Don: Time to go again to the A Moment of Science mailbag.

Yaël: A listener writes,

     Dear A Moment of Science,

     I was watching a Star Trek marathon recently--the original Star Trek, not the      newer versions. And I began to wonder if any of the technology imagined on Star      Trek actually exists today in the real world?

Don: Great question. Of course, most of the technology on Star Trek doesn't exist for      real. But at least one cool bit of Star Trek science has been made real. Remember      tricorder? It was a scanning device that, among other things, was used by the show's      doctor to diagnose disease and assess the health of a patient.

Y: Well, real-life scientists are making similar devices. For example, NASA is      developing a sensor to monitor the health of astronauts. It's a device worn on the      skin that uses near infra-red light to measure an astronaut's metabolic rate, or the rate      at which the oxygen in the blood is consumed by the body's tissues.

D: This is important because it could help astronauts pace themselves while working on      the surface of the moon or Mars. It could also help them exercise more efficiently.

Y: And the sensor could be used to help people on earth. Monitoring the metabolic rate      of patients could give doctors an early warning of when a patient is about to go into      shock or have a heart attack.

D: So Star Trek gizmos like phasers and transporter beams are still the stuff of science      fiction, but tricorders could be for real.  

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