The Enterprise picks up a distress signal from a nearby planet and upon investigation, they are hit with a beam of spiroid radiation. This radiation causes every living thing on the ship to shrink. Kirk beams down to the planet and materializes at his full size, as the transporter retained his original body pattern. While on the surface, he sees a miniature city. These Terratins are the decedents of Terra-Ten, a lost Earth colony. Their ancestors were originally shrunk after exposure to a supernova’s radiation. They enjoyed a peaceful existence until their planet ramped up its volcanic activity. Shrinking the Enterprise crew was the only way for them to communicate and ask for help.
Shrink rays and mini adventures have been common in Sci-Fi, but they often ignore all the biological and physical challenges inherent with tiny living in exchange for cinema friendly giant object perils. The truth is, the human body would struggle with metabolism and gas exchange at that size. Smaller animals tend to have a higher metabolism and energy requirement compared to larger animals, relative to body weight. For example, a mouse needs to eat ~67 times the number of calories that an elephant eats per kilogram of body weight (Mortola, 2023). Shrinking the poor Enterprise crew to the size of a mouse or smaller would increase their metabolism proportionately. It’s amazing that they didn’t stop for snacks the entire time they were fighting to control the ship.
The mechanisms for shrinkage given in the show were that either the crew was being contracted or the ship was expanding. They later confirm that all organic matter on the ship is shrinking due to the “spiro-form fracturing of dilithium molecules”. In other words, the spiroid radiation that everyone was exposed to just tightly winds things. Dr. McCoy determines that everyone’s weight will remain consistent, as they retain the same number of molecules, but the space between them is shrinking. In reality, smaller organisms would have fewer molecules and cells overall; changing the space between molecules would increase the density of the organism to a point where its metabolism may not function. On a biological level, molecules must move freely around the cell to carry out their functions. However, when Spock suggests that the distance between atoms is relatively the same as the distance between stars, he may be referring to a natural length scale set by the cosmological constant.
To be continued tomorrow…
Hopeless Trekkie 