What Drives a Retired Machinist's Curiosity in Science and Innovation?

[Rad Manfred]

I retired from mundane jobs. I now read about things of interest such as but not limited to energy conservation and discoveries. I've liked science all my life .Stopped going to college but completed 2 semesters of calculus and 2 semesters of Chemistry many years ago.
I have 17 years experience in machining .So I read prints and thanks to high school electronics I am familiar with schematics.The electronics course had one chapter on transistors but lots of phase angle equations and ohms law.
I make things sometimes for myself and others .
I have 2 projects on reducing electricity usage that are low tech.
During the first gulf war I saw an engineer convert a CNC mill to deposit a thin stack of wax in a vertical column.Then not long after that they made a prototype part using some kind of rigid plastic .We were in the model shop at Texas Instruments .This was early development of additive manufacturing .I was amazed that the engineer could set that up on that 3 axis mill without wrecking it. I worked on a 5 axis mill making fiberglass cores for the electromagnets for the large Hadron Collider . I guess they were prototypes possibly not even full scale ,made from about 4 inch diameter green Fiberglass thick walled tubes . They made a lot of dust when we shaped the curved path that I assume was to be the surface the wire was wound on.
I remember when I saw the first video of a college student flying a quad rotor outside a college somewhere .I immediately knew that it was something very important even though it didn't do much more than fly level
What am I seeing now that seems to be interesting?
LENR (lattice enabled) I hope they have funding now.
Em drive somehow captured my attention when I first saw the cone shaped black and white drawing a few years ago. The nano scale discoveries are probably as important but I can't say which is most important .
I have a rudimentary understanding of quantum mechanics perhaps less than rudimentary. Before I stopped going to school I had 2 semesters of calculus and 2 semesters of chemistry .
I experiment and perhaps I may have an interesting observation some day .
I can't say right now what Questions I may have.

 

[NascentOxygen]

Hi Rad Manfred.

 

[Rad Manfred]

Hi Rad Manfred.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

 

[Rad Manfred]

Thanks for the greeting.After joining this forum I realized I am most interested in finding ways to put things to a practical use.I try to encourage the younger people I know .The best student in my calculus 2 class was from Australia. Perhaps you might know the answer to my latest question.
Have they melted metal such as nickel or palladium in low gravity .I am wanting to know if the structure of the atoms was spaced farther apart after they cooled off and formed a solid in low gravity.Perhaps the structure had 2 atoms close together then 2 farther apart.

 

[Rad Manfred]

Would the palladium or nickel that solidified in low gravity be less dense than metals that became solids on earth

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Would the palladium or nickel tha solidified in low gravity be less dense than metals that became solids on earth

Please post your questions in the appropriate forum :)