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The Antigravity Enigma - Andrew May ****

Antigravity - the ability to overcome the pull of gravity - has been a fantasy for thousands of years and subject to more scientific (if impractical) fictional representation since H. G. Wells came up with cavorite in The First Men in the Moon. But is it plausible scientifically? 

Andrew May does a good job of pulling together three ways of looking at our love affair with antigravity (and the related concept of cancelling inertia) - in science fiction, in physics and in pseudoscience and crankery. As May points out, science fiction is an important starting point as the concept was deployed there well before we had a good enough understanding of gravity to make any sensible scientific stabs at the idea (even though, for instance, Michael Faraday did unsuccessfully experiment with a possible interaction between gravity and electromagnetism).

We then get onto the science itself, noting the potential impact on any ideas of antigravity that come from the move from a Newtonian view of a force acting at a distance to Einstein's picture of an interaction between mass and space time, which it is harder to see could be manipulated using a piece of technology. Here we see the way that some speculative science has failed to result in any practical outcome, and where theoretical often depends on the existence of negative mass/negative energy, which has never been observed.

Both of these chapters, though very informative, are quite dry - I particularly enjoyed the next chapter where May moves on to address the pseudoscience and conspiracy theories that surround antigravity, especially when tied in with UFOs. Many believers think UFOs make use of gravity modification technology to allow physically unlikely movements, and that governments have secretly acquired this ability from crashed UFOs (though, as is pointed out, you might expect us to be aware of the applications by now).

In a final chapter, May looks at what we know and where gaps in our knowledge are. He rightly points out the tendency of established science to stick with an existing paradigm until forced to change, so most scientists won't give the time of day for even investigating antigravity claims (to be fair, many would say life is too short to look into every crank concept). We also see how the well-known incompatibility between our theory of gravitation and quantum physics makes it possible that we are wrong about gravity, perhaps leaving a small window of opportunity for there really to be antigravity.

It seems clear that May wishes that such a window would open. One of the most interesting aspects of the book was his description of his own role, when working for a government department that touched on giving the go-ahead for antigravity research. I'm less sanguine about the way the final chapter also strays into the claims of the likes of Uri Geller, when describing paranormal claims for levitation. (Geller, as far as I'm aware has never claimed to levitate, but does indulge in psychokinesis in his spoon bending.) I was disappointed there as no mention of the well-documented trickery employed by Geller, including the failings of the infamous Targ and Putoff SRI experiments, and caught cheating on camera in a TV show. There's good reason to include a mention of paranormal claims of levitation in assessing the psychology of our desire for antigravity, but I don't think you need to be scientifically biased to accept that stage trickery is not good evidence for anything.

Overall, this short book is a rational look at the possibilities of antigravity and its place (fictional and otherwise) in our culture.

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