05 The
Enterprisein
TheSearch
forSpock.
06 TheFinal
Frontier’s
“levitation”
boots.STARSTAR TREKTREK V:V:
THETHE FINALFINAL
FRONTIERFRONTIER
(1989)(1989)The Final Frontier was notable
fromtwo Treknology standpoints.
First,we had the (undeniably cool)
“levitation” boots worn by Kirk and
Spockduring their mountaineering
adventures and subsequent escape
fromSybok. Second was the newly
designed shuttlecraft Galileo (shame
it didn’t last the fi lm though).
Greatas these two examples of Tr e k
techwere, this year would herald ascientifi c event that would change
the real world forever.
On March 12, 1989 (Sir) Tim
Berners-Lee, an English computer
scientist working at the European
Organization for Nuclear Research
(CERN), submitted a proposal to
combine two existing data technologies- the Transmission Control Protocol
(TCP) and domain name system –
with his idea for a hypertext-based
information management system. After
a few months of experimentation and
refi nement, he created the fi rst web
browser, web server, and Hyper-Text
Transfer Protocol – taken together, the
World Wide Web. After a shaky start,
tomarket,intheshapeofApple’s
Macintoshpersonalcomputer.
Withthestatedintentionofmaking
computerseasiertouse,it wasan
immediatesuccess,leadingtoan
industry-widerevisionofhowdata
waspresentedandretrieved.
The secondchosentechnology
wasmomentousforquitea different
reason.WorkingoutoftheUnited
Kingdom’sAgriculturalResearch
Council’sInstituteofAnimal
PhysiologyinCambridge,Danish
scientistDr.SteenMalteWilladsen
becamethefirstpersontosuccessfully
clonea mammal.Usingthesomatic
cellnucleartransferprocedure,
Willadsentookthenucleusfroman
adultsheep’scellandtransferredit into
anunfertilizedeggcell,thenimplanted
it intoanothersheeptoproducean
exactcopyoftheoriginaldonor.
Subsequentrefinementsof
thishighlycontroversialtechnique
formthebasisofcontinuing
experimentationintocloning
advances,particularlyforthepotential
reproductionofreplacementorgans
andbodyparts.The influenceonStar
Tr e kis undeniable;twotopexamples
aretheRomulans’creationofShinzon
fromJean-LucPicard’sDNAinStar
TrekNemesis, andStarTrek:DeepSpace
Nine’s entireDominionrace.
0506TREKNOLOGY