The 'sci' behind the 'fi'
As the voyagers of the Starship Enterprise boldly went to explore new worlds week after week on Star Trek, they used a host of futuristic technologies — including tricorders, holodecks, teleportation systems and warp drives — that may have seemed almost beyond possibility to many of the shows’ (and movies’) legion of devoted viewers. But, say many scientists (including some from MIT) interviewed on a new program airing on public television, real science and technology is starting to catch up to — and sometimes even surpass — some parts of that future.The program, Science Trek, is hosted by LeVar Burton, better known as Geordi on Star Trek: The Next Generation. Among the technologies discussed on the program is the visor that Geordi (who, in the show, was supposedly blind from birth) always wore over his eyes, which not only restored his vision but allowed him to see some things ordinary...