Scientists Are Citing Patents for Things That Don't Actually Exist

(Credit: Willrow Hood/Shutterstock) Let's say I have an idea for a great invention one day -- a series of pneumatic tubes that would shoot pods with people inside between cities at hundreds of miles an hour. My "Superloop" sounds like a sure-fire hit, but I don't have the resources to pull the project off, and what's more, the technology to build it isn't actually there yet. But I don't want someone with more money to come along and snag the invention from me -- I did do the hard work of ha