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Einstein and the breakthrough that could end fossil fuels
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"Imagination is more important than knowledge"... Albert Einstein
Long before Albert Einstein became- well- Albert Einstein, he spent his days toiling away in obscurity in an office somewhere in Bern. That's because in the days and years before he shook the world of physics with his groundbreaking theories, Einstein was like the rest of us- just a guy that went off to work everyday to support his family.
It may be hard to picture, but it was true. Einstein was a just a patent clerk and even then he was not a very good one.
His work as a patent clerk, in fact, was so undistinguished that in 1904 when he applied for a promotion his request was summarily denied. His brilliance, apparently, was lost on his supervisor, Dr. Friedrich Haller, who had rejected him.
But in this regard, at least, Haller can be forgiven. It was, after all, a full year, before what has since become known as the miracle year.
That miracle year, of course, was 1905. In it Einstein, at the ripe old age of 26, revealed the theories that would not only rock the world of physics but turn it on its head.
That's because in 1905 Einstein's mind was a busy one. And in that famous year he did the following:
· Created the special theory of relativity, in which he demonstrates that measurements of time and distance vary systematically as anything moves relative to anything else. In essence, he proved that Newton was wrong.
· Created the quantum theory of light, the idea that light exists as tiny packets, or particles, that we now call photons. His work anchors the most shocking idea in 20th-century physics: we live in a quantum universe, one built out of tiny, discrete chunks of energy and matter.
· Published two papers. In one he invents a new method of counting and determining the size of the atoms or molecules in a given space, and in the other he explains the phenomenon of Brownian motion. The net result is a proof that atoms actually exist-still an issue at that time.
· Completed special relativity, which sees light as a continuous field of waves.
· Proved that energy and matter are linked in the most famous relationship in physics: E = mc2. (The energy content of a body is equal to the mass of the body times the speed of light squared.)
All of which, of course, was a pretty good year even for a bright but obscure 40 hour a week patent clerk.
And while anyone of these deeds would have been remarkable in and of themselves, the sum total amounted to the greatest outburst of thinking that the world of physics had ever witnessed.
But as remarkable as his achievements of 1905 were, Einstein still had yet become synonymous with great intelligence and genius. And unbelievably he still had to go off to work everyday as a patent clerk for sometime thereafter.
That's because the theories that he put forth were so revolutionary that they were practically exotic in the eyes of established physicists everywhere. And because they were at so odds with long established ideas of Newtonian physics, the scientific community initially resisted them.
In fact, it wasn't until some years and numerous papers later that the geniuses' work became accepted by the scientific community at large.
And amazingly enough it was some 14 years later that The London Times ran the headline on November,7 1919: "Revolution in science - New theory of the Universe - Newtonian ideas overthrown".
And even then he didn't win his first Noble Prize for Physics until 1921.
But as history has shown Einstein did, eventually, become the Einstein that we think of today when we use his name as the embodiment of intelligence.
He did so by having an open mind and by thinking not only outside of the box, but by creating new boxes entirely. And in doing so he turned the comfortable world of physics on its head and transformed his world.
The lesson here, of course, is that sometimes what we think of as being utterly impossible occasionally does become achievable despite what everyone else may say or think.
All of which bring us to a company in New Jersey called Backlight Power.
It's run by a medical doctor by the name of Randell Mills, a man who claims to have made a revolutionary discovery.
And it's the kind of discovery that could once again turn physics on its head.
It centers around his discovery of what he calls "hydrinos," a previously unknown form of hydrogen in which electrons move to a lower state of energy than previously thought possible but still manage to kick off power.
It is a discovery that Dr. Mills says will end the reliance on fossil fuels and even "replace fire."
The technology works by splitting water to make hydrogen (H2), which then splits molecular hydrogen to make atomic hydrogen. It is from this atomic hydrogen that plasma, light and "hydrinos" are produced using certain catalysts.
These "hydrinos", however, are hardly ordinary. The energy that they create is startling.
That's because, in short, the process makes heat...a lot of heat. The heat generated, in fact, is described as something between a chemical and a nuclear reaction. And it can be used to generate power using a steam turbine for example.
And even better than that it is cheap.
BlackLight says the installed cost of its technology is $250/kW (with water as the fuel, $0/kWh) which would blow away coal which is about $1,100/kW (with fuel cost of $0.015/kWh).
Which, of course, would be wonderful, even if it seems a little bit contradictory and too good to be true.
That's because these "hydrinos" described by Dr. Mills violate the basic laws of quantum physics -- the rules of how atoms behave -- and therefore can't possibly exist.
And because of this a number of prominent scientists, including Nobel laureates, have criticized Dr. Mills' theory.
"The physics that he uses is utter nonsense," Robert Park said, a University of Maryland professor. He is the spokesman for the American Physical Society which represents more than 40,000 physicists and their collective opinion has been enough to cast doubt on Dr. Mills' claims.
But collective opinions aside Dr. Mills continues his work undeterred. Mr. Park, he says, represents an entrenched physics establishment that fears losing billions in academic funding and having its work discredited if in fact "hydrinos" do exist.
It is, in essence, the classic scientific confrontation between what's old and what's may be new.
And for his part Dr. Mills is not alone. Some financial firms, businesses and even notable names from the military community have given Blacklight a total of nearly $50 million in funds after witnessing his technology first hand.
Meanwhile in test results released in October, a group of Rowan Universtiy engineers led by Dr. Peter Jansson confirmed Dr. Mills' theory when Blacklight Power's 50,000 watt reactor generated over 1 million joules in a test run.
“Our experiments on the BlackLight technology have demonstrated that within the range of measurement errors the significant energy generated, which is 100 times the energy that could be attributed to measurement error, cannot be explained by other known sources like combustion or nuclear energy,” says Dr. Jansson, professor of engineering at Rowan University. “The ability to generate such tremendous power in this controlled process demonstrates that the claim by BlackLight Power that it is able to demonstrate repeatable heat experiments based on their technology can be replicated by independent scientists.”
And while Dr. Mills may never be consfused with Einstein himself, he fights on in the hope that he his theory will become widely reconized a
Will he be? .......Who knows. There was after all only one Einstein.
But consider this.
Einstein came up with his famous equation E = mc2 in 1905.
It perfectly described what happens when we produce nuclear energy. It took years for it to be accepted as fact.
And even so, it took a mushroom cloud some forty years later to give it expression, usher in the nuclear age,and change how we think about energy.
And it's this kind of quantum leap forward that will be necessary if we want to change the world the way that Einstein did.
So for his part, Dr. Mills is to be applauded even if his work contradicts the very quantum theory that was born in 1905.
Einstein, I think, would join him.
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