Part 1: How To Make & Power A Flux Thruster

Part 2: Commonly Accepted Scientific Models Made Simple

Part 3: Theoretical Foundations For The Structure & Function of The Flux Thruster

Physicists at Yale University have made the first definitive measurements of "persistent current," a small but perpetual electric current that flows naturally through tiny rings of metal wire even without an external power source.

The team used nanoscale cantilevers, an entirely novel approach, to indirectly measure the current through changes in the magnetic force it produces as it flows through the ring. "They're essentially little floppy diving boards with the rings sitting on top," said team leader Jack Harris, associate professor of physics and applied physics at Yale. The findings appear in the October 9 issue of Science.

The counterintuitive current is the result of a quantum mechanical effect that influences how electrons travel through metals, and arises from the same kind of motion that allows the electrons inside an atom to orbit the nucleus forever. "These are ordinary, non-superconducting metal rings, which we typically think of as resistors," Harris said. "Yet these currents will flow forever, even in the absence of an applied voltage."

Although persistent current was first theorized decades ago, it is so faint and sensitive to its environment that physicists were unable to accurately measure it until now. It is not possible to measure the current with a traditional ammeter because it only flows within the tiny metal rings, which are about the same size as the wires used on computer chips.

Past experiments tried to indirectly measure persistent current via the magnetic field it produces (any current passing through a metal wire produces a magnetic field). They used extremely sensitive magnetometers known as superconducting quantum interference devices, or SQUIDs, but the results were inconsistent and even contradictory.

"SQUIDs had long been established as the tool used to measure extremely weak magnetic fields. It was extremely optimistic for us to think that a mechanical device could be more sensitive than a SQUID," Harris said.

The team used the cantilevers to detect changes in the magnetic field produced by the current as it changed direction in the aluminum rings. This new experimental setup allowed the team to make measurements a full order of magnitude more precise than any previous attempts. They also measured the persistent current over a wider range of temperature, ring size and magnetic field than ever before.

"These measurements could tell us something about how electrons behave in metals," Harris said, adding that the findings could lead to a better understanding of how qubits, used in quantum computing, are affected by their environment, as well as which metals could potentially be used as superconductors.

Authors of the paper include Ania Bleszynski-Jayich, William Shanks, Bruno Peaudecerf, Eran Ginossar, Leonid Glazman and Jack Harris (all of Yale University) and Felix von Oppen (Freie Universität Berlin).

Astronomers have known for some time that a small fraction of galaxies have peculiar "jets" extending from their very centers. [...] Jets, by themselves, are peculiar: why should matter and/or energy be ejected from the center of a galaxy? Why should it be squirted in such a narrow beam? But some of them become even more peculiar if you look at them over a period of time, using telescopes which can perceive very fine details.

This, for example, is a recent HST image of the jet in M87. Note that the jet is broken into knots:

Let's rotate our view for convenience so that the jet points to the right:

If you zoom in on an inner portion of the jet, you can see little blobs which appear to shoot out to the right over just a few years:

The galaxy has a jet of energetic plasma emanating from its core and extending at least 4,900 light years outwards. The jet consists of gaseous material expelled from the galaxy's nucleus and travels at relativistic speed. Observations with the Hubble Space Telescope in 1999 revealed that the jet was moving at four to six times the speed of light. The gas clouds have an apparent superluminal motion, which is likely an illusion caused by the fact that the jet is pointing in our direction. The discovery of such motion supports the theory that quasars, radio galaxies and BL Lacertae objects may all in fact be active galaxies, only seen from different perspectives.

This sequence of images, taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope over a period of 13 years, reveals changes in a black-hole-powered jet of hot gas in the giant elliptical galaxy M87. The observations show that the river of plasma, travelling at nearly the speed of light, may follow the spiral structure of the black hole's magnetic field, which astronomers think is coiled like a helix. The magnetic field is believed to arise from a spinning accretion disc of material around a black hole. Although the magnetic field cannot be seen, its presence is inferred by the confinement of the jet along a narrow cone emanating from the black hole. The visible portion of the jet extends for some 5000 light-years. M87 resides at the centre of the neighbouring Virgo cluster of roughly 2000 galaxies, located 50 million light-years away.

The images are part of a time-lapse movie that reveals changes in the jet from 1995 to 2007. They were taken by Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys in 2006 and the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 in 1995, 1998, 2001, and 2007. Image: NASA, ESA, E. Meyer, W. Sparks, J. Biretta, J. Anderson, S.T. Sohn, and R. van der Marel (STScI), C. Norman (Johns Hopkins University), and M. Nakamura (Academia Sinica)

What seemed to be flaws in the structure of a mystery metal may have given physicists a glimpse into as-yet-undiscovered laws of the universe.

