All posts tagged: Warp

Vaccines at Warp Speed | David Oshinsky

Vaccines at Warp Speed | David Oshinsky

Published by skeptic

It is likely to be remembered as the high point of Donald Trump’s tumultuous first presidency. On May 15, 2020, joined by cabinet members, public health experts, and military officials, he announced Operation Warp Speed, a “momentous medical initiative” to develop, manufacture, and distribute a successful coronavirus vaccine by year’s end, if not sooner. The event had all the trappings of a campaign rally. “Your vision,” gushed Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, “will be one of the great scientific and humanitarian accomplishments in human history.” Only four of those flanking Trump in the Rose Garden that day—the physicians Anthony Fauci, Deborah Birx, Francis Collins, and Moncef Slaoui—wore masks, although 86,000 Covid-related deaths had already been reported in the United States. (“You guys, take your masks off, you hear me?” the president warned the others before stepping onstage.) This was Trump’s show, and no one dared to challenge his improbable timeline, not even Fauci, who had warned Congress three days before that “there’s no guarantee a vaccine is actually going to be effective.” There …

Warp drive may be achievable sooner than expected, study finds

Warp drive may be achievable sooner than expected, study finds

Published by skeptic

For decades, movies and television series have sparked curiosity about the future, blending science with fiction in ways that inspire real-world innovation. Among the most intriguing ideas is warp drive—a concept that challenges Einstein’s Theory of Relativity by suggesting faster-than-light travel might be possible by warping space and time. In 1994, theoretical physicist Miguel Alcubierre introduced the idea of a space-time bubble that could contract distances ahead of a spacecraft while expanding them behind it. His model, known as the Alcubierre drive, suggested a loophole in relativity that could, in theory, allow faster-than-light travel. Yet, most scientists dismissed it as impossible due to extreme energy requirements. Not everyone was ready to abandon the idea. Joseph Agnew, an undergraduate at the University of Alabama, set out to explore whether the theory held up mathematically. “If you fulfill all the energy requirements, they can’t prove that it doesn’t work,” he stated in a university press release. The Alcubierre Warp Drive Model. The blue area below the plane represents contracted space while red and raised area represent expanded …

When faces warp into nightmares

When faces warp into nightmares

Published by José

If you’ve seen portraits painted by Pablo Picasso or Francis Bacon, you might not be surprised to hear that both men may have suffered from a disorder that affects how faces are perceived. Prosopometamorphopsia (PMO) is a condition where faces appear distorted, and sometimes even demonic. In most cases, these distortions alter how images of faces look, as well as those seen in person. This makes it difficult for sufferers to assess the accuracy of illustrations depicting what they see because the illustration itself will appear distorted. However, a case described in a recent study gave researchers new insight into PMO. Unlike most other cases, the 58-year-old man (referred to as VS) perceived images of faces without distortion. Unfortunately, when he saw people in person over the last 31 months, every face appeared stretched and “demonic” to him. Not to be confused with prosopagnosia (poor face recognition but without visual distortions), PMO is thought to be extremely rare and people who have it perceive faces as drooping, stretched, out of position, or either smaller or …

Warp drive technology may be closer than we thought

Warp drive technology may be closer than we thought

Published by skeptic

First introduced in Star Trek, warp drive proposed travel at speeds exceeding that of light, thereby challenging Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. (CREDIT: Creative Commons) From the moment the sci-fi TV series Star Trek aired, it has captivated audiences, leaving them with a myriad of questions. For decades, the series has masterfully blended elements of real-life science with fiction, sparking innovations that have become integral to our everyday lives. Among the groundbreaking concepts presented in the series, warp drive stands out. It captured the imagination of viewers worldwide. This idea, first introduced in Star Trek, proposed travel at speeds exceeding that of light, thereby challenging Einstein’s Theory of Relativity which asserts that nothing can travel faster than light. A ring-shaped warp drive device could transport a football-shape starship (center) to effective speeds faster than light. The concept was first proposed by Mexican physicist Miguel Alcubierre. (CREDIT: Harold White) Miguel Alcubierre, a theoretical physicist in 1994 developed a theory called the Alcubierre drive. He created a bubble within space-time that would twist distances making it possible for …

