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Although Star Trek is science fiction and not science fact, Roddenberry always insisted on following scientific procedures and principles. In fact some of the scientific techniques and gadgets shown on Star Trek have not merely kept up with but have predicted what is happening in the real world. Perhaps the transporter will never be invented, but scientists are already exploring the possibilities of warp cores. Other devices that seemed fantastic at the time, such as the computerised message pad and virtual reality ("holodecks") are now commercially available.
8. 1. Transporters
In Star Trek, starship crew move to and from planet surfaces using transporters. These installations were originally devised by the show's creators to enable them to change scenes without needing lengthy and expensive landing sequences.
A Transporter is a device that converts matter into energy, beams the energy to another location, then converts the energy back into matter. As well as transporting crew members and equipment between starships and planet surfaces, Transporters can beam them from site to site on planet surfaces.
8. 2. Warp Drives
Starships in Star Trek have powerful engines, called warp drives. A starship powered by a warp drive can travel faster than the speed of light by distorting the time and space around it. Starship engines are powered by reactions between matter and antimatter. When these meet, they annihilate one another and their total energy is released. In countless episodes of the original Star Trek series, Chief engineer Scott is anxious about the state of the dilithium crystals at the heart of the starship's warp drive. These crystals do not fuel the ship but control the reactions that generate the power. Although these crystals are entirely fictional, matter and antimatter are concepts used by physicists in real life. Warp factor is the unit used to measure faster-than-light travel, warp ten is theorised to be infinite and with current technology, unobtainable.
8. 3. Phasers
Phasers are intense beams of energy, generated by hypothetical short-lived subatomic particles called nadions. Starships are equipped with phasers as well as crew members, who are also issued with pocket-sized phasers that can be used on any setting from "stun" to "dematerialise"
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