09-15-2021, 10:25 AM
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Master Modeler
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Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Fairbanks, Alaska
Posts: 6,507
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by ghrocketman
The "phoney" chemistry/elements/medications on Star Trek is really absurd.
#1 aspect of show that is awful/cringe-worthy/facepalm-causing.
If they offered Unobtainium and Stinkonium I would however approve.
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"Unobtainium" can also refer to meta-materials (chemical compounds, or physical arrangements of atoms or molecules, such as unusual crystal lattices [with special properties]) that are extremely hard and expensive--almost impossible, but not quite--to make. One in particular that I read about in the 1980s was "the totally invisible wine glass." Materials science and related technologies (such as in optical coatings) had, by that time, advanced to the point that it would be possible to make a wine glass that had no detectable reflection or refraction, making it invisible. But the article (in Omni, Popular Science, or Popular Mechanics) also said that unless some important use was found for such an object, it would cost so much to make--as much as a new weapon system--that no one would spend the money to do it. (I suspect that it will be done someday--if it hasn't already been done in secret--when even more advanced technology makes it far less expensive.) |