Invisibility cloaks and deflector shields, once a staple of popular science-fiction, are now the real deal, researchers say. Cloaking and shields have long protected starcruisers from blaster shots ...

One of the gravest dangers facing future astronauts traveling to Mars will be radiation in space: If the long trip doesn't kill them, cancer eventually could. These threats can, however, be defeated.

"Engage deflector shields!" is a command often heard on the bridge of sci-fi spaceships locked in battle, but could such defensive contraptions actually work? Scientists at BAE Systems believe a new ...

In the Star Wars universe, firing up the deflector shields is no big deal. Imperial cruiser on your tail? Deflector shields. Incoming TIE Fighter? Better flip on the deflectors. Science fiction has ...

Physics students at the University of Leicester designed a concept for fully operational deflector shields, but there's one problem: they'd blind whoever they protect. Michelle Starr is CNET's science ...

Scientists are trying to create a sci-fi spacecraft staple to protect astronauts from exposure to our Sun’s radiation on long missions. Can a solution be found on the Moon? As any starship captain ...

Radiation in space is one of the major obstacles to human exploration of the solar system. Astronauts on a round-trip to Mars could be exposed to radiation doses 66,000 times higher than on Earth. But ...

There’s something so profoundly cool about the command “Shields up.” It’s reminiscent of the moment a platoon of Spartan warriors falls into a phalanx: i.e. the time for fighting is nigh, get into ...

Magnetic “deflector shields” could one day guard astronauts against dangerous space radiation, if experiments now underway pay off. Exposure to energetic charged particles could put astronauts on ...