Anything that purports to break the laws of physics—even a little—should be subject to great skepticism. And that's what's happening this week to NASA's purported "impossible" engine. Earlier this week, we reported on NASA's test of a microwave thruster that seemingly broke the laws of physics, but needed more verification from outside experts. Today's there's pushback about the test.

John Timmer at Ars Technica writes that one of the biggest problems with the study is that the team found positive results in both the experiment and the negative control—not a good sign when you're trying to prove something.

Even worse, says Corey Powell at Discover, is the NASA researchers' claim that the Cannae Drive "is potentially demonstrating an interaction with the quantum vacuum virtual plasma." When Powell asked Caltech physicist Sean Carroll what quantum vacuum virtual plasma was, Carroll responded that there is no such thing.

Here's a tweet from Carroll about it:

This content is imported from Twitter. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

"Propulsive momentum transfer via the quantum vacuum virtual plasma" is nonsensical sub-Star-Trek level technobabble. http://t.co/X7bThPFZwE — Sean Carroll (@seanmcarroll) August 1, 2014

And an excellent comic strip from xkcd:

So for now, it seems like the "impossible" space drive is just impossible.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io