Monday, August 9, 2010

"Zero Time Space"

The title of a book by two German scientists, Gunter Nimtz & Astrid Haibel.
Basically, about quantum mechanics & some very weird (well QM is weird - weird is normal in QM!) stuff about superluminal velocity (i.e. faster-than-light speed) stuff.

Doesn't (can't) happen in free space but you get things like quantum tunneling (i think i've got that right), which has been exploited in the semi-conductor tunnel-diode for decades (invented in 1957!, by Leo Esaki 
when he was working for what is now Sony), which behaves a bit like a Gunn diode in that it has a "negative differential resistance" section in its Voltage-Current characteristic curve..


The authors go thru some very strange behaviour of light, and they also mention the Casimir effect.


However, sci-fi & sci-fan fans, prepare to be disappointed!
Cause still has to precede Effect & you can't travel back in time (& kill Adolf Hitler or whatever).
And while it is technically possible to traverse a worm-hole
the amount of energy needed is absolutely gargantuan!!


Never mind, i'm not worried, the Universe is quite strange enough for me.
People sometimes ask me if i get lonely or bored (i live on my own)..


Nope.  Not at all.

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