Timor ignorami conturbat me

Now, pay attention.

Tomorrow (my birthday, if anyone's interested) "noted physicist Dr. Franklin Felber will present his new exact solution of Einstein's 90-year-old gravitational field equation to the Space Technology and Applications International Forum (STAIF) in Albuquerque. The solution is the first that accounts for masses moving near the speed of light." This from http://www.physorg.com/news10789.html, and too many other sites as well.

I would so love for Dr F to be onto something here. He sees us reaching speeds of 90% of the speed of light by the end of the century ... cutting the trip to Alpha Centauri to a mere 5 years (assuming you don't need to slow down before arriving), and to any habitable planet still well outside the average human lifespan, but let's not quibble. But my sceptical skiffy antennae twitch.

First, there's the basic kneejerk instinct that anything including phrases like "antigravity solutions of Einstein's theory" and sentences like "Felber's research shows that any mass moving faster than 57.7 percent of the speed of light will gravitationally repel other masses lying within a narrow 'antigravity beam' in front of it" is probably wrong.

Then there's my sceptical journalistic antennae, a tad underdeveloped but by no means atrophied. Dr F is Vice President and Co Founder of Starmark Inc, in San Diego. Starmark Inc is extremely hard to find on Google - or at least the San Diego version is. StarMark Cabinetry of Sioux Falls, South Dakota is easier. I eventually track down the San Diego company and find them listed as manufacturers of "light reconnaissance and surveillance systems, sensors and equipment for naval and aeronautics". And doubtless very good at it, too (still no website, though), but still not yer obvious candidate for sourcing revolutionary theories of antigravity propulsion.

Dr F himself, someone points out, gets less than 40 hits on Google. I've got more than that. Renowned physicists probably get more, you can't help thinking.

He is presenting his talk at STAIF, as advertised, in a session that also includes "Experimental Concepts for Generating Negative Energy in the Laboratory" and "The Alcubierre Warp Drive in Higher Dimensional Spacetime". In other words, the Analog readers' technological speculation slot.

So I have to confess I won't be holding my breath.

What is somewhat dispiriting is to find the text of the press release - issued by Starmark (not the cabinet makers), who else - reproduced without comment on far too many sites. It was brought to my attention, with much amusement, by a group of Year 11, 12 and 13 boys. They, products of the state funded English secondary education system, could spot the flaws in it. Somehow all those technical web editors out there can't.

Felber's news leaves me cold, but this makes me faintly disquieted.