PREFACE
Page xv: This has happened several times... The reason that this is true
is because of the quantum theory. When we add all possible quantum corrections to a theory (a tedious process called "renormalization") we find that
phenomena that were previously forbidden, at the classical level, reenter the
calculation. This means that unless something is explicitly forbidden (by a
conservation law, for example) then it reenters into the theory when quantum corrections are added.
2:
INVISIBILITY
Page 17: Invisibility played a central part in Plato's theory... Plato wrote,
"No man would keep his hands off what was not his own when he could
safely take what he liked out of the market, or go into houses and lie with
anyone at his pleasure, or kill or release from prison whom he would, and
in all respects be like a God among men ... If you could imagine anyone obtaining this power of becoming invisible, and never doing any wrong or
touching what was another's, he would be thought by the lookers-on to be
the most wretched idiot..."
Page 21: Nathan Myhrvold, former chief technology officer at Microsoft. .. Nathan Myhrvold, New Scientist Magazine, November 18, 2006,
p. 69.
Page 23: That's why he now declines... Josie Glausiusz, Discover Magazine, November 2006.
Page 25: "Such a lens would offer..." "Metamaterials found to work for
visible light," Eurekalert, www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-01, 2007.
Also, New Scientist Magazine, December 18, 2006.
3:
PHASERS AND DEATH STARS
Page 36: During World War II, the Nazis... The Nazis also sent a team
to India to investigate some ancient mythological claims of the Hindus (similar to the plot line in Raiders of the Lost Ark). The Nazis were interested in
Page xv: This has happened several times... The reason that this is true
is because of the quantum theory. When we add all possible quantum corrections to a theory (a tedious process called "renormalization") we find that
phenomena that were previously forbidden, at the classical level, reenter the
calculation. This means that unless something is explicitly forbidden (by a
conservation law, for example) then it reenters into the theory when quantum corrections are added.
2:
INVISIBILITY
Page 17: Invisibility played a central part in Plato's theory... Plato wrote,
"No man would keep his hands off what was not his own when he could
safely take what he liked out of the market, or go into houses and lie with
anyone at his pleasure, or kill or release from prison whom he would, and
in all respects be like a God among men ... If you could imagine anyone obtaining this power of becoming invisible, and never doing any wrong or
touching what was another's, he would be thought by the lookers-on to be
the most wretched idiot..."
Page 21: Nathan Myhrvold, former chief technology officer at Microsoft. .. Nathan Myhrvold, New Scientist Magazine, November 18, 2006,
p. 69.
Page 23: That's why he now declines... Josie Glausiusz, Discover Magazine, November 2006.
Page 25: "Such a lens would offer..." "Metamaterials found to work for
visible light," Eurekalert, www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-01, 2007.
Also, New Scientist Magazine, December 18, 2006.
3:
PHASERS AND DEATH STARS
Page 36: During World War II, the Nazis... The Nazis also sent a team
to India to investigate some ancient mythological claims of the Hindus (similar to the plot line in Raiders of the Lost Ark). The Nazis were interested in