To End..

This novel has greatly intrigued me into the theoretical sciences and more specifically physics. Nothing that can be thought by the human brain is impossible to create. I hope that after reading through my blog, you may experience some of the enlightenment that this novel has brought into my life. Please feel free to comment and ask questions. I will try to answer them to the best of my abilities.

Joey Martellacci
Blog Operator

Chapter 12: Perpetual Motion Machines and Precognition - Class III

Possibly the two hardest feats to accomplish for any civilization will be Perpetual Motion Machines and Precognition. Of course it is not fair to call these concepts impossible. As I learnt in Chapter 1, a Force Field is a concept very much possible, that I thought to be too advanced to ever be created. The word impossible is defined as something that can never be accomplished. If I asked you to throw a football through a hole in the wall, fifty feet away, and the hole's diameter is equal to the diameter of the football, what would you say to me? "Impossible" would be your response. But, is that truly, 100% impossible to do? No, there is always the slightest, most minuscule chance that the football will pass through the hole. Therefore, saying something is impossible is incorrect, however, saying something is extremely unlikely at least opens the door for a chance.
Perpetual Motion machines are extremely unlikely to be developed. The reason, they break the Laws of Thermodynamics. These machines break the first law because theoretically, they would produce usable energy from nothing, which is extremely unlikely to happen. Next, these machines break the second law because they would be 100% efficient, meaning no lost energy which is also extremely unlikely to happen. Perpetual motion machines are a class III impossibility for a reason. Unless loopholes are found in the Laws of Thermodynamics, these machines will never see the light of day.
Precognition is another concept which breaks another major law. It violates causality, which is the law of cause and effect. Effects always occur after the cause, not vise versa. Every law of physics created has causality built into it. If precognition was possible at all, a major collapse of the foundations of physics would occur.
Although these two concepts would be appreciated by almost all of humanity, they are extremely unlikely to ever happen. The physics behind them is... well there is no physics behind them. There is only chance. One day civilization may find a loophole in the laws of physics. If and when this happens, we may one day have the class III impossibilities. Until then, lets stick with what physics has given us already.

Chapter 11: Parallel Universes - Class II

To grasp the thought that there are many worlds, just like Earth, takes a little bit of imagination and to many, seems too unrealistic to be true. But, if we apply the uncertainty rule to the entire universe, naturally we lead ourselves towards the concept of a multiverse.

The concept of "quantum cosmology" at first sounds like a contradiction. The quantum theory refers to the infinite miniature world of the atom, while cosmology refers to the vast entire universe. But consider this: at the instant of the big bang, the universe in its entirety was much smaller than the size of an electron. Electrons, according to every physicist must be quantized which means, described by a wave equation (the Dirac Equation) and can exist in parallel states leading to the "many worlds" approach.

Another theory, that our universe arose from the "nothingness" of the space-time foam, seems oblique to the mind, but, with simple observations, the theory seems consistent:

1. Physicists have pointed out that the total number of positive charges and negative charges in our universe comes out to be zero. If there was an imbalance between these two charges on Earth, it may be enough to rip the Earth apart, overcoming the planet's gravitational force. Therefore, a simple way to explain why there is a perfect balance is to assume our universe came from "nothing," and "nothing" has zero charge.


2. Our universe has zero spin. Since the total spin of the entire universe is zero, the universe must have derived from "nothing," because "nothing" has zero spin.


3. Finally, our universe's coming from "nothing" would help to explain why the positive energy of matter and the negative energy of gravity seem to cancel out, equalling zero.

These three observations can provide us with two pieces of crucial information. By understanding the three situations, we can grasp the thought that this universe we live in once started from nothing but a bubble in space foam. It suggests that for a universe to sustain itself, it must remain symmetrical in terms of spin, positive/negative matter, and positive/negative charges. Understanding how universes form, and appreciating the uncertainty rule, we may very well be one in a series of parallel universes also possessing intelligent life.

Chapter 10: Faster Than Light / Time Travel - Class II

For centuries it appeared that no object could travel faster than the speed of light. In Einsteins general theory of relativity, space-time is very much like a fabric, it can be stretched and shrunk. Under special circumstances, the fabric may even stretch faster than the speed of light. According to Einsteins theory, there are two ways in which travelling faster than light may be acceptable.

The first idea is Stretching Space. If you were able to stretch the space behind you and contract the space in front of you, the illusion of having moved faster than the speed of light would be created. In reality, you would not have moved at all, but since space has been deformed, you could reach distant stars in the blink of an eye.

The second idea is Ripping Space. The concept deals with the idea of wormholes. Einstein took a sheet of paper and noticed that the shortest distance from corner to corner is a straight line, but, when he curled the paper so that the corners were practically touching, the shortest distance was a wormhole between the two points.

Theoretically wormholes, if proved to be existent could transform our entire universe, eventually converting it into a living cosmopolitan. Ripping space is an idea that will have trouble getting off the ground. To keep a wormhole open so that a human shuttle could pass through would require particles called negative matter that has yet, to this date, been discovered. It is almost impossible to find because unlike normal matter which is pulled into planets by gravity, negative matter is repelled by planets and stars into deep space. Along with the difficulty of finding it comes the quantity that would be required to keep the wormhole open long enough; negative matter the mass of Jupiter would be the key ingredient. So back to stretching space we go. A physicist by the name of Miguel Alcubierre, using Einsteins theory of gravity has developed a propulsion system similar to that found on the Millennium Falcon in Star Wars. Alcubierre speculates that has starship would resemble the voyage of this fictional starship Hans Solo and Luke Skywalker would travel on. If we looked out the front of the ship, the stars would become long lines, but, if we looked out the back, we would only see pitch black because the light from the stars behind the ship would not be able to catch up to the starships velocity.

In essence travelling faster than the speed of light is very much possible because it does not violate the theory of relativity and finds a loophole in Einsteins theory of light. Although travelling at such high speeds are thousands of years into future technology, we can still look forward to future mankind being able to travel across the universe.

Chapter 9: Antimatter and Anti-Universe - Class I

At the beginning of the twentieth century, scientists around the globe realized that the atom consisted of a negatively charged electron rotating around a positively charged nucleus containing protons and neutrons. In the early 1930s a new twist was added to this theory. For every particle there is a twin, an antiparticle, but with an opposite charge. The first antiparticle discovered was the antielectron, also known as, the positron. It is identical to the electron in every way except the charges are reversed. When antimatter comes in contact with normal matter, a massive explosion occurs. How massive you ask? A normal atomic bomb, like the one that wiped out Hiroshima, is only one percent efficient (only a fraction of uranium is converted to energy). If an antimatter bomb could be constructed, it would convert 100% of its mass into energy, making more efficient than a nuclear bomb. An early application of this potential energy source; the Antimatter Rocket.

Physicists have concluded that antimatter is so potentially packed with energy, that only four milligrams of positrons would be sufficient to take an antimatter rocket to Mars in just several weeks. The energy packed into antimatter is roughly one billion times more than the energy packed into rocket fuel. Pricing in at $62.5 trillion dollars per gram, antimatter is the most sought after and precious substance on Earth. For this antimatter to be usable, it would first have to be processed through a particle accelerator, which propels electrically charged particles to high speeds and to contain them. Since harvesting antimatter is in its infant stages, only a few nanograms are being processed per year with the technology that is existent. What now is required, is a particle accelerator that is specifically designed for antimatter. If this technology can be derived, the price per gram will drop significantly. and the economic state to build an antimatter rocket would be a little more clear.

The construction of an antimatter rocket will be a massive step towards interplanetary travel and exploration into deep space. However until the time when antimatter is easily harboured, these rockets will remain on the drawing board.

Chapter 8: Starships - Class 1

One day, five billion years into the future, humanity will have its last peaceful day on this planet. The sun's life span will expire and the Earth will be faced with a raging inferno of fire and heat. Temperatures will be so high that the oceans will evaporate and mountains will melt into giant puddles of lava. This apocalyptic scenario is inevitable according to the laws of physics. One day, civilization will have two options: escape Earth or die. To escape this galaxy we will need some sort of a star ship. The idea of a star ship taking us to the vast corners of space does seem impossible. however, a Ramjet Fusion Engine might be our eventual saviour.

