Marveling at the precision of ancient Egyptian stone artifacts (be that granite sarcophagi or stone vases), I realized that we are trying to explain how these objects could have been made using our contemporary technology. If we are to believe that these artifacts are a legacy of much older and much more advanced civilization then it is futile trying to explain these marvels with our limited knowledge. Surely this advanced civilization did not use cutters, saws, and end mills that we use today for the same reason that we do not use flint tools, copper chisels, or potter’s wheels in modern-day manufacturing. We need to look further: what powerful yet plausible technology could this hypothetical advanced civilization have used? Allow me to formulate a hypothesis.
It is common knowledge that nuclear energy packs millions of times more power per unit mass compared to chemical fuels. What if this hypothetical advanced civilization used nuclear machining rather than mechanical one? Allow me to explain.
Cutting with Ion Beams: A Jedi Light Sabre
Ion beams are commonly used for micro-machining. E.g. when high voltage accelerates ions, the high-velocity ions impinge on the surface and dislodge atoms. One can do the same using unstable short-lived radioisotopes that emit alpha particles. Take Po-210 for example. Po-210 atoms decay by emitting alpha particles, which are helium ions travelling at very high velocity. A milligram of Po-210 would emit a horrendous flux of helium ions, which would ablate any surface they come in contact with. Suppose we have a way to coat a blade with a rich surface layer of Po-210. Such a blade would ionize the air in its vicinity and will glow like a Jedi’s lightsaber as alpha particles scatter on air molecules, lose energy, and emit light in the process. However, should such an alpha-emitter-coated blade come into contact with a solid surface, the alpha particles would ablate it away at a rapid rate and the blade would cut through stone without any effort – Fig. 1.
In the case of such a blade, it won’t be the physical effort that does the cutting, it would be the ablating action of the alpha particles, which draw their power from the astonishing energy confined with the nucleus. Such a hypothetical tool would be very easy to control: one can simply move the blade away when cutting is no longer needed: the air gap between the blade and the stone would scatter and diffuse the alpha particles thus stopping the ablation. And there will be no chips or grinds to worry about – the ablated material will be evaporated and turned into gas or extremely fine powder.
What stops us from developing such a technology now? For one, our limited mastery of nuclear energy. We do not yet know how to synthesize, how to control, and how to handle large quantities of Po-210 or any other short-lived alpha emitter. But we can learn if we set our mind to it.
Softening Matter with Electrons
Another option is to use a short-lived beta emitter to saturate a hard material with electrons. There is ample anecdotal evidence that the plastic properties of materials can be significantly altered when the material is inundated with charge. After all, electrons are the glue that holds a crystalline lattice together. Too much of this ‘glue’ and the lattice may no longer be as stable or as rigid as it was before. So, suppose you cover a blade with a macroscopic quantity of a beta emitter. Once exposed to air this blade will behave much like the alpha blade – it would ionize the air and glow brightly as beta particles scatter off air molecules and lose energy. However, as soon as the blade makes contact with a solid material the beta particles would impinge on the surface and penetrate the lattice softening it in the process by creating an electron density imbalance. Then we can gently push on the blade and expect it to penetrate an initially hard material (such as granite) with little resistance as the material is now made soft by the electron saturation – Fig. 2.
Here lies a principle difference between the beta blade and the alpha blade: the alpha blade ablates material but the beta blade locally softens the material. As such the alpha blade is useful primarily for cutting whereas the beta blade is better suited for scooping as the soft material needs to be pushed away and removed much like sculptor’s clay.
To me, these two examples look like technologies that could have been used to shape the rocks on polygonal masonry found all over the world: from Peru to Egypt.
Testing the Hypothesis
If nuclear machining was used to shape and cut the ancient megaliths, what evidence of it can we find? I can think of the following:
- Because the isotopes necessary for nuclear machining described above by necessity are short-lived, we are not going to find any of them, but we may find their decay products. If the decay products are foreign to the virgin rock then they will stand out during the elemental analysis of the surface composition. Finding heavy elements (such as bismuth or lead) will be exciting as many heavy radioisotopes decay into these.
