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Quantum Degrees, Gravitic Propulsion, & Hydrogen News
This week’s science bits from SWTG
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Mind-Blowing New Estimate for Geological Hydrogen
Probability distribution for natural hydrogen occurrences. Credit: Ellis et al, Science Advances 10, 50 (2024)
Hydrogen is a naturally occurring source of energy that could replace fossil fuels. However, the global geological deposits (usually bound into minerals) have been estimated to be in the range of merely 20-28 Mt. For comparison: the current global hydrogen demand (mostly for industrial purposes) is more than ten times higher per year.
However, a group of geologists have now presented a new estimate according to which the resources of naturally occurring hydrogen might be dramatically higher, between 103 to 1010 Mt of hydrogen, with the most probable value of ~ 5.6 × 106 Mt.
They arrived at this estimate from data on how much hydrogen is gassed out, e.g. from volcano eruptions, hydrothermal vents, or known microscopic cracks in Earth’s mantle. They then developed a balance model from which they calculated how much geological hydrogen there needs to be to explain the amount of gassing out. If what they say is right, this could solve our energy problems at least for the next several hundred years. Alas, their study does not tell us anything about where to find that hydrogen, if it exists, so hold back the campaign. Paper here. I recently talked about problems with hydrogen production here.
This episode of Science News explores recent BBC headlines claiming that researchers have found the first evidence for string theory. That story cites a recent discovery of long-wavelength gravitational waves that might indicate the existence of so-called “cosmic strings.” Crazier still, they think that this could allow time travel! But do these gravitational waves actually mean that cosmic strings exist? And what, if anything, does it have to do with time travel? This video comes with a quiz, which you can take here.
You can now create and share your own quizzes on QuizWithIt – for free! Just set up an account and creator profile and you are good to go. Create quizzes to go with websites, videos, blogposts, podcasts, or as standalone. Your audience can support you by subscribing to your content, which allows them to collect points by taking your quizzes. Each quiz has a unique URL, can be embedded into websites or newsletter, and be shared on X, Facebook, or LinkedIn. Plus, we are constantly fixing bugs to improve the user experience. Happy quizzing!
Canadian Politician Criticised for Quantum Degree
Judy Toor of the conservative party in British Columbia, Canada, has unwillingly drawn attention to quantum quackery by boasting a Dr. title that, upon closer inspection, came from Quantum University.
According to its website, Quantum University is an “online holistic medicine university” which, among other things, offers courses in “Quantum Hematology,” “Quantum Hormonology,” and “Quantum Bullshittoloty.” I made up the latter, but you get the picture. The Canadian Hospital Employee Union filed a complaint to prevent Toor from misleading people with her Dr. title, but it would be better to prevent such titles from existing in the first place.
I know from personal experience that without a background in physics, many people have a hard time telling legitimate quantum science from pseudoscience. Those who take courses or obtain degrees in quantum healing (or similarly esoteric energy-flow and aura-ideas) are often genuinely convinced they obtained a scientific education.
More here.
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Cybertruck Bomber Claims USA and China Have “Gravitic Propulsion Systems”
On the morning of January 1, 2025, a Tesla Cybertruck exploded in front of the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas. It later transpired that the person held responsible for the explosion, Matthew Alan Livelsberger, had previously sent an email to retired intelligence officer Sam Shoemate in which he wrote, among other things that:
“What we have been seeing with “drones” is the operational use of gravitic propulsion systems powered aircraft by most recently China in the east coast, but throughout history, the US. Only we and China have this capability [...] China has been launching them from the Atlantic from submarines for years, but this activity recently has picked up.” [full text here]
I am not telling you this because I believe it, but to say that I have no idea what a gravitic propulsion system might be, even theoretically. Gravity is an extremely weak force. The acceleration that we experience on Earth’s surface isn’t much in terms of navigation and yet it takes an entire planet to create!
Even if it wasn’t for that, any propulsion system must obey momentum conservation. This means the only way to accelerate a system – regardless of how – is to throw something out in the direction opposite to where you want to go. Gravity is an extremely inefficient way of doing that, which is the very reason why we usually do it by burning stuff.
While it seems possible to me that the USA and China have top-secret advanced propulsion systems, they almost certainly are not gravity-based, as that would imply that our entire understanding of gravity must be wrong.