Hydrogen is one of the most abundant gasses found in our universe, and is the essential ingredient to a Ramjet Fusion Engine. This engine would theoretically scoop hydrogen as it travelled in outer space providing the engine with an inexhaustible source of rocket fuel.

Physicist Robert W. Bussard calculated that a ramjet engine weighing about 1000 tons would theoretically be able to maintain a steady thrust of 1 g of force, comparable to standing on the Earth's surface. If this engine could maintain 1 g acceleration for one year, it would reach 77% of the velocity of light, which would make space travel a serious possibility. The main requirement of this engine would be the size of its hydrogen collecting scoop. Since we know the average density of hydrogen gas in the universe and the amount needed to sustain 1 g acceleration, scientists have calculated that the scoop would have to be 160km in diameter (could be possibly constructed in weightless outer space).

In principle this type of engine could propel itself indefinitely, one day reaching distant star systems. According to Einstein, since time slows down inside the rocket, reaching astronomical distances without putting the crew into suspended animation may very well be possible. After eleven years of acceleration at 1 g, according to clocks in the spaceship, the crew would have reached the Pleiades star cluster, which is 400 light-years away and in twenty three years it would reach the Adromeda galaxy, two million light-years from earth. Theory would conclude that in one human lifetime, a crew member may be able to reach the end of the visible universe even though billions of years would have passed by on earth.

The Ramjet Fusion Engine is an essential discovery for human survival in the post-Earth era. If scientists can iron out the glitches with burning the right kind of hydrogen gas, we may one day be able to travel the galaxy with ease and enjoyment.

Chapter 7: Extraterrestrials and UFOs - Class I

Creationists believe that we are the only intellectual forms of life ever created in the universe. Scientists believe that theoretically the chances that we are alone in the universe are quite small. All life probably (always an uncertainty) requires liquid water, hydrocarbon chemicals, and some form of self-replicating molecule like DNA. By using these broad criteria, one may be able to derive a rough estimate of the frequency of intelligent life in the universe.


Frank Drake, an astronomer at Cornell University in 1961, was one of the first to make an estimate. He started off with 100 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy and estimated what fraction of them have stars like our sun. He then estimated what fraction have solar systems revolving around them. Drake's Equation calculates the number of civilizations in the galaxy by multiplying several numbers together:

• the rate at which stars are born in the galaxy


• the fraction of these stars that have planets


• the number of planets for each star that have the conditions for life


• the fraction of planets that actually develop life


• the fraction that are willing and able to communicate


• the fraction that develop intelligent life


• the expected lifetime of a celebration

By taking reasonable estimates and then multiplying these criteria together, one realizes that there may be anywhere from 100 to 1000 planets in the Milky Way alone, that are able to harbour intelligent forms of life. Furthermore, if planets with intelligent life forms are spread out evenly through our galaxy, there should be one only a few hundred light years away. Drake's Equation provides justification for those who believe that extraterrestrials are existent. It's logic formula, to a theoretical point, proves to humanity that there is a significantly high chance we are not alone out there!

Chapter 6: Robots - Class I

Because Moore's Law states "computer power doubles every eighteen months," it is conceivable that within a few decades, robots will possess the same intelligence as house pets. By the year 2020 Moore's Law may very well disintegrate and the era of silicon could end. For over fifty years, the constant growth of computer power has been fueled by the ability to form tiny silicon transistors. Fifty years of consistently widdling down the size, and increasing the quantity of these transistors have lead to a point where this process is reaching its limits.

The Pentium chip in our computers has a layer of about twenty atoms across. By 2020 it may be down to about five. If this happens Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle will come into effect, and the location of the electron will no longer be known. Electricity would then slip out of the chip and fry our computers. Assuming in 2020 we are able to make the transition from digital computers to quantum computers (still in the process of being produced), Moore's Law may continue into the post-silicon age. If this law continues to follow suit, in the near future robots may be able to master human logic and emotion. If a robot can obtain the same logic as a monkey, which is self-aware and can create its own agenda, it could threaten the existence of man. There is nothing in the laws of physics that prevents artificial intelligence from surpassing the human brain. If this day comes, we will have lost the evolutionary race against machine.

