Everything We Know is Wrong

Have you heard about the Pioneer anomaly? Over the years since the two Pioneer space probes were launched, they have drifted off their expected flight path. Other satellites and probes have experienced other anomalous gravitational effects that have yet to be explained.

One researcher believes he may have solved part of the riddle. But as this article says, according to Newtonian laws of motion, these spacecraft should not be so far off course, even with the effects these scientists have apparently discovered which, at most, might account for 30% of the drift. The other 70% remains unknown, and not even their theory can explain the ways other probes have been affected.

"We would expect the two spacecraft to follow Newton's law of gravity," Dr. Turyshev said, "but they in fact fail to confirm Newton's law. If Newton is wrong, Einstein is wrong too."

I was thinking of the Pioneer Anomaly when I wrote Everything We Know is Wrong, which was just published in the May edition of Nature Physics. Because stories in the Futures series are limited to 950 words, I wasn't able to go into detail about the theory behind the story. So I'll try to explain it here.

First let me say I'm no physicist, so take it for granted that I'm oversimplifying things.

The story began one cold January morning when it occured to me that the weather we were experiencing was unusually cold, but it would have been perfectly normal weather for a higher altitude. That led me to think, perhaps global warming could be explained in terms of altitude, or more precisely, a shrinking or expanding atmosphere.

So what could cause the entire atmosphere to shrink or expand? Gravity, but only if gravity were not constant.

But of course, gravity is constant. So I asked myself, "Self, how do we know gravity is constant?" Because we can measure it and compares those measurements to a long history of data. Gravity never changes. But if it were changing in tiny, gradual increments over say a period of decades or a century, would we notice? Wouldn't we just recalibrate our instruments to account for the anomaly? Wouldn't we doubt ourselves before we doubted gravity? The only way we could detect variable gravity is by using a tool we couldn't recalibrate, like, for instance, a distant space probe. If gravity were not constant, our distant space probes wouldn't be flying as expected. And that appears to be what is happening.

So what would cause gravity to fluctuate? Electricity fluctuates. Magnetism fluctuates. Electricity and magnetism are linked forces - move a magnet through a coil of wire and you create electricity. Move an electrical current through a coil of wire and you create magnetism.

But gravity stands alone, right? And the source of gravity has never been explained. You can't make gravity, and you can't make it disappear. It has no comparitive force, the way electromagnetism does. Or does it?

What if there were a force or energy that, when an object is moved through it, generates gravity in that object? Lets call it Ether, in a nod to fringe science. And what if a moving gravitational field generates Ether? Just like magnetism and electricity, gravity and ether would be variable according to velocity, mass, atomic structure, and all kinds of other conditions.

Because gravity is such a weak force at small scale, it is easiest to study it at the cosmic scale. Here we have all these large celestial bodies moving through space generating Ether, which in turn affects gravity, but in any relatively small celestial area, such a solar system, where most of the gravitational sources move in defined pathways, the gravitation constant would seem relatively constant. Changes to it would be small and gradual for the most part. But the solar system is also moving, oscillating up and down through the plane of the galaxy, and therefore, through areas of greater and lesser gravitation/ether density. So periodically you would see larger, more dramatic changes in gravity.

But even if gravity did change, we'd be unlikely to notice it, because we assume gravity is constant. If gravity were not constant, it literally would change everything we know about the universe. We could no longer trust any of our observations about anything beyond our very small piece of the universe. Jim Morrison said, Out here in the perimeter, there are no stars. Out there in the depths of space, gravity could be wildly different than it is here at home. And rather than doubt the gravitational constant, we would be coming up with ever more exotic physics to explain things that don't make sense. When the simplest explanation, that gravity is not constant, would not only explain many things that don't seem to make sense, like Jupiter-sized planets orbiting stars at Mercury distances, it would also explain things like the Pioneer Anomaly and global warming and ice ages and the extinction of wooly mammoths and dinosaurs (i.e. they didn't disappear, they just got smaller and turned into birds, because a change in gravity selected for smaller animals) and why we have earthquakes on December 26th.

