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Oct 10, 2021

Antimatter Could Provide Electric Propulsion To Vehicles

Posted by in categories: particle physics, sustainability, transportation

Circa 2009


The futuristic thought of antimatter that is typically related to sci-fi movies may one day be able to provide propulsion to vehicles. Antimatter, is an exact oppposite copy of matter. Identical to matter, but with its electrical charge completely opposite of the original matter. Think of a battery with a positive and negative pole. The positive pole repsresenting matter, and the negative pole representing antimatter.

Antimatter is the exact oposite of matter. A definition as provided by Wikipedia concludes that antimatter is composed of antiparticles in the same way that normal matter is composed of particles. For example, an antielectron (a positron, an electron with a positive charge) and an antiproton (a proton with a negative charge) could form an antihydrogen atom in the same way that an electron and a proton form a normal matter hydrogen atom. Furthermore, mixing matter and antimatter would lead to the annihilation of both in the same way that mixing antiparticles and particles does, thus giving rise to high-energy photons (gamma rays) or other particle–antiparticle pairs.

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Oct 10, 2021

Doubling creation of antimatter using same laser energy

Posted by in category: particle physics

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists have achieved a near 100 percent increase in the amount of antimatter created in the laboratory.

Using targets with micro-structures on the laser interface, the team shot a high-intensity laser through them and saw a 100 percent increase in the amount of antimatter (also known as positrons). The research appears in Applied Physics Letters.

Previous research using a tiny gold sample created about 100 billion particles of antimatter. The new experiments double that.

Oct 10, 2021

Faster-Than-Light Travel Is Possible Within Einstein’s Physics, Astrophysicist Shows

Posted by in category: physics

For decades, we’ve dreamed of visiting other star systems. There’s just one problem – they’re so far away, with conventional spaceflight it would take tens of thousands of years to reach even the closest one.

Physicists are not the kind of people who give up easily, though. Give them an impossible dream, and they’ll give you an incredible, hypothetical way of making it a reality. Maybe.

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Oct 10, 2021

Fermi Paradox: 71 years later, SETI may have solved the cosmic mystery

Posted by in categories: alien life, existential risks

“Where is everybody?”


The Fermi Paradox has perplexed scientists for years. We examine the possibility that we haven’t heard from any aliens is because no one is transmitting.

Oct 10, 2021

NASA’s asteroid spacecraft Lucy launches this week on ambitious 12-year mission

Posted by in category: space

NASA’s next asteroid-bound mission to explore the earliest days of our solar system is nearly ready to launch.

The Lucy spacecraft is targeting a launch window that opens on Saturday (Oct. 16). After blastoff, the spacecraft will make a 12-year journey to the outer solar system, where it will visit half a dozen ancient “Trojan” asteroids that orbit in the same path as the planet Jupiter.

Oct 10, 2021

Neuroscientists Discover a Very Pleasant Trick to Help You Retain Important Information Much Longer

Posted by in category: food

Could eating your favorite food help with memory retention? It might.

Oct 10, 2021

It’ll Soon be Possible to Make Satellite Phone Calls With Your Regular Phone

Posted by in categories: mobile phones, space

Not all who wander are lost – but sometimes their cell phone reception is. That might change soon if a plan to project basic cell phone coverage to all parts of the globe comes to fruition. Lynk has already proven it can use a typical smartphone to bound a standard SMS text message off a low-earth-orbiting satellite, and they don’t plan to stop there.

Formerly known as Ubiquitilink, Lynk was founded a few years ago by Nanoracks founder Charles Miller and his partners but came out of “stealth mode” as a start-up in 2019. In 2020 they then used a satellite to send an SMS message from a typical smartphone, without requiring the fancy GPS locators and antennas needed by other, specially made satellite phones.

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Oct 10, 2021

Gas Giants May Have Bullied Planet 9 to the Fringes of Our Solar System

Posted by in category: space

Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, or Neptune may have sent the Earth-sized planet barreling toward deep space.


Scientists believe that there could be a ninth planet in our solar system, lurking somewhere beyond Neptune—but don’t get too excited, because this isn’t about Pluto.

Rather, this is the story of a mysterious Earth-or Mars-sized planet that may have swirled beyond the asteroid belt, among the gas giants, before they ultimately swept this potential “Planet 9” toward the outer reaches of our solar system… or even into deep space. The theory makes sense on its face: Jupiter is kind of known as a bully, after all.

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Oct 10, 2021

Nobel Prize for physics winner shaped observing mission

Posted by in categories: climatology, physics, sustainability

Professor Hasselmann developed a method for satellite ocean wave measurements.


This year’s Nobel Prize in Physics laureate Klaus Hasselmann helped to shape a ground-breaking Earth-observation mission that paved the way for the modern study of our planet’s environment.

The German oceanographer and climate modeler was awarded the coveted prize for his contribution to the physical modeling of Earth’s climate that has enabled scientists to quantify the climate’s natural variability and better predict climate change. Hasselman won half of the 2021 Nobel Prize for Physics last week, with the other half shared by scientists Syukuro Manabe and Giorgio Parisi for their own research on disorder and fluctuations in physical systems.

Oct 10, 2021

GM plants hit by chip shortages to reopen by Nov. 1

Posted by in category: computing

DETROIT — General Motors on Friday said it expects to reopen the remaining three North American assembly plants that have been idled because of the global microchip shortage by Nov. 1.

GM also said it plans to resume building Chevrolet Malibu sedans for the first time in nearly nine months at a plant that has partially reopened in Kansas.

The automaker said its plant in Ramos Arizpe, Mexico, which has been shut since mid-August, would start building Chevy Blazers on Oct. 18 followed by Chevy Equinoxes as soon as Nov. 1.