Warp drive technology could be just around the corner, scientists think

Warp drive technology could be just around the corner, scientists think

Published by skeptic

Warp drive was the very first theory proposed in Star Trek, allowing it to travel faster than light across the galaxy. (CREDIT: Creative Commons) From the moment the sci-fi TV series Star Trek aired, it has captivated audiences, leaving them with a myriad of questions. For decades, the series has masterfully blended elements of real-life science with fiction, sparking innovations that have become integral to our everyday lives. Among the groundbreaking concepts presented in the series, warp drive stands out. It captured the imagination of viewers worldwide. This idea, first introduced in Star Trek, proposed travel at speeds exceeding that of light, thereby challenging Einstein’s Theory of Relativity which asserts that nothing can travel faster than light. Miguel Alcubierre, a theoretical physicist in 1994 developed a theory called the Alcubierre drive. He created a bubble within space-time that would twist distances making it possible for anything to travel long distances within the bubble. Most people thought this made perfect theoretical sense, but practically it wasn’t workable. However, to prove them wrong, Joseph Agnew, an undergrad …

Operation Warp Speed, but for Everything Government Does

Operation Warp Speed, but for Everything Government Does

Published by skeptic

The U.S. government can achieve great things quickly when it has to. In November 2020, the Food and Drug Administration granted emergency-use authorization to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for COVID-19. Seven days later, a competing vaccine from Moderna was approved. The rollout to the public began a few weeks later. The desperate search for a vaccine had been orchestrated by Operation Warp Speed, an initiative announced by the Trump administration that May. Developing, testing, manufacturing, and deploying a new vaccine typically takes a decade or more. OWS, which accomplished the feat in months, belongs in the pantheon of U.S. innovation triumphs, along with the Manhattan Project and the Apollo moon-landing program. It’s a case study in how the U.S. government can solve complex, urgent problems, and it challenges the narrative that public institutions have lost their ability to dream big and move fast. Read: The one area where the U.S. COVID-19 strategy seems to be working That narrative, sadly, has ample basis in recent history. Many efforts to upgrade the nation’s transportation systems falter because, as …

How drugs can warp your sense of time

How drugs can warp your sense of time

Published by skeptic

Imagine a world where you could control your sense of time. Where trips to the dentist flew by in a second and holidays felt like they lasted forever. Time altering pills may sound like science fiction but the time warping effects of psychoactive drugs suggest that deliberate time manipulation may be possible. Drug induced time-warps are a widely reported phenomenon by recreational drug users. My 2022 study suggested that over 75% of people who had recently used cocaine, MDMA (also known as ecstasy) and cannabis reported distortions to the passage of time during drug use. The participants said the distortions were a pleasurable aspect of drug use. Studies show that cocaine and MDMA (ecstasy) speed up our perception of time. Despite being able to party for longer after cocaine and MDMA, users may feel like their night was over faster because time flew by more quickly. Cannabis, on the other hand, often leads to a sensation of time expanding. Minutes can feel like hours and evenings seem to last forever. Other drugs can scramble our …

Warp brings an AI bot to its terminal

Warp brings an AI bot to its terminal

Published by skeptic

Warp, a fast-growing startup that is working on building a better terminal, today announced that it has added a new chat feature (unsurprisingly based on ChatGPT) that will help its user with using the command line and troubleshooting errors. We’ve obviously seen a flood of ChatGPT-enabled services lately, with some more interesting than others, but this feels like a legitimately useful application of the technology. The command line is, after all, isn’t necessarily the most user friendly of interfaces — and that means that even experienced users often have to resort to troubleshooting by searching for answers on Stack Overflow. “The terminal is a notoriously difficult tool. It’s difficult to know how to do workflows. It’s difficult to understand errors. It’s difficult to write scripts,” Warp co-founder and CEO Zach Lloyd explained. “We think that there’s a pretty significant opportunity to put AI in the core of the app in a way that makes it so that it can do most of these things for you.” He also noted that this is a good way …