The qualities of a high-temperature superconductor - a compound in which electrons obey the spooky laws of quantum physics, and flow in perfect synchrony, without friction - appear linked to the fractal arrangements of seemingly random oxygen atoms.

Those atoms weren't thought to matter, especially not in relation to the behavior of individual electrons, which exist at a scale thousands of times smaller. The findings, published Aug. 12 in Nature, are a physics equivalent of discovering a link between two utterly separate dimensions.

"We don't know the theory for this," said physicist Antonio Bianconi of Rome's Sapienza University. "We just make the experimental observation that the two worlds seem to interfere."

Unlike semiconductors, the metals on which modern electronics rely, superconductors allow electrons to pass through without resistance. Rather than bouncing haphazardly, the electrons' movements are perfectly synchronized. They flow like a fluid, but without viscosity.

For most of the 20th century, this was possible only in certain extremely pure metals at temperatures approaching absolute zero, cold enough to quench all motion but that of quantum particles, which interact with each other in ways that defy the classic laws of space and time.

Then, in the mid-1980s, physicists Karl Muller and Johannes Bednorz discovered a class of ceramic compounds in which superconductivity was possible at much higher temperatures. The temperatures were still hundreds of degrees Fahrenheit below zero, but it wasn't even thought possible.

Muller and Bednorz soon won a Nobel Prize, but subsequent decades and thousands of researchers have not yielded a theory of high-temperature superconductivity. "High temperatures should destroy the quantum phenomenon," said Bianconi, who decided to investigate another odd property of these materials: They're not quite regular. Oxygen atoms roam inside, and assume random positions as they freeze.

"Everyone was looking at these materials as ordered and homogeneous," said Bianconi. That is not the case - but neither, he found, was the position of oxygen atoms truly random. Instead, they assumed complex geometries, possessing a fractal form: A small part of the pattern resembles a larger part, which in turn resembles a larger part, and so on.

"Such fractals are ubiquitous elsewhere in nature," wrote Leiden University theoretical physicist Jan Zaanen in an accompanying commentary, but "it comes as a complete surprise that crystal defects can accomplish this feat."

If what Zaanen described as "surprisingly beautiful" patterns were all Bianconi found, the results would have been striking enough. But they appear to have a function.

In Bianconi's samples, larger fractals correlated with higher superconductivity temperatures. When the fractal disappeared at a distance of 180 micrometers, superconductivity appeared at 32 degrees Kelvin. When it vanished at 400 micrometers, conductivity went quantum at 42 degrees Kelvin.

At -384 degrees Fahrenheit, that's still plenty cold, but it's heading towards the truly high-temperature superconductivity that Bianconi describes as "the dream" of his field, making possible miniature supercomputers that run at everyday temperatures.

However, while the arrangement of oxygen atoms appears to influence the quantum behaviors of electrons, neither Bianconi nor Zaanen have any idea how that could be. That fractal arrangements are seen in so many other systems - from leaf patterns to stock market fluctuations to the frequency of earthquakes - suggests some sort of common underlying laws, but these remain speculative.

According to Zaanen, the closest mathematical description of superconductive behavior comes from something called "Anti de Sitter space / Conformal Field Theory correspondence," a subset of string theory that attempts to describe the physics of black holes.

That's a dramatic connection. But as Zaanen wrote, "This fractal defect structure is astonishing, and there is nothing in the textbooks even hinting at an explanation."

Students and enthusiasts attending a recording for BBC Radio 4 have probably seen a new state of matter only recently discovered, an expert says.

The state of matter is a plasma like those in conventional nuclear fusion tests, but at higher densities.

And far from needing expensive apparatus, the conditions can be achieved in a simple glass tube containing a routine liquid.

The professor behind the demonstration says it can be achieved for a mere £10.

The audience was attending a demonstration lecture by chemist Prof. Andrea Sella being recorded at University College London for Spooklights on Radio 4.

During the lecture, Prof. Sella demonstrated a phenomenon called sonoluminescence - flashes of light created by collapsing bubbles in a fluid. The flashes are extraordinarily faint, but in the darkened auditorium, those attending could see the evanescent sparks quite clearly.

As the name suggests, sonoluminescence is traditionally created by intense sound waves - rapid pressure oscillations - focused into a liquid. In the low-pressure regions of the sound waves, fluid is ripped apart to create tiny bubbles, the source of the light.

