The results could be out in a year or so. If they are positive, it puts the technology of science fiction on the horizon. Levitating cars, zero-g playgrounds, tractor beams to pull objects towards you, glassless windows that use repulsive fields to prevent things passing through. Let your imagination run riot: a gravitomagnetic device that works by changing the acceleration and orientation of a superconductor would be the basis for a general-purpose force field.
Despite all the sci-fi fanboy fantasy, there is some real science behind this, as demonstrated by Gravity Probe B, now orbiting the earth. Early results show that Einstein's predicted gravitomagnetic effect exists. The question, can it be effectively amplified by superconductors, and, furthermore, when are they going to put spinning superconductors in my sneakers?
UPDATE: In thinking about this, I remembered this story from the Chicago Tribune about the airline workers who claimed to have seen a UFO that left an "eerie hole in overcast skies." I'm no physicist, but that hole would be consistent with a directed gravitational force that acts on anything with mass, like water vapor. Spooooky.
2 comments:
loser
so what, the pterodactyl troopers have already had antigravity abilities for like 40 years. Get with the program, New Scientist.
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