Michael Brachman's Blog: Tales of the Vuduri, page 26

Welcome back, Bonnie

Several days ago, Virga had finished up her genetic analysis of Rome and Rei's DNA makeup. It was time to get on with their trip to the heartland of the main continent on Helome. Interestingly, Rei had given Virga the white pills which would end the Onsira crisis forever. But what of the Onsiras that had already been born on Deucado? Let's find out:

     MINIMCOM soared east over the beautiful, snow-capped peaks of the central mountain range that ran the length the squarish continent. Like everything else on Helome, they were more spectacular than anything Earth had to offer. They were taller than the Rocky Mountains with small plateaus of the Crayola trees interspersed. There were crystal clear mountain lakes and rivers and to the far north, there were glaciers. Their craggy tops displayed every manner of color including deep purples, blues and gray slate. As they drew closer, Virga indicated a small, grassy field that lay within the tall fence-lined area that really did look like a ranch and that is where MINIMCOM set down.
     After exiting MINIMCOM, they walked across the fresh field to the Vuduri version of a log cabin. It was constructed out of stained aerogel but still looked more rustic than futuristic. Two people came out of the house, a man and a woman. The woman waved to them and came trotting over. It was Bonnie Mullen but she was much thinner than she had been on Deucado and looked much older. She was dressed in a traditional white Vuduri jumpsuit but somehow it looked right on her. She hugged Rei and Rome briefly.
     “It’s so good to see you both,” she said with a faint smile. There was a hint of sadness around her eyes that didn’t match.
     “You’re not mad?” Rei asked. “I wasn’t very nice to you right there at the end.”
     “Nah,” Bonnie said. “It was my own fault. You did the right thing.” She paused for a moment then said, “Where are my manners? This is Gemen,” she said, pointing at the Vuduri man. “He doesn’t talk much, as you can imagine.”
     “Hello,” Gemen said and that was all.
     “I am glad you are not upset that we sent you to this world,” Rome threw in.
     “Oh, no,” Bonnie said. “It gave me a chance to get away from Edgar. That’s all I really wanted. Needed, really. I didn’t care where.” She turned and waved. “Let’s go into the house.” She led them up the two front steps and into the large, single room dwelling.
     Rei looked around the house. “Where’s your baby?” he asked.
     Bonnie’s expression turned very dark. She looked away and pressed her hand up to her eyes. She took a deep breath and turned back to them.

So where is Bonnie's baby? And what the heck is she doing way out there in the hinterlands, unsupervised? I supposed you could say that Gemen was her supervision but there is more to it than that. Let's find out tomorrow the exact nature of their situation.

The Cannae Drive

Yesterday, we finished up on the Unruh Effect and Unruh Radiation. If these two phenomena are proven out, they may be able to explain the apparently inexplicable but reproducible EmDrive. The EmDrive was invented by Roger J. Shawyer, a British aerospace engineer who has a background in defense work as well as experience as a consultant on the Galileo project (a European version of the GPS system). NASA has published a peer-reviewed paper demonstrating what they believe to be a functional EmDrive. The Chinese are also testing this drive in space.

There is another scientist named Guido P. Fetta and he has invented another reactionless drive which he had been calling the Q-Drive but he now calls it The Cannae Drive. The Cannae.com web site describes its operation and their test results. There is an excellent Popular Mechanics article which you should read if you are interested. Here is an excerpt:

Fetta contends that the Cannae Drive creates a bias in the quantum vacuum and pushes against it. Basically, physicists think that at very, very small scales, much smaller than atoms or even protons, space bubbles with quantum fluctuations. This bubbling is represented in the math as sort of imaginary particles that are spawned in pairs, and then very, very quickly the pairs come back together and destroy each other. Fetta contends that the Cannae Drive creates a bias where some of these particles never come back together, and then "pushes" against them. This is same principle postulated to be behind the EmDrive.

This sounds nearly identical to the Casimir Effect. So, since this blog is all about science fiction, I want to point out that the Cannae Drive also resembles my PPT star-drive which creates pockets of negative energy (Fetta's particles) but does not allow them to recombine with their positive counterparts and "pushes" space out of the way.

I urge you to read the article cited above and visit their web site for more detail but here is an image of Fetta's vision of a starship outfitted with his Cannae Drive, courtesy of The Cannae Corporation:

Image Copyright (C) 2016 by The Cannae Corporation

Unruh Radiation 2

Yesterday, we laid the groundwork for describing the Unruh Effect and the particle/waves that are emitted: Unruh radiation. This is where the Casimir Effect and the Unruh Effect overlap: they both postulate that the vacuum of space is not really empty at all.

