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Scientists set sights on invisibility cloaks
Teams of scientists around the globe say they're making progress on theories and experiments involving cloaking -- that is, making things invisible.
In theory, all that's needed to make a small object invisible is something called a superlens, says Graeme Milton, a mathematician at the University of Utah.
He and Australia-based collaborators Nicolae Nicorovici, Lindsay Botten and Ross McPhedran have made mathematical models showing that at a critical distance from a superlens, an object would seem to disappear.
A superlens has a negative refractive index, meaning light that hits it reverses and goes in the opposite direction. Physicist John Pendry at Imperial College London was among the first to propose superlenses in 2000.
At a certain distance from a superlens, an object becomes invisible because light that bounces off it cancels out with light reflecting off the superlens, Milton said. It's a little like noise cancellation devices such as earphones, he said.
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/TECH/07/01/invisible.cloak/...
Teams of scientists around the globe say they're making progress on theories and experiments involving cloaking -- that is, making th... more -
Capcom (game developer) Is Going To Teach Physics And Maths In Game Play.
Video game developer Capcom is working with a leading academic on an initiative to embed subliminal lessons about physics and maths in game play.
Nipan Maniar, a senior lecturer in creative technologies at the University of Portsmouth, who created the cultural awareness game C-Shock, is collaborating with Capcom to provide structured learning environments in games. Video game developer Capcom is working with a leading academic on an initiative to embed subliminal lessons about physics and maths in... more -
Future in Fusion?
Nuclear Fusion: It powers our Sun, allowing life itself to exist. The same process also promises a potentially limitless supply of clean energy, if its power could be safely harnessed here on earth.
This is no small feat though, and would involve recreating the unbelievably extreme conditions at the centre of the sun. This however, is exactly what the scientists at the Joint European Torus (JET) (Torus' meaning essentially 'doughnut shaped'!), the largest experimental Fusion reactor in the world.
In this "man made star" Hydrogen gas is heated to temperatures in excess of 300 million degrees, ten times hotter than the centre of the Sun. At these temperatures, Hydrogen atoms begin to join, or 'fuse' together to form Helium. The resulting single Helium atoms are slightly lighter than the two Hydrogen atoms which fused to make them, resulting in a tiny amount of mass being converted into a comparatively huge amount of energy.
The efficiency is such that just 1kg of fusion fuel (hydrogen) could produce more energy than 10 MILLION kg of the fossil fuels which we currently rely on, while not creating the large amounts of radioactive waste associated with the alternative nuclear power source, fission.
The superheated 'plasma' which contains the Hydrogen atoms, can only be contained by an extremely powerful magnetic field
The reward for success could hardly be higher; with oil reserves declining, and no one form of alternative energy standing out as a viable alternative, the cheap, renewable, clean energy promised by fusion could, for lack of a better phrase, be a godsend to humanity, supporting us into the foreseeable future.
Why then can we not easily recreate the conditions which allow fusion to occur within the sun?
Well, the answer is pressure; which at the centre of the sun is though to be in excess of 100 BILLION times that at the Earth's surface. The hydrogen particles which must be fused together are both positively charged, and so strongly repel each other, and so fusion require massive pressures and temperatures to occur. While the massive temperatures created by JET certainly go some way to overcoming this repulsion, the massively lower pressures mean that even with the much higher temperatures produced in JET, fusion is by no means easy.
The main hurdles faced by the fusion pioneers at JET, is how to confine the plasma at such high temperatures for long enough so that fusion can occur. As massive engineering problem is also faced: what to do with the massive amounts of energy created (hardly a problem you might think!).
But now the bad news...even if JET is successful, it will be an estimated 40 years before fusion can be commercially employed, and some argue that the large amounts of money required for the tests would be better spent on improving proven renewable sources already in use now. What do you think? Nuclear Fusion: It powers our Sun, allowing life itself to exist. The same process also promises a potentially limitless supply of cle... more -
Exploring the 'glass half-full' theory
Gone are the days when a science show on PBS was the television equivalent of castor oil. The new season of "Nova scienceNOW" is more like a tall glass of really good lemonade
The opening segment documents the search by scientists for "dark matter," an unseen form of matter that apparently affects the motion of the whole universe. "Nova" treats the hunt for dark matter like a classic mystery with a fascinating, offbeat cast. Scientists work in a lab a half-mile underground so their search for this elusive matter is less likely to be compromised by unseen things zipping in from space.
Host Neil deGrasse Tyson, an astrophysicist himself, downshifts to populist terms as he acknowledges with some amusement that devoting your life to the search for the unseen is an unusual career choice. Gone are the days when a science show on PBS was the television equivalent of castor oil. The new season of "Nova scienceNOW" is more... more -
Hollywood physics
PopSci and author of "Don't Try This At Home: The Physics of Hollywood Movies" Adam Weiner show us how scientifically unsound films can be.
