If the money and equipment are willing, this Oxford team can make scifi dreams come true.

ENGADGET: Oxford University researchers create new 3D printed 'soft material' that could replace human tissue

Advances here will inform the more scifi-ish imponderables like a space elevator, and asteroid- or moon-mining.

FORBES: Catching Air Without NASA: How Will We Regulate Commercial Space Flight?

In 2005, when writing for SciFi.com (now SyFy), I had the pleasure of briefly interviewing Banks in 2005.

FORBES: Why Dying Author Iain M. Banks Has My Undying Gratitude

This entry in our SciFi book club covers Part Two: Festivals of the book Embassytown by China Mieville.

FORBES: SciFi Book Club: Embassytown - Better Than EzRa

And anyone who has ever seen a scifi movie knows that tactile keyboards and display bezels have no role to play in our computing future anyway, so we might as well get things started now -- or in the second half of 2010 according to DigiTimes' sources.

ENGADGET: Acer working on frameless laptop with touchscreen keyboard?