NASA: Warp drive is 'plausible and worth further investigation' S1.E13 ...My Soul to Keep S1.E12 There's No More Room In Hell S1.E11 The Feast S1.E10 The Pain Connection S1.E9 Post-Apocalypse Now S1.E8 Two Graves S1.E7 Whistle Past the Graveyard S1.E6 We Need To Talk About Abigail S1.E5 Whatever Happened to Maggie Rennie S1.E4 The Exorcism of Marcus Moon S1.E3 The Curse of the Copper Head Road S1.E2 The Ghost in the Machine 10 Strange Things About The Universe Space The universe can be a very strange place. While groundbreaking ideas such as quantum theory, relativity and even the Earth going around the Sun might be commonly accepted now, science still continues to show that the universe contains things you might find it difficult to believe, and even more difficult to get your head around. Theoretically, the lowest temperature that can be achieved is absolute zero, exactly ? One of the properties of a negative-energy vacuum is that light actually travels faster in it than it does in a normal vacuum, something that may one day allow people to travel faster than the speed of light in a kind of negative-energy vacuum bubble. One prediction of Einstein’s theory of general relativity is that when a large object moves, it drags the space-time around it, causing nearby objects to be pulled along as well. Relativity of Simultaneity Since this extra dimension is so small, only tiny objects, such as particles, can move along it. Antimatter Retrocausality
Alcubierre drive Two-dimensional visualization of the Alcubierre drive, showing the opposing regions of expanding and contracting spacetime that displace the central region. The Alcubierre drive or Alcubierre metric (referring to metric tensor) is a speculative idea based on a solution of Einstein's field equations in general relativity as proposed by theoretical physicist Miguel Alcubierre, by which a spacecraft could achieve faster-than-light travel if a configurable energy-density field lower than that of vacuum (i.e. negative mass) could be created. Rather than exceeding the speed of light within its local frame of reference, a spacecraft would traverse distances by contracting space in front of it and expanding space behind it, resulting in effective faster-than-light travel. History[edit] Alcubierre metric[edit] The Alcubierre metric defines the warp-drive spacetime. Mathematics of the Alcubierre drive[edit] where is a positive definite metric on each of the hypersurfaces. and with arbitrary parameters .
New evidence that plants get their energy using quantum entanglement The fact that biological systems can exploit quantum effects is quite astounding. No it is not, not even remotely.There is literally no possible way that photosynthesis could take place without involving quantum physics. This particular exploit is really neat, of course, but far too much as been made of how mystical or ungraspable quantum physics is. Basic chemistry is defined by quantum physics. Every interaction of two particles or two molecules is the result of the laws of quantum physics. The distinction being made is that toast-making was just as explicable with continuous waves of energy being absorbed by the bread but that no such classical interpretation is possible for these new photosynthesis observations. Right? Yeah, it's always easy to come in after someone's done the hard research and go "Oh, pff. Or, you can sit back and let people admire how wild our Universe is and just how little we know about it. well now why havent all the people working on this already aware of this?
The Warp Drive Could Become Science Fact A warp drive to achieve faster-than-light travel -- a concept popularized in television's Star Trek -- may not be as unrealistic as once thought, scientists say. A warp drive would manipulate space-time itself to move a starship, taking advantage of a loophole in the laws of physics that prevent anything from moving faster than light. A concept for a real-life warp drive was suggested in 1994 by Mexican physicist Miguel Alcubierre, however subsequent calculations found that such a device would require prohibitive amounts of energy. Now physicists say that adjustments can be made to the proposed warp drive that would enable it to run on significantly less energy, potentially bringing the idea back from the realm of science fiction into science. "There is hope," Harold "Sonny" White of NASA's Johnson Space Center said Friday (Sept. 14) at the 100 Year Starship Symposium, a meeting to discuss the challenges of interstellar spaceflight. Warping Spacetime
Can we grow a stronger-than-steel 'wonder material' to save the world? It’s stiffer than Kevlar, thinner than paper, and in a few years, it may be mass-produced using only sunlight and water. Scientists in the US this week announced a new, and potentially groundbreaking method for producing nanocellulose — a so-called "wonder material" derived from tree fiber that could be used to create ultra-thin displays, lightweight body armor, and a wide range of other products. Their key ingredient? Algae. "one of the most important discoveries in plant biology" Dr. At the core of Brown's research is a family of bacteria that produce vinegar, Kombucha tea, and nata de coco. Brown's method, by contrast, is vastly more efficient and environmentally friendly, requiring only sunlight, water, and algae. Organic, self-sustaining factories These genetically-altered algae, known as cyanobacteria, are entirely self-sustaining. The team is currently working on synthesizing a more complete and stable form of the material, though their progress is already promising.
