So apparently it's National Science and Engineering Week in England so the Birmingham Science City did a survey of a few thousand people over there to ask them if things do or do not exist yet. While the sample size of the poll is probably pretty small, and who knows exactly the type of people they talked to, apparently some people are pretty retarded. LoL

http://www.birminghamsciencecity.co.uk/news/time-to-turn-on-the-tardis/

Perhaps inspired by TV favourites such as Doctor Who and Ashes to Ashes, nearly a third of Britons (30%) believe that time travel is actually possible. The results were revealed in a survey, launched at the start of National Science and Engineering Week (11-20 March) by Birmingham Science City (www.birminghamsciencecity.co.uk), which aimed to see just how blurred the lines between science and fiction really are.

Other findings included:

1. Over a fifth of adults incorrectly believe light sabres exist.

2. Nearly a quarter (24%) of people are wrong in their belief that humans can be teleported.

3. Nearly 50% of adults wrongly believe that memory-erasing technology exists.

4. More than 40% of people incorrectly believe that hover boards exist.

5. Nearly one fifth (18%) of adults have the incorrect view that they can see gravity.

However, when you consider some of the scientific advances being made across the world today, it is not surprising that sometimes people get their science fiction and science fact confused.

For example, over three quarters (78%) of Britons believe that invisibility cloaks exist only in the realms of fiction, and yet a team at the University of Birmingham, led by Prof Shuang Zhang, has developed a method for making objects appear invisible.

Almost 90% of people think it would be impossible to grow an extra pair of eyes, even though scientists, led by Professors Nick Dale and Elizabeth Jones, at the University of Warwick have found this is possible in frogs. The team believes they will be able to use the technology to explore eye development in humans and grow an ‘eye in a dish’.

Seven out of ten adults questioned thought it was impossible to move objects with their mind, yet researchers at Coventry University’s Serious Games Institute have collaborated with California-based company, NeuroSky, to develop a headset which can read analogue electrical brainwaves and turn them into digital signals. This allows the user to manipulate images on a screen and power user-interfaces in games, education and medical applications using only their minds.

Dr Pam Waddell, Director of Birmingham Science City comments: “We commissioned the survey to see how blurred the lines between science fact and fiction have become. While films and TV can be acknowledged as creating confusion, it is also worth highlighting how advanced science has now become and many things deemed only possible in fiction have now become reality or are nearing creation due to the advancements of science.”

“What’s clear from this research is that science captures everyone’s imagination, so we must continue to invest in it and strive to develop the latest ‘stranger than fiction’ creations!”

The survey also asked people what inventions they would most like to see created. Men opted for time machines or teleportation, each receiving 19% and 21% of the male votes respectively, whereas over a quarter (26%) of women instead favoured a universal cure for all diseases.

Follow this link to take our quick quiz and test your own knowledge of science fiction and fact.

But....but....I want a TARDIS....

Yeah, having a TARDIS would be pretty sweet, aside from running into the occasional Dalek or something. LoL

TARDIS's are cool and really economical when you think of how much space you get vs. how much space they take up .. but every cool kid on the block knows the 1981 DeLorean is truly the only way to time travel in style.

I love how none of us want a cure for disease HAHA

LoL So true Ava. It's cause we're all nerds.

P.S. Have you seen the thread about the shoes yet? LoL

LoL So true Ava. It's cause we're all nerds.

P.S. Have you seen the thread about the shoes yet? LoL

Yeah I saw it last night before I went to bed, they look like draenei feet

I thought for sure you would say Tauren.

I thought for sure you would say Tauren.

Nah those are DISTINCT draenei legs, let me show you

I love how none of us want a cure for disease HAHA

I picked that one

The local radio station was talking about this morning and they found another one on a website called Sunshine (something else I can't remember) over in England or one of those places over there where people think by 2020 we will have a train built across the Atlantic Ocean linking us to overseas, by 2020 we will be able to visit the moon and stay at moonstation hotels, etc... I think there's something in the water over there.

Or maybe they just have great imaginations, and a trainstation of the ocean is a terrible idea

I think that study was pretty badly done. It's all in perception and the way things were phrased. Can you see gravity? No, but you can see the effects of gravity. Are light sabres real? No, but you can buy a replica almost anywhere.

Then we have "can you move objects with the mind?". Objects. Not digital representations of objects. I would have got that one wrong, too. If we're going to say can you see gravity and when someone says yes and they get it wrong, then they should be correct when they say they cannot move objects with their minds. Oh, wait. We meant digital objects.

Exactly PK. The study probably was done very poorly, and who knows what they sample population was or where they culled these people from. It's like the surveys they do about Americans not being able to even find Canada on a map of the world. LoL

.. not to add make fun of Americans .. but have you guys ever seen the Rick Mercer "Talking to Americans" for the tv show This Hour has 22 Minutes.

I still find it funny .. YES!! Canada should legalize Insulin.

Rick Mercer

Or maybe they just have great imaginations, and a trainstation of the ocean is a terrible idea

Lol...I think they also said it would be underwater. You would not find me in an underwater train. WTF is that?!

Lol...I think they also said it would be underwater. You would not find me in an underwater train. WTF is that?!

Welcome to Rapture!!

I think this poll matches the research study haha.