Robert L. Forward
Robert L. Forward | |
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Hughes Aircraft Tethers Unlimited, Inc. | |
Thesis | Detectors for Dynamic Gravitational Fields (1965) |
Doctoral advisor | Joseph Weber David Mandeen Zipoy |
Robert Lull Forward (August 15, 1932 – September 21, 2002) was an American
Biography
Forward earned his doctorate from the
Career and research
He then went to work at the research labs of
Much of his research focused on the leading edges of speculative physics but was always grounded in what he believed humans could accomplish. He worked on such projects as
Forward Mass Detector
Forward's extensive work in the field of
Vacuum Fluctuation Battery
In 1984, Forward published his theoretical design for a "Casimir battery", utilizing the electromagnetic Zero-point energy and the attractive force associated. The Casimir force would pull the plates together, if the plates were charged with same polarity and the electrostatic force applied to the plates is adjusted. The Casimir force will pull the plates together increasing the electric field between each plate and producing a voltage. The battery could be "recharged" by increasing the electrostatic force, pushing the plates apart.[6]
Fiction
In addition to more than 200 papers and articles, he published 11 novels. Critics' reviews were mixed, always praising the science concepts and the aliens he created, but often finding the plots thin and the humans shallow.[4] His treatment of hard-science topics in fictional form is highly reminiscent of the work of Hal Clement. He described his first novel, Dragon's Egg, as "a textbook on neutron star physics disguised as a novel." His novel Rocheworld describes a double-planet system with a single shared atmosphere and ocean, and a beam-powered propulsion interstellar space ship to get there. Forward co-authored two Rocheworld novels with his wife, Martha Dodson Forward, and two additional Rocheworld novels with his second daughter, Julie Fuller. Forward also helped Larry Niven calculate the parameters of the Smoke Ring for his novel The Integral Trees. Much of his scientific research in speculative physics serves as inspiration for science fiction, many of his ideas on Zero-point energy,[7][8] Interstellar travel and propulsion can be found in contemporary and modern scientific fiction.
Personal life
Forward's son,
Forward's youngest, Eve Forward, has written two novels: Villains by Necessity and Animist.
Death
In 2001, Forward received a diagnosis of terminal cancer. He died on September 21, 2002.[1]
Publications
Selected scientific works
- Forward, Robert L. (15 January 1978). "Wideband laser-interferometer graviational-radiation experiment". Physical Review D. 17 (2): 379–390. .
- Forward, Robert L. (15 August 1982). "Flattening spacetime near the Earth". Physical Review D. 26 (4): 735–744. .
- Cramer, John G.; Forward, Robert L.; Morris, Michael S.; Visser, Matt; Benford, Gregory; Landis, Geoffrey A. (15 March 1995). "Natural wormholes as gravitational lenses". Physical Review D. 51 (6): 3117–3120. S2CID 42837620.
- Forward, Robert L.; Berman, David (12 June 1967). "Gravitational-Radiation Detection Range for Binary Stellar Systems". Physical Review Letters. 18 (24): 1071–1074. .
- Forward, Robert L. (15 August 1984). "Extracting electrical energy from the vacuum by cohesion of charged foliated conductors". Physical Review B. 30 (4): 1700–1702. .
- Forward, Robert (January 1, 1999). "Apparent Endless Extraction of Energy from the Vacuum by Cyclic Manipulation of Casimir Cavity Dimensions". ntrs.nasa.gov.
Dragon's Egg series
- Dragon's Egg (1980)
- Starquake (1985)
Both collected in an omnibus edition Dragon's Egg & Starquake (1994)
Rocheworld series
- 1. Rocheworld (Baen, 1990) 155,000 words, originally published in these iterations:
- 2. Return to Rocheworld (1993) with Julie Forward Fuller
- 3. Marooned on Eden (1993) with Martha Dodson Forward[n 1]
- 4. Ocean Under the Ice (1994) with Martha Dodson Forward
- 5. Rescued from Paradise (1995) with Julie Forward Fuller
Novels
- Martian Rainbow (1991)
- Timemaster (1992)
- Camelot 30K (1993)
- Saturn Rukh (1997)
Collection (contains both fiction and essays)
- Indistinguishable from Magic (1995)
Non-fiction
- Mirror Matter: Pioneering Antimatter Physics (1988) with Joel Davis
- Hughes Aircraftfor a potential flying saucer.
Forward also wrote many articles in scientific journals and filed many patents, mainly while working for
See also
- Starwisp, an ultralightweight interstellar probe proposed by Forward in 1985
- "Left to Right", a short story by Isaac Asimov featuring Forward
Explanatory notes
- ^ Baen Books mistakenly put "Margaret Dodson Forward" instead of "Martha Dodson Forward" on the cover of the book. The title page in the book has her name correctly as "Martha".
References
- ^ a b c d Tethers Unlimited (September 21, 2002). "Obituary: Dr. Robert L. Forward". SpaceRef. Retrieved November 7, 2016.[permanent dead link]
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- ^ a b Oliver, Myrna (September 24, 2002). "Robert L. Forward, 70; Physicist Wrote 11 Science Fiction Novels". Los Angeles Times. pp. 1–2. Retrieved March 5, 2010.
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- ^ Forward, Robert (January 1, 1999). "Apparent Endless Extraction of Energy from the Vacuum by Cyclic Manipulation of Casimir Cavity Dimensions". ntrs.nasa.gov.
- .
- "A Program for Interstellar Exploration" Archived 2018-12-01 at the Wayback Machine, by Robert L. Forward, Journal of the British Interplanetary Society, Volume 29, pp. 611–632, 1976.
Further reading
Archival resources
- Since 1987, Robert L. Forward's papers (60 linear feet) have been housed at the Special Collections & Archives, University of California, Riverside Libraries.
- "Original Manuscripts". J. Lloyd Eaton Collection Newsletter. Vol. 1, no. 1. University of California, Riverside. Summer 1988.
- "Original Manuscripts".
External links
- Robert L. Forward Collection, The University of Alabama in Huntsville Archives and Special Collections
- Bibliography at SciFan
- Obituary prepared by Dr. Forward himself
- Extracting electrical energy from the vacuum by cohesion of charged foliated conductors One of Forward's most well known papers discussing the Casimir effect and zero-point energy (hosted at the Calphysics website)
- Robert L. Forward at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- Robert L. Forward at Library of Congress, with 17 library catalog records