Building a Warp Drive
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Future Proof with Jonathan Macrae. Proudly supported by Research Ireland. On Newstalk. Hello and welcome to Future Proof, the podcast. This is the show where we take a closer look at the world around us. I'm Jonathan Macrae. I thank you, as always, for everyone who listens, shares, talks about the podcast. Lovely gentleman on the plane yesterday, he just tapped me on the shoulder and said, I don't want to bother you, but just love the podcast. More of that as well. That's awesome. I really, I was very touched. It's always nice when people stop and say hello. So thank you so much. Really appreciate it. Coming up on this week's program, we're going to be talking about warp drives. So yes, this is Star Trek.
And yes, it's a bit nerdy, right? But the mathematics, the underlying mathematics and physics behind warp drives is sound. And on this week's program, we're going to be speaking to an astrophysicist who's trying to figure out the physics and maths behind to make them a reality. It's blue sky research. I just want to say that. But it's also pretty cool. First, though, it's time to look back at some of the more interesting stories from the World of Science this week. We're joined by Professor Annie Curtis from RCSI and from UCD, Dr. Shane Bergen. Shane, our first story has to do with Mars. And I don't know how many times we've played that song. Aidan's a big Bowie fan, our producer, and a big Star Trek fan.
So this show is covered with him. But this is a story about potential life on Mars.
Maybe, right? If we discover that life once existed or exists on an alien world, perhaps it'll be the most profound scientific discovery ever. And it seems that we're kind of inching towards this discovery, which is really frustrating from a science communication point of view, but perhaps shows how science really works, which is gradual. And what's happened here is that the Curiosity rover, the car-shaped rover, little truck that's trundling along the surface of Mars, has discovered five molecules in a dry lake bed.
What is the concept of a warp drive?
And it's thought that they are three and a half billion years old, which is remarkable that they have survived this long. And they are what's called an organic molecule. So it's a complex molecule that has a lot of carbon in it. And what they're trying to figure out now is how did it get there? And might this be the kind of the blueprint or the fingerprint of life that may have once existed on Mars? It can get us so close to an answer, but because curiosity is kind of only packed with so many scientific instruments, it's not able to tell if these molecules came from a geological process, which is possible, or they came from a meteorite that would have hit Mars.
How does the physics of warp drives relate to general relativity?
And it's thought that, you know, in that time that meteorites with organic complex molecules would have been bombarding the Earth and Mars and other places. So we don't know whether it's sort of a precursor or a remnant of something that was once alive or whether it is just from outer space.
Yeah, because I mean, the concept of organic life coming to Earth is one of the hypotheses that actually it was brought from comets or other things. Like culture. Celestial whizzy bits, right? Yeah. And so that would very much explain why we have that in Mars. But you talked about, you know, how would it come out of geological reason? I mean, if life originated in Earth... then it must have only come from geological forces, right? Which I always find crazy that we're walking around and, you know, we're looking at our iPhones and there's, you know, monkeys in the trees and birds in the air. And theoretically, if life didn't come to us, all that came from rocks. Yeah, absolutely. Actual inert rocks. That is absolutely bonkers.
And so the two ideas we have is that life came here and life came from rocks. And so either way, that Mars thing is...
It's really cool. It's doable. Yeah, now they did find a particular molecule, a biomolecule called benzothiophene, which is sulfur containing, and it's known that they tend to come from meteors. But they also found a nitrogen-bearing organic molecule that has a structure that's very similar to DNA.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:01–1:55
2
What is the concept of a warp drive?
1:55–2:37
3
How does the physics of warp drives relate to general relativity?
2:37–7:46
4
What are the challenges in creating a warp drive?
7:46–13:18
5
How does negative energy factor into warp drive theory?
13:18–24:25
6
What happens when a warp bubble collapses?
24:25–31:38