Right off I'm not saying that Star Trek invented any of the following things, what I'm saying is that they planted the germ of an idea into very clever people so that those ideas came to be!
So it's thanks to the writers, prop designers and everybody else involved for planting them seeds.
In the fourth Star Trek movie (Star Trek Saves the Whales!) Scotty trades the formula for transplarent aluminium for some plexiglass so they can build a tank to transport 2 humpback whale into the future and save mankind (mankind had killed off all the whale, bastards!). Well transparent aluminium is a real thing now, it's called ALON, and it's fascinating, check the link out!
Throughout the series and films the crew used communicators, handheld and wireless badges that they tap to connect, mobiles and Bluetooth anyone? The above version available from Star Trek Shop
Bones is never (as far as I can remember, but happy to be corrected) seen injecting anybody with a needle, he always uses what they call a Hypospray which uses high pressure air to deliver the dose of whatever, the modern day equivelent is called a jet injector though I think they should have stuck with Hypospray, sounds cooler!
It didn't matter where Kirk and crew went in the infinite universes everybody spoke English, amazing! But wait, that's not the case, it was because of something called the Universal translator, wait, don't we have that on own phones now, you can talk into it and it translates, but also you can scan a text and it'll translate!
Fans of the Next Generation will of course be familiar with Geordi La Forge, he was blind but had a wonderful visor that help him 'see' through the electromagnetic spectrum. So now scientists have developed an implant that is attached to the retina, this implant is linked to a small wireless camera fixed to a pair of glasses. The images are sent back to the implants which converts them to electric signals which are then relayed to the brain, thus an image is formed, ok it's not 20/20, the best achievable so far is 20/80 which is far better than 20/400 (clinically blind).
In 1966 Star Trek introduced us to telepresence, videoconferencing with total immersion, feeling like the others are actually in the room, this has become a a reality and is still being developed further.
One of the most iconic items from Star Trek is the Phaser, the phrase "Set Phasers to stun" is know the world over! We've had stun guns and of course tasers for a while now but they all require some sort of contact, but a company caller Applied Energetics are developing technologies that utilises Laser Guided Energy and Laser Induced Plasma Energy to stun and incapacitate from a distance.
And finally lets talk about the Tricorder, a handheld instrument that could be used to diagnose various different things including medical, scientific and engineering, brilliant. Scientist at Loughborough University have developed a handheld devise that can monitor the heart, and Havard Medical School have something similar to a mini MRI that non invasively inspects the body.
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