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| Science & Technology |
| Towards a new test of general relativity? |
| 2006-03-25 |
| Scientists funded by the European Space Agency have measured the gravitational equivalent of a magnetic field for the first time in a laboratory. Under certain special conditions the effect is much larger than expected from general relativity and could help physicists to make a significant step towards the long-sought-after quantum theory of gravity. details at link |
| Posted by:3dc |
| #3 Interesting that the USAF have part funded this. Not so, really. The US military has expressed a deep interest in potential new drive field technologies, particularly "Heim Theory" as detailed in New Scientist in February. This looks to me like it might be a low-power test of Heim Theory, but I'm hardly a physicist and few of them currently understand Heim Theory (though it does deal specifically with rotating magnetic fields inducing an accelartive field). |
| Posted by: FOTSGreg 2006-03-25 16:48 |
| #2 I have a little trouble with their explanation that the graviton acquires a mass when inside a superconductor. Gravitons (if they exist) aren't charged, so there's no direct effect due to being in a superconductor. Is this supposed to be some fancy coupling to Cooper pairs? I'm not up to speed on superconductor theory, so I can't back-of-the-envelope this one, but I'm suspicious. |
| Posted by: James 2006-03-25 16:05 |
| #1 Hard to tell about this. They mostly cite themselves, even on the theory. I'm not convinced. First of all, their experimental results need to be confirmed. Then we get to interpretation, where I would think there are a lot of other possibilities out there, but maybe they can rule them all out. If their interpretation turns out to be correct, they get to play the waiting game (there are four of them, so they have to wait for the first to die, before the remaining three can be awarded a Nobel prize) Interesting that the USAF have part funded this. |
| Posted by: Jake-the-peg 2006-03-25 14:28 |