Brian D Josephson is Professor of Physics at the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1973.

Dear Professor Josephson,

You will see from the enclosed that the American broadcaster Jeff Rense has had the courage to publish on his notice board www.rense.com the transcript of the broadcast you did on BBC Radio 4 on 2nd October 2001. This also featured the magician James Randi and Professor Nicholas Humphrey of the London School of Economics.

I have noticed a pattern here. Whenever a scientist makes a public stand and links so-called paranormal phenomena with quantum mechanics, that is, hints that there may be a rational scientific explanation to account for any aspect of the "paranormal", it's as if a button is pushed on media computers and a list of names pop up of "experts" who will immediately be wheeled on to rubbish any scientist who dares to support Sir William Crookes and Sir Oliver Lodge, the pioneers of radio, television and subatomic physics.

Dr. Richard Wiseman and Dr. Susan Blackmore spring to mind. One thing these two have in common is that they are both recipients of money from the Perrott-Warrick Scholarship attached to Trinity College Cambridge University. This was set up to provide funds for those reading what has been called paranormal phenomena. Do you know if Prof. Nicholas Humphrey has received money from the Perrott-Warrick fund? If he has, then I think it's about time some of the money was directed towards scientists who do link life after death and related subjects with subatomic physics - the study of the invisible part of the universe.

This will then provide the balance on media and educational outlets that the law demands. As things stand at the moment only one expert opinion is reaching the people - the orthodox scientific argument that death is the end of everything. This can't be right in what is meant to be a free country.

Yours sincerely

Michael Roll

"Paranormal" - An article by Michael Hanlon about Prof. B D Josephson, published in The Daily Mail, (October 1, 2001)

The Chemist Sir William Crookes Proved Survival With Repeatable Experiments Under Laboratory Conditions - by Michael Roll

A Rational Scientific Explanation for So-called Psychic Phenomena - by Michael Roll

The full transcript of the discussion on Radio 4's 'Today' programme (October 2, 2001) between James Randi, Prof. Nicholas Humphrey, and Prof. Josephson, is on Prof. Josephson's site.