Just in time, the Enterprise transporter beams Star Trek’s Captain Kirk and Dr. McCoy away from the frozen asteroid Rura Penthe. It lets them escape from a hospital elevator on 20th-century Earth. It beams furry Tribbles to a Klingon warship.
Throughout hundreds of TV episodes and various movies, the transporter has dematerialized Star Trek characters and beamed them to their destinations. Why did series creator Gene Roddenberry choose teleportation as a travel device? Not for the reasons you probably think. He had limited money for special effects, and the transporter was a cheap way to get characters from the Enterprise to their destinations. So then, why don't we use real transporters? The answer lies in the laws of physics.
Beam Me Up?
Taking people apart isn't so easy, especially at the level of the atom, say physicists. Your body has about 10^28 atoms. That's a I followed by 28 zeroes. Electric fields hold them all together in complex molecular patterns. Much stronger forces hold each atom together. Breaking all those bonds would require heating you to millions and millions of degrees. Talk about sunburned.
If you tried to turn those atoms into energy, it would be even more difficult. For that, you'd need about 100,000-ton nuclear explosions. Either way, dematerializing someone would be quite violent. Even if you succeeded, how would any transporter rebuild the person?
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة November/December 2023 من Muse Science Magazine for Kids.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة November/December 2023 من Muse Science Magazine for Kids.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
HOUSE OF CARDS
TRY THE PERFECT EXPERIMENT—AND THEN REFLECT ON HOW IT WENT.
ACCIDENTALLY Delicious
Have you ever been really hungry, but there wasn't much to eat in your kitchen? Did you throw together a bunch of stuff you had on hand and were pleasantly surprised when it tasted good?
IS YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA FEED TOO PERFECT?
EVERYONE'S LIFE CAN APPEAR PERFECT ON SOCIAL MEDIA. On YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, and similar apps, people tend to share their happiest, most picturesque moments. They carefully compose any text to get the message just right. They use filters and enhancements to glam up images and videos. The app sorts the posts with the most likes and comments to the top. The end result? All you see of others' lives is the best of the best.
Art ALERT!
THE CASE OF THE MASTERPIECE THAT WASN'T
MARYAM ZARINGHALAM
SCIENCE POLICY FELLOW AND WRITER
Lost Cat Treks More Than 800 Miles to Get Home
Rayne Beau (pronounced RANE-BO, as in \"rainbow\") is a two-year-old Siamese cat.
EASY AS ABC
But in number theory, well, it's complicated.
That Wanaka Tree Gets a Companion
\"THAT WANAKA TREE,\" AS IT'S CALLED, IS A FAMOUS WILLOW TREE THAT GROWS OUT OF LAKE WANAKA ON THE SOUTH ISLAND OF NEW ZEALAND.
Two College Students Devise Smart Glasses That Can ID People
YOU'RE WAITING FOR THE SUBWAY WITH A COUPLE OF YOUR FRIENDS.
Two Comb Jellies Can Fuse Their Bodies Together to Become One
COMB JELLIES ARE GELATIN-LIKE AND MOSTLY SEETHROUGH INVERTEBRATES, OR ANIMALS WITHOUT A BACKBONE, THAT FLOAT IN THE OCEAN NEAR SHORE.
