Steorn

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I read an article about this weeks ago and I came across it again today. Steorn is an Irish company that claims to have created a perpetual motion machine of the first kind, "a technology that produces free, clean and constant energy." This technology would provide free energy for the world and could possibly be scaled to power your car or even your mobile phone. You would never need to charge your phone or refuel your car ever again. This technology does come with a catch, it appears to break one of the most basic rules of physics: The Principle of Conservation of Energy.They have had their invention privately tested and all testers have proven it to work, but none of them will publicly put their name to it. This is understandable, if the machine turns out to be a hoax or there is something simple that is being constantly overlooked, their reputations could be severely damaged.But Steorn published a full page advertisement in The Economist asking for a panel of 12 physicists to independently test the technology and prove it to be true or false. They received applications from hundreds of scientists and in the next month, the panel of 12 shall be chosen.This technology could be a revolution for our world, or it could be another hoax that will damage the hope for thousands of people. But we will never know unless it is tested and currently the company is facing wide controversy from the scientific world and possibly from the energy companies in the future. "We have to fight public opinion, we have to fight the scientific community and we have to fight the energy industry. We couldn't pick a worse battleground." Here is the Wikipedia article (for Steve).

I would test it and put my name to the test.you see, I've placed a farely stong faith in my knowlage of the laws of physics.

The problem is that we've heard the claim a zillion times before, and each time, the claim turned out to be nonsense. I'm rather skeptical this time as well, to put it mildly. I wouldn't mind seeing what all the fuss is about, though, given the publicity.So far, the conservation of energy principal had held up quite well.

I don't think any one will figgure out how to achive perpetual motion anytime soon. I just don't get how that's really possible without eliminating air resistance or the friction created by the movement that would, eventually, slow the object down in whatever medium it's suspended. It would probably also not be able to touch or rub against any other thing/substance/part of whatever machine it's put in or it creates friction and slows down and eventaully stops.
I just don't see how anyone could remove all resistance and friction so I don't think it's really possible.

You could suspend an object in a magnetic field in a perfect vacuum and set it spinning. It will spin forever (not really, since things like gravity from other objects, radiation, etc. will affect it). The problem is that it will start slowing down as soon as you start extracting energy from it.

yea....damn laws of physics

I have no idea if this technology will be proved right or wrong, but I'm in an oddly optimistic mood about it.

Just recently I kinda got into a little hole of disappointment over scientific advancements in the world. Computer technology and stuff like that was doing great but in terms of space travel, everything was shit. When you're young, everyone has the dreams of visiting space and up until recently I had lost all hope of ever doing it in my lifetime. I was further disappointed when I saw NASA's new rockets (have you seen them? They fucking suck! Its just the Saturn rockets all over again!)

But then Virgin Galactic came along, who will be bringing tourists into space from 2009. The obvious downsides are that you're only in space for a few minutes and it currently costs $200,000 per customer, but overtime the price will drop and a few minutes of space is more than what 99% of the Earth's population has ever had.

And then there is the Space Elevator which seems like total science fiction, but there is wide scientific belief that it could be done using today's technology. It is being researched by many large space and engineering companies, as well as thousands of individuals. Its predicted that with the right funding that the first one could be completed by 2020. And even if it isn't completed until 2030, it could still be done.

The current NASA shuttles can carry 22 tonnes of cargo into space once every couple of weeks/months. The space elevator would be capable of carrying 15 tonnes of cargo every day, and thats just one of them. This would be such a significant advancement for the construction of space vehicles and orbiting stations, being able to carry so much into orbit every day. And it would be a massive benefit to the environment as it would reduce the need for rockets.

A lovely little video of the proposed Space Elevator > VIDEO

conservation of energy thing, "engery can not be destroyed or created but transfered from one form to another"NASA is spending a ton of money to go back to the moon in a repeat of the Apollo program, while real scientific missions are starved of money. It's all smoke and sizzle with Bush & co. The science is totally besides the point. There is probably also a military angle -- they're hijacking the civillian space program and its budget.At this point, it money can be made from sending people into space, then private companies should go for it, with encouragement from the governments involved. I hope the space elevator thing succeeds.

Thats the thing, governments don't give a shit about space travel cause it doesn't neccesarily benefit them or their country. We can accept this because its not really their job to put people in space, they are paid to keep their country running. Its just taken so long for people to realise this and only now is the private sector really getting involved in full scale projects.

and we still have people who think that NASA is a waste of money that could be better spent on the "war on terrorism"

I rate perpetual motion along side saltless water softeners... I'll beleive it when the Nobel Prize gets handed out.

Well you can register on the Steorn website to be notified at the end of each phase of the investigation:Pre-Phase I (Current Phase)Analyse list of scientists, contact and verify interest, choose twelve and negotiate terms.Phase IConfirm that the Steorn technology has a coefficient of performance greater than 100%.Phase IIConfirm that the operation of the Steorn technology does not affect the component parts of the technology.Phase IIICarry out a full thermodynamic analysis of the technologyIf its found to be real, there is no doubt that it'll be a Nobel Prize winner.If its found to be fake, it will be one of the most expensive hoaxes ever pulled off. The full-page ad in The Economist alone cost £75,000 to place.

On the other hand, some of the unmanned, science-oriented, and low-cost missions have been wonderful! The current manned missions are a huge waste of taxpayer money. Whether it's done for prestige or for military reasons, it's still a waste.

I don't think that private enterprise is going to fund unmanned missions to Saturn, for example, so the government should keep doing (or at least financing) that sort of thing.

Of course the governments need to be a part of it, but the private enterprises are finally taking what they have and what they can do and are applying pressure for the governments to use it by letting the public know what they can do. Its a case of the old Roman mob: what the people want, the people get. Altho I'm not sure if that applies in the United States anymore. It seems to be more of an 'Accept the government current standards or you're not an American' kinda regime at the moment.