Sci-Fi Author Cal Orey Co-Authors Imaginative Book on the Universe

THE EVOLUTIONARY COSMOS

OUTSIDE-IN THINKING

THE UNIVERSE 

by Richard Westberg & CAL OREY ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 7, 2022

An imaginative but often opaque and unconvincing explanation of how the universe hangs together. --Kirkus Book Review (Awarded Best Non-Fiction Book 2022 Pacific Book Reviews)

Gravity is actually produced by colossally long, thin, magnetic, ropelike objects, according to this treatise on alternative physics.

Westberg, an engineer, challenges orthodox theories of gravity and instead offers a novel view that regards it as a species of magnetism, in part because of the similarity of the inverse square laws that govern both forces. His model posits fundamental building blocks called Shayliks, whimsically named after his granddaughter Shayla, which are microscopically small, corkscrew-shaped things that, like magnetic poles, can either attract or repel one another depending on the direction and frequency of their coiling. The Shayliks, he contends, assemble into invisibly slender double-helix ropes and pipes, which can extend either for tiny distances or across hundreds of light-years of space. Magnetic forces flowing through the Shayliks and setting off eddy currents give rise to the attractive forces of gravity when they interact with the electromagnetic fields in atoms. Westberg turns to astrophysics for indirect evidence of Shayliks. He argues that there are vast Shayliks connecting the sun with other stars. When planets cross these Shayliks, a range of phenomena results, including solar flares, dust storms on Mars, and fluctuations in Earth’s magnetic field. The author’s wide-ranging theory touches in creative ways on everything from Einstein’s theory of relativity to fractals and Darwinian evolution. Westberg’s book—written with Orey—explores a wealth of scientific phenomena in language that’s vivid and accessible to lay readers. (“An ice volcano on Ceres, however, would have no smell or sound because there is no atmosphere. It would initially be like a slushy from a convenience store and then become hard frozen. Earth-based cryovolcanoes would have an oozing sound.”) Unfortunately, Westberg’s own scientific arguments are too sketchily developed for a theory that is so contrary to traditional physics; there are no diagrams to help readers visualize Shayliks and no mathematical equations to impart rigor to his hard-to-follow concepts. (“So the inverse of a ten-inch-long string that has no diameter, and is then by definition one-dimensional, is a sphere because it now has two infinite dimensions due to its continuous surface and one zero dimension, which is its location. This structure would also be invisible. This is mind-boggling.”) Scientists and casual readers alike will scratch their heads over many of Westberg’s pronouncements.

An imaginative but often opaque and unconvincing explanation of how the universe hangs together.