IUBio

Royal Mail's Nobel guru in telepathy row

Robin Hayman ucgarmh at ucl.ac.uk
Fri Oct 12 09:05:32 EST 2001


All of science can be divided into physics and stamp-collecting. -- Lord
Kelvin


Michael Painter <m.painter at worldnet.att.net> wrote in message
news:Ohlx7.98225$3d2.2795175 at bgtnsc06-news.ops.worldnet.att.net...
>
> "Michael Jameson" <m.jameson at hunterlink.net.au> wrote in message
> news:3BC57FBC.7C836763 at hunterlink.net.au...
> > Royal Mail's Nobel guru in telepathy row
> >
> > Robin McKie, science editor
> > Sunday September 30, 2001
> > The Observer
> >
> > It was meant to be a simple celebration of the world's greatest
> > intellectual prize. But this week's issue of six special stamps to
> > honour the 100th anniversary of the Nobel prize has dropped the Royal
> > Mail into an unexpected, and decidedly bitter, scientific row.
> >
> > Scientists are furious that a booklet, published as part of the stamps'
> > presentation package, contains claims that modern physics will one day
> > lead to an understanding of telepathy and the paranormal.
> >
> > 'It is utter rubbish,' said David Deutsch, quantum physics expert at
> > Oxford University. 'Telepathy simply does not exist. The Royal Mail has
> > let itself be hoodwinked into supporting ideas that are complete
> > nonsense.'
> >
> > Last week Royal Mail officials defended their actions by pointing out
> > that the offending paragraphs had been written by a Nobel laureate,
> > Cambridge physicist Brian Josephson. 'Yes, I think telepathy exists,' he
> > told The Observer, 'and I think quantum physics will help us understand
> > its basic properties.'
> >
> > Professor Josephson won the Nobel Prize for physics in 1973 for proving
> > that some materials could act as switches operating close to the speed
> > of light, and could revolutionise computing and power transmission. He
> > said he had deliberately used the booklet to redress a serious imbalance
> > in reporting paranormal research work. 'I think journals like Nature and
> > Science are censoring such research,' he said. 'There is a lot of
> > evidence to support the existence of telepathy, for example, but papers
> > on the subject are being rejected - quite unfairly.'
> >
> > Josephson believes that psychics and telepaths may be able to direct
> > random energy at sub-atomic levels for their own purposes, and in the
> > commemorative stamp booklet writes that developments in information and
> > quantum theories 'may lead to an explanation of processes still not
> > understood within conventional science, such as telepathy'.
> >
> > Full text -
> > http://www.observer.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,560604,00.html
> >
>
> Newton was a nut also.
> Read the whole article to see what others think about this.
>
>





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