JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post
This is a little peek behind the curtain, a tiny view into the process of funding an experiment using cosmic rays to look for hidden chambers in the pyramids by a Nobel Prize recipient. The letter is from Merle Tuve (a very major player in the development of RADAR and much else) when he was the director of the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism (part of the Carnegie Institution), writing from its beautiful campus in a leafy section of NW DC. The letter was written in 1964--its actually a carbon of the letter that Tuve sent to Leonard Carmichael (VP at National Geographic who must've gone fishing for the money for the research), the copy being sent to Caryl Haskins, who was president of the Carnegie.
The Nobelist ('68) in question was Luis Alvarez, who charged ahead everywhere and was right about tons of stuff, in all sorts of different areas, not the least of which was with looking for hidden chambers in the Chephren pyramid by using cosmic rays. His plan was to use a detector and search for discrepancies in the way cosmic rays might pass through the pyramid, that there would rate differences if the particles passed through empty areas in the other-wise solid limestone structure. Anyway, it was much more involved than that, but for our purposes here it is enough. Tuve likes the idea, and says "yes".
This document is available for purchase at the blog's bookstore, here.
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