Happy Anniversary Star Trek

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Image from startrekspace.blogspot.com

Forty-six years ago, on September 7th, a television program debuted unlike any other. It featured one of the cheesiest sets ever, an Asian actor, an African American woman, a guy with elf ears and an incredibly sexy leading man who frequently removed his shirt. Yes, Star Trek was born.

Star Trek has had an amazing effect on science. We actually use much of the technology introduced on Star Trek today. Not transporters. No one can quite figure out how to break a human (or anything) down to its molecular base, transport it and put it back together. Jagermeister is really the closest we’ve come, but you feel like death the next day.

Here are 10 technologies that can be traced directly back to Star Trek:

10) Transparent aluminum. The film, Star Trek 4: The Voyage Home features the crew of the Enterprise traveling back in time to procure two humpback whales. Mr Scott defies the Prime Directive in order to craft a holding tank large enough to hold the whales, and introduces transparent aluminum to a flabbergasted scientist. Well, transparent aluminum exists. Called ALON, or aluminum oxynitride, it’s a ceramic material that starts out as a powder before heat and pressure turn it into a crystalline form similar to glass.

9) Communicators. Captain Kirk, Dr. McCoy, Mr. Spock and the rest of the Enterprise crew were constantly whipping out their communicators to speak to one another, usually from a distant planet or a Klingon ship. Those would be called cell phones now. In fact, Nextel had an entire marketing campaign that looked a lot like scenes from Star Trek, complete with that annoying beep.

8) Hypospray. This ingenious tool was used in sick bay to administer medication. It looked like a metal tube with a plunger. Guess what the Army used to give we incoming privates all our vaccines? Hyposprays. They use air to inject medicine into the arm or leg-it’s much faster, a little less painful and for people like my husband who have a thing about needles, less fainting.

7) Tractor Beams. Sort of. While a Star Trek-type tractor beam is not truly feasible, science does have optical tweezers. Optical tweezers use a focused laser to trap and suspend microscopic particles in an optical trap. Scientists can use optical tweezers to trap and remove bacteria and sort cells. Optical tweezers are used primarily in studying the physical properties of DNA. While the beams used in optical tweezers aren’t strong enough to dock the space shuttle to the International Space Station, it’s a start in that direction.

6) Phasers. “Set phasers to stun!” was the cry heard all over galaxies when the Enterprise crew ran into some horrid creature, hellbent on their destruction. (Kirk did not use his phaser against the chick with a green skin, he used his “phaser.” You’re welcome.) The modern version of the phaser is the taser. Stun guns have been around for over a century, but the Taser used today is a fairly modern invention. Interestingly, a company called Applied Energetic has developed Laser Guided Energy and Laser Induced Plasma Energy technologies that are said to transmit high-voltage bursts of energy to a target. Who knows-perhaps in the not so distant future, we will be stunning people while trying to keep the guy in the red shirt alive.

5) Universal translator. When Kirk and his landing party would transport onto a planet surface, often, the inhabitants did not speak English. Although, some of them did, and that always confused me, but okay never mind. For those occasions, the Enterprise crew used their handy universal translator. We do and we don’t have this technology. Yes, we have translators that, if you enter a word or phrase in one language will translate it into another. However, those languages have to be pre-programmed into the computer. Computers as of today cannot “think” on their own. Thank goodness?

4) Geordi’s “Visor.” From Star Trek, The Next Generation we have a visor that enables a blind character to “see.” Is this possible? In 2005, a team of scientists from Stanford University successfully implanted a small chip behind the retina of blind rats that enabled them to pass a vision recognition test. This chip, or “bionic eye” works similarly to Geordi’s visor on TNG: patient receives the implant, then wears a a pair of glasses fitted with a video camera. Light enters the camera, is processed through a computer and the computer broadcasts the light as LED images on the inside of the glasses. And those images are reflected back into the retina chips as photodiodes, which replicate the lost retinal cells, change the images into electrical signals, sending nerve pulses to the brain. I don’t know if these glasses look like giant barrettes, however.

3) Torpedo coffins. Okay, technically, no, BUT you can be laid to rest in your own Federation torpedo coffin. It looks exactly like a photon torpedo capsule. It is not Federation approved, of course, because the Federation doesn’t exist, but it’s still a very cool way to go if you or a loved one are a Trekkie. Rumor has it the company also offers Star Trek cremation plans.

2) Telepresence. Kirk, Picard, Janeway and other Star Trek captains and crew would frequently converse with people via a huge screen on the bridge. Today, that is known as teleconferencing. My husband does it every day, and when I Skype, I am using the same technology. In 2008, AT&T joined with Cisco to create the industry’s first in-depth telepresence experience. Cisco’s telepresence is a combination of audio, video and ambient light, and creates the feeling that people in room A are sitting across the table from people in room B, even though they may be separated by an entire country, ocean or half the planet.

1) Tricorders. That odd looking device Mr. Spock would swing over a surface, and it would tell him everything he needed to know about the air, the chemical makeup of the soil and life forms on the planet. Today, NASA employs a handheld device called LOCAD, which measures for unwanted microorganisms such as E. coli, fungi and salmonella onboard the International Space Station. And, scientists at Loughborough University in England use photoplethysmography technology in a handheld device that can monitor the functions of the heart.

Modern technology, inspired by Star Trek. Live long and prosper.

Many, many thanks to electronics.howstuffworks.com for information contained in this article.

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About Post Author

Erin Nanasi

Erin Nanasi is an avid underwater basket weaver, with a penchant for satire and the odd wombat reference.
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Gary William Green
11 years ago

Good Article, Erin. Bravo.

Erin Nanasi
11 years ago

I love Star Trek. The Voyage Home is my favorite ST movie, and while I do still harbor feelings for Kirk, Picard is my super captain crush.

11 years ago

Thanks for the reminder, Erin. I am 63 and I can still remember coming home from High School and sitting down in the living room with supper on my lap ready to watch Star Trek at 4:00 P.M. What a wonderful memory and my love for the series still goes on today, despite the fact they’re all repeats. I have followed all the series and The Next Generation is undoubtedly my favorite with Voyager not far behind. One new Star Trek sequel is being planned. FSM, I hope I don’t die before that happens, otherwise I’ll be watching it in Pastafarian heaven with all the strippers and beer. LOL

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