Engage maybe?

[Gray Pennell]

Theoretical break through in warp drives. So much so JPL is beging lap test

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/49064028/ns/technology_and_science-space/#.UFeUZqQ8JjQ

Wohhoo we might be able to get off this rock.

 

[mike wightman]

Read the article.

It's yet more rubbish.

Exotic matter, energy equal to the mass of the planet Jupiter, experiments that may show...

pie in the sky pseudo scientific clap trap.

 

[Fritz_Brown]

They set up what they call the White-Juday Warp Field Interferometer at the Johnson Space Center, essentially creating a laser interferometer that instigates micro versions of space-time warps.

"We're trying to see if we can generate a very tiny instance of this in a tabletop experiment, to try to perturb space-time by one part in 10 million," White said.

You're trying to warp space-time while ON THE EARTH?!? Where are we educating our scientists nowadays? They sure as heck aren't reading science fiction if they think that's a good idea! And they thought the Hadron Super-Collider was dangerous? o:

This is why we need to go back to the moon! So scientists like this can play without sucking the earth into a black hole or turning us inside out or some such. Holy crap, man, even Cochrane didn't engage his warp drive until he was outside the orbit of the moon!

:frankie: Bad scientist! No cookie for you! Bad scientist! :toast:
mega:

 

[Gray Pennell]

Who's afraid of a tiny black holes or wrapped space what can seriously go wrong. Nothing ventured nothing gained.

 

[aramis]

Read the article.

It's yet more rubbish.

Exotic matter, energy equal to the mass of the planet Jupiter, experiments that may show...

pie in the sky pseudo scientific clap trap.

Actually, it's an announcement of an ongoing experiment. Not rubbish, but for once, actual reporting.

The question of whether or not they will get any measurable results is a whole different matter. But these guys are to the "build a rig" stage.

I really hope that they accidentally get some resonance correct, and wind up with their test rig some 10 miles down range....

And, with Aisha's theoretical drive ready to go to testing (but too weak to be tested effectively dirtside), we may just see something happen soon.

Then again, people were saying Ion Drives were rubbish back in the 60's. Now, they're in use.

In the 40's, people said Fission was "impossible to control"... and yet, by 1960, Nuclear Fission Reactors were in use.

And in the 1880's, people said fixed wing flight was impossible. by 1920, it was a growing industry.

 

[mike wightman]

In the 40's, people said Fission was "impossible to control"... and yet, by 1960, Nuclear Fission Reactors were in use.

Odd thing for "them" to say, since the first controlled fission reactor was actually built in 1942.

And in the 1880's, people said fixed wing flight was impossible. by 1920, it was a growing industry.

Not quite, scientists and engineers had long thought fixed wing flight possible, the stumbling block was an engine light enough.

 

[Carlobrand]

Odd thing for "them" to say, since the first controlled fission reactor was actually built in 1942...

I'd understood that project was classified at the time.

 

[mike wightman]

Very much so once it became part of the Manhattan project.

Much of the original theoretical work was done openly within the physics community though.

Call me cynical but if there was a legitimate field of ftl research it would be classified today too

 

[aramis]

Very much so once it became part of the Manhattan project.

Much of the original theoretical work was done openly within the physics community though.

Call me cynical but if there was a legitimate field of ftl research it would be classified today too

Only if it was a military project.

NASA isn't allowed to have secret projects. (They are allowed to work on them, but the ones they work on are for DoD.)

In 1942, the average man on the street would have, to borrow a phrase from MASH, thought of Nuclear Power as a "load of hooey." Many would have thought jet fighters were propaganda, too.

Keep in mind also: science is much better taught now than then - the average man on the street now is better equipped to understand Einstein or Bohr than the average man of the 30's.

 

[david.wendelken]

Keep in mind also: science is much better taught now than then - the average man on the street now is better equipped to understand Einstein or Bohr than the average man of the 30's.

Doomed, I tell you, doomed!

Ok, maybe you don't live in the United States of America, which would explain why you think science is being well taught.

The average person on the street in America is totally clueless about science.

We can't teach our students how to read, write, or do simple addition and subtraction.

 

[aramis]

Doomed, I tell you, doomed!

Ok, maybe you don't live in the United States of America, which would explain why you think science is being well taught.

The average person on the street in America is totally clueless about science.

We can't teach our students how to read, write, or do simple addition and subtraction.

Its not well taught - don't put words into my mouth.

It's that it's taught at all - which it generally wasn't until the 1930's or even 40's, depending upon area.

Most people graduating from even the worst US public schools at least have had the basics - whether or not they actually learned them is another matter, but basic science instruction is required in all 50 states, PR, the US VI, Guam, and overseas military bases.

Keep in mind that it wasn't until WELL AFTER the Scopes trial that science trumped religion in the US... In fact, it was Epperson v Arkansas that established the right to teach Evolution over Creationism (Tennessee v JT Scopes, 1925; Epperson V. Arkansas, 1968).

 

[Gray Pennell]

Here is a work by White on warp engines

http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20110015936_2011016932.pdf

 

[Carlobrand]

Doomed, I tell you, doomed!

Ok, maybe you don't live in the United States of America, which would explain why you think science is being well taught.

The average person on the street in America is totally clueless about science.

We can't teach our students how to read, write, or do simple addition and subtraction.

He is NOT totally clueless. He is aware that science exists and believes for no good reason that it is threatening his religion and his pursuit of wealth. So, he's only mostly clueless.:devil:

 

[SanDragon]

Like, ohmigawd!!! I totally can't believe you, like, said that!!!