- 1 day ago
The writers of Star Trek went above and beyond to make the universe as realistic as possible.
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00From the technology found on the starships to these strange new life forms found on different
00:05planets, Trek just sprinkles just enough science within all the technobabble to make those worlds
00:11seem just that bit more realistic and also immersive. So with that in mind, I'm Ellie with
00:16Trek Culture here with 10 examples of real science in Star Trek.
00:21Number 10, silicon-based life. All of life on Earth is carbon-based. Carbon is perfect for
00:28biology because of its abundance and its ability to maintain four valence bonds with other elements,
00:35especially hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and other carbon elements. And these types of bonds make up
00:42most of the biological molecules that allow life to exist. While it is true that carbon can create
00:48more possible molecules than any other element on the periodic table, by a long shot, many scientists
00:54theorise that aliens that evolved on a different planet may also be silicon-based. Silicon, like
01:00carbon, can form four stable bonds with itself and other atoms and can create long chemical chains
01:05known as silane polymers, which are very similar to hydrocarbons, an essential ingredient of life
01:11made with carbon. But the two elements are still vastly different. Silicon is far more reactive to
01:18chemicals like oxygen. So silicon-based life may not be possible in reality. But the rampant
01:25scientific speculation around silicon-based life led to one appearing in Star Trek. In Star Trek,
01:32the original series episode The Devil in the Dark, the Enterprise crew encountered a silicon-based
01:37lifeform known as the Hoarder. The Hoarder is one of the strangest creatures ever encountered by
01:42Starfleet, with an appearance more 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. Nuclear fusion is
02:00when atoms merge together under immense pressure, releasing their excess mass as energy. It happens
02:06every second in the sun due to incredibly high gravity and is the source of the sun's light. Earth's
02:12gravity is much too weak for fusion to take place, but scientists have been able to induce
02:16nuclear fusion in labs using extreme temperatures and pressure. Unfortunately, so far, no experiment
02:23has been able to produce more energy than it costs to induce the fusion. In other words, there is no
02:29net power gain. But apparently, at some point in the Star Trek timeline, prior to the 22nd century,
02:36scientists managed to perfect nuclear fusion. And ever since then, every ship in the fleet had a fusion-powered
02:44impulse engine.
02:45Number 8, Subspace Communication
02:47Now, subspace is an entirely fictional concept, but it was created by the writers to explain a very
02:55real scientific issue with Starfleet's interstellar communication. Now, without using a warp drive or
03:01any other fictional device, nothing can travel faster than light through the universe. But Starfleet's ships
03:07often communicate with Earth or other planets when they're hundreds of light years away. If these signals
03:12travelled merely at the speed of light, the communications would have centuries of lag.
03:17Real-time conversations would be impossible. And it's for this reason that the writers came up with
03:21subspace, another dimension layered on top of ours, likely inspired by the extra-spatial dimensions
03:27proposed in SuperString Theory. In 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 simply
03:47send a message to Starfleet Command when they got lost in the Delta Quadrant. But it is extremely
03:52effective and used quite often within Federation space.
03:56Number 7, The Size of the Galaxy
03:58Our galaxy, the Milky Way, was actually portrayed rather faithfully in Star Trek. Just like in real life,
04:05the galaxy is about 100,000 light years across and contains hundreds of 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 galactic core
04:21and the edge of the galaxy. There are, however, a number of scientific inaccuracies with the Milky Way
04:26in Star Trek. For 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. Though in Star Trek, this is not the
04:38case. As we see in Star Trek V, The Final Frontier, the centre of the Milky Way in Star Trek, is actually
04:44a hidden planet known in Vulcan mythology as Shakari. Cybox, Spock's half-brother, believed this planet to
04:50be the home of God and the source of all creation. Unfortunately for him, it turned out to be merely the
04:55home of one very angry alien entity. The fate of this mysterious planet in the galactic core is yet to be
05:01explored. Number six, technological telepathy. When the Borg were first introduced in the Next
05:07Generation episode, Cue Who, the idea of enabling telepathy or mind reading with technology was
05:13nothing more than a fantasy. Nowadays, as neural implants get more and more advanced, companies
05:18such as Neuralink claim to be close to making technological telepathy a reality. Already, Neuralink
05:24has shown that its test implants can allow a monkey to control a computer using just its brain.
