Vallee on Sturrock - part two

In May 1972, famed French researcher Aime Michel visited Vallee. "I introduced him to Peter Sturrock, who started arguing about UFOs. I tried Poher's recent argument on Peter.

"If one assumes that these objects can bring their mass down to zero, don't you think a lot can be explained? No sonic boom, time relativity effects, ionization..." Peter smiled.

"Next Aime tried Plantier's theory. Again, Peter shook his head skeptically. 'You're looking in the wrong direction,' he said softly. 'Antigravity, electromagnetisim, relativity, magneto-hydrodynamics, all that is irrelevant. What's at stake is much more fundamental.'

"'More fundamental than relativity?' asked Aime, looking around him to make sure he was actually speaking to a Stanford professor."

"He seemed reassured by the long shelves loaded with physics publications, the photographs of the solar corona on the walls. 'That may be a shock for your physics colleagues,' he continued. 'It won't be a shock,' Peter said in his restrained English manner, 'only a revolution.'" (p.133.)

Sep 1972. "Peter Sturrock has written a proposal for the evaluation of UFO phenomena. His idea is to gather a team of objective experts and bring before them the serious people who have something to say on the subject."

"I called Allen: 'Will you cooperate?' I asked. 'Peter is serious; his name carries a lot of weight.' 'I have reservations about the whoel approach, Allen answered. 'Sturrock is setting himself up as a referee for the whole field..."

"The truth is that Allen is fearful to see a scientist with greater clout emerge as a focus for the UFO community. This is a petty reaction, but Peter would have been well-advised to anticipate it, and to enlist Allen's help beforehand." (p.152.)

Continued in next post.