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The writers of Star Trek went above and beyond to make the universe as realistic as possible.
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00:00From the technology found on the starships to the strange new lifeforms found on different
00:05planets, Trek just sprinkles just enough science within all the technobabble to make those
00:10worlds seem just that bit more realistic and also immersive.
00:15So with that in mind, I'm Ellie with Trek Culture, here with 10 examples of real science
00:20in Star Trek.
00:21Number 10, silicon-based life.
00:24All of life on Earth is carbon-based.
00:27Carbon is perfect for biology because of its abundance and its ability to maintain four
00:33valence bonds with other elements, especially hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and other carbon
00:39elements.
00:40And these types of bonds make up most of the biological molecules that allow life to exist.
00:46While it is true that carbon can create more possible molecules than any other element on
00:51the periodic table, by a long shot, many scientists theorise that aliens that evolved on a different
00:57planet may also be silicon-based.
00:59Silicon, like carbon, can form four stable bonds with itself and other atoms and can create
01:04long chemical chains known as silane polymers, which are very similar to hydrocarbons, an essential
01:10ingredient of life made with carbon.
01:12But the two elements are still vastly different.
01:16Silicon is far more reactive to chemicals like oxygen.
01:19Silicon-based life may not be possible in reality, but the rampant scientific speculation
01:27around silicon-based life led to one appearing in Star Trek.
01:31In Star Trek, the original series episode The Devil in the Dark, the Enterprise crew encountered
01:36a silicon-based life form known as the Hoarder.
01:39The Hoarder is one of the strangest creatures ever encountered by Starfleet, with an appearance
01:44more similar to molten rock than a living animal.
01:46Number 9, Fusion Impulse Engines
01:49The main propulsion system of Starfleet ships, impulse engines, are powered by nuclear fusion.
01:55These engines are what the ships use to navigate whenever they're not at warp.
01:59Nuclear fusion is when atoms merge together under immense pressure, releasing their excess
02:04mass as energy.
02:05It happens every second in the sun due to incredibly high gravity and is the source of the sun's
02:11light.
02:11Earth's gravity is much too weak for fusion to take place.
02:14But scientists have been able to induce nuclear fusion in labs using extreme temperatures and
02:20pressure.
02:21Unfortunately, so far, no experiment has been able to produce more energy than it costs to
02:26induce the fusion.
02:27In other words, there is no net power gain.
02:30But apparently, at some point in the Star Trek timeline, prior to the 22nd century, scientists
02:36managed to perfect nuclear fusion.
02:39And ever since then, every ship in the fleet had a fusion-powered impulse engine.
02:45Number 8, Subspace Communication
02:47Now, subspace is an entirely fictional concept.
02:52But it was created by the writers to explain a very real scientific issue with Starfleet's
02:58interstellar communication.
02:59Now, without using a warp drive or any other fictional device, nothing can travel faster
03:04than light through the universe.
03:06But Starfleet's ships often communicate with Earth or other planets when they're hundreds
03:10of light years away.
03:12If these signals travelled merely at the speed of light, the communications would have centuries
03:16of lag.
03:17Real-time conversations would be impossible.
03:19And it's for this reason that the writers came up with subspace, another dimension layered
03:24on top of ours, likely inspired by the extra-spatial dimensions proposed in Super String Theory.
03:30In the subspace dimension, energy can travel faster than light.
03:33Communications are sent through subspace and then back into normal space when they arrive,
03:37allowing for instant face-to-face interactions across light years.
03:41Now, subspace communication does have a limited range, though, which is why Voyager couldn't
03:46simply send a message to Starfleet Command when they got lost in the Delta Quadrant.
03:50But it is extremely effective and used quite often within Federation space.
03:56Number 7, the size of the galaxy.
03:59Our galaxy, the Milky Way, was actually portrayed rather faithfully in Star Trek.
04:04Just like in real life, the galaxy is about 100,000 light-years across and contains hundreds
04:09of billions of stars.
04:11Most stars are at least a light-year apart from each other and contain at least one planet.
04:16The location of Earth is also just where it should be, positioned halfway between the
04:20galactic core and the edge of the galaxy.
04:22There are, however, a number of scientific inaccuracies with the Milky Way in Star Trek.
04:28For example, it's been known for quite some time now that at the centre of our galaxy,
04:32and presumably all galaxies, there is a supermassive black hole.
04:37In Star Trek, this is not the case.
04:39As we see in Star Trek V, The Final Frontier, the centre of the Milky Way in Star Trek,
04:43is actually a hidden planet known in Vulcan mythology as Shakari.
04:48Cybox, Spock's half-brother, believed this planet to be the home of God and the source
04:52of all creation.
04:53Unfortunately for him, it turned out to be merely the home of one very angry alien entity.
04:58The fate of this mysterious planet in the galactic core is yet to be explored.
05:02Number 6, technological telepathy.
05:05When the Borg were first introduced in the Next Generation episode, Q, Who?
05:08The idea of enabling telepathy or mind reading with technology was nothing more than a fantasy.
05:15Nowadays, as neural implants get more and more advanced, companies such as Neuralink
05:19claim to be close to making technological telepathy a reality.
05:23Already, Neuralink has shown that its test implants can allow a monkey to control a computer
05:29using just its brain.
