CERN scientists ‘break the speed of light’ — The Telegraph.
The brief article to which the above link leads may turn out to detail one of the signal moments in science in this young century, if not indeed the millennium. Or it could turn out to be an issue with a wonky stopwatch. I’m hoping for the former. Visions of hyperspace are now dancing merrily through my mind. I know that this is far from confirmed, and much work must yet be done to attempt to duplicate the experiment, yet I cannot help but be a bit excited. Or perhaps more than a bit. Things are so much more interesting when we don’t know as much as we think we know.
The first post of the new year features airships! Huzzah!
The new vehicle set to revolutionise the skies — BBC News
I love airships, therefore I love this. I’m absolutely thrilled. I’ve long said that the world needs airships — in a post-fossil world, I envision solar-powered airships taking over from carbon-belching jet airliners. Sure, they wouldn’t be as fast, but how many people really need to zip speedily across the ocean in but a few hours? Bring back a touch of class, of style, of luxury! Return to the future that never was! Bring back the airship!
Dear me.
Pentagon pursues flying Humvee — PRI’s The World
You DARPA fellows are absolutely brilliant — exempli gratia this Internet thing we’re using right now — but sometimes I believe all that outside-the-box thinking makes you go a bit funny. Or, as my 1980s high school self said when it saw this reject from a Roger Moore-era James Bond film:
Dudes. Seriously.
I’m all for flying cars, but this is not the way. Even assuming one could get a transforming Humvee airborne, what would one have accomplished? The launching of a less-maneuverable version of a small attack helicopter, with insufficient armor, insufficient weaponry, added weak points, and the dubious ability to land and drive about, assuming it doesn’t run out of fuel and drop like a brick after five minutes. Also, where do they put the wide open spaces needed for the parking of winged heli-Humvees in the sort of ancient desert city pictured in the artist’s rendering? Finally, is it just me or does that artist’s rendering look like it came from a G.I. Joe Trapper-Keeper?
At least, that would be the headline if I wished to be as misleading as most news sources reporting on this story. Er, I mean, at least I told you it’s misleading. Anyway:
Morph-osaurs: How shape-shifting dinosaurs deceived us — New Scientist.
Mind you, this isn’t as new as the news folks seem to think it is. From last September:
Are Torosaurus and Triceratops one and the same? — Scientific American.
Note that Triceratops isn’t about to vanish, as most newsoids claim. Rather, Torosaurus is going to be reclassified as the adult form of Triceratops, and our childhoods full of imaginary battles between Tyrannosaurus rex and Triceratops shall remain blissfully intact. In any case, it bears Jack Horner’s stamp of approval, so I’m inclined to accept it. The changes between young and adult forms are significant, but not impossible. This also explains why Triceratops’ neck frill is rather more thin, fragile, and full of blood vessels than might be desirable in a defensive shield: it isn’t a defensive shield. Makes sense to me.
I must say, though, that I’m glad Triceratops will remain Triceratops. It was a bad enough blow losing Brontosaurus, and I’m still bearing a grudge over what was done to Pluto. I just wasn’t ready to lose another favorite dinosaur.
Quantum teleportation achieved over ten miles of free space — Ars Technica.
And just like that, science fiction moved ten miles closer. Faster-than-light communication without a traditional signal — Tesla would be smiling beatifically right now, if it weren’t for that little “death” problem.
