10 Examples Of Real Science In Star Trek
The writers of Star Trek went above and beyond to make the universe as realistic as possible.
Transcript
00:00 From the technology found on the starships to the strange new life forms found on different
00:05 planets, Trek just sprinkles just enough science within all the technobabble to make those
00:10 worlds seem just that bit more realistic and also immersive.
00:14 So with that in mind, I'm Ellie with Trek Culture here with 10 examples of real science
00:20 in Star Trek.
00:21 10. Silicon-Based Life
00:24 All of life on Earth is carbon-based. Carbon is perfect for biology because of its
00:29 abundance and its ability to maintain four valence bonds with other elements, especially
00:35 hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and other carbon elements.
00:40 And these types of bonds make up most of the biological molecules that allow life to exist.
00:46 While it is true that carbon can create more possible molecules than any other element
00:50 on the periodic table, by a long shot, many scientists theorize that aliens that evolved
00:56 on a different planet may also be silicon-based.
01:00 Silicon like carbon can form four stable bonds with itself and other atoms and can create
01:04 long chemical chains known as silane polymers, which are very similar to hydrocarbons, an
01:09 essential ingredient of life made with carbon. But the two elements are still vastly different.
01:16 Silicon is far more reactive to chemicals like oxygen, so silicon-based life may not
01:22 be possible in reality. But the rampant scientific speculation around silicon-based life led
01:29 to one appearing in Star Trek.
01:31 In Star Trek The Original Series episode "The Devil in the Dark", the Enterprise
01:35 crew encountered a silicon-based life form known as the Hauter. The Hauter is one of
01:40 the strangest creatures ever encountered by Starfleet, with an appearance more similar
01:44 to molten rock than a living animal.
01:47 9. Fusion Impulse Engines
01:50 The main propulsion system of Starfleet ships, Impulse Engines, are powered by nuclear fusion.
01:55 These engines are what the ships use to navigate whenever they're not at warp.
02:00 Nuclear fusion is when atoms merge together under immense pressure, releasing their excess
02:04 mass as energy. It happens every second in the sun due to incredibly high gravity and
02:09 is the source of the sun's light. Earth's gravity is much too weak for fusion to take
02:13 place, but scientists have been able to induce nuclear fusion in labs using extreme temperatures
02:19 and pressure. Unfortunately, so far no experiment has been able to produce more energy than
02:25 it costs to induce the fusion. In other words, there is no net power gain.
02:30 But apparently at some point in the Star Trek timeline, prior to the 22nd century, scientists
02:36 managed to perfect nuclear fusion and ever since then, every ship in the fleet had a
02:42 fusion-powered impulse engine.
02:45 8. Subspace Communication
02:49 Space is an entirely fictional concept, but it was created by the writers to explain a
02:54 very real scientific issue with Starfleet's interstellar communication.
03:00 Without using a warp drive or any other fictional device, nothing can travel faster than light
03:05 through the universe. But Starfleet's ships often communicate with Earth or other planets
03:09 when they're hundreds of light years away. If these signals travelled merely at the speed
03:13 of light, the communications would have centuries of lag. Real-time conversations would be
03:18 impossible. And it's for this reason that the writers came up with subspace, another
03:22 dimension layered on top of ours, likely inspired by the extra-spatial dimensions proposed in
03:28 Superstring theory.
03:30 In the subspace dimension, energy can travel faster than light. Communications are sent
03:34 through subspace and then back into normal space when they arrive, allowing for instant
03:38 face-to-face interactions across light years.
03:42 Subspace communication does have a limited range though, which is why Voyager couldn't
03:46 simply send a message to Starfleet Command when they got lost in the Delta Quadrant.
03:51 But it is extremely effective and used quite often within Federation space.
03:56 7. The size of the galaxy
03:59 Our galaxy, the Milky Way, was actually portrayed rather faithfully in Star Trek. Just like
04:04 in real life, the galaxy is about 100,000 light years across and contains hundreds of
04:09 billions of stars. Most stars are at least a light year apart from each other and contain
04:14 at least one planet. The location of Earth is also just where it should be, positioned
04:19 halfway between the galactic core and the edge of the galaxy.
04:22 There are however a number of scientific inaccuracies with the Milky Way in Star Trek. For example,
04:28 it's been known for quite some time now that at the centre of our galaxy, and presumably
04:33 all galaxies, there is a supermassive black hole. In Star Trek, this is not the case.
04:39 As we see in Star Trek V, The Final Frontier, the centre of the Milky Way in Star Trek is
04:43 actually a hidden planet known in Vulcan mythology as Sha'kar-Re.
04:47 Psybox, Spock's half-brother, believed this planet to be the home of God and the source
04:51 of all creation. Unfortunately for him, it turned out to be merely the home of one very
04:56 angry alien entity. The fate of this mysterious planet in the galactic core is yet to be explored.
05:02 6. Technological telepathy
05:04 When the Borg were first introduced in the Next Generation episode "Q Who?", the idea
05:09 of enabling telepathy or mind reading with technology was nothing more than a fantasy.
05:14 Nowadays as neural implants get more and more advanced, companies such as Neuralink claim
05:19 to be close to making technological telepathy a reality.
05:23 Already Neuralink has shown that its test implants can allow a monkey to control a computer
05:29 using just its brain. The wires from the implants connect to parts of the brain that fire off
05:35 electrical signals, and these connections allow for information to be interpreted into
05:42 data by a computer. So theoretically, in the future, these signals could be sent and received
05:48 between two Neuralink users, and therefore they can communicate using just their brains.
