Five movie sci-fi predictions which have suddenly come true

We might not be flying to work on jetpacks and unwinding with help of robot servants - but many of the wilder predictions of science fiction are quietly coming true around us.

From a laser weapon powerful enough to melt drones in the sky to invisibility cloaks, ‘stasis tubes’ and a 3D printer which can create pizzas on demand, the future is already here.

We have picked our top five true sci fi predictions below.

Beam weaponry (Star Wars)

Laser and particle beam weaponry has been a staple of science fiction - although lasers faded out of favour in sci fi after everyone realised, soon after their invention that they weren’t quite as fearsome a weapon as once thought.

That, of course, hasn’t stopped the U.S. military trying.

After decades of fairly nasty, but not Star Wars-esque laser weapons which blind people - the U.S. has working ones which will remove your sight altogether, but settle for ones that temporarily ‘dazzle’ people in the field - the Americans now have a ship-mounted laser powerful enough to melt drones in flight.

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Earlier this year, an American ship completed its second test of detecting an incoming drone, targeting it, and blasting it out of the skies with a laser weapon. The military hopes that using the huge, ship-mounted laser system will be cheaper than firing off missiles.

Cyborg (The Terminator)

There are already cyborgs living on this planet. But before you shoot your fridge and television and prepare for a Terminator-style war between Man and Machine, you should be aware that most will fit comfortably inside a matchbox.

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Several universities have used computer chips to control insects successfully, with North Carolina State researchers able to steer a cockroach along a path using electrical impulses delivered to its antennae. DARPA, the United States military’s ‘mad scientist’ wing, has even envisaged using the creatures as airborne spies.

You can even buy one. “This is the world’s first commercially available cyborg!” says the cheerful page for Roboroach. The £65 gadget/being is a living cockroach you “steer” using an app. Its creators admit the insects undergo “a short surgery (under anaesthesia)” to stick on a controller to tickle their antennae.

Cloaking device (Star Trek)

There are not one but several ‘cloaking devices’ already working on Earth - or at least in the laboratory.

This month, scientists developed a proper, optical cloaking device, using an array of lenses looking like the machines used to give eye tests, which ‘bends’ light around objects so people can see a clear image of whatever’s behind.

It’s the first ‘cloaking’ device which works in conditions approaching the real world - i.e. it can cloak 3D objects, when viewed from various angles.

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‘From what, we know this is the first cloaking device that provides three-dimensional, continuously multidirectional cloaking,’ said Joseph Choi, a Rochester graduate student who helped develop the method at Rochester.

The project, the first to accurately cloak 3D objects could be used for wing mirrors, surgical devices and art. Defence companies, of course, are investigating the technology for different reasons - British Aerospace envisions making tanks invisible.

Cryogenic Stasis Tubes (Aliens)

When Sigourney Weaver’s character Ellen Ripley drifts in space in “stasis” in Aliens she emerges from her tube unharmed, and not having aged a day - thanks to “cryogenics” cooling her body down.

NASA is not able to put people into ‘suspended animation’ quite yet - although it’s investigating the idea - but is looking at the option of using a technique called therapeutic hypothermia, which has been in use in emergency rooms since 2003.

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The technique is used to keep critical patients alive by reducing their body temperature. NASA envisages using the technique to keep astronauts asleep on long-haul space journeys - the travellers would inhale a coolant liquid, lowering their body temperature drastically, and would remain in a deathlike sleep known as ‘torpor’ for the journey. They’d be fed intravenously, and their habitat would spin while they travelled, so their muscles would not waste away.

Nutri-Matic (Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy)

When Arthur Dent hitches a lift into space with Ford Prefect and Trillian (Zooey Deschanel, pictured), he’s disappointed to find that drinks are dispensed by a Nutrimatic machine which creates a substance that is “"almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea".

NASA is already developing a similar machine - a 3D food printer for use on long-haul space flights, such as missions to Mars. The technology is sufficiently ‘ready’ that it’s already been used to make a ‘printed’ pizza.

The machine, made by Anjan Contractor, uses powdered, freeze-dried ingredients packed with micro-nutrients, and can personalise nutrition plans for each astronaut via a modified RepRap 3D printer. At present, NASA uses its own packaged, ready-to-heat foods, which are less healthy than the ‘printed’ food is hoped to be.

The space agency is also investigating a 3D printer that could not only print out food - but also living flesh, which could be used for transplants.