With ‘The Force Awakens’ set to hit UK cinemas later in the month, James Beeson, Editor, asks; how realistic is the science behind Star Wars?

 THE Star Wars franchise is a science-nerd’s paradise, chock o’ block full of futuristic and far-fetched technologies and mysterious wonders, from Tatooine’s two suns, to super-intelligent robots such as C3-PO. For the most part, these concepts are considered to be pure fantasy; a figment of George’s Lucas’ vivid imagination, with no real scientific clout. However, being a Star Wars super-fan and a bit of a techno geek myself, I decided that to mark the release of ‘The Force Awakens’ I wanted to find out whether any of the concepts in the films have any real scientific clout… and the results were somewhat surprising!

The Force

Easily one of the biggest wonders of the Star Wars universe is the existence of The Force – a…