YouTube Video on EM Drives
There are scores or perhaps even hundreds of online articles and videos on the topic of EM (Electro-Magnetic) Drives. However, only a handful are credible and useful. My favorite to date is this YouTube video presentation from PBS Space Time, "The EM Drive: Fact or Fantasy?", dated January 11, 2017 (first 9 minutes covers the EM drive). It is written and hosted by Matt O'Dowd, an astrophysics professor at Lehman College, Australia.
https://youtu.be/hqoo_4wSkdg?list=PLsPUh22kYmNDRYfImV3BzNZ6yTwhIpe0k
Pro: In a nine minutes video presentation, Matt explains what EM drive is all about, and its latest controversy as to whether the EM drive is something to be taken seriously. It is well organized, and the extremely hard and complex materials are explained in an easy to understand manner for non-scientists like myself. Matt's explanations are great throughout, but is top notch where he covers the speculations and assumptions about how EM works. Especially helpful was his explanations about how the basic assumptions about quantum vacuum plasma made by the authors of the paper on the EM drive differed markedly from the generally accepted mainstream quantum field theory.
Con: I would've preferred a longer presentation, perhaps a 30 minute presentation instead of the 9 minutes.
Rating: A
Warp Drive Concept: A collection of warp drive online articles, Facebook posts, scientific papers, and websites. These will be reviewed, rated (A, B, C, D, or F), and cataloged by topics (using Google Labels) for easier reference by serious amateur warp drive enthusiasts. --- image credit: NASA website ---
Sunday, January 15, 2017
Friday, November 4, 2016
YouTube Videos on Possibility of Warp Drives
In addition to the two blog posts by Ethan Siegel (reviewed in the previous post), the following two YouTube videos added credibility to the statement that faster than speed of light travel is a possibility.
1) "Is Warp Drive Physically Possible?", Posted July 20, 2013, by Muon Ray. (14:21 minutes)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXyQ92SPWds
This video is a compilation of four (4) separate presentations on the warp drive: 1) Panel discussion at the World Science Festival, May 29- June 2, 2013, New York City. Lawrence Kraus, a renowned theoretical physicist explains the warp drive concept. 2) Michio Kaku, the moderator of the TV show, Physics of the Impossible, explains warp drive with Miguel Alcubierre, the theoretical physicist who came up with the warp drive concept. 3) Morgan Freeman, the moderator of the TV show, Through the Wormhole, explains warp drive and features Steve Lamoreaux who succeeded in measuring Casimir effect (negative energy between two plates), and 4) TV news interview with NASA scientist, Harold (Sonny) White, who is testing warp drive concepts.
Pro:
In less than 15 minutes, warp drive is explained by well known theoretical physicists - Lawrence Kraus, Michio Kaku, Miguel Alcubierre, and Steve Lamoreaux.
Note: I'm also a bit partial to Michio Kaku, since I knew his younger brother and about Michio Kaku from jr. high school days.
Con:
The interview with Sonny White at the end of the video is a bit vague and possibly misleading. It sounds like NASA is working on, and has made progress with the development and testing of this concept, but, according to a couple of other sources (will be reviewed later), it is not the case at all.
Rating: B (A, if not for the interview with Sonny White)
2) "Warp Drives and Bending Time", Posted May 6, 2015, by Australian Academy of Science, (1:09:09 minutes)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_OUutTwAm8
Tamara Davis, an astrophysicist, explains warp drive concept to a lay audience in a public lecture, Science Fiction becomes Science Fact.
Pro:
Explains warp drive concept in detail. Although her expertise is in astrophysics, and not warp drives, she appears to have done extensive up to date research on the topic. She touched on the topic of time travel briefly, but mentions that it would be a topic for another lecture. And, when talking about Sonny White's warp generator, she qualified it by saying she was not able to obtain information about how it works.
Note: The credibility and the trust factor is very high for me with this speaker, Tamara Davis. The reason being, that I knew Tamara from the early 2000's, when she was a Postdoc at the place I used to work. In fact, when I happened to run into her by chance earlier this year, she gave me heads up about this talk :-)
Con:
In this talk, some time is spent on explaining supernovae observational cosmology. Although the point was to link the dark energy to negative energy, personally, I would've preferred that those few minutes were dedicated for extra questions and answers discussion period.
Rating: A
In addition to the two blog posts by Ethan Siegel (reviewed in the previous post), the following two YouTube videos added credibility to the statement that faster than speed of light travel is a possibility.
1) "Is Warp Drive Physically Possible?", Posted July 20, 2013, by Muon Ray. (14:21 minutes)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
This video is a compilation of four (4) separate presentations on the warp drive: 1) Panel discussion at the World Science Festival, May 29- June 2, 2013, New York City. Lawrence Kraus, a renowned theoretical physicist explains the warp drive concept. 2) Michio Kaku, the moderator of the TV show, Physics of the Impossible, explains warp drive with Miguel Alcubierre, the theoretical physicist who came up with the warp drive concept. 3) Morgan Freeman, the moderator of the TV show, Through the Wormhole, explains warp drive and features Steve Lamoreaux who succeeded in measuring Casimir effect (negative energy between two plates), and 4) TV news interview with NASA scientist, Harold (Sonny) White, who is testing warp drive concepts.
