tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca/topics/star-trek-discovery-43652/articles
Star Trek Discovery – The Conversation
2017-10-26T21:22:44Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/86378
2017-10-26T21:22:44Z
2017-10-26T21:22:44Z
How quantum materials may soon make Star Trek technology reality
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192105/original/file-20171026-13298-9jyeex.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Strange new materials that propel the fictional Star Trek universe are being developed by scientists in reality today. Above, the USS Discovery accelerates to warp speed in an artist's rendition for the TV series Star Trek Discovery.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Handout)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>If you think technologies from Star Trek seem far-fetched, think again. Many of the <a href="https://tricorder.xprize.org/">devices</a> from the acclaimed television series are slowly becoming a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/gallery/2009/may/15/star-trek-technology">reality</a>. While we may not be <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-40594387">teleporting</a> people from starships to a planet’s surface anytime soon, we are getting closer to developing other tools essential for future space travel endeavours.</p>
<p>I am a lifelong Star Trek fan, but I am also a researcher that specializes in creating new magnetic materials. The field of <a href="https://www.physics.utoronto.ca/research/condensed-matter-physics">condensed-matter physics</a> encompasses all new solid and liquid phases of matter, and its study has led to nearly every technological advance of the last century, from computers to cellphones to solar cells.</p>
<p>My approach to looking for new phenomena in materials comes from a chemistry perspective: How can we create materials that have new properties that can change our world, and eventually be used to explore “strange, new worlds”? I believe an understanding of so-called “quantum materials” in particular is essential to make science-fiction science fact. </p>
<h2>Quantum materials</h2>
<p>What makes a substance a quantum material? Quantum materials have unusual and fantastic properties that arise from enormous numbers of particles acting in a concerted way.</p>
<p>Think of a conductor directing a symphony: without some order brought to the music, all you have is noise. The more musicians you have performing out of step, the more noise you will have.</p>
<p>A quantum material has all of the constituent musicians — in this case, the electrons or atoms in a material, which amounts to billions upon billions of particles — acting in a certain way according to quantum rules, or the “sheet music,” if you will.</p>
<p>Instead of noise from random electronic and atomic motions, with a conductor you get music — or in the case of new materials, a new property that emerges. The use of these new properties for devices is what is driving the technological revolutions that we are seeing today.</p>
<h2>Magnetic fields and shields</h2>
<p>So, how can these new materials be used in the spacecraft of tomorrow? One example might be the force-shields that protect ships in Star Trek. High magnetic fields could be used to protect bodies from incoming projectiles, especially if the projectiles have an electric charge.</p>
<p>How do you create large magnetic fields? One way is to use a superconducting magnet. Superconductors have electrons that conduct electricity with no resistance to flow. One of the consequences of this is that large magnetic fields can be generated — the current supported by a superconductor that generates the magnetic field can be huge without destroying the superconductivity itself.</p>
<p>These superconductors are used every day to create large magnetic fields in places such as hospitals for MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) devices to see inside the body.</p>
<p>Advanced superconductors might have new applications as magnetic shields for spacecraft. Imagine your spaceship coated in a superconductor that can generate a large magnetic field with a flick of a switch to get the current flowing, creating a magnetic force shield. </p>
<p>This is exactly what scientists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, <a href="http://home.cern/about/updates/2015/08/superconducting-shield-astronauts">CERN, are investigating</a>: a new <a href="http://www.popularmechanics.com/space/moon-mars/a16757/cern-spaceship-shields/">magnetic shield for spacecraft</a> — superconducting magnesium diboride, or MgB₂.</p>
<figure>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Physicist and science writer Ian O'Neill discusses CERN’s plan to create a superconducting cosmic radiation shield for astronauts.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Superconductors on spaceships</h2>
<p>A spaceship coated in superconducting magnets would generate a “magnetosphere” around the craft which could be used to deflect harmful projectiles. While we don’t have to worry about <a href="http://www.startrek.com/database_article/klingons">Klingon</a> torpedoes just yet, we do have to worry about harmful cosmic rays in outer space for future space travel.</p>
<p><a href="https://home.cern/about/physics/cosmic-rays-particles-outer-space">Cosmic rays</a>) are typically charged particles that can interfere with the electronics of a spacecraft, and more importantly, give astronauts a lethal dose of radiation during long space flights.</p>
<p>Protecting future spacecraft from these rays is crucially important for the future of any space program, including trips to Mars in the next few decades. And who knows, with the superconducting magnet shields you might be able to escape a <a href="http://www.startrek.com/database_article/romulans">Romulan</a> attack on the way.</p>
<h2>Technical hurdles</h2>
<p>There is a catch, however. Superconductors do not work at high temperatures and there is no room-temperature superconductor. Above a certain temperature called the “critical temperature,” the superconductor becomes “normal” and the electrons experience a resistance to flow again. For magnesium diboride, this occurs at a very cold temperature — around -248°C. This is actually fine for interstellar space where the background temperature is a much colder -270°C or so but it is not conducive to spacecraft visiting other warmer planets.</p>
