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The Gravity Research Foundation is an organization established in 1948 by businessman Roger Babson (founder of Babson College)〔"Sir Isaac Babson" (1948, August, 23). ''Newsweek'', 32(8), p. 47.〕 to find ways to implement gravitational shielding.〔Babson, R. W. (1950). Chapter XXXV - Playing with Gravity, ''Actions and Reactions'' (Revised Edition ). New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers () Page over to Chapter XXXV for Roger W. Babson's description of the Gravity Research Foundation.〕 It holds an annual contest rewarding essays by scientific researchers on gravity-related topics.〔Witten, L. (1998). Introductory remarks on the Gravity Research Foundation on its fiftieth anniversary. In N. Dadhich & J. Marlikar (Ed.). ''Gravitation and Relativity: At the Turn of the Millennium'' (375 ). 15th International Conference on General Relativity and Gravitation. Pune, India: Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics. ISBN 81-900378-3-8〕 The contest, which awards prizes of up to $4,000, has been won by at least four people who later won the Nobel Prize in physics. The foundation held conferences and conducted operations in New Boston, New Hampshire through the late 1960s, but that aspect of its operation ended following Babson's death in 1967. It is mentioned on stone monuments, donated by Babson, at more than a dozen American universities. ==History== Thomas Edison apparently suggested the creation of the Gravity Research Foundation to Babson,〔Valone, T. (Ed.) (2001, January). ''Electrogravitics Systems: Reports on a New Propulsion Methodology'' (4 ). Washington, DC: Integrity Research Institute.〕 who established it in several scattered buildings in the small town of New Boston, New Hampshire,〔Mooallem, J. (2007, October). A curious attraction. ''Harper's Magazine,'' 315(1889), pp. 84-91.〕 which Babson chose because he thought it was far enough from big cities to survive a nuclear war. Babson even put up a sign declaring New Boston to be the safest town in North America if World War III came, but town fathers toned it down to say merely that New Boston was a safe place. In an essay called ''Gravity - Our Enemy Number One'', Babson indicated that his wish to overcome gravity dated from the childhood drowning of his sister. "She was unable to fight gravity, which came up and seized her like a dragon and brought her to the bottom," he wrote.〔See Appendix Intro. 3: Gravity – Our Enemy Number One. In Harry Collins (2004). ''Gravity's Shadow: The Search for Gravitational Waves.'' Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-11378-4〕 The foundation held occasional conferences that drew such people as Clarence Birdseye of frozen-food fame and Igor Sikorsky, inventor of the helicopter.〔Kaiser, D. (2000). Chapter 10 - Roger Babson and the Rediscovery of General Relativity. ''Making Theory: Producing Physics and Physicists in Postwar America'' (Dissertation ). Harvard University, pp. 567-594.〕 Sometimes, attendees sat in chairs with their feet higher than their heads, to counterbalance gravity.〔(Article on town website )〕 Most of the foundation's work however, involved sponsoring essays by researchers on gravity-related topics.〔"Trouble with Gravity, The" (1950, January, 2). ''Time'', 55, p. 54.〕 It had only a couple of employees in New Boston. The physical Gravity Research Foundation disappeared some time after Babson's death in 1967. Its only remnant in New Boston is a granite slab in a traffic island that celebrates the foundation's "active research for antigravity and a partial gravity insulator." The building that held the foundation's meetings has long held a restaurant, and for a time had a bar called Gravity Tavern, although it has been renamed.〔(Union-Leader Moly Stark name returns )〕 As of 2013 it is still administered out of Wellesley, Massachusetts by George Rideout, Jr., son of the foundation's original director. The essay award lives on, offering prizes of up to $4,000. Over time, the foundation shed its crankish air, turning its attention from trying to block gravity to trying to understand it. The annual essay prize has drawn respected researchers, including physicist Stephen Hawking, who won in 1971, mathematician/author Roger Penrose, who won in 1975, and astrophysicist and Nobel laureate George Smoot, who won in 1993. Other notable award winners include Jacob Bekenstein, Sidney Coleman, Bryce DeWitt, Julian Schwinger (Nobel Prize in Physics, 1965), Dennis Sciama, Gerard 't Hooft (Nobel Prize in Physics, 1999), Robert Wald, John Archibald Wheeler and Frank Wilczek (Nobel Prize in Physics, 2004).〔(GRF Award Winning Essays )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Gravity Research Foundation」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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