In this gallery, the authors patiently debunk popular Hollywood films such as "Speed", "Batman" and "Mission:Impossible" by examining spectacular moments of scientific inaccuracy. PopSci and author of "Don't Try This At Home: The Physics of Hollywood Movies" Adam Weiner show us how scientifically unsound films ca... more -
CERN Council looks forward to LHC start-up
Scare-mongers have been spreading the rumor that this huge particle accelerator is going to produce a black-hole which will engulf the earth, the moon, etc. They say that it is going to reproduce the Big Bang. Both assertions are absolutely wrong, of course.
In case the first assertion is right, since I live right next to the accelerator, I'll be among the first to enter the black hole - I'll then post to Current to let you all know what it looks like and what it feels like, and I'll even upload some photos. ;) Scare-mongers have been spreading the rumor that this huge particle accelerator is going to produce a black-hole which will engulf the... more -
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Hints of 'time before Big Bang'
"A team of physicists has claimed that our view of the early Universe may contain the signature of a time before the Big Bang."
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The power of spin
Many of nature's deepest mysteries come in threes. Why does space have three spatial dimensions (ones that we can see, anyway)? Why are there three fundamental dimensions in physics (mass M, length L and time T)? Why three fundamental constants in nature (Newton's gravitational constant G, the speed of light c and Planck's constant h)? Why three generations of fundamental particles in the standard model (e.g. the up/down, charm/strange and top/bottom quarks)? Why do black holes have only three properties—mass, charge and spin? Nobody knows the answers to these questions, nor how or whether they may be connected. But some have sought for clues in the last-named of these properties: spin.
Gravity Probe B is not just as another test of general relativity, but a source of new insights about spacetime itself. Nobel laureate C.N. Yang wrote in a letter to NASA Administrator James M. Beggs in 1983 that general relativity, "though profoundly beautiful, is likely to be amended ... whatever [the] new geometrical symmetry will be, it is likely to entangle with spin and rotation, which are related to a deep geometrical concept called torsion ... The proposed Stanford experiment [Gravity Probe B] is especially interesting since it focuses on the spin. I would not be surprised at all if it gives a result in disagreement with Einstein's theory."
In general situations, space and time are so inextricably bound together in general relativity that they are hard to separate. In special cases, however, it becomes feasible to perform a "3+1 split" and decompose the metric of four-dimensional spacetime into a scalar time-time component, a vector time-space component and a tensor "space-space" component
General relativity has brought us nearer to an understanding of the observational fact that the local inertial compass is fixed relative to the most distant cosmic objects, but there is surely desire for still deeper understanding." Thus does direct detection of frame-dragging by Gravity Probe B gain new importance: it will shine experimental light on what has heretofore been a theoretical mystery, namely the origin of inertia. For some, this is perhaps the most beautiful and profound manifestation of spin in Einstein's spacetime: it binds us here to the universe out there, in such a way that you, standing at night under the stars on a planet known as earth, cannot turn so much as around without feeling a tug from the rest of the universe. Many of nature's deepest mysteries come in threes. Why does space have three spatial dimensions (ones that we can see, anyway)? Why ar... more -
World peace at quantum physics level
Peace is real and comes from the Unified Field.... Dr John Hagland explains this in this 5 minute video in one of the most scientific and amazingly believable and very real way. And, it makes a lot of sense. If we all follow what he says, World Peace can proliferate faster than you can think!
We are all part of this Universe and all our atoms and molecules are governed by Quantum Physics. We can use this universal law to change the world!
Who's for it? Let's do it! Peace is real and comes from the Unified Field.... Dr John Hagland explains this in this 5 minute video in one of the most scientific ... more -
Metronome synchronization!
Yeah, I know... I wasn't exactly scouring the internet for a metronome synchronization video, either.
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10 futuristic movie gadgets become reality - reviews by PC Magazine
There isn't a single Back to the Future buff who hasn't dreamed of riding around town on a hoverboard. Every Star Trek fan has lusted after Captain Kirk's communicator—in fact, the original 23rd-century models inspired the design for the first flip phones. While scientists haven't quite figured out teleportation or how to build a truly effective Terminator, there is some technology available today that looks pretty similar to what ambitious movie makers have been able to invent. You've seen some of them before: Microsoft Surface looks an awful like the gesture-based computer interface in Minority Report, and the video phones used by everyone from the Jetsons to the characters of Fritz Lang's Metropolis are now available from your local phone company. We've dug deep to bring you some truly unique gadgets that seemed to be inspired by the big screen.