Travelling Faster Than the Speed of Light Is Harder Than It Looks Now that we’ve been to the moon, built the International Space Station, and landed a multi-billion dollar robot on Mars, space geeks are getting restless. Where are we going next? Well, going to Venus is probably boring, and we’d have to fly through the asteroid belt if we wanted to get to Saturn. Our next best option? Invent a warp drive and zip over to another star system, of course. Science fiction authors have been obsessed with the concept of a warp drive — a space-time bending contraption that would enable us to travel faster than the speed of light — for ages. The basic idea behind White’s warp drive is simple. If this all sounds like it’s too futuristic to be true, that’s because it is. The proposed Alcubierre warp bubble, with “opposing regions of expanding and contracting spacetime” surrounding a central point, like a ship. Just like a traditional space ship, a warp drive-equipped ship needs fuel and lots of it. Then there’s the issue of brakes. Image via Flickr
Make graphene in your kitchen with soap and a blender - physics-math - 20 April 2014 First, pour some graphite powder into a blender. Add water and dishwashing liquid, and mix at high speed. Congratulations, you just made the wonder material graphene. This surprisingly simple recipe is now the easiest way to mass-produce pure graphene – sheets of carbon just one atom thick. The material has been predicted to , based on its unusual electrical and thermal properties. "There are companies producing graphene at much higher rates, but the quality is not exceptional," says Jonathan Coleman of Trinity College Dublin in Ireland. Coleman's team was contracted by Thomas Swan, a chemicals firm based in Consett, UK, to come up with something better. Carbon smoothie The team put graphite powder and a solvent fluid in a laboratory mixer and set it spinning. "If you are using a blender, why use a fancy expensive surfactant? Still, Coleman says you may not want to try this at home. "It is a fun experiment, but it wouldn't get you very far," says Colman. Useful defects More from the web
Warp drive may actually be possible, NASA scientists says SALT LAKE CITY — The coolest part of much science fiction, especially space operas like Star Wars and Star Trek, is the fact that they have hyperdrives and (the much nerdier) warp drives. They can blast through space faster than the universal speed limit. Well, real-life warp drives may be a lot more feasible than we initially thought. Scientists are already preparing for experiments. Physicists working for NASA's "Eagleworks" laboratory, the informal name for a place dedicated to developing advanced propulsion systems, says that it would take much less energy to bend space-time than previously estimated. The idea was proposed in 1994 by Mexican physicist Miguel Alcubierre, who showed that it was theoretically possible and fleshed out some of the details. "It's the same space, and the same standard of time, but if we can theoretically manipulate it for our purposes, interstellar flight could be an option on a future technology roadmap," said Eagleworks physicist Harold White.
Experience Just How Big the Universe is, in One Mind-Blowing Interactive You need a more recent version of Adobe Flash Player. Recently, NASA scientists combined data from the Spitzer and Hubble Space Telescopes to discover the most distant galaxy known to date. The galaxy, named Abell2744 Y1, was formed around 13.2 billion years ago when the universe was extremely young. Image: Galaxy cluster Abell2744 obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope (Credit: NASA) But what does that really mean? Most of us have trouble visualizing the height of buildings, or the distance it takes to get home from work, let alone things on an intergalactic scale. Even cooler are the tidbits of information that are provided when you click on an object. 1. This is the smallest unit of scale in the universe. As you can see from the animation it takes a bit of zooming to reach this scale. 2. Fundamental particles such as quarks, neutrinos and the Higgs boson are theoretically point sized. 3. 4. Tres-4 is the second largest planet discovered so far. 5. 6. 7.
Scientists ponder interstellar travel at Nasa-backed space summit | Science In one room, scientists debated whether the White-Juday Warp Field Interferometer will help find a way to bend the space-time continuum and make interstellar travel feasible within a lifetime. In another, they estimated how many pairs of underpants an astronaut would need to pack for the trip. Later, a paper was presented on Space Propulsion Under the Changing Density Field Model, and Lt Uhura sang the theme from Star Trek. Otherworldly in more ways than one, this was the 100 Year Starship symposium, a conference backed by Nasa and the Pentagon at the weekend that landed an eclectic mix of the eminent, the famous and the curious in Texas. It launched a mission that is nothing less than spaceflight's holy grail: make it possible for humans to travel to another star system within a century. Not that anyone was able to proclaim, after four days of discussions and dozens of presentations on every conceivable related angle, that "Houston, we have a solution". "The science exists.
Common Science Myths That Most People Believe There are a number of old wives’ tales out there regarding some basic scientific principles. Though most of them were refuted years ago, these rumors just won’t go away. Here are some of the top myths floating around out there that just aren’t true: We only use 10% of our brains. It's true that there’s a great deal we don’t know about the brain, but we certainly do know that we use our entire brain. Additionally, there is no evidence that someone was ever diagnosed with a brain tumor but was told: “Great news! While you might not be using every bit of your brain at all times, but you do use the entire brain over the course of the day. There is a dark side of the moon. Oh, Pink Floyd, how you have led us all astray. From our perspective on Earth, we are able to view about 59% of the moon’s surface (though not all at the same time). This confusion is due to tidal locking, which makes it seem as if the moon isn’t rotating. The full moon affects behavior. Sugar makes children hyperactive.