What Star Trek got right about science (and what it got wrong) | Part 1

Celebrate 60 years of Star Trek with the real science behind the show: alien prosthetics, the search for life on Mars, whether the Vulcans could detect Earth, and why dilithium isn't quite fiction. Part 1 of 2.

Jamie Gallagher hosts a night of scientists, engineers and superfans exploring where Star Trek got the science right, where it stretched the truth, and how the show has inspired real researchers and technology.

▶ Part 2 out Monday 4pm GMT/12pm EDT/11am EST
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CHAPTERS:
0:00 Welcome: Star Trek turns 60
1:05 Why has Star Trek lasted 60 years?
3:13 Star Trek's tech predictions and the first mobile phone
4:51 Nichelle Nichols, NASA and saving the whales
6:55 Prosthetics: foam latex vs silicone (Leah SciFi)
14:26 Astrobiology: how do we search for alien life? (Joby Razzell Hollis)
19:28 Is all alien life DNA-based?
21:25 The ladder of life detection and the Perseverance rover on Mars
29:11 Could aliens detect us? Radio, radar and the SKA (Alfredo Carpineti)
35:30 The periodic table and Star Trek's chemistry errors
40:34 Silicon-based life and the Horta
41:47 Is dilithium real?
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SPEAKERS:
Jamie Gallagher is an award-winning public engagement professional and science communicator. He has delivered shows around the world, is a popular science author, and has featured on TV and Radio.

Leah SciFi is a creative industries lecturer, prosthetics specialist, and cosplay artist.

Joby Razzell Hollis is a researcher from the Natural History Museum, former NASA scientist, advocate and artist who uses art to convey meaning in science.

Alfredo Carpineti is an astrophysicist, journalist and science communicator, who is the space and physics editor for IFLScience.

Part 2 continues with Meganne Christian, an atmospheric physicist, materials scientist, and reserve astronaut for the UK Space Agency.
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This was filmed at the Royal Institution on the 12th of September 2026.
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