This chat was part of the live coverage of Paramount's official celebration of Star Trek's 30th anniversary, held in Huntsville, Alabama.

Andre Bormanis, science adviser to Star Trek.

Question: What is your background as a science advisor? Which science is your favorite? Physics, Chemistry or Biology?

Andre Bormanis: My favorite science is astronomy. My background is physics and astronomy. I did graduate work in astrophysics at the University of Arizona. I also had a NASA fellowship at the Space Policy Institute in Washington DC. I also studied screenwriting at Arizona State University. So I had the right mix of science and creative writing background that they were looking for at Star Trek.

Q: Is the Star Trek's technology obtained from actual science studies? (Excuse my English, I'm from Buenos Aires - Argentina)

AB: Many of the technologies and scientific phenomena we see in Star Trek are based on cutting edge research in physics, space science and engineering. I read about a dozen different scientific journals every week to keep up what's happening in the real world of science. I try to apply those ideas in the technical questions that come up in our scripts Sometimes, of course, on Star Trek we have to go beyond known science and then its mostly the imagination of our various writers that develop those concepts.

Q: What has been the significance of Star Trek in relation to its influence on science of today?

AB: Most of the scientists I know grew up watching Star Trek. So did I. I think Star Trek's biggest contribution to science has been in inspiring the current generation and the next generation of scientists to do great work.

Q: During the opening show of voyager, a volcano took place, how was that staged?

AB: The volcano eruption was created with computer-generated animation. I really don't know too much about how the special effects for the show are created. But I know increasingly we are relying on computer graphics to achieve effects that could not be created in any other way given our budgets.

Q: If the Enterprise traveled near the speed of light, say 0.9999c would they experience relativistic effects and be in trouble with star fleet for being "away" for 100 years or so?

AB: Yes! The Enterprise, when its traveling at impulse, typically stays below about 75 percent the speed of light. Much faster than that, and time dilation begins to become a significant factor.

Q: Has the generally high-tech intelligence of the average Star Trek fan made it difficult to produce realistic technology on the show?

AB: One of the biggest challenges of writing for Star Trek is keeping ahead of the extraordinary pace of technology development in the late 20th century. You can see this particularly in computer science. The computers on the original Enterprise seem somewhat primitive in comparison to modern computer technology. On the Next Generation, we specifically invented a fundamental unit of data called the quad. People always want to know how many bytes there are in a quad. We will never tell you! If we say, for example, that the main computer of the Enterprise has 80 gigaquads of memory, and we had established that 4 bytes make a quad (for example) we might look very primitive 20 years now when a typical desktop computer has twice as much RAM!

Q: How much do you contribute to the story lines, do you ever tell the writers "No way!"

AB: I don't contribute much to the story line. I do help writers with science concepts in their scripts as they are writing the scripts. Sometimes I do tell a writer that a certain concept just doesn't make any sense, but I always try to come up with an alternative for them that does make sense and will work in the context of their story.

Q: What singular technological breakthrough, in your opinion, would allow us to more rapidly realize space travel along the lines of the Star Trek model?

AB: Large scale production of antimatter. This would not give us warp drive capability but it would allow us to easily travel anywhere in the solar system and launch interstellar probes that could travel near the speed of light. It's my understanding that there is a group of scientists in Geneva Switzerland working on antimatter production techniques. Antimatter is currently only produced in very small quantities, that is, a few hundred particles or so at a time.

Q: Are wormholes completely fictitious, or are they based on current scientific theory?

AB: Wormholes are a consequence of the general theory of relativity. Kip Thorne, a physicist at Cal Tech, has studied wormholes extensively and it seems highly probable that they exist in nature. But they are thought to be very short-lived phenomena. In terms of using a wormhole for space travel, the problem would be finding a way to create a stable wormhole that a ship could pass through undamaged. As far as we know, this would require an exotic form of matter with strange features like negative mass. It is possible that such materials exist in nature or could be created.

Q: Why is gravity never an issue on episodes (even when ship's systems are damaged or non-functioning)?

AB: In Star Trek VI, when the Klingon ship was damaged they lost gravity control and we saw the Klingons floating around in their ship and saw their blood aggregate into spheres that also floated around in the ship. This was an extremely expensive effect to achieve and we simply couldn't do it a convincing way given the budget we have on the television series.

Q: I have noticed that many almost everything can be controlled by voice command...for example turning on lights in one's quarters...Was this influenced by the technology of the "Clapper"...clap on..clap off..the clapper...

