Star Trek is bleeding over into the real world with two unique situations

Star Trek is getting some much-needed love in the real world.

Star Trek is known for many things, from the unique aliens to the iconic characters and even predating modern technology with show theories. Thinks like the communicator device could be seen as a progenitor to cellphones, the tablets we see in TNG, DS9, and Voyager are clearly at least partially responsible for the modern tablets we use in real life.

Star Trek sets the trend and this time it’s no different. According to CosmosMagazine.com (via Daily Star Trek), a group of scientists has discovered real-life Borg! Well, kinda. They’re not cybernetic space zombies that want to consume your culture, however. They’re in fact tiny little microbes that can be used and assimilated into other organisms.

The idea is to strengthen cells by merging beneficial genetic characteristics into different organisms. So it’d be like if the Borg gave technology away, instead of taking it. From CosmosMagainze;

"These assimilatory properties have inspired the naming of specialised DNA ‘packages’ that exist within Methanopereden microbes – tiny archaea (a separate domain of life to single-cellular bacteria and multicellular eukaryotes), which break down methane in soils, groundwater and the atmosphere to support their metabolism.This process of gene transfer allows organisms to assimilate beneficial genetic characteristics that can be passed to their offspring during cell division. Gene transfer is a common phenomenon among single-celled organisms, however further study of the Methanopereden samples found 19 new ECEs, which the researchers believe contain the genes of entirely different microbes consumed by these archaea.But it’s the way these ECE’s work to assimilate the genetic information of other organisms into their host archaea that has inspired the Banfield team to name them after the interstellar villains."

One Star Trek book earns a place in the “Best Cartography Books of All Time”.

That isn’t all. According to Bookauthority.com (via Daily Star Trek again), a Star Trek cartography book by Larry Nemecek has earned a spot in the Bookauthority listing of the 100 best cartography books of all time.

The book, Star Trek: Stellar Cartography, landed at No. 31 on the list. Considering the list is made up of “thought leaders and experts”, it’s a fairly huge honor to see Nemeck’s work included among books from National Geographic, Time, and the prestigious Oxford University.

It’s one of the few books not based on Earth-based cartography, sharing the space with “The Sky Atlas: The Greatest Maps, Myths, and Discoveries of the Universe”, “Sun and Moon: A Story of Astronomy, Photography, and Cartography”, and “Star Maps: History, Artistry, and Cartography”.

It is, however, the only book from that list that is based purely on science fiction.