<p>Scientists like me are searching for “room temperature” superconductors that would enable these shields to work at much higher temperatures. This would also enable new advances to society such as cheaper health care, for example, since one wouldn’t need low temperatures for MRI instruments to work.</p>
<p>However, high temperature superconductivity has been a mystery for decades, and progress is in slow increments. As someone who works on the border between physics and chemistry, I believe that the answer will be found in the discovery of new materials. Historically, this is where progress has been made to raise the critical temperature to one above the liquid nitrogen boiling point of -196°C.</p>
<p>These superconductors would be great to use as magnetic shield devices if you were exploring many areas of the galaxy. But they wouldn’t work on warmer planets such as Mars without significant amounts of cryogens to keep the magnets cold.</p>
<h2>Quantum computers and societal revolution</h2>
<p>Superconducting technology would also have a variety of other uses aboard starships. <a href="https://uwaterloo.ca/institute-for-quantum-computing/quantum-computing-101">Quantum computers</a> can perform operations orders of magnitude faster than conventional computers, and would undoubtedly be used on a modern starship. Need to send an encrypted message to Starfleet? If the Klingons have a quantum computer, they might be able to intercept and hack your message, so you had better make sure that you understand the technology.</p>
<p>And superconducting electrical systems would naturally be used for the most efficient devices, from starship engines down to tricorders used in away missions. The emergence of room temperature superconductors would spark a transformation of our society that would rival the silicon age of modern electronics. Their discovery is an essential hurdle to cross for the next part of our evolution as a species to a new technological age.</p>
<p>It would be highly logical to continue our search for a room temperature superconductor. If only we could make it so. Quantum materials offer strange new worlds of discovery and perhaps most exciting are the technologies we haven’t discovered yet — that will exploit quantum effects on scale that humans can easily see.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/86378/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christopher Wiebe receives funding from the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), the Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI), the Canada Research Chairs Program (CRC), and the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR).</span></em></p>
Advanced materials that seem like they come from Star Trek are becoming reality today.
Christopher Wiebe, Professor and Canada Research Chair in Quantum Materials Discovery, University of Winnipeg
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/85416
2017-10-13T10:37:10Z
2017-10-13T10:37:10Z
New Star Trek Klingons are rooted in our own distant past – ancient history expert
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190134/original/file-20171013-11698-pz6dg6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A ship of klingons.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Netflix/Jan Thijs</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Star Trek has always <a href="https://www.wired.com/2016/09/star-trek-politics/">reflected the contemporary political atmosphere</a> and ideologies in which it is created. From the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-star-trek-almost-failed-to-launch-64789">original series in the 1960s</a> with its peace, love and <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/culture/story/20160707-star-trek-turns-50-why-it-was-subversive-and-groundbreaking">interracial kiss</a>, to the 1990’s post-Cold War <a href="http://www.startrek.com/database_article/star-trek-the-next-generation-synopsis">Next Generation</a>, the world-view of progressive Western ideology has featured strongly in the stories of everyone’s favourite group of space explorers.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190002/original/file-20171012-31386-1ro434g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190002/original/file-20171012-31386-1ro434g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190002/original/file-20171012-31386-1ro434g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190002/original/file-20171012-31386-1ro434g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190002/original/file-20171012-31386-1ro434g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=573&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190002/original/file-20171012-31386-1ro434g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=573&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190002/original/file-20171012-31386-1ro434g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=573&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The original Klingons of the 1960s.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:TOS-day_of_the_dove_klingons.png">© 1969 Paramount Pictures</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Across each new iteration, the Klingons – a humanoid warrior species – have often been the alien of choice. The <a href="https://www.cinemablend.com/television/1681841/why-star-trek-discoverys-klingons-will-look-different">1960s Klingons</a> were bad, untrustworthy, duplicitous enemies, but visually they looked pretty close to the sapiens on the Starship Enterprise. They were the “other”, but that “other” was also us. They were the Cold War Soviets mixed with a bit of the Japanese from World War II (another enemy, <a href="http://www.startrek.com/database_article/romulans">the Romulans</a>, also wore that hat). </p>
<p>In <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092455/">Star Trek: The Next Generation</a>, the Klingons were more physically differentiated by exo-skeletal additions but they were friends now, not enemies any more, and although slightly erratic allies they fought on the same side as the Federation. It was the post-Cold War world. </p>
<h2>Us and them</h2>
