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Author:
\"The Physics of Star Trek\" was written by Lawrence M. Krauss. He is Ambrose Swasey Professor of Astronomy and Chairman of the Department of Physics at Case Western Reserve University. He is the author of two acclaimed books, Fear of Physics: A Guide for the Perplexed and The Fifth Essence: The Search for Dark Matter in the Universe, and over 120 scienific articles. He is the recipient of several international awards for his work, including the Presidential Investigator Award, given by President Reagan in 1986. He lectures extensively to both lay and professional audiences and frequently appears on radio and television.
Published :
It´s a Flamingo Book, published by HarperCollinsPublishers in 1997. It was first published in the USA by Basic Books, a division of HarperCollinsPublishers in 1995.
It was first published in the UK by HarperCollinsPublishers in 1996.
Type of book:
It is a popular science book, trying to tell most modern science in a simple language.
\" The Physics of Star Trek\" is a book to be read many times as long it is up-to-date with our time (till we cross the milky ways of our and other galaxies). It offers a lot of exotic science to anyone who wants to make a small investment of imagination. Perhaps accidentally, Krauss also does a useful job in explaining some important physics, using Star Trek as a pop culture example: the physics of Newton, Einstein and Stephen Hawking all figure in the highly successful analysis.
It is a book on physics, but it is written in such a spirit of fun, it might even make you want to watch Star Trek.
\"Always enlightening... this book is fun, and Mr Krauss has a nice touch with a tough subject... Krauss is smart, but speaks and writes the common tongue.\" - New York Times Book Review
\" Entertaining and fascinating\" - Manchester Evening News
\" A brilliant book\" - Cambridge Evening News
\" Highly recommended\" - SFX
Subject:
This entertaining book from the popular professor for physics and astronomy at the Case Western University, Cleveland, Ohio deals with the physical backgrounds of Star Trek and looks at how the imaginary science of the Star Trek universe stacks up against the real thing. Krauss speculates on the possibility of alien life, touching on whether any kind of life is such an improbable phenomenon.
There are impressively clear explanations of difficult and up-to-date concepts in information theory, quantum mechanics, particle physics, relativity, mechanics and cosmology. The book goes where not even the show\'s laudable tradition of scientific evangelism has gone before.
The most important persons:
This book is about science from the past through the present into the future. Because of this enormous frame of time it is not possible to give a brief description of every important scientist or character of the Star Trek series.
Plot synopsis:
In the foreword famous Lucasian Professor and one-time Star Trek guest star Stephen Hawking points out that the main purpose of science fiction is to expand the imagination of all people. He says that \"Science fiction suggests ideas that scientists incorporate into their theories\". Star Trek literally takes us "where no one has gone before", and the science fiction of today may become the science of tomorrow.
In the first four chapters the author takes us on a guided tour through the history of physics, always with an eye on some Star Trek adventures that fit to this special part of physics.
He starts with seventeenth-century mathematician and physicist Isaac Newton, continues with Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking until he finally reaches Trek\'s 24th century, with Data as the temporary end of knowledge. A main objective of these first four chapters is faster-than-light travel, called \"warp drive\" in Star Trek. Lawrence M. Krauss notices that the authors of Star Trek had a brilliant imagination with the word "warp", because for almost all scientists warping space seems to be the only possibility to move faster than light.
His next objective is the transporter, probably one of the most fascinating technics in Star Trek. At the beginning he asks the question of whether to transport atoms or Bits, because this has never become clear in Star Trek until today. A big problem in dematerialising a man would be how to get rid of the body. Following Einstein\'s famous equation , the atoms of only one man would transform to the energetic equivalent of about one thousand hydrogen bombs. On the other hand, the energy needed to dematerialise someone is gigantic, because to convert matter into energy you have to heat it up to about 1000 billion degrees like in a fusion-reactor. To \"save\" a human body on a hard disk of a computer you need to save the position, kind and movement of every single atom in that moment. If you try to remember only the position, you would need about 1028 Kilobytes of RAM for the storage of a single human. Another question that rises at this point is if the \"soul\" of someone is, or would be transported too. In addition, Heisenberg\'s uncertainty principle also sets limits for just scanning somebody. Based on this, Krauss considers a transporter to beam someone, is nearly impossible to realise.
Another problem for the Enterprise is the energy she needs to survive and move through the universe. The engines of the Enterprise are constructed to use anti-matter to produce energy. But the huge amounts needed are much more than we can today even imagine to produce. One very informative detail of this book is to reveal the formula for dilithium crystals: 26 dilithium 21 diallosilikat 1:9:1 heptoferranid. These dilithium crystals are the most important part in a warp drive, and it seems that the theoretical method could work with today\'s understanding of nuclear physics.
The next part of the Enterprise the author examines is the so-called \"holodeck\". Though three dimensional touchable holograms are possible, but this device suffers from the same problems as the transporter, the almost infinite memorycapacity it would need.
A very interesting chapter is the one about the possibility of extraterrestrial life, one of the most important points in Star Trek. It´s a pity that this one allows only speculations until we have the first contact to any kind of species of another planet (also in our own solar system).
Near the end the author tells us about perspectives of modern physics in connection with Star Trek, which is very interesting for somebody with knowledge on these issues.
The last chapter then reveals the ten biggest mistakes in the history of Star Trek. This starts with the fact that it is absolutely silent in space, and goes on with the second fact, that an event horizon is a mathematical border in which it is impossible to shoot a hole with a phaser. Other funny mistakes are technical terms used in a wrong way. As an example, in one episode the Enterprise is cleaned from Baryons. But the only Baryons are protons and neutrons. If you clean a ship from them, there isn´t much left... The last error is a very specialised one, because in one episode the Neutrinos have a wrong spin. I guess that only a few people even know what Neutrinos are.
The author ends with a quote from Gene Roddenberry: \" The human race is a remarkable creature, one with great potential, and I hope that Star Trek has helped to show us what we can be if we believe in ourselves and our abilities.\"
Ideas, opinions and comments:
I liked this book because I am very interested in physics, all the explained theories in this book and especially the future of mankind. I was not a Star Trek freak before I read this book and I won\'t get one now, but I am sure I will watch more if I have more time.
It is generally very easy to read, but a few parts are specialised. For that reason I would recommend a basic knowledge in physics for reading this book.
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