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Rating:  -
Need a crash course in how to create your own warp drive (hint, bend spacetime behind so that it moves away and in front so that they move closer)? Or perhaps want to know what Star Trek writers got right (and horribly wrong)? Well then this is a book for you. Not terribly technical, Krauss does an excellent job of explaining complicated theories so a dummy like me can comprehend them and with a joke.
Rating: -
Chances are that if you consider a complicated and thought-provoking series like Star Trek to be entertaining, then you'll find Lawrence Krauss's discussions of scientific realities and almost realities to be similarly enthralling, especially when he throws some good discourse on ethics into the mix. I am not a science person by any stretch of the imagination. Math hurts my brain, 10th grade Chemistry bored me silly, and I'm relatively comfortable in trusting that Geordi LaForge knows what he's talking about when he reels off explanations of matter/anti-matter mixing, force field frequencies, and inertial dampeners. Yet Krauss masters a balance between complexity and accessibility in his book, making everything easily understandable even while helping you to comprehend the basics of cutting edge physical laws and theories. This guy should be everyone's first science teacher.
Krauss' exploration is just fascinating, whether in discussing how transporters might work (do you actually transmit the atoms or simply destroy the original person and clone them on the other end? How are consciousness, memory, and the soul transmitted?), or the problems involved with faster than light speed travel and time relativity. Krauss isn't just some holier than thou critic who seeks to tear apart the science of Star Trek, either. Instead, he offers possible explanations for how much of the technology might actually be able to work, all while pointing out that, a decade and a half later, many of the imaginary scientific concepts used in these shows have turned out to be more accurate than not.
This is a book written for those of us that enjoy the scientific and ethical aspects of Star Trek (and this book focuses primarily on Next Generation). If that's the case for you, then "The Physics of Star Trek" is the logical next step. It's far more accessible than the Next Generation Technical Manual, and it's far more rewarding, as well.
**Note: This review was based upon the original 1995 printing of "The Physics of Star Trek." Amazon is selling a version that was last revised in 2007. Twelve years of cutting edge science have, no doubt, had a transforming impact upon the book since then.
Rating:  -
This a not-so technical book that many Star Trek fans will love. Of course it requires a previous knowledge of general physics but it is very good. I enjoyed reading it and of course I have to have a college physics book by my side to get the most of it.
Rating:  -
Some things in the 'Startrek Physics' are possible..
Maybe not as denoted in the series/movies but in some fashion.
Let me list items that could be considered TREK technology.
1. Cellphones (though more in style/form that fact).
2. Visor (the visor used in STNG) is real today.
Certain kinds of blindness can see 2d B&W with this visor.
ITs been around for years.
3. Pc's ... in a way the original STartrek could have had todays pc's or similar ...
4. Some of our medical technology is a direct cause from the original startrek in that the major inventor of much of our medical stuff in ER is from a person who watched startrek as a kid and grewup specifically to invent as much ST stuff as he could.
Yes many things in SCIFI are not possible, but much of it is in some fashion.
Besides, often what is impossible today, is often possible tomorrow.
Remember these comments:
1. We wont need more than 5 computers in the whole world.
IBM (I think).
2. We will never need more than 640k (BILL Gates, confirmed).
3. We might as well shutdown the office, everything that can
be invented, has been invented. (Patent office I belive).
AMong others,
Myself, I bet my best friend in 1976, that some variation of computers like starttrek would be around in less than 5 years.
Two years later, he paid up, as I began using computers that could be linked up to be exactly that. (Slower obviously but there).
Rating: -
I really enjoyed this book, it really went in depth on how or if certain technologies of Trek work or don't. Be warned, that it can get very scientific, and to the untrained eye may appear to use more techno-babble then trek itself. However, it is laid out in a very concise manner, with several diagrams as well.
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