Smokeless Rockets

Reporters wrote about merry visions of smokeless space rockets and impulse-powered engines out of Star Trek when a propulsion system that emits nothing but heat was introduced this week at a conference in Southern California:

James Woodward, a history professor at California State University in Fullerton, presented his research into Mach-Lorentz thrusters Wednesday at the Future in Review conference here. Mach-Lorentz thrusters (MLTs), assuming they can be scaled up from lab tests, could provide a new source of propulsion that “puts out thrust without blowing stuff out the tailpipe,” Woodward said.

So they never got around to wondering why a professor of history would be making this kind of announcement….

[Thanks to David K. M. Klaus for the link.]