<p>So what to make of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/star-trek-discovery-diverse-futuristic-vision-let-down-by-20th-century-gender-stereotypes-82932">new Netflix series Discovery</a> and its version of the Klingons? Set further in the past than the other series, watchers have been given a race of new/old Klingons which is physically extraordinary, kitted out like badass Egyptian warriors. Gone are progressive views of understanding the commonalities of our existence. The classical “us” and the space age “other” has been reborn. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190004/original/file-20171012-31395-iqhz3x.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190004/original/file-20171012-31395-iqhz3x.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190004/original/file-20171012-31395-iqhz3x.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190004/original/file-20171012-31395-iqhz3x.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190004/original/file-20171012-31395-iqhz3x.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190004/original/file-20171012-31395-iqhz3x.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190004/original/file-20171012-31395-iqhz3x.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Klingons, the next generation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:TNG-redemption_worf_and_gowron.png">© 1991 Paramount Pictures</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>What is so intriguing about these new Klingons is that they exhibit all the extremes of real-life exotic enemies from timeless representations going back to the ancient Greeks. They are portrayed as incomprehensible beasts to the federation: the Klingons participate in self-harm, believe in rebirth in flames, and have a physical appearance that has extended their exo-skeleton to make them look more like wild animals than anthropomorphic beings. They appear like beasts, as exotic as Durer’s famous drawing of a rhinoceros was to his 16th-century audience.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://trekmovie.com/2017/07/20/sdcc17-star-trek-discovery-klingon-costumes-and-props/">new Klingon uniform</a> was clearly inspired by ancient Egyptian breastplates, wired like ribs across their shoulders and upper chest. Even more Egyptianising is the death practice of the Klingons that sees the corpse being wrapped as a mummy, and placed in a beautifully decorated space sarcophagus. These sarcophagi are then stuck to the outside of their space ships. The way that the Klingon dead and their death cult travel together through space and time removes any previous common “humanity” that had existed in the other Star Trek series. The Klingons are now so far from the “us” who reside in the opposite ship as to be almost incomprehensible. </p>
<h2>Ancient monsters</h2>
<p>Though their appearance may be drawn from history, these new, hostile Klingons are base zealots and unrelentingly evil – with an obvious comparison to be made with Islamic State. They are simply our enemy: we possess no shared values, they lie in ambush and react with unremitting violence across the first episodes. The federation officers of the Discovery series are conflicted about reacting to the aggression – and as such are depicted at first as wishy-washy and weak. The ideals of the previous series, including the “<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/janetstemwedel/2015/08/20/the-philosophy-of-star-trek-is-the-prime-directive-ethical/#7825278a2177">prime directive</a>” – that crews must not interfere with the development of civilisations – have disappeared and are replaced by sneering Klingons who seek martyrdom and mock the concept of “coming in peace”. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190150/original/file-20171013-11696-1eztweu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190150/original/file-20171013-11696-1eztweu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190150/original/file-20171013-11696-1eztweu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190150/original/file-20171013-11696-1eztweu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190150/original/file-20171013-11696-1eztweu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190150/original/file-20171013-11696-1eztweu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=626&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190150/original/file-20171013-11696-1eztweu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=626&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190150/original/file-20171013-11696-1eztweu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=626&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Albrecht Durer’s rhinoceros, 1515.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Dürer_rhino_full.png">Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I wonder what Star Trek’s creator Gene Roddenberry would have felt about this easy dismissal of the ideals of peaceful inter-species cooperation? In the new Star Trek, violence is the only means to counter violence. For the creators it makes it much easier to accept this by physically placing the Klingons further back in our human past. Their representation in costume like exotic, alien ancients, and practice of a cult of death, further distances them from our so-called “Western” humanity. By physically animalising the Klingons this becomes an easy retreat to the mythical beasts of old. As the <a href="https://www.ancient.eu/Medusa/">monstrous Gorgon sisters</a> were to the ancient Greeks these Klingons are to the Federation. </p>
<p>This new form of Klingon enemy seems to be reflecting shifting attitudes towards peace and war in today’s world. More than anything this only serves to confirm how far our society has shifted away from hope and idealism for the future. It will be interesting to see how this new Klingon war is resolved in the next chapter of the first season, and whether hopeful aspiration will return or fear of the other is all we can aspire to.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/85416/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eve MacDonald does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The latest iteration of Start Trek’s most famous non-human species is physically extraordinary – they’ve been kitted out like badass Egyptian warriors.
