We all know about Geordi’s visor and Picard’s heart. Compared to the devices we have now the sci-fi versions are light years ahead…or are they? Thanks to a recent breakthrough, machines that directly link to living things (i.e. humans) could become a reality. All this fabulous new science has the potential to lead to super cool ways of repairing humans who need it. Now…how to keep it out of the Borg’s hands…hmmmm?...

Devices that connect with the human body’s processes are being explored for biological sensing or for prosthetics, but they typically communicate using electrons, which are negatively charged particles, rather than protons, which are positively charged hydrogen atoms, or ions, which are atoms with positive or negative charge.

“So there’s always this issue, a challenge, at the interface – how does an electronic signal translate into an ionic signal, or vice versa?” said lead author Marco Rolandi, a UW assistant professor of materials science and engineering. “We found a biomaterial that is very good at conducting protons, and allows the potential to interface with living systems.”

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We love new technological advancements that seem like first steps toward Star Trek tech. Here’s another one that we found recently that is headed in the direction of the Medical Tricorder.

The Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering IOF has recently announced a new imaging system that can take microscopic images quickly, by hand, and without blurring. These images can be used for medical diagnoses, such as skin cancer.

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We all love Data and his quest to be more human. It makes us feel special as human beings that he would hold us in such high esteem. Watching the early episodes of Next Gen, I notice that it’s his quirky pre-programmed mannerisms, speech patterns & movements that seem to initiate this quest. In one episode he talks about a randomizing algorithm that controls his blinking so he will fit in better and put humans interacting with him at ease. It’s just these kinds of things that scientists at Georgia Institute of Technology are starting to think about while working on the latest robots.

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One of our readers brought a new skin repair technique for burn victims to our attention. On a segment from a National Geographic video, the inventor of this new technology calls it a stem-cell gun, although it looks more like a bulky air brush to us. It sprays stem-cells taken from the burn victim back onto the wounded area of skin. Unlike a skin graft that can take months to heal, and is prone to infection, the Skin Gun can be used to heal burn-damaged skin in a matter of days. While we watched this video we couldn’t help but think that this leap in medical technology seemed just like a real-life step toward technology we’ve been seeing on Star Trek for decades. Seeing the perfect looking new skin that healed in only 4 days, on one of the first trial patients, is so astounding it gave us goose bumps!

You can watch the video below.

Please be aware that some of the images in the video are graphic.

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“Tea. Earl Gray. Hot.”  As I’m sure many of you have, I’ve wanted to say that line to a cube shaped hole in the wall for the last 24 years or so. Now, we may be one step closer to getting our collective wish. What started as a project at Cornell University is currently being tested out at the French Culinary Institute in Manhattan, a 3D food printer.

OK, so it’s not a replicator like we’re used to seeing on Star Trek, but it does seem to indicate that the scientists are actively trying to get there. For now, this 3D food printer is quite a bit like the replicator technology NASA is working on only in food form. It builds the desired food out of multiple fine layers of said food in a paste form.

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Hey kids, we found Vulcan! …or is that Vulcan 2, since the first one was destroyed? …uurrr, well, technically when they mention Vulcan while talking about this new planet, they are referencing the god of fire from Roman mythology. However, maybe we can start a write in campaign to have the new planet’s name changed permanently to Vulcan for our own selfish purposes. In any case, we find it exciting that scientists are still looking to the skies, trying to push the limits of our Earthly boundaries. With all the new discoveries it’s just a matter of time before we take to the stars ourselves.

NASA’s Kepler mission (named for the space telescope) has discovered Kepler-10b, its first rocky planet outside our solar system. Its surface is thought to be more than 2500 degrees Fahrenheit (hotter than lava flows on Earth), so I doubt we’ll be moving there anytime soon, but hey, at least they’re looking.

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Okay fellow Trek Fans, “hold on to yer hats and glasses, cuz this here’s the wildest ride in the Universe!” Star Trek predicts (or is that, directs) the future once again. We just found reports of a functional holodeck. Notice we didn’t say “fully” functional, as it doesn’t have force-field or replicator technology yet, but with the aid of fancy 3D glasses it’s pretty close. …Computer, Arch!

This Holodeck is actually the Duke immersive Visual Environment (DiVE), a six-sided structure that, when sealed, becomes a seamless virtual reality atmosphere built to enhance teaching, research and design planning. The chamber is 10 feet on each side. Each wall, including the floor and ceiling, functions as a large computer screen. Six computers control full-color projectors - one per wall - and a seventh is the master computer.

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You may remember us reporting on advancements in cloaking technology in earlier articles . It seems that they’ve come up with new applications for this budding tech. A new mathematical theory takes current cloaking technology in several directions at once. One of the new applications can potentially cloak events in both time and space.

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Watching "Star Trek: Generations", who hasn't wanted their very own version of Stellar Cartography. Thanks to NASA, it's now available. Called "Eyes on the Solar System" and developed by Caltech & JPL, it's a 3-D environment full of real NASA mission data. According to the "Eyes on the Solar System" website you can explore the cosmos from your computer. Hop on an asteroid. Fly with NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft. See the entire solar system moving in real time. It's up to you. You control space and time.

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