M Thomas Apple Author Page

Science fiction, actual science, history, and personal ranting about life, the universe, and everything

“Superconductor”? Color me skeptical

August 11, 2023
MThomas

Superconductors are materials that allow electrical current to flow with no resistance, a property that would revolutionize power grids where energy is lost in transmission as well as advance fields such as computing chips, where electrical resistance acts as a speed limit.

https://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/superconductor-claims-spark-investor-frenzy-scientists-are-skeptical-rcna98123

I’ve heard claims like this before.

The hallmark of science is replicability. I.e., can two independent teams of researchers, using similar means, methods, and materials in completely different settings, replicate the findings of the original team?

So…

Researchers from at least three Chinese universities have in recent days said they produced versions of LK-99 with varying results. One team from the Huazhong University of Science and Technology posted a video purporting to show the material levitating over a magnet, which is important because true superconductors can float over a magnet in any orientation, without spinning like a compass.

But…

…another team, from Qufu Normal University, said they did not observe zero resistance, one of required characteristics of a superconductor. A third, from the Southeast University in the eastern Chinese city of Nanjing, said they measured zero resistance, but only at a temperature of 110 Kelvin (-163 degree Celsius).

And…

The possible bad news for LK-99 is that the superconducting field is full of materials that hold promise at first but fall apart under scrutiny. Researchers even have a handy name for them — unidentified superconducting objects.

A.k.a “USOs.” As the linked article points out, plenty of smart, hardworking researchers have claimed to have found a “superconductor,” but then their claims simply fall apart under scrutiny.

Be careful of finding what you seek.

UA what?

July 28, 2023
MThomas

US Congress: We want the truth!

Former military pilots: UAP is real!

Me: Wtf is a “UAP”?

Chandrayaan-3 to the Moon!

July 19, 2023
MThomas

I love the helpful explanation about the scale…

“If we want to develop the Moon as an outpost, a gateway to deep space, then we need to carry out many more explorations to see what sort of habitat would we be able to build there with the locally-available material and how will we carry supplies to our people there,” Mr Annadurai says.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-66185565

Chandrayaan-1 was India’s first successful Moon launch in 2008 — it deliberately crashed in order to measure the amount of water at the South Pole.

Chandrayaan-2 was only partly successful, as it did put an orbiter around the Moon, but the rover crashed. (The orbiter is still there, sending back information on a regular basis.)

Now, Chandrayaan-3 aims to finally land a rover and do some research exploring.

Let’s hope they can get it to land safely this time…

The future looks like…

July 11, 2023
MThomas

What are you most excited about for the future?

I look forward to seeing whether the future looks more like WALL-E…

…or Star Trek…

…or maybe some combination thereof…

Synthetic human embryos – yeah, now *that’s* not controversial…

July 7, 2023
MThomas

The synthetic embryos – only days or weeks old – could help researchers study the earliest stages of human development and explain pregnancy loss. 

Nobody is currently suggesting growing them into a baby.

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-65914934

Well, that’s a relief….

This is the first time that has been achieved using human material. Although, they are not truly “synthetic”, as the starting material was cells cultured from a traditional embryo in the laboratory.

Great, but…

She has already developed synthetic mouse embryos with evidence of a developing brain and beating heart.

Come on, BBC. I think you can see where this is going…

Meanwhile, scientists in China have implanted synthetic monkey embryos into female monkeys – although, all the pregnancies failed.

Yep. Straight to the monkey house.

Seriously, did scientists actually think this was not going to cause a whole lot of people to get upset all over again?

