the replicator

[sunshine220]

Can replicators make matter from energy ? Could they turn something like steel into duranium?or other metals they use to make ships ?

Could a ship pull up to a gas giant, harvest the gas and make whate ever they want ?

What happen to the waste one starships ?

[Batman]

There's no indication that replicators can make matter from energy (which would be stupid anyway when rearranging matter,which seems to be what replicators do, is so much more efficient.)
As for what happens to the waste on starships-they're on a starship? In space? Even assuming their recycling technology isn't ludicrously advanced (which it might be) what's to stop them from simply throwing whatever unrecycleable waste they have into the nearest available star?

[FaxModem1]

In the episode "Night", they discuss what they do with their anti-matter waste.

JANEWAY: Well it is now. You're using their space as a dumping ground for your antimatter waste. Why?
EMCK [on screen]: My civilisation produces over six billion isotons of industrial by-product every day. This region is a perfect disposal site.
CHAKOTAY: How convenient, for you. A spatial vortex to the middle of nowhere, far away from your own system. Out of sight, out of mind. Problem is, somebody lives here.
EMCK [on screen]: One species.
JANEWAY: One's enough. We didn't come here to debate the issue. We came here to offer a peaceful solution.
EMCK [on screen]: What kind of solution?
JANEWAY: My people use anti-matter as well, but we've found ways to purify the reactants so there's no toxic waste. We'll show you.
CHAKOTAY: Guide us through the vortex. We can meet with your scientists on the other side, exchange information.
EMCK [on screen]: Show me now.
JANEWAY: Stand by for transport. Commander, take our guest to Engineering. Give him the demonstration. Let's turn our sensors on that vortex. I want to know exactly how it works, just in case diplomacy fails.
SEVEN: Do you intend to destroy it?

[Engineering]

TORRES: The residual anti-matter is then processed in the transkinetic chamber, where it's broken down on the subatomic level.
EMCK: What about the theta radiation?
TORRES: Oh, it's absorbed by a series of radiometric converters. We recycle the energy, use it to power everything from life support to replicators.
EMCK: We don't have this kind of conversion technology.
TORRES: Our scans of your freighter show that you have plasma manifolds. The engineering principles are the same.
CHAKOTAY: We're not saying this won't take some effort. You're looking at several months of retrofitting, depending on the size of your fleet. All the schematics are here, and we'd be willing to work with you, get you started. We can even provide you with some converters. EMCK: Ingenious design. Our engineers would be pleased. This would solve a lot of problems on my world. Unfortunately, it would also put me out of business.
CHAKOTAY: Sorry?
EMCK: Your technology would throw the waste export industry into chaos. Before long, I'd be obsolete. I came here hoping your claims were exaggerated, but I can see they're not. You can keep your solution.
TORRES: You lying
CHAKOTAY: B'Elanna.
TORRES: We went through this whole song and dance and he never had any intention of working with us.

So, it's how they power everything.

[Jedi Commisar]

In the episode "Night", they discuss what they do with their anti-matter waste.

JANEWAY: Well it is now. You're using their space as a dumping ground for your antimatter waste. Why?
EMCK [on screen]: My civilisation produces over six billion isotons of industrial by-product every day. This region is a perfect disposal site.
CHAKOTAY: How convenient, for you. A spatial vortex to the middle of nowhere, far away from your own system. Out of sight, out of mind. Problem is, somebody lives here.
EMCK [on screen]: One species.
JANEWAY: One's enough. We didn't come here to debate the issue. We came here to offer a peaceful solution.
EMCK [on screen]: What kind of solution?
JANEWAY: My people use anti-matter as well, but we've found ways to purify the reactants so there's no toxic waste. We'll show you.
CHAKOTAY: Guide us through the vortex. We can meet with your scientists on the other side, exchange information.
EMCK [on screen]: Show me now.
JANEWAY: Stand by for transport. Commander, take our guest to Engineering. Give him the demonstration. Let's turn our sensors on that vortex. I want to know exactly how it works, just in case diplomacy fails.
SEVEN: Do you intend to destroy it?

[Engineering]

TORRES: The residual anti-matter is then processed in the transkinetic chamber, where it's broken down on the subatomic level.
EMCK: What about the theta radiation?
TORRES: Oh, it's absorbed by a series of radiometric converters. We recycle the energy, use it to power everything from life support to replicators.
EMCK: We don't have this kind of conversion technology.
TORRES: Our scans of your freighter show that you have plasma manifolds. The engineering principles are the same.
CHAKOTAY: We're not saying this won't take some effort. You're looking at several months of retrofitting, depending on the size of your fleet. All the schematics are here, and we'd be willing to work with you, get you started. We can even provide you with some converters. EMCK: Ingenious design. Our engineers would be pleased. This would solve a lot of problems on my world. Unfortunately, it would also put me out of business.
CHAKOTAY: Sorry?
EMCK: Your technology would throw the waste export industry into chaos. Before long, I'd be obsolete. I came here hoping your claims were exaggerated, but I can see they're not. You can keep your solution.
TORRES: You lying
CHAKOTAY: B'Elanna.
TORRES: We went through this whole song and dance and he never had any intention of working with us.

So, it's how they power everything.

And once agian the day is saved thanks to the technobablegirls

[Havok]

Dude... shut the fuck up. It's fucking science fucking fiction.
Idiot.

[Eframepilot]

I still can't believe that dumping toxic waste was made out to be a problem IN SPACE. We're not even talking inside systems here. It was a huge starless void and somehow it wasn't big enough.

[FaxModem1]

It is the Malon hat, as it were. They're vastly inefficient with their dumping of their waste. It's stated that their home system is a paradise for them, at the expense of their fleets dumping their anti-matter waste everywhere else.

[Ted C]

Can replicators make matter from energy ?

No. They only reorganize existing matter into new patterns.

Could they turn something like steel into duranium?or other metals they use to make ships ?

Assuming that duranium is an alloy and that the elements required to make it are on hand, a replicator could presumably make duranium objects.

Could a ship pull up to a gas giant, harvest the gas and make whate ever they want ?

Apparently not. Otherwise Voyager would have been doing it to avoid material shortages.

What happen to the waste one starships ?

It's probably repurposed into new objects, since it contains useful elements.

[Connor MacLeod]

TORRES: Oh, it's absorbed by a series of radiometric converters. We recycle the energy, use it to power everything from life support to replicators.

So, it's how they power everything.

Except that in context it can mean they use matter to create energy, or it means they use that power to actually operate the processes of the replicator.

Replicators are not going to be a zero-energy process even if they only 'recombine' matter, and there will be some work involved (and thus energy needed.)

[aussiemuscle308]

In the episode "Night", they discuss what they do with their anti-matter waste.

EMCK: Your technology would throw the waste export industry into chaos. Before long, I'd be obsolete.

So, it's how they power everything.

That EMCK character always reminds me of the Dunny-man in Discworld worried about the new invention of indoor plumbing making him obsolete.

I don't recall the ST crew ever mentioning the replicators only doing matter-to-matter-reorganizing, only energy-to-matter-from-pattern. i still think if the replicator would do more to wipe out world hunger and change the entire planet than Warp drive ever could.