A: We all know how to do it. Your fingers are spread in a V formation – middle and index together on one side, pinky and ring united on the other – thumb out. It means “Live long and prosper,” and if you salute someone in this way and they salute you back similarly, you know you’ve found yourself a true Vulcan – or a true Trekkie.

As for where the salute comes from, though, you need look no further than Leonard Nimoy himself, the one who popularized the hand greeting as Star Trek’s Mr. Spock (not to be confused with the famous pediatrician Dr. Spock, who’s probably not Vulcan). Nimoy improvised the salute, deriving it from a common blessing from rabbis to their congregation. In fact, the gesture symbolizes the letter shin, the first letter of the word Shadai, a secret Hebrew name for God. What – you mean you’ve never attended a Vulcan Bar Mitzvah?