AB: I think Star Trek influenced the creation of the Clapper! In a few more years I suspect I will have one connected to my computer.

Q: I have heard a lot of people say that when a planet explodes or a star that the energy wave that is emitted in Star Trek isn't possible due to the vacuum of space. Is this true?

AB: If a planet were to explode, it would generate gravitational waves. 20th century scientists have not yet detected gravitational waves but we believe they exist and several experiments are being developed to detect them. Gravitational waves of sufficient intensity would certainly rock the starship. There are also shock waves in space because space is not completely empty; it is not a perfect vacuum. Astronomers routinely study supernova remnants, like the Veil Nebula in Cygnus which is the consequence of the enormous shock wave created in interstellar space by an exploding star. The physics of the interstellar medium is an important branch of astrophysics.

Q: How far off is transporter technology from being conceivable if ever?

AB: The transporter is the one element of Star Trek technology that I don't think will ever be created, at least not in the way we represent the transporter on the show. On the show, we disassemble a person atom by atom, beam their atoms to a remote location and reassemble them. As far as we can tell today, this would require an enormous amount of energy and information storage capacity, not to mention the fact that you are essentially killing a person and then resurrecting them every time they use the transporter! Dr. McCoy's fears were well-grounded! However, some form of teleportation may be possible, perhaps by creating wormholes or some other kind of space-warp effect.

Q: Does anyone see my questions?

AB: Yes. I see them. The science consultant, the guy who's answering all these questions!

Q: With all this knowledge you have You must feel very proud to be part of the Star Trek family. How long have you worked with them , and is it best job ever had? Sorry I know its a loaded question?

AB: I love being part of the Star Trek family. I've been working for the show for just over 3 years and I'd say that yes, it probably is the best job I've ever had. One of the nice things about it is that it makes me stretch my imagination beyond the bounds of what I learned as I was studying physics and astronomy. The mix of real science and creative writing is extremely rewarding to me.

Q: Do you think the technology of Star Trek is actually foreshadowing actual things to come in our technological future?

AB: I do think that Star Trek, to some extent, foreshadows future technology, probably in the same way that some of the drawings of Leonardo Da Vinci foreshadowed some present day technologies, such as the helicopter.

Q: Do Star Trek computers use neural network technology?

AB: Yes. We're very explicit about this on Voyager, which features neural gel packs in its navigation system, and other computer systems. Neural networks are one of the most promising lines of research for developing computers that can mimic human thought processes as well as more efficiently evaluate sensory input, especially for image processing.

Q: How long do you feel it will be before we will be planting colonies on other planets or the moon.

AB: We may send the first human missions to Mars in the year 2011. The international space station which will be a kind of space colony, should be completed by the year 2002. As far as colonies on the Moon or Mars or other bodies in our solar system, it's difficult to say. Right now it would be extremely expensive, but hopefully breakthroughs in space technology over the course of the next 10 or 15 years will dramatically reduce the cost of traveling in space.

Q: How does a guy like me get a cool job like yours?

AB: I was very lucky to be in the right place at the right time with the right credentials. I had an agent who was trying to arrange a pitch meeting for me at Star Trek when she found out they needed a new science consultant. They interviewed me, they liked me, and they hired me. They needed me to start right when my NASA fellowship in Washington DC ended, so the timing worked out perfectly.

Q: Do you have any input on new ship designs?

AB: I don't have any input in new ship designs. They're mostly designed by Rich Sternbach, Star Trek's senior illustrator, who has a great deal of experience in aerospace artwork and a fairly strong background in aerospace technology.

Q: Steven Hawking was on the Star Trek: The Next Generation, did you get to meet him. If so what as it like talking to one of the greatest scientific minds of our century?

AB: I haven't met Stephen Hawking, but I did have the opportunity to see him speak at Cal Tech earlier this year. It was extraordinary just to be in the same room with him, and hear him share some of his most recent thoughts on the nature of space and time. When he did his guest appearance on Star Trek, I was not yet working for the show. I wish I had been!

Q: What is the maximum Warp Speed in The Star Trek Universe? I've heard it was warp 9.999... But on The final episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, In the future Riker gets the ship over warp 10!

AB: The warp speed scale is an exponential scale, with warp 10 corresponding to infinite velocity. In the original series, the Enterprise occasionally exceeded warp 10, as did the Enterprise in "All Good Things". In both cases, we assume the warp speed scale was calibrated differently. As starships evolve and can travel at higher and higher warp speeds for sustained periods of time, the warp scale is adjusted to avoid having to refer often to speeds like "warp 9.755". It's simply a matter of choosing the most convenient nomenclature.

