Physics of the Impossible

Physics of the Impossible: A Scientific Exploration Into the World of Phasers, Force Fields, Teleportation, and Time Travel is a 2008 book by physicist Michio Kaku, who has a Ph.D. in theoretical physics, He is a professor of theoretical physics at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and is a cofounder of string field theory

Contents

Each chapter states the technology mentioned and how it might become a reality, although chapters become somewhat more general towards the end of the book due to lack of research. Some of the technologies mentioned are explained as per a slightly altered form, which remains as true to the original concept as possible while remaining practical. Kaku concludes his book with a short epilogue detailing the newest frontiers in physics and how there is still much more to be learned about physics and our universe.

Preface

In the preface of the book, Kaku writes that 150 years ago technological advances, that we take for granted today, were declared impossible. William Thomson Kelvin (1824 – 1907) , a mathematical physicist and inventor of the Kelvin scale said publicly that “heavier than air” machines were impossible. “He thought X-rays were a hoax, and that radio had no future.” Ernest Rutherford (1871 – 1937), a famous physicist who experimentally described the atom, thought the atom bomb was impossible and he compared it to moonshine. Televisions, computers, and the internet would seem incredibly fanstastic to the people of the turn of the 20th century. Black holes were considered science fiction and even Einstein showed that black holes could not exist. 19th century science had determined that it was impossible for the earth to be billions of years old. Even in the 1920’s and 1930’s Robert Goddard was scoffed at because it was believed that rockets would never be able to go into space. Such advances were considered impossible because the basic laws of physics and science were not understood as they are understood today. Kaku states that “as a physicist he learned that the impossible is often a relative term.” So, he asks the questions – isn’t it possible to think that we might build space ships that can travel distances of light years, or think that we might teleport ourselves from one place to the other?

Kaku writes that since scientists understand the basic laws of physics today they are able to percieve or imagine a basic outline of future technologies that might work. Kaku writes: "Physicist today understand the basic laws [of physics] extending over a staggering forty three orders of magnitude, from the interior of the proton out to the expanding universe." He goes on to say that physicists can discern between future technologies that are merely improbable and those technologies that are truly impossible. He uses a system of Class I, Class II, and Class III to classify these science-fictional future technologies that are believed to be impossible today:

• Class I Impossibilities “technologies that are impossible today, but that do not violate the known laws of physics. So they might be possible in this century or the next, in modified form.”
• Class II Impossibilities “technologies that sit at the very edge of our understanding of the physical world. They might be realized on a scale of millennia to millions of years in the future"
• Class III Impossibilities “technologies that violate the known laws of physics. Surprisingly, there are very few such impossible technologies. If they do turn out to be possible, they would represent a fundamental shift in our understanding of physics”

Press coverage

Kaku was interviewed about The Physics of the Impossible for "Paper Cuts", a section of the New York Times online. According to the article's authors, Kaku spoke to them about "three theoretical technologies that fall within the realm of possibility."

Invisibility

Invisibility, the topic explored in Chapter 2 of this book, is actually being tested in the lab by today's scientists. It is the science of an "invisible cloak ". Of course, at this time, this science is in the very beginning stages and is only a few years old. According to an article in Science Daily (online), the core concept behind invisibility is twofold. First, no light can reflect off the object, and, second, "the light must bend around the object so that people would see only the background and not the cloaked object itself."

Template:Multiple image The first demonstrations of a working invisibility cloak occured at Duke University. This was announced in the Office of News & Communications Duke University newspaper on October 19, 2006. According to the article,"A team led by scientists at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering has demonstrated the first working "invisibility cloak." The cloak deflects microwave beams so they flow around a "hidden" object inside with little distortion, making it appear almost as if nothing were there at all." This event was also reported by the Duke Engineering team to Science Express,on the same day, which is the advance online publication of the journal Science.

A concurrent news release by the Duke University Engineering Department noted the use of the new metamaterials to achieve this first step for an Invisibility cloak. These are exotic composite materials not found anywhere in nature. According to the article, "The researchers manufactured the cloak using "metamaterials" arranged in a series of concentric circles", which produce specific electro-magnetic waves. "Metamaterials are artificial composites" that are made to "interact with electromagnetic waves in ways that natural materials" cannot.

Earlier attempts to create a cloak for objects was to limit the electro-magnetic reflection bouncing off the object, or create the object in such a way that the object cancels the electro-magnetic waves. Of course, this would end up limiting the cloak effect to specific objects. This demonstration shows that with the metamaterials there is the possiblity to conceal any object.

The Duke University demonstration experiments were also discussed in Chapter 2 of this book and, therefore, connects the topic to the "hard" science being practiced today. In the "Paper Cuts" interview, of the New York Times, Kaku says, "I think within 10 years, we’ll get it so that we can get a large object — something that you can put in your hand — to become invisible to one frequency of visible light. The Harry Potter cloak, of course, is much more difficult.”

According to the Duke University Engineering Department news release an important result was achieved, "'By incorporating complex material properties, our cloak allows a concealed volume, plus the cloak, to appear to have properties similar to free space when viewed externally,' said David R. Smith, Augustine Scholar and professor of electrical and computer engineering at Duke. 'The cloak reduces both an object's reflection and its shadow, either of which would enable its detection.'

This technology advances incrementally, starting with, again, the Duke University demonstrations, in 2006, with invisiblity in the microwave range. Then, in April, 2007 Purdue University engineers used nanotechnology to theoretically render an object invisible in the light wavelengh of 632.8 nanometers, or more simply, the color red as seen with ordinary eyesight.

In 2009 at Duke University the latest advance - a series of alogarithms were developed, to guide the design and fabrication of new metamaterials. David Smith of the Duke Engineering department (also quoted in Chapter 2 of this book)- comparing the 2006 device, says, "“The difference between the original device and the latest model is like night and day,” Smith said. “The new device can cloak a much wider spectrum of waves — nearly limitless — and will scale far more easily to infrared and visible light. The approach we used should help us expand and improve our abilities to cloak different types of waves.” The article also noted that "once the algorithm was developed, the latest cloaking device was completed from conception to fabrication in nine days, compared to the four months required to create the original, and more rudimentary, device."

External links

• Kaku's personal website