Eve MacDonald, Lecturer in Ancient History, Cardiff University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/84670
2017-10-05T21:56:57Z
2017-10-05T21:56:57Z
Star Trek discovery of alien life veers away from likely reality
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189053/original/file-20171005-9753-itcvsp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Here, an alien crew member, Saru on Star Trek: Discovery. We often rely on science fiction to guide our expectations of alien life. We can hope lessons about accepting beings very different from yourself can be extracted by the series end. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Courtesy of CBS Studios)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Imagine yourself on the USS Enterprise. Your captain (James Kirk, Jean-Luc Picard, Kathryn Janeway… take your pick!) asks you to scan a nearby planet: Could it harbour life? </p>
<p>You go down your checklist: Oxygen, liquid water, land mass, food. These are the markers science fiction and much of science has looked for during our search for alien life, but is it accurate? </p>
<p>The perfect environment in which life can thrive may not be as simple as we initially thought. And it may not look anything like our own Earth.</p>
<p>To figure out where to look for life, we can start at large scales. Just like animals, <a href="https://www.space.com/22437-main-sequence-stars.html">stars change</a> over their lifetimes. The stability and age of any given star can give us a clue into how likely it may have a planet with life in its system. Very bright, blue stars that tend to populate spiral galaxies will usually only last a few hundreds of millions of years. </p>
<p>In contrast, smaller, dimmer red stars that are common in elliptical galaxies can last for tens of billions of years. The rule is simple: The more massive a star, the shorter and more turbulent its life tends to be. And life will have a hard go at it if the system’s star goes <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/5-8/features/nasa-knows/what-is-a-supernova.html">supernova</a> before anything can even get started.</p>
<h2>Habitable planets</h2>
<p>If we look at our own story nestled in our little solar neighbourhood, the very first humans (by the broadest definition of the term) didn’t appear until a few million years ago. </p>
<p>If we follow Star Trek’s date of 2063 for <a href="http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Star_Trek:_First_Contact">first contact</a> with another alien race, the Vulcans, that’s basically 4.5 billion years between the creation of our solar system and making our first alien friends. It took the very simplest forms of life nearly 750 million years before appearing on Earth. Luckily for us, our quite averagely sized Sun has a lifespan of about 10 billion years. This gave complex life ample time to develop.</p>
<p>In February 2017, NASA made an incredible announcement. They had detected a system 39 light years away with seven exoplanets: TRAPPIST-1. Three of the planets were in the “Goldilocks zone.” This zone covers the region where liquid water can exist, and depends on the size and temperature of the parent star. </p>
<p>All seven planets orbit a type of star called an ultra-cool dwarf, about 1/13th the size of our Sun. These types of stars can live a relatively stable life for hundreds of billions of years. Simulations of planet formation have also shown that their small size and low temperatures make them more likely to host Earth-like planets. </p>
<p>Dedicated telescopes such as the Kepler Telescope and the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope are building an impressive catalogue of thousands of these exoplanets. Surely, we’re bound to find something out there with alien life! But what if we didn’t have to look so far?</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187670/original/file-20170926-22303-e9z9ta.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187670/original/file-20170926-22303-e9z9ta.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187670/original/file-20170926-22303-e9z9ta.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187670/original/file-20170926-22303-e9z9ta.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187670/original/file-20170926-22303-e9z9ta.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187670/original/file-20170926-22303-e9z9ta.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187670/original/file-20170926-22303-e9z9ta.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cassini image showcasing Enceladus’ plumes of ice water. Molecular hydrogen was detected within these plumes by the probe’s specialized instruments.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">NASA/JPL/STScI</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Life in our solar neighbourhood?</h2>
<p>NASA made another incredible announcement only two months after the TRAPPIST-1 news. The Cassini spacecraft had detected a possible chemical food source for alien life in the form of molecular hydrogen on Saturn’s sixth moon, Enceladus — the energy equivalent of 300 pizzas per hour, no less! </p>
<p>The future exploration of Enceladus and other “Ocean Worlds” such as Jupiter’s moon, Europa, and Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, is currently the most promising prospect of finding alien life in our own solar system. But our first forays onto these worlds have shown us landscapes very unlike Earth’s: oceans of methane, surfaces entirely covered in cracked ice, endless underground oceans with no land masses in sight. This puts into question our previously determined list of “must-haves” to find alien life.</p>
