While I barely understood much of what this book contains, I did glean something from it: Star Trek writers were not making it all up. Roddenberry evidently had highly educated consultants right from the beginning. Some things, like transporting physical and organic matter, are difficult to fathom especially for a physicist. Krauss covers pretty much everything from sound unable to travel in the vacuum of space down to minute neutrino particles small enough to pass between atoms that make up our bodies. I'm not intrigued enough to take any physics courses, but I now have a greater respect for the Star Trek universe and those brainiac writers.

ótimo para quem gosta pensar sobre a ciência que aparece na ficção. recomendo fortemente

Se avete la prima edizione di questo libro (uscito nel 1995) vi consiglio l'acquisto di questa nuova edizione. Nuova in senso lato perché pur essendo la ristampa del 2023, si riferisce all'edizione ampiamente rimaneggiata da Krauss nel 2009.
Infatti mentre i concetti e spiegazioni espressi nel primo libro sono rimasti validi, i 14 anni trascorsi tra le due edizioni hanno visto rilevanti progressi nella fisica avanzata per cui era necessario rimettere a posto alcuni tasselli. Vero che dal 2009 (Krauss non sembra intenzionato ad un nuovo aggiornamento) tanta acqua scientifica è passato sotto i ponti (cito su tutti la rilevazione del bosone di Higgs e delle onde gravitazionali) ma l'analisi condotta in questa edizione è sufficiente per saziare gli appetiti dei trekkers "fisici" (e ce ne sono tanti specie tra fisici top come, oltre a Krauss, i vari Hawking, Thorne, Weinberg, Sheldon Glashow, etc).
Lettura agevole ma non semplicistica che soddisfa chi va oltre il semplice (per quanto gradevole) intrattenimento.

Vale la pena sottolineare qui la profonda differenza tra mondo anglosassone ed europeo nel loro interfacciarsi a tematiche "pop". Mentre i primi non nascondono la loro attitudine Nerd iniziata in giovane età (The Big Bang Theory riassume bene chi puoi incontrare alla Caltech), in Europa (in primis Italia) i fisici top come Rovelli (che si occupa di gravità quantistica a loop) nei loro libri sono più a loro agio a interfacciarsi con la cultura classica e filosofia magari con ospitate da Fazio e ben poco con "l'essenza Nerd"

Za svaki dio koji sam razumio, bilo je dva dijela koja nisam. Iako fizika nije nešto što ću u skoroj budućnosti tako lako razumijeti, iz ove se knjige svašta zanimljivo može izvući u vezi interpolacije stvarnosne fizike i znanosti općenito u "Zvjezdane staze", serijal koji je poznat po svojoj ozbiljnoj prirodi kad je u pitanju probabilnost budućnosne tehnologije, za razliku od, npr. "Ratova zvijezda", koji su čista fantastika. Definitivno vrijedno čitanja za fanove, ima ugodnih trenutaka kad se pisac osvrće na sve što su točno opisali/prenijeli u seriju, ali i još zabavnijih kad su u potpunosti pogriješili. Ugh, da bar razumijem fiziku bolje.

This was great- Krauss weaves in a ton of information about real-world physics by discussing the fictional world of Star Trek- a must for any lover of both ST and physics! My 6 year old and I opened this up to discuss a bunch of things (he's been into black holes and wormholes lately) and it really interested him. Hm, maybe I can get him to be a Trekkie! Here's hoping! Oh, also I understand neutrinos now a tiny bit? And I had no clue what they were before, so...it's well-written for a physics novice reader!

I did enjoy this. I'm sure if I were more of a scientist (and more of a Trekkie) I would have enjoyed a great deal more. It is full of interesting facts about the physical world and universe, and I do appreciate Professor Krauss effort to not drown it in technical language. For scientists and Trekkies I'm sure it would be an absolute delight.

This is one of my favourite popular science books of all time. Unless of course time travel one day becomes possible and I travel back in time and discover a popular science book I like better before I read this one.

Of course, The Physics of Star Trek is not really about Star Trek at all, and I was puzzled to see comments from reviewers who thought it was aimed at sci fi fans, or about what physicists like to watch on TV. Krauss is simply using the much loved (and often lovingly derided) series as a way of taking a fresh look at physics, at what might be possible: a starting point for an engaging and entertaining tour of some aspects of physics and cosmology.

Everybody - sci fan or otherwise - knows what a transporter beam does. And nobody can have failed to notice the pace of technological progress - we live in a world where you can send a text message to your phone and have it reply with its spacial coordinates within minutes, using two separate satellite systems. Next year's model will do even more, faster and in 3D. So it's just a matter of time until we get transporter beams, many people think. Talking robots. Warp drive. We'll go to the stars one day.

Some are even affronted at the very idea that there may be limits to technological progress - "Good Technical detail, narrowminded author" wrote one Amazon UK reviewer, adding "All through the book he tells of the impossible energy requirements to accomplish many things, such as warpspeed, but they're only impossible according to current knowledge. Go back to BC times and ask their scientists about flying machines: impossible." Many argue, like creationists, that since science has sometimes been wrong and all knowledge is essentially provisional, how dare some jumped-up eminent professor of physics suggest that we cannot make up any imaginary technology we like the sound of and boldly go anywhere we damn well want in the future, in anti-gravity boots if we feel like it. Anything is possible, given time and steady progress. Dream it and wait.

But some of these things are more feasible than others, and there has to be a limit. Science is not magic, it is about discovering how our universe works, and it is constrained by what actually is. What would it actually take to make, say, a transporter beam (and what would it really do?) An interstellar spacecraft? What makes it impossible today and what breakthrough would make it possible in principle? As someone who grew up loving science fiction and fully expecting to be wearing a silver suit and going to work in a hovercar by 2000, I find this fascinating and a great way of approaching physics. We know what the technology of the future should be like, because we grew up with it - so where is it?

Krauss attempts to answer some of these questions.

Μια καλή ανασκόπηση της Φυσικής με αφορμή τα λάθη στην τηλεοπτική σειρά Star Trek.

This was a slightly more technical read than I had expected. I appreciate the author’s attempt to explain the physics errors in Star Trek while still being respectful of the franchise. I learned a lot from this read and greatly enjoyed the author’s perspective from the field of physics. I would recommend this read to any Star Trek fan, just have an open mind.

This was a really interesting book for anyone who enjoys Star Trek. I have really only seen the original series so I will definitely be reading this again after checking out the other installments of the show since a lot of the discussion is from the later series. Having some background in Physics helps, but is not needed.

V

Above my level of intellect but I still enjoyed the book. I’ve only seen a few episodes and the newer movies so most references went over my head but with the references I did know it was good. Would recommend to certain people