British Scientists Reverse Casimir Effect 347
An anonymous reader writes "The Telegraph reports that Scientists at the University of St. Andrews have developed a technique to cause the Casimir effect to repel instead of attract. This discovery could lead to near frictionless machines or in theory even levitation."
wait... (Score:4, Insightful)
They'd better be careful (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:They'd better be careful (Score:2, Insightful)
Probably. Many major scientific breakthroughs have come from researchers working on weapons technology. And vice-versa -- many new weapons technologies have come from researchers working on scientific breakthroughs.
Imagine causing all of the atoms in a tank to repel each other. Messy.
Being British... (Score:4, Insightful)
2. Tell everyone about it
3. ???? 4. NO Profit
It's sad to say that here in the UK we never learn and have a long and distinguished history of brilliant research followed by total fumbling of the ball and making no money out of the discoveries whatsoever.
an almost content-free article (Score:4, Insightful)
The thelegraph is supposed to be one of the more serious british dailies. So heaven help us all if this is what they pass off as a science story.
Doesn't sound useful on a large scale (Score:3, Insightful)
A standard solution for a 'frictionless bearing' is an air bearing. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_bearing [wikipedia.org]
The utility of this work seems limited to very small things.
Re:Being British... (Score:4, Insightful)
Woah, you want to tell me that there are scientists who actually do science for...err...sake of science, not money? What a surprise!
Without irony, I personally don't believe in profiting from BIG discoveries. If you get some applications going from that discovery, then it is understandable that you can and you will profit from them, but not from discovery itself.
Re:Being British... (Score:5, Insightful)
From the researcher's point of view:
Step 3 doesn't have to involve selling technology.
Re:In Theory (Score:1, Insightful)
"Scientists" (Score:1, Insightful)
Are they some special bunch of scientists that they deserved to be addressed as "Scientists"?
Same team unveiled invisibility cloak (Score:2, Insightful)
Maybe next week they will announce they have discovered cold fusion.
I hate to be such a skeptic but these claims seem to lack truthiness according to my gut. Your gut may differ. Either way, I'd take these claims with a very fine grain of salt.
Re:Same team unveiled invisibility cloak (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Disintegrators (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:I, for one (Score:3, Insightful)
I used to post AC when doing this, but it's just Slashdot. I don't give a shit about my karma anymore. Mod me down all you want.