The 'sci' behind the 'fi'

As the voyagers of the Starship Enterprise boldly went to explore new worlds week after week on Star Trek, they used a host of futuristic technologies — including tricorders, holodecks, teleportation systems and warp drives — that may have seemed almost beyond possibility to many of the shows’ (and movies’) legion of devoted viewers. But, say many scientists interviewed on a new program airing on public television, real science and technology is starting to catch up to — and sometimes even surpass — some parts of that future.