I'm doing it in reverse. Now that I finished this book, I'm going to start watching the series wity my smug face.


The book is concise, to the point, never dragging. Must read for Star trek fans

Baru kali ini saya benar-benar jatuh cinta sama fisika :) Krauss sukses membuat saya geleng-geleng kepala! Boleh jadi, inilah "kitab suci" paling lengkap buat penggemar Star Trek di seantero jagat raya, mulai dari generasi pertama Spock, Enterprise (Picard) hingga Deep Space Nine.

Krauss, Doktor Fisika MIT, belum apa-apa sudah mengawali buku ini dengan kata pengantar "super-kocak" yang ditulis oleh satu dari tiga fisikawan terbesar abad ini: Stephen Hawking, yang ternyata juga penggemar berat Star Trek.

Selanjutnya, silahkan anda terpana dengan segenap teori fantastis seputar peredam kejut, mesin waktu, black-hole, worm-hole, dunia multi-dimensi, teleportasi, warp, mesin materi-anti materi, dll.

Fisika Star Trek adalah membenturkan hukum-hukum fisika ke dalam kekonyolan fiksi-ilmiah ala sineas pembuat naskah serial ini. Dalam bentuknya yang lain, Krauss -meminjam istilah Einstein- menantang sci-fi untuk tampil di dunia kasat mata. Serta mengubah mimpi jadi nyata.

This was, above everything else, a fun read. I'm not the biggest Star Trek fan admittedly, but I am a casual fan and I know enough about it to have been intrigued by this book. It really was a fascinating read. An easy read as well, but it tricks you. You're learning an awful lot when you read it, because it puts the intimidating notion of science and physics into a perspective that we can all understand. What we see on TV.

Interesting enough. Krauss seemed to wander off more into the physics of the universe more than of Star Trek, but lucky for me that's pretty interesting, too. There was a lot of explaining why this and that were 'physicsly' impossible. I could understand and agree with his opinions and explanations, but at the same time I do not think he gave enough allowance to the 'and now for something completely different' scientific discovery. Spent way too much time on the transporter,
This is a science book. It's only science, relating to the series. I think the average reader will become quickly bored.

I read the 2007 “fully revised and updated” version of The Physics of Star Trek. On the back cover of the paperback are these two sentences which clearly describe the book.

“How does the Star Trek universe stack up against the real universe? Find out what the series creators got right — and wrong — about science in this fascinating guide.”

One of the things that they got wrong was the holodeck. Yes, such things as holograms exist, but they are just images, not physical people and objects. This was disappointing to read because it means that I can’t have a holodeck installed in my house so that I can fully indulge my private fantasies.

In other places in the book, you find that the writers have the correct concept but are wrong on the details. When Data and guest character Dr. Marr searched for the Crystalline Entity by tracing the annihilation radiation, they had the right idea, but were looking for radiation with the wrong number of electron volts. And the number that they used is in the X-ray band, not the gamma-ray band as stated on the show.

Interestingly, the area where there is hope for a Star Trek style future is in traveling tremendous distances even though you can’t go faster than the speed of light. Consider these lines from the foreword by Stephen Hawking.

“Fortunately, Einstein's general theory of relativity allows the possibility for a way around this difficulty: one might be able to warp space-time and create a shortcut between the places one wanted to visit. Although there are problems of negative energy, it seems that such warping might be within our capabilities in the future.”

The book can sometimes get deeper into the weeds than some readers may want. For example, in a section on Quantum Measurements, it is stated that we should not use classical physics language to try to explain quantum physics. Instead, classical mechanics should be understood in terms of the proper quantum mechanical variables.

Still, it is an interesting book. You are introduced to many concepts of physics which are presented in the context of stories you have seen in the original Star Trek series, the subsequent Star Trek series, and the Star Trek movies. I enjoyed reading it.

This book can be very interesting for someone who loves Star Trek as well as Physics. On several occasions episode titles are referenced to, and it could be interesting to pay attention to the matter dealt for that episode while also viewing it. These can also be directly navigated from within the index at the end of the book; I would certainly be doing the same.

Section One deals with Inertial Dampers, Tractor Beams, Time Travel, Warp Speeds, Deflector Shields, Wormholes, and other Space-time Stuff. How they are used, its physics and possibilities. If anyone has read a certain couple of books by Michio Kaku (or any Popular Science books on Physics), these ideas would be nothing new. This was precisely the reason why it failed to fascinate me because personally I have already read much about these. For a newbie, it can strike to be extremely appealing, no doubt!

Section Two deals with Transporter Beams, Warp Drives, Dilithium Crystals, Matter-Antimatter Engines, and the Holodeck. This was more interesting to read than the earlier, having comprised of subjects and ideas that fascinate me much.
With transporter beams, the writer talks about the possibilities of transporting matter as information or as atoms themselves, and how could it be ever done if possible. The details of how "dematerializing" would work have been very nicely explained, along-with how much energy is required to perform the teleportation, how that can be attained, and its feasibility in real life. It also talks about the thought of how a presence of a soul has studiously been avoided in Star Trek, but that at the same time the notion of a "life force" has been embedded in its themes in various episodes.
Its following chapter deals with Matter-Antimatter related problems, why matter should or is relatively lesser than antimatter in the universe, and how it can be produced and used for Warp Drives in real life perhaps in the twenty-third century for Space Travel.

