Resistance

GERMAR RUDOLF, RESISTANCE IS OBLIGATORYSupport Thesis: There is additional, as yet unproven “dark matter” (anirrefutable thesis!).Consequence: The total mass of the universe is too large in order toexplain its postulated expansion.Support Thesis: In order to explain the forces that are driving the galaxiesapart, some kind of currently unprovable “darkenergy” is assumed to exist (an irrefutable thesis!).Both auxiliary theses are by definition unverifiable and thereforescientifically impermissible. However, since the alternative would be toradically question the heretofore reliable theories of gravity, we preferto seek refuge in using these argumentative crutches. 96For about a decade now, we have been collecting other, additionalobservations which also suggest that something is wrong with our conceptof gravity.For example there is the unusual flight behavior of the space probesPioneer 10 and 11, both of which were sent past the great outer planetsand beyond our solar system in the 1970s. Until quite recently, bothsatellites sent signals back to earth, and these signals allowed us to determinetheir locations. Based on these locations, it became clear thatthe probes were moving away from the sun more slowly than calculationshad predicted. Astronomers then suspected that something reallywas amiss with our concept of gravity. For this reason, scientists arenow planning to launch a probe into deep space specifically constructedin order to measure gravity there. 97And then there is the case of the Russian physicist Evgeni Podkletnov,who in the mid 1990s, in a Finnish research laboratory conductingexperiments with high temperature superconductors, coincidentallyobserved an effect that really should not have occurred.Podkletnov rotated, at high speed, discs through which electricity wasflowing under conditions of superconductivity. By coincidence he happenedto notice that objects placed above the rotating superconductingdiscs were losing weight. When he first released the reports on his researchconcerning the creation of gravity beams, this did not lead to asensation but rather to his shunning. In fact, he even lost his position fora time, thanks to a campaign of character assassination. However, since9697See Pedro G. Ferreira, Glenn D. Starkman, “Einstein’s Theory of Gravity and the Problem ofMissing Mass,” Science, 326, 6 Nov. 2009, pp. 812-815.Rudolf Kipphahn, “Die Schwerkraft in der Krise?,” Sterne und Weltraum, 6 (2006), pp. 42f.75