Copasetic Flow

 I came across this video from one of the history of physics talks I gave at a conference while still in grad school. It's come up in our converstations around here because the oldest kid and I have started work again on a book all about fringe physics fans—read millionaires—in the 19502 funded actual physics in addition to their antigravity shennanigans. We're breaking out all my old history of physics research and getting back into it. I'll keep you posted on how things go. We're workign on a mystery movie style murder board detailing the connections between all the people involved. You'll see some of the connections in the video above. We'll be talking more about other connections soon. In the mean time, here's a primer I on all of this wrote for theMarySue.com a few years back. Weird aside: My byline has been replaced by the name of my editor from back in the day when I wrote the primer I mentioned and linked to above. Fortunately, my bio's still ...

"Sure," I hear you saying, "Michael Gladych is cool and all, but what does this have to do with the history of physics?" Read on and find out how Gladych reported on the events that would fund Higgs Particle research as well as the relativistic framework that inspired the Alcubierre drive. The same events that inspired Nick Cook's antigravity classic, "The Hunt for Zero Point" The article that brought Mike Gladych to the attention of fringe physics buffs everywhere, “The G-Engines are Coming”, appeared in its first incarnation in the pages of the November, 1956 issue of American Modeler.  The article begins with the bold assertion that nuclear airplanes will be made obsolete—by the artificial control of gravity—before they ever leave the design phase.  It then goes on to state that many aircraft companies were currently engaged in the study of the control of gravitation including: Glenn L. Martin Aircraft Co., Convair, Bell Aircraft, Lear, Inc.,...

Scientific research in post-war America during the 1950s and ‘60s as seen through the eyes and life of ace fighter pilot turned science journalist, Michael Gladych, reveals a time when scientific possibilities were grander and fairly dripped with the promise of sci-fi style adventure.    Michael Gladych enters our story in the “The Hunt for Zero Point” , the fringe physics classic, by Nick Cook:  “The strapline below the headline proclaimed: "By far the most potent source of energy is gravity. Using it as power, future aircraft will attain the speed of light." It was written by one Michael Gladych…” Gladych, portrayed by Cook as merely the random author of a science journalism article , (figure 1), rapidly fades from the story amidst numerous claims of government and aerospace industry conspiracies to cover-up the ‘true’ anti-gravity programs of the 1950s. Ironically, Gladych is a far more interesting, and ‘true-to-life’ character than any of the...

Given the fascinating history of the author, I was very excited to read the book.  Agnew Hunter Bahnson Jr. is featured in the near sci-fi non-fiction book, "The Philadelphia Experiment".  A wealthy industrialist that fancied himself a potential astronaut, Bahnson funded fringe physics projects, (that's how he landed in The Philadelphia Experiment"), as well as mainstream general relativity research, (he raised the funds to sponsor the Institute for Field Physics at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill). More on Agnew's history" The book alas, did not live up to the author.  While the story is more interesting if you allow yourself the gratuitous fantasy that Bahnson was dreaming about the ship he himself hoped to build, that's about all the book has to offer.  He had a potentially spectacular female character, a pilot the equal of the book's main character.  Unfortunately, Bahnson squandered her, using only as a romantic prop.  It...

So, this is cool!  As I've mentioned here before [1], the painting shown below depicts the namesake of Agnew Hunter Bahnson Jr., (author of The Stars are Too High).  I've also mentioned that Agnew's cousin, Dr. Henry T. Bahnson, is named after their shared grandfather that Dr. Agnew, depicted in the painting below, operated on.  I've even mentioned that Dr. Bahnson worked with Dr. Blalock who originated the life-saving blue-baby surgical technique along with Dr. Vivien Thomas.  Now, here's the cool new stuff!  A movie, "Stomething the Lord Made", that treated the relationship between Dr. Blalock, and his surgical assistant Dr. Thomas was produced by HBO.  In the scene immediately before the portrayal of Dr's Blalock, and Tomas' groundbreaking surgical technique, the aforementioned, painting appears in the background.  As I said, you already knew that Bahnson worked with Blalock, but did you also know that Bahnson traveled with Dr. Blalock as hi...