Section Three involved a complete chapter dealing with the possibility of various kinds of life in the universe. Its following chapter dealt with a selection of ten exotic physics possibilities including the Dark Matter, Neutron Stars, Cosmic Strings, Anyons, Other Dimensions, Quantum Measurements, Solitons, Quasars, and Neutrinos. The final chapter was based upon selection of ten errors in Star Trek.

Upon reading, I felt more of a need to view more of the Trek Episodes, while also reading through a couple of their novels. Personally, I have never viewed a single episode from Deep Space Nine, Voyager and the Enterprise series and would like to do so soon. But their references were truly interesting anyway. Mr. Krauss has explained most of the ideas with good detailing and being as concise as possible for a layman's understanding of the various concepts.
A 4-star rating from me, having read much of the topics in other Popular Science books before, the only fascination for me being in context with Star Trek, and a few of its relevant notions.

elibrary

The greatest book about Star Trek!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Quite an enjoyable read, but somewhat inconsistent.
The topics addressed in this book are very promising, but in order to actually get to the point you either need to have some previous knowledge or do a small research. As I am the former one, some explanations mentioned in this book really got on my nerve, for example, folding spacetime, which seems to be present in any book I read. Some topics were more advanced, some were basic, so it's not actually obvious for whom this book is intended. Plus, I would have loved it if the information was more organised, instead of the writer going on and on about the same thing all over again, when the attention should have been addressed to something else.
Still, I give this book its well-earned 4 stars, because it piqued my interest and pointed out some of the less obvious scientific marvels and blunders in Star Trek. Now I really wish there was a more recent book like this, which included the most recent treks and DS9, as the writer avoided it for the whole book except the last chapter. And another one, which would present the same topics on a more advanced level, because I am starving for more!
P.S. It was quite amusing to read about "the power of modern computers" in 2021, as well as about the presumed black hole in the center of M87.

We are all so impatient and categorical, often forgetting that our technological civilization is still ridiculously young; we practically just gave up swaddling and are now trying to hold our heads up confidently. Our eyes are already looking around with great curiosity and our hands are trying to grab everything they are able to reach. It has only been a couple of decades since we were able to go to space and turn mobile communications into an affordable, everyday thing. But our fantasies know no limit, and impatience is, indeed, painful. We cannot help but fall into panic and despondency from the impossibility of doing everything at once.

If physics is not your cup of tea and you are afraid of picking up this book, I will assure you that there are no scientific formulas (other than Einstein's rudimentary E=mc²) on its pages and Krauss does not terrorize his readers who fell for Star Trek with any groundbreaking scientific information. No special physics knowledge is required for reading this book whatsoever.

The ease of narration does not negate the cognitive value of the book at all. This book is read with impatient interest and the horizons that open up before the reader are rosy and fill you with a desire to drop everything and start bingewatching another season of Star Trek.

Lacking in whimsy and excitement. Half-hazzard. Under-developed.

I picked this up randomly in the library, because it looked short and interesting... but eh. It was only slightly worth the effort. His language is too much a mixture of trifling observational comments about Star Trek in general, along with elevated science vocabulary that is not very well explained.

Most of the topics he explores barely have anything to do with Star Trek. Chapter eight, for instance, about the Big Bang and evolution and aliens, hardly had any Star Trek references. And as for the specific Star Trek gadgets he does decide to talk about, he's lacking in his selection. What about the replicators, or gravity machines, or communicators, or the computer? He may mention most Star Trek technologies, but he doesn't really launch into explaining even half of them.

Instead Krauss seems to get distracted by his favorite physics and cosmology techno-babble, which is not very well written. He tries to translate it for the common layman, but I don't think he does a good job. When he starts listing numbers and new atomic particles I started to tune out. At least his writing style is somewhat loose, and conversational, and evening inviting sometimes. But I would have much rather preferred a deeper, more focused investigation into specific Star Trek technology.

It's also a little out of date. This was written around 1999, and he only focuses on the original series, Voyager, and Next Generation, with maybe two references to Deep Space Nine, and nothing about Enterprise or the new relaunch.

I loved reading this book. It is perfect for a Trekkie who loves and appreciates science! Dr. Krauss (who we were fortunate to hear speak earlier this year) is an excellent writer and communicator of complex science to the casual "armchair" scientist. He covers many of the basic foundational technologies portrayed in the universe of Star Trek, and explains them and their implications in terms of proven laws and practices of physics and the the scientific method. A great read for even the casual Trekkie who loves science. I highly recommend this book! I am looking forward to reading Dr. Krauss's newest book "The Greatest Story Ever Told--So Far: Why Are We Here?" which my daughter got signed by him when we heard him speak. He is a great communicator and teacher.