Good read, nice to see these crackpot experiments finally get the rigor that puts them to bed. Now, do LENR. ;) I blame modern tech 'journalists' (and I use that word as an insult) for this...
Good read, nice to see these crackpot experiments finally get the rigor that puts them to bed. Now, do LENR. ;)
I blame modern tech 'journalists' (and I use that word as an insult) for this nonsense. They do blatantly, intentionally misleading, hyped up science-reporting, generating a nonsense bubble around a handful of tiny quirks in poorly run experiments - all just to get their ad clicks. Then, your usual crackpots and scam artists come out and make a quick buck feasting on the carcass of the truth along with the tech media.
Eventually, someone has to find the funding to do more rigorous experiments to put all the nonsense to bed - just like this - and even so, echoes of this craziness will continue for years because people just can't let their happy space fantasies or infinite energy machines or faster-than-light neutrinos go. It's a very depressing cycle of stupidity.
I keep hoping that someday, someone actually will discover something, and these tech journalists will inadvertently end up getting them the funding they need to prove out new physics. It's the only good scenario I can think of that fits this hype-nonsense paradigm... and if it happened just once, it might make it worth enduring all the bullshit.
It's cool to see the steps involved in testing it. And while it's kind of wasting money on nonsense, it also sounds like they've developed equipment and procedures that can be used to test other...
It's cool to see the steps involved in testing it. And while it's kind of wasting money on nonsense, it also sounds like they've developed equipment and procedures that can be used to test other things.
The proliferation of sensationalist STEM articles is concerning, I agree. It's not just fixating on poorly run experiments like this one; often interesting studies with subtle implications can be misrepresented. I'm not sure if it's always to get clicks or sometimes a lack of understanding the concepts involved (or both).
[A tangent: I remember reading an article about "hybrid super-mosquitoes" resistant to pesticides that appeared after increased use of bed nets in the area. After reading the journal article, I learned that resistant hybrids stemming from matings between a resistant and nonresistant species weren't new at all. The actually interesting discovery was that the bed nets created more favorable conditions for the hybrids, allowing them to better survive and backcross with both species, transferring resistance to the nonresistant species.
In my opinion resistance genes hopping from one species to another is much scarier than a "super-hybrid" boogeyman, but what do I know, haha.]
Hah, looks like they lack imagination when picking out the 'fear factor'. I think I'd have gone with "Hyper-immune hybrid mosquitoes use nets meant to kill them as fast-breeding grounds."
Hah, looks like they lack imagination when picking out the 'fear factor'.
I think I'd have gone with "Hyper-immune hybrid mosquitoes use nets meant to kill them as fast-breeding grounds."
I haven't heard much about the EMdrive in a while. I still want to know if they did the interferometer testing in a vacuum to check for warp fields. I know they did the vacuum testing for regular...
I haven't heard much about the EMdrive in a while. I still want to know if they did the interferometer testing in a vacuum to check for warp fields. I know they did the vacuum testing for regular thrust but I never heard if they used White's interferometer test in a vacuum. Part of the reason for the vacuum test was to see if it was just heat causing the interferometer to indicate a warp in space-time around the EM drive.
I know once the subject was getting hyped in publications about it., there was a lot of... unusual astroturf on reddit about how it can't work, won't ever work, and everyone who thinks it is worth looking into is a woo-believing conspiracy theorist etc. - and that was just about the ability to thrust at all. Any mention of warping space - which was White's whole motivation in the first place iirc - was scoffed at even harder. I have to assume that NASA probably would want to distance itself from anything so un-mainstream in terms of PR... but it would be nice to know at least if the experiment was even done like they had said they planned to.
Good read, nice to see these crackpot experiments finally get the rigor that puts them to bed. Now, do LENR. ;)
I blame modern tech 'journalists' (and I use that word as an insult) for this nonsense. They do blatantly, intentionally misleading, hyped up science-reporting, generating a nonsense bubble around a handful of tiny quirks in poorly run experiments - all just to get their ad clicks. Then, your usual crackpots and scam artists come out and make a quick buck feasting on the carcass of the truth along with the tech media.
Eventually, someone has to find the funding to do more rigorous experiments to put all the nonsense to bed - just like this - and even so, echoes of this craziness will continue for years because people just can't let their happy space fantasies or infinite energy machines or faster-than-light neutrinos go. It's a very depressing cycle of stupidity.
I keep hoping that someday, someone actually will discover something, and these tech journalists will inadvertently end up getting them the funding they need to prove out new physics. It's the only good scenario I can think of that fits this hype-nonsense paradigm... and if it happened just once, it might make it worth enduring all the bullshit.
It's cool to see the steps involved in testing it. And while it's kind of wasting money on nonsense, it also sounds like they've developed equipment and procedures that can be used to test other things.
The proliferation of sensationalist STEM articles is concerning, I agree. It's not just fixating on poorly run experiments like this one; often interesting studies with subtle implications can be misrepresented. I'm not sure if it's always to get clicks or sometimes a lack of understanding the concepts involved (or both).
[A tangent: I remember reading an article about "hybrid super-mosquitoes" resistant to pesticides that appeared after increased use of bed nets in the area. After reading the journal article, I learned that resistant hybrids stemming from matings between a resistant and nonresistant species weren't new at all. The actually interesting discovery was that the bed nets created more favorable conditions for the hybrids, allowing them to better survive and backcross with both species, transferring resistance to the nonresistant species.
In my opinion resistance genes hopping from one species to another is much scarier than a "super-hybrid" boogeyman, but what do I know, haha.]
Hah, looks like they lack imagination when picking out the 'fear factor'.
I think I'd have gone with "Hyper-immune hybrid mosquitoes use nets meant to kill them as fast-breeding grounds."
I haven't heard much about the EMdrive in a while. I still want to know if they did the interferometer testing in a vacuum to check for warp fields. I know they did the vacuum testing for regular thrust but I never heard if they used White's interferometer test in a vacuum. Part of the reason for the vacuum test was to see if it was just heat causing the interferometer to indicate a warp in space-time around the EM drive.
I know once the subject was getting hyped in publications about it., there was a lot of... unusual astroturf on reddit about how it can't work, won't ever work, and everyone who thinks it is worth looking into is a woo-believing conspiracy theorist etc. - and that was just about the ability to thrust at all. Any mention of warping space - which was White's whole motivation in the first place iirc - was scoffed at even harder. I have to assume that NASA probably would want to distance itself from anything so un-mainstream in terms of PR... but it would be nice to know at least if the experiment was even done like they had said they planned to.