How Baylor minds could make Star Trek a reality

The new Star Trek movie doesn’t come out until next May, and of course it’s set far further in the future than that. But here in 2008, the Discovery Channel and Wired magazine each recently covered the work of two Baylor physicists who have outlined how warp drive —  a faster-than-light engine that allowed interplanetary travel in the Star Trek universe — could be created. (For the scientifcally minded, read the whole paper here; some explanation of it is in the Baylor press release.)

Baylor doctoral student Richard Obousy and professor Dr. Gerald Cleaver admit that it’s a big step from writing theory to putting it into practice; Cleaver says it probably won’t be doable for several thousand years. Still, generations from now, it’s possible — possible — that the space pilots who make up the real-life equivalent of the Federation’s Starfleet will look back on the Baylor duo’s writings as the foundation of intergalactic travel.

Sic ’em, Baylor physicists!