Ongoing important Science news thread

[octothorp]

Originally Posted by T@T

Easier to pick up the peices after a crash at that speed!

Seriously though, Who reading this thread would get on that thing knowing that Japan gets upwards of 1500 earth quakes per year?.

But your odds of being on a train during an earthquake reduce by 50% if you travel at 600kmh vs. 300kmh!

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by octothorp

But your odds of being on a train during an earthquake reduce by 50% if you travel at 600kmh vs. 300kmh!

Science!

[T@T]

Yellowstone supervolcano much bigger than thought.

A giant reservoir of magma and hot rock beneath the Yellowstone supervolcano has been found and imaged. The newly found reservoir lies 12-28 miles below the surface, and is four-and-a-half times larger than the shallower, hot melted rock zone that powers current Yellowstone geysers and caused the caldera's last eruption some 70,000 years ago.
The volume of the newly imaged, deeper reservoir is a whopping 11,000 cubic-miles (46,000 cubic kilometers), which is about the volume of Long Island with 9 miles of hot rock piled on it, or 300 Lake Tahoes.

The old kill zone didn't quite make it into Alberta, maybe they'll update.

Probably won't happen for a few thousand years but man what bang this thing will be.
http://news.discovery.com/earth/peer...ano-150423.htm

[Hemi-Cuda]

NASA may have accidentally created a warp field

http://mysteriousuniverse.org/2015/0...-a-warp-drive/

[wwkayaker]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

NASA may have accidentally created a warp field

http://mysteriousuniverse.org/2015/0...-a-warp-drive/

Fascinating!

[Knut]

^ Similar to how we have created cold fusion. There is quite a bit of issues with it.

1) the EM drive would require exotic matter/energy to run. Something we do not have
2) the test was not completed in a vacuum.
3) Still need large amounts of energy

However, It is extremely exciting that it could be technically possible. Unfortunately, it likely would not happen in our lifetime.

[Muta]

Here's a related article to the above story:

New Test Suggests NASA's "Impossible" EM Drive Will Work In Space

http://io9.com/new-test-suggests-nas...ork-1701188933

If this successful, the implications of this technology could be MASSIVE. Exciting times.

[photon]

Research that gets announced on an Internet forum deserves every once of skepticism that can be mustered.

Like the faster than light speed neutrinos it's far more likely a measuring problem or a confounding factor they aren't accounting for.

[Mike F]

Originally Posted by photon

Research that gets announced on an Internet forum deserves every once of skepticism that can be mustered.

So Edmonton might not be no good

[FlameOn]

Originally Posted by photon

Research that gets announced on an Internet forum deserves every once of skepticism that can be mustered.

Like the faster than light speed neutrinos it's far more likely a measuring problem or a confounding factor they aren't accounting for.

True, but this one NASA tested itself and found unexplained thrust of 1N/Kilowatt in vacuum.
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2015/...stic-em-drive/

At the very least this deserves a bit of investigation to try to figure out why.

Originally Posted by Hesla

^ Similar to how we have created cold fusion. There is quite a bit of issues with it.

1) the EM drive would require exotic matter/energy to run. Something we do not have
2) the test was not completed in a vacuum.
3) Still need large amounts of energy

However, It is extremely exciting that it could be technically possible. Unfortunately, it likely would not happen in our lifetime.

You are getting the Alcubierre drive (FTL) mixed up with the Resonate Cavity Thruster or EMDrive (sublight). Warp vs. Impulse. EMDrive requires no exotic matter.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcubierre_drive
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EmDrive

EM drive is only theoretically 9.4% the speed of light and results have been replicated by NASA in vacuum. This is especially exciting as results have now been replicated independently in two non-vacuum tests and once in vacuum. Theory for these has not yet been dismissed as measurement noise like the earlier neutrino mess but three positive tests is promising, especially the ones from NASA. See NASA link above. If results continue holding up and it actually works in practice, the engine would allow us to get to the moon and back in roughly 4 hrs.

[photon]

Originally Posted by FlameOn

True, but this one NASA tested itself and found unexplained thrust of 1N/Kilowatt in vacuum.
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2015/...stic-em-drive/

The Eagleworks team measured far lower than that, that was a Chinese test. The two tests give wildly different results. That and all the information about this is second hand, hearsay and poor reporting, "NASA itself" hasn't found anything, there's nothing about this published on any NASA website, just private posts on a forum by an engineer.

