What famous scientist mistakenly thought he had discovered plutonium -- a decade before it was actually discovered?

TechTalk radio ep. 251 includes a host of Thanksgiving-esque tech tidbits and, sadly, a trivia question that perhaps on I find interesting: What famous scientist mistakenly thought he had discovered plutonium -- a decade before it was actually discovered?

If you're the kind of geek that gets off on the historical minutia surrounding elemental physics -- and you know who you are -- you'll also likely enjoy pointing out all the errors I make in my weekly radio factoid from last fall.

According to Einstein's famous equation, how many food calories are there in a single gram of mass?

Image via WikipediaExactly 105 years ago today -- Sept. 27, 1905 -- Albert Einstein published his paper "Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon Its Energy Content?" in Annalen der Physik, introducing the world to his famous equation, E = mc². Except E = mc² didn't actually appear in Einstein's original paper; Uncle Albert described his formula in prose, using different variables to express both energy and the speed of light. Translating from the original German, Einstein wrote:

If a body gives off the energy L in the form of radiation, its mass diminishes by L/V².

The V in this case is the 1920s-era standard variable for the speed of light (which Einstein argued was constant). Thus, if you wrote out the mass-energy equivalence equation as Einstein originally described it, you'd get m = L/V².

The upshot of Einstein's mass-energy equivalence and the relativity it helps describe is that all matter can be converted into a predictable amount of energy -- a large predictable amount of energy. Fortunately, only in very rare circumstances can matter be efficiently and explicitly converted entirely into its equivalent energy. We don't unleash all of our food energy when we digest it, for example, because we're unlocking its chemical energy, not its nuclear energy. That's a very good thing, as E = mc² would make your average slice of cheesecake exponentially more fattening (and destructive).

According to Einstein's famous equation, how many food calories are there in a single gram of mass?

What highly explosive technology was originally patented on July 4?

As the Simpsons video above teaches us, there's no better way to celebrate the independence of our nation than by blowing up a small part of it. Indeed, setting off fireworks on Independence Day has been an American tradition since the holiday's first observance on July 4, 1777. Still, July 4th is a date with a long association with explosive events -- even those separate from American residents telling off British monarchs via the indulgent ignition of gunpowder.

In fact, on one particular July 4, perhaps the most historically significant explosive technology ever created was patented -- and no American was involved.

What highly explosive technology was originally patented on July 4?

More than meets the Ides: How many named days are there in the Roman calendar

Image via Wikipedia

I'm doing business travel this week, so I'm using that as a flimsy excuse to invoke some Shakespeare-inspired trivia from my past writing life:

This week marks the day that Shakespearean scholars, practitioners of precognition, and ancient-Republic-abolishing Roman dictators fear and revere with equal abandon: The Ides of March. On March 15 in 44 B.C., conspirators stabbed Julius Caesar to death on the floor of the Roman Senate. ...

The Ides did arguably gain their contemporary notoriety due to [Shakespeare], who included the famous line "Beware the Ides of March" in his play Julius Caesar, Act I, Scene 2, line 33. ... And by doing so, The Bard ensured that the Ides of March would become one of the most literarily notorious dates in history — even if most folks who observe the Ides don't know that the Romans recognized Ides in months besides March or that Ides were one of three categories of days observed in the ancient Roman calendar.

BESIDES THE IDES, WHAT WERE THE OTHER TWO SPECIFICALLY NAMED DAYS IN THE ROMAN CALENDAR?

Get the answer here.

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Nerd Word of the Week: 5G War

Image by Army.mil via Flickr

5G war (n.) - Also known as 5GW, fifthgen war or fifth generation modern warfare. Any of several theoretical successors to fourth-generation modern warfare, which describes the primary strategies and tactics of a new type of conflict, particularly one that is indisputably superior to the previous generation. It is becoming the preferred buzzword for imagined futuristic conflicts, supplanting previous trope-words like hyperwar or infowar.

What exactly constitutes 5G War is up for debate, which is part of the reason it's slowly starting to catch on in the sci-fi set, as it can give the appearance of authenticity to a mil-SF work without actually contradicting any canonically established sources. 5G war is generally imagined to involve guerilla tactics enhanced by modern consumer communications technology and/or cyberattacks, but it's a good bet that as other techno-fads come and go, they'll make appearances under the 5G war banner as well.

I bring it up because: Friday is the eighth anniversary of the September 11th attacks, which thrust the concept of fourth generation, assymetric warfare into the public consciousness. As the world continues to grapple with the various implications of that tragedy, science fiction does likewise, helping us prepare for future conflicts by imagining impossible ones.

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Nerd Word of the Week: RKV

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RKV (n.) - An accepted abbreviation for relativistic kill vehicle, a weapon that moves at near-light speeds in order to inflict maximum impact damage on its target. Also sometimes called a relativistic bomb, an RKV is a kinetic energy weapon taken to its logical extreme, combining the principles of Newtonian and Einsteinian physics.

Newton's second law holds that force equals mass multiplied by rate of acceleration. Thus, even a small mass moving at sufficient acceleration can generate significant force. "Conventional" kinetic weapons apply this law by simply dropping large, inert masses from planetary orbit (like the tungsten rods dropped from satellites in Warren Ellis's Global Frequency), allowing gravity to accelerate the payload to destructive velocity. RKVs go one step further, using vast interstellar distances to accelerate kinetic warheads to near-light speed, multiplying the force of their impact to catastrophic -- even planet-killing -- extremes.

RKVs are often a favorite plot device for hard sci-fi authors, including Larry Niven in his Known Space series, Charles Stross in Iron Sunrise, Joe Haldeman in The Forever War, and Vernor Vinge in A Fire Upon the Deep. RKVs don't require that civilizations develop faster-than-light travel or communication, as even subluminal propulsion systems can accelerate weapons to relativistic speeds given enough time and distance. Thus, wars fought between planets and stars are an ideal theater of conflict for RKVs, especially if you don't have FTL sensors to see them coming.

I bring it up because: Today is the 54th anniversary of Russell-Einstein Manifesto. On July 9, 1955, Albert Einstein, Bertrand Russell, and nine other noted intellectuals signed an essay highlighting the unconscionable dangers posed by nuclear weapons and implored world leaders to seek other, non-atomic-armageddon means of guaranteeing security and resolving conflict. Many view the manifesto as Einstein's repudiation of the application of his scientific breakthroughs to martial purposes. Unfortunately for Uncle Al, science has always led the way to new and more efficient weapons. Even setting aside the fission/fusion applications of Einstein's theories, his work on relativity can be applied for mass destruction in numerous ways, including the often overlooked brute-force example of RKVs. Food for thought, and some great science fiction.

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The difference between sports geeks and sci-fi geeks

The only problem is that I'm a sci-fi geek and a sports fan. There's quite a few of us, actually, which is why they make these. Personally, I prefer the baseball version, but it lacks the Mandalorian skull insignia. Out-dork that distinction, bitches.

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