Future Tech: From Personal Robots to Motorized Monocycles

by Charles Piddock and James LeeWashington, D. C.: National Geographic, 2009. 58pgs. Juvenile Non-Fiction.

How cool would it be to have spy robots who could move silently around on simulated gecko feet? Or to inject a nanobot into human bodies which could repair genetic damage on a cellular level? Robotic surgical applications, brain-computer interfaces, smart houses that pretty much clean themselves and take care of the people who live there (a little scary: shades of HAL!), and snake venom cancer treatments: all these find a place in this smart little book that should provide young techies with plenty of fodder for wonder and invention, along with some funny futurisms that didn't pan out, like the atomic car which would have required an 80,000 pound reactor to power a 3,000 pound vehicle. Some fun!

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