10 Sci-Fi Tech That's So Close We Can Barely Contain Ourselves

10. Laser Weapons

In a turn of events that is equal parts exciting and terrifying, the U.S Navy have developed a cannon that can take out drones by shooting them with lasers. No, you haven't just experienced a time-slip, this is real life.

Meet the Laser Weapon System (LaWS). This is a solid-state laser, it has taken six years to develop so far, at a fairly eye-watering cost of $40 million. Its ability to track drones and swarming fast boats and then blow them to smithereens, all without the need for ammunition, is about to usher in a new era of warfare. Aside from the vaguely unsettling idea of laser armed Americans - what with the casual attitude to highly powered firearms and all - the good news is that we're one step closer to lightsabers than we were before (which is sure the ultimate goal of humanity, right?)

Unfortunately, scientists have so far been unable to make it make pew pew noises, nor produce a handily colour coded laser beam that would be visible to the naked eye. Baby steps and all that.