Natural embryo (top), synthetic embryo (bottom). They look pretty similar…

This may indeed be a good way to study infertility causes and how embryos develop, but even the possibility of creating an embryo from a stem cell should have set off warning bells. 14-day limit or not, somebody’s going to get really tempted to do something else with them…

I’m thinking up all sorts of SciFi stories from this…

Another James Webb discovery: UV actually helps life

July 3, 2023
MThomas

Images of the Orion Nebula, c/o ESA and NASA (it’s complicated…)

For the first time ever, a team of international scientists detected a carbon compound known as methyl cation (pronounced cat-eye-on), or CH3+, in d203-506. CH3+ is significant for understanding how life began on Earth — and how it might develop elsewhere.

https://www.astronomy.com/science/jwst-spots-a-molecule-vital-to-life-in-protoplanetary-disk/

Ultraviolet radiation (UV) is known for destroying complex carbon-based molecules. But could it also provide the energy for them to exist?

Another James Webb discovery: UV actually helps life

July 3, 2023
MThomas

Images of the Orion Nebula, c/o ESA and NASA (it’s complicated…)

For the first time ever, a team of international scientists detected a carbon compound known as methyl cation (pronounced cat-eye-on), or CH3+, in d203-506. CH3+ is significant for understanding how life began on Earth — and how it might develop elsewhere.

https://www.astronomy.com/science/jwst-spots-a-molecule-vital-to-life-in-protoplanetary-disk/

Ultraviolet radiation (UV) is known for destroying complex carbon-based molecules. But could it also provide the energy for them to exist?

In search of dark energy and dark matter

July 3, 2023
MThomas

A European-built orbital satellite was launched into space on Saturday from Florida on a mission to shed new light on dark energy and dark matter, the mysterious cosmic forces scientists say account for 95% of the known universe.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/jul/01/euclid-telescope-lifts-off-in-search-of-the-secrets-of-dark-universe

Like the James Webb telescope, the Euclid will be positioned in a LaGrange point (L2, in this case), rather than in high Earth orbit.

If all goes well.

It’s interesting that the Guardian article says the telescope was “designed and built entirely by Esa,” although NASA supplied parts and its launching pad was made available and the telescope was launched using a SpaceX rocket. And ESA consists of nearly 2000 scientists from the US, Canada, and Japan as well as various European countries.

It’s a joint project. That’s how science should work in the first place.

(For more on dark matter, dark energy, gravity, and quantum mechanics, check this out.)

Phosphorus on Enceladus boosts chances for life?

July 2, 2023
MThomas

According to legend, the ancient giant Enceladus vents sulfur from his tomb. According to data, Saturn’s tiny moon Enceladus vents more than that.

https://www.astronomy.com/science/phosphate-find-on-enceladus-boosts-chances-for-life/

Scientists have suspected for a long time that this tiny moon of Saturn may be the best place in our solar system to look for life.

Now they have confirmed evidence of all six crucial elements necessary for life to exist (life as we know it, anyway): carbon (C), hydrogen (H), nitrogen (N), oxygen (O), phosphorus (P), and sulphur (S). If present as a phosphate, essential for DNA and RNA to exist, the discovery of phosphorus on the 310-mile-wide Enceladus may indicate life of sort sort, perhaps at a microscopic level beneath the icy surface.

One guess is that the oceans of Enceladus have at least 100 times more phosphorus than the Earth’s oceans. That would make for quite the carbonated fizzy pop. Methane has already been seen coming out out of various “ice geysers” (a.k.a. cryovolcanoes). Since methane results from rotten organic material, there logically should be something alive out there.

Now we just have to get back out there and figure out a way to find them.

Chemical traces reveal first-generation stars

June 16, 2023
MThomas

The link below includes a night sky in Montana, which makes little sense when the researchers were in Beijing and Honolulu…

“The first-generation star we observed has the potential to become the oldest star we have ever seen,” said Alexander Heger, a professor in the school of physics and astronomy at Monash University in Australia who was part of the research team. “It probably had only lived for 2 1/2 million years and then exploded.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/chemical-traces-offer-evidence-universes-earliest-stars-rcna88790

Oh, and it also was discovered to be 260 times the size of our own Sun…just as theorized.

More importantly, this involved scientists from three different countries (China, Japan, and Australia), sharing information and working together for science.

Imagine if that spirit of cooperation could be extended into other domains…

Subaru, how about you?
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