Here is why Captain Kirk Star Trek mission was just right

Indian theoretical physicist Ashoke Sen’s ‘end-of-our-world-is-nigh-so-scram-earthlings’ thesis need not be dismissed outright as ‘garbage’ by some peers merely because it makes Captain Kirk’s Star Trek missions to “boldly go where no man has gone before” sound prophetic and imperative rather than fanciful.

With the $3-million Fundamental Physics Prize under his belt, Sen is clearly not aiming for a Hollywood scriptwriter’s job by positing that humans would eventually need to fan out to worlds 10 billion light years away as, “sooner or later, in some part of the universe, a bubble of another phase…will form which will subsequently expand and destroy us”.

That the universe is expanding — fast — is accepted; surely, scientists can theorise colourfully about its implications if they stick to the rules of physics.

Admittedly, the string theory expert’s dictum, that “we must spread out as fast as possible, establishing civilisations… in different parts of the universe, so that even if some of us are hit by the catastrophe, others may survive”, has a Deep Impact or Interstellar ring to it.

But the detailed paper Sen will present to his peers at a science conclave this week will hopefully allay doubts raised by the unusual — read, racy, by scientific writing standards — language of the ‘trailer’ published in a research archive.