Lifeboat Foundation

The implications of the discovery of hydrogen in a metallic form make it a subject of great fervor. Teams are racing toward its use as a superconductor as well as a means of better understanding the universe.

The simplest and most common element, first in the periodic table, shouldn’t be difficult to crack, right? “What could be more simple than an assembly of electrons and protons?” asks Neil Aschcroft, a theoretical physicist at Cornell University. Yet, its supposed metallic form is quite the opposite. Apparently, the physics of hydrogen becomes more complex at high pressures. A sort of mega-evolution.

Hydrogen is naturally at a gaseous state, at room temperature and under atmospheric pressure. But hydrogen becomes solid, given enough of a forceful squeeze or at low temperatures. It also can transform into a liquid, if heat is added while squeezing. What is more confounding is the supposed ability of hydrogen, theoretically, to transform into metal if more extreme conditions are applied.

Continue reading “Physicists Are Close to Producing Metallic Hydrogen, And It Could Change Everything” »

Jeff Bezos has a talent for persuading Wall Street to back radically long-term investments. He’ll certainly need it if he ever decides to take his space company, Blue Origin, public.

We are running out of room and resources here on earth. United Launch Alliance is looking beyond planet earth to solve these problems.

Refining and redesigning my Mars rocket.

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WASHINGTON — Researchers have developed a new laser that makes it possible to measure electron transition energies in small atoms and molecules with unprecedented precision. The instrument will help scientists test one of the bedrock theories of modern physics to new limits, and may help resolve an unexplained discrepancy in measurements of the size of the proton.

The team will present their work during the Frontiers in Optics (FiO) / Laser Science (LS) conference in Rochester, New York, USA on 17 −21 October 2016.

“Our target is the best tested theory there is: quantum electrodynamics,” said Kjeld Eikema, a physicist at Vrije University, The Netherlands, who led the team that built the laser. Quantum electrodynamics, or QED, was developed in the 1940s to make sense of small unexplained deviations in the measured structure of atomic hydrogen. The theory describes how light and matter interact, including the effect of ghostly ‘virtual particles.’ Its predictions have been rigorously tested and are remarkably accurate, but like extremely dedicated quality control officers, physicists keep ordering new tests, hoping to find new insights lurking in the experimentally hard-to-reach regions where the theory may yet break down.

Continue reading “New Laser Provides Ultra-Precise Tool for Scientists Probing the Secrets of the Universe” »

Zoom out far enough, and the Universe is a pretty homogenous place.

“The founder of spaceflight company Blue Origin announced Monday the design of an orbital rocket called New Glenn.”

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“And we have Bezos’ plans for an orbital rocket”

Hmmm.

The statement by the vaunted entrepreneur that he couldn’t rule out that UFO hunters were correct that an unidentified object or weapon initiated the explosion has alien enthusiasts out in full force.

Continue reading “Elon Musk: ‘We Have Not Ruled Out’ That UFO Caused Space X Explosion (VIDEO)” »