The Science of Star Wars by Jeanne Cavelos

George Lucas came up with Star Wars before we knew about extremophiles, which are life-forms that can live in bizarre, extreme situations. And it's looking more and more likely that we might find life right here in the solar system. It's amazing to think about all the potential life out there. So do you think we are getting closer to finding alien life forms?Ībsolutely. Now they are saying that half of the stars out there may have planets. When Star Wars came out in 1977, scientists thought that planet formation was a fluke. It's amazing that George Lucas predicted this universe full of planets and aliens. What do you think about all of the exoplanets that have turned up since you first wrote your book? Nevertheless, cloning technology is something in Star Wars that we will be seeing more of soon. One area of Star Wars cloning technology that is not very realistic according to today's science is the limited amount of time the clones have to grow and learn. The link between genes and behavior has also become much better understood in recent years, and like the Imperial armies in Star Wars, human clones could probably be genetically altered to be obedient and programmable.

It's entirely conceivable that we will see humans cloned for medical or reproductive purposes in the coming decades. We have cloned many different animals at this point-cats, dogs, sheep-and there is very little holding us back from cloning humans except ethics and law. How far have would you say researchers have come with cloning in the last few years, and will we ever have clone armies like in Star Wars ? We asked Cavelos to update us on how George Lucas's vision has fared. When her book came out, researchers had spotted less than two dozen planets around other stars-that figure is now over 300-and South Korean researcher Woo Suk Hwang was five years from rocking the world with his fraudulent claims of cloning the first human cells. But what in Star Wars qualifies as remotely plausible, according to our understanding of science, and what is pure fantasy? To help answer this question, spoke with Jeanne Cavelos, a science fiction writer and author of The Science of Star Wars. For those of us who grew up watching the Star Wars movies, droids and laser blasters are almost as real as cell phones and Wi-Fi. The new animated film Star Wars: The Clone Wars features an army of cloned soldiers doing battle with droids on far-flung planets.

The Science of Star Wars by Jeanne Cavelos