Force field (technology)

This concept has become a staple of many science-fiction works, so much so that authors frequently do not even bother to explain or justify them to their readers, treating them almost as established fact and attributing whatever capabilities the plot requires.

[1] An early precursor of what is now called "force field" may be found in William Hope Hodgson's The Night Land (1912), where the Last Redoubt, the fortress of the remnants of a far-future humanity, is kept safe by "The Air Clog" generated by the burning "Earth-Current".

by Asimov, scientists are working on a force field ("energy so channelled as to create a wall of matter-less inertia"), capable of protecting the population in case of a nuclear war.

Marvel Comics' Jean Grey is able to use her telekinesis to create a barrier of telekinetic energy that acts as a force field by repelling objects.

The Rutherford Appleton Laboratory was in 2007 attempting to design an actual test satellite, which would orbit Earth with a charged plasma field around it.

[7][8][9][10] In 2008, Cosmos Magazine reported on research into creating an artificial replica of Earth's magnetic field around a spacecraft to protect astronauts from dangerous cosmic rays.

In 2014, a group of students from the University of Leicester released a study describing functioning of spaceship plasma deflector shields.

[12] In 2015, Boeing was granted a patent on a force field system designed to protect against shock waves generated by explosions.

[13][14] In 2016, Rice University scientists discovered that Tesla coils can generate force fields able to manipulate matter (process called teslaphoresis).