Proto-matter
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In the Star Trek science fiction universe, Proto-matter is a dangerously unstable substance. Proto-matter is so dangerous that normal scientific ethics eschews its use.
Perhaps the most well known use of proto-matter was in the Genesis Torpedo. At the conclusion of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Khan Noonian Singh, detonated the Genesis Device that he had stolen in a final act of spiteful vengeance. The Reliant and the Mutara Nebula were consumed by the Genesis device and if not for the sacrifice of Spock, the Enterprise would have also been destroyed as well being as it was in close proximity to the point of detonation.
Soon after the detonation, the device formed a new star system complete with an M-class planet. Later Lt. Saavik and David Marcus beamed down from the USS Grissom which had come to do a survey of the planet as recounted in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. However, during the course of their exploration, it soon became clear that the planet was not what the Project Genesis team had intended or even hoped for.
David Marcus eventually admitted that he had used proto-matter in the device as a shortcut to solve "certain problems " that could have delayed the Genesis Project or result in it never being realized. Because of this, the Genesis Planet was not stable. Within a matter of weeks, the planet had rapidly aged and died a violent death as it exploded. The Genesis Project was termed a failure and future terraforming efforts were then done using a much slower and methodical process to transform a planet into a habitable world.
In one episode of DS9, Second Sight (Episode 28) Professor Seyetik used proto matter to reignite, successfully, the star Epsilon 119.
Later, during the time that USS Voyager was stranded in the Delta Quadrant, the crew attempted to collect proto-matter from a nebula. Neelix was apparently killed by the proto-matter while doing this, but was revived by Seven of Nine.
