|
MetroCon 2004 |
Keynote Address |
|
|
The Hunt for Zero Point – Gravity, Antigravity, and Beyond Nick Cook |
Abstract: Is the mechanism of “anti-gravity” a closely held technology … where working devices will always be hidden behind an impenetrable veil of secrecy, or is it part of an emerging new science … where the tools and techniques now available for investigating matter at the nanoscale are helping to refine our understanding of physics? Perhaps it is simply part of a grand “thought experiment” … potentially useful, but empirically not demonstrable?
Although it has occupied some of the best minds of history, so far the force we call gravity has revealed itself to us only slowly and reluctantly. Is this force carried by waves? Can we explain its behavior using the familiar particle-wave duality models of modern physics? Does it have an inverse counterpart? Could such a thing as antigravity even exist?
The forces of Nature do seem to have a symmetry associated with them. There are North and South magnetic poles, positive and negative charges. Why not both a gravity and an anti-gravity?
“This phenomenon is general. Every particle in Nature has an amplitude
to move backwards in time, and therefore has an anti-particle.”
- Richard Feynman, “QED”
Many papers have been published about experiments and devices which were thought to exhibit an “antigravity” effect. But when attempts were made to duplicate these machines and to verify the effects, they seem to have ended in failure. Why is that? Is creating an antigravity device an exercise in futility, or just a really hard engineering problem?
Answering these questions is not easy. If you do a literature search, you will find that there are those in the scientific community who propose an alternative to Einstein’s “space-time curvature” theory of gravity - one based on something called Zero-Point Energy (ZPE). The Russian physicist and Nobel Prize winner Andrei Sakharov has been credited with suggesting that there could be a link between gravity, inertia, and ZPE (a fluctuating quantum force which has been claimed to explain the experimental results referred to as “the Casimir effect.”)
If ZPE exists, then perhaps antigravity does too. But where is the evidence? The claims and counterclaims, the science and pseudoscience, the myth and the reality – how can you know the truth? Who is right and who is wrong? If the ZPE theory is correct, then why don’t we have over-unity devices and antigravity machines?
“… the four stages of response to any new and revolutionary development:
1. It’s crazy! 2. It may be possible-so what? 3. I said it was a good
idea all along. 4. I thought of it first.”
- Arthur C. Clarke
Nick Cook takes us along with him on a fabulous journey as he attempts to
unravel the puzzle and answer these questions. Companions in a passionate
pursuit of engineering truth, we will get to share his experiences, understand
his frustrations, and reach our own conclusions based on the evidence as we
“…follow the data, theory be damned!”
Biography: • Nick Cook is an award-winning Aerospace and Defence journalist with a career spanning over 20 years. A four-time winner of the prestigious Royal Aeronautical Society Aerospace Journalist of the Year Award in the Defence, Business, Propulsion and Technology categories, he has been a regular commentator on defence and security issues. His views and analysis were sought by UK, US and other world news media during the 1991 and 2003 wars against Iraq, and major conflicts in between.
• From 1987 to 2001, he was Aerospace Editor of Jane’s Defence Weekly, the world’s leading International Defence Journal, after which he became Key Representative of their Aerospace Consultancy. His impeccable credentials have gained, and still gain him access to the world’s leading defence establishments. During his career, he has visited numerous top secret military bases in the US and former Soviet Union. Nick Cook’s groundbreaking, exclusive stories forJane’s have included reports on Russian secret weapons, a second classified operation to rescue US hostages in Iran and more recently US defence industry involvement in anti-gravity technology. All made headlines around the world.
• Nick Cook is also a highly successful book author and documentary film-maker.
o His ground-breaking book The Hunt For Zero Point, published by Century Random House in the UK in 2001 and Broadway Books in the US in 2002, details his ten-year investigation into efforts to crack the Holy Grail of aerospace propulsion: anti-gravity technology. The book reached No.1 in the Amazon.com non-fiction chart and no.3 on the general list.
o Other works by Cook include: Angel Archangel and Aggressor and a number of ghost written books including The Sunday Times Bestseller Sabre Squadron.
o His television credits include a two-hour documentary, written and presented by him for The Discovery/Learning Channel, called Billion Dollar Secret which detailed for the first time the secret inner workings of America’s classified weapons establishment.
• Cook has a degree in Arabic and Islamic Studies from Exeter University
and lives in London. He continues to be a regular contributor to the Financial
Times in London and writes extensively for other national and international
media.