Neutrino Engines

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In science fiction, traveling faster than light is no big deal.  Everybody’s doing it.  The details of how they do it are… a bit vague.  But scientists at CERN, an international research facility in Europe, say they’ve discovered something that really can travel faster than light: the neutrino.

So does this mean science fiction writers should start building spaceships with neutrino engines?  Not quite yet.  Many physicists are not convinced by the CERN scientists’ claim.  The equipment in the experiment could have been faulty, leading to a false measurement of the neutrinos’ speed.  More tests are required to confirm these findings.

And now we’re learning that some of the scientists involved in the experiment did not want the results published.  Though most of their colleagues felt confident, a few still worried that the measurement was somehow in error.

There are precious few particle accelerators in the world, but I expect scientists will try to replicate the experiment at another location soon.  In the meantime, science fiction writers should stay away from neutrino engines.  In a year or two, we might find out the whole think was a fluke.

For more on CERN’s recent neutrino experiment and the controversy around it, click here.

Sci Friday – And the Nobel Prize Goes To…

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The winners of the 2011 Nobel Prizes were announced this week.  The awards will be given out at a ceremony in December.  Each of this week’s Sci Friday links concern the winners and the discoveries or achievements that earned them their prizes.

I’m particularly excited about this year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry not only because of Dan Shechtman’s impossible crystals but because of the struggle he went through to get his discovery accepted by the scientific community.  The one for physics is also pretty cool.

Update: The Nobel Prize for Economic Science went to Thomas J. Sargent and Christopher A. Sims for their research on how government policy affects the economy.

Are Dolphins Smarter Than You?

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Darwin the Dolphin was a member of the crew on SeaQuest DSV.  Through some highly advanced technology similar to Google Translate, he was able to talk to his human crewmates, and occasionally he was sent on missions wearing a specially designed scuba suit.

Darwin from SeaQuest DSV

While we still haven’t found a way to talk to dolphins, researchers in Australia say they’ve observed a surprising, new dolphin behavior.  Only a few years ago, they noticed a few dolphins using conch shells to help them fish.  The dolphins catch fish in the shells then bring them to the surface and dump the fish into their mouths.

Since then, researchers have noticed more and more dolphins using conch shells.  It’s as though one clever dolphin invented a new technique and the others imitated it.  Or perhaps this clever dolphin told his friends what he’d done and showed it to them, and the news spread through the dolphin community.  Whatever happened, it’s the first time we’ve seen another species invent a new tool.

Obviously, the dolphins didn’t invent conch shells.  They don’t have opposable thumbs, so we can’t expect them to make bows and arrows any time soon.  But in the beginning, our ancestors probably used objects they found in nature as tools.  Early humans didn’t invent small rocks and wooden sticks, but they found ways to use them.  Dolphins may be at a similar early stage of technological development.

Of course, fans of the Hitchhiker’s Guide know dolphins are only the second smartest species on Earth, and humans are the third.  Mice are the real masters of this planet.

For more on what these clever dolphins are up to, click here.

Atom Smashers

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The United States’ largest atom smasher is smashing atoms no more.  I’m sure atoms are very happy about this, but most of the scientific community is disappointed.  In many ways, shutting down the Tevatron Particle Accelerator is like ending the space shuttle program.

The Tevatron had been in service for nearly thirty years and was responsible for many important discoveries in particle physics.  Most people never even heard of it and have no idea why this matters, but without particle physics (a.k.a. quantum mechanics) we wouldn’t have wireless communications, plastic, or most modern drugs.  We wouldn’t even understand DNA if we didn’t know how atoms and the particles inside them work.

The Tevatron cost millions of dollars to build and millions more to operate.  The Department of Energy says they could not secure funding from the federal government to keep it running.

Before the Tevatron closed, it was tantalizingly close to either discovering the Higgs Boson or proving it does not exist—which would change everything we know about physics.  The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Europe is also close.  And another particle accelerator in Europe, run by the same people who run the LHC, recently found evidence that one particle, the neutrino, can travel faster than light—which would also change everything we know about physics.

As an American, I wish the United States still had a large particle accelerator of its own so we could participate in these experiments, but at the same time I’m too excited to worry about patriotism.  One way or another, atom smashers are about to change physics, and when they do all kinds of new technologies will be possible.  The world of tomorrow is coming.

Sci Friday – Neutrino Week

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The big news this week was that neutrinos might be able to travel faster than light.  This discovery still has to be confirmed, and some of the scientists involved in the experiment didn’t want their names associated with it.  Whatever happened with those neutrinos, it’s sure to be a big controversy for quite some time.

Here are this week’s sciency links.

But That’s Impossible, Part 2

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The neutrinos that allegedly travelled faster than light would undermine Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, one of the two foundations of modern science.  Quantum mechanics, the other foundation, is also threatened not by a recent discovery but by the lack of a discovery.  The Higgs Boson is still missing.

In quantum mechanics, everything that happens in physics can be explained by the existence of some particle.  Light and electricity are explained by photons.  Radiation is explained by alpha, beta, and gamma particles.  Mass is explained by the Higgs Boson, also known as the “God Particle,” but after years of searching scientists can’t find it.  They’ve tried almost every energy level where they thought it could be and got nothing.

It’s like when you lose your keys.  First, you look in the most likely places, such as the table by the door or under the sofa cushions.  Then you try less likely places until you’re forced to check in the bathtub or the refrigerator.  In the search for the Higgs Boson, scientists are now looking in the bathtubs and refrigerators of science.

The real shocking discovery would be if they fail to find the Higgs all together.  This would be like deciding the reason you can’t find your keys is because they never existed in the first place.  It wouldn’t make sense.

