NASA's Impossible Space Engine, The EMdrive, Passes Peer Review 

“For every action, there’s an equal and opposite reaction.” So goes Newton’s third law, and despite the developments of relativity and quantum mechanics, that fundamental law of the Universe — otherwise known as the conservation of momentum — has never been challenged. Yet a few years ago, a new space drive that claims to break that exact law was proposed and put forth by inventor Roger Shawyer, the EMdrive. Unlike conventional rocket engines, which cause thrust in one direction by propelling exhaust outwards in the opposite direction, the EMdrive claims to take an external source of power and convert it into a positive thrust with no corresponding reaction.

And despite the fact that this seems to violate the known laws of physics, a prototype device was submitted to NASA’s Eagleworks lab for testing. Perhaps surprisingly, the test came back positive: there was thrust observed despite the lack of a reaction. And if Dr. José Rodal from the NASA Spaceflight forums can be trusted, the paper resulting from the test, “Measurement of Impulsive Thrust from a Closed Radio Frequency Cavity in Vacuum” by Harold White et al., was just accepted for publication in the peer reviewed Journal Of Propulsion And Power, by AIAA.

Quantum Computation

Rather than store information as 0s or 1s as conventional computers do, a quantum computer uses qubits – which can be a 1 or a 0 or both at the same time. This “quantum superposition”, along with the quantum effects of entanglement and quantum tunnelling, enable quantum computers to consider and manipulate all combinations of bits simultaneously, making quantum computation powerful and fast.

How D-Wave Systems Work
Quantum computing uses an entirely different approach than classical computing. A useful analogy is to think of a landscape with mountains and valleys.

Solving optimization problems can be thought of as trying to find the lowest point on this landscape. Every possible solution is mapped to coordinates on the landscape, and the altitude of the landscape is the “energy’” or “cost” of the solution at that point. The aim is to find the lowest point on the map and read the coordinates, as this gives the lowest energy, or optimal solution to the problem.

Toyota's free piston engine is brilliant

No crankshaft, no problem: Toyota's free piston engine is brilliant




Toyota recently showed a prototype engine that does just that. It's called the Free Piston Engine Linear Generator (FPEG). "Free" refers to the fact that the piston isn't attached to a crankshaft; instead, as the piston is forced downward during its power stroke, it passes through windings in the cylinder to generate a burst of three-phase AC electricity. The FPEG operates like a two-stroke engine but adds direct gasoline injection and electrically operated valves. It can also be run like a diesel, using compression rather than a spark plug to ignite its fuel mixture.

Drop cap initial letterLet's get one thing straight: The variable-valve-timing, direct-injection, turbo-wonderful powerplant in your new car is not cutting-edge. Despite the complexity of the modern engine, the fundamentals haven't changed since Grover Cleveland was in office. Pistons turn a crankshaft that eventually spins your car's wheels.


https://youtu.be/QUbBqSu9Hdc