The News from Science and Medicine

Recently Popular Mechanics published an article with the following headline, which I am not making up:This story was brought to my attention by alert reader Thomas Gibson, M.D., and I immediately knew it was important, because Popular Mechanics has long been a trusted source of information about science in general, and particularly scientific things that could very well happen in the future. For example, way back in 1957 Popular Mechanics published this cover:That’s right: In 1957, Popular Mechanics predicted that we would have flying cars by 1967, and... by God we did! You younger readers belonging to Whatever Gen We’re On Now probably are unaware of this, but I’m sure you Boomers remember how in the late Sixties we all used to soar gaily above the suburbs in our Hiller’s Aerial Sedans, enjoying the view and laughing at the neighbor far below who gestured angrily at us......as we dropped our empty beer bottles onto his yard, because back then, in addition to having flying cars, we…