Physics and Star Trek/Talk

"Likewise, the writers used Neutronium to describe a type of dense (and dangerous) matter - this term is now used by many scientific researchers to describe the superdense matter found inside neutron stars."

I am utterly certain that the term "neutronium" predates Trek, though at the moment the earliest citation I can come up with is the Larry Niven short story "Neutron Star," which is copyright 1966: "In one blazing explosion most of the star would change from a compressed mass of degenerate matter to a closely packed lump of neutrons: neutronium, theoretically the densest matter possible in this universe." I'll bet you I can find a 1950s reference before I'm done.

Damn, out-did myself! Hal Clement's first story, "Proof," describes a spacefaring race of "neutronium" creatures who evolved in the Sun. It was published in ... wait for it ... 1942.

I didn't mean to imply that the writers created the term, only that they popularised it. Oppenheimer also used the term as far back as 1938. The reference for "neutronium" being popularised by Star Trek is from Lawrence M Krauss's book "The Physics of Star Trek", (1995), page 141. (Krauss holds the Chair of Physics at Case Western Reserve University). [1].

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Yes, but was Hal Clement using the word "neutronium" in its modern sense, or was he just using it as a made up scientific sounding word? (He might have also used electronium, and leptonium, and quarkium, and mesonium, and higgsbosonium, and gravitonium... all of which sound really scientific, but don't actually mean anything.)

On a another topic, article says:

Interestingly, the writers of Star Trek have inadavertently made numerous contributions of their own to the scientific world. Micromachines currently in research and development are almost universally called "Nanites", after the microscopic mechanical lifeforms invented for Star Trek - The Next Generation.

Not that I know much about micromachine research, but are they really universally called "nanites"? I'd love to see a reference for this. -- SJK

Try this - http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci514355,00.html

Universally is probably a bit strong, frequently would be better. There was a Time magazine cover story on Nanites (using that term).

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It seems to me this page raises interesting questions about what the limits are of what we should consider encyclopedic. There are zillions of different ways we can explore the connections in the world, e.g., between Star Trek and physics, between the Bible and the Koran, between Kant and Hegel, between mice and rats. Moreover, comparative essays about each of these things can take hugely different forms. Short of a review of the literature, essentially, many of those essays would constitute original research rather than encyclopedia articles.

I don't see any immediate problem with having an essay or even a whole set of pages saying how Star Trek got stuff wrong. What bothers me is the notion that a whole bunch of people might start a whole series of essays that constitute, essentially, original research on comparative this-and-that. I'm honestly not sure what to think about this yet, but my first impression is that this and similar articles would indeed constitute original research and not an encyclopedia article.

--Larry Sanger

Fine - I said it was whimsical :) We can remove it to somewhere else later. - MMGB

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In space no-one can hear you scream - ...

Surely this was the ad-line for the film Alien? sjc

Of course it was, and if I was using it to try and promote a film, I would be violating copyright. Using it as a phrase in this context constitutes fair usage.