Science of 'Star Wars': How Scientists Use the 'Force'

May 25, 2007 — -- As Obi Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader pulled out their light sabers for a deadly battle 30 years ago today, "Stars Wars" movie-goers asked themselves one thing: Where can I get one of those?

The iconic movie series prompted young children to tote R2D2 lunch boxes and teenage boys to fall in love with side hair buns and gold bikinis. But in 1977, the groundbreaking fan favorite did more than just secure its place in Americana -- it also captured the hearts and minds of scientists of the '70s and a few younger, budding lab rats waiting in the wings.

"I think the influence is huge," Michio Kaku, one of the world's most prominent physicists and the co-founder of string field theory, told ABCNEWS.com. "Many people don't realize that science fiction has been an inspiration for the world's leading scientists."

The most prominent areas of research inspired by the film are "hyper drive," like that achieved off and on by Han Solo's foundering Millennium Falcon, and robotics research inspired by Luke Skywalker's ever-reliable R2D2 and somewhat neurotic C3PO.

"We physicists have been fascinated, have been inspired by the warp drive," Kaku said. It has been so fascinating to them … that they have found an equation of Einstein's that mimics warp drive.

Now, on paper, scientists know how "warp speed" works and what it would take for Chewbacca to get the Millennium Falcon into gear.

"I should point out that this is not for us," he continued, but rather for future generations. "A gasoline necessary to power a ... starship is far beyond anything ... in our laboratory. But we can dream."

Similarly, Kaku says, some people saw the movies' robots and started working in artificial intelligence theory to create robots of their own.

While researching "Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination," a traveling museum exhibition that was developed at the Boston Museum of Science and will be making its next appearance at the Fort Worth Museum of Science in June, exhibit developer Ed Rodley found similar phenomena.