Science. Freaking awesome science.

[Lightspeed]

This is well awesome:
Earth's water is older than the sun: Likely originated as ices that formed in interstellar space

Last paragraph:

"Our findings show that a significant fraction of our Solar System's water, the most-fundamental ingredient to fostering life, is older than the Sun, which indicates that abundant, organic-rich interstellar ices should probably be found in all young planetary systems," Alexander said.

That plus this:
'Impossible' Space Engine May Actually Work, NASA Test Suggests

If this engine pans out we could be gappin' it around the galaxy in no time. Although still could be nothing, can't be sure till there's a working prototype.

[CCS]

I thought God made the water.

[Lightspeed]

I can see why you might think that.

[Ab]

Um, hasn't this been accepted for some time?

[chubby]

accepted maybe.
empirical means something to some of us though.

[Ab]

It's not exactly rocket surgery though, is it? Water is mostly oxygen. Oxygen is a heavy atom produced by old massive stars, of which the sun is not one being composed almost entirely of hydrogen. Therefore the water in the solar system was here before the sun formed.

Jesus, a schoolkid could tell you that.

[chubby]

yes they could.but i dont trust received knowledge as much as you.

[chubby]

not that i didn't receive this.

[Lightspeed]

Originally Posted by Ab

Jesus, a schoolkid could tell you that.

What school?

[Ajax]

Originally Posted by Lightspeed

What school?

Edwin Hubble Intermediate

[Lightspeed]

Originally Posted by Ab

It's not exactly rocket surgery though, is it? Water is mostly oxygen. Oxygen is a heavy atom produced by old massive stars, of which the sun is not one being composed almost entirely of hydrogen. Therefore the water in the solar system was here before the sun formed.

Perhaps I misread the article but I thought the finding was that the water entered our solar system after the formation of the sun, rather than answering any question of whether the elements that the water is composed of was produced by our sun.

Again, having to spend a good part of my week teasing the technical elements out of documents and communications my capacity for reading comprehension can get a little burnt out, so perhaps I've gotten something backwards in reading the article. However my read suggests that some portion of water did in fact exist or was formed (the molecule rather than the elements) in the solar system at the point the sun formed.

This whole business of the formation of elements seems irrelevant. The reason this is relevant (water existing/forming in the solar system at the point of it emerging as a system vs water arriving from interstellar space at a later point) is that water existing in our solar system is likely common amongst similar systems rather than novel meaning if we were to happen to have a space ship that could accelerate through space without the need of carrying it's own accelerant we've got a good shot of coming into contact with other life in our region of space.

[StN]

Sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion.

[Lightspeed]

[fixed_truth]

Originally Posted by Lightspeed

This whole business of the format amongst similar systems rather than novel meaning if we were to happen to have a space ship that could accelerate through space without the need of carrying it's own accelerant we've got a good shot of coming into contact with other life in our region of space.

The sooner this happens the better tbh.

[Lightspeed]

Lockheed Claims Breakthrough on Fusion Energy

Lockheed Martin Corp said on Wednesday it had made a technological breakthrough in developing a power source based on nuclear fusion, and the first reactors, small enough to fit on the back of a truck, could be ready in a decade.

[MadMax]

Weren't they saying that a decade ago?

[Lightspeed]

Lockheed Martin weren't, no. It will be very interesting to see what they've come up with.

You'd be right to be skeptical with anything short of a working prototype however.

[pxpx]

A decade is definitely sooner than the previously accepted projection of 2050!

[Spink]

is "could" really a projection.

[pxpx]

who gives a shit but fusion based energy would be awesome to see in my lifetime

[Ab]

Controlled fusion is the only hope for our continued survival, imho.

[Spink]

Originally Posted by Ab

Controlled fusion is the only hope for our continued survival, imho.

Survival is an interesting term to use. I would say comfort sustaining reckless population growth and consumption, not survival.

Is it really surviving if you can't get an iphone, though.

[pxpx]

^^ Lightspeed forgot to logout of his smurf account

[Spoon1]

These cold fusion solutions aren't producing much energy. I'm more interested in the big projects that are basically trying to reproduce the sun, here on earth. Once we get a few of those cranking our power worries disappear and all sorts of cool shit can happen.

Assuming we aren't raped by the power companies.

So maybe not so much :/

[Spink]

Originally Posted by pxpx

^^ Lightspeed forgot to logout of his smurf account

Ffffffuuuuu-

[pxpx]

Originally Posted by Spoon1

These cold fusion solutions aren't producing much energy. I'm more interested in the big projects that are basically trying to reproduce the sun, here on earth. Once we get a few of those cranking our power worries disappear and all sorts of cool shit can happen.

