Cool science stuff

Scientists and physicists are creeping ever closer to the theory that the universe may be sentient. Which would be creepy and cool at the same time. Do all atoms have the ability to be conscious?

It would definitely explain a lot of things, like why George Lucas felt the need to have C3PO and R2D2 in every Star Wars movie, or why the Lions haven't spontaneously combusted. Or creation mythology.

 

If you live in central New Mexico, the Texas panhandle, and certain parts of Oklahoma, you might come across an interesting traffic jam in the next couple of weeks.
Can't find the exact route, but it looks like they've just crossed the Arizona-New Mexico line and will be traveling on U.S. 60 across New Mexico. Gotta imagine they're sticking to those kinds of rural roads as long as possible to avoid traffic and overpasses.

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zo...eing-trucked-across-the-central-united-states

 

Even NASA Seems Surprised by Its New Space Telescope

 

OK, next up are two of my favorite subjects.

First: nuclear fusion.

So a couple months ago I posted about a so-called "Wright Brothers moment" in fusion (A "Wright Brothers Moment" for Nuclear Fusion | Chemistry And Physics).

Well, a reactor in China took that moment to a higher level, setting a record for the longest time a high-temperature plasma has been sustained and confined -- 216 million degrees for 1,056 seconds. That's 10 times longer than the previous record.

China’s Experimental Reactor Breaks Fusion World Record Length

China's 'Artificial Sun' Has Just Hit a New Nuclear Fusion Milestone

 

Next up: warp drive.

I've posted on this before, most recently back in the spring, discussing how physicists and engineers have been working the math to bring a Star Trek-esque warp drive closer to feasibility -- at least, theoretically.

Now one of the pioneers of warp drive research, Dr. Sonny White, might have made a major breakthrough.

White and his team were working on DARPA-funded research in an unrelated area when he "accidentally" discovered that the calculations he was working on produced a warp bubble -- the first step toward a faster-than-light warp drive -- albeit on a very small scale. In fact, White said this discovery allows for real-world tests, including potentially building a nano-scale model, to attempt to create a tiny real-world warp bubble.

Did scientists discover a warp bubble? Crunched up space-time, explained

Scientists Take a Step Towards Building a Real-Life Warp Drive... By Accident - IGN

 

He's expected to go ... wee, wee, wee, all the way home.

Doctors transplant a genetically modified pig heart into a human : NPR

 

Fact: Jeremy Mayfield was dumber than a goldfish.

Like a fish out of water? Israeli team trains goldfish to drive | KSL.com

 

There's an asteroid passing Earth this afternoon. Here's a sentence from a story I saw.

It will be 1.2 million miles away from Earth on Jan. 18 at 4:51 p.m. ET while traveling at 43,754 miles per hour.

My question is, how is it possible to measure its speed to that detail? Someone can verify the number really isn't 43,755?

 

A bunch of cops aimed their radar guns at it.

 

OK, more stuff I've been sitting on.

If you're old enough to remember Pong, you know it was a very simple game.

How simple? So simple you don't even need a whole brain to learn how to play it.

Researchers Teach Human Brain Cells in a Dish to Play 'Pong'

 

Ever since Einstein was proved right (again) by the detection of gravitational waves a few years ago, astronomers and physicists have been on the lookout for more, with the idea that, because every massive event in the universe creates those waves, they should produce a "background noise" of gravitational waves throughout the universe.

Now there's some evidence that they've detected that "hum":

Scientists Have Detected a Faint Hint of The Background Hum of The Universe