Season 2 of the critically acclaimed
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds premiered June 15 (
streaming on Paramount+). So today,
Short Wave Scientist in Residence
Regina G. Barber chats with two Trekkie physicists about the science powering the show and why they love the franchise. Astrophysicist
Erin Macdonald is the science consultant for
Star Trek, and
Chanda Prescod-Weinstein is a theoretical physicist and author of the book
The Disordered Cosmos. This episode, the trio discusses not only the feasibility of warp drive, global cooperation and representation and how the transporters that beam crew members from the surface of a planet to the ship might be breaking fundamental laws of physics.
Questions about the "scientific" underpinnings of other pop culture? Email us at
shortwave@npr.org. We'd love to hear from you!
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