Assuming we aren't raped by the power companies.

So maybe not so much :/

I doubt they are talking about creating cold fusion reactors in 10 years time:

Originally Posted by wikipedia

Cold fusion is a hypothetical type of nuclear reaction that would occur at, or near, room temperature, compared with temperatures in the millions of degrees that are required for "hot" fusion, which takes place naturally within stars. There is currently no accepted theoretical model which would allow cold fusion to occur.

In 1989 Martin Fleischmann (then one of the world's leading electrochemists) and Stanley Pons reported that their apparatus had produced anomalous heat ("excess heat"), of a magnitude they asserted would defy explanation except in terms of nuclear processes.[1] They further reported measuring small amounts of nuclear reaction byproducts, including neutrons and tritium.[2] The small tabletop experiment involved electrolysis of heavy water on the surface of a palladium (Pd) electrode.[3] The reported results received wide media attention,[3] and raised hopes of a cheap and abundant source of energy.[4]

Many scientists tried to replicate the experiment with the few details available. Hopes fell with the large number of negative replications, the withdrawal of many positive replications, the discovery of flaws and sources of experimental error in the original experiment, and finally the discovery that Fleischmann and Pons had not actually detected nuclear reaction byproducts.[5] By late 1989, most scientists considered cold fusion claims dead,[6][7] and cold fusion subsequently gained a reputation as pathological science.[8][9] In 1989, a review panel organized by the United States Department of Energy (DOE) found that the evidence for the discovery of a new nuclear process was not persuasive enough to start a special program, but was "sympathetic toward modest support" for experiments "within the present funding system." A second DOE review, convened in 2004 to look at new research, reached conclusions similar to the first.[10] Support within the then-present funding system did not occur.

[Lightspeed]

More details:
http://aviationweek.com/technology/s...eactor-details

[Ajax]

Originally Posted by Lightspeed

More details:
http://aviationweek.com/technology/s...eactor-details

It seems the secret is in the magnets..

[pxpx]

Lockheed nerd w/ Fusion bom.... er, reactor

[crocos]

Originally Posted by Ajax

It seems the secret is in the magnets..

How DO they work?

[Lightspeed]

Richard Feynman explains it best:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MO0r930Sn_8

[Spoon1]

Originally Posted by Lightspeed

More details:
http://aviationweek.com/technology/s...eactor-details

I thought I remembered someone else claiming a "cooler" fusion reactor that would be the size of a shipping container but not put out much energy... I must have mixed it up.

This new thing sounds good then, not needing a tokamak.

[Ajax]

Originally Posted by Lightspeed

Richard Feynman explains it best:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MO0r930Sn_8

I prefer the Juggalo conjecture.

[Lightspeed]

It is after all an excellent question.

[Ab]

Originally Posted by Spink

Survival is an interesting term to use. I would say comfort sustaining reckless population growth and consumption, not survival.

Is it really surviving if you can't get an iphone, though.

I dunno. I really don't. Right now the human race seems to me like someone who has blown all his money on luxuries and who is now spending his last dollar on bus fare to the city for a job interview. There's no fallback position; if the job doesn't happen, the guy's fucked.

We're an energy-voracious wasteful toxic organism. We, Western industrialised society, have basically blown our birthright of knowledge and technology and cheap energy on luxury wars, and we're now getting to the point where if that knowledge and tech and energy doesn't get us off-planet, we're fucked. If we don't make a leap to the next energy sources (fusion, nextgen solar, whatever) we will run out of our current energy sources (petrol, gas, fission) and then go back to the old ones (coal, wood, whale oil, etc).

We'll be stuck, dying, and taking the ecosphere down with us. Developing fusion power is something that only a wealthy energy-rich scientific society can do. It takes the energy resources of fossil fuels to GET to nextgen tech. If we fuck it up, the next society that rises won't have those resources.

[crocos]

Originally Posted by Lightspeed

Richard Feynman explains it best:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MO0r930Sn_8

Holy shit, the first half of that? it's like talking to Lightspeeeee.... Oh.

[MadMax]

Originally Posted by Ab

We'll be stuck, dying, and taking the ecosphere down with us.

the best part is when you realise it will happen within a generation, then the next generation after that will be ...

all's needed is a disease or two to accelerate the downward spiral

[Lightspeed]

Originally Posted by crocos

Holy shit, the first half of that? it's like talking to Lightspeeeee.... Oh.

That's a fine complement.

[Lightspeed]

Evaluating NASA’s Futuristic EM Drive

A solid article, this is the real goodness here:

NASA has successfully tested their EM Drive in a hard vacuum

There is no science at the moment that excites me more than this.

[Cyberbob]

Badass name for the concept craft too, Warpstar-1