Warp Speed or Spice

In Star Trek the Enterprise moves faster than the speed of light via its matter/anti-matter warp drive. "Engage!" commands Captain Kirk, and the ship is hurled though space at breath taking speeds. In a flush it removes Einsteins pesky theory that objects with mass cannot travel faster than the speed of light.

But much like the fellow who invented the cell phone, Star Trek, has inspired scientist at NASA to discover a way to circumvent the speed limit. What they've come up with is folding space. Don't move the object faster than light, but bring the point of destination and the point of departure together. The process becomes very complicated, and involves warp bubbles, redshifting and other various and sundries.

Interesting read at Space.com. 

Though I think what they are really looking for is the spice Melange from Arakis, the desert planet.

DUNE!