The Secret History of Anti-Gravity and Quantum Gravity Research
Important Known Events
1948
1953
- Bryce Seligman DeWitt is the first well-respected physicist to win the Gravity Research Foundation essay contest
1955
- George S Trimble, the vice president for aviation and advanced propulsion systems at the Glenn L. Martin Company, forms the Research Institute for Advanced Studies (RIAS), supervised by Welcome Bender
- July 9: Initial meeting between Bryce DeWitt and Agnew Bahnson in Raleigh, N.C
- September 7: Agnew Bahnson incorporates The Institute of Field Physics (IOFP) at UNC Chapel Hill, to be directed by Bryce DeWitt and CĂ©cile DeWitt-Morette
1957
- January 18-23: Conference on the Role of Gravitation in Physics at UNC Chapel Hill
1973
- Mansfield Amendment terminates Department of Defense funding for anti-gravity research
Relevant People
- Roger Babson
- Agnew H. Bahnson
- Bryce Seligman DeWitt
- CĂ©cile DeWitt-Morette
- Edward Witten
- Louis Witten
- Solomon Lefschetz
- Rudolf E. KĂĄlmĂĄn
- Sheldon Glashow
- Peter Higgs
Notable winners of the Gravity Research Foundation essay contest
- Bryce Seligman DeWitt (1st place, 1953)
- Richard Arnowitt and Stanley Deser (1st place, 1954)
- John Archibald Wheeler (2nd place, 1957)
- Julian Schwinger (2nd place, 1975)
- Freeman Dyson (4th place, 1962)
- Roger Penrose (2nd place, 1966; 2nd place, 1968; 1st place, 1975)
- Stephen Hawking (2nd place, 1965; 3rd place, 1966; 2nd place, 1968; 5th place, 1969; 1st place, 1971; 3rd place, 1974)
Relevant Institutions
Eric's Coverage
On X
Hi Michael,
Not updating my priors on all UFO sightings. Iâm updating my priors on âThe Golden Age of General Relativityâ, B DeWitt, L Witten, RIAS, the Martin Company, etc.â And Iâm doing it based on a government report inconsistent with the closing report of BlueBook. And you?
We have been spun. And as skeptics we have to notice the inconsistencies.
We were likely either spun this last summer, or spun at the closure of Operation BlueBook.
The whole thing sounds like total bullshit. But we also have a lot of weird stuff from real 1950s science.
Who were Babson and Bahnson? Those stories donât make much sense. Why Bryce and Cecile DeWitt and Peter Higgs in Chappell hill funded as part of a weird anti-gravity program?
Simple question: how did you tutor your priors last summer? Not at all? A tiny amount?
Skeptically, E
Videos
The Physics of UFOs: Eric Weinstein + Hal Puthoff (February 11, 2022)
Avi Loeb + Eric Weinstein: NASA gets into UAPs, Galileo Project update, and Government Competence (June 17, 2022)
Eric Weinstein Î Mick West: UAPs, Evidence, Skepticism (July 7, 2022)
Joe Rogan Experience #1945 (February 22, 2023)
References
- The Price of Gravity: Private Patronage and the Transformation of Gravitational Physics after World War II by David Kaiser & Dean Rickles
- The Role of Gravitation in Physics: Report from the 1957 Chapel Hill Conference
- Behind the scenes of the 1957 Chapel Hill Conference on the role of gravitation in physics by Dean Rickles