they?Dilithium crystals enable the Starship Enterprise to enter warp speed and travel across the universe.Without them, matter and anti-matter in the warp core would create an annihilation reaction. Or would it?Dr Krista Steenbergen, MacDiarmid Institute Associate Investigator and Physics lecturer at Victoria University of Wellington said if you squeeze lithium down it becomes a dilithium solid.And she said anti-matter is a very real thing too."We can play around with it, particularly in particle accelerators," she said, "It is a thing that if you collide matter with anti-matter, a big one would be an electron and a positron, you get an annihilation and a large amount of energy."Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Flubber

Flubber has been around since 1961 when the mad scientist Professor Brainard discovered the flying rubber. It got a re-vamp with Robin Williams in the late 90s, but how realistic is it?If we take the 1997 version on Flubber, it is a fluorescent green, slimy-looking rubbery substance with endless energy.It defies the laws of physics and if it was real could be a terrifying prospect.When something bounces it looses energy every time it hits the ground, but Dr. Nathaniel Davis, MacDiarmid Institute Associate Investigator and Lecturer in Physical Chemistry at Victoria University of Wellington said there are two ways something could get around this basic scientific principal."One is it has some form of internal energy that it's releasing," he said, "kind of like a battery. Or it's somehow absorbing energy on each bounce."Dr Davis said there is some evidence that Flubber absorbs energy from around itself and that prospect is terrifying."It's going to be bouncing around the universe taking all the energy and never stopping until there's no energy left."Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Back to the Future | Time travel & Hovercars

From a time-travelling DeLorean to a future where hovercars are everywhere, the movie Back to the Future is a dream for sci fi-loving petrol heads - but could it be a reality?Throughout the 80s Marty McFly and Doc enthralled viewers with their modified DeLorean, which took Marty back to 1955 and then to the distant future - 2015.Dr Rodrigo Martinez Gazoni, MacDiarmid Institute research fellow at the University of Canterbury fact checks the science behind Back to the Future, from flying cars to time travel. Dr Martinez Gazoni was too young to watch the movie when it first came out, but once he saw the film he couldn't wait for 2015 when we would have flying cars."Here we are six years later and I still haven't seen ," he said. But he believes hovercars could become a reality if we really wanted them."I'm very optimistic. I'm absolutely sure that we will be able to do something like that in the next ten years."But Dr Martinez Gazoni warns they might not be the dream solution to our transport problems."The problem will be traffic. Not traffic jams, but traffic itself. It would be really, really dangerous."Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details