Huntsville BUSINESS JOURNAL Ree eee co | Eventi Solving the mystery of Huntsville's brilliant anti-gravity scientist Dr. Ning Lis son talks about his mom’s career and legacy along with the internet's obsession with her disappearance. ‘Aste phone started to rng and | walted for George Guangyu Men to answer, was atl tring to think of what | would say and how the interview would go. Ws not uncommon in my ine of work to call up a stranger and start asking questions, bt how do you transition from introducing yourself to someone to asking him if you can writea story about the disappearance of his ‘mother? Everything about this story was proving tobe uncommon, frst eared about Dr Ning-Li fom YouTube video that I watched shortly before summer. Titled “The Scientist That Discovered Antigravty Then Disappeared Completely" gamered more than 3 milion views and was based ona Huntsville selentt ver the course of the next 22 minutes, listened intent asthe video's creator, who goes bythe name Barely Sociable, ol. story which seemed appropriate fora mystery nove. [Not only was Dr Ning from Hunts she was alo trablazer in her fel of ant-gravity research, Aer migrating Ameria from China in 1983, Ls began working the Univers of Alstom Muntvile’s (UA) Center for Space lama nc ‘Aeronone Resear, She became fumous and somewhat controversl fra series of papers she co-authored from 1901-1093 In her work Li described a practical method of producing an at-gravity fl, which had never been done befor. t's aways been eld that, because gravity fa baie ferce of nature, constructing an antigravity machine is theotetialy impossible. However, Land her co-author, Douglass Torr, theorized ways around this belief sing. high temperature superconductor errsp)In an HISD, the tiny gravitational effect ofeach individual atom i multiplied by the bilions of atoms inthe dis. Using about ‘one kilowatt of electricity Li claimed, her device could produce a force field that woud effectively neutralize gravity above a1 {oot in ameter region extending from the surface ofthe planet to outer space, ‘Todemonstrat their research, they invited officials from the renowned sience and technology magazine, Popul Mechanics, 10 visit their laboratory in Huntsville to see their work-in-progress a 12-inch disk which acted a a HTSD. Upon the disc's ‘completion, they told the magazine, a bowling bal placed anywhere above this dse will stay exactly where you left Inthe late 90s, she claimed to have created antigravity devices that were fly functional, and this was big news in both sclenc journals and mainstream pres, In 1987, Dr, L continued to expand on her concept and conduct more experiments. ‘She published papers describing the anomalous weight changes in objects suspected over a rotating superconductor. ‘To say her work, referred toa taming gravity” could change the worlds an understatement. Taming gravity would drastically change the way we transportate on every level, Humans could trwvel the word at ease and we could finaly get our hands on those sweet hoverboards from Back to the Future” would also transform how we power transportation and effectively end ‘ur relance on fos fuels. ‘So, what became of Dr, Ning LIP ‘The story gets even stranger In 1999, Left UAH co start her own company, AC Gravity, and commercialize a device based on her theories Her colleagues ‘obviously believed in her work asthe chair of UAH’ Physics Department, