Zero - Charles Seife [72]
Luckily, this is an extremely unlikely scenario. Our universe has lasted billions of years, and it’s improbable that we are living in such a precarious state; cosmic-ray collisions would probably already have “sparked” the vacuum with enough energy to cause such a disaster were it possible. This hasn’t stopped some believers—physicists included—from picketing high-energy laboratories like Fermilab; they believe that a high-energy collision could cause a spontaneous collapse of the vacuum. Even if those concerns were valid, it seems all but impossible to propel a spaceship with zero-point energy. However, Puthoff believes he has a way to extract energy from the void.
In theory, scientists can get energy from the Casimir effect even at absolute zero in the bleakest part of the vacuum of space. Two plates generate heat when they smack together—heat that can be converted to electricity. Alas, the plates have to be pried apart again, which requires more energy than was initially produced; most scientists believe that this fact kills the idea of making a perpetual-motion machine that runs on vacuum energy. But Puthoff thinks he sees several ways around this dilemma. One is to use plasmas instead of plates.
A plasma, a gas of charged particles, is just like a metal plate as far as the Casimir effect is concerned. A conducting, cylinder-shaped gas would be compressed by the zero-point fluctuations just as plates are forced together. The collapse would heat the plasma, releasing energy. Unlike metal plates, plasmas could be made easily with a bolt of electricity, according to Puthoff, and instead of having to pry the plates apart again, the plasma “ash” is discarded. Puthoff gingerly claims to have gotten out 30 times more energy with this method than was put in. “There’s some evidence; we’ve even got a patent,” he says. However, Puthoff’s device is one in a long line of “free energy” machines—none of which, in the past, have withstood scientific scrutiny. It is unlikely that his device to harness the zero-point energy will be any different.
According to quantum mechanics and general relativity, the power of zero is infinite, so it’s no surprise that people are hoping to tap its potential. But for the time being, it appears that nothing will come of nothing.
Chapter 8
Zero Hour at Ground Zero
[ZERO AT THE EDGE OF SPACE AND TIME]
Alien they seemed to be:
No mortal eye could see
The intimate welding of their later history…
—THOMAS HARDY, “THE CONVERGENCE OF THE TWAIN”
Modern physics is a struggle of two titans. General relativity holds sway in the realm of the very, very big: the most massive objects in the universe, such as stars, solar systems, and galaxies. Quantum mechanics rules the domain of the very, very small: atoms and electrons and subatomic particles. It would seem that these two theories could live in harmony together, each dictating the rules of physics for different aspects of the universe.
Unfortunately, there are objects that lie in both realms. Black holes are very, very massive, so they are subject to the laws of relativity; at the same time, black holes are very, very tiny, so they are in the domain of quantum mechanics. And far from agreeing, the two sets of laws clash at the center of a black hole.
Zero dwells at the juxtaposition of quantum mechanics and relativity; zero lives where the two theories meet, and zero causes the two theories to clash. A black hole