But seeking the necessary clues is about the closest science gets to an extreme sport.
The closest science fact comes to battalions of self-replicating devices is the attempt to direct organic molecules to assemble themselves into useful structures, for drug-delivery systems, say.
While it's still possible for talented writers to enter the field and make a mark, traditional print outlets are closing science desks (and sometimes closing altogether).
The primitive microbes used sulfur instead of oxygen to generate energy from food and "they may be the closest science will ever get to the mysterious origin of life on Earth".
With 2012 drawing to a close, Science Careers hereby names its first ever Person of the Year, honoring an individual who, during the past 12 months, has made an especially significant and sustained contribution to the welfare of early-career scientists.
Viewed up close, science turns out to look a lot like other social institutions, full of norms, beliefs, ideologies, practices, networks and power and deeply engaged in the production and management of social order [ 73].
With initiatives like this in the works, perhaps Vincent Callebaut's vision of 2050's Paris as a green smart city are closer to science fact than science fiction.
This seems far-fetched — perhaps closer to science fiction than to science.
According to Treyarch a lot of this is closer to science than fiction.
You may not immediately believe it, but future technologies are a lot closer to science fiction than people think.
