Science fact: the tech predicted by Star Trek

The all-new crew on the bridge of the Enterprise in Star Trek, directed by JJ Abrams Photograph: Paramount Pictures

Captain James T Kirk (William Shatner) uses a communicator to speak to his crew in the Star Trek episode Catspaw, from 1967 … Photograph: Paramount/Everett /Rex Features

… while today's equivalent of the Star Trek communicator is a flip-up mobile phone Photograph: Graeme Robertson

Kirk signs his daily captain's log entry using an electronic notepad … Photograph: Cine Text/Allstar

… and a modern businessman uses a PDA – a handheld computer notepad Photograph: Getty Images

The bridge of the Starship Enterprise – seen here in the first season episode The Man Trap – had no windows, so the crew could only see where they were going via the giant viewscreen … Photograph: CBS Paramount Television

… the modern equivalent of which is the flatscreen TV – such as this Panasonic 150in HD plasma screen on display at a consumer electronics show. As far as we know, there are no pandas in outer space. Photograph: Robyn Beck/AFP

Enterprise communications officer Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) had a fancy earpiece to help her open the hailing frequencies … Photograph: CBS Paramount Television

… which in todays world can be seen adorning thousands of people as a Bluetooth earpiece Photograph: Eye Candy/Rex Features

The Star Trek weapon of choice was the hand-held phaser, which could be set to kill or just stun … Photograph: Allstar/Cinetext

… while today's police officer prefers to stun rather than kill using a Taser Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

The Star Trek officers always checked any new environment with their trusty tricorders, seen here on the hip of first officer Spock (Leonard Nimoy) … Photograph: Cine Text/Allstar

… and in today's world, a lot of HAZMAT emergency response teams use chemical detection equipment to help identify a threat. Photograph: BAE Systems

Here we have a videoconference in the original Star Trek series … Photograph: CBS Paramount Television

… while here we have a modern videoconference on a much bigger scale – the ASEAN+3 health ministers' meeting in Bangkok, Thailand Photograph: David Longstreath/AP

The Starship Enterprise introduced the world to the idea of doors that knew you were coming … Photograph: Public Domain

… these days, we take them for granted. Photograph: Eye Candy/Rex Features

Injecting people with needles wasn't the Star Trek way – instead, they used a hypospray device that painlessly passed the medicine through the skin … Photograph: Public Domain

… and here we have one of the modern versions, a Jet Injector. Photograph: Public Domain

The ultimate gadget and the ultimate dream: the transporter, about to beam McCoy (DeForest Kelley), Kirk and Spock down to an alien world … Photograph: Rex Features

… and the transporter is, sadly, still pretty much a dream – but we may get there sometime in the next 300 years. Physicist Dr Ping Koy Lam, left, and student Warwick Bowen look over their world breakthrough teleporting test equipment at the Australian National University in Canberra on 17 June, 2002. The successful teleporting test involving a laser beam of light being disembodied in one location and rebuilt about 1m away in the blink of an eye. Photograph: Reuters