05:31Now, the wires from the implants connect to parts of the brain that fire off electrical signals. And
05:37these connections allow for information to be interpreted into data by a computer. So, theoretically,
05:45in the future, these signals could be sent and received between two Neuralink users and therefore,
05:51they can communicate using just their brains. The collective itself is a society of millions of
05:56Borg drones connected telepathically with each other. Number five, Basade Collectors. Although
06:03we often think of space as a perfect vacuum devoid of any matter, interstellar space actually contains
06:09about one atom per cubic centimetre on average. Starfleet's vessels are some of the only ships in
06:16sci-fi to use this interstellar dust. The ship's Basade Collectors, the red devices usually positioned at
06:22the ends of the nacelles, collect this dust as the ship travels through space. These particles are then
06:28used to replenish the ship's fuel. The Basade Collectors can even be fine-tuned to filter for
06:33specific elements needed at that moment. While interstellar space contains few particles,
06:38the ships would often be able to scoop up huge quantities very quickly by travelling at high impulse
06:43speeds or by visiting a nearby nebula. Inside nebulae and solar systems, the ambient particle density is
06:50much higher. And because of this constant replenishment of particles, it means that Starfleet ships are
06:56able to remain in deep space for longer periods of time without needing to restock on basic materials
07:03like nitrogen gas. Number four, Antimatter Photon Torpedoes. Now, antimatter is real and has been
07:10produced on numerous occasions by CERN, but at a very high cost. Every particle has an antiparticle,
07:17which is exactly the same as the particle in every way, except it has an opposite charge. So,
07:23for 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
07:33universe due to 100% of the fuel being converted into usable energy. That is why this interaction of
07:40matter 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, but considering
07:50that one half a gram of antimatter is enough to create an explosion even bigger than the nuclear
07:55bomb dropped in Hiroshima in 1945, it's probably a good thing that it's so rare.
08:01Number three, Inertial Dampeners. In 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. Now, often you'll see a
08:20spaceship run out of fuel and it'll gradually slow down until eventually it stops, when in reality,
08:27if 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
08:43artificial drag on the vessel. They also assist with slowing down acceleration and deceleration to
08:49prevent the people inside from being launched out of their seats when changing speed too quickly.
08:54Number two, Building Ships in Space.
08:57Many times in Star Trek, we've seen ships being constructed in space. Voyager, for example,
09:02was 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
09:11a starship. Working in zero-gravity has so many real-world benefits. Weightlessness means that
09:17large components of the ship, such as the nacelles or the saucer section, can be transported with very
09:23little force. It also means that crew are able to experiment and are free to experiment with
09:29different engine designs without 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
09:39the infrastructure. But this infrastructure is currently being developed. With the upcoming
09:43Artemis missions that plan to establish a permanent base on the moon and talks of mining asteroids in
09:48the works, it likely won't be long before we see the first ship constructed entirely in space.
09:54Number one, Warp Drive. Albert Einstein's special theory of relativity proved conclusively that
10:00nothing in the universe can move faster than light. For a while, it was assumed for this reason that
10:06interstellar travel would forever be impossible, or at the very least take thousands of years,
10:11considering how far apart stars are from each other. And even if the ships could travel at
10:16velocities near the speed of light, they would go through drastic time dilation and experience time
10:21much slower than people on Earth. Fortunately, it was discovered that there existed a loophole in
10:26Einstein's calculations. While it is true that nothing can move faster than light, space itself
10:33can expand and contract. So, if one was to expand the distance behind the ship and shorten the distance
10:41in front of the ship, one could traverse at the same distance in less time. And this is how Star Trek's
10:50warp drives work. The ship itself is not moving faster than light. The space around the ship is merely
10:56bending to allow these distances to be shortened. Many scientists now believe that a warp drive is
11:01the only method of faster than light travel that could be possible in reality. And that concludes
11:07our list. If you think we missed something, then please do let us know in the comments below.
11:12And while you're there, don't forget to like and hit that notification bell. And while we've got your
11:17attention, we are so close to 250,000 subscribers here on YouTube. All we want for Christmas is you.
11:25Specifically, 3,000 of you so we can hit that mark by Christmas. Also, head over to Twitter and follow
11:31us there and Instagram as well. And I can be found across various social medias just by searching Ellie
11:36Littlechild. I've been Ellie with Trek Culture. I hope you have a wonderful day and remember to boldly go where no one has
11:43gone before.
Be the first to comment