Fantasy & Fact

Neal Adams is an American comic book and commercial artist known for helping to create some of the definitive modern imagery of the DC Comics characters Superman, Batman, and Green Arrow. Adams has put forth ideas on a model of the universe he terms the Growing Earth Theory, an idea he credits to Samuel Warren Carey. While Carey did advocate an expanding Earth model in the mid-20th century, that model has been rejected following the recognition of plate tectonics.

Michio Kaku is a Japanese American physicist and the co-founder of string field theory. He has written several books on physics and related topics, he has made frequent appearances on radio, television, and film, and he writes extensive online blogs and articles. Kaku currently holds the Henry Semat Chair and Professorship in theoretical physics and a joint appointment at City College of New York and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, where he has lectured for more than 30 years. Presently, he is engaged in defining the "Theory of Everything", which seeks to unify the four fundamental forces of the universe: (1) the strong nuclear force (2) the weak nuclear force (3) gravity, and (4) electromagnetism. Kaku has publicly stated his concerns over matters including the human cause of global warming, nuclear armament, nuclear power and the general misuse of science. Kaku is generally a vigorous supporter of the exploration of outer space, believing that the ultimate destiny of the human race may lie in extrasolar planets; but he is critical of some of the cost-ineffective missions and methods of NASA.

After two years in orbit, the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) is nearing the end of its planned life span, producing the most accurate map ever of the so-called geoid.  Markedly different from a simple sphere or ellipsoid, the geoid is the mathematically 'true' shape of Earth. It represents a motionless global ocean but takes into account the effects of the Earth’s rotation, weight difference resulting from the position of mountains and ocean trenches, and uneven mass distribution and density variations in the planet’s interior.