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Showing reviews 66-70 of 90
 It could have been much better. November 25, 2005
David F. Mamrak (Pennsylvania)
13 out of 15 found this review helpful
Nick Cook who writes and edits for Jane's Defence had a good premise for this book. Has anyone discovered Zero Point Energy and its offshoot, anti-gravity? Ultimately, Cook doesn't really prove anything. He covers the history of the Nazi's secret technology projects during WWII at some length. It becomes clear that the US government had obtained this information and has since buried it away in numerous black projects. The one item that sticks in my mind is how Cook was so close minded about the technology he was seeking. His take was if it didn't show up in a technical journal, then the technology was highly suspect to him. He changes his tune towards the end of the book, but his mantra throughout the book is if anyone brings up the term "anti-gravity", they should be questioned for their sanity. The book should be read as a story about how our government operates in secrecy and we can never know the full truth about anything they might tell us.
Not what you'd think March 27, 2004
Joseph G. Wick (Los Angeles, California United States)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
"Antigravity" is too restrictive a subtitle. It implies the author is focusing on gravity. In fact, he focuses on a search for technology that allows flight based on principles other than chemistry and aerodynamics. He chronicles his hunt for clues to alternative technologies hinted at in the footnotes of recent history. These technologies are based upon unusual phenomena, observed and partly tamed but not understood. He believes that significant advances were made in WWII Germany and continue to be developed today in "black" government programs. There are many intriguing hints of the existence of this technology and its direction, but the description of theoretical possibilities such as "zero point energy" seem only uninformed speculation. The author is severely hampered by a lack of technical training or mindset. Yet, this is an interesting tale with lots of diverse threads woven into an intriguing picture.
Interesting, but inconclusive conjectures December 24, 2005
B. Redman (l)
9 out of 11 found this review helpful
Nick Cook's book is well written in a combined novelistic and journalistic style that makes for interesting reading. Despite the large amount of information collected, however, Cook's conclusions remain conjectures not supported by even journalistic standards of evidence, much less scientific standards.
In some cases, his conjectures are presented as facts with misleading results. For example, in the Epilogue Cook makes much of a patent being granted for the "Motionless Magnetic [sic] Generator" (the title should be "Motionless Electromagnetic Generator"), or MEG, in 2002. Cook states "...its supporters say will be the world's first commercially available free-energy home generator....The MEG is designed to provide an indefinite output of 2.5 kilowatts - enough to run a room or two in your house - by tapping into the infinite energy of the quantum sea."
Taking up the challenge in a previous review to research some of the information in the book on the web, I located the patent in question (number 6,362,718) at www.uspto.gov. In the patent, the inventors specifically deny that the MEG is a free-energy or perpetual motion device and state the following:
"Regarding thermodynamic considerations, it is noted that, when the electromagnetic generator 10 is operating, it is an open system not in thermodynamic equilibrium. The system receives static energy from the magnetic flux of the permanent magnet. Because the electromagnetic generator 10 is self-switched without an additional energy input, the thermodynamic operation of the system is an open dissipative system, receiving, collecting, and dissipating energy from its environment; in this case, from the magnetic flux stored within the permanent magnet. Continued operation of the electromagnetic generator 10 causes demagnetization of the permanent magnet. The use of a magnetic material including rare earth elements, such as a samarium cobalt material or a material including iron, neodymium, and boron is preferable within the present invention, since such a magnetic material has a relatively long life in this application.
Thus, an electromagnetic generator operating in accordance with the present invention should be considered not as a perpetual motion machine, but rather as a system in which flux radiated from a permanent magnet is converted into electricity, which is used both to power the apparatus and to power an external load."
Thus, the patent itself says that the energy is extracted from the permanent magnet which becomes demagnetized in the process. Therefore, when the permanent magnet becomes demagnetized the generator will stop functioning rather than running indefinitely as claimed in Cook's book. The energy extracted will not be more than the energy required to magnetize the permanent magnet material in the first place plus the additional energy provided by the battery to start the generator. Hence the energy is not free-energy.
This is only one example. I suggest that others interested in the subject check out some of the primary sources used by Cook, where available, and draw their own conclusions as to the accuracy of Cook's conjectures from the evidence.
I rate this book 4 stars for the writing and 1 star for accuracy of the content, resulting in an overall rating of 3 stars.
Gullibility Is a 2-Way Street October 22, 2002
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
The hostility this book generates...is interesting in itself. There seem to be many people who are absolutely certain that they can always tell the difference between "real" and "fake" science and absolutely do not want to be exposed to anything that contradicts their idea of "real" science.There may be or may not be any valid science associated with the things that Nick Cook has written about, however, it is naive to believe that the billions and billions of dollars spent by the government on secret scientific research have not turned up things that contradict many commonly accepted scientific principals. It happens almost every week in the public realm of science. There are many reasons why the government might want to keep "antigravity" and certain other discoveries out of the public realm. Preserving vested interests, as implied by Nick Cook, is only one reason but probably not the real one. Obviously, the public's ingrained fear of being considered foolishly gullible or ridiculous just for entertaining certain ideas and concepts provides the most effective tool for accomplishing the suppression of "dangerous" scientific knowledge... Nick Cook is not a physicist or an aeronautical engineer but I doubt that any reputable engineer or scientist would dare to delve (publicly) into any subject so heavily tainted by unorthodoxy and general quackery... Cook certainly comes up with no proof that anti-gravity or other related phenomena exist but that is beside the point. By the time proof becomes available, his type of investigative book would serve no purpose. His book is like a reporter's investigation of the Wright brothers while they were tinkering in their bicycle shop, or of Einstein when he was working in the Swiss patent office. But what makes Cook's book even more intriguing is that, this time, the people in charge, having learned the lessons of history, are fully aware of the the potential for harm (and good) that the present day Einsteins and Wright Brothers represent. Maybe his findings will all turn out to be of no real significance. No one knows, least of all, most scientists. Either way, it's interesting and no one should be afraid to think a little about the possibilities without feeling they have to jump to unwarranted conclusions.
inconclusive July 22, 2007
Oliver_York
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
I've not finished this yet - so maybe I should wait, but so far I find this quite interesting, but lacking in any solid evidence - I hope he's going to hit me with some soon. A few dodgy bits I noticed
- page 19 : referring a report about secret technologies: "Counterbary is defined as 'the action of levitation, where gravity's force is more than overcome by electrostatic or other propulsion'. Antigravity then." Considering the whole book is about antigravity, this seems a bit of an odd statement - ever since hot air baloons, we have had systems that could overcome gravity by countering it with some other force. Antigravity, if it existed, would be a way of neutralising or reversing gravity itself.
- p.45 he refers to a weapon the Nazis supposedly invented able to fire shells 170km, which he believes is "more than enough to hit most British cities from deep within France". Hmm, in fact this is merely enough to hit London (south-east England) from a site a few kilometres inland from Calais (the other side of the English Channel) - he must have a very odd (London-centric) idea of "most British cities"!
- p.45 Perhaps when he wrote this book a few years ago it sounded more impressive to do your research using "an unusual combination of word commands fed through a high-powered search engine" (i.e. he googled for it)
p.58 he turns down the invitation to visit a "biological-technical institute" in Austria run by a man whose father supposedly invented antigravity systems during the second world war (according to research the writer has just been getting all excited about)because he finds out the man was not a professional scientist and had no impressive letters after his name. Einstein was originally a patent clerk, and why shouldn't out-of-the-box thinking come from an unusual source??
Showing reviews 66-70 of 90
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