10 Examples Of Real Science In Star Trek

Australian Cinephile

The writers of Star Trek went above and beyond to make the universe as realistic as possible.

Transcript

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 centimeter 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, the

06:38ships would often be able to scoop up huge quantities very quickly by traveling at high impulse speeds or by

06:45visiting a nearby nebula. Inside nebulae and solar systems, the ambient particle density is much

06:51higher. And because of this constant replenishment of particles, it means that Starfleet ships are able

06:56to remain in deep space for longer periods of time without needing to restock on basic materials like

07:03nitrogen gas. Number four, Antimatter Photon Torpedoes. Now, antimatter is real and has been produced on

07:11numerous occasions by CERN, but at a very high cost. Every particle has an antiparticle, which is

07:18exactly the same as the particle in every way, except it has an opposite charge. So, for example,

07:24an electron has a negative charge and a positron has a positive charge. Matter and antimatter reactions

07:30are believed to be the most efficient source of energy in the entire universe due to 100% of the fuel

07:36being converted into usable energy. That is why this interaction of matter and antimatter is what

07:41powers the photon torpedoes in Star Trek. Now, so far, CERN has only been able to produce small

07:47quantities of antimatter atoms, but considering that one half a gram of antimatter is enough to create an

07:53explosion even bigger than the nuclear bomb dropped in Hiroshima in 1945, it's probably a good thing that

08:00it's so rare. Number three, Inertial Dampeners. In space, there is no gravity or atmosphere to slow

08:06objects to a halt, so anything that moves in empty space will continue along its path forever without

08:12stopping or slowing down. Now, many, many sci-fi franchises just blatantly ignore inertia in

08:18space. Now, often you'll see a spaceship run out of fuel and it'll gradually slow down until eventually

08:25it stops, when in reality, if a spaceship runs out of fuel, it will just continue moving at the speed

08:31it was already moving at. Now, Star Trek explains this by including inertial dampeners on all Starfleet

08:37ships. These small thrusters located all over the ship counteract the effects of inertia by producing

08:43an artificial 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.

08:53Number two, Building Ships in Space. Many times in Star Trek, we've seen ships being constructed in

09:00space. Voyager, for example, was launched from a space dock at the Utopia Planitia shipyards in orbit

09:05of Mars. This 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 large

09:18components 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

09:34goes wrong. Frankly, the only reason we don't build our spaceships in space today is because

09:38we lack the 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 velocities

10:16near the speed of light, they would go through drastic time dilation and experience time much

10:21slower 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 can

10:34expand 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 the

11:02only method of faster than light travel that could be possible in reality.

11:06And that concludes our list. If you think we missed something, then please do let us know in the

11:11comments below. And while you're there, don't forget to like and hit that notification bell.

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11:34social medias just by searching Ellie Littlechild. I've been Ellie with Trek Culture. I hope you have

11:40a wonderful day and remember to boldly go where no one has gone before.

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