Cover Image: June 2002 Scientific American Magazine See Inside

A Philosopher's Stone [Preview]

Could superconductors transmute electromagnetic radiation into gravitational waves?















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GRAVITY TRANSDUCER

GRAVITY TRANSDUCER would reflect incoming electromagnetic radiation (green) as gravitational waves (orange). The radiation must be polarized in a so-called quadrupole pattern. Image: SAMUEL VELASCO

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Raymond Chiao remembers the day, during his childhood in Shanghai, when his brother built a crystal radio set and invited him to try it. "When I put the earphones on, I heard voices," he says. "That experience had something to do with my going into physics." Chiao has since become well known for his work in quantum optics at the University of California at Berkeley. Now he is preparing an experiment that, if it works (a not insubstantial if), would be the biggest invention since radio.

Chiao argues that a superconductor could transform radio waves, light or any other form of electromagnetic radiation into gravitational radiation, and vice versa, with near perfect efficiency. Such a feat sounds as amazing as transmuting lead into gold--and about as plausible. "It is fair to say that if Ray observes something with this experiment, he will win the Nobel Prize," says superconductivity expert John M. Goodkind of the University of California at San Diego. "It is probably also fair to say that the chances of his observing something may be close to zero."


This article was originally published with the title A Philosopher's Stone.



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  1. 1. deanlsinclair 04:45 PM 12/16/10

    The problem of this situation is the term, "Gravitational Waves." There is a way of looking at "Reality" which considers Gravitation as a "Fictional Force," an observational phenomenon which is a result of differential pressures between "vortex-oscillator accretions" i.e. "Matter." By this view, each "gravitational effect" would be unique to its own circumstances and not a part of some particular long wave motion....

    (The "Reality Approach" being referred to here is the "Oscillator/substance Model" whose first assumption is that "Existence is within a 'Substance/Substrate of unknown extent and undefined basic unit....'" Having thus admitted to a lack of basic knowledge, the model then goes on to define "Existence" in terms of motions within that Substance/substrate....
    See http://groups.google.com/group/oscillatorsubstance-theory for more information on this approach.)

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