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ZERO POINT ENERGY To that end he founded the Institute for Advanced Studies, housed in a two-room office Ina new building along the Capital of Texas Highway in Austin. Then he lured Puthoff, also a respected laser scientist, away from SRI. Soon after
Puthoff arrived In Austin, he and Church recruited a third member to their team star inventor and electronics genius Ken Shoulders. A born tinkerer, Shoulders wanted anew research project, something that would probe the unknown regions at the borders of physics and electronics, where strange and wondrous discoveries might yet be made. He also needed some funding. Puthoff and Church, on the other hand wanted someone who could turn the theoretical work of the institute into nuts-and-bolts technology. When the three sat down
to ponder their first project, they came up with an impressive goal exploring the vacuum, referred to by some early physicists as the tranquil void The institute trio knew that vacuums were not really empty and certainly never tranquil. In fact, most physicists casting their eyes toward the cosmos believe that the vacuum is a hotbed of forces. Phantom particles flicker into existence and then disappear. Empty space itself seethes with what physicists call vacuum fluctuations vast amounts of energy that suddenly burst forth, jiggling particles to and fro. One fluctuation is not very powerful, but cumulatively they can be intense. In fact, physicists John Wheeler and Richard Feynman calculated that there is enough energy in the vacuum of a single light bulb to boil all the seas. It was City College physicist Timothy Boyer of New York, however, whose work convinced Puthoff that the vacuum was a good place for the institute to begin.
Most physicists, Boyer pointed out, tried to explain the somewhat random movements of atomic particles through the theories of quantum physics. Quantum physics states that even under precise conditions, atomic particles may assume anyone of a variety of positions. To determine with greater certainty where a particle could be found, however, physicists developed probability equations The equations predicted the likelihood of any given particle landing in any given place. Boyer held a different point of view. Perhaps, he suggested, the uncertain nature of the subatomic realm was due not to the nebulous mathematics of probability equations but rather to vacuum fluctuations. We could not pin down the location
of subatomic particles, Boyer suggested, because vacuum fluctuations jiggled them around.
Puthoff felt Boyer’s notion could be used to explain other vexing problems as well. Writing in
Physical Review D, Puthoff suggested that the zero point energy of the vacuum might prevent atoms from collapsing, allowing the world as we know it to be. According to
classical physics Puthoff says, electrons should radiate their energy as they circle in their orbits. Eventually