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SUPPRESSED DISCOVERIES IN PHYSICS SUPPRESSED DISCOVERIES PHYSICS The "rock-solid" foundations of physics are increasingly being undermined by emerging evidence that challenges "established" theories, but the scientific orthodoxy is in denial. Part 2 of 2 DOUBTS ABOUT VALIDITY OF RELATIVITY THEORY Silvertooth's Experiment on nthe Earth's Absolute Motion na 1986 letter to Nature,“ Ernest W. Silvertooth writes that he constructed an interfer- ometer capable of detecting the absolute motion of the Earth with respect to the aether. In "Experimental Detection of the Ether" ** and "Motion through the Ether", *° Silvertooth reports that, on the particular day of his measurements, the Earth moved at 378 km/s towards the constellation Leo. If relativity is correct, then this result should be complete garbage. Silvertooth published his findings before NASA launched COBE, the first satellite to measure accurately the cosmic microwave background (CMB). Due to Doppler shift, there is a slight anisotropy in the spectrum of the CMB. Based on precise measurements of this anisotropy, it was determined that, relative to the CMB, the heliocentric frame moves at 390 km/s towards Leo. Given the Earth's orbital speed of 30 km/s, this is a very good agreement with Silvertooth's measurement. In a refined experiment, Silvertooth and Whitney” confirmed the earlier result and found a speed of v = 378 km/s. A citation search through ISI Web of Science ** reveals no references to any of Silvertooth's papers in the mainstream scientific literature. An online document” briefly mentions his work and dismisses it on the grounds that both the experiment and the theoretical analysis are flawed; but, given how well Silvertooth's result agrees with the independently determined motion of the Earth through the CMB, error seems to be an insufficient explanation. Unless Silvertooth committed outright fraud by simply making a lucky guess as to the Earth's velocity relative to the CMB and then ascribing this guess to an imaginary experiment, the inescapable conclusion would be that translation (i.e., movement with constant speed in physics) can be measured by purely electromagnetic means and that Einstein's theory of special relativity is falsified. Is the Speed of Light in Interplanetary Space a Constant? The late physicist Bryan G. Wallace discovered in 1961 that radar distance measurements of the surface of the planet Venus did not confirm the constancy of the speed of light. There were systematic variations in the radar data containing diurnal, lunar and synodic compo- nents. Attempting to get his results published in Physical Review Letters, he encountered great resistance from referees, and eventually settled for a lesser journal.* In a letter to Physics Today, Wallace summarises his findings as follows: "The 1961 interplanetary radar contact with Venus presented the first opportunity to over- come technological limitations and perform direct experiments of Einstein's second postu- late of a constant light speed of c in space. When the radar calculations were based on the postulate, the observed-computed residuals ranged to over 3 milliseconds of the expected error of 10 microseconds from the best general relativity fit the Lincoln Lab could generate, a variation range of over 30,000%. An analysis of the data showed a component that was relativistic in ac + v Galilean sense." Let's do a quick reality check here. If the speed of light in interplanetary space is non- constant, how could NASA not have noticed this in its robotic exploration of the solar system? Wallace makes the scandalous claim that NASA has noticed, and has been using equations with non-relativistic components to calculate signal transit times in the solar system all along: "At the December 1974 AAS [American Astronomical Society] Dynamical Astronomy Meeting, E. M. Standish, Jr, of JPL reported that significant unexplained systematic by Rochus Boerner © December 2003 — February 2004 Email: rochus.boerner@asu.edu Website: http:/www.suppressedscience.net/ APRIL — MAY 2004 NEXUS = 33 Email: rochus.boerner@asu.edu www.nexusmagazine.com