There isn't a single Back to the Future buff who hasn't dreamed of riding around town on a hoverboard. Every Star Trek fan has lusted ... more -
Cosmic Time
"Michio encounters a mystery - tiny particles called muons which shouldn't exist. They don't last long enough to be detected on Earth - and yet here they are. The answer to this mystery lies in one of the greatest discoveries of all time - Einstein's theory of relativity. The faster you travel, the slower time ticks. So time is not fixed at all." "Michio encounters a mystery - tiny particles called muons which shouldn't exist. They don't last long enough to be detected on Earth ... more
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Teleportation, telepathy, and invisibilty possible with next few decades!?
Michio Kaku, one of the worlds top physicists explains that because teleportation, telepathy, and invisibility are all rooted in possible physics "they are likely to be realisable within a few decades or at most a century."
Sweet! I'm slightly skeptical, but still amazing... Michio Kaku, one of the worlds top physicists explains that because teleportation, telepathy, and invisibility are all rooted in possi... more -
Building Stonehenge
A man from Flint, Michigan seems to have cracked the mystery that has surrounded Stonehenge. By himself, using primitive tools, he is able to recreate some of the impressive stone building that could have been used by the creators of Stonehenge. A man from Flint, Michigan seems to have cracked the mystery that has surrounded Stonehenge. By himself, using primitive tools, he is ... more
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Man ConCERNed with Scientific Construct
Walter Wagner is pressing for a lawsuit to keep CERN from using their 8 billion dollar Large Hadron Collider to create a scenario of what it was like a trillionth of a second after the big bang, for fear of a tiny black hole or conversion of Earth into strange matter. However, scientists have deemed such scruples insignificant. Let's hear from you: Is Wagner a "crackpot," or is this a genuine problem? Walter Wagner is pressing for a lawsuit to keep CERN from using their 8 billion dollar Large Hadron Collider to create a scenario of w... more
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Lost got something right...sort of
Turns out the physics in last week's episode of Lost might not be as impossible as you would think.
Getting answers out of JJ Abrams, however, remains impossible even on a theoretical level. Turns out the physics in last week's episode of Lost might not be as impossible as you would think. ... more -
Remote Canada Town Hub For Aurora Borealis Seekers
People travel from all over the world to get a glimpse of the Northern Lights, or Aurora Borealis as it is known. A coming together of solar protons and electrons that brings us a beautiful painting with the sky as its canvass. One of the wonderful natural phenomenons on the planet, and one that surely can raise the spirit, inspire love, and give us hope. People travel from all over the world to get a glimpse of the Northern Lights, or Aurora Borealis as it is known. A coming together of... more
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The mind-boggling structure of the sun
Thought the sun was just a great big ball of burning gas? Well guess what? It, um, is...
Delving into the structure of that gigantic flaming sphere, however, uncovers a feast of interesting scientific information, detailing how and of what the sun is made up. Weirdly, they pretty much all sound like cheesy nightclubs.
Thought the sun was just a great big ball of burning gas? Well guess what? It, um, is... ... more -
Russian scientists claim to be close to creating time machine
Two Russian scientists have claimed that they are close to creating a time machine.
Russian mathematicians Irina Aref’eva and Igor Volovich have said the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) - a giant atom-smashing machine - could open the door to unexpected visitors from the future.
The machine, due to come on stream this year, has been constructed at CERN, the European particle physics centre near Geneva.
As per their calculations, the machine will tear a hole in the fabric of space and time, creating a gateway to tomorrow. That means, with sufficiently advanced technology, people from the future might even be able to walk through it.
Designed to investigate the origins of the universe, the machine will generate particles with so much energy that scientists are not entirely sure what will happen when they switch the machine on.
According to The Times, Aref’eva and Volovich believe a “wormhole” could open up, linking our time with another in the future.
This could happen if “dark energy” - the mysterious anti-gravity force that causes galaxies to accelerate away from each other - possesses a special “phantom” property.
Manipulating such a wormhole to create a viable time machine would take incredibly advanced technology, they said.
Two Russian scientists have claimed that they are close to creating a time machine. ... more -
Horizon: What on Earth is Wrong With Gravity?
"Aired: Tuesday 29th January 2008 on BBC2 Particle physicist and ex D:Ream keyboardist Dr. Brian Cox believes that the answer to the meaning of the universe lies in gravity. On a road trip across the USA, Brian fires lasers at the moon in Texas and goes wild in the desert in Arizona. He encounters the bending of space and time at a maximum security military base and tries to detect ripples in our reality in the swamps of Louisiana." "Aired: Tuesday 29th January 2008 on BBC2 Particle physicist and ex D:Ream keyboardist Dr. Brian Cox believes that the answer to the m... more
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