Impossible possibilities

259 Pages·1968·1.285 MB·English

by  Pauwels, Louis and Jacques Bergier

Impossible Possibilities
Louis Pauwels and Jacques Bergier, authors of the
highly acclaimed MORNING OF THE MAGICIANS
and ETERNAL MAN, have once again delved into
the “outer limits” of scientific research. Working from
the basic premise that the province of science is
limited only by the human imagination and
technological ingenuity, they shatter our conventional
notions of what is really “impossible” from a
scientific standpoint. “Impossible possibilities”, they
tell us, are the objects of some of the most intensive
and dramatic research in the history of science.
Also by Louis Pauwels and Jacques Bergier
in Mayflower
THE MORNING OF THE MAGICIANS
ETERNAL MAN
Impossible
Possibilities
Louis Pauwels and
Jacques Bergier
Mayflower
Granada Publishing Limited
Published in 1974 by Mayflower Books Ltd
Frogmore, St Albans, Herts AL2 2NF
First published in Germany in 1968 under
the title Der Planet der unmöglichen
Möglichkeiten by Scherz Verlag
Copyright © Scherz Verlag, Bern and Munich 1968
Translation copyright © Stein and Day Inc 1971
Made and printed in Great Britain by
Hazell Watson & Viney Ltd, Aylesbury, Bucks
Set in Linotype Times Roman
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This book is published at a net price and is supplied
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Conditions of Sale registered under the Restrictive
Trade Practices Act, 1956.
CONTENTS
Prologue: A Few Thoughts .....................................................11
A Second Renaissance .............................................................21
The fifth caravel and the first astronaut . . . The first farewell
from the Orient . . . Lost sources . . . Return to the sources . . .
The rediscovery of freedom . . . The youthfulness of the an-
cients . . . Fresh wind in the sails . . . Toward a new pleiade
Three Windows on Infinity ...................................................... 35
We send signals to the stars . . . The second window: radio
astronomy . . . The third window: the secret of Pontecorvo
. . . Decisive reasons for pacifism
New Hypotheses of Modern Astronomy....................................43
A thicket of theories . . . A billion inhabited planets in our
Milky Way galaxy? . . . Proto-matter or the origin of the
stars . . . Is there an antipode-world beyond the world? . . .
From Pascual Jordan . . . To eavesdropping on the stars . . .
Messages from outer space and the secret of the radio waves
. . . The incomprehensible galaxies . . . What happens inside
the stars?
Parapsychological Research in the Soviet Union .....................57
Surprises are due . . . The silver spoon and the materialist . . .
Does the eye emit radiation? . . . Fields of energy and thought
transference . . . A program for research into parapsychologi-
cal forces . . . Magnetism and hypnosis . . . Wireless radio com-
munications between brains? . . . Status of research in the
Soviet Union today
Are There Intelligent Beings Beyond the Earth? .....................71
From the tiny topinambur to the mighty galaxy . . . Intelli-
gences from outer space . . . Life older than the stars . . . The
moon, Mars, and Venus . . . From the biological to the me-
chanical evolution . . . On the essence of thought . . . Reserves
of information in outer space . . . Receivers for extraordinary
transmissions . . . From MacGowan’s machines to Clarke’s
butterfly . . . Our souls whisper in the shadows
The History of Electronic Brains............................................ 83
Present and future status of thought machines . . . The man
who liked quiet . . . And the man who hated the telephone
operator . . . One of the great geniuses of our time . . . As
significant as E = mc2 . . . Faster and faster thinking . . . Magic
cupboards of today . . . 1200 miles of literature per hour . . .
Machines with character . . . Machines with a short temper . . .
Tomorrow they will speak our language . . . Against time and
space . . . Dialogue between Man and Machine . . . Thinking
mirrors . . . Connection to a network of knowledge
The Four States of Matter..................................................... 103
Do we know the structure of the universe? . . . A scientific
world of its own . . . A gas that behaves like a metal . . . Why
is radio possible? . . . The most extraordinary discovery of