<p>That being said, life forms on our very own home planet continue to surprise us by their resilience, robustness and alien-like qualities. We are always discovering new organisms that thrive in extreme conditions we would have otherwise thought completely deadly. </p>
<p>In 2010, NASA made a breakthrough discovery. An “Arsenic Bug” microorganism was found feeding off the toxic arsenic in Mono Lake, Calif. These incredibly sturdy organisms known as <a href="https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/extremophile.html">extremophiles</a> may even tie back to the very origins of life on Earth.</p>
<h2>Unusual life</h2>
<p>In 1977, scientists made a stunning discovery at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. Hydrothermal vents were heating the frigid deep sea waters and ejecting impressive amounts of chemicals into their surroundings. These dissolved chemicals provide the necessary energy to support bacteria that form the base of the food chain of an impressively diverse underwater ecosystem. </p>
<p>Scientists now suggest that ancient hydrothermal vents found on Earth billions of years ago may have populated our world with its very first blips of life. This ecosystem may be very similar to the one hidden at the bottom of Enceladus’ oceans! These revelations have expanded our very definition of life. If we are to detect life elsewhere in the universe, it’s clear we must cast a wide net. </p>
<p>As we continue our tireless search for someone or something out there in the great dark void, we need to stop and ask ourselves: “What are we even looking for?” A survey of the general population will show that we often rely on pieces of science fiction such as <em>Star Trek</em> to guide our expectations of alien life. </p>
<p>The great majority of these works portray aliens as humanoid beings. This makes for compelling story-telling; can you imagine Capt. Jean-Luc Picard having an intellectual showdown with a colony of bacteria? Perhaps not as interesting as discoursing with an intelligent bipedal reptilian creature who happens to speak English. Using a universal translator helps, I’m sure.</p>
<h2>Evolution</h2>
<p>But even <em>Star Trek</em> has been keeping up with the times. The best example of this is the portrayal of Klingons over the years. When they first appeared in the original series, they were merely people with disconcerting tans and facial hair.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189061/original/file-20171005-6575-14a8bt7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189061/original/file-20171005-6575-14a8bt7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189061/original/file-20171005-6575-14a8bt7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189061/original/file-20171005-6575-14a8bt7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189061/original/file-20171005-6575-14a8bt7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189061/original/file-20171005-6575-14a8bt7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189061/original/file-20171005-6575-14a8bt7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189061/original/file-20171005-6575-14a8bt7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Klingon in <em>Star Trek: Discovery</em>.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Handout)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As they evolved through <em>The Next Generation</em> and beyond, they gained facial ridges to differentiate them from humans. This came with a very rich culture and language, but not unlike some found throughout human history (the Vikings come to mind). </p>
<p>In the newly released <em>Star Trek: Discovery</em>, you will be hard-pressed to find Lt. Commander Worf’s face in the Klingons’ much more alien appearance. While this may solidify their role as the Federation’s main antagonists for now, we can hope a lesson about accepting beings very different from yourself can be extracted by the series’ end. As special effects have improved, so too have our idea of what alien life could look like.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"886987911270473736"}"></div></p>
<p>If we consider the variety of planets and moons we’ve discovered that could harbour life, we realize that “habitable” does not need to mean Earth-like. Thus, how can we expect life to evolve exactly as it did on Earth when these alien landscapes are so different from our own? </p>
<p>The theory of evolution has showcased with what skill life manages to adapt itself to its surroundings. A more probable depiction of the Klingons could be intelligent octopus-like creatures that thrive on a purely aquatic world such as Enceladus. </p>
<p>Alien life may solely exist in the form of viruses with which communication would be impossible: Not exactly the kind of fodder <em>Star Trek</em> has historically fed off for plot. It may even take a form we have not yet obtained the capacity to imagine. At the end of it all, when we do finally reach the point of first contact, it may not be as simple as a Vulcan salute.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/84670/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nathalie Nguyen-Quoc Ouellette does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Star Trek: Discovery explores our corner of the block – just a fraction of the galaxy. Some stars are better candidates for intelligent alien life, and it may not be anything like we imagine.
