# Star Trek gets it right again...(Organic sci-fi applications) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 12, 2018, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-gets-it-right-again-organic-sci-fi-applications/825994 "2018-12-12T15:16:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2018, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-gets-it-right-again-organic-sci-fi-applications/825994/1 "2018-12-12T15:16:36Z")
In the Voyager episodes involving the Equinox, we find the Equinox is harvesting living organisms to fuel their amped up warp drive. Voyager is startled from a moral point of view, but I don’t really recall them being surprised from a tech POV. That’s some forward thinking there since as an audience member there was definitely a disconnect for me. Same in Star Trek Discovery and their spore drive. Again I don’t really remember how shocked the cast is, but as an audience member it’s kinda best described as ‘unsettling’? Ooogie?? A little less so in Enterprise where the doc uses all kinds of organic remedies. But…Star Trek gets it right again: [https://phys.org/news/2015-07-bacteria-superfluids.html](https://phys.org/news/2015-07-bacteria-superfluids.html) Thats a link about bacteria-filled water being used as a superfluid. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2018, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-gets-it-right-again-organic-sci-fi-applications/825994/2 "2018-12-12T15:49:51Z")
Huh. At first I thought this was just going to be about water with appropriate-sized solid particles suspended in it, and bacteria were just a convenient, easy-to-produce particle of that size. But no, it’s actually about something that living (but not dead) bacteria are actually doing, probably “swimming” against the current. Effectively, it’s like using the bacteria as tiny beasts of burden. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2018, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-gets-it-right-again-organic-sci-fi-applications/825994/3 "2018-12-12T19:12:35Z")
Where does the “again” come in? ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2018, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-gets-it-right-again-organic-sci-fi-applications/825994/4 "2018-12-12T20:12:33Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Where does the “again” come in? Predicting our futures tech. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2018, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-gets-it-right-again-organic-sci-fi-applications/825994/5 "2018-12-12T21:06:41Z")
This is a big deal? 😕 I’ve known for ages that if you leave some foods sitting around the kitchen long enough they get all runny and watery. _Of course_ bacteria are responsible; it’s not the work of elves who come in the middle of the night! ---
**Author:** ![Elmore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e9a140/32.png) [@Elmore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmore)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2018, 8:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-gets-it-right-again-organic-sci-fi-applications/825994/6 "2018-12-13T08:53:41Z")
Maybe not where _you_ live.