Superconductors are the type of technology that look like magic! They can levitate objects, make computers work in mind-bending ways and help us peer inside our bodies in unprecedented detail (MRI). But a new superconductor has come along that may herald even more unbelievable technology that was unthinkable only a few years ago.
So what makes superconductors so unique? And why is this new one so special?
A superconductor is a material with zero electrical resistance. This property is far more impressive than it sounds! To explain, I first need to re-cap what electrical resistance is.
Possibly the best mad-scientist way to stop the impending global catastrophe!
You may have heard about this ‘little inconvenience’ that is coming our way. Apparently digging up and burning billions of tonnes of oil affects our planet’s atmosphere. This is causing fatalistic armageddon as our weather systems collapse, sea levels rise, we experience constant biblical-level droughts and floods, far more frequent wildfires and even possible carbon dioxide poisoning from our own atmosphere. Who knew?! But, there is a force on Earth that has cooled the atmosphere dramatically in a matter of weeks, could we use this to stop our climate doom?
This immense force is one of the coolest things in…
Our cosmic neighbourhood might actually very busy.
Have you ever looked up at the night sky and wondered what is out there? We have all pondered the big question, are we alone? Well, we may finally have an answer. Astronomers have taken recent data and calculated that we have 36 neighbours in the Milky Way, suggesting that we are far from being alone!
So how did they come up with that figure? And what does this mean for our quest to find aliens? Will we be able to meet them just like Star Trek?
Sadly, these astronomers didn’t look up into the night sky, see 36 different…
Can Musk really make his own laws on Mars?
It’s no secret that Elon Musk has a fantasy of colonising Mars, and with the upcoming fully operations Starship, he might get there sooner than you think. But, buried in documents of SpaceX’s Earthbound project, Starlink (global satellite internet), shows that Musk might not be taking Mars peacefully. Is Musk about to crown himself the sole ruler of Mars in defiance of international law?
That show they might not exist.
Wormholes, the amazing theoretical portals across the universe are problematic. They have been used in Sci-Fi to help characters travel interstellar space instantly, have been used by science to explain problems with black-holes and even come up with new variations of General Relativity. But they themselves are riddled with paradoxes, here are three:
Portal Paradox
Wormholes makes sense when the ends are stationary, you go in one end and come out the other at the same speed. All makes sense, right? …
Under the frigid wasteland, a deadly force lies dormant, until we wake it.
I will start this article off with a warning. If you have any fears for the future, you might want to put this down. The Boogyman under the arctic is a real monster waiting to be released. It will kill millions, terrify those that survive and tear this world apart. So, grab a blanket to hide under or a couch to hide behind and prepare for dread as we dive deep under the arctic ice in search of a terrifying titan.
Our hidden monster is made of something that seems somewhat harmless at first, methane. That's right, this global destructive…
A signal from Proxima Centuri seems to be technological in origin
On December 17 2020 the Guardian leaked a story that the world wasn’t supposed to know about. Astronomers thought they had discovered an advanced alien civilisation and didn’t want people to panic, so had been trying to keep it hushed for months. If this turns out to be true, it would be the biggest discovery in all of human history.
So, what has made astronomers think they have found advanced aliens? They found a signal hidden in some old data from the Parkes Telescope. This signal appears to have come from Proxima Centauri and was a narrow band beam of…
In 1997 a frog learned to defy gravity and you can too.
How many times have you wished you could fly? Not in a plane, or with a jetpack, but float away in a Peter Pan-esque way. Well, one lucky frog in 1997 got that wish. A scientist placed him mid-air in a small chamber, rather than fall to the bottom this little frog floated in the middle, apparently in defiance of gravity. The scientist who did this went on to win an Ig Nobel prize for their work, so how did he manage to make an anti-gravity frog?
This chamber was a bit special. It was the centre of a Bitter…
Quantum Physics requires an observer to have a definite outcome, so does that mean our Universe requires an observer to exist?
We have all heard of Schrodinger's Cat; the cat is both dead and alive (known as a superposition) before opening the box and fixing its state, hopefully with the cat being alive. But how we interpret this weird quirk of nature can have some very far-reaching implications. Like the Universe not really existing if we aren’t looking or astronomers killing aliens. Welcome to the mind-bending world of Quantum Interpretations!
First of all, a super quick recap on what Quantum Physics actually is.
Quantum Physics is essentially a set of equations that predict how tiny stuff works with amazing accuracy. These…
Deep in the African continent lies a nuclear conundrum.
Cast your mind back to 1956, the Cold War had been silently raging for a decade and Elvis Presley's Blue Suede Shoes is on the wireless. Every major power in the world wants to get their hands on some precious Uranium 235 to join the Nuclear Powers' rank. Luckily for France, they controlled the African country of Gabon who’s Oklo region was rich in Uranium ore. But, the Oklo mined Uranium looked very weird. It already looked like it had been in a reactor! Had someone beaten them to it and used their Uranium?! …
Will Lockett
Science writer of space, environment, and technology. I show you the wonders and terrors of our universe & its future. Follow me at www.facebook.com/welockett
