mcarbone - Slashdot User

Physicist Trying To Send a Signal Back In Time 685

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday November 16, 2006 @06:18AM from the don't-be-so-gullible-McFly dept.

phil reed writes "University of Washington physicist John Cramer is attempting to send a signal back through time." From the article: "We're going to shoot an ultraviolet laser into a (special type of) crystal, and out will come two. lower-energy photons that are entangled," Cramer said. For the first phase of the experiment, to be started early next year, they will look for evidence of signaling between the entangled photons. Finding that would, by itself, represent a stunning achievement. Ultimately, the UW scientists hope to test for retrocausality — evidence of a signal sent between photons backward in time. The test will involve sending one of the photons down 10 miles of fiber optic cable, delaying it by 50 microseconds, then testing a quantum-mechanical aspect of the delayed photon. Due to quantum entanglement, the non-delayed photon would need to reflect the measurement made 50 microseconds later on the delayed photon. In order for this to happen, some kind of signal would need to be sent 50 microseconds back in time from the delayed photon to the non-delayed photon. (Confusing? Quantum physics is like that.)

Comment Is this the best use of your communication time? (Score 2, Interesting) 499

by mcarbone on Monday October 11, 2004 @05:36PM (#10497356) Attached to: Ask Neal Stephenson

First off, I want to thank you for taking the time to answer a few questions for the slashdot crowd. Most of us know from reading your web page that you take your time very seriously, and rarely respond directly to inquiries from fans.

That being said, is this the best way to intelligently interact with your fans? In other words, do you believe that the slashdot moderation system, with which I'll assume you are familiar, truly pushes up the most interesting questions to the fore? Can you imagine an alternative way for a celebrity to engage in profound discourse with his fans in this many-to-one relationship?

Comment Re:Too Liberal (Score 2) 441

by KingJawa on Wednesday November 20, 2002 @05:10PM (#4718653) Attached to: Salon, Nearly No Money and Ultramercials

While I agree it's more liberal than not (understatement), that's not the real issue. Instead, it's the Howard Stern Postulate: You have to have people who read (listen to) you because they hate you, too.

And people who disagree aren't going to pay $1, let alone $20.

Comment Not totally true. (Score 3, Insightful) 278

by nachoworld on Wednesday October 02, 2002 @04:15PM (#4376139) Attached to: Patents Choking Off Medical Research

Just about every major drug development in the past 15 years has come from the public sector, not the private sector.

Simply not true.

Antibiotics are mostly private sector. You might be implying that drugs that are life preserving don't usually come from the private sectors. There are plenty of good examples of life preserving drugs (antibiotics). There are also plenty of good examples of life-enhancing drugs (omeprezol - Prilosec). Or the combination of the both (silfenildil - Viagra was originally indicated to reduce heart attacks, but it had an interesting side effect).

IT IS NOT CAPTIVE MARKETING!!! Blame foreign governments for the high prices here. They don't allow drug companies to charge for R&D costs.

But there are two sides of the argument here too. Here's an analogy The US may be seen as flying first class. They get from point A to point B but pay a much larger price than those in coach (foreign citizens buying drugs). But if airline companies started charging less for first class and distributing the cost to coach, then fewer people are inclined to pay for coach. There are much fewer people on the plane. The plane never leaves the ground.

Apple releases iPod 1075

Posted by CmdrTaco on Tuesday October 23, 2001 @02:20PM from the well-thats-not-very-exciting dept.

The BrownFury writes "At an invitation only event Apple has released their new MP3 player called the iPod. iPod is the size of a deck of cards. 2.4" wide by 4" tall by .78" thick 6.5 ounces. 5 GB HDD, 10 hr battery life, charged via FireWire. Works as a firewire drive as well. Works in conjunctions with iTunes 2. Here are Live updates". No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame.

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