Monday 18 March 2013

Not so heavy after all


Professor Bullfinch, with his constant companion, Dr Grimes, spent more and more time in the laboratory testing and analyzing the anti-gravity liquid. It became clear that whatever was painted with the liquid resisted gravity and would fly out away from earth.

From Danny Dunn and the anti-gravity paint

A while ago I tried to figure out how one would best control a small black hole. It was a thought experiment, of course, but thinking about it was quite interesting. I decided that what was required was a bit of antigravity, something that made gravity push instead of pull. Should be easy, right? At the end of the day, I figured that antigravity paint would be the perfect solution to my problem.
         At first, this seemed quite far-fetched. Crazy enough that no one would have thought about it before? Not at all! In fact, the exact same idea formed the basis for the first in the series of Danny Dunn books I mentioned in an earlier post. This irked me a bit, because I (obviously) would have liked to claim the idea for myself. But, instead of writing to the patent office, I ended up ordering the out of print Danny Dunn book from 1959. Read it, enjoyed it and generally felt less grumpy about the whole thing.
         The idea of a material that repels gravity, and which can be used to propel space rockets, is obviously much older. It famously goes back to the Victorian days and H.G. Wells’ 1901 masterpiece The first men in the moon. The key to that story is a gravity blocking substance called "Cavorite” after its inventor. A similar idea was exploited even earlier, in 1894, by J.J. Astor in his book A journey in other worlds. Astor was an interesting character. Extremely rich he died on the Titanic and his book (even though it is set in outer space) provides an interesting perspective on how people in that era viewed other civilizations and cultures.
         So what exactly is antigravity? It's obviously just gravity with the sign wrong! The basic idea is to create an object that does not experience gravity. This might not seem too difficult, but gravity is quite special in that it always attracts. The basic reason is clear once you compare to electromagnetism. Electric charges come with different signs. Like signs repel, but opposites attract. In contrast, gravity only has one "charge", the mass of the object, and it is always positive. So... no repulsion. Unless you think creatively.
         The scientific quest for antigravity has had intriguing twists and turns. An entertaining angle relates to the successful businessman Roger Babson who formed the so-called Gravity Research Foundation in 1948. The aim was to study ways to reduce the effects of gravity. From the view of mainstream science the efforts were initially on the cranky side of respectable, but at the same time the Foundation arranged various conferences that were attended by quite "reasonable" people. As time passed, the Foundation turned its attention to trying to understand gravity better rather than controlling it. The main activities stopped when Babson died in 1967, but the organization is still running an annual gravity essay contest. The stated aim remains to figure out antigravity, but most of the submitted "stories" negotiate a safer territory. The prize-winning essays are often entertaining and serious in equal measure. The aim is obviously not fiction, but the essay format (and perhaps the lack of peer review) suggests a looser reign than usual. In recent years the contributions have tended to present quite serious science and you will find top quality scientists (including a Nobel laureate) among the past winners.
         I have mixed feeling about this gradual change. On the one hand, it is a positive sign that the serious side of science conquers the territory of wild speculation. At the same time, one has to be wary of group-think and the risk that everyone starts running in the same direction. Without creative thinking how do we discover the future? We had better not forget that the best ideas often seem just a bit absurd at first. I mean, think about the curved space and wonky time of Einstein's relativity. Weird and wonderful at the same time.
         In that spirit, how about this?
         Anti-gravity yoga!
         At least it would be relaxing.

Saturday 2 March 2013

Listen to the Universe


“There’s no doubt about it,” the Professor decided. “No doubt, what-so-ever. I really need to build one of those things.”
            Professor Kompressor had been following the story as it developed. With keen interest he had kept himself up to date as scientists tried to catch elusive gravity signals from outer space. He had shared their joy at the final breakthrough. This was the proof everyone had been waiting for. Space was indeed curved and time was wonky, just like Albert Einstein predicted all those years ago. The leaders of the effort had started out more than four decades earlier, fuelled by the enthusiasm of youth. Now they were old men, ready for retirement.
            It was a fascinating story. As an inventor the Professor was particularly keen on the technical aspects. The instruments that had been designed represented an amazing achievement. The task had seemed completely unreasonable, yet science had prevailed. Now he wanted to be part of it, share the adventure.
            Professor Kompressor went straight to the inventing studio and started putting his own device together. In principle, this was easy because he could follow the blueprints from the scientist’s instrument. In practice, it was almost impossible because the Professor worked on a tight budget. He had to make do with the materials that were available to him. This meant cutting corners and finding imaginative solutions, but this was just what Professor Kompressor was good at.
            The final construction did not look like much, a chaotic birds nest of cables of many different colours connecting various monitors and odd-looking control panels. Green laser light bounced off a few mirrors, while sensors monitored the distance the light had travelled. That was pretty much it.
            Without any real expectation that the device would work, the Professor flicked the power switch. He put on a pair of headphones to monitor the machine's output.
            At first all he could hear was noise.
            Then, all of a sudden... he started laughing.
            At that point Maud walked into the room. She’d heard him working from next door and wanted to ask if he would like a cup of tea. Three lumps of sugar and a splash of milk, as usual. She was surprised to find the Professor wearing a massive pair of headphones and laughing like he had just been told the best joke ever.
            “My goodness,” she started... “My dear Professor, what are you doing?”
            “Oh Maud,” the Professor answered, “I’m listening.”
            “I’m listening... to the Universe.”
            "And it’s amazing...”