05:53 The collective itself is a society of millions of Borg drones, connected telepathically with
05:59 each other.
06:00 5. Bazaar collectors
06:03 Although we often think of space as a perfect vacuum devoid of any matter, interstellar
06:08 space actually contains about one atom per cubic centimetre on average.
06:13 Starfleet's vessels are some of the only ships in sci-fi to use this interstellar dust.
06:19 The ship's Bazaar collectors, the red devices usually positioned at the ends of the nacelles,
06:24 collect this dust as the ship travels through space. These particles are then used to replenish
06:28 the ship's fuel. The Bazaar collectors can even be fine-tuned to filter for specific
06:33 elements needed at that moment.
06:35 While interstellar space contains few particles, the ships would often be able to scoop up huge
06:40 quantities very quickly by travelling at high impulse speeds or by visiting a nearby nebula.
06:47 Inside nebulae and solar systems, the ambient particle density is much higher.
06:52 And because of this constant replenishment of particles, it means that Starfleet's ships
06:56 are able to remain in deep space for longer periods of time without needing to restock
07:01 on basic materials like nitrogen gas.
07:04 4. Antimatter photon torpedoes
07:09 Antimatter is real and has been produced on numerous occasions by CERN, but at a very
07:14 high cost. Every particle has an antiparticle, which is exactly the same as the particle
07:19 in every way, except it has an opposite charge. So, for example, an electron has a negative
07:25 charge and a positron has a positive charge.
07:28 Matter and antimatter reactions are believed to be the most efficient source of energy
07:32 in the entire universe due to 100% of the fuel being converted into usable energy. That
07:38 is why this interaction of matter and antimatter is what powers the photon torpedoes in Star
07:43 Trek.
07:44 So far, CERN has only been able to produce small quantities of antimatter atoms, but
07:49 considering that one half a gram of antimatter is enough to create an explosion even bigger
07:54 than the nuclear bomb dropped in Hiroshima in 1945, it's probably a good thing that
08:00 it's so rare.
08:01 3. Inertial dampeners
08:04 In space, there is no gravity or atmosphere to slow objects to a halt, so anything that
08:08 moves in empty space will continue along its path forever without stopping or slowing down.
08:14 Now many, many sci-fi franchises just blatantly ignore inertia in space. Often, you'll see
08:20 a spaceship run out of fuel and it'll gradually slow down until eventually it stops, when
08:26 in reality, if a spaceship runs out of fuel, it will just continue moving at the speed
08:31 it was already moving at.
08:33 Star Trek explains this by including inertial dampeners on all Starfleet ships. These small
08:38 thrusters located all over the ship counteract the effects of inertia by producing an artificial
08:44 drag on the vessel. They also assist with slowing down acceleration and deceleration
08:48 to prevent the people inside from being launched out of their seats when changing speed too
08:52 quickly.
08:53 2. Building ships in space
08:57 Many times in Star Trek, we've seen ships being constructed in space. Voyager, for example,
09:02 was launched from a space dock at the Utopia Planitia shipyards in orbit of Mars. This
09:06 zero-gravity environment was perfect for large-scale construction projects like building a starship.
09:12 Working in zero-gravity has so many real-world benefits. Weightlessness means that large
09:17 components of the ship, such as the nacelles or the saucer section, can be transported
09:22 with very little force. It also means that crew are able to experiment and are free to
09:28 experiment with different engine designs without the fear of destroying a planet's ecosystem
09:33 if something goes wrong.
09:34 Frankly, the only reason we don't build our spaceships in space today is because we
09:38 lack the infrastructure. But this infrastructure is currently being developed. With the upcoming
09:43 Artemis missions that plan to establish a permanent base on the moon and talks of mining
09:47 asteroids in the works, it likely won't be long before we see the first ship constructed
09:52 entirely in space.
09:54 1. Warp Drive
09:56 Albert Einstein's special theory of relativity proved conclusively that nothing in the universe
10:01 can move faster than light. For a while, it was assumed for this reason that interstellar
10:07 travel would forever be impossible, or at the very least take thousands of years considering
10:11 how far apart stars are from each other. And even if the ships could travel at velocities
10:16 near the speed of light, they would go through drastic time dilation and experience time
10:21 much slower than people on Earth. Fortunately, it was discovered that there existed a loophole
10:26 in Einstein's calculations.
10:27 While it is true that nothing can move faster than light, space itself can expand and contract.
10:35 So if one was to expand the distance behind the ship and shorten the distance in front
10:42 of the ship, one could traverse at the same distance in less time. And this is how Star
10:49 Trek's warp drives work.
10:51 The ship itself is not moving faster than light. The space around the ship is merely
10:56 bending to allow these distances to be shortened. Many scientists now believe that a warp drive
11:01 is the only method of faster than light travel that could be possible in reality.
11:06 And that concludes our list. If you think we missed something, then please do let us
11:10 know in the comments below. And while you're there, don't forget to like and hit that
11:14 notification bell. And while we've got your attention, we are so close to 250,000
11:21 subscribers here on YouTube. All we want for Christmas is you. Specifically, 3,000 of you
11:27 so we can hit that mark by Christmas. Also head over to Twitter and follow us there,
11:32 and Instagram as well, and I can be found across various social medias just by searching
11:36 Ellie Littlechild. I've been Ellie with Trek Culture. I hope you have a wonderful
11:40 day and remember, to boldly go where no one has gone before.