Book Review -- The Physics of Star Trek

I took one small step down the path of absolute nerd-hood today by finishing this interesting read of the physics of Star Trek. The book talks about warpdrives, teleporters, replicators, wormholes, holodecks, etc. and explains which of these principles can work with the laws of physics as we know them today, and which are scientifically impossible. For instance, while wormholes in all likelihood do exist in the known universe, they are so unstable that they will likely collapse before a starcraft could possibly travel through them, and they'd need to be built with an "exotic material" of negative mass to make this not so.

My favorite part of the book talks about classic Star Trek blunders like the following---
1) sound waves cannot travel through space (in one episode Cpt. Kirk uses high frequency sound waves to attack another space vehicle...impossible).
2) laser beams can only be seen once they hit the target (think about a laser pen. You can't see the whole beam unless it's travelling through a reflective medium like smoke -- which space is not)
3) since laser beams (phasers and photons included) travel at the speed of light they can't likely be dodged,
4) nature cannot achieve a temperature colder than absolute zero (In one movie, someone is frozen to a temperature of -295 degrees Celsius. This is remarkable since absolute zero is only -273 degrees Celsius, and that is the breaking point where all material becomes solid.)