Failing to find the Higgs means our basic understanding of quantum mechanics is wrong.  It can’t be completely wrong, or nuclear power wouldn’t work, but we’ve messed up some detail somewhere, and scientists will have to go through the long and tedious process of finding that small mistake.  Unless they find the Higgs behind the ketchup in the fridge.

Oh, there they are.

For more information on the search for the hunt for the Higgs Boson, click here.  For more on lost keys, click here.

But That’s Impossible, Part 1

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Neutrinos are tiny particles with no electric charge and almost no mass.  They drift through the universe, rarely interacting with ordinary matter, possibly doing weird stuff that’s beyond current science’s power to observe.  But damn it, scientists are determined to observe that weird stuff anyway, and recently they got a real surprise.

Researchers at CERN, one of the world’s leading institutions in particle physics, fired some neutrinos down a long tunnel connecting Geneva, Switzerland to a laboratory in Italy.  The neutrinos arrived a fraction of a second sooner than expected.  In fact, they arrived faster than a beam of light would have.

If this is true, it changes everything we know about physics.  Suddenly, Einstein’s theory of relativity is unreliable, and the speed of light is no longer the intergalactic speed limit.  Maybe we could start building faster than light spaceships powered by neutrinos.

Don’t get your hopes up.  More than likely, this is a mistake in the measurements.  I’ve read enough articles about amazing discoveries that turned out to be false alarms, and I think this one’s a false alarm.

However, there is one thing that does travel faster than light, or at least scientists say it could.  The universe is expanding at an increasing rate, and eventually it will expand faster than the speed of light.  Since space is basically nothing, there is no limit to how fast it can grow.

Now if only we could come up with some way to make space shrink or grow at our command… with some special engine, we could warp space to bring distant objects closer, thus overcoming the limitations set by the speed of light.  A “warp engine” like that would be pretty cool.

For more information about the neutrino experiment, click here.  For more on the expanding universe, click here.  In tomorrow’s post, there will be another discovery—or in this case the lack of a discovery—that could also shake the foundations of science.

Sci Friday – The Sky Is Falling

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The six-ton satellite currently falling to Earth has apparently slowed down.  NASA expected it to crash sometime this afternoon, but they now say it will happen tonight or perhaps early tomorrow morning.  Click here for the latest update from Scientific American.

Here are this week’s other sciency links.

The Sky Is Falling

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Friday afternoon, a six-ton satellite is expected to fall out of orbit, mostly burning up in the atmosphere.  NASA calculates that twenty-six pieces will survive and crash somewhere on Earth.  Many people are understandably concerned, since there is a chance (a very, very small chance) that one of these pieces might hit someone on the ground.

Get a snapshot view of NASA's Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS), which will fall to Earth in 2011, in this SPACE.com infographic.
Source: SPACE.com: All about our solar system, outer space and exploration

You’ve probably heard this on the news already, and there are plenty of apps and websites to keep you up to date on the satellite’s status.  But have you wondered what this old, defunct satellite was used for?

The Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite, or UARS, was launched in 1991 to study the ozone layer and determine what was causing it to disappear.  During its 14 years of operation, the UARS collected data proving chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), used in air conditioning, aerosole sprays, and solvents, were reacting with ozone, destroying ozone molecules faster than natural cycles could replace them.

Since this discovery, 196 countries have signed the Montreal Protocol, agreeing to gradually stop production of CFCs.  The United States has already banned most CFC uses with the Clean Air Act and is starting to ban HCFCs (CFCs with added hydrogen).  According to the EPA, the ozone layer is already starting to recover.

There’s still a lot wrong with our climate, but the Montreal Protocol is a rare success story.  Kofi Annan, the former secretary-general of the United Nations, called it “the single most successful international agreement to date,” and experts estimate that the famous hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica will close sometime in the next 50 to 75 years.

So on Friday if you happen to see the satellite burning through the sky, remember that this isn’t just any old satellite.  This satellite helped make the world a better place.

Links

Space: Closer Than You Think

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With NASA’s budget problems and recent technical problems with Russia’s space program, it may seem like humanity’s race into space has run into a snag.  But there is actually tremendous progress being made.  China is moving forward with its own ambitious space program, and private companies in the U.S. are spending a lot of money to build spaceships of their own.

Courtesy: WP Clip Art

You may not be aware of this, but China has been sending people into space since 2003 and conducted its first space walk in 2008.  They’re a little late getting into this game, but they’re catching up fast.  By the end of September, 2011, the Chinese Space Agency says it will put the first segment of a new space station in orbit.

The Chinese space station, named Tiangong or “Heavenly Palace,” will be used to perform microgravity experiments similar to what is done on the International Space Station.  It will be smaller and lighter than the ISS when complete, which is an advantage because it will cost less to launch all the segments.

Meanwhile, a new spaceship factory has opened in the United States.  Located in California, this factory will build ships based on Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipOne, which won $10 million dollars for being the first privately funded ship to carry a person into space.  Virgin Galactic is part owner of the new factory.

Virgin Galactic primarily aims to make money on space tourism, but the business of space travel has other purposes as well.  NASA still has to get astronauts to the ISS somehow, and for the moment the plan is to use private companies like a taxi service.  Corporations and universities could also use privately owned spaceships to perform microgravity experiments, and in the slightly more distant future, nations and companies might want to harvest passing asteroids for valuable metals.

Books like Ben Bova’s Asteroid Wars and Arthur C. Clarke’s 2001: A Space Odyssey paint a vivid picture of our near future (although Clarke picked the wrong year).  By the end of the century, humanity might not only be exploring and exploiting the solar system, but fighting over it too.

For more on China’s “Heavenly Palace,” click here.

For more on the new spaceship factory in the US, click here.