05:31Now, the wires from the implants connect to parts of the brain that fire off electrical signals,
05:37and these connections allow for information to be interpreted into data by a computer.
05:44So, theoretically, in the future, these signals could be sent and received between two Neuralink
05:49users, and therefore, they can communicate using just their brains.
05:54The collective itself is a society of millions of Borg drones, connected telepathically with
05:59each other.
06:00Number 5, Basade Collectors.
06:02Although we often think of space as a perfect vacuum devoid of any matter, interstellar space
06:08actually contains about one atom per cubic centimetre on average.
06:13Starfleet's vessels are some of the only ships in sci-fi to use this interstellar dust.
06:19The ship's Basade Collectors, the red devices usually positioned at the ends of the nacelles,
06:24collect this dust as the ship travels through space.
06:27These particles are then used to replenish the ship's fuel.
06:29The Basade Collectors can even be fine-tuned to filter for specific elements needed at that moment.
06:35While interstellar space contains few particles, the ships would often be able to scoop up huge
06:40quantities very quickly by travelling at high impulse speeds or by visiting a nearby nebula.
06:47Inside nebulae and solar systems, the ambient particle density is much higher.
06:52And because of this constant replenishment of particles, it means that Starfleet's ships
06:56are able to remain in deep space for longer periods of time without needing to restock
07:02on basic materials like nitrogen gas.
07:04Number 4, Antimatter Photon Torpedoes.
07:08Now, antimatter is real and has been produced on numerous occasions by CERN, but at a very high cost.
07:15Every particle has an antiparticle, which is exactly the same as the particle in every way,
07:20except it has an opposite charge. So, for example, an electron has a negative charge and a positron has a positive charge.
07:28Matter and antimatter reactions are believed to be the most efficient source of energy in the entire universe
07:34due to 100% of the fuel being converted into usable energy.
07:38That is why this interaction of matter and antimatter is what powers the photon torpedoes in Star Trek.
07:44Now, so far, CERN has only been able to produce small quantities of antimatter atoms,
07:49but considering that one half a gram of antimatter is enough to create an explosion even bigger
07:54than the nuclear bomb dropped in Hiroshima in 1945, it's probably a good thing that it's so rare.
08:01Number 3, Inertial Dampeners.
08:04In space, there is no gravity or atmosphere to slow objects to a halt,
08:08so anything that moves in empty space will continue along its path forever without stopping or slowing down.
08:14Now, many, many sci-fi franchises just blatantly ignore inertia in space.
08:19Now, often you'll see a spaceship run out of fuel and it'll gradually slow down until eventually it stops,
08:26when in reality, if a spaceship runs out of fuel, it will just continue moving at the speed it was already moving at.
08:33Now, Star Trek explains this by including Inertial Dampeners on all Starfleet ships.
08:38These small thrusters located all over the ship counteract the effects of inertia by producing an artificial drag on the vessel.
08:45They also assist with slowing down acceleration and deceleration to prevent the people inside
08:50from being launched out of their seats when changing speed too quickly.
08:54Number 2, Building Ships in Space.
08:57Many times in Star Trek, we've seen ships being constructed in space.
09:01Voyager, for example, was launched from a space dock at the Utopia Planitia shipyards in orbit of Mars.
09:06This zero-gravity environment was perfect for large-scale construction projects like building a starship.
09:11Working in zero-gravity has so many real-world benefits.
09:16Weightlessness means that large components of the ship, such as the nacelles or the saucer section,
09:21can be transported with very little force.
09:24It also means that crew are able to experiment and are free to experiment with different engine designs
09:30without the fear of destroying a planet's ecosystem if something goes wrong.
09:34Frankly, the only reason we don't build our spaceships in space today is because we lack the infrastructure.
09:39But this infrastructure is currently being developed.
09:43With the upcoming Artemis missions that plan to establish a permanent base on the moon
09:46and talks of mining asteroids in the works,
09:49it likely won't be long before we see the first ship constructed entirely in space.
09:54Number 1, Warp Drive.
09:56Albert Einstein's special theory of relativity proved conclusively
10:00that nothing in the universe can move faster than light.
10:04For a while, it was assumed for this reason that interstellar travel would forever be impossible,
10:09or at the very least take thousands of years, considering how far apart stars are from each other.
10:14And even if the ships could travel at velocities near the speed of light,
10:18they would go through drastic time dilation and experience time much slower than people on Earth.
10:23Fortunately, it was discovered that there existed a loophole in Einstein's calculations.
10:27While it is true that nothing can move faster than light, space itself can expand and contract.
10:36So, if one was to expand the distance behind the ship and shorten the distance in front of the ship,
10:43one could traverse at the same distance in less time.
10:47And this is how Star Trek's warp drives work.
10:51The ship itself is not moving faster than light.
10:54The space around the ship is merely bending to allow these distances to be shortened.
10:59Many scientists now believe that a warp drive is the only method of faster than light travel
11:04that could be possible in reality.
11:06And that concludes our list.
11:08If you think we missed something, then please do let us know in the comments below.
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11:37I've been Ellie with Trek Culture.
11:39I hope you have a wonderful day.
11:41And remember, to boldly go where no one has gone before.
11:44I hope you have a wonderful day.
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