The fast-pace evolution of computer technology may very well be the undoing of human intelligence, thought, and creativity.

Chapter 5: Psychokinesis / Telepathy - Class I

BrainGate. To think that an object the size of a sliver of a penny could, when implanted in the brain, change the channel on television, adjust the volume, or move a computer cursor is almost absurd. A neuroscientist at Brown University by the name of John Donoghue has done just this. He has devised an apparatus called BrainGate that enables paralyzed individuals to preform remarkable physical feats without actually having to move. This device, only four millimetres wide, containing one hundred tiny gold electrodes, plugs two millimetres deep into the frontal lobe of the patient. A signal to preform an action is sent through the chip, into an amplifier outside of the body, and then into a giant computer about the size of a standard dishwasher. The computer then takes the input signal and creates the output reaction in the attached electrical device. As we are able to create small computers, this system may soon be able to be portable and may even be worn under our clothes, invisible to the environment.

With this technology we may one day not need to type, turn on a light switch, start a car, turn on the stove, etc. Programming such as BrainGate would eliminate many physical tasks that in modern society are the pests of humanity. Someday soon when civilization becomes hooked on psychokinesis products, simple to moderate tasks will become no task at all!

Chapter 4: Teleportation - Class I

Growing up, most of us were taught that there are three states of matter: solids, liquids, and gasses. Today, I am proud to introduce a new state of matter that most of you have not heard of, and that may be the key ingredient in successful teleportation.

Bose Einstein Condensate or BEC is the coldest substance known to humans in the entire universe. In nature, the coldest temperature ever recorded was 3 K (-270 degrees Celsius). Only able to be produced in the lab, BEC dips to the frigid temperature of one billionth of a Kelvin. In this state, atoms begin to tumble down to their lowest energy state, so that all their atoms vibrate in unison and are coherent. Each atom's wave function overlaps with one another creating a gigantic "super atom."

Physicist Dr. Aston Bradley of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Quantum Atom Optics has used BEC to teleport supercold rubidium atoms and applies a beam of matter (also composed of rubidium) to the condensate. The atoms in this beam also want to tumble down to their lowest energy state so they shed their excess energy in the form of a pulse of light. The light is then sent through a fibre optic cable with the quantum information necessary to reproduce the original atoms when the exit the cable.

This new for of teleportation is very promising since it does not deal with quantum entanglement and appears to be working in further testing and experiments. Although humans may never be able to teleport this way - seeing that they would freeze to death in BEC - non-living substances may be able to be teleported in the near future.

Chapter 3: Phasers and Death Stars - Class I

The Star Wars Trilogy best demonstrates the use of Phaser guns and Death Stars. Sure, these weapons can kill in massive volumes, but are they not too fictional to exist in the real world? Not anytime soon will we see massive planet-like lasers in outer space blowing up stars, nor will we anytime soon see laser guns that shoot deadly beams of light. What we may see, however, is something a little more natural, that one day, we may possibly be able to control; enter Gamma Ray Burtsers.

Gamma Ray Bursters were discovered by accident. An American launched satellite, intended to detect Soviet "nukeflashes" caught glimpse of uniform radiation coming for every corner of space from outside of the Milky Way. If this radiation was extragalactic, these Gamma Ray Bursters must be releasing astronomical amounts of power, enough to light up the entire visible universe. Think of a Gamma Ray Burster as a monster black hole in formation. It emits two jets or radiation, one from the north pole and one from the south. If the jet from a Gamma Ray Burster were aimed at the Earth, and found within our galactic neighborhood (a few hundred light-years from Earth), its power would obliterate all life on our planet. The Bursters X-ray pulse would first wipe out all electronic devices on the planet, then, the second wave of X-rays and gamma rays would dissolve the ozone and heat up temperatures on Earth high enough to cause global firestorms that would kill every living organism.