modern physics . . . No such thing as an interstellar vacuum:
the universe is saturated with plasma . . . An all-consuming
fire . . . Power-plants without turbines . . . Plasma rockets to
the planets
Genetic Research at Present and in the Future..................... 121
From man to superman . . . A thousand-volume encyclopedia
in one sperm head . . . The spiral staircase of life . . . Influ-
encing living matter . . . The secret language of life: four
letters and twenty words . . . The sparseness of our knowledge
. . . The information-carriers: RNA . . . Genesis of a living
being . . . Daring visions: changing the hereditary mass . . .
Continuing evolution . . . Is man the highest form of evolu-
tion? . . . With the aid of mathematics
Man and the Universe.......................................................... 141
Micro-organisms 250 million years old . . . To other planetary
systems . . . The place of man in the universe
Life out of a Test Tube......................................................... 145
Science’s greatest adventure . . . The earth’s atmosphere before
the genesis of life . . . When hydrogen evaporates . . . The
knowledge of the alchemists . . . The chain of life . . . Generat-
ing life in order to understand it . . . Return to Louis Pasteur
. . . Living organisms in the antipode world . . . The number
five and life . . . Synthetic-living organisms have to be stimu-
lated into life
Antimatter: A Scientific Fact............................................... 159
Parallel worlds . . . Electron and positron . . . From anti-
particles to anti-matter . . . The most gigantic energy storage
plant . . . With the flying torch to the stars . . . The dark side
of anti-matter . . . Anti-matter and science . . . As far as the
mind can reach
Magic and Science............................................................... 175
Facts and nothing but facts . . . Magic and pharmaceutics . . .
Smiths, alchemists, magicians . . . Magic and electricity . . .
Water and its secrets . . . Hypnosis and suggestion . . . Magic
and scented substances . . . An attempt at an explanation . . .
First hypothesis: chance . . . Second hypothesis: a knowledge
higher than science . . . Third hypothesis: ancient knowledge
How We Will Live in 1984.................................................. 189
How I see our future . . . The battle of the waters will be won
. . . How does one avoid being a number? . . . Are we becom-
ing immortal? . . . Problems that have solved themselves . . .
The language of science for every man . . . New sciences . . .
The science of destiny . . . A new religious war . . . Drugs,
time, and space . . . Man is no longer dissatisfied
War Games with Electronic Computers..............................205
A mad world . . . Martians invade the earth . . . Dismantle
the planes to keep them safe . . . False intuitions are expensive
. . . A future possibility: bases on the moon . . . Three docu-
ments toward the prevention of the irrevocable . . . What sort
of people are they?
Giants in the Universe: The Quasars.................................... 217
A new physics is born . . . What are quasars? . . . As big as a
galaxy or smaller than a star? . . . The theory of Hoyle and
Narlikar . . . Mysterious gravity . . . Constantly self-generat-
ing worlds? . . . Is there an astronomical code like the genetic
code? . . . Hoftmann’s idea: annoyance as the anti-matter
Unsuspected Possibilities..................................................... 231
Joining brains makes it possible to lead several lives . . . Mind-
controlled machines . . . Do drugs make better people? . . .
Will psychochemistry conquer modern man’s fear of life?
. . . Intelligence pills? . . . Drugs remove space and time . . .
Perhaps electronic computers will solve these problems
The Miracle of the Cell........................................................ 241
A journey to the limits of our knowledge . . . Programmed
cells produce any desired substance and effect mutations . . .
Electronic brains out of living matter? . . . Color television
pictures with industrially produced microbes . . . Will the cell
reveal to us the secret of physical immortality? . . . Amoebas
as big as oxen . . . Cells as masters of espionage . . . Restora-
tion of a living organism from a single cell . . . Is the secret
of evolution hidden in the cell?