Dec 10, 2025 05:43 PM
(This post was last modified: Dec 10, 2025 05:49 PM by C C.)
Pompeii construction site confirms recipe for Roman concrete
https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/12/...-concrete/
EXCERPTS: Back in 2023, we reported on MIT scientists’ conclusion that the ancient Romans employed “hot mixing” with quicklime, among other strategies, to make their famous concrete, giving the material self-healing functionality. The only snag was that this didn’t match the recipe as described in historical texts. Now the same team is back with a fresh analysis of samples collected from a recently discovered site that confirms the Romans did indeed use hot mixing, according to a new paper published in the journal Nature Communications.
[...] Masic is confident enough in these results that he founded a new manufacturing company drawing on the lessons he’s learned over the last 10 years to make more durable modern concrete. “This material can heal itself over thousands of years, it is reactive, and it is highly dynamic,” said Masic. “It has survived earthquakes and volcanoes. It has endured under the sea and survived degradation from the elements. We don’t want to completely copy Roman concrete today. We just want to translate a few sentences from this book of knowledge into our modern construction practices.” (MORE - missing details)
New warp-drive propulsion concept moves fictional starships closer to engineering reality
https://thedebrief.org/new-warp-drive-pr...g-reality/
EXCERPTS: Now, White and his colleagues at Casimir have proposed a bold reimagining of faster-than-light (FTL) warp drive geometry, one that replaces the classic smooth “warp ring” with a set of discrete cylindrical structures, called warp nacelles, as he and his colleagues describe in a new paper.
Building off of Alcubierre’s foundation of a spacetime “warp bubble,” White introduces a new framework that pinpoints exotic energy in tunable, engine-like structures, while the interior of the bubble remains stable and habitable to a prospective pilot.
“The results of this study suggest a new class of warp bubble geometries that are both interior-flat and structurally segmented into cylindrical ‘nacelles,’” White told The Debrief in an email.
However, White’s newest take on the warp drive concept bears more than just a passing similarity to its fictional forebear.
“The resemblance to the twin nacelles of the USS Enterprise is not merely aesthetic,” White told The Debrief, “but reflects a potential convergence between physical requirements and engineering design, where science-fiction architectures hint at practical pathways for real warp-capable configurations.”
[...] Naturally, many will want to know whether this strategy could eventually guide the design of propulsion systems for real warp-drive spacecraft, although White says that day, if it arrives, is still well into the future.
“Warp drive physics is still in its infancy, so there is a lot of work yet to be done for us to determine how we might practically manifest something like this in the lab,” White told The Debrief.
“The most common question I get asked is, ‘When will we have warp drive?’ My crystal ball does not work any better than anybody else’s, so I don’t know if it will be 20 years, 200 years, or never.
“I know what I need to be doing next, though,” White said, “so I will do that.”
While practical application remains distant, White and his colleagues’ study provides warp-drive theorists with a new direction and a clearer path to potentially engineerable geometries. By tuning the number, width, and length of these nacelles, future researchers may be able to explore warp configurations that are more reliable, modular, and physically feasible than those proposed in earlier models... (MORE - missing details)
https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/12/...-concrete/
EXCERPTS: Back in 2023, we reported on MIT scientists’ conclusion that the ancient Romans employed “hot mixing” with quicklime, among other strategies, to make their famous concrete, giving the material self-healing functionality. The only snag was that this didn’t match the recipe as described in historical texts. Now the same team is back with a fresh analysis of samples collected from a recently discovered site that confirms the Romans did indeed use hot mixing, according to a new paper published in the journal Nature Communications.
[...] Masic is confident enough in these results that he founded a new manufacturing company drawing on the lessons he’s learned over the last 10 years to make more durable modern concrete. “This material can heal itself over thousands of years, it is reactive, and it is highly dynamic,” said Masic. “It has survived earthquakes and volcanoes. It has endured under the sea and survived degradation from the elements. We don’t want to completely copy Roman concrete today. We just want to translate a few sentences from this book of knowledge into our modern construction practices.” (MORE - missing details)
New warp-drive propulsion concept moves fictional starships closer to engineering reality
https://thedebrief.org/new-warp-drive-pr...g-reality/
EXCERPTS: Now, White and his colleagues at Casimir have proposed a bold reimagining of faster-than-light (FTL) warp drive geometry, one that replaces the classic smooth “warp ring” with a set of discrete cylindrical structures, called warp nacelles, as he and his colleagues describe in a new paper.
Building off of Alcubierre’s foundation of a spacetime “warp bubble,” White introduces a new framework that pinpoints exotic energy in tunable, engine-like structures, while the interior of the bubble remains stable and habitable to a prospective pilot.
“The results of this study suggest a new class of warp bubble geometries that are both interior-flat and structurally segmented into cylindrical ‘nacelles,’” White told The Debrief in an email.
However, White’s newest take on the warp drive concept bears more than just a passing similarity to its fictional forebear.
“The resemblance to the twin nacelles of the USS Enterprise is not merely aesthetic,” White told The Debrief, “but reflects a potential convergence between physical requirements and engineering design, where science-fiction architectures hint at practical pathways for real warp-capable configurations.”
[...] Naturally, many will want to know whether this strategy could eventually guide the design of propulsion systems for real warp-drive spacecraft, although White says that day, if it arrives, is still well into the future.
“Warp drive physics is still in its infancy, so there is a lot of work yet to be done for us to determine how we might practically manifest something like this in the lab,” White told The Debrief.
“The most common question I get asked is, ‘When will we have warp drive?’ My crystal ball does not work any better than anybody else’s, so I don’t know if it will be 20 years, 200 years, or never.
“I know what I need to be doing next, though,” White said, “so I will do that.”
While practical application remains distant, White and his colleagues’ study provides warp-drive theorists with a new direction and a clearer path to potentially engineerable geometries. By tuning the number, width, and length of these nacelles, future researchers may be able to explore warp configurations that are more reliable, modular, and physically feasible than those proposed in earlier models... (MORE - missing details)