In Norman, Okla., this month, about two dozen speakers will gather to challenge dominant paradigms of modern theoretical physics and to discuss alternatives. At the annual meeting of the Southwestern and Rocky Mountain Division (SWARM) of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) on May 22-24, these self-styled dissidents are planning to renew their attack on the special theory of relativity and big-bang cosmology. This is not the first time the group has met in a AAAS forum; one year ago, at a meeting of AAAS's Pacific Division in San Francisco, many of the same dissidents had participated in several days of sessions challenging these bulwarks of modern physics.
Sowing Seeds of Dissent: An informal gathering of neo-Newtonins at last year's AAAS divisional meeting in San Francisco. Critics of conventional physics include consultants, engineers, mathematicians, historians of science, and an encyclopedia salesman--but few physicists. They claim that they ...
