Leonard Nimoy passed away on February 27, at the age of 83 in his Los Angeles home, as a result of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). Best known for playing Mr. Spock on the "Star Trek" television series and eight movies, the actor may have felt trapped, at times, by his most famous role. However, the series, and Nimoy himself, were partly responsible for inspiring advances in science that people around the globe use on a daily basis.
Communicators were a fictional device in the 1960's, when the original series first aired. In an age when telephones were large, bulky devices attached by a cord to a wall, characters on Star Trek were walking around with tiny communication devices. Today, modern cell phones provide the ability to stay in touch with others from anywhere with reception. In some ways, real-life technology has surpassed the science-fiction dream - although voice transmissions were possible using the fictional devices, they could not send pictures, take video, or surf Twitter.
Medical tricorders on Star Trek were able to heal wounds using energy, without pain or creating further injury. In the modern world, lasers are being used to graft skin, and repair damaged retinas in eyes.
The Qualcomm Tricorder XPRIZE competition offers a seven million dollar grand prize to any company able to develop a medical tricorder capable of measuring several vital signs, and check for diseases. Advances are already being made toward such a device.
"As if it is reading your mind, the Scanadu Scout provides valuable data about your body. All that information just by placing it on your forehead," developers of one of the devices stated.
One of the greatest inventions in the Star Trek universe were replicators, able to create any object or material requested by a user. In the science-fiction time line, these devices were said to have ended poverty on Earth, by making the necessities of life so inexpensive they could be delivered to all the people around the globe. Modern 3D printers are able to create small objects, composed of certain materials, and new research could soon develop a device capable of quickly building houses, providing shelter for many homeless people.
Spock was said to be a hybrid child of a human mother and Vulcan father. Normally, such a breeding would be impossible (at least for more than a single generation), but recent advances are allowing researchers to explore the possibility of cross-species intermingling.
"Could half-human/half-alien hybrids ever exist, like Mr. Spock? It seems almost impossible, but with recombinant DNA, our scientists have already created interspecies hybrids. Mr. Spock is not totally beyond biochemical reality, but definitely at the edge," David Allen Batchelor of the Goddard Space Flight Center wrote for NASA.
Although Leonard Nimoy has passed away, his influence, and that of Star Trek, will continue to live on, inspiring new technologies, and young scientists.
