The Monstrefact: The Horta of Star Trek

Horta of Janus six. As we learn in the original Trek episode The Devil in the Dark, the Horta is a large, subterranean heap shaped organism entirely silicone based rather than carbon based. It tunnels through the rock via powerful acidic secretions, which it can also use defensively. Exceedingly long lived, the entire population of horta dies out every sixty thousand years, with the exception of a single mother horta, which tends to the spherical eggs that will produce the next generation

of this amazing species. While the Horta are reclusive and ultimately peaceful, they can prove lethal in confrontations such as the one with a Federation mining colony and the Devil in the Dark, which ultimately required the intervention of a Vulcan mind meld. In the non canonical Star Trek The Worlds of the Federation by Laura Johnson written as Shane Johnson from nineteen eighty nine, we learned that the miners and Horta would eventually work together on Janus six following

this reconciliation. Now, I distinctly remember watching this episode of the classic Star Trek as a kid, and I remember enjoying the alien monster based suspense and its thought provoking treatment of interaction between intelligent but radically different alien species, and looking back on it now, it certainly has that Star Trek optimism that is often lacking in our modern sci fi. It's no surprise that this one is often held up as one of the best original Star Trek episodes.

In Life Signs the Biology of Star Trek Susan and Robert Jenkins, the authors here discussed the singular nature of the Horta in Trek. The Federation was apparently not accustomed to the presence of silicon based life, and had therefore missed the Horta's presence on Jenus six in their scans. Entirely later on in tracks, similar mistakes were made with the micro brains of Valara three and the space born crystalline entity. This all underlies a known challenge in astrobiology.

We ultimately have only one model of life upon which to base our observations, and it happens to be earthlife. We're told that Janus six never developed carbon based life beyond a few spore producing plants as well as some algae, but it did boast minerals and heavy metals, and the authors stress that while silicon based reactions occur much more slowly compared to carbon based reactions, a planet like Janus six might, in theory have the minerals to catalyze the

chemical reactions needed for a silicon based life. Now, in the larger realm of science fiction, silicon based organisms are not uncommon. The alien xenomorph is sometimes described as silicon based, or at least partially silicone based, and there are numerous ways this is explained to factor in with their carbon based bodies. Other examples include the Kaiju of Pacific Rim, the Exogoths of Star Wars, and the easter island headed

Lithodia Rexians of Marvel Comics. However, as outlined by Charles Qchoi, In the space dot Com article Silicon based life may be more than just science fiction from twenty seventeen, various experts speculate that silicon based or silicone income life is very possible. Silicone and carbon are similar in many ways.

Silicon is one of the most common elements in the universe, and chemist have artificially synthesized organosilicone molecules composed of both silicone and carbon, So by some estimations, silicon based life of some sort may be out there somewhere, whether we know of it or not. Back to Trek, the Ginkin stress that the Horta might actually reproduce and reason too much like a carbon based organism in this episode of Anything. But then again, this is where science and philosophy butt heads.

Star Trek is ultimately about the hope, if not the reality, of making contact, settling differences, and figuring out how to move forward, both as an interstellar community within the fiction and as a terrestrial species here on Earth in reality. As much as I love my various nihilistic sci fi visions and various examples of space horror, I feel more and more like I need the Star Trek vision in

my life. As an aside, I'll mention that there's actually an underground geographic positioning technology here on Earth named after the star Trek Horta. It is, of course a backronym which stands for Honeywell or Retrieval and Tunneling AID. Tune in for additional episodes of The Monster Fact, The Artifact,

or Anamalia Stupendium each week. I like to do these series and pacts of four to five, but I'll likely come back to more Trek creatures in the future, so feel free to send in your recommendations or if you have ideas for future series that I can do here on the Monster Fact, fandoms I haven't dipped into, or fandoms I need to dip back into. Just reach out. I'd love to hear from you. As always, you can email us at contact at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com.