I just read an article on the World Science website about the creation of tiny, nano-scale lasers that have the potential to revolutionise communications, computing, and biomedical research. Reading what it says, it made me think of Star Trek's Optical Data Networks (ODN's), which were the Computer Networks used on the Enterprise-D. Have a read and see if you think the same thing.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/090831_laser