Speeding Is OK!

Albert Einstein no less stated that "Nothing could ever go faster than the Speed of Light."  We can now say that Professor Einstein was wrong.

It was Albert Einstein, no less, who proposed more than 100 years ago that nothing could travel faster than the speed of light.

But last night it emerged that the man who laid the foundations for the laws of nature may have been wrong.

The science world was left in shock when workers at the world’s largest physics lab announced they had recorded subatomic particles travelling faster than the speed of light

If the findings are proven to be accurate, they would overturn one of the pillars of the Standard Model of physics, which explains the way the universe and everything within it works.

Einstein’s theory of special relativity, proposed in 1905, states that nothing in the universe can travel faster than the speed of light in a vacuum. But researchers at the CERN lab near Geneva claim they have recorded neutrinos, a type of tiny particle, travelling faster than the barrier of 186,282 miles (299,792 kilometers) per second.

The results have so astounded researchers that American and Japanese scientists have been asked to verify the results before they are confirmed as a discovery.

Antonio Ereditato, spokesman for the researchers, said: “We have high confidence in our results. We have checked and rechecked for anything that could have distorted our measurements but we found nothing.”

Scientists agree if the results are confirmed, that it would force a fundamental rethink of the laws of physics.

John Ellis, a theoretical physicist, said Einstein’s theory underlies “pretty much everything in modern physics”.

Source

I actually believe that Professor Einstein would have been thrilled with this result. And it only goes to show everyone that like many drivers, even sub-atomic particles love to speed!

Iran Is Building What?

Nuclear Fusion Reactors!

That is correct.  The nation that is noted for the multitude of scientific achievements such as:



You get the point.

So it comes as a great surprise when I saw this:

Iran studying nuclear fusion reactors

Iran's nuclear agency began studies Saturday to build an experimental nuclear fusion reactor, something that has yet to be achieved by any nation.

Vice President Ali Akbar Salehi, who also heads the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, told a conference on the new research program that his agency has set an initial budget of $8 million to conduct "serious" research in the area of nuclear fusion.

Asghar Sediqzadeh, the head of the new fusion research center said Iran will take two years to complete these studies and then another decade to design and build a reactor.

"The scientific phase of the project effectively began today. We have already hired 50 experts for this purpose," he told state TV.

Iran is not known to have carried out anything but basic fusion research, but does have a nuclear fission program that the US and its allies believe is a front to build weapons which Tehran denies.

The United States, the European Union, China, India, Russia, Japan and South Korea signed an accord in 2006 to build a $12.8 billion experimental fusion reactor at Cadarache, southern France, aimed at revolutionizing global energy use for future generations.

The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, or ITER, members have said no single country can afford the immense investment needed to move the science forward.

Salehi, Iran's nuclear chief, said Iran was willing to join any international grouping to offer its expertise to promote the project. However, he said Iran will go its own way should the world not welcome it.

"We are ready to enter into cooperation with any international group or country," he told the Iranian Student News Agency.

Salehi said it would take 20 to 30 years before nuclear fusion energy can be commercialized but that Iran seeks to make use of all the capacity inside Iran to speed up its research.

Nuclear fusion, the process powering the sun and stars, has so far only been mastered as a weapon, producing the thermonuclear explosions of hydrogen bombs. It has never been harnessed for power generation.

The UN Security Council has already passed four sets of sanctions over Iran's nuclear program on suspicions it is being used to produce weapons. Iran denies the accusations, saying its program is geared merely toward generating electricity

First of all some of the greatest minds in the world have been working on this for the last 50 years. And the best they have been able to achieve is 16.1 Megawatts (MW)  of power. Yet the Iranians say they can do it, and in less time and for far less money.

RIGHT!  Somebody check the woods.  The bears are constipated again.

You would be angry too if you had his problem!

Today scientists from The United States, the European Union, China, India, Russia, Japan and South Korea are working together at Cadarache, southern France, with a budget of $12.8 billion to solve this problem.  An Iran want the world to believe that with a budget of $8 million, and 50 rented "experts", the Iranians can achieve sustained nuclear fusion in a reactor?  Not for one moment does any rational person believe that it is nuclear energy the Iranians are after.

Well, maybe if this is the type of nuclear energy they are REALLY after:

Iran's True Idea Of Nuclear Fusion!