09 Lal,in
theTNG
episode“The
Offspring.”
10 Suluwields
hisfold-out
sword,inStar
Trek(2009).skindesigned to learn in the same way
as a human infant. With the ability
to“read” facial expressions, memorize
them,and respond with physical
reactions (closing its eyes when its head
wasstroked), it was a revolution in
artificial intelligence and biomimetics –
thefield of biomechanical engineering
mimicking biological processes.
Lore,Data, and, particularly, Data’s
“daughter,” Lal, came some years
beforeCB2 in Star Trek: Th e Next
Generation, and it’s always exciting to
seecontemporary research suggesting
thatwhat appears on our screens isn’t as
far-fetched as some might suggest.
On March 7, 2009, NASA
successfully launched the KeplerSpace Telescope. Tasked with fi nding
potentially habitable exoplanets (worlds
with liquid water which are outside of
our Solar System and are half to twice the
size of Earth), the observatory employed
the transit method of detecting extrasolar
planets, a technique that searches for
miniscule reductions in the brightness of
a star when a planet crosses in front of it.
Working to a target fi eld of view virtually
identical to what’s seen in the U.S.S.
Voyager’s astrometrics laboratory, by the
end of its mission in 2013 it had detected
2,338 planets, with another 2,423 to
be confi rmed.
Stellar cartography – and the
United Federation of Planets – had
to begin somewhere...STARSTAR TREKTREK
(2009)(2009)
WitheverythingfromtheEnterprise
tophasersreimaginedfortheKirk-
erareboot,it wouldbequickerto
identifywhatwasn’tnewlydesigned
orfreshlycreatedTreknologyinthis
film.FromredmattertoSulu’sfunky
fold-outsword,thefilmdazzledwith
eye-poppingtechnologyfromstartto
finish.Butas faras real-worldscience
is concerned,therewereequally
significantdevelopments.
Atthebeginningof theyear,a
teamledbyProfessorMinoruAsada
outof Japan’sOsakaUniversityrevealed
CB2– a childlikerobotwitha silicon
From red matter to Sulu’s
funky fold-out sword, Star
Trek (2009) dazzled with
eye-popping technology
from start to finish.
0910TREKNOLOGY