Recent Scientific Breakthroughs We were told nothing could fly faster than the speed of sound and told this while witnesses were seeing objects in the sky routinely breaking that speed barrier. Next, we are being told nothing could fly faster than the speed of light and we received all sorts of reasons for this including the calculations by Einstein which stated it would take more energy to do this than exists in the universe. It was obvious this couldn’t be correct because of one simple fact, we didn’t know how big the universe really was and we still do not. It turns out we may not need such an incredible amount of energy to do this after all. You may wonder why I am saying this, well let me tell you. In case you have not heard, because what I am about to mention is not receiving the attention it deserves in the news. There exists a device in Switzerland known as the Large Hadron Collider, it is what we sometimes call an atom smasher and it is in this device, which is the world biggest device, the world has witnessed particles traveling faster than the speed of light. This is profound for space travel and is only the beginning because traveling at the speed of light in space is still far too slow, but it has shown us there is hope for even speedier travel. Watch out Star Trek, warp speed is coming. The difference in speed between light speed and the speed which exceeded it is slight, but it was supposed to be impossible to do and may have implications in many other fields of science and we have to remember some scientists tie super speeds to being able to travel in time. An incredible breakthrough has occurred in electric conductivity. The holy grail is to find a superconductor which would allow power to flow through it without losing a lot of that power and without requiring super cooling. There has been a theory which states hydrogen could be turned into metallic hydrogen. It was said if this could be accomplished the material would be the most valuable for society. The material was actually discovered over a hundred years ago, but we were never able to create it because the pressures needed to do this seemed impossible, at least until last year. Scientists created the first ever sample of this on earth last year and they did it by pressing it with 71.7 million pounds of pressure a square inch, which in itself was an incredible accomplishment. The material is said to be metastable. This means after the pressure is taken off of it, it will stay a metal. The electrical grid loses about 15 percent of the energy put into it which would be a thing of the past if we use semiconductors made of this material. Look for anything using electrical energy to profit from this. An example would be electric cars which would get longer range and other advantages. The breakthrough in pressure creation might easily also be used to create other things which we would find very useful. There has been an attempt to save some animals which were on the endangered list and we actually managed to get at least two of them off of it. We usually don’t hear about these things. Most of the things we hear are about is how new species of animals are becoming endangered. It turns out the Giant Panda is no longer endangered. The Chinese government’s effort to help this animal have paid off. The animal is now classified as vulnerable. Another animal which has made it off of the endangered list is the Humpback whale. A large conservation effort has been going on for a few years to protect these gentle giants of the sea and it has finally paid off. At one-time alligators were endangered in the United States but they now seem to be in every warm area of the country. The White Rhino was nearly wiped out by 1885. Today there are over 20,000. By the 1970s there were only 140 Grizzly Bears left and we were barely able to get their population to increase in time, but today there are about 1,200 in Yellowstone and the Rocky Mountain West and 50,000 in the world. Good job to those who helped these animals! A brain implant was given to a man who was a quadriplegic. It was successful to a point. It allowed the man to move his hand and fingers with his thoughts. A computer chip was inserted into his brain during a 4-hour operation. The signals from the chip were sent to a computer which was able to translate these signals into movement instructions to a device. This was a trial and scientists had thought if after the operation the man could move 1 finger it would be a success. Something better happened the man could move all his fingers and even make a fist. This gave hope to the scientists that millions of people who had been paralyzed from accidents and strokes might be able to move again. Some scientists have reported that brain implants have improved memory. This may mean in the future, the dream of science of being able to insert a chip into our brain which will have all the knowledge we would need for a profession without having to go to colleges or universities may be coming sooner than we thought. We are on the verge of brain implants becoming available for all sorts of purposes, some of which would upset us if we knew about them. One of the most significant advances in rocket technology has recently taken place. While the days of rockets are numbered, the advance in reusable rockets is significant. Thanks to SpaceX rockets can now land the way they do in science fiction movies by coming straight down rear end first and making a soft landing. This allows an incredible savings in cost since the rockets can be reused since they are undamaged. Recently SpaceX offered to sell 27 of its biggest rockets to the government which would have saved the government maybe billions of dollars over having to develop and refine their large rocket, but they turned the company down. This decision seemed very political. I could fill a book with the fantastic advances being made in science recently and each advance opens the door to other advances. Unfortunately, I don’t have the time or the manpower to do this. There is something else to be considered. There might be almost as many scientific breakthroughs made which are being kept from us for various reasons.
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