Pro:
In less than 15 minutes, warp drive is explained by well known theoretical physicists - Lawrence Kraus, Michio Kaku, Miguel Alcubierre, and Steve Lamoreaux.
Note: I'm also a bit partial to Michio Kaku, since I knew his younger brother and about Michio Kaku from jr. high school days.
Con:
The interview with Sonny White at the end of the video is a bit vague and possibly misleading. It sounds like NASA is working on, and has made progress with the development and testing of this concept, but, according to a couple of other sources (will be reviewed later), it is not the case at all.
Rating: B (A, if not for the interview with Sonny White)
2) "Warp Drives and Bending Time", Posted May 6, 2015, by Australian Academy of Science, (1:09:09 minutes)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Tamara Davis, an astrophysicist, explains warp drive concept to a lay audience in a public lecture, Science Fiction becomes Science Fact.
Pro:
Explains warp drive concept in detail. Although her expertise is in astrophysics, and not warp drives, she appears to have done extensive up to date research on the topic. She touched on the topic of time travel briefly, but mentions that it would be a topic for another lecture. And, when talking about Sonny White's warp generator, she qualified it by saying she was not able to obtain information about how it works.
Note: The credibility and the trust factor is very high for me with this speaker, Tamara Davis. The reason being, that I knew Tamara from the early 2000's, when she was a Postdoc at the place I used to work. In fact, when I happened to run into her by chance earlier this year, she gave me heads up about this talk :-)
Con:
In this talk, some time is spent on explaining supernovae observational cosmology. Although the point was to link the dark energy to negative energy, personally, I would've preferred that those few minutes were dedicated for extra questions and answers discussion period.
Rating: A
Tuesday, November 1, 2016
Warp Drive is Possible - Start With A Bang Blog Posts
In September 2016, a couple of blog posts popped up in my Facebook page and introduced me to the idea that faster than speed of light travel might be possible.
The two posts are by Ethan Siegel in the Forbes Science Website (Starts With A Bang contributor).
1) "Star Trek's Warp Drive Might Become A Reality", September 8, 2016.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2016/09/08/star-treks-warp-drive-might-become-a-reality/#7b1de67d44c5
2) "Ask Ethan: What 'Impossible Physics' Would Be Possible With Warp Drive?", September 24, 2016.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2016/09/24/ask-ethan-what-impossible-physics-would-be-possible-with-warp-drive/#1ee758c925ad
Pro:
Ethan appears to know his stuff, and simplifies complex ideas to fun to read and easy to understand narratives.
Con:
The explanation about time travel was a bit confusing, if not contradictory.
In the first post, Ethan says "Messages could be delivered of upcoming catastrophes before a light signal could ever arrive, and violating our traditional notions of causality would become a routine game.". So, this sounded like time travel was possible.
However, in the second post, Ethan says, "See ourselves as we were in the past. You can’t use warp drive to travel back in time, but if you can outrace the light that the Earth, Sun or Milky Way emitted so long ago, you can then “catch” it with the proper tools.". So, this statement appears to be contradictory to the first statement.
Rating: B (It would've been A, if not for the confusing statements about time travel)
In September 2016, a couple of blog posts popped up in my Facebook page and introduced me to the idea that faster than speed of light travel might be possible.
The two posts are by Ethan Siegel in the Forbes Science Website (Starts With A Bang contributor).
1) "Star Trek's Warp Drive Might Become A Reality", September 8, 2016.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2016/09/08/star-treks-warp-drive-might-become-a-reality/#7b1de67d44c5
2) "Ask Ethan: What 'Impossible Physics' Would Be Possible With Warp Drive?", September 24, 2016.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2016/09/24/ask-ethan-what-impossible-physics-would-be-possible-with-warp-drive/#1ee758c925ad
Pro:
Ethan appears to know his stuff, and simplifies complex ideas to fun to read and easy to understand narratives.
Con:
The explanation about time travel was a bit confusing, if not contradictory.
In the first post, Ethan says "Messages could be delivered of upcoming catastrophes before a light signal could ever arrive, and violating our traditional notions of causality would become a routine game.". So, this sounded like time travel was possible.
However, in the second post, Ethan says, "See ourselves as we were in the past. You can’t use warp drive to travel back in time, but if you can outrace the light that the Earth, Sun or Milky Way emitted so long ago, you can then “catch” it with the proper tools.". So, this statement appears to be contradictory to the first statement.
Rating: B (It would've been A, if not for the confusing statements about time travel)
Sunday, October 2, 2016
Hello Warp Drive Fans!
I just started looking at some of the social media postings about warp drives, and realized that there were many many postings, articles, and websites out there. And, for me to intelligently keep up with all of the postings, it would be helpful to have a place where everything was reviewed, sorted, and organized, somewhat. So this is my first attempt at seeing whether it can be done by using the Google Blogger.
Peace!
A Warp Drive Fan
I just started looking at some of the social media postings about warp drives, and realized that there were many many postings, articles, and websites out there. And, for me to intelligently keep up with all of the postings, it would be helpful to have a place where everything was reviewed, sorted, and organized, somewhat. So this is my first attempt at seeing whether it can be done by using the Google Blogger.
Peace!
A Warp Drive Fan
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