from Hacker News

The magnetic universe begins to come into view

by ernesto95 on 7/6/20, 6:35 AM with 35 comments

• by api on 7/6/20, 8:58 AM

  If magnetism pervades space, can interaction with these fields generate force for propulsion? These fields are weak but what about extremely powerful superconducting magnets? Even if the force is small it could add up over long periods, and since no mass is needed it would be a "massless" drive that does not violate any physical laws.

• by whoopdedo on 7/6/20, 9:44 AM

  Bit of a tangent, but I was curious about the circle lake in that picture of LOFAR[1]. That can't be naturally occurring can it? It looks like a moat, and I see lots of irrigation channels nearby. But maybe it was carved by a glacier. There's another LOFAR location[2] next to a park that has a lot of glacial lakes in it.

  [1] https://www.google.com/maps/place/LOFAR+superterp/@52.914715...

  [2] https://www.google.com/maps/place/National+park+Dwingelderve...

• by peter_d_sherman on 7/7/20, 5:26 AM

  >"One method, pioneered by the English scientist Michael Faraday back in 1845,

  detects a magnetic field from the way it rotates the polarization direction of light passing through it.

  The amount of “Faraday rotation” depends on the strength of the magnetic field and the frequency of the light. So by measuring the polarization at different frequencies, you can infer the strength of magnetism along the line of sight. “If you do it from different places you can make a 3D map,” said Enßlin."

• by abrichr on 7/7/20, 5:42 AM

  The "cosmic web" rendering (https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-hidden-magnetic-universe-...) reminds me of neurons (https://static.scientificamerican.com/sciam/cache/file/52B19...)

  Is it possible that the universe is some sort of neural computation device? What could it be modelling?

• by saas_sam on 7/6/20, 6:56 PM

  This has been a popular fringe scientific theory for many years under the title Electric Universe Theory. Fringe for sure, but its lead proponents tend to be real scientists referencing real, peer-reviewed literature.

• by empath75 on 7/6/20, 2:46 PM

  If this explains expansion, then it also eliminates dark energy, no?

• by Stierlitz on 7/6/20, 11:14 AM

  “These force fields — the same entities that emanate from fridge magnets”

  Not a lot of people know that :]

• by Andys on 7/6/20, 8:24 AM

  Seems alot more interesting than yet another failed searched for "dark matter"