Prof. Sella's demonstration is far simpler, involving a simple sealed glass tube part filled with phosphoric acid and traces of the inert gas xenon. Then all that's needed is a gentle shaking of the tube. As the acid hits the tube's bottom, there's a distinct metallic clink, as if a heavy ball bearing is striking the glass wall.

Hotter than the Sun

In fact, it's just a water-hammer effect, an impact that shatters the liquid column, creating a trail of bubbles that are clearly visible in daylight.

With the lights off, what's seen is a trail of blue sparks - the sonoluminescence.

"When the bubbles collapse," Prof. Sella explains, "they generate incredibly high temperatures - 10,000 degrees. That's twice the temperature of the surface of the Sun."

Seeking more information on what goes on inside that bubble, Prof. Sella contacted a world authority on the effect, physicist Seth Putterman of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). And he learned far more than he bargained for.

Prof. Putterman has also long been trying to understand the precise source of the light. Judging from its intensity and characteristics, the light demands a source containing billions upon billions of free electrons.

But although 10,000 degrees sounds extreme by human experience, it's nowhere near enough to strip the electrons from the molecules and atoms in the sonoluminescence.

Dense plasma

What Prof. Putterman realised earlier this year is that under these peculiar circumstances a kind of electrical cascade can take place. If a few electrons escape the embrace of their home atoms, their field makes it easier for further electrons to escape, and so on until the entire bubble interior has become ionised.

"Not only is it creating a plasma," Prof. Putterman explains, "we believe it's a new state of matter because it's an extremely dense plasma - the density is hundreds to 10,000 times the density they achieve inside nuclear fusion experiments."

According to Prof. Putterman's experiments, the plasma goes through a phase transition - analogous to the melting of ice to water. Which is why he feels justified in describing the plasma as an entirely new state.

He also confirmed that the conditions in Andrea Sella's "plink tube" demonstration are precisely those needed to create this new state.

Not that that means nuclear fusion is occurring inside the tubes. Claims of nuclear fusion inside fluid bubbles have been extremely controversial.

Prof. Putterman is emphatic: "We have not yet succeeded - no-one has yet succeeded - in generating nuclear fusion inside these bubbles. However, we're looking around for that trick that could boost our parameters by a factor of 10, to get it to the region of fusion."

Professor Sella, meanwhile, is delighted that his simple demonstration should reveal to onlookers a state of matter that has only just been discovered.

"I can't wait to tell my nuclear physicist friends, that for a cost of around £10, I'm up in the region that they do for the cost of hundreds of millions of pounds. It's very exciting."

A team of researchers from Russia, Spain, Belgium, the U.K. and the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory announced findings last week that may represent a breakthrough in applications of superconductivity.

The team discovered a way to efficiently stabilize tiny magnetic vortices that interfere with superconductivity - a problem that has plagued scientists trying to engineer real-world applications for decades. The discovery could remove one of the most significant roadblocks to advances in superconductor technology.

Superconductors are extremely useful materials, given that modern society involves moving a lot of electricity around. Each time we do it, whether it be along the cord from the outlet to your lamp or in the millions of miles of power lines strung across the country, we lose a little bit of electricity. That effect is due to resistance in the wires we currently use to transport electricity. Even a pretty good conductor, like copper wire, loses some electricity due to resistance.

But in an ideal superconductor, no electricity is ever lost. If you set up a loop of perfect superconducting wire and added some current, it would circle that loop forever. Superconductors are the secret behind MRI machines, Maglev trains and improved cell phone reception.

The problem is that superconductors have to be cooled to do their thing. Even the "high-temperature" superconductors already discovered have to be chilled to -280^o Fahrenheit. That creates a lot of engineering and logistical problems.

In the long run, scientists are hoping to develop superconducting materials that would operate closer to room temperature. That would be a major achievement - though it is generally still thought to be a long way off.

In the meantime, there remain key problems of superconductivity that need to be solved even in the low-temperature environment.

One such major problem is posed by magnetic fields. When magnetic fields reach a certain strength, they cause a superconductor to lose its superconductivity. But there is a type of superconductor - known as "Type II" - which is better at surviving in relatively high magnetic fields. In these superconductors, magnetic fields create tiny whirlpools or "vortices." Superconducting current continues to travel around these vortices to a point, but eventually, as the magnetic field strengthens, the vortices begin to move about and interfere with the material's superconductivity, introducing resistance.

"These vortices dissipate the energy when moving under applied currents and bury all hopes for a technological revolution - unless we find ways to efficiently pin them," said Argonne Distinguished Fellow Valerii Vinokur, who co-authored the study.

