From Discover, December 2009 (p. 34) in an annual retrospective. Some positive, some negative; mostly positive.
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The USS Kelvin readies for battle
The Year of Living Scientifically --
Star Trek
Rebooting a Legend
The legendary sci-fi franchise that changed pop culture -- and inspired two generations of scientists -- was rusting in space dock. So Lost mastermind J.J. Abrams rebooted it with young actors, mind-melding action, and loyalist-approved continuity. The result recaptured much of the original show's loopy sense of adventure. Coolest moment? Watching Kirk (Chris Pine) and Sulu (John Cho) execute an orbital dive to a drilling platform on planet Vulcan. It's just fiction for now, but a company called Orbital Outfitters is working on the technology for a real space-dive suit.
Sure, Star Trek was also filled with some not-great science: an exploding supernova that wiped out planet Romulus (too far away), a floating mining drill boring into the planetary core of Vulcan (too hard or soft, depending on the mantle), and most egregiously, a "red matter" bomb that created a black hole that destroyed Vulcan altogether. Of red matter, Phil Plait complained in DISCOVER's Bad-Astronomy blog, "The red matter black hole would be incredibly small, probably smaller than an atom, and that would make it hard to gobble down enough mass to grow rapidly."
But plenty of other Star Trek goofs (like the holodek [sic], the phaser, and the transporter) have inspired real research. "[Star Trek creator] Gene Roddenberry was a good friend," says celebrated MIT cognitive scientist Marvin Minsky. "In the end, no other person ever had such a positive pro-science influence on the TV audience."
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The USS Kelvin readies for battle
The Year of Living Scientifically --
Star Trek
Rebooting a Legend
The legendary sci-fi franchise that changed pop culture -- and inspired two generations of scientists -- was rusting in space dock. So Lost mastermind J.J. Abrams rebooted it with young actors, mind-melding action, and loyalist-approved continuity. The result recaptured much of the original show's loopy sense of adventure. Coolest moment? Watching Kirk (Chris Pine) and Sulu (John Cho) execute an orbital dive to a drilling platform on planet Vulcan. It's just fiction for now, but a company called Orbital Outfitters is working on the technology for a real space-dive suit.
Sure, Star Trek was also filled with some not-great science: an exploding supernova that wiped out planet Romulus (too far away), a floating mining drill boring into the planetary core of Vulcan (too hard or soft, depending on the mantle), and most egregiously, a "red matter" bomb that created a black hole that destroyed Vulcan altogether. Of red matter, Phil Plait complained in DISCOVER's Bad-Astronomy blog, "The red matter black hole would be incredibly small, probably smaller than an atom, and that would make it hard to gobble down enough mass to grow rapidly."
But plenty of other Star Trek goofs (like the holodek [sic], the phaser, and the transporter) have inspired real research. "[Star Trek creator] Gene Roddenberry was a good friend," says celebrated MIT cognitive scientist Marvin Minsky. "In the end, no other person ever had such a positive pro-science influence on the TV audience."
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