lethalfang

I disagree. The *known* laws of nature is *not* the ultimate authority in science, in terms of what is true and what is not true. The ultimate authority in science is reproducible and verifiable observation. If an accepted law of nature does not agree with a verifiable and reproducible observation, the law must be changed or tweaked to fit the observation.

I know of a half-million dollar device that can detect any gas molecules: gas-phase mass spectrometry. It's probably not what you are asking for.

Not necessarily. It is very likely carbon molecules are a requirement for life, with silicon having an outside shot as being an alternative. To have a complex living molecule, you must have atoms capable of forming bonds with other atoms. Carbon and silicon are the only two atoms capable of forming long chains, with carbon far more capable than silicon. Liquid water plays a major role in the development of life. First of all, water is made of oxygen and hydrogen, two relatively abundant elements in the universe. The unusual properties of water, such that its solid state is less dense than its liquid state, also its high specific heat, allows lakes/oceans to have a relatively narrow temperature range, because the more complicated the molecule is, the more "fragile" it can be. Crystal beings are pure sci-fi invention. Every molecule in a crystal is oriented exactly the same way. Even though it can kinda self-replicate by nucleation, little information can be stored in this structure. Photons are for the most part non-interacting with other photons.

Exactly. There is a saying, "if you drop a frog into hot water, it will jump out. But if you slowly warm up the water, then the frog will stay there until it boils to death." It's a slippery slope.

Water cannot be used as fuel. Laws of thermodynamics. Among all the molecules that can be made from hydrogens and oxygens, water is the most stable (lowest free energy) form.

That's more of a philosophical question. Kingdoms of life is mere categorization based on whatever the categorizer wants. If you want another kingdom of life which is defined by intelligence, then I don't see why you cannot. I wouldn't recommend it, however, as it provides nothing but more confusion.

Donkey and horse can make mules, so it's not impossible to mix the DNAs of human and some closely related to human creatures. However, creatures that can jump over buildings and lift trucks as those seen in sci-fi horror movies are next to impossible.

The answer is obvious. BioPhysical Chemistry! That's what I do!

They are using hydrogen molecules as a fuel. That is certainly possible and practical, once you work out the safety issues. Hydrogen molecules are highly unstable, i.e. they go to a lower free energy state via combustion, therefore giving out energy to do work. One should never forget that in generating hydrogen molecules, one need to put in more energy than you will ever get out. In this case, it is okay, because you trade in electronic energy of splitting water for the portability of hydrogen molecules. One can never use water as a fuel. As a rule of thumb, stable materials can never be used as a fuel. A material used as a fuel must go to a lower free energy state after the reaction occurs (combustion in vehicles), in order to use the energy of the reaction to do work.

Water molecules are very stable molecules. Water is at a lower free energy than oxygen and hydrogen. With that in mind, you have to put in a net positive energy to split water. Therefore, you cannot use water as a fuel. Splitting water to do work is impossible. Gasoline (I think it's octane) are at a higher free energy than their combustion reaction products. Unlike water, gasoline molecules are not very stable. Therefore, you can use gasoline as a fuel, by initiating a favorable combustion reaction.

Cars running on water? Baloney. If they intend to extract H2 out of water as a fuel, where do they get the energy to split hydrogen and oxygen? If they intend cold fusion, well, where is the energy for fusion to occur?

The energy released during a matter/anti-matter reaction is enormous. Therefore, the energy required to make them is also enourmous, plus some more, to satisfy the laws of thermodynamics. The only way to use anti-matter as an energy source without putting in more energy, is to find antimatters sitting somewhere in the universe and retrive it.

"how do you measure an object's mass if there is no gravity?" By producing what is equivalent of gravity: apply a force and measure its acceleration.

Relativity was not univerally accepted when it was first published. There was a lot of skepticism as it should. However, we often exaggerate the amount of disbelief there was toward relativity. For all its worth, the theory of relativity was published in a peer-reviewed journal. Obviously the reviewers did not call Einstein an idiot. It was counter-intuitive, but it was based on good logics. Scientists took it seriously, even if they did not immediately accept it. This is a newspaper blip in 1915 reporting the publication of general relativity. It did not call Einstein an idiot. In fact, he was already highly respected at that time, for having developed the Brownian motion and photoelectric effect prior to general relativity. http://www.chem.ucla.edu/~ltfang/einstein/inberlin.gif

Or Biophysical Chemistry

Cloning is a waste of effort and money for the exact reason ecoli has stated.

"Organic" diet feeds on people's fear. They offer no real heath benefits. I'll eat calcium fortified cereals, pasteurized milk, and genetically engineered vegetables over their "organic" counterparts any day, because they are healthier.

Helium-4 superfluid is really cool. It is a bose-condensate, a property of boson particles. As a superfluid, every particle is in the exact same quantum state (in direct violation of the Pauli exclusion principle, which only applies to fermions).

In a more classical picture, electrons repel each other when they get close, so do the nucleus of the atoms. In a QM level (totally unnecessary), the probability of you (zillions of particles) passing through the chair (a mighty wall) is like 10^-100000000000000000000000000000000000.

Satellites in orbit indeed are in a time which moves faster than it is on the surface of the earth due to the gravity of earth. In fact, satellites for global positioning systems (GPS) have to correct for this time dilation effect.

Basically, osmosis is an entropic effect. Let's simplify the picture of osmosis. Consider a semi-permeable membrane seperating two compartments of water, only one side has a solute which cannot penetrate this membrane, but water. Generally speaking, the compartment with water plus solutes have more configurational entropy than the comparments of pure water, thus more water will stay in the compartment with the solute, whatever it is. Osmosis is largely independent of the nature of the solute (salt, sugar, whatever), only the molar concentration of it. The more solute, the more water wants to stay there, and the larger volume and larger osmotic pressure it will have.