Scientists have spent a lot of time and effort over the past few decades trying to immobilize these vortices, but until now, the results have been mixed. They found ways to pin down the vortices, but these only worked in a restricted range of low temperatures and magnetic fields.

Vinokur and his colleagues, however, discovered a surprise. They began with very thin superconducting wires - just 50 nanometers in diameter. (A stack of 2,000 of these wires would equal the height of a sheet of paper.) These thin wires can accommodate only one row of vortices. When they applied a high magnetic field, the vortices crowded together in long clusters and stopped moving. Increasing the magnetic field restored the material's superconductivity, instead of destroying it.

Next, the team carved superconducting film into an array of holes so that only a few vortices could squeeze between the holes, where they stayed, unable to interfere with current.

The resistance of the superconductor dropped dramatically - at temperatures and magnetic fields where no one has been able to pin vortices before. "The results were quite striking," Vinokur said.

The team has only experimented with low-temperature superconductors so far, Vinokur said, "but there is no reason why the approach we used should be restricted to just low-temperature superconductors."

The paper, "Magnetic field-induced dissipation-free state in superconducting nanostructures," is published this week in Nature Communications.

This mosaic represents the distribution of superconductivity around holes (white) in a thin sheet of superconducting film. Green indicates strong superconductivity. Further away from the holes, the superconductivity decreases (yellow, red and finally black, where the material is densely populated with vortices that interfere with superconductivity.

This graphic shows a strip of superconducting wire with a chain of vortices (red). The green areas show strong superconductivity. Superimposed are two curves showing the resistance of the strip depending on the magnetic field; as the magnetic field increases, the resistance first grows, then drops dramatically.

Physicists have created blobs of gaseous plasma that can grow, replicate and communicate - fulfilling most of the traditional requirements for biological cells. Without inherited material they cannot be described as alive, but the researchers believe these curious spheres may offer a radical new explanation for how life began.

Most biologists think living cells arose out of a complex and lengthy evolution of chemicals that took millions of years, beginning with simple molecules through amino acids, primitive proteins and finally forming an organised structure. But if Mircea Sanduloviciu and his colleagues at Cuza University in Romania are right, the theory may have to be completely revised. They say cell-like self-organisation can occur in a few microseconds.

The researchers studied environmental conditions similar to those that existed on the Earth before life began, when the planet was enveloped in electric storms that caused ionised gases called plasmas to form in the atmosphere.

They inserted two electrodes into a chamber containing a low-temperature plasma of argon - a gas in which some of the atoms have been split into electrons and charged ions. They applied a high voltage to the electrodes, producing an arc of energy that flew across the gap between them, like a miniature lightning strike.

Sanduloviciu says this electric spark caused a high concentration of ions and electrons to accumulate at the positively charged electrode, which spontaneously formed spheres (Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, vol 18, p 335). Each sphere had a boundary made up of two layers - an outer layer of negatively charged electrons and an inner layer of positively charged ions.

Trapped inside the boundary was an inner nucleus of gas atoms. The amount of energy in the initial spark governed their size and lifespan. Sanduloviciu grew spheres from a few micrometres up to three centimetres in diameter.

Split in two

A distinct boundary layer that confines and separates an object from its environment is one of the four main criteria generally used to define living cells. Sanduloviciu decided to find out if his cells met the other criteria: the ability to replicate, to communicate information, and to metabolise and grow.

He found that the spheres could replicate by splitting into two. Under the right conditions they also got bigger, taking up neutral argon atoms and splitting them into ions and electrons to replenish their boundary layers.

Finally, they could communicate information by emitting electromagnetic energy, making the atoms within other spheres vibrate at a particular frequency. The spheres are not the only self-organising systems to meet all of these requirements. But they are the first gaseous "cells".

Sanduloviciu even thinks they could have been the first cells on Earth, arising within electric storms. "The emergence of such spheres seems likely to be a prerequisite for biochemical evolution," he says.

Temperature trouble

That view is "stretching the realms of possibility," says Gregoire Nicolis, a physical chemist at the University of Brussels. In particular, he doubts that biomolecules such as DNA could emerge at the temperatures at which the plasma balls exist.

However, Sanduloviciu insists that although the spheres require high temperature to form, they can survive at lower temperatures. "That would be the sort of environment in which normal biochemical interactions occur."

But perhaps the most intriguing implications of Sanduloviciu's work are for life on other planets. "The cell-like spheres we describe could be at the origin of other forms of life we have not yet considered," he says. Which means our search for extraterrestrial life may need a drastic re-think. There could be life out there, but not as we know it.

Part 4: Summary of Part 3

Conclusion: Freedom for All