About a month ago New Scientist magazine ran a story which claimed that Chinese scientists had succeeded in creating a mini-black hole (above), or something which mimics black holes, in the laboratory. That's amazing! I don't remember seeing that in my local paper. Maybe it was buried in the obituary pages.
Evidently the hole they created isn't exactly the same kind we encounter in space (above). This one only absorbs microwaves, though the lab that created it claimed that they'll probably be able to make one that absorbs optical light by the end of the year. This would be a very, very significant event!
It's significant because the black hole absorbs the waves and emits the energy again in the form of heat, and heat powers engines. This means that black hole solar cells could run cars (above), and do it much more efficiently than solar cells can do now. No directional solar collectors would be necessary. The cars would simply absorb the ambient light around them. Maybe this would make them appear as black silhouettes to observers.
I forgot to say that this Chinese black hole was created without benefit of a super colider like the one at CERN (above). This was done on a tabletop device made of printed circuit boards arranged in rings around a cylinder. Two Indiana scientists figured out how such a machine would work in theory and the Chinese surprised everybody by actually building it.
Thanks to Milt Gray for telling me about this.
16 comments:
Isn't there a black hole in Cygnus X-1?
Manthat scares me. I'm probably just ignorant, but the thought of having black holes on Earth scares me. What if someone spilled coffee into one of those machines,abruptly ending the universe? It's like having a history eraser button. DON'T TOUCH IT, YOU FOOL!
i consider myself to be fairly intelligent and well informed but this information makes me what to ask...WHAAAAT??!! its like what jeff goldblum said in jurasic park..'these scientist were so busy asking themselves IF they could they never bothered to ask IF they should.'
What William Castle could do with a press clipping like that! Too bad he long ago went down such a portal himself.
EGAD!! ARE THEY MAD!?
Shawn, Talking, Rooni: Well, it's not the type of black hole that assimilates matter. This is a man-made black hole that's incapable of taking in anything except microwaves that are laboriously fed into it. I see it as a possible breakthrough in energy production. If there's a downside I haven't heard about it.
Even if the large Hadron collider did make a black hole that assimilates matter it would be so tiny that it would take something like the age of the universe to accumulate a skittles worth of matter.
It would be as if a mad scientist were to make a "giant killer robot" the size of an atom
Eddie,
Wow, that's a pretty odd sort of black hole, ie., one that only takes in waves, and only waves of a certain sort, and not matter. I'm looking forward to hearing what becomes of it!
Im pretty sure they would evaporate in an instant like those weird atoms with numbers like 13 and names like amerilybodnencium
I studied physics as an undergraduate, so I know just enough to be patronisingly reassuring.
The problem with destroying the Earth is conservation of energy. To make an object dangerous enough to destroy the Earth, you need to put in enough energy to destroy the Earth. A few circuit boards on a table top isn't going to do it.
(Nor is the LHC, for that matter. Most of the energy goes into cooling, not the particle beam itself.)
I think it was Brian Cox who pointed out that it doesn't matter how many bullets you fire into the air in the air, there is no danger of them hanging around up there endangering aircraft.
Inventing doomsday devices is the job of the cartoonist, not the scientist.
Yes, BUT.......did they find any missing left socks?
That IS cool. Soon, I will harness their energy and RULE THE WORLD! *blinks* I've said too much. You didn't hear ANYTHING! *disappears in a puff of smoke*
I wonder how they're going to keep it from collapsing in on itself. :/
(I haven't taken Physics yet so please don't make me feel dumb)
I used that CERN particle accelerator image in a collage just the other day. Check it out
Wow, really!??
...Oh, I thought you said "Black ho".
(Yawn) Nevermind.
and far out, man, i found out just now that they ("they") found water on the moon.
Post a Comment