Search found 410 matches

by BenTC
Tue Aug 03, 2010 2:53 pm
Forum: News
Topic: Room-temperature superconductivity?
Replies: 1893
Views: 659849

Hole Superconductivity

Johan, What do you think of the following, which echos some of your ideas... Hole Superconductivity Superconductivity occurs due to pairing of hole carriers, and is driven by the fact that paired holes can propagate more easily (have a smaller effective mass) than single holes. As a consequence, the...
by BenTC
Tue Aug 03, 2010 2:40 pm
Forum: News
Topic: Room-temperature superconductivity?
Replies: 1893
Views: 659849

I bumped into a good overview of superconductor terminology on Joe Eck's site. http://www.superconductors.org/terms.htm Some things I found particularly interesting... BCS Theory : The first widely-accepted theory to explain superconductivity put forth in 1957 by John Bardeen, Leon Cooper, and John ...
by BenTC
Tue Aug 03, 2010 2:10 pm
Forum: News
Topic: Room-temperature superconductivity?
Replies: 1893
Views: 659849

Furthermore there are other materials than diamond which present possibilities. Suffice to say that not one of the ceramic materials being studied at present has the required characteristics. Maybe one will be discovered in future but the present materials are all restricted to be at, and below abo...
by BenTC
Tue Aug 03, 2010 1:01 pm
Forum: News
Topic: Graphene
Replies: 1
Views: 1887

What do they mean "make electrons behave as if they were in magnetic fields" ? My naive view would be that its not producing a bulk magnetic field, that is required by the Polywell requires, not even if layers are stacked.
by BenTC
Mon Aug 02, 2010 3:04 pm
Forum: News
Topic: Room-temperature superconductivity?
Replies: 1893
Views: 659849

Thanks Johan, I appreciate your response. It restores confidence in considering your views. It is human nature to get caught up defending our positions and we all get caught out from time to time. In your case however, given the battle you've picked against the core beliefs of some strong incumbents...
by BenTC
Mon Aug 02, 2010 8:14 am
Forum: General
Topic: xkcd
Replies: 4
Views: 2442

This tickled my fancy...
Image
by BenTC
Mon Aug 02, 2010 7:53 am
Forum: Theory
Topic: Initial Polywell Simulation
Replies: 18
Views: 10167

First rule of open source: Release early, release often.
by BenTC
Mon Aug 02, 2010 3:15 am
Forum: News
Topic: Room-temperature superconductivity?
Replies: 1893
Views: 659849

Johan, In another post you ask for an example of inflamatory language, then you provide one straight away. Who said they were any good? The University of Chicago is different. At least according to the recent graduate I spoke to. I doubt it very much. I have not yet seen any worthwhile physics comin...
by BenTC
Sun Aug 01, 2010 10:05 am
Forum: News
Topic: Polywell FOIA
Replies: 475
Views: 185702

I favour the view that if EMC2 jump-start the competition, the competition may end up patenting some critical part of the process, and then be able to form a cartel themselves. In either case that: EMC2 are going to form a cartel, or EMC2 don't want anyone else forming a cartel there is nothing obse...
by BenTC
Sat Jul 31, 2010 9:07 am
Forum: News
Topic: Tom Ligon speaking at NASFic ...
Replies: 12
Views: 4194

I didn't know what ECR & ICR were, so wikipedia helped out. ECR = Electron cyclotron resonance Electron cyclotron resonance is a phenomenon observed both in plasma physics and condensed matter physics. An electron in a static and uniform magnetic field will move in a circle due to the Lorentz force....
by BenTC
Wed Jul 28, 2010 3:47 pm
Forum: General
Topic: xkcd
Replies: 4
Views: 2442

xkcd

Edit: Click here to check out your own random xkcd cartoon. xkcd.org is one of my favourite web spots (a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.) I notice some others here are tuned in on it too. What are your favourites? Perhaps I'm overtired, but this new one had me chuckling for a few o...
by BenTC
Wed Jul 28, 2010 3:04 pm
Forum: Implications
Topic: Industrial Process Steam
Replies: 9
Views: 7442

Re: Microwaves, too ?

Nik wrote:Would you have any use for the microwave output, too ?
Sorry, I don't know.
by BenTC
Wed Jul 28, 2010 2:16 pm
Forum: News
Topic: NewSpace 2010: Polywell and Vasimr
Replies: 149
Views: 53361

icarus wrote:Yeah, why not strap a solid booster to the roof of your beat-up ford taurus and head off into the desert ....

whatta you gonna use for brakes?
Reminded me of that Darwin Award. Just checked, and I'm disappointed to discover its not true.
http://www.darwinawards.com/darwin/darwin1995-04.html
by BenTC
Wed Jul 28, 2010 2:06 pm
Forum: News
Topic: NewSpace 2010: Polywell and Vasimr
Replies: 149
Views: 53361

Tom Ligon wrote:opportunity to discover new modes of disaster
Love that phrase. It would make a great teaser for a job advertisment.
by BenTC
Tue Jul 27, 2010 4:09 pm
Forum: Design
Topic: Simulation Barriers
Replies: 16
Views: 13181

Funnily enough, I bumped into the GS2: Gyrokinetic Microturbulence Project only yesterday, though I can't judge how suitable it is. Fast microstability assessment Linear microstability growth rates are calculated on a wavenumber-by-wavenumber basis with an implicit initial-value algorithm in the bal...