Astounding British Edition, May 1953

About this issue

"Noise Level" by Raymond F. Jones is a science fiction novelette appearing in this issue of Astounding Science Fiction. The story concerns Dr. Martin Nagle, a physicist summoned to a highly classified conference at the Office of National Research, where he joins other prominent scientists including MIT's Dykstra, Harvard's Collins, and Cal Tech's Mellon, along with high-ranking military officials. Director Dr. Keyes reveals that an inventor named Leon Dunning has demonstrated a working anti-gravity device—a pack that lifts him five hundred feet into the air—supported by motion picture evidence. The assembled scientists are initially skeptical of Dunning's claims. The text introduces the central problem: they must understand and replicate Dunning's impossible invention. Also included is the conclusion of Isaac Asimov's serial "The Currents of Space," and Robert Donald Locke's short story "Demotion."