Star Trek Inventions

This week I cannot wait to go to the theater to see the new Star Trek movie but I think I will bypass wearing a costume, however, if I were to sport one, I would go as a Trill my favorite character. Over at Space.com, they have a very interesting Top Ten about the inventions that can be attributed to Star Trek. I will outline a few of the top ten here:

The #10 invention: "Star Trek popularized the idea of a communicator that could instantly connect two crew members on different parts of a planet. To answer the device, you just flipped it open and started talking. Of course, everyone recognizes this device today as a cell phone."
Ok, that is pretty cool.

The #9 invention: " When Enterprise crew members became sick, Dr. McCoy was able to diagnose the problem in record time, usually thanks to his medical tricorder. Today's physicians make use of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and CAT scans in much the same way."
That is a bit of a stretch for me, I mean a CAT scan is not a hand held device afterall.

Skipping to the #4 invention: "Focused Ultrasound Surgery. This surgical technique is a non-invasive way to destroy unwanted masses within the body (like uterine fibroids) without harming the surrounding tissues. I seem to recall Dr. McCoy touting the advantages of doing surgery without using knives decades ago."
Ok, again, that is pretty good, a lot of medical procedures in Trek do not involve cutting.

The number 1 invention according to Space.com:
"A robotic rover called Zoe is the first robot to remotely detect the presence of life. On a NASA-sponsored mission in the harsh Atacama desert in Chile, Zoe was able to detect life by looking for natural fluorescence from lichens and bacteria. Life detection is all the rage now; the European Space Agency will be using the Urey Life Detector on an upcoming Mars mission (see photo). These devices mimic the function of the long range sensors from Star Trek, which could detect life from unreasonably long distances."
I wish that science fiction television today would consult with real scientists like they did in the past and at the very least create a show where we believe what is going on could be possible now or in the future. That type of creativity has given way to cheap solve the crime pseudo sci fi shows I can barely stomach.