- Excess amount of helium trapped in the rock would be a tell-tale sign of alpha machining;
- Perhaps there could be trace amounts of radioactivity left in the rock due to other nuclear reactions that might take place due to heavy alpha or beta exposure; it is also possible that the decay chains of the hypothesized alpha- and beta-emitters would contain long-lived isotopes that may still be present on the machined surfaces;
- Lastly, perhaps there might be anomalies in the crystalline structure such as micro-cracks, defects or dislocations due to the alpha/beta action; in principle, it is possible to expose stones to small quantities of alpha- or beta-emitters and study the resulting changes in the crystalline structure using electron microscopy, WDS or crystallography. This is something that we can study in order to learn what to look for.
As such, the proposed hypothesis is testable, and it is testable with conventional tools at our disposal such as gamma spectrometers, electron microscopes, EDS, XRF, and WDS. Who knows, perhaps the ancient stone artifacts might teach us a thing or two about nuclear energy.
Controlling the Reaction
Our current knowledge tells us that it may be difficult to handle large quantities of short-lived alpha or beta emitters. Right now we do not know how to handle more than nano-grams of these. Yet, if one has mastery of nuclear energy, one can most certainly generate neutrons (e.g. via a controlled thermonuclear fusion or spallation). And if one can generate large quantities of neutrons on demand then one does not need to store the short-lived alpha or beta emitters, instead one can synthesize them on demand by neutron activation. That is neutrons would combine with a progenitor isotope of a stable element and produce a desired short-lived alpha- or beta-emitter. This is how these radioisotopes are manufactured currently (e.g. for use in nuclear medicine or nuclear science).
As such, if a hypothetical advanced civilization has mastered nuclear energy they are also likely to master on-demand neutron generation. Then it would have been possible to make a neutron blade containing a powerful neutron source and a desired progenitor isotope – Fig. 3.
Such a blade would be activated by a trigger energizing the neutron source. Once in contact with a stone, one can simply pull the trigger, and voila! Neutrons would combine with the progenitor isotopes synthesizing the desired charged particles (alpha or beta) that would either cut the stone via surface ablation or soften it to make it pliable/scoopable. By controlling the intensity of the neutron source one can control the power of the tool as well as turn the instrument on and off on demand.
If the hypothesized ancient advanced civilization used neutrons then there ought to be traces of neutron activation in the rocks, which we should be able to find using precision germanium spectroscopy.
‘Natural’ Nuclear Reactor
If all of the above reads like science fiction to you – hold off your judgment until you hear this: many decades ago the French discovered in the Oklo mine in Gabon (Africa) a so-called ‘natural nuclear fission reactor’. The uranium obtained from the mine was depleted in a way consistent with the operation of a conventional nuclear reactor… This finding was so disconcerting that the French initially suspected foul play and theft of the weapons-grade material. But when the scientists realized that the uranium from the Oklo mine does not adhere to the natural isotopic abundance found everywhere else in the world, they concluded that the nuclear fission must have occurred naturally… and they have come up with a very contrived explanation of how it might have happened.
To me, this sounds just about as probable as finding a perfectly shaped and functional Mercedes Benz embedded in a rock, that formed their ‘naturally’ due to some peculiar geological process. A nuclear reactor is not a simple thing, it requires an enriched uranium to operate, and multiple tightly balanced conditions must be met and carefully maintained. It would be nothing short of a miracle to reach criticality, but to sustain it for thousands of years to have all of U-235 burn is beyond credulity.
To me, a much simpler and far less contrived explanation is that the Oklo mine is a remnant of an artificial nuclear fission reactor built by someone in the past. This presupposition completely explains the depleted uranium and all the tell-tale isotopes found there without requiring an improbable sequence of impossible events.
What would you believe?