starships

TO EXPLORE THE UNKNOWN


CUTTING EDGE OF SCIENCE

Let us discuss those things that are still theory or even simply ideas and thoughts in the realm of physics and astrophysics. We will not make any attempt to claim all is actually fact or fiction. The ideas discussed here may or may not be proved now or in a future time. However, this material is subject to serious scientific study which we can only hope does become the facts of the future. Just as many ideas presented in science fiction, when fiction becomes fact it builds the knowledge base for future explorations into the unknown. From the moment of Creation, all that exists in the universe is belongs to God. This includes those Laws and Truths that make the universe work; that fly the planets in their orb; that shine the many suns; that give animals their breath. What better honor can we give our God than to study His Truths? Did His Son not say all will be revealed? Look at what has already been revealed! Until the fate of theory is known, may we continue to dream the stuff of science, fiction and fact.


A BRAND NEW SCIENCE, NANOTECHNOLOGY

Nanotechnology means dramatic life style changes beginning NOW!:

Nanotechnology is so important to our immediate future and is such a broad field that it deserves a page of its own. Although science and engineering has been working toward the smaller, faster and more powerful for quite some time, especially for the space program, it was the early 1990's with the discovery of Fullerines that Nanotechnology became a science on its own right. The technology covers the entire spectrum of the sciences, biology, chemistry, and physics. Some of the benefits of nanotechnology is already in use or is in the process of moving into the public sector. Other benefits are 20 to 25 years in the future. All in all, beginning with right now and continuing onward, nanotechnology is revolutionizing the way we live. Some say that this in the next evolution of mankind.

Because Nanotechnology is moving so fast and can be expected to increase rapidly, rather than try to keep up with the new innovations, this section will list nothing but links to the latest and greatest web pages directly associated with the subjects of materials and construction, biology, energy, and computers:

  1. The National Nanotechnology Initiative:
    (NNI) is a federal R&D (research and development) program established to coordinate the multiagency efforts in nanoscale science, engineering, and technology.
  2. The Foresight Nanotech Institute:
    Foresight is the leading think tank and public interest institute on nanotechnology. Founded in 1986, Foresight was the first organization to educate society about the benefits and risks of nanotechnology.
  3. Introduction to Nanotechnology:
    Nanotechnology is defined as fabrication of devices with atomic or molecular scale precision.
  4. Nanotechnology Introduction:
    The term "nanotechnology" has evolved over the years via terminology drift to mean "anything smaller than micro-technology," such as nano powders, and other things that are nanoscale in size, but not referring to mechanisms that have been purposefully built from nanoscale components.
  5. Technology in the 21st Century:
    An Imminent Intimate Merger. At the Foresight Institute "Exploring the Edges" Senior Associate Gathering, April 27, 2002, Ray Kurzweil presented the case of the emergence of biological and machine intelligence, answering the three major challenges: limited resources, inadequate software, and ethical concerns.
  6. Current Nanotechnology Applications:
    A list of projects that use Nanotechnology in manufacturing process or in the product.
  7. http://www.nanotechproject.org/:
    A Nanotechnology Consumer Products Inventory.
  8. Nanotechnology:
    Molecular Manufacturing and Productive Nano-systems
  9. Nanotechnology in Construction:
    One of the top ten answers to world's biggest problems
  10. Nanoword.net:
    Nanoword.net is an online nanotechnology resource focusing on education of the general public and distribution of nanotech products.
  11. Technological singularity:
    In futures studies, a technological singularity is a predicted future event believed to precede immense technological progress in an unprecedentedly brief time.


DARK MATTER.html

SOME CONJECTURE ON MY PART!:

If DARK MATTER is found as the report linked above suggests, the search is on now, then we know of just the smallest part of God's universe. Could it be that our universe is adinfinitum larger than we can perceive now? And could it be that new, strange, and amazing creature never imagined exist just beyond our conception.

This addendum is added on February 4, 2007. For a more detailed description and the latest information concerning DARK MATTER, one needs to travel to the University of California at Berkeley and start reading. More information can be found here, too. This is a part of a University of Tennessee's on-line course in Astronomy 161. It is free for us to monitor but for credit, one must enroll in the course for a fee, of course.

It was early in this century that man first learned to fly. For the first 40 years or so, it was believed that the limit of how fast we could fly was the sound barrier. Today, it is the speed of light that limits our speed of travel through space. One can live long enough to reach anything but the nearest star beyond our sun at the speed of light. Putting this in reverse, how long would a being from another world have to live to find earth, visit, then return to his home and report his findings? The only plausible way would be that alien beings traveled in large self contained vessels on which many generations are born, live and die, spanning the eons of time on a endless journey. But isn't this exactly what is happening with earth as our self contained vessel?

Suppose, however, that what we know as the speed of light is just the speed that light can travel through dark matter. And what if it was dark matter that controlled the space/time continuum as well? If we do find and understand dark matter, could it be the key required to explore our universe and those beyond? Could it be that we are on the verge of crossing billions of light years and eons of time in a twinkling of an eye? Regardless of what science finds, regardless of the miracle of God's creations, dark matter can spur man's imaginations beyond all realms of reality. Worm Holes, here we come!


CON-FUSED YET?

de-FUSE here and be delighted, too:

Right in our own back yard, our galaxy, the Milky Way, astronomers have found something most interesting. Using a radio telescope, scientist observed a much larger than expected cloud of deuterium near the galaxy's center. Deuterium is a heavy form of hydrogen used to produce the hydrogen bomb, among other things. It is also the primary fuel being researched for producing fusion reaction atomic power plants. The story linked above tells all about it.

Who knows, we may need deuterium as a fuel when we explore our galaxy. I believe the Enterprise used this form of hydrogen on Star trek, didn't it? Or was that some other form of hydrogen, perhaps Tritium or heavy heavy hydrogen. Deuterium is also used with a "light" form of Helium, He3 proposed to fuel our first nuclear fusion rocket engine. The reaction, D (H2) + He3 = He4 + proton (-H1) + tons of energy. For more information on this and other types of fusion reactors, see fusion rocket, heavy lift rockets,and other reactors. Another of the major academic contributors to our fusion energy research is MIT. MIT was the first of the Universities to set the standard for Open Courseware and linked here is the MIT on-line physics department. Astrophysics and Cosmology are included in the graduate course offerings in the Physics Department at MIT.


REAL TIME PHYSICS:

For the junior and senior high students, here is a way to ace some reports in science (physics) class!:

The following links will take you to some very important biographies of big names in science and to some places where their work is researched and reported.

STEPHEN HAWKING'S UNIVERSE
ALBERT EINSTEIN
UCLA, WHIMPS, and DARKMATTER
UNIVERSITY OF OREGON ON WIMPS
PARTICLE PHYSICS
THE STRING THEORY (or are you stinging me out?)
NASA IS IN THIS, TOO!

Please E-MAIL ME if you like this page or would like to talk about it. I am founder of a chat room called #thinktank and am able to set up a scheduled moderated discussion on that channel. The #Thinktank is located on irc.deepspace.org, port 6667. Deepspace is a whole family IRC network and the only IRC network listed for the elderly and disabled, vision and hearing impaired.


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