'Physics has been lying to us'

Explosive work of German scientist could lift lid on quantum theory

- MARTIN WALNUT

DR. Viktor Lewe was an innovative civil engineer and physicist, a professor in Berlin University for 17 years until his death in 1936.

His name is virtually unknown today and little is known about him, but he made significant progress in his fields of interest.

In 2008, I completed my Civil Engineering Degree as a mature student. For my thesis, I selected a very specific branch of engineering practice I knew nothing about but which sounded intriguing.

In the course of my study in the Library of the Institution of Civil Engineers in London, I was very fortunate to be able to trace all references back to original sources, and found at the root Dr. Viktor Lewe, 1915.

I discovered there was a document issued by a private company, The Portland Cement Association (PCA), Illinois, that used information from an unreferenced source - but I knew the work was that of Dr. Lewe.

As an engineer, I was horrified, and anticipated that once I notified my professor and the Institution, the error would be corrected. Good governance demands that all sources are referenced, and this must hold true for engineering, as much as any discipline.

For how are we to learn and move forward if information from the past is kept sealed? If there are failures of engineering, these must be examined in minute detail to ensure the same problems are not repeated.

But what I was met with was indifference or silence, certainly no one was remotely interested. I realised at the time that the structural engineering concepts I was working with were actually sub-atomic.

And therefore they could be useful in understanding nuclear energy and explosions, but little did I know the power that was being used to keep this information out of the hands of engineers.