Krauss, Lawrence

• The Physics of Star Trek

  • I had to read this rather quickly during the spring of 1996 since it is one of many books I am considering as a required reading for an Astronomy seminar I'm teaching in the Fall. Basically, this is a fairly well-written book that uses Star Trek as a hook to teach people some basic concepts of Physics. Krauss covers a lot of the interesting scientific and philosophical questions I've often wondered about (he and I share a common viewpoint in that the implications of transporters are probably the most profound), and he does a good job covering the basics of Physics without resorting to much "technobabble" (as the series is famous for). Though I'm not really a big follower of any of the series any more, I was able to read around most of his references (and he does have quite a few specific references, even to episodes as recent as the current season of "Voyager") to get to the heart of the matter and, at times, envision what he was talking about from my own memory of the show. If you like Trek and are looking for a good, light Astronomy book to read in the wake of all the excitement generated lately by the Hubble Space Telescope, this isn't a bad place to start, once it comes out in paperback, though I have reviewed better popular science books. I give this about a 7 out of 10.

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