MYSTERY surrounds a Russian scientist's astonishing claim to have built an antigravity machine, following his decision to withdraw a paper describing the device from a leading physics journal.
According to the paper, the cylindrical device measures 275 millimetres across and contains a magnetically suspended and rotating ring of superconducting ceramic. It is said to reduce the weight of any object placed over it by up to 2 per cent. The authors claim to have observed the antigravity effect with a wide variety of materials suspended over the device, ranging from ceramics to wood.
Tests are also said to have ruled out the possibility that the weight loss was the result of magnetic fields or air flow. However, the paper gives no real clues to how the effect might be generated.
Even so, the paper, which carries the names of Eugene Podkletnov and Petri Vuorinen of Tampere University in Finland, was ...
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