UA graduate, science consultant offers closer look at Star Trek

Ian Mayer Arizona Daily Wildcat Star Trek Science Consultant Andre Bormanis, a UA graduate, described the concepts behind the TV show to about 250 people in the Physics and Atmospheric Sciences Building last night. Bormanis told the audience that "worm holes" could be gateways from one side of the galaxy to the other.

But this time, they weren't sitting in front of their television sets.

Fans got a peek behind the scenes of their favorite TV show, and learned a bit about astronomy and physics at the same time.

Andre Bormanis, a University of Arizona alum, aims to blend scientific principles with Star Trek's dramatic screenwriting. One of his goals is to make the Enterprise's "warp drives" sound believable, he said.

"We wanted to have a certain degree of credibility," Bormanis said. "We wanted to describe this thing as an engineer would describe a complex propulsion system."

Bormanis told a crowd of about 250 last night in the UA Physics and Atmospheric Sciences Building about his path onto the set of one of the longest running science-fiction shows.

After graduating from the UA in 1983 with a bachelors degree in engineering and physics, Bormanis said his love of writing led him to seek a career as a scriptwriter in Hollywood.

While trying to pitch stories to Star Trek producers, he landed a job as a science consultant instead.

Keeping the show's technical jargon consistent throughout more than 300 episodes has proven challenging, Bormanis said.

"It's a very carefully constructed and internally consistent universe," he said.

Bormanis said many of the minute details in the show are based on scientific principles. Many of the cosmic landscapes that the show's heroes fly through - such as nebulae and supernovas - are found in the real universe, he said.

But Bormanis said he doesn't feel uncomfortable stretching scientific possibilities for the sake of a good script.

"Science is about asking questions," he said. "It's not just accepting what an authority tells you is true."

Bormanis said he believes that the program inspires the next generation of scientists and engineers.

"About half the scientists I know that are my age or younger have cited Star Trek as one of the reasons they went into science," he said.

Astrophysicist David Batchelor of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center agreed.

"It's almost the only show that depicts scientists and engineers positively, as role models," he said. "Usually if you have a scientist you have an evil scientist."

Batchelor, who mentioned Star Trek as one of the reasons he first became interested in science, now teaches students how to do research.

His essay, "The Science of Star Trek", is posted on the World Wide Web. The paper lists the show's various technological wonders in order of credibility.

The ship's computer is at the top of the list.

"Most of the things it does are within the plausible realm of artificial intelligence that computer scientists anticipate," Batchelor wrote in the essay.

The "Warp Drive", however, is near the bottom.

"Physicists of today understand the space-time continuum rather well, and there is very good reason to think that no object can move faster than the speed of light," Batchelor wrote. "This doesn't stop scientists like the great expert on relativity and quantum theory, Stephen Hawking, from enjoying the fun of the TV series, however."

While one Star Trek show, Deep Space Nine, will be ending after this season, Bormanis plans to continue working for Star Trek: Voyager. He is also working on a series of science education packets that will eventually be put on the official Star Trek Web site.

While Bormanis' publications focus on more down-to-earth science, his dreams of elaborate possibilities will live on through Star Trek.

"In a universe where a movie like 'Waterboy' can make $40 million in its first weekend, anything can happen," he said.