How Antimatter Got into Science Fiction

[beamjockey]

Did you ever wonder how Jack Williamson came to write a series of science fiction stories about antimatter?

1928 Paul Dirac's relativistic treatment of quantum mechanics shows that the positron may exist.

1932 Carl Anderson discovers the positron in cloud-chamber photographs. Physicists speculate about other anti-particles (what we now call

Comments

[hradzka]

Very cool. When Campbell was doing his thing, he was amazing.

(Of course, there was also the time he got into Dianetics. At one point, he took Alfred Bester to lunch, and during the meal attempted to regress Bester to memories in utero. Bester had to hide his face to keep from laughing, and prayed for a way out. A light bulb went on over Bester's head, and he told Campbell that he could see early memories, but they were traumatic, and he didn't want to remember any more. Campbell, mistaking Bester's shaking with suppressed laughter for sobs, bought it.

Best part of the story: in Campbell's office, before their meal, Bester, skeptical of Dianetics, asked if traumatic memories could really be created in utero. Campbell's reply was glorious: "Yes. The fetus remembers. Come have lunch.")

[beamjockey]

Very cool. When Campbell was doing his thing, he was amazing.

I don't think that's quite the right adjective.

[mmcirvin]

Was the Negasphere in the original serialized version of Gray Lensman? That was 1939-1940, and the thing was clearly inspired by antimatter though it wasn't 100% accurate.

[beamjockey]

Was the Negasphere in the original serialized version of Gray Lensman? That was 1939-1940, and the thing was clearly inspired by antimatter though it wasn't 100% accurate.

You're on to something there.

I don't think I can manage a comprehensive account of antimatter in SF, but I would like to hear of any other early instances. Maybe I can turn this timeline into a nice article.

[mmcirvin]

I have a paperback of Blish's The Triumph of Time whose back-cover copy plays up its revolutionary treatment of the amazing new phenomenon of anti-matter, but that's actually much later than these books (and the blurb seems hardly appropriate to the cosmic, elegiac content of the novel anyway).

[mmcirvin]

...I thought of an even earlier, more oddball one! Olaf Stapledon's Last and First Men, 1930.

Dirac originally speculated in 1928 that his holes were protons. The idea didn't really work out, but Stapledon ran with it. In his near-ish future, people develop atomic energy, which consists of a total-conversion ray; when trained on ordinary matter, it causes the electrons and protons to annihilate.

If I recall correctly, there's a confrontation between the evil American bomber fleet and European scientists with a prototype annihilation ray; the ray blows up a whole mountain, but the Americans win anyway and the secret is lost. Much later, people rediscover it and blow up their whole civilization. A lot of that sort of thing goes on.

[mmcirvin]

...I was trying to remember what he had happening to the neutrons, but of course: the neutron hadn't been discovered yet. The nucleus was supposed to have protons and electrons in it. That's how far back this was.

This was quite interesting

[techgrrl]

These posts about the history/etymology/origin of a word, concept or meme are really interesting.

Thanks for taking the time to post.

[ex_askesis860]

Adding to the chorus of "great post."