Vulcans are contact telepaths. By means of a procedure known as mind-meld, which involves physical contact with a subject, it is possible for them to share all their thoughts, experience, memories and knowledge with another individual. Vulcans can perform a mind-meld with members of most other races, most notably humans; one well-known example of a race impervious to the mind-meld are the Ferengi.
Many Vulcans are skilled in a self-defense move known as the Vulcan nerve pinch or neck pinch, which targets a precise location overlying the baroreceptors of the carotid sinus at the base of the humanoid neck, instantly rendering the victim unconscious. While practiced mainly by Vulcans, it is not exclusive to their race; for example, Data and Jean-Luc Picard have also mastered the technique, the latter probably acquiring it during his mind-meld with Sarek.
In addition, Vulcans tend to be stronger and longer-lived than humans. The former of these qualities is often attributed to Vulcan's gravity being significantly greater than Earth's.
The Vulcan race discovered space travel long before humans did.
The Vulcan race used to be a race of violent warriors and fought many wars among themselves. The end of this time was marked by an event in Vulcan history known as the Great Awakening. Surak, a Vulcan philosopher of that time, spread the idea of living by the rules of logic and reasoning. Most Vulcans, in hopes of a better future with less violence and fewer wars, adopted his teachings and attempted to suppress all their emotions. Almost all of present-day Vulcan philosophy emerged from this period.
A small proportion of the Vulcan population, who did not agree to following the new philosophy and thus, in the view of the majority of the population, proved to be obstacles for the future development of the Vulcan race, were expelled from the Vulcan home planet. These people travelled through space in the search of a new home, eventually settling on Romulus and forming the Romulan race.
First contact between Vulcans and humans occurred on April 5, 2063 shortly after Zefram Cochrane's first warp (faster-than-light) flight. On August 12, 2161, the two races collaborated to found the basis of the United Federation of Planets.
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Famous Vulcans