Eponymously Yours, W. Skeffington Higgins

My article "Antimatter's science fiction debut" has appeared in the September 2008 issue of Symmetry magazine, on page 32.

Accompanying it is a "Logbook" feature displaying a carbon copy and Astounding page from Jack Williamson's first "Seetee" story, "Collision Orbit." (Logbook usually features a primary source in the progress of science, such as a page from a lab notebook, a letter, or a computer printout.)

I proposed an article, noting that an Astounding page might be used as an illustration, and Kurt Riesselmann, the managing editor, suggested that it could be the basis for a Logbook item. That's when I realized that the Jack Williamson Science Fiction Library at Eastern New Mexico University, where Jack taught for decades, has his papers. Sure enough, we were able to obtain a scan of the author's yellowing carbon copy for "Collision Orbit."



Faithful readers of this journal will recall that I began working on this last winter, reconstructing the trail through physics, astronomy, and science fiction that led to the writing of the Seetee series.

"Collision Orbit" wasn't the first SF story to feature antimatter, but it definitely put antimatter on the map. Oh, and by the way, for this story Jack Williamson coined the word "terraforming." The sequels, later collected as books, cemented "seetee" as a prop in the imagination of later SF writers.

I've put together a talk about this, "How Antimatter Became a Plaything of Science Fiction," and I'll be giving it for the first time this coming Sunday at Conclave 33 in Romulus, Michigan. It's scheduled for 11 to noon. I may be repeating the talk at other SF conventions. Catch it if you're interested.

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 antimatter).

1933: Dirac concludes his Nobel Prize lecture by saying: "If we accept the view of complete symmetry between positive and negative electric charge so far as concerns the fundamental laws of Nature, we must regard it rather as an accident that the Earth (and presumably the whole solar system), contains a preponderance of negative electrons and positive protons. It is quite possible that for some of the stars it is the other way about, these stars being built up mainly of positrons and negative protons. In fact, there may be half the stars of each kind. The two kinds of stars would both show exactly the same spectra, and there would be no way of distinguishing them by present astronomical methods."

1935: Vladimir Rojansky speculates that negative-energy "hole" counterparts of protons and neutrons may exist, forming "contraterrene matter." (It seems probable that Rojansky coined this term.)

1937: George Gamow speculates further in his book on nuclear structure.

1940: Rojansky speculates that contraterrene bodies may exist elsewhere in space, possibly including some comets and meteors. Later he suggests looking for an increase in cosmic rays when a comet passes near the Earth.

September 1940: Boaters witness a screaming sound and a mysterious explosion in Long Island Sound. No artillery can be found to account for this.

February 1941: Lincoln LaPaz suggests that contraterrene meteors might explain terrestrial craters where no meteoritic debris is found. Samuel Herrick immediately suggests that the September "Phantom Bertha" event may be an instance of CT impact.

3 March 1941: James Stokely writes "Exploding Atoms Dig Craters?" for Science Service and pop-science readers become aware of the controversy.

April 1941: H.H. Nininger doubts LaPaz. They wrestle.

April 1941: "Reason," Isaac Asimov's second robot story, describes robots as having "positronic" brains, because it sounds cool.

8 April 1941: John W. Campbell, Jr., editor of Astounding Science Fiction, writes a four-page letter to Robert Heinlein. He describes contraterrene physics, then sketches the background to a story about asteroid miners who gather CT material for an energy source.

10 April 1941: Heinlein interested in writing CT story, but, uncomfortable about his ignorance, requests more physics information.

14 April 1941: Campbell cites references for contraterrene matter, offers further speculation about methods of mining CT.

26 April 1941: Heinlein informs Campbell that he has trouble finding a story to fit the CT background, and may drop the project.

May 1941: Heinlein huddles with his atomic physics guru, Robert Cornog of Berkeley, regarding contraterrene matter.



Mid-1941: R.S. Richardson writes article "Inside Out Matter" for the December issue of Astounding Science Fiction.

August 1941: C.C. Wylie weighs in against the CT hypothesis for "Phantom Bertha."

21 November 1941: Campbell writes Jack Williamson "a long letter about CT physics. He outlines a story idea he had offered Heinlein, who isn't going to use it because he has 'more on hand than he wants to write anyway.'"



July 1942: Williamson, writing as "Will Stewart," publishes "Collision Orbit" in Astounding.



November 1942: Stewart's "Minus Sign" in Astounding.



January 1943: "Opposites--React!" in Astounding.

February 1949: First installment of "Seetee Shock" in Astounding.



1951: Setee stories collected in fixup book, "Seetee Ship" from Gnome Press.

Once Williamson had written stories around the idea, antimatter became firmly established in the prop-box of science fiction.