K. Barton All efforts to find new planets, in "habitable zones", that supports extraterrestrial life, will be a great deal for mankind, because in case of a global disaster, the long-term survival of the human race will depend on means to go away from Earth. Furthermore, the Earth's natural resources, vital to the survival and development of the human population, will not last forever due to ever growing demands of a hungry world population. I hope a new space era comes up with development of fusion-powered starship to take us to alien worlds in our lifetime. http://youtu.be/ro5-QYqqxzM jezza you lost me at antimater manofsan This story is way over-hyped. Requires Unobtainium (aka. 'exotic matter') to work? Unless these people have a way to manufacture this FasterThanLightium, then this is all just hokey nonsense dressed up in fancy language designed to get grants at the taxpayer's expense. VRHdrumhead The universe is out there and whether people want to believe it or not, whether we like it or not. The prolonged existence of mankind is dependant on our ability to expand past our solar system. This research may seem trivial right now... but without these theories, without the research no technological advances would be possible. Consider the size of the first vacuum computers and compare them to now a day computers you see a drastic difference in size, power requirements, output capacity etc. I agree the fundamental theory is simpler as we know it now but the core principle remains constant. It