From: Michael Andre-Driussi <mantis@sirius.com>
Subject: (urth) Mineral X
Date: Wed, 11 Aug 1999 06:43:42 

Mitchell A. Bailey,

To step back and state the obvious: this is a case where the
medieval/rennaisance vocabulary of Commonwealth science has Wolfean
ambiguities when describing post-twentieth century technology.

The term "antimaterial" hints at antimatter, a hint reinforced by the
degradation of the substance in contact with normal Urth matter (as you
noted before).

The term "iron" is slippery, because while it might have been only used in
the sense of "a heavy metal," it is long known for having magnetic
properties (so "lead" would have been a case of a very heavy metal with no
magnetic properties).

So there are antimatter-like effects, and antigravity effects, with just a
hint of magnetic forces at play.

Call Doctor Utonium--this is a job for the Powerpuff Girls!

=mantis=



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