| Who could have guessed, watching the Starship | | | | In medical science we can find further links. |
| Enterprise first set out in the 60s, that its five | | | | Picture Dr "Bones" McCoy valiantly saving the day, |
| year mission would span four decades and bring | | | | diagnosing diseases by scanning the body with his |
| Earth so much of the technology that today we | | | | trusty tricorder device, surely the forerunner of |
| take for granted? | | | | today's MRI and CAT scan procedures. And in the |
| At a time when even a landline house phone was | | | | same way that "Bones" used his hypospray to |
| still seen by many as a luxury, families entered | | | | painlessly pass medicine through the skin, modern |
| the fictional world of Star Trek, watching in awe | | | | day product design has brought us the Jet |
| as Captain James T. Kirk spoke to his crew via a | | | | Injector. |
| handheld communicator. Forty years on, with | | | | Tricorder technology was also favoured by the |
| satellite navigation a given, billions of us own | | | | Enterprise crew when it came to checking out the |
| mobile technology. Already considering flip-top cell | | | | safety of new civilizations. Today, many |
| phones pretty outmoded, we attach Bluetooth | | | | emergency response teams use chemical |
| devices, with no thought of Lt Uhura opening the | | | | detection equipment to help identify a threat, |
| hailing frequencies through an elaborate earpiece. | | | | while police officers have Taser guns at their |
| Nor do we take a second glance at the handheld | | | | disposal, a weapon designed to stun - not unlike |
| PDA, the modern day development from Kirk's | | | | Star Trek's hand-held phaser, which could also be |
| daily captain's log. The touch screen technology of | | | | set to kill. When there are problems with language |
| Star Trek is rapidly becoming second-nature to us: | | | | barriers, the universal translator comes into its |
| not only do we use it on our mobile phones and | | | | own: in today's world the US army uses the |
| other hand-held devices, we tap screens at the | | | | Phraselator in Iraq for translating speech. Some |
| airport, the station, the library, the supermarket - | | | | websites, including Google, also adopt this |
| and as we enter and leave these buildings, we | | | | technology and the first mobile phones with |
| pass through doors that magically glide open | | | | speech translation are coming onto the market - |
| before us, not stopping to consider their link with | | | | the next generation of the hand-held |
| Star Trek fiction. | | | | communicator. |
| The icing on the cake is our ability to see people | | | | Some of Star Trek's fictional creations have not |
| at the same time that we're speaking to them. In | | | | quite made it into reality yet, but give them time. |
| the original Star Trek series, the crew on the | | | | Building on the tricorder and MRI/CAT scan |
| Enterprise bridge can be seen engaging in serious | | | | concept, a company based in San Diego is |
| audio-visual communication with the outside, | | | | developing a small portable device that can detect |
| strange new worlds. Modern technology has | | | | illnesses when it touches the skin. Meanwhile, the |
| developed this concept of video-conferencing on a | | | | US Air Force Research Laboratory is working on |
| huge scale, making it a crucial element in business | | | | a portable non-lethal deterrent weapon that uses |
| and political communications, whilst also providing | | | | a laser system to temporarily blind the enemy. |
| us with the more humble webcam. Even with | | | | It's name? The Personnel Halting and Stimulation |
| Captain Kirk at its helm, the bold Starship | | | | Response (PHASR) gun. |
| Enterprise could also have been blindly going | | | | In today's fast-pace modern society, we all have |
| where no man had gone before - it had no | | | | days when we wish Scotty would just beam us |
| windows. Without the giant viewscreen on the | | | | up. Nobody's managed to turn the transporter into |
| bridge, Kirk and his crew would have been unable | | | | reality yet, but who knows? Maybe, quietly |
| to see where they were heading. It's strangely | | | | tucked away in a windowless laboratory |
| ironic to think that today's modern society can | | | | somewhere in our new civilization, someone's |
| view Star Trek DVDs via their flatscreen TV. | | | | working on it! |