Nathalie Nguyen-Quoc Ouellette, Astronomer | Education & Outreach Officer, Queen's University, Ontario
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/82932
2017-10-04T11:25:15Z
2017-10-04T11:25:15Z
Star Trek Discovery: diverse futuristic vision let down by 20th-century gender stereotypes
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188005/original/file-20170928-8391-1b2axo1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">CBS All Access</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Star Trek, from the original series through several generations of sequels, is one of the best-loved and most enduring science fiction creations. For more than 50 years, the television series and films have displayed a universe of tolerance and inclusivity, based on the progressive ideas and vision of the future of its creator, Gene Roddenberry. </p>
<p>The cultural impact of Roddenberry’s vision has been significant, particularly in how gender and minority groups have been portrayed – starships and galaxies peopled with characters from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds and the Federation of Planets as a community of worlds peacefully co-existing.</p>
<p>But the newest addition to the Star Trek family has already caused a stir among fans.</p>
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<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"912828549110800384"}"></div></p>
<p>The criticism is not just that the series, <a href="http://digg.com/2017/star-trek-discovery-review-is-it-good?platform=hootsuite">Discovery, is darker and more conflict-focused than its predecessors</a> nor that there is too much emphasis on the imperialist patriarchy of the Klingons. The controversy instead stems from the fact that the trailer shows <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/for-alt-right-trolls-star-trek-discovery-is-an-unsafe-space">two women, neither of them white, in command positions</a>. </p>
<h2>Challenging preconceptions</h2>
<p>Throughout the Star Trek series, men and women, humanoid or Vulcan, live and work together as equals. The series have inspired generations of viewers and challenged preconceived ideas of gender roles, culture and identity. An episode featuring Kirk and Uhura’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KGE7HYEie0&feature=youtu.be">“inter-racial” kiss in 1968</a> remains a typical example of this. </p>
<p>A woman as the ship’s doctor and – for a while – a woman as security chief – made Picard’s bridge in The Next Generation more balanced in terms of gender. For many viewers however, the thrill was in the opening sequence where Captain Jean-Luc Picard’s voice replaced the familiar but sexist “where no man has gone before” with the gender-neutral “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tIWYtcwp2I&feature=youtu.be">where no one has gone before</a>”. This promised a 24th-century utopian society that had moved beyond gender and cultural stereotypes. </p>
<p>Later, <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=%22Embodying+Hybridity%2C+(En)gendering+Community%3A+Captain+Janeway+and+the+Enactment+of+a+Feminist+Heterotopia+on+Star+Trek%3A+Voyager%2C%E2%80%9D+Women%27s+Studies%3A+An+Interdisciplinary+Journal+36.8+(December+2007)%3A+597-618.&rlz=1C1GGRV_enGB753GB753&oq=%22Embodying+Hybridity%2C+(En)gendering+Community%3A+Captain+Janeway+and+the+Enactment+of+a+Feminist+Heterotopia+on+Star+Trek%3A+Voyager%2C%E2%80%9D+Women%27s+Studies%3A+An+Interdisciplinary+Journal+36.8+(December+2007)%3A+597-618.&aqs=chrome..69i57&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8">Captain Kathryn Janeway</a>, in charge of Voyager, showed that if a woman can lead a starship, the boundaries between male and female aspirations and achievements are no longer relevant. </p>
<p>But while a future with multi-cultural/racial/galactic relationships and societies has been daringly portrayed over the decades, this vision has stayed within the confines of socially-accepted <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=%22Embodying+Hybridity%2C+(En)gendering+Community%3A+Captain+Janeway+and+the+Enactment+of+a+Feminist+Heterotopia+on+Star+Trek%3A+Voyager%2C%E2%80%9D+Women%27s+Studies%3A+An+Interdisciplinary+Journal+36.8+(December+2007)%3A+597-618.&rlz=1C1GGRV_enGB753GB753&oq=%22Embodying+Hybridity%2C+(En)gendering+Community%3A+Captain+Janeway+and+the+Enactment+of+a+Feminist+Heterotopia+on+Star+Trek%3A+Voyager%2C%E2%80%9D+Women%27s+Studies%3A+An+Interdisciplinary+Journal+36.8+(December+2007)%3A+597-618.&aqs=chrome..69i57&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8">20th-century views of gender and identity</a>. </p>
<p><a href="http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/William_Shatner%27s_Star_Trek_Memories">William Shatner</a> and many others have documented how the studios constrained many of Roddenberry’s more progressive ideas to avoid controversy and upsetting family audiences. A focus on family structures, male-female relationships, with men as dominant and women as caring and sensitive, was maintained – even in imagined future worlds. The male presence is normalised in film and media in general – and an opening scene with two men talking while walking across an isolated planet would not be viewed as unusual. But in Discovery, where one woman is captain and the other is second-in-command, it is considered challenging, controversial or boundary pushing. </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/oWnYtyNKPsA?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
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<h2>Sign of the times</h2>
<p>While watching a Star Trek episode can easily propel viewers from their sofas to the bridge of a 24th-century starship, the gender roles, patterns of speech and behaviour do not progress much beyond the stereotypes of our time. Characters, roles and exchanges in particular episodes of The Next Generation provide interesting examples of <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1207/S15405710PC0102_3">attitudes to gender</a> and cultural stereotypes within a universe based on progressive and altruistic ideals. </p>
<p>This might explain why Counsellor Troi, an empath (as half-Betazoid, her telepathic abilities enabled her to read minds and provide “counselling”) was the only crew member to wear a (short) skirt in the first episodes. In response to viewers’ complaints, her outfits were changed to trousers or long dresses. Inexplicably, however, as her skirts became longer her neckline became noticeably lower.</p>
<p>While it can – and is – successfully being argued on social media that <a href="https://trekmovie.com/2017/07/23/sdcc17-star-trek-discovery-team-talk-war-roddenberry-space-mushrooms-and-a-reimagined-mudd/">the new series, Discovery,</a> has departed from Roddenberry’s optimistic vision of the future, the first two episodes appear to focus on one character – first officer Michael Burnham (played by Sonequa Martin-Green) – and conflict rather than relationships, consensus and community-building. </p>
<p>But until now, the tolerant and inclusive United Federation of Planets has been mainly under the leadership of white men. Advances in real-life technology have allowed the series to develop from a clunky, formica-styled bridge with Kirk and crew swaying from side to side in turbulence, to holidays in holo-suites, organ and part-body replacement, spectacular views and light shows of nebulae. </p>
<p>Understandings of the age and scientific discovery might have influenced such production details, but awareness and representation of gender roles and identity has remained firmly embedded in 20th-century stereotypes. “You must challenge your preconceptions or they will challenge you,” announces <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWnYtyNKPsA&feature=youtu.be">the trailer</a> for this newest series in the Star Trek franchise. How far the series allows audiences to do this remains to be seen. </p>
<p>It could all depend on whether viewers prefer a vision of the future based on peace and tolerance or one of confrontation and conflict. To resolve this may require a journey beyond our current gendered limitations.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/82932/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ella Tennant does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Gene Roddenberry’s vision has been upheld by diverse casting, but storylines remain within mainstream 20th-century ideas of gender and identity.
