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British Scientists Reverse Casimir Effect

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the where's-my-hover-car dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The Telegraph reports that Scientists at the University of St. Andrews have developed a technique to cause the Casimir effect to repel instead of attract. This discovery could lead to near frictionless machines or in theory even levitation."

8 of 347 comments (clear)

  1. wait... by flanker · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Isn't it "repel" rather than "repeal"?

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  2. Being British... by clickclickdrone · · Score: 3, Insightful

    1. Invent/discover something cool
    2. Tell everyone about it
    3. ???? 4. NO Profit

    It's sad to say that here in the UK we never learn and have a long and distinguished history of brilliant research followed by total fumbling of the ball and making no money out of the discoveries whatsoever.

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    1. Re:Being British... by Pecisk · · Score: 3, Insightful

      And this is bad because...?

      Woah, you want to tell me that there are scientists who actually do science for...err...sake of science, not money? What a surprise!

      Without irony, I personally don't believe in profiting from BIG discoveries. If you get some applications going from that discovery, then it is understandable that you can and you will profit from them, but not from discovery itself.

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    2. Re:Being British... by Chief+Camel+Breeder · · Score: 5, Insightful

      From the researcher's point of view:

      1. Discover something cool.
      2. Publish results in peer-reviewed journal and get famous.
      3. Get better research job (or more money, security in current one).
      4. Profit!

      Step 3 doesn't have to involve selling technology.

  3. an almost content-free article by petes_PoV · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Apart from saying it uses a "special lens" there's no information about how the team managed to reverse this effect. In fact there's more space given to the hocus-pocus aspects (that every straight thinking /.'er dismissed in an instant) than of any actual science.

    The thelegraph is supposed to be one of the more serious british dailies. So heaven help us all if this is what they pass off as a science story.

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  4. Doesn't sound useful on a large scale by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Given the distance over which the force operates, it doesn't sound like you can use this to levitate large items. Surface roughness is measured in micro-meters and the force operates over nano-meters. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roughness

    A standard solution for a 'frictionless bearing' is an air bearing. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_bearing

    The utility of this work seems limited to very small things.

  5. Re:Same team unveiled invisibility cloak by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Or maybe this discovery that works by means of 'a "perfect" lens with a negative index of refraction' is somehow related to their work on the invisibility cloak, which is based on metamaterials with a negative refraction index.

  6. Re:I, for one by Doddman · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Why the hell did this get modded down? I think this is an insightful point.. he is right.

    I used to post AC when doing this, but it's just Slashdot. I don't give a shit about my karma anymore. Mod me down all you want.

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