appedology.pk quotes Popular Mechanics:
Warp drive is one of the many futuristic ideas proposed in Star Trek, allowing for faster-than-light travel across the galaxy. Einstein’s Theory of Relativity prevents anything from moving faster than light. In 1994, a theoretical physicist proposed a workaround: creating a bubble within space-time that would twist distances, allowing anything within the bubble to travel long distances. Many think it makes theoretical sense, but is practically unworkable. An undergrad at the University of Alabama wants to restart the conversation, and he’s focused on how much energy such a bubble would need…
“Mathematically, if you fulfill all the energy requirements, they can’t prove that it doesn’t work,” he recently said at a standing-room only talk on the subject…. “People used to say, ‘You’re dealing in something that would be great, but it takes the mass of the entire universe to do it,'” Agnew said. “Now, we’re down to where it is still an immense amount of energy and exotic matter is still a problem, but if we had that energy, we could do it.”
After five to eight years of theoretical work, Agnew said, “it’s been reduced by many, many orders of magnitude.”
of this story at Slashdot.
Source:: Slashdot