Ella Tennant, Acting Programme Director for Liberal Arts, Keele University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/84503
2017-09-27T23:23:47Z
2017-09-27T23:23:47Z
How ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ warps science
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187917/original/file-20170927-24182-1jscrfw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=71%2C35%2C1126%2C761&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Cmdr. Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) goes on a scientifically implausible spacewalk in _Star Trek: Discovery_.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Handout)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>I’ve been alive for 44 years, and I’ve been watching <em>Star Trek</em> for 44 years.</p>
<p>I was a baby sitting on my father’s lap for re-runs of the original series. I watched <a href="https://youtu.be/b52b4yORX6U?t=120"><em>Star Trek: The Motion Picture</em></a> and <a href="https://youtu.be/wRnSnfiUI54?t=15"><em>Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan</em></a> at the drive-in. And on I watched, through another <a href="https://www.tomsguide.com/us/star-trek-binge-watching-guide,review-3635.html">11 films and 624 television episodes</a>, and finally, this month, to the brand new <a href="http://www.cbs.com/shows/star-trek-discovery/"><em>Star Trek: Discovery</em></a>. </p>
<p>Yes, I’m a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2gPUabIqQQ">Trekkie</a>.</p>
<p><em>Star Trek</em> is set in space. At its very heart, it aims to be a story of exploration, of advancing knowledge, of science. Or to quote the show’s original creator, <a href="http://www.treknews.net/2012/08/19/gene-roddenberry-birthday/">Gene Roddenberry himself</a>, the continuing mission of <em>Star Trek</em> is “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZoiKcdfPk4">to explore strange new worlds</a> … to boldly go where no one has gone before.” </p>
<p>But despite its claims, <em>Star Trek</em> is not really a show about science. <em>Star Trek</em> is at its finest when it explores the human condition, and when it sets a standard for what we aspire to be. </p>
<h2>Strange new worlds aren’t like Star Trek’s</h2>
<p>While <em>Star Trek</em> makes a passionate case that science and technology can bring us peace and prosperity, it often also presents an optimistic and simplified view of our current best scientific understanding.</p>
<p>Some of the very first scenes from the newest series, <em>Star Trek: Discovery</em>, illustrate this. Capt. Philippa Georgiou and Cmdr. Michael Burnham walk together under open skies on a desert planet. It is not especially bold to predict this will be the first of many more such “away missions” as the series develops. What an astronomer would give for this to be true! But sadly, even desolate desert planets are the rarest of the rare.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187661/original/file-20170926-22303-hf1jmk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=422%2C0%2C2573%2C1994&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187661/original/file-20170926-22303-hf1jmk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=422%2C0%2C2573%2C1994&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187661/original/file-20170926-22303-hf1jmk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187661/original/file-20170926-22303-hf1jmk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187661/original/file-20170926-22303-hf1jmk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187661/original/file-20170926-22303-hf1jmk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187661/original/file-20170926-22303-hf1jmk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187661/original/file-20170926-22303-hf1jmk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Capt. Philippa Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh, left) and Cmdr. Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) wouldn’t be standing on a desert planet if Star Trek stuck to actual science.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Handout)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the real universe, we now know of <a href="https://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/">more than 3,500 planets around other stars</a>, and not a single one of these is hospitable in the way seen on <em>Star Trek</em>. <a href="https://www.universetoday.com/109269/what-are-hot-jupiters/">Gas giants</a> with crushing pressure but no solid surface, planets <a href="http://www.popularmechanics.com/space/deep-space/news/a26770/hottest-exoplanet/">hot enough to melt lead</a>, and <a href="https://arstechnica.com/science/2015/11/the-exoplanet-from-hell-cloudy-with-a-chance-of-molten-iron-rain/">rain storms of molten iron</a>: these are truly the <a href="https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/alien-worlds/strange-new-worlds/">strange new worlds</a> that await us.</p>
<p>While it’s perhaps just a matter of a few more years before we begin to find <a href="https://tess.gsfc.nasa.gov/">planets that deserve the title “Earth-like,”</a> worlds with normal gravity, breathable air, bearable temperatures and safe levels of radiation will remain exceedingly rare. Heading down to the surface for a stroll and a look around will seldom occur, and not before a great deal of careful study and testing.</p>
<h2>Folly of research and exploration</h2>
