Einstein or misguided? Future physics...
Enjoying amateur futurology I like to try and spot things before they actually make a difference. Slashdot had an article a little while back on someone claiming blackholes don't exist. Good to see that a journal such as Nature would publish it. It is very important that people question accepted norms up to the highest level. Whilst the scope of the theory lies mostly unproven, it could easily be a turning point in astrophysics if a working model could be created.
Of course it opens up lots of screwy things like the real existance of cavorite, but then many people are already trying to find other means to beat gravity. What seems certain is that mankind is growing bored of 20th Century physics and ideas, just as in the 20th century a famous physicist said "it was just a question of dotting the i's and crossing the t's". Shortly afterwards the photoelectric effect and relativity turn that idea on its head.
Even big companies seem to be taking things seriously that once would have caused uproar. Cold fusion, the embarrasment of the 90's has quietly resurfaced in government funding records, and in company books. People are starting to say "it definitely does something, but we don't know what".
The wikipedia is a facinating source of information about all these and many others. Reading through their science sections is a good way to waste an afternoon. Some top articles I have found are on pebble bed reactors, space craft propulsion and other attempts to build space vehicles. In fact after finishing that lot I was a little disappointed that we only got to the moon. The moonshot pretty much killed dead the projects that were needed to bring most of this stuff to fruition.
So anyway I am still watching for the next big thing. Thanks to the net I can now do it with relative ease...
PS To all those writing up this stuff in the Wikipedia - keep up the good work. I am depending on you to keep my slow hours interesting!
Of course it opens up lots of screwy things like the real existance of cavorite, but then many people are already trying to find other means to beat gravity. What seems certain is that mankind is growing bored of 20th Century physics and ideas, just as in the 20th century a famous physicist said "it was just a question of dotting the i's and crossing the t's". Shortly afterwards the photoelectric effect and relativity turn that idea on its head.
Even big companies seem to be taking things seriously that once would have caused uproar. Cold fusion, the embarrasment of the 90's has quietly resurfaced in government funding records, and in company books. People are starting to say "it definitely does something, but we don't know what".
The wikipedia is a facinating source of information about all these and many others. Reading through their science sections is a good way to waste an afternoon. Some top articles I have found are on pebble bed reactors, space craft propulsion and other attempts to build space vehicles. In fact after finishing that lot I was a little disappointed that we only got to the moon. The moonshot pretty much killed dead the projects that were needed to bring most of this stuff to fruition.
So anyway I am still watching for the next big thing. Thanks to the net I can now do it with relative ease...
PS To all those writing up this stuff in the Wikipedia - keep up the good work. I am depending on you to keep my slow hours interesting!
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