Out of the Sun by Robert Goddard Page B

Globescope?"
    "Not exactly. He was recruited by them a couple of years ago, along with half a dozen or so specialists from other disciplines, to work on the corporation's most ambitious project yet. Project
    Sybil, it was called, presumably after the prophetess of antiquity. The objective was to assemble a detailed and accurate model of the state of the world fifty years from now. A consortium of international companies wanted to take a long-term look at where they should be going and how they should be planning to get there. Futurology is something of a fad in big business at the moment, I believe. Blame the imminence of the millennium. I dare say Ethelred the Unready was up to something similar a thousand years ago. But he didn't have Globescope to hire, did he?"
    "Was the project finished, then?"
    "I had the impression not. But David said very little about it. He referred airily to some sort of disagreement with the President of Globescope and left it at that."
    The same disagreement that led four other scientists to leave, two of whom have since died?"
    Dr. Tilson started with surprise. "Died?"
    "A Canadian biochemist, Marvin Kersey, and a French sociologist, Gerard Mermillod. Within a fortnight of David's .. . accidental overdose. Their deaths were accidental too. Makes you think, doesn't it?"
    "Yes. It does."
    "Did David mention them in connection with Project Sybil?"
    "Not that I recall. But then, you see, Globescope and Project Sybil were just means to an end to him. They paid well. And he needed money the sort of money only American entrepreneurs seem able to come up with to finance his brainchild: a hyper-dimensional research academy. HYDRA, it was to be called, appropriately enough. That's what was on his mind when he came here. The world of higher dimensions, not futurology."
    "And that's what his recent work was about?"
    "Of course. In a sense, it's what all his work's been about. Ever since he was an undergraduate. His promise was immediately obvious to me. But so was his interest in higher dimensions. Sometimes it... unbalanced his achievements."
    "What are higher dimensions, Dr. Tilson?"
    "They're what particle physicists tell us are necessary to explain the fundamental structure of matter. I don't suppose you're acquainted with super string theory?"
    "You suppose right."
    "Well, super strings are about the most satisfactory way physicists have come up with for harmonizing Einsteinian relativity with quantum mechanics, a difficulty that's dogged them for most of this century. For super strings to work mathematically it's necessary to accept the existence of dimensions additional to the four we get on with from day to day: length, breadth, depth and time. Superstring theory tells us there are at least another six out there somewhere."
    Harry nodded. "I went to see Adam Slade's magic show. He claims to be in touch with them."
    Dr. Tilson clicked her tongue. "A charlatan, Mr. Barnett. Neither more nor less."
    "Does David see him that way?"
    "Not as clearly as I should like. David has always been eager to seize upon evidence of the actual physical existence of higher dimensions. It's a deeply unfashionable concept. Superstring theorists prefer to dispose of the problem by arguing that the additional dimensions were compactified at the point of origin of the universe into a space so minute that they can never be detected. Quod erat disponandum. Neat, don't you think?"
    "Er ... I suppose it fits the facts."
    "Quite so. But beware convenience. It's often a treacherous ally. If you really want to understand higher dimensions, without recourse to compactification, you could do worse than my own foray into the subject. It earned me a limited kind of fame when it was first published, but it was fame of an impermanent nature. David was the first undergraduate I came across who'd read it in, oh, ten years at least."
    "But his recent work has gone beyond even your grasp?"
    "Yes. Largely because of the new notational