Researchers create light from 'almost nothing'

www.physorg.com ^ | JUne 06, 2011 | by Bob Yirka

[allen08gop]

Paging Sheldon Cooper. Please pick up the white courtesy phone...

[zot]

Zero-point illumination?

Hmmm ... This sounds like it, but I'm not sure if it is capturing Zero-Point energy.

[Wuli]

“They haven’t tried the old “Let there be light!” trick yet.................”

Ah yes; and all the non-believers said it could not happen that way - “from ‘nothing’ “.

I have believed for a very long time that there is nothing “supernatural”.

By that I do not mean that what some people call “miracles”, impossible, superstitions and mere “religious nonsense” are ALWAYS just figments of someone’s imagination. I mean that SOMETIMES they are simply, currently, beyond our present understanding.

That makes me neither a “believer” or “non-believer” when it comes to arguments about science and G-d. I leave it to G-d and the fullness of time to resolve all such matters for us.

[Red Badger]

Genesis 11

New International Version (NIV)

The Tower of Babel

1 Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. 2 As people moved eastward,[a] they found a plain in Shinar[b] and settled there.

3 They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”

5 But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. 6 The LORD said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”

8 So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why it was called Babel[c]—because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

[Wuli]

O.K., no argument.

However, the relevance to the discussion - please???

[Red Badger]

People always miss this little gem from the Lord:

6 The LORD said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.

IOW, man has the ability to create anything, given enough time and effort.

I believe that the Lord has stepped in many times across the centuries to apply the brakes to man’s achievements. I watch the History Channel very very much. The Romans were way far more advanced than has been generally believed. They had machines and other technology that was completely lost when Rome was destroyed, many of which would have to wait another thousand years (the Dark Ages) to be reinvented or rediscovered. Imagine if Rome had gunpowder................

[ctdonath2]

Quite. Yeah, God still has high score on this issue - but c’mon guys, this is FREAKING AMAZING. Extracting mass/energy from a vacuum? !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Wuli]

“man has the ability to create anything, given enough time and effort”

That much I agree with, with this change: “the ability to POSSIBLY create anything, given enough time”.

We not only do not always have the ability to achieve something, we sometimes fail to achieve what is possible by the abilities we already have.

[Wuli]

“but c’mon guys, this is FREAKING AMAZING. Extracting mass/energy from a vacuum? !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

I’m with you on that. It is amazing, and it would be great
if we learn in short order how we can apply that knowledge in ways that will have practical implications.

However, keeping in mind that it was almost three decades from Eintein’s work to the first atomic bombs, and how long after that before “nuclear energy” power plants, I do not expect too much from this news right away.

(I’m wondering if this changes what Einstein thought about “zero point” energy”.)

War is unfortunately the agent of “necessity” and financial catalyst that moves something very new from theory to application. Let’s hope some more peaceful endeavor is the catalyst for the practical use of this news.

Maybe the energy-wave expression of “virtual” particles can be exploited for a non-fictional version of what the Star Trek series referred to as “sub-space telecommunication”. [Folks at “Area 51” are you listening?]

[reed13]

sub space telecom - interesting - I was only thinking that they could create light to impinge on a solar cell thereby harnassing the energy for application....yours is more subtle - I like.