While doing research for an article I'm writing about Janet Tate and her Gravity Probe B experiment[4], I found a few cool things regarding superconductors, frictionless bearings, and the Egg of Columbus experiment this morning. The Egg of Columbus demonstration was first performed by Nicola Tesla in 1893 at the World's Columbian Exposition [1].  Here's a brief video from MIT showing a modern day version of the demonstration[2]: The MIT site[2] describes the apparatus as follows: "A toroid with three different wire windings is connected to 220 VAC 3-phase voltage. The voltage phase of each of the three windings lags 120 degrees behind the next, creating a changing induced magnetic field. The changing field causes metal objects to rotate when placed inside. Motors using this principle are very common. In fact, power lines are often seen in sets of three because they are carrying three phases. For more information on 3-phase voltage," Alfred Leitner made ...

Michael Heiland serendipitously took this phenomenal time lapse video of the pink space cloud reported over Arizona last week on 2/25/2015. The cloud was formed by the Air Force Research Lab's rocket-launched ionospheric research experiment .  The video was taken from Michael's perch on Mount Lemmon northeast of Tucson. Based on the timing of this video showing the appearance of the cloud pretty much coincident with sunrise, the two science questions remain unanswered. Did the substance released in the experiment react chemically with the sparse oxygen in the ionosphere causing a glow in the process, as in the first Smoke Puff experiment back in 1956[2]? Or, was sunlight responsible for ionizing the substance in the same manner as the phosphorous payload released in the Smoke Puff 2 experiment[3]? +Michael Heiland  is a bit of a phenomenon himself.  He became famous for a gorgeous  time lapse video of the Phoenix valley  he made as a high sc...

A pink cloud was reported in the early morning, (pre-sunrise), sky over Arizona on Wednesday [1]. NASA and the DOD soon thereafter took credit for the cloud.  They had launched a rocket into the ionosphere where it released a vapor that created the cloud.  The purpose of the experiment was to study the effects of the vapor on the ionosphere itself.  The article, referenced above from ABC, said: "The experiment, which also involved using ground stations to take measurements of the ionosphere, was intended to develop scientific explanations for ionospheric disturbances and their effects on modern technology, officials said." This has all been done before [2] as it turns out!  In 1956 the Air Force launched two missiles from White Sands Missile Range with payloads of nitric oxide.  The gas released in the ionosphere created a glowing cloud described as being ' yellow-red '[3] in color.  They were studying the ionosphere as well, which, back in 195...

Did you ever wonder if there was any 'real science' behind the subject matter of shows like 'Ancient Aliens'? There is! Yesterday I came across these two articles[1][2] by Dr. Virginia Trimble: UC Irvine astronomy professor and science historian. The first article was written by Dr. Trimble when she was still an undergrad at UCLA. It detailed her calculations showing that the constellation Orion was visible through the 'so called air shaft' of Cheops pyramid when it was constructed. The second article was an excellently written and fun to read review of the a 1979 "Symposium on the Implications of Our Failure to Observe Extraterrestrials " The symposium was attended by luminaries such as Freeman Dyson and Bracewell. Among other topics, there were discussions of how many planets were available that could support life. It gives a nice historical perspective on today's post from John Baez [3] References 1. "Astronomical Investigation Conc...

How a car accident in 1936 turned physicist, David Tressel Griggs, into WWII radar test pilot who ferried other scientists to the European front to capture Nazi atom bomb scientists. Here's what I already knew: Agnew Hunter Bahnson Jr., in a rather indirect manner, provided both the airplane and the test pilot used by MIT's Radiation Lab to test a new WWII technology, radar.  In 1936, Bahnson, who was a resident of a Harvard dormitory, took one of his geophysicist dorm-mates, David Tressel Griggs on a hiking trip through the Caucasus Mountains.  The Caucasus range connects the Black Sea with the Caspian Sea.  Bahnson's and Grigg's hiking trip ended before it even began, however, when Agnew swerved off the road to miss a bicyclist and struck a tree[1].  Griggs narrowly missed losing both of his legs to amputation. Hunter's father had taken out an insurance policy for the trip.  Grigg's used his payment to purchase a Luscombe airplane.  His injured legs ...

Summary of what's gone on before .  In the previous set of notes from the 6th, (there were no notes on the 7th), it was pointed out that the 'convenient' comment on page 11 of the notes was to cryptic.  Today's entire half hour was spent figuring out the following derivation that sprang from the convenient comment.  We want to derive: $\epsilon_{ijk}\epsilon_{lmk} = \delta_{il}\delta_{jm} - \delta_{im}\delta_{jl}$ Here's what to do.  First remember sum notation gives you $\epsilon_{ijk}\epsilon_{lmk} = \epsilon_{ij1}\epsilon_{lm1} + \epsilon_{ij2}\epsilon_{lm2} +\epsilon_{ij3}\epsilon_{lm3}$ Here's the first use of the big trick for the day.  Because of the properties of the Levi-Civita symbol, $\epsilon_{ijk}$, on the indices 2 and 3 will make the first term non-zero, while only the pairs 1,3 and 1,2 will make the other two terms non-zero.  Once any of these combinations is chosen however, the other two terms will vanish.  Given that, let's g...