The Unruh Effect is named after W. G. Unruh who first described this theoretical phenomenon in 1976. It has never actually been measured or observed. The Unruh Effect, in theory, causes the emission of radiation in the form of a particle, and that this particle will propagate to infinity. This is called Unruh radiation.

In his original work, Unruh predicted that if you move through a vacuum, you would not see nothing but rather, effectively, a space full of particles, real or virtual, whose density increases with acceleration. According to Wikipedia, “The Unruh effect (or sometimes Fulling–Davies–Unruh effect) is the prediction that an accelerating observer will observe blackbody radiation where an inertial observer would observe none. In other words, the background appears to be warm from an accelerating reference frame; in layman's terms, a thermometer waved around in empty space, subtracting any other contribution to its temperature, will record a non-zero temperature. The ground state for an inertial observer is seen as in thermodynamic equilibrium with a non-zero temperature by the uniformly accelerating observer.”

As described in the quote above, a simple experiment, is proposed, should it ever be performed, which could prove the existence of Unruh Radiation. You would simply take a very sensitive thermometer into space, let it equilibrate to the temperature of space then wave it around. If Unruh Effect exists, the thermometer would register a rise in temperature because it is rubbing against the quantum field and virtual particles, i.e. bathed in Unruh Radiation. I know this is far too simplistic, but basically you get something for nothing. More importantly, if the effect exists, you get something to push against in a vacuum if you have motion at all. So it is postulated (but never proven) that Unruh Radiation might be the driving principle behind both the EmDrive and its variant, the Cannae Drive.

I've already covered the EmDrive which seems to work but nobody has had an explanation up until now. Unruh Radiation may be the answer. Tomorrow, I'll cover a variation of that drive called the Cannae Drive which may also use Unruh Radiation. In the meantime, here is a cute little image from Nonequlibrium.net by way of Physics Napkins that illustrates the Unruh Effect:

Unruh Radiation 1

Those of you familiar with Rome’s Revolution know that in the 35th century, the Vuduri can travel faster than light using the PPT star-drive. The PPT drive uses Casimir Pumps to produce streams of positive and negative energy. The negative energy is accumulated into a pocket in space. Where there is no energy, i.e. negative energy, there is no space so a starship traveling through a pocket of negative energy goes from Point A to Point C without ever passing through Point B. Make the pocket big enough, actually deep enough, and you can travel much faster than the speed of light without violating relativity.

I did not invent the Casimir Effect. It was first described in 1948 by Hendrick Casimir. Casimir postulated that neutral space spontaneously splits into positive and negative energy due to quantum fluctuations. Normally, the positive and negative regions recombine very quickly with the net effect being neutral. All I did was propose a scifi mechanism (the dark matter diode) to keep the two types of energy separate.

But you don't need to postulate dark matter like I did. If you take two plates and position them close enough, certain wavelengths of these spontaneous emissions may get trapped in the space between them. In other words, the positive and negative regions behave differently and you get a small but measurable attractive force where none should exist. In the ensuing years, the Casimir Effect has actually been measured experimentally several times.

The broader implication is that quantum physicists do not see the vacuum of space as a vast region of nothingness but rather (according to Scientific American):

“Far from being empty, modern physics assumes that a vacuum is full of fluctuating electromagnetic waves that can never be completely eliminated, like an ocean with waves that are always present and can never be stopped.”

If the vacuum of space is an ocean of undetected waves and particles, it provides a framework to move against, perhaps even to push against. This may explain how RF resonant cavity thrusters such as the EmDrive and the Cannae Drive operate. They may exploit an effect called the Unruh Effect and utilize the emissions which are called Unruh Radiation. I'll do my best to explain this tomorrow.

Why Rei not weird?

Yesterday, Virga and the Overmind of Helome spent time studying (and recovering from the shock of) Rome and Rei's genetic makeup. Rome was capable of connecting to the Overmind of Deucado and the Overmind of Earth. She also had the "cell-phone in the head" shared by her husband. Unfortunately, that new piece equipment overwrote her bloco and stilo, her digital interface to equipment but Rome agreed the trade-off was in her favor.