<p>Another <em>Star Trek</em> anomaly for me is that many episodes begin with the crew carrying out a scientific study of a star, a nebula, or some other cosmic phenomenon. Normally, some emergency promptly calls them away from their research even before we get to the opening credits. Pity the poor 24th century PhD student whose work will now never be completed! </p>
<p>The implication is that the quotidian activities of Federation starships involve a lot of galactic fieldwork. However, I can’t think of anything more inefficient than sending a ship full of fragile humanoids out to study an astrophysical object in person. If there is one thing that modern astronomy has exquisitely shown us, it’s that we can learn stupendous amounts <a href="https://public.nrao.edu/news/2017-alma-bubble-image/">with powerful telescopes</a>, and even more when <a href="https://mars.nasa.gov/mer/overview/">we dispatch robotic probes</a>. It’s simply not necessary to visit an object ourselves in order to deeply understand it.</p>
<p>Of course, I’m not really a curmudgeon, and this is only a TV show. There are stories to tell, adventures to be had, and a galaxy to explore. Indeed, for me, one of the most memorable scenes from the first episode of <em>Star Trek: Discovery</em> was the binary star system where much of the action takes place. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187918/original/file-20170927-24162-1hmzr81.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187918/original/file-20170927-24162-1hmzr81.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187918/original/file-20170927-24162-1hmzr81.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=252&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187918/original/file-20170927-24162-1hmzr81.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=252&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187918/original/file-20170927-24162-1hmzr81.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=252&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187918/original/file-20170927-24162-1hmzr81.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=317&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187918/original/file-20170927-24162-1hmzr81.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=317&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187918/original/file-20170927-24162-1hmzr81.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=317&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Two stars are drawn in by each other’s gravity in <em>Star Trek: Discovery</em>.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Handout)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The USS Shenzhou parks itself alongside the spectacular tableau of two stars captured by each other’s gravity, around each of which newborn planets are slowly forming from gas and dust. Beautiful and wonderful! (And I note that, at least this time, the heroes were not there to perform an astrophysical study, but to perform the far more practical task of repairing an “interstellar relay.”)</p>
<h2>Inspiration spurs education</h2>
<p>Ultimately, <em>Star Trek</em> presents us with a paradox. On the one hand, it continues to serve as an inspiration for young people to pursue their own dreams of exploration, <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/05/17/why-still-love-star-trek.html">leading them to rewarding careers</a> in science, technology and engineering.</p>
<p>On the other hand, most of the science of <em>Star Trek</em> simply <a href="http://www.treknobabble.net/2010/01/horrendously-bad-science-of-star.html">doesn’t make sense</a>: it’s at best a wild extrapolation of what we know, but more often it’s a jumble of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naXLxNX4UZc">technobabble</a> and pure fancy. </p>
<p>You might argue that Trekkie scientists like me are victims of a cosmic bait-and-switch, lured into careers of real science with all of its limitations, by the impossible promises of <a href="http://jalopnik.com/the-painful-truth-about-nasas-warp-drive-spaceship-from-1590330763">warp drive</a>, <a href="https://www.seti.org/seti-institute/project/details/fermi-paradox">alien encounters</a> and <a href="https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/162890-human-teleportation-would-take-so-long-itd-be-more-like-a-death-ray">teleportation</a>.</p>
<p>So, why does <em>Star Trek</em> work? Why has it endured for more than 50 years, and why do many hard-nosed scientists, like me, love it so much? Because many of the promises that <em>Star Trek</em> make are very possible indeed. </p>
<p><em>Star Trek</em> promises that seemingly unknowable things will one day be knowable, that there are better ways of doing things than the way we do them now, and that a team of diverse individuals, focused together on a greater goal, can accomplish just about anything. </p>
<p><em>Star Trek</em>, at its heart, captures what science is all about.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/84503/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bryan Gaensler receives funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and from the Canada Research Chairs Program.</span></em></p>
Star Trek Discovery is the latest offering in the 50-year-old science fiction franchise beloved by scientists — but it isn’t about science.
Bryan Gaensler, Director, Dunlap Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Toronto
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