Art Bell interviews Dr. Michio Kaku on Dec 15, 2003 [Part 1]

On the coast and worldwide on the Internet this is close to coast am with Ourselves it is then you’re about to be Presented with for your consideration When greatest minds in the world today Dr. michio kaku The usually the nationally recognized Authority in theoretical physics and the Environment he holds me Helene I’m a pathetic fellowship in theoretical Physics at the City College and the Graduate Center of the City University Evening work at lectures around the World and the PhD level textbooks are in Fact required reading at many of the top Physics labs worldwide Kotaku graduated from Harvard in 1968 Cynical are number one in the in physics Class that received his PhD from the University of California Berkeley Radiation laboratory in 1972 held a Lectureship goal is to help complete Feinstein’s dream of a theory of Everything that would be a single Equation breath Oh longer than one inch Like your thumb little shorter actually Which will unify all the fundamental Forces in the universe coming up in just A moment Well first of all dr. people welcome to The program oh it’s so nice to have you Here it really is it’s always just a Blast before we get into what we’re Going to talk about I’ve got a couple of

Woods they’re kind of questions and I’ve Liked rent come on you move in and okay To see what your reaction anyway we Talked about quantum this and quantum That on the show a lot of times and After this listener asked wants to know From you is a quantum bomb always Thinking about stuff blowing up right But if a quantum bomb would be Theoretically possible and if it is this Wasn’t I suggest that would be of such a Magnitude that it would collapse all of The dimensions around us and create what He calls an infinite chain reaction That’s pretty scary I mean is such a Thing even possible well you know Quantum mechanics is basically the Theory of the atom otherwise known as Atomic physics or nuclear physics and we Already use quantum mechanics to create The atomic bomb the atomic bomb is a Direct consequence not only as e equals MC squared but of the quantum theory Device in the 1920s and 1930s so in that Sense the atomic bomb and the hydrogen Bomb our quantum bombs however this Person is trying to hint that perhaps There’s a bomb that could shatter the Space and time itself that’s right yes And at the present time we know of no Such thing I even a black hole for Example which would contain perhaps the Largest concentration of energy in our Sector of the galaxy even a black hole

Does not set off a chain reaction now Remember that I’m psyching himself back Into 1920 speculated that he equals MC Squared maybe able to make a bomb but he Didn’t understand the chain reaction Process back in the 1920s that allows You to magnify a very tiny amount of Energy into into a Now even though we have black holes in Fact we’ve now seen you know about 200 Of them with the Hubble Space Telescope And perhaps a hundreds of thousands with The Chandra x-ray telescope we know of No mechanism that can create a chain Reaction that is one wife hole setting Up another black hole setting up another Black hole but I think for the present Time we have to rest assured that There’s not this thing as a as a quantum Box however an antimatter bomb that Would be perhaps the largest source of Energy release that you could create With with modern technology perhaps 100 200 years in the future can we even Speculate on what would happen if Somebody set off an antimatter bomb we Could speculate a teaspoon of antimatter Combined with ordinary matter We give you up to 100% energy efficient Conversion and that would be enough to Blow any modern city off the face of the Earth if you had antimatter for example The size of a good house or apartment House there’d be enough perhaps to crack

The earth in half then let me ask you This antimatter Suppose we had a teaspoon of it would we Then concoct it into a bomb physically Following the design of the current bomb Well you know you’ve got two balls of What cominius Mash them together right at a very high Speed well if you have a no matter and Matter would you do essentially the same Thing just suddenly bring the two Together and before I can even ask nap How would you contain the antimatter in Anything and to thrust it toward the Matter yeah well there’s a difference With ordinary atomic bombs You need critical mass this is what Hitler did not understand back in the 1930s and early forties he did not Understand one number which could have Determined the fate of World War two one Number that one number is the amount of Ammonium necessary to the same a chain Reaction today we know that it is about 20 pounds of uranium and plutonium so But he didn’t know that number he Thought it may be tons of enriched Uranium so he he shelled the atomic bomb Project and assembling for the b2 Project and the v1 that is to hit the Board signal and be the cruise missile So luckily Hitler did not show that Number or else he may have tried to get A crash program to build the atomic bomb

How did we figure out that number Well we on the other hand had reactors And we had we could play with certain Amounts of plutonium and we knew the Rate the cross-section of the rate at Which your any incisions that’s what the Germans did not know they did not know These what is called the effective Cross-section Werner Heisenberg thought The same the types of brick and certain Principle was the one who essentially Goof with the the debriefing after 1945 When the Allies captured Verner Heisenberg the debriefing papers have Now been pretty much Declassified you Can read them and we realized that when He was debriefed After being captured heizaburo did not Know that number the first thing he Asked was what was the size of the Carrier of the Hiroshima bombs I was on First thing yeah he didn’t know whether It was a ship or not when he was told it Was a b-29 bomber he knew the size of The bomb bay and therefore yes made a Decide to the bomb and then mentally he Worked backwards they were exact words In his mind as it was pre interrogated To figure out what the the different Sections work for the common table he Did not know the answer he gooth Absolutely but we said we gave him Answer in interrogation that’s right Once we found him devise the Hiroshima

Bomb and being the genius that you had He mentally computed backwards he Thought a gigantic ship would be Required to deliver an apartment-sized Atomic bomb on an enemy he didn’t Realize that that atomic bomb the pony And the uranium is basically the size of Your skin now an antimatter bomb does Not have critical mass any amount of Antimatter which instantly combined and Release enormous amounts of energy