Physics news

[lswot]

[Henry J]

MU Scientist Measures Speed of Gravity

For the first time, scientists have measured the speed of gravity, one of the fundamental constants of Albert Einstein’s 1916 general theory of relativity. Led by Sergei Kopeikin, a physicist at the University of Missouri-Columbia, a team of scientists took advantage of a rare cosmic alignment on Sept. 8 to test Einstein’s assumption that gravity moves at the speed of light.

[brian]

Gravity moves?

[Henry J]

Well, yeah! A planet's gravity field follows it around in its orbit. Good thing, too - we'd be in a bit of trouble if it didn't!

[brian]

So it moves as fast as Earth is orbiting, right?

Where does light speed come into play?

Are we talking about gravitrons here or something? Or gravitic waves? Some other Treknology?

[Henry J]

I gather that it's changes in the gravity field that propagate outward at the speed of light when the object (planet, star, or whatever) accelerates (changes its direction or speed). Gravity waves would I guess be that outward propagation of the change in the field. Dunno how gravitons fit into all that.

Henry

[lswot]

This subject is really heavy.

[Henry J]

U-M research: New plastic is strong as steel, transparent

ANN ARBOR, Mich.—By mimicking a brick-and-mortar molecular structure found in seashells, University of Michigan researchers created a composite plastic that's as strong as steel but lighter and transparent.

(Plastic? Not Aluminum? )

Henry

[Henry J]

FSU physicist shining a light on mysterious 'dark matter'

We've all been taught that our bodies, the Earth, and in fact all matter in the universe is composed of tiny building blocks called atoms. Now imagine if this weren't the case. This mind-bending concept is at the core of the scientific research that one Florida State University professor—and hundreds of his colleagues all over the world—are pursuing.

(Beware the dark side of the, uh, 'verse?)

Henry

[lswot]

Next they'll be saying we came from monkeys.

[Henry J]

Methinks that's a different subject...

[lswot]

It is?

[Xjmt]

This subject is really heavy.

[lswot]

[brian]

Atom Smashing To Begin Oct. 21st

The Large Hadron Collider, the world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator, will be officially launched in Switzerland on October 21st of this year. It will operate in a circular 27-kilometer tunnel about 100 meters underground and will create almost a billion proton-proton collisions per second. Take a look at some amazing high-res images.