Dilithium is the key to all Star Trek 's pseudoscience - but what is this rare and precious crystal, and what can it do? TheStar Trek franchise has ever indulged in pseudoscience in order to explain away its miracles, only Gene Roddenberry swiftly realized there were risks to using known elements as part of this. Early episodes ofStar Trek had referred to "lithium" as key to space travel, but Roddenberry realized that anyone could look into the existent-world scientific discipline and recognized that the show didn't match upward to reality at all. As a result,Star Trek made a single subtle change; they substituted "lithium" for "dilithium," an entirely fictional crystalline mineral.

Amusingly, as is then often the case withStar Trek, truth has been inspired by fiction. In 2012, researchers at the University of Huntsville in Alabama were delighted to publicly announce that they were working on a fusion cell using deuterium and a stable isotope of the metal lithium in a crystalline structure, which they compared to dilithium crystals. This has the potential to dramatically speed upwards space flight to Mars. But inStar Expedition, of course, dilithium tin can do far more than.

InStar Expedition, dilithium is a rare and naturally-occurring crystal that simply exists on a handful of different worlds; the purer the grade of dilithium, the more than valuable it is because it requires less processing in order to be made usable. Spacefaring societies tend to prioritize dilithium mines, which tin generate a massive amount of pollution. But information technology's more often than not felt to be worth it; dilithium is used in starship drives, regulating the thing/antimatter reactions that provide the energy necessary to warp through space and travel faster than low-cal. In theStar Trek: Discovery short "Runaway," Po - Queen of the mining planet of Xahia - was persuaded to reveal the secret of recrystallizing dilithium to Starfleet. It may not have been stressed in the episode, but this was a central moment in galactic history; information technology meant that Starfleet was no longer dependent on an entirely unsustainable resources, because they could recrystallize used dilithium.

There's some evidence that the word "dilithium" may be a short-form style of referring to a whole family of crystalline substances, each of which could potentially have slightly different properties. That may explicate why Po's process took some decades to become widespread beyond Starfleet, and indeed why Spock developed a new process inStar Trek: The Voyage Home; he may have been working with a different crystal from the same family. This would too fit with theStar Trek: Voyager episode "Threshold," in which the Voyager crew discovered a new form of dilithium on an asteroid field in the Delta Quadrant. This strain of dilithium could actually exist used to suspension the transwarp barrier and travel at Warp 10 - but that proved to be a dangerous experiment.

Dilithium remains 1 of the most important aspects of Star Trek 's pseudoscience, even if the evidence has wisely avoided defining it in concrete terms. Sources of dilithium will always exist important, because the raw cloth itself is essential for warp travel, even if it can then exist re-crystallized. Information technology remains to be seen whether real-world scientists will always find an equivalent.

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Thomas Salary (5021 Manufactures Published)

Tom Bacon is one of Screen Rant's staff writers, likewise as a Peer Mentor for new writers and a fellow member of the Care Squad, offering support and a listening ear to members of the Comics grouping. A lifelong fan of major franchises including Star Wars, Dr. Who, and Curiosity, Tom is delighted his babyhood is back - and this time it'south cool. You tin detect him on Twitter @TomABacon. A graduate of Edge Hill University, Tom remains strongly connected with his alma mater as a volunteer chaplain. He's heavily involved with his local church, and anyone who checks him out on Twitter will swiftly learn he'south into British politics too.

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