Star Trek Science a Reality?

By Douglas V. Gibbs

We have seen the impact that the Star Trek television series and movies has had on our world.  Technology has taken a queue from the famous science fiction creation of Gene Roddenberry.  From flip phones, to nano-technology, the shows and movies have definitely made an impact.

Some of the science, however, is too amazing even for us to pull off, right?

Maybe not.

Tractor Beams and Transporters may have a place in our society after all.

Tractor Beams:

Though not capable of bringing a starship into tow, the latest version of our own tractor beam is much improved, pulling with a billion times more force, and able to tow objects a million times larger than previous designs for tractor beams.

It has been created by Dundee University physicists and uses ultrasound energy to pull a hollow triangular object towards the energy source.

Although their work has caught the interest of sci-fi fans, it has significant potential for ultrasound-based clinical techniques.

By using the ‘tractor’ beam, and knowing how to shape it, scans and the treatment of cancer could be improved.

It could allow tumours to be targeted by guiding a drug capsule which would release its contents at a specific point.

It is all about understanding how to shape the beam in order to target what we want to.

Star Trek Edges Closer to Reality: Scientists create a tractor beam - U.K. Mail Online

Transporter:

Though teleportation does not currently exist, scientists are saying that the technology is possible.  According to a study published by the Journal "Science," though we may not be sending human beings from location to location anytime soon, scientists are able to move "quantum information" by about ten feet without altering the spin rate of an electron.

What this means is that though the teleportation of live tissue is not possible at this time, scientists have been able to teleport data.  The next experiments will aim to increase the distance in which data is teleported.

A possible blow to Albert Einstein’s disbelief in the theory of quantum entanglement, scientists were able to keep the particles “entangled” even after teleportation.

“There is a big race going on between five or six groups to prove Einstein wrong,” Ronald Hanson, a physicist who leads the group at Delft, told the New York Times. “There is one very big fish.”

A Star Trek transporter is not quite something they achieved, but this definitely leads them in that direction.

Could the Star Trek Transporter be Real? Quantum Teleportation is Possible, Scientists Say - International Business Times

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