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THE PHYSICS OF STAR TREK by Lawrence M. Krauss BasicBooks, 1995 18 pages; $20.00
IF YOU HAVE SEEN ALL THE EPISODES more than once, if you have a Starfleet Academy decal on your left rear car window, you already own this book. If, on the other hand, you reflexively switch channels whenever you hear Captain Kirk say "Beam me up," you will still enjoy reading it. To trekkies and sentient humans alike, Star Trek has become so much a part of popular culture that warp drives, photon torpedoes and transporters seem as real as toasters, flush toilets and self-defrosting refrigerators. It is time someone took a critical look at it all.
What makes Lawrence Krauss's book so enjoyable is his playful invitation to explore the boundary between physical possibility and dramatic license in the world of the future. How do you get...