Zero_Introduction.txt

Copyright 2015 Hamilton Carter

Science fiction and science aren’t so far apart as some might have you believe.  This book celebrates the mysteries of science.  Many of the stories in this book will seem fanciful, but they’re not.  Rather than providing stock, cut-and-dried answers to well understood questions, my intention is to provide you with both the scientific apparatus and the contextual background of the history of physics in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.  The tone of the book is intended to be one of sheer joy in the pursuit of an exciting and mysterious subject.  You’ll be shown the delight of discovery as well as the beauty of the mystery even when no discoveries are in sight.  Because of the intentional tone, you’ll often see expressions within the book that you might associate with fiction, “but the tale dodges around a different corner here”, “the relations of the many characters are interwoven across a scaffolding of scholarly as well as industrial institutions.”  Have no fear and no confusion however, everything in this book is a historical retelling of events that happened, science that was performed, and bonds that were made between disparate regimes of science as well as disparate personalities.  
Science Extras
This book is written for the general public with the hopes of inspiring a deeper interest in the sciences.  With luck, a few readers may even decide, or have already decided, to pursue careers in the sciences themselves.  To this end, in addition to the stories of science on the fringe and in the trenches, you’ll also find two types of sidebars in many of the chapters. The first kind of sidebar titled, “Digging Deeper”, will provide more in depth explanations of the science in the section.  These sidebars will begin with a high level description of the science at hand diving deeper and deeper into the meat of the problem.  They’re intended for readers who want to get a real feel for the work involved in the field.  As the sidebar descends to finer and finer detail, feel free to dodge out to the rest of the story once you’re reached your scientific comfort level. Or, you could stick around for the rest of the ride.  You might be surprised by what you pick up.  the second type of sidebars will be titled, “So You’d Like to be a Scientist”.  These sidebars will point out the academic tools readers should cultivate in school if they plan on entering the field.  Skills developed in middle school, high school, and undergraduate curricula will be pointed out.  The goal here is to emphasize why some seemingly nonsensical, or boring portions of requisite classes, will become crucial later on in a scientists academic career.
The Stories
The Hunt for Zero Point One
We’ll start with this episode in the epic search for anti-gravity  because it illustrates the interplay between the fringe and mainstream science so nicely.  This story also introduces many of the players in our tale in a concise manner and provides a scaffolding against which other characters can be introduced as our tale proceeds.
Bryce DeWitt Fringe Inspiration
Bryce DeWitt is one of the best known physicists in general relativity.  He appears in a number of incongruent fringe physics episodes as well.  His career received its first major boost when he won first place in an anti-gravity essay contest.  He popularized, (among physicists at any rate), the many world theory of quantum mechanics.  His paper on superconductors and the Earth’s gravitomagnetic field would later be referenced by many physicists studying claims of gravity shielding via superconductors.  He and Thomas Townsend Brown shared a benefactor in the person of one Agnew Hunter Bahnson Jr.  
This chapter interweaves several stories that tell how DeWitt’s papers, through no conscious effort on his part, wound up as some of the most-quoted bastions of the fringe physics anti-gravity movement; and how the DeWitts work is linked to the Higgs boson.  For extra added flavor, there’s also a fusion bomb powered spaceship.
The Radar Labs
The roots of many of the tales in this tome reach back in history to World War II.  Almost everyone knows about the scientific hotspots related to the Manhattan Project.  Fewer people realize that radar technology was born during that war as well.  Several of the scientists discussed in this book cut their teeth working at MITs Radiation Laboratory, and Harvard’s associated radar lab.  Associations between scientists were formed at these labs that lasted well into the ‘50s and ‘60s.  In this chapter we look at how the labs were instrumental in producing scattering theory, quantum electrodynamics, and a radar scientist who became and adventurer putting his money where his mouth was, testing his labs radar equipment by flying on bombing runs over war-torn Europe.
Robert Forward: Gravity Scientist and Science Fiction Author
Dr. Forward invented many forward-looking space technologies, like the space elevator.  He was also a respected science fiction author.  At the crossroads of fringe and mainstream physics, perhaps one his most notable achievements was publishing two journal articles with the heretical term ‘anti-gravity’ in the title.
Forward’s career beginning with the work he did while still Joseph Weber’s graduate student is related.  We’ll see how he worked among engineers to popularize an approximate method of solving Einstein’s equations.  Find out how his work as Joseph Weber’s graduate student led to the gravity detectors he designed for Hughes Satellite during the 1960s.  We’ll also reveal the circumstance that brought forward into contact with DeWitt, who acknowledged Forward’s participation with his oft-referenced superconductor as gravitomagnetic field detector work.
The Strange Tale of Agnew Hunter Bahnson Jr.
This book’s coyote figure is Agnew Hunter Bahnson Jr.  The son of a wealthy industrialist from the south, Bahnson grew up with a passion for science and an impetuous will to take matters into his own hands that resulted in his being linked to many of the stories in this volume.  
He was linked in a far more than indirect manner with both the birth of radar aircraft detection and with the foundational work on the Higgs Boson.