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of Material Science. However, inquiries have failed to uncover These claims caught the attention of aerospace company Boeing, anyone with a similar name at the university who admits to working —_ which has been reported to be researching antigravity. on the antigravity research. Whether antigravity will ultimately be proven to exist or not, one "The controversy also appears to have shocked the Institute of thing is already clear: mainstream physics is unwilling to investi- Physics, which publishes the Journal of Physics D. Three referees gate antigravity claims in good faith. Robert L. Park, the failed to find any major flaw in the paper's claims, which if con- spokesman of the American Physical Society, made a typical com- firmed would rate as one of the greatest scientific breakthroughs in —_— ment in his What's New column in 2002 that illustrates the unscien- history. tific "theory overrides evidence" modus operandi of the physics "Gravity is the most ubiquitous force in the Universe, and no one establishment:*! has ever found any way of shielding matter from its effects. The "Why would Boeing choose to spend millions to test a ridiculous discovery of a shielding effect would have huge theoretical and claim by an obscure Russian physicist that has failed every test and commercial implications. is a physical impossibility to begin with?" "Faced with Tampere University's statement and Vuorinen's denial that he was involved, Richard Palmer, managing editor of the | THE SECOND LAW UNDER SIEGE journal, decided to put the paper on hold pending further inquiries. In simple language, the second law of thermodynamics says that, Three days later, on 9 September, Podkletnov solved the institute's in a closed physical system, useful energy decays into waste heat dilemma by withdrawing his paper. He gave no reason. But he and you can't win it back. stands by his claims: 'This is an important discovery and I don't A machine that produces, say, electrical energy from ambient want it to disappear,’ he told New Scientist. heat is impossible according to the second law, and is termed a "The paper may now never appear in any physics journal: "perpetuum mobile of the second kind". Podkletnov is said to have been put under pressure from unknown But the second law is under siege, and it may turn out that this ‘funding agencies' not to reveal any more, pending patent alleged rock-solid law of nature is only a reflection of the limita- applications. tions of 19th and 20th century engineering. "Even so, the mystery of the anti- In a paper titled "A Solid-State gravity machine lingers. What is Maxwell Demon",” D.P. Sheehan and known is that the paper had passed A.R. Putnam of the Department of scrutiny by independent experts in " i Physics and J.H. Wright of the superconductivity, and had been Why would Boeing choose Department of Mathematics and accepted by a reputable journal. to spend millions to test a Computer Science of the University of Tampere University itself concedes ridiculous claim by an obscure San Diego propose a semiconductor that Podkletnov has a good reputation device that would generate useful for research, and refuses to pass Russian physicist that has failed energy from the thermal noise of an judgement on whether the antigravity A A electronic circuit. The authors suc- machine actually works..." . every test and isa physical cessfully tested their model on a com- Podkletnov was subsequently impossibility to begin with?" mercial semiconductor simulator and thrown out of the university. But despite the controversy, NASA's estimate that the technology necessary to construct a laboratory model will be Marshall Space Flight Center in available by 2007. In their introduc- Alabama decided to investigate his tion, they write: claims.” "Over the last ten years, an unprecedented number of challenges The first attempt at replication failed, but it had been conducted have been leveled against the absolute status of the second law of without sufficient knowledge of the original experiment.” As of thermodynamics. During this period, roughly 40 papers have 2002, NASA was still working on a second attempt. appeared in the general literature, representing more than a dozen Podkletnov now says that he can generate repulsive force beams. distinct challenges; the publication rate is increasing. Recently, for According to Nick Cook: the first time, a major scientific press has commissioned a "Meanwhile, Mr Podkletnov, now based at the Moscow monograph on the subject and a first international conference has Chemical Scientific Research Centre, has taken his ideas further. been convened to examine these challenges." Last year [2001] he published another paper—backed by Giovanni One would think that, given the implications (defeating the sec- Modanese, an Italian physicist—detailing work on an ‘impulse ond "law" means nothing less than solving the human energy crisis gravity generator’ that is capable of exerting a repulsive force on all permanently), governments, corporations and the scientific estab- matter. lishment would be interested. But there is very little interest. The "Using a strong electrical discharge source and a superconducting —_ prevailing (circular) reasoning remains that machines that violate ‘emitter’, the equipment has produced a ‘gravity impulse’, Mr the second law are impossible because they would contradict the Podkletnov says, ‘that is very short in time and propagates with second law. great speed (practically instantaneously) along the line of discharge, passing through different objects without any observable loss of | ANEW PARADIGM SHIFT energy’. There is widespread belief among physicists and non-physicists "The result, he maintains, is a repulsive action on any object the alike that physics has essentially "figured out" the universe. beam hits, that is proportional to its mass. When fitted to a laser According to this "end of science" argument,™ all that remains to pointing device, Mr Podkletnov says, his laboratory installation has the great enterprise of s ce is to connect a few dots and do some already demonstrated its ability to knock over objects more than a fine-tuning. But this factory state of affairs is a mere illusion kilometre away. The same installation, he maintains, could hit Continued on page 75 objects up to 200 km away with the same power." These claims caught the attention of aerospace company Boeing, which has been reported to be researching antigravity. Whether antigravity will ultimately be proven to exist or not, one thing is already clear: mainstream physics is unwilling to investi- gate antigravity claims in good faith. Robert L. Park, the spokesman of the American Physical Society, made a typical com- ment in his What's New column in 2002 that illustrates the unscien- tific "theory overrides evidence" modus operandi of the physics establishment: "Why would Boeing choose to spend millions to test a ridiculous claim by an obscure Russian physicist that has failed every test and is a physical impossibility to begin with?" "Why would Boeing choose to spend millions to test a ridiculous claim by an obscure Russian physicist that has failed every test and is a physical impossibility to begin with?" A NEW PARADIGM SHIFT There is widespread belief among physicists and non-physicists SS ntially "figured out" the universe. According to this "end of science" argument,™ all that remains to the great enterprise of science is to connect a few dots and do some fine-tuning. But this factory state of affairs is a mere illusion 38 = NEXUS APRIL — MAY 2004 Continued on page 75 www.nexusmagazine.com