Here is the wrapup of Virga's DNA detour including her conclusions should Rome and Rei decide to have another child, aka Lupe:

     Virga turned to Rei. “And you? You are Essessoni. You were injected with this prosthetic chromosome as well?”
     “Yeah,” Rei said. “For a minute or two, I really was connected to MASAL but then they decided they hated me and kicked me out, Cesdiud.”
     Virga just shook her head.
     “It was actually sort of fun while it lasted,” Rei said. “It gave me a little sense of what it must be like to be Vuduri, but… oh well.”
     Virga turned back to Rome. “And your son? Was he conceived before or after you were genetically modified?”
     “He is a mix of both,” Rome said. “His PPT resonance is very strong and he has our 25th chromosome. I suspect that when I was injected on Deucado, the new pair crossed the placental barrier. However, he has an Essessoni father so he would never let go of his individuality. He can talk to the Overmind on Deucado but he would never submit. Even in the womb. He is neither Vuduri nor Essessoni. He is something else.”
     Virga looked back up the screen. “If you ever had another child, he or she would have triple PPT resonance plus your OMCOM’s enhancements.” She just shook her head. “This child would be very powerful.”
     Rome gave Rei a knowing look but said nothing. OMCOM had already requested they produce a daughter and the time was drawing near. Rome put it out of her mind.
     “We will not be alive to produce any more children if we do not capture the people who would kill us. Can we go see Bonnie now?”
     “Of course,” Virga said. She gathered up the pills lying on the table and placed them in a jar by the side of the sampling equipment. “Thank you very much for these. They are invaluable. I will take you to see her right away.”

Finally, we get to see what happened to Bonnie Mullen. However, before we get there, we're going to take a brief tour back up into space to check a peculiar kind of radiation that may allow us to create a new kind of star drive that we might see in our lifetime.

Rome be weird

Yesterday, Virga, the leader of the Vuduri on Helome, finally learned the origin of the mysterious 25th chromosome. This chromosome, among other things, prevents the expression of the Onsira phenotype. If it was distributed to the general population, it would end the Onsira threat forever.

It didn't stop there, however. Virga was curious as to Rome and Rei's genetic makeup. Our intrepid couple agreed to a quick DNA check. Virga took a swab of their cheeks and analyzed it and projected it up on a screen:

     Virga gasped. Her connection to the Overmind actually wavered slightly.
     The middle row showed the normal complement of 22 chromosomes plus an X and a Y along with a much larger 24th chromosomal pair, very similar to a Vuduri 24th chromosome but slightly different. To its right was a much fuller version of what Virga called the 25th chromosome. It was larger than any of the others including chromosome pair 1. But this was not what made Virga gasp.
     Beneath Rei’s chromosome map with its X and Y chromosomes lay Rome’s map. She had no less than three pairs of the 24th chromosome plus a full 25th like Rei’s. In that brief moment, the Overmind of Helome realized that Rome was the most genetically complex human being in existence. It had trouble grasping the full implications.
     At last, Virga recovered. In a very quiet voice, she said, “I thought you were mosdurece. You were to have had a single pair, yet you have a triploid complement of the 24th chromosome plus the same 25th as Rei. Can you explain this?”
     “Yes,” Rome said, without a hint of modesty. She pointed to the screen. “The first pair was my genetic inheritance from my mother. That pair allowed me to be connected to the Overmind of Earth and on Tabit until I was Cesdiud.”
     Virga’s shoulders sagged but she said nothing.
     “The second pair was given to me on Deucado by Pegus in order to re-establish a PPT connection to my son. It is still active. I still communicate with the Overmind there.”
     “Go on,” Virga said encouragingly.
     “The third pair was a prosthetic version of the 24th chromosome given to me by MASAL, when he kidnapped us on Earth. He wanted to take me into his samanda or at the very least convert me to an Onsira but he was unaware of OMCOM’s 25th chromosome,” Rome pointed to the screen. “It allowed me to prevent them from even starting a resonance in the first place.”
     Virga turned to Rei. “And you? You are Essessoni. You were injected with this prosthetic chromosome as well?”

Tomorrow, the full and final implications of all the genetic changes to Rome and Rei.

