Question: What is your opinion on the em drive?

Sinead Balgobin answered on 9 Nov 2015:

Interesting question! As a scientist it is hard to look at something like the em drive without having to question my own understanding of science. The em drive is supposed to work without any fuel- without anything to start it. But this disagrees with how we understand physics: “for every action, there must be and equal and opposite reaction” (Isaac Newton). We can’t just create kinetic energy (motion) from nothing, can we? There just hasn’t been enough evidence that it could work. Recently some scientists have reported that they do have some evidence, using microwaves, but they would have to work really hard to prove that they are right.

I think it would be awesome if it did work though. Not only would it mean that we could create methods of transport that didn’t require any fuel, and could potentially transport us across the universe, but it would mean that we would have to completely rethink how we think physics works. THAT would be insane.