I've just read this rather interesting article:
And found two outstanding facts:
That's pretty impressive... for a guy whose teenage years where lived in the 80's, it brings the economics of technology in perspective.
But this other one, is simply mind boggling:
How is it possible to actually excite the vacuum to the point of ionization? Is it because the photon energy and density is so intense that virtual particles are not allowed to re-collapse on themselves? Would such phenomena make it possible to build an engine capable of propelling a spaceship without needing a propellant?
And found two outstanding facts:
...in the 1980s we paid $200,000 for a laser that I could buy today for less than $5
That's pretty impressive... for a guy whose teenage years where lived in the 80's, it brings the economics of technology in perspective.
But this other one, is simply mind boggling:
Well, a project called the Extreme Light Infrastructure is now being built in Romania. It will focus laser pulses lasting less than a trillionth of a second to intensities so high that they can ionise the vacuum, creating positrons and electrons. It takes black holes to do that in nature.
How is it possible to actually excite the vacuum to the point of ionization? Is it because the photon energy and density is so intense that virtual particles are not allowed to re-collapse on themselves? Would such phenomena make it possible to build an engine capable of propelling a spaceship without needing a propellant?