It is quite possible that a civilization thousands of years in the future may be able to project such a black hole in the direction of a certain target. To do this, they would have to deflect the path of planets and neutron stars into a dying star at a precise angle before it collapses. This deflection would be enough to change the Busters spin and aim it at a certain angle. The idea sounds far out there, however, with continuous advancements in technology, civilization might one day be able to produce the largest ray gun imaginable using a Gamma Ray Burster

Chapter 2: Invisibility - Class I

Is such an idea really possible? Invisibility is a concept so far-fetched, that when we see it happen in movies or in books, we feel cheated on by the directors and authors. From Harry Potter's invisibility cloak, to the powerful ring in The Lord of the Rings, many people with the slightest background in physics know that invisibility defies the Laws of Optics and Maxwell's Equations. However, science works in marvelous ways and today, we find ourselves stumbling across substances called metamaterials.

These metamaterials may very well be the substances that re-write textbooks on optics due to their distinct properties not found in nature. They are created by bedding tiny implants within a substance that force electromagnetic waves to bend in unorthodox ways. In optics we deal with a concept known as the index of refraction. For example, a narrow beam of light bends when it enters glass and then keeps going in a straight line. But assume we were able to control the index of refraction so that at every point within the glass it could change. As light would move through this new material, it could bend and meander in new directions, a path that would resemble that of a snakes. If the index of refraction inside a metamaterial could be controlled so that light could pass around the object completely, the object would be invisible. For this phenomena to occur, the metamaterial must have a negative index of refraction, which according to almost every physics textbook made, is an impossible feat. In 1967, Soviet physicist, Victor Veselago theorized in a paper that metamaterials have "weird optical properties, such as a negative refractive index and reversed Doppler effect." Metamaterials were once thought so bizarre that they were thought impossible to construct, however, in recent years, they have actually been manufactured in the laboratory, forcing reluctant physicists to rewrite the book of optics.

If this new substance can be produced to keep a constant negative index of refraction, scientists might have something to really work with in the future. The first country to posses the power of making objects invisible, will reign supreme over the rest of the world. The element of surprise and the ability not to see an enemy is the most lethal power to ever be sought after.

Chapter 1: Force Fields - Class I

We all have encountered force fields. Those impenetrable transparent domes that that protect us in a battle, reflecting bullets, bombs, and all forms of attack. And each one of us has probably thought that such a defence against attack is impossible. The truth is, these force fields are very much possible, one method arising from the formation of a Plasma Window and Carbon Nanotubes.

When a gas is heated to a high enough temperature, thereby creating a plasma, it can be molded and shaped in the form of a window or a sheet. Moreover, this "plasma window" can be used to separate a vacuum from normal air. If we took a plasma window and heated it to temperatures that could melt metal and put it over top of a layer of high-energy laser beams, these two curtains could successfully vaporize any weapon that would try to penetrate it. Put these two layers on top of a lattice made of "carbon nanotubes," which consist of a single carbon atom per tube, many times stronger than steel, and voila! Scientists could create a screen of enormous strength capable of repelling most objects. The screen would also be invisible, seeing as each carbon nanotube is atomic in size. Applications for a defence system such as this could burn like wild-fire through world markets. The only issue, 15 millimetres is the record length to date for a carbon nanotube.

Introduction to the Novel

Centuries ago, scientists would have said that televisions, lasers, and the atomic bomb stretched beyond the realm of physical possibility. In Physics of the Impossible, Michio Kaku, the Henry Semat Professor of Theoretical Physics at the Graduate Center of City University in New York and co founder of the string field theory, explores to what extent the technologies and devices found in science fiction, can be deemed possible in the future.
Using the world of science fiction and the laws of physics to explore fundamentals and limits of certain technology, Kaku divides these phenomina into three distinct classes:

Class I Imposibilities: These are technologies that are impossible today, do not violate the known laws of physics, and that may be possible within the next couple of centuries.

Class II Imposibilities: These are technologies that lie at the very edge of human understanding of the physical world. If they are possible at all, they might be realized in a millenia or up to millions of years in the future.

Class III Imposibilities: These are technologies that violate the known laws of physics. If these technologies turn out to be possible, they would represent a fundamental shift in the understanding of physics.

In the following blog posts I will comment and explore on certain topics of intrest from each chapter of this intreaguing novel on physics.