If you can sneak away this afternoon and you want to see a fascinating history of physics video, this is the one!  This is a recording of the history roundtable at last December's 50th anniversary meeting of the  Texas Symposium on Relativistic Astrophysics.  The speaker include in no particular order: Roger Penrose Wolfgang Rindler Charles Misner Louis Witten Cecile DeWitt-Morette Joshua Goldberg Ezra Ted Newman and Roy Kerr, and those are just the ones I can remember off the top of my head. The agreed upon format was that each speaker had two or three minutes to introduce themselves and then the moderator would ask questions.  Fortunately, the format was completely abandoned!  What followed was over two hours of each speaker recounting their favorite stories about the history of relativistic astrophysics.  The whole video is worth watching.  Here's a link to the video on youtube queued to the beginning of Louis Witten's talk.  He ...

*Physics, Phyne Art and Physicians* The +Google Art Project is featuring one my favorite artists today, Thomas Eakins[1].  He's not my favorite because of his rather colorful life, (see [1] it' entertaining), or even because of his art as such. Although, I have to admit, I'm quite fond of his sailboat pictures, see below, and [2]!  Nope, as it turns out, Eakins has a connection to both fringe and mainstream science through the person of one Agnew Hunter Bahnson Jr. Agnew Hunter Bahnson was a wealthy North Carolina industrialist who funded both fringe physicists like Thomas Townsend Brown and mainstream quantum gravity researchers.  He was the driving force behind the formation of the Institute for Field Physics at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.  The institute was direted by Bryce and Cecile DeWitt and Peter HIggs of Higgs boson fame did some of his work there. But, what does any of this have to do with Thomas Eakins and his art?  The stor...

Picture 1 is taken from Villard's report[5] on long delay echoes (LDEs) There's lots of science out there still to be done, even in age old hobby of ham radio.  In one of my recent posts, I talked about Operation Smoke Puff, and experiment that bounced radio signals off a man-made cloud of ions to a distant receiver.  The project was sponsored by the military with hopes of being able to provide longer distance radio communications by creating a made-to-order skip path. As it turns out, radio signals and the ionosphere are quite capable of providing long distance communications paths all by themselves, for folks who don't happen to own a missile launcher.  In some cases, a signal can be made to transmit around the entire planet.   Many amateur radio operators have experienced the phenomenon of round-the-world radio skips where the transmitted signal continues to bounce, completing a path that spans the globe and arrives back at the station.  The radio opera...

There's an ongoing effort to save HAARP from the demolition block [4], and as it inevitably does in all matters HAARP, the topic of chemtrails came up.  Chemtrails are by and large considered to be an urban legend, but like all good legends, it turns out there's more than a trace of truth embedded in the story  Perhaps the chemtrail legend has propagated so well because the ham radio community at large was involved in the first experiment that might have blossomed into the chemtrail mythos.  During a magical period, in the mid '50s  the United States Air Force experimented with augmenting the performance of the ionosphere, (think HAARP), by creating airborne clouds of particulate reflectors, (think chemtrails). In his landmark 1958 article describing the experiment[1], author Michael Gladych, (expect to see  more about Gladych in these pages soon), first explained what the ionosphere was, first in words: "In this electronic age, everybody knows that the ion...

Penrose created visually appealing and conceptually utilitarian conformal maps of spacetime including the point at infinity for general relativity. Penrose published his first articles on diagrams with his dad, L.S. Penrose.  The article cited an M.C. Escher exhibit Penrose attended in 1954 Roger Penrose wrote over 20 books and articles referencing Escher.  You can find them all on Google Scholar When Penrose and Penrose published their first article citing Escher’s work, he hadn’t created his woodcuts of the hyperbolic plane which illustrate a conformal infinity.  By 1962 when the first Penrose diagram, (a conformal map with infinity), appears, Escher had, (1959). Escher’s woodcut is included in Penrose’s book “The Road to Reality”, and is very similar in form to Penrose’s first published conformal map of the point at infinity in spacetime. There’s an entire collection ...