Gravity, anti-gravity and UAP

Hi all,

A new science books mentions UAP:

I have just been reading a new book by Brian Clegg (click here) titled "Gravity: How the Weakest Force in the Universe Shaped our Lives." (Published by St Martin's Press. New York. 2012. ISBN 978-0-312-61629-8.)

It's a fascinating review of the history of our knowledge of gravity, from the earliest days right up to the present day. In the book you will read about Newton, Einstein and others; of a variety of theories including string theory (click here)  and loop quantum gravity ( click here;) and a range of astronomical bodies.

Naturally, in a book about gravity, there is talk of antigravity:

"The whole idea of antigravity is a science-fiction favourite and a frequent topic of discussion for UFO fans and conspiracy theorists alike...It usually isn't enough for those who want such antigravity technology to be real to stick to simple descriptions of experiments and theories. They inevitably suspect conspiracies. If, as they believe, such technology exists, then the government must be aware of it, and will make use of it. So, for instance we see suggestions that the UFO-like B2 bomber uses antigravity technology to give it extra manoeuvrability...it is often suggested that flying disks powered by antigravity have been constructed in secret by the military ever since the second world war, perhaps based on research carried out in Nazi Germany. The story goes that these craft are responsible for the prevalence of stories of disk shaped flying saucers...

This particular conspiracy theory is highly unlikely to have any merits. Apart from anything else, the term "flying saucer" came from a newspaper report of a sighting of some unusual craft by U.S. pilot Kenneth Arnold in 1947. Arnold did not say at the time that the craft he saw were saucer shaped. Instead he said that they moved erratically, 'like a saucer if you skip it across the water.' The term was coined by newspaper headline writers and readers mistakenly assumed that the "saucer" part referred to the shape of the craft. Sightings of saucer shaped UFOs started shortly after the term started to be used in the press...Although conspiracy theorists delight in the idea that somewhere, top secret defense establishments have produced working antigravity technology, it seems unlikely that it is true. There would be too many commercial uses, making too many billionaires, for the secret to be hidden away completely...

Such technology simply could not be kept locked away indefinitely of there were any real benefit behind the hype and military intelligence smokescreens...Those who believe antigravtity technology has been around for many years often point back to secret research undertaken by the Germans...For the moment, then, antigravity seems to be best consigned to science fiction and to the conspiracy theorists..." (pp250-180.)

Comment:

I certainly didn't expect such a lengthy mention of UAP in a straight science book about gravity. The reference to  Arnold's 'craft' not being saucer shaped is something that even books written by UAP enthusiasts sometimes don't mention.

There are many websites with information about antigravity and UAP ( e.g. click here.)