Star Trek Meets Evolutionary Biology (And Good Things Happen)

About this episode

The episode explores the intersection of Star Trek and evolutionary biology with insights from experts in the field.

Star Trek is one of the greatest science fiction universes ever created, spawning 12 main television series and 13 movies over the last 60 years. Who among us hasn't tried the "live long and prosper" hand signal or used our old flip phones as a communicator? But what about the science behind the fiction? Mohamed Noor, professor of biology at Duke University, is the author of Live Long and Evolve: What Star Trek Can Teach Us about Evolution, Genetics, and Life on Other Worlds. He is also a science consultant for the Star Trek franchise, and he joins us to discuss the ways in which Star Trek characters and plotlines can be used to understand fundamental aspects of evolutionary biology. Joining Noor is Benjamin Ahr Harrison, co-host of the wildly popular and enjoyable Star Trek podcast, The Greatest Generation. Together with host Mat Kaplan, they share laughs, show off amazing recall of specific Star Trek episodes, and delve into the biological science of alien life forms as they boldly go where only a few humans have gone before. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

People in this episode

Host: Mat Kaplan

Guests: Mohamed Noor, Benjamin Ahr Harrison

Topics covered

• Star Trek
• evolutionary biology
• science fiction
• genetics
• alien life forms

Keywords

• Star Trek
• evolution
• biology
• genetics
• science fiction
• alien life

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Duke University, Star Trek, The Greatest Generation

Books & works: Live Long and Evolve: What Star Trek Can Teach Us about Evolution, Genetics, and Life on Other Worlds