Physics UFO Research

Physics UFO Research
August 31, 2009
by Ed Komarek
UFO Digest

I recently asked theoretical physicist Dr. Jack Sarfatti http://www.stardrive.org/ for suggestions as to how Ray Stanford might get his excellent scientific research on Anomalous Aerial Objects published in academic peer reviewed publications.
exopolitics.blogspot.com

Jack's response was forthright and to the point. Jack said, " No mainstream physics journal will accept a UFO article. It's too non-PC. Taboo topic in mainstream academia. That's a fact. He should put his data on the WEB and be done with it. It ain't gonna happen. Tell him not to waste his time and simply put all out there and hope for the best."

More email conversations ensued and Jack elaborates, " The fact is that Ray, who has no academic credentials in physics, will not be able to publish a paper in any major physics trade journal. For example, Physical Review has an explicit policy forbidding any such topic that was triggered by Henry Stapp's very good paper on Retro-PK. All such fringe topics are verboten in mainstream physics. That's the way it is. With special effects no one will believe any videos and they are not acceptable in physics journals."

Jack continues, "Look, I have no opinion one way or the other on the value of Ray's work. The fact is he will not be able to publish it in a serious mainstream physics journal. He may be able to publish it in JBIS. I know who he is from Sirag. In fact Sirag mentions Ray in my book Destiny Matrix."

Jack responds to some comments made by Michael Horn publicizing Billy Meir. "Physicists in their professional capacity don't care about any of this. Also it's simply hearsay of no scientific interest. He said. She said etc. The sort of stuff you and Ray talk about is not the proper concern of physicists. It is essentially police/intelligence detective work. The methodology is totally different. Read George Knapp's Skin-walker book about Bigelow's Utah Ranch. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skinwalker_Ranch

Jack continues. "Only those physicists with independent means can afford to show a public interest in UFOs, paranormal and other fringe topics. Otherwise, with rare exceptions, they are out of a job in academia. The only exception are military physicists in black projects or projects funded by private money like Bob Bigelow's. Physicists only care about equations and experiments. All of this is totally "alien" to them and their concerns. Trying to publish this sort of stuff in a physics journal is a complete dead end. Wrong venue. JBIS is probably Ray's best shot. PS Even consciousness is non-PC as the history of Stapp's retro-PK paper in Phys Rev A proved."

This prompted a response by Optical Physicist Dr. Bruce Maccabee, "Jack speaks the truth regarding publication in a refereed science journal. However, in one case my attempt to publish was not a "complete dead end." In 1974 I sent an article on a UFO sighting to SCIENCE magazine. It was rejected. I had better luck 5 years later. In August, 1979, Applied Optics published my letter to the editor regarding my calculation of the brightness (power output) of an unidentified light source that was seen and detected on radar and filmed off the coast of the South Island of New Zealand during the early morning hours of Dec.31, 1978. This was the first of three letters to the editor that were published on the NZ sighting. So far as I know, after 30 years those three letters are still the only articles in a physics journal that discuss a UFO sighting. For the articles and the somewhat convoluted story of how they happened to be published, see (especially the footnote)www.brumac.8k.com/NEW_ZEALAND/NZSB.html

Bruce continues, "Years ago I presented 15 minute UFO talks at the Washington, DC symposia of the American Physical Society. The abstracts of these talks were published in the Bulletin of the APS. They were not refereed. That was in the good old days when they had a section on "cosmology" . In recent years there has been no section into which one might insert a discussion of a UFO sighting."

Michael Horn brings up Froning in relation to Billy Meir in another email and Jack responds. "Froning is not a mainstream academic physicist who publishes in serious trade journals. Astronautical engineers are not considered physicists by top-rank physicists. JBIS is not a physics journal. JBIS would be more suitable for Ray. This shows that you have no idea how the mainstream professional physics community works. It's all connected with USG and major foundation funding. UFOs, paranormal is a kiss of death for academic physicists in prestige universities and institutes like Kavli - they will not touch it with a ten foot pole. All serious funding of this is deep black hidden behind the event horizon so to speak - for obvious military hardware reasons."