Word: morrison
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...shouldn't other lordly laws bite the dust too? Even gravitation, supposed to be pretty well explained by Einstein's general relativity, might be vulnerable. Last week the top award ($1,000) of the Gravity Research Foundation, New Boston, N.H. went to a paper by Physicist Philip Morrison of Cornell and Astronomer Thomas Gold of Harvard which argues that somewhere in the universe there may be anti-gravitation as a property of antimatter...
Push v. Weight. Professors Morrison and Gold start off by challenging one of the most basic laws of all, the principle of equivalence. According to this rule, on which general relativity is built, a body's inertial mass (resistance to a push) is the same in a given gravitational field as its gravitational mass (weight). Morrison and Gold admit that every experiment tried so far has shown the two kinds of mass to be precisely equivalent, but they think the apparatus used may have been biased in favor of equivalence. Anti-matter,* they point out, is just as respectable...
Therefore, argue Morrison and Gold, conditions in earthly laboratories may be too special to trust. Gravitation might act differently if more antimatter were around. A sample of antimatter, for instance, might retain its inertial mass but be repelled instead of attracted by the earth's gravitational field. Its weight would be less than nothing; it would actually tend to lift itself. In an "anti-galaxy," a bit of ordinary matter would be repelled in the same...
After elaborate mathematical reasoning, Morrison and Gold speculate that the universe may consist of both kinds of matter. Both antimatter and ordinary matter may have been created at the same time, and are perhaps still being created. Even if the atoms of opposite type are born in the same parts of space, they will seldom meet and suffer annihilation. Gravitational attraction will pull similar atoms together, while antigravitational repulsion will push dissimilar ones apart. The final result will be the segregation of matter and antimatter in separate galaxies...
...Maxim. Morrison's medicine has attracted industry to New Orleans, prompted private capital to construct 25 major buildings in eleven years, raised property values in once dilapidated areas from 95? a square foot to $25. But it has done something even more important. Morrison next year is an odds-on favorite to win a fourth term, is being talked about as a potential governor of Louisiana or U.S. Senator. His success demonstrates a political maxim that last-hurrahing wardheelers across the U.S. are rapidly learning: a hard-nosed, hard-pushed program of municipal reconstruction can do more than patronage...