8 Times Science Did The Impossible

Science can sometimes feel like a cold, hard reality machine, in which there is little room for the "impossible", hippies, psychics and naturopaths will often gleefully tell you that "science doesn't know everything", and that sometimes the amazing and the impossible is beyond its cool, clinical reach.

But the truth is that the impossible is something that science specialises in. Taking the laws of psychics and poking them with a big old stick until they do something, is how we've been able to develop everything from aeroplanes to quantum computers. It's how we take "magical" and "impossible" concepts such as telepathy and levitation, that were previously the preserve of the mystics, and bring them kicking and screaming into the real world, with lots of maths and experiments.

Sure, it might not be as romantic as fairy magic, but it is a hell of a lot more useful.

In the not too distant past, it seemed impossible that we might each have a computer in our homes, let alone in our pockets, yet there's a good chance you're reading this on your smartphone. In the past, science has delivered impossibilities such as flight, power and the ability to control our lifespans, and it's still at it, with the potential for teleportation, telepathy, fuel-free spaceflight and much more winking temptingly on the horizon.

And this is how they plan to do it...