Real-life scientific connections in the Star Trek franchise: A talk

August 01, 2019 / 5:28 pm

caption: Mohamed Noor is a professor of biology and dean of natural sciences at Duke University. He is also a Trekkie.

Are we alone in the universe? What kind of life exists on other planets? What could that life LOOK like?

That yearning to satisfy these questions has even led to Facebook group events, half-jokingly planning to raid military bases — Area 51 — in hopes of finding some evidence to appease their longings.

But if you’d prefer skipping the dangers of invading a U.S. military base, and would like those questions answered, this talk presented by Pacific Science Center: Science In The City, might be for you.

Biologist Mohamed Noor delights in debunking and also making the real life scientific connections that are presented in the Star Trek franchise.

In his latest book Live Long and Evolve: What Star Trek Can Teach Us about Evolution, Genetics, and Life on Other Worlds, Noor uses his biologist and geneticist lens to discuss evolution. By highlighting the common ancestry of species on earth and theorizing, Noor examines just how the vast array of memorable characters displayed throughout the Star Trek Series could exist.

Mohamed Noor is a professor of biology and dean of natural sciences at Duke University. He is also a Trekkie who specializes in drosophila evolution. In 2008, he was awarded the Darwin-Wallace Medal from the Linnean Society of London.

This event took place at the Pacific Science Center IMAX Auditorium on July 29.