The Realization of Star Trek Technologies: The Science, Not Fiction, Behind Brain Implants, Plasma Shields, Quantum Computing, and More

by Mark E. Lasbury

Overview

As Star Trek celebrates its 50th anniversary, the futuristic tools of Kirk, Spock, Scott, and McCoy continue to come to life. This book merges Star Trek scientific lore—how the science of the time informed the implementation of technology in the series—and the science as it is playing out today. Scientists and engineers have made and continue to develop replicators, teletransporters, tractor beams, and vision restoring visors. This book combines the vision of 1966 science fiction with the latest research in physics, biotechnology, and engineering.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783319409146
Publisher:	Springer-Verlag New York, LLC
Publication date:	08/24/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

Mark Lasbury, MS, MSEd, PhD is a science and history writer with degrees in Chemistry, Pathology, Molecular Parasitology and Life Sciences Education. He is the author of more than fifty peer reviewed scientific articles, two textbook chapters concerning molecular diagnostics in hematology, and several articles on Indiana history. He has taught life sciences at the secondary, college, graduate, and post-graduate levels. Dr. Lasbury authors a life sciences education blog, As Many Exceptions As Rules, and is co-founder and contributor to the popular culture science blog, The ‘Scope. He lives in Indianapolis with his wife and two children; this is his first book for Springer Publishing.

Table of Contents

Phasers Weapons of Less Destruction.- Cloaking Devices: Vanishing into Thin Space.- .- The Replicator Maybe You Can Have Everything.- Deflector Shields: The Best Offense Is a Good Defense.- The Tractor Beam Pulling Earth Out of the Fire.- Universal Translators: Now You’re Speaking My Language.- Geordi’s Visor: A Vision of the Future.- The Transporter: Are We There yet?.- The Tricorder: A High Tech Multitool.- Bibliography.- Index.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Mark Lasbury has clearly watched a lot of “Trek” in his time—from the original series to the recent “reboot”—and has also steeped himself in the talmudic secondary literature and fan exegeses associated with the series, such as the “Memory Alpha” wiki. Mark Lasbury brings, as well, a broad, up-to-date knowledge of the real-world physics and engineering that are emerging to move some of Star Trek’s once seemingly fanciful visions closer to reality: cloaking devices in the form of exotic optical metamaterials; phasers in emerging directed-energy weapons; tractor beams in optical tweezers; Giordi’s VISOR in new, integrated camera/implant prostheses such as those now being pioneered by Second Sight. The result is informative and—in the hands of a writer of Lasbury’s great wit and style—highly entertaining.” (Stewart Wills, editor, Optics & Photonics News)

Editorial Reviews

Lasbury’s work is more of an academic treatment, suitable for a general education course on science and technology, with plentiful references at the end of each chapter for those who wish to delve into the details of equations and data. … Summing Up: Recommended. All readers.” (D. J. Van Domelen, Choice, Vol. 54 (8), April, 2017)

“The level of detail on the real world technologies is impressive - I think this book will strongly appeal to an audience that loves this kind of working through possibilities systematically … . If you really like getting into the detail of this kind of tech, this is going to be an excellent read for you.” (Popular Science, popsciencebooks.blogspot.de, November, 2016)

From the Publisher