Q: Is there anyone off of any of the Star Trek series, In-Front of or Behind the scenes, that inspires and influences you?

AB: Many people have been inspirational to me. Beyond my parents, certainly people like Steven Hawking, Carl Sagan, Ray Bradbury, and of course Gene Roddenberry, have opened my mind to the wonders of space and the infinite potential of the human race.

Q: Isn't traveling at or near the speed of light impossible due to the fact that time would stop if you reached it? How is this over come in Star Trek?

AB: If you could travel at the speed of light, time would indeed stop for you. When the Enterprise travels at warp 1, it is traveling not in normal space, but in warped space, at a speed comparable to the speed of light in normal space. In warp space, time dilation is not an issue as it is in normal space.

Q: If you could travel in space what area or system would you like to see, based on known science so far?

AB: I would love to explore the planet Mars. Later this year, the United States will launch 2 robotic spacecraft to Mars, and the Russians will launch one. They will begin sending back photos next summer and I can't wait to see them. I look forward to the day when I can put on a pair of virtual reality goggles and explore the surface of Mars by scanning a database of imagery compiled by Mars spacecraft. I suspect that that day is not too far in the future.

Q: When the Enterprise flies by the camera, why is there an engine noise? I thought in space no one could hear anything.

AB: In the first year of the original series, the Enterprise didn't make a noise as it traveled through space. This is as it should be because, as you know, sound cannot propagate through the near-vacuum of space. The television executives at the time, however, felt that it would be more dramatic to hear a whooshing jet aircraft kind of sound as the Enterprise whipped past the camera, and this sound effect has become ingrained in the current movie and TV series.

Q: How will the discovery of life in Mars rocks affect future Star Trek episodes?

AB: The Mars rock has certainly rekindled interest in the question of life in space. In Jeri Taylor's new Star Trek novel, "Mosaic," she very presciently describes a young Janeway discovering fossils on the planet Mars. We don't have any plans to feature such a discovery on the current series, but it's not out of the question that something like this remarkable discovery will find its way into a future episode.

Q: Have you written a book about Star Trek science? If not, why not?!?!

AB: I am going to be doing a book about Star Trek science for Pocket Books. It will probably be published late next or sometime in 1998.

Q: Do you believe there is intelligent life out there some where, anywhere?????

AB: I think there very probably is other intelligent life in he universe, almost certainly. But there may be different forms of intelligence. Dolphins and whales, for example, are very intelligent creatures but their "minds" seem to be much different than ours. For all we know, that kind of intelligence could be much more common in the universe than our form of intelligence. I suspect intelligent creatures like us -- with advanced technology, engineering, and scientific curiosity -- is probably rare. If it were common, that is, if intelligent life like us were everywhere, we would probably know that for sure by now.

Q: how do space signals travel vast distances so quickly in Star Trek? i.e. when captain gets message from federation.

AB: Starships communicate via "subspace" radio. Subspace transmissions travel thousands of times faster than the speed of light. We don't know today how to create such a technology, but for the purposes of the show it was essential to create a form of communication between starships and Federation bases that didn't require many years for signals to be received. Given that our ships can travel faster than the speed of light, I don't think it's too much of a stretch to imagine communication signals traveling faster than the speed of light.

Q: How is the "Warp Factor" calculated? For example, is Warp Factor four 4 to the 4th power times the speed of light?

AB: The Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual by Rick Sternbach and Mike Okuda, goes into some detail on the warp speed scale. It is an exponential scale, it is not governed by a simple power law. For example, warp 4 is roughly 100 times the speed of light; warp 9 is roughly 1600 times the speed of light.

Q: How do you feel about the "other" book on the science of Star Trek?

AB: I really enjoy Lawrence Krauss' "Physics of Star Trek". It's very well written and I highly recommend it. The book I'm planning to write will be broader in scope and structured around specific episodes.

Q: Have you translated any of your Star Trek science back to your colleagues at NASA?

AB: My friends at NASA all envy my job with Star Trek. We talk sometimes about technologies that are being currently developed by NASA and ideas that we've developed in Star Trek. In the mid 1960s, engineers from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena would visit Gene Roddenberry at his home in Los Angeles. They would tell him, "You just keep thinking them up, we'll figure out how to build them." I wouldn't be surprised if people in their 20s or 30s today live to see the launch of the first interstellar spacecraft.