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Dewey B. Larson
755 N.E. Royal Court Portland, Oregon 97232 |
July 6, 1982
Dear Jan:
Thanks for your letter of June 25, and the copy of Reciprocity; also for the tape recording that you sent some time ago, which I have not gotten around to acknowledging.
The comment by Dr. Spitzer that the globular cluster problem “has been resolved to the satisfaction of the astronomers” is typical of the attitude of the astronomical profession toward their problems. They have not found out anything new in this area. They still have only the same two possibilities that they had fifty years ago—orbital motion or motion similar to that of a gaseous aggregate—both of which were fully analyzed long ago, and found to be incapable of explaining the observed structure. But the present-day astronomers take the position that since they have not been able to find any other explanation, one of these must be valid anyway, regardless of the evidence against it. This is the same position that they take with respect to a host of other issues, such as the formation of stars, and of galaxies, the products of stellar explosions, etc. It is high time to blow the whistle on this illogical practice. I intend to help to do this, I have not been advised by the program committee as to whether I will be expected to talk at the upcoming conference, but if they do invite me to say something I intend to talk on this subject, and will identify my topic as “The Mythical Universe of Modern Astronomy.”
We have not yet made our plans for the trip east. Dorothy does not intend to make the trip unless we can figure out something to do either before or after the conference to make this long a trip worth while. We are doing a little scouting around to see if we can come up with anything that is of sufficient interest. If we do get some idea, perhaps we can take advantage of your generous offer.
Sincerely,