Originally Posted by FlameOn

At the very least this deserves a bit of investigation to try to figure out why.

I'd be satisfied with rigorous investigation, the first test of the Eagleworks team was incredibly poor and their report consisted mostly of elaborate and fanciful (and detailed!) descriptions of EM Drive missions to Mars and the moons of Saturn. That's like planning 747s when you notice a flat piece of paper falls slower through air than a wadded up piece of paper, very much not how science is done.

This second round includes lots of similar stuff including a part where their Mars mission creates energy out of nothing by producing more kinetic energy than the nuclear reactor puts out.

They even use the term "mainstream physics community"

The pattern of how this is being done is closer to free energy nonsense than actual science, Eagleworks needs to be a lot less pie in the sky imagining and a lot more grounded in their tests and reporting.

Originally Posted by FlameOn

You are getting the Alcubierre drive (FTL) mixed up with the Resonate Cavity Thruster or EMDrive (sublight).

No he's right, the Eagleworks team also claim they measured that this EM Drive warps space time, the same measurement this team was earlier trying to make with a different device.. So it's not just a reactionless drive, but also the beginnings of an Alcubierre drive.

Originally Posted by FlameOn

See NASA link above.

There is no NASA link above, that link is as much NASA as this forum is Calgary Flames.

I think they should continue to test until they prove something for sure (likely proving that they weren't accounting for some known phenomenon). But to say that these guys who can't even seem to write a reasonable paper are overthrowing both conservation of momentum as well as relativity is at the very least hugely premature.

When Einstein revolutionized physics, he could at least write a cogent paper about it.

[Roast Beef]

Originally Posted by photon

There is no NASA link above, that link is as much NASA as this forum is Calgary Flames.

But to say that these guys who can't even seem to write a reasonable paper are overthrowing both conservation of momentum as well as relativity is at the very least hugely premature.

When Einstein revolutionized physics, he could at least write a cogent paper about it.

This.

That nasaspaceflight website has nothing to do with NASA. There is nothing here that I would call actual science. It's all wishes hopes and dreams. It sounds like the modern perpetual motion machine, or cold fusion....

[troutman]

Steve Campana, Canadian biologist, 'disgusted' with government muzzling

Fisheries and Oceans Canada biologist speaks out only after retirement

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-s...ling-1.3078587

"We have very strict directives of what we can say and the approval steps we have to go through, and very often that approval seems to be withheld for totally arbitrary reasons," Campana says.

He says government scientists often have to find their own funding, travel is often turned down and they are rarely allowed to talk to the media, even about their own groundbreaking research.

[worth]

We've been hearing about government muzzling of Scientists for years by the conservative government, but I still don't understand what the purpose of it is? Why are Scientists not allowed to talk about groundbreaking research?

[polak]

Originally Posted by worth

We've been hearing about government muzzling of Scientists for years by the conservative government, but I still don't understand what the purpose of it is? Why are Scientists not allowed to talk about groundbreaking research?

Climate change denial probably?

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by worth

We've been hearing about government muzzling of Scientists for years by the conservative government, but I still don't understand what the purpose of it is? Why are Scientists not allowed to talk about groundbreaking research?

Because the government wants to control the messaging. It's important that Canada doesn't continue to get saddled with further environmental pressure, eg. dirty oil, seal clubbing, pollution, etc. The easiest way to do it is control the message of at least what you're funding

[Codes]

We get periodic reminders at work that any media related inquiries get forwarded to "media relations". We also get a reminder anytime there is a recall or outbreak.

As far as conferences and manuscripts go, I know they are reviewed by upper management, but to what extent is unknown. Getting approval to go to conferences is difficult though.

[Muta]

Very ambitious thinking...

Incredible Technology: NASA's Wild Airship Idea for Cloud Cities on Venus

http://www.space.com/29140-venus-air...pr=17610706465

[Muta]

Also...

Turtle gets a 3-D printed titanium jaw, now looks like a supervillain

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/s...ptimist&wpmm=1

[Vulcan]

Short film from HHMI on the origin of humans.

http://media.hhmi.org/biointeractive...ns-Humans.html