By: MARIE FRANKSON
In 1966, Gene Roddenberry’s space opera Star Trek aired on the small screen for the first time. This series, as well as those that followed, not only showed a fictionalized version of what was going on in the world in the turbulent 1960s, but also showed the famous Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, Dr. “Bones” McCoy, and Mr. “Scotty” Scott using some pretty far-out gadgets.
In the mid-1960s when man had not yet set foot on the moon, the crew of the USS Enterprise NCC-1701 were exploring new worlds, seeking new life and new civilizations, and boldly going where no man had gone before.
Several series and movies later, it seems that technology has changed with the times and many of the gadgets we take for granted everyday were first seen on Star Trek. This article will highlight a few of the many gadgets from the Star Trek franchise that have since become a reality.
1. Communicators: The tiny device everyone carried with them to talk to each other or to contact the ship was called a communicator. The device would be flipped open to reveal buttons and dials. Keep in mind that that was back in 1966.
Nearly 10 years later, in 1973, Motorola’s Martin Cooper placed the world’s first mobile phone call. The call was made on the prototype for the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X (which hit markets in 1983). Weighing in a 2.5 pounds, the 8000X was a far cry from the Star Trek communicators, but as the years have gone by and technology has improved, so have our “communicators”. The touch screens and sleek designs of the smart phones we have now are a far cry from the Star Trek communicators, but it’s awesome to see a device from science-fiction become reality nonetheless.
2. Hypospray: Not an episode went by when we didn’t see Dr. McCoy inoculate someone or give them a shot when they got injured. The sound of the air rushing when he pressed on the silver device is forever burned into our memories. The hypospray seemed so high-tech compared to being poked with metal needles. Hypospray had been a reality since before Star Trek aired, but it wasn’t that common yet. Since the mid-1930s, jet injectors had been used to provide mass vaccinations around the world.
Like the hypospray in Star Trek, the jet injector uses a high-pressure narrow jet of the injection liquid instead of a needle to penetrate the skin. It can be powered by compressed air or gas or even electricity. There were a few concerns about the use of the jet injectors, especially when it came to the transfer of diseases like Hepatitis B. Since the jet injector still breaks the skin, there is a chance of bloodborne pathogens to be spread from patient to patient.
Due to concerns of infection or the spread of diseases, the US Department of Defense stopped the use of jet injectors for mass vaccination of the armed forces.
3. Phaser: “Set phasers to stun” was a line often spoken by Captain Kirk. The phaser was a gun that shot out photon lasers (thus the name) and was used by nearly everyone on the show, at least if they were a member of the landing party. The phaser used energy to stun or kill whatever alien creature(s) was/were harming the landing party.
A similar modern-day item for the phaser would be a taser or stun gun. Like the Star Trek phaser, a taser uses energy (electrical currents) to subdue potentially dangerous people. Although used by police as a non-lethal weapon, tasers have been known to kill victims.
4. Telepresence: Every episode, it seemed, some alien being and/or captain of another ship in the area would come up on the Enterprise’s big screen to talk to Captain Kirk. This was referred to as telepresence. Captain Kirk could see and talk to beings face-to-face even if they were hundreds of feet, or hundreds of light years, away. An obvious modern-day technological equivalent to telepresence is video conferencing. Video conferencing allows two or more locations to communicate by simultaneous two-way video and audio transmissions. The same technology has been applied to many classrooms all around the world as well. There are two different types of video conferencing: point-to-point (between two people or locations) and multipoint (more than two people/locations). As should be obvious to see so far between communicators and telepresence, Star Trek has changed the way we communicate with one another.
5. Tricorders: Last on this list is the tricorder, the device Mr. Spock used while in landing parties. The tricorder was used for sensor scanning, data analysis, and data recording. There are three types of tricorders in the Star Trek university. The standard tricorder is what Mr. Spock used. It scouts unfamiliar areas, makes detailed examinations of living things, and records and reviews data. The medical tricorder is what Dr. McCoy used. It scans the body to diagnose diseases and to collect bodily information about the patient. The engineering tricorder is what Mr. Scott used. It is fine-tuned for starship engineering purposes.
There can’t be a modern-day equivalent for this thing, right? Wrong. In the early 2000s, NASA scientists began developing LOCAD devices to assist them in areas related to space exploration (environmental control and life systems support, medical systems, and remote exploration). One device in use now on the International Space Station is the LOCAD-PTS, which stands for Lab-on-a-Chip Application Development-Portable Test System, and is a handheld device used for microbial monitoring about the space station. The device weighs about 2.5 pounds and allows an astronaut to take swab samples of a surface, dissolve it in water, and analyze the sample all in under 15 minutes. Considering the traditional method for microbial monitoring was to grow the bacteria cultures over several days and often send the samples to Earth to be analyzed by scientists here, this was one small step for bacteria but one giant leap for technology.
Technology is always improving and hanging, and through these examples of technology we have available to us now that were once merely ideas in a science-fiction television show, perhaps we’ll continue to see technology improve. Who knows, maybe one day we’ll see the invention of the transportation or warp drive, but for now we can see how much easier our lives are with these inventions that were once science-fiction but are now a reality.