But of course, if you accept the idea that gravity might not be constant, you also have to accept the idea that we can't know anything about anything except our own small corner of the universe.

So my story isn't just about variable gravity or about ways you could detect a change in gravity if it were variable, it's also about whether we'd be willing to accept that everything we know is wrong.

'Nother Sign O' the End Times

The Vatican says belief in aliens is cool with them. No problemo.

Hmmm, I wonder why.

Why Isn't This on the News?

Did I miss something, or did the price of cooking oil pretty much double over the last week?

Eat a Peach

Ashley Wynn was one of the first people to ever write to me about any of my books. The first time was when she was still an English major at the University of Arkansas, Monticello. She enjoyed my books. She enjoyed the way I wrote gully dwarves in The Rose and the Skull.

Ashley wanted to be a writer, too. We talked about writing, about the processes, the frustrations, the joys. She loved to read, and once she sent me some books she thought I would enjoy. I did enjoy them. She had excellent taste in fiction, and I don't say that just because she liked my books.

One day, she surprised me with the news that she had become a mom. So we began talking about parenting and kids and the joys and terrors that come with them.

When I started this blog, Ashley became, really, my only semi-regular commentor.

A few months ago, Ashley told me she was going to be a mom again.

Today, I got an email from her significant other, Jeremy, telling me that on April 10th, Ashley gave birth to a little girl. But Ashley herself is no longer with us.

Ashley was so young, so alive. She loved her son. She loved Jeremy. She loved a rousing good story. And now she's gone. Just that quick.

I never got to meet Ashley. I wish now I had made the time to do so. She lived in Arkansas and even came to Memphis on occassion. I should have made the time, for her, and for myself.

I am reminded of an apocryphal story about the death of guitarist Duane Allman. He died in a motorcycle crash at the age of 24. Duane was one of the best guitar players around and was well on his way to immortal fame and glory. After his death, the Allman Brothers released an album called Eat a Peach that had a peach truck on the album cover, and thus the legend was born that Duane had been killed when his motorcycle hit a peach truck.

The story isn't true, but the legend of Duane Allman's peach truck led to an observation that is true. This observation, or philosophy of life, was made by another person I've never met but who I consider to be a friend - Bartcop. Bartcop says, you never know when you're going to meet a peach truck with your name on it. So while you're here, eat a peach.

Or to borrow from T. S. Eliot, dare to eat that peach, Mr. Prufrock. Don't measure out your life with teaspoons. Don't be afraid of the mess. Don't be afraid to bite the fuzz. Inside a peach life is sweet and beautiful. Bite! Bite and let the juice run down your chin.

While you still have the chance, hug your friends. While you still have the chance, kiss the ones you love. While you still have the chance, grab your kids and hold them tight and tell them you love them and always will, no matter what.

Don't wait to meet the people you want to meet - find a way. Don't wait to be who you really want to be - find a way. Don't wait to make the world a better place - find a way.

While you still have the chance, eat a peach.

Eat a peach for peace.

I Am Iron Man

I saw Iron Man last night. Yes, it's getting some good hype, but it deserves the hype.


Iron Man is definitely the best superhero movie so far. Better than any of the Spiderman movies and the X-Men movies, and so much better than Fantastic Four that whoever made Fantastic Four should have to wear paper bags over their heads from now on.


Robert Downey Jr. is a surprisingly good Tony Stark. He dominates the screen much in the way Jack Nicholson dominated the scenes in Batman. Although the movie also has big names like Gwynneth Paltrow and Jeff Bridges, those rolls could have been filled by pretty much anyone and you wouldn't be able to tell the difference. The product placements were particularly annoying (Caesar's Palace and Burger King, I'm talking to you). But Downey definitely makes this movie worth seeing.

If I have one complaint, it's that the final confrontation was weak. The bad guy goes from being a greedy monster to a complete monster, going out of his way to try to kill a family in a minivan for no understandable reason at all except, you know, he's really evil and deserves whatever Iron Man is about to do to him.

But it's not unforgiveably bad, and again, I have to hand it to Robert Downy Jr. for being able to do the best with a less-than-stellar plot built largely on stereotypical characters and situations.