Genetic superman

Yesterday, Rome and Rei revealed the existence of the white peoples that OMCOM had synthesized to reverse the degeneration in the backs of the Essessoni. Virga recognized the fact that these pills would have the side effect of preventing the expression of the Onsira phenotype forever. Rei also mentioned that the pill he took (Rome too) gave him something akin to superpowers. Virga was fascinated and asked him to elaborate:

     “Well, old OMCOM had other plans for me. The pill he gave me was yellow and I guess you’d say I got some superpowers from them.”
     “You did mention that to me the last time you were here but I did not pursue it. What kind of powers?” Virga asked.
     Rei tapped his ear. “Besides fixing my back, it gave me super-hearing, kind of like sonar vision. He also built a cell-phone into our heads so Rome and I can talk.”
     “Rome has this too? Is it like our PPT resonance?” Virga asked.
     “No, this one is based upon EM, not gravitic modulation,” Rome said. Then she added in a bit of a huff, “It ruined my bloco and stilo!” She tapped her temple then she shrugged. “No matter. Rei and I have found our communication channel very useful at times.”
     “I am fascinated. Would you mind if I took a genetic sample?” Virga asked. “For comparison with a normal Essessoni?”
     “What’s involved,” Rei asked skeptically.
     “Just a swab from the inside of your cheek. Nothing invasive,” Virga indicated with a vague wave of her hand.
     “We gotta get going,” Rei said.
     “It will only take a minute,” Virga pleaded.
     “OK,” Rei said. “What do you need me to do?”
     “Just stay there,” Virga said. She walked over to a rack of equipment and retrieved two sticks with a fluffy swab on the end. She returned and stood before Rei. She put her hand under his chin. “Open your mouth,” she requested, “and I will just run this along the inside of your cheek.”
     Rei complied.
     Virga turned to Rome. “Do you mind if I take a sample of your DNA as well?”
     “No,” Rome said, “I do not mind.” She opened her mouth and Virga ran the soft end on the inside of Rome’s mouth as well. She then carried the swabs over to a squat, metallic box and inserted them into small holes which looked like they were designed for exactly that purpose. An indicator light turned red, then amber, then green. Virga turned back to Rei and Rome and the projector lit up again.
     Virga gasped. Her connection to the Overmind actually wavered slightly.

Uh-oh. That can’t be good. Gasping never is. What could be so shocking as to nearly disconnect Virga from her Overmind? We’ll find out tomorrow.

A pill for what ails you

A few days ago, Virga, the leader of the Vuduri on Helome had "borrowed" Rome and Rei to help her solve a genetic mystery, namely, why were there variations in the number of chromosomal content of the banished Darwin Project members. 20% had exactly the 23 chromosome complement she expected. However, 80% had an extra stub of a chromosome, which Virga dubbed the 25th chromosome. She knew this stub would end the curse of the Onsiras forever but her scientists were unable to figure out how to introduce it into the Vuduri population.

     Rei looked at Rome who nodded. Rei touched his temple. With a whoosh and a pop, MINIMCOM’s all-black livetar appeared, holding a white bottle which he handed to Rei.
     “What is this?” Virga asked.
     Rei unscrewed the top and spilled the contents onto the table. “This is your delivery system,” he said.
     Virga reached over and picked up one of the white pills. “What are these?” she asked. “Where did you get them?”
     “These are the pills OMCOM made back at Skyler Base to help my crew overcome 14 centuries of degeneration in their backs. Our instructions were to give one to every member of my crew but some of them evidently refused. I guess that’s the 20% you’re calling the normal ones.”
     Virga held the pill up to the light. “Do you realize what this means?” she said, almost giddily. “This is the salvation of the Vuduri.” She looked down at the pile of pills. “We do not need all of these,” she said. “We will be able to replicate them.” She looked up at Rei and Rome. “You must take the rest of these to Earth. There must be uncounted Onsiras loose there. This would put an end to any possible threat from them forever.”
     Rei gathered up some of the pills and put them back in the bottle, leaving a pile on the table. “I guess we could,” he said. “But we’re not really supposed to go there. We were banished, you know.”
     “Yes,” Virga said. “Our opinion now is the same as it was the first time I met you. The Overmind of Earth treated you horribly. You two are heroes many times over. They should be honoring you, not exiling you.” Virga cocked her head. “Rei, the last time you were here, you told me that MASAL injected you with his version of the 24th chromosome. Did you take one of these pills?”
     “Uh, no,” Rei said. “I sort of took a different kind.”
     “What do you mean?” Virga asked.
     “Well, old OMCOM had other plans for me. The pill he gave me was yellow and I guess you’d say I got some superpowers from them.”

Superpowers, huh? Like a cell-phone in the head and sonar-vision? Plus a brand new back as well. Rei was pretty super before he got the magic yellow pill but outside of Rome, MINIMCOM and OMCOM, nobody really knows the extent of what he became. We'll explore this more tomorrow.

StoreDot's Insta-charge Battery 2

Yesterday, I introduced you to a company called StoreDot which has invented a new type of battery that can be fully charged in 5 minutes. You can actually order one of these batteries now by going to the StoreDot web site and select their iPhone case which takes only 5 minutes to fully charge and gives your phone up to 8 hours more run time. It looks like this:
But I want to get back to electric vehicles (EVs) and the implications of StoreDot's new technology. As I mentioned yesterday, even though Tesla makes awesome vehicles (the Model 3 is expected this year), they still take too long to fully charge, even with supercharger stations. I don't know if StoreDot's nanotechnology-based organic batteries would work inside a Tesla but it certainly proves that it can be done. Since the battery is not lithium-based, it should be much safer, i.e. not flammable with a much higher combustion temp. The company believes they may be able to place these new batteries in EVs within three years. Definitely something to look for.

If you want to read an in-depth article, you can go here. Here is a synopsis: StoreDot is an Israeli startup whose core technology is fast-charging batteries. In 2015, they announced that they were developing a model for EVs. They claim that even without significant new technological breakthroughs, their new EV battery can reach a full charge within only five minutes and can keep a car running for 300 miles. They staged a technology demo at the CUBE Tech Fair in Berlin. The presenters didn't exactly have the chance to show the battery get to 100 percent but it was close enough. You can see the video by Gruendermetropole on YouTube along with promotional videos made by StoreDot themselves.

Finally, here is a statement by StoreDot CEO Dr. Doron Myersdorf:

"Fast Charging is the critical missing link needed to make electric vehicles ubiquitous. The currently available battery technology dictates long charging times which makes the EV form of transportation inadequate for the public at large. We're exploring options with a few strategic partners in the auto space to help us boost the production process in Asia and reach mass production as soon as possible."

I don't know about you but I find this all very exciting. The current administration may be pushing to go back to coal and fossil fuel but the market decides what it wants and if the market wants clean, emission-free cars with tremendously lower operating costs, that is what will happen, legislation be damned.

StoreDot's Insta-charge Battery 1

Electric vehicles (EVs) have been around for a long time. Conspiracy theorists have long postulated that Big Oil had a hand in suppressing their acceptance. That is all changing. The market is demanding EVs. The Sun can potentially deliver all the fuel we'll ever need, for free, without generating one cubic centimeter of greenhouse gas. So not only would they be economical but also environmentally friendly. Right now, driving a Tesla is quite the status symbol. However, there are two major issues that still need to be solved before EVs become the norm rather than the cool exception.

Range Anxiety
One of the biggest hurdles (other than cost) preventing EVs from gaining wide acceptance is so-called Range Anxiety, i.e. fear of running out of power. Charging stations are not ubiquitous yet and if you are somewhere out in the desert and run out of juice, you have no recourse but to call a tow truck. When Chevrolet introduce the Chevy Volt, I was really excited because here was a pure EV but with a small, efficient battery charger in the trunk, powered by gasoline. So you could travel 50 miles or so on pure electric but if the battery is getting low, the charger kicks in and you have another 400 miles or so to find a gas station or charge up. Chevy was so encouraged by this that they came out with a pure electric vehicle, the Chevy Bolt, which can go 238 miles on a single charge. That should be enough to set your mind at ease for day-to-day driving. Tesla's Model S is about the same, it can go 265 miles on a single charge. The Nissan Leaf is only rated about 107 miles. But as long as you are aware and only drive locally, it shouldn't be a problem. Even if you are driving long distance, you need to plan for charging stops but it can be done. However, this leads to the second problem.

Charging Time
The other flaw with EVs is the time to recharge the batteries. If you go home and plug your EV into a regular 120 volt charger, it could take 12 hours or more to recharge fully. This is significantly reduced if you install a 240 volt charger in your home. It cuts charging time down to about 6 - 8 hours. Tesla has built (and is building more) supercharger stations that can boost your car back to 80% full charge in about 20 minutes. Great for range anxiety but not good for impatient people. Right now these stations are limited to recharging Teslas but that may change in the future. Also, some communities are putting in parking for EVs and you can purchase a recharge there. But wouldn't it be nice if you just cruise in somewhere, top off your "tank" and be on your way in a jiffy? If only...

StoreDot's New Battery
Both the range anxiety and charging time problems may have a solution coming very soon. An Israeli company called StoreDot has come up with a new type of battery that can go from zero to full charge in about 5 minutes. This just happens to be exactly how long it takes to fill up your car with gasoline. So pulling into a supercharger station in a vehicle equipped with StoreDot batteries would be very similar to pulling into a gas station.

How does StoreDot do it? How did they achieve this breakthrough? I'll give you the nitty-gritty tomorrow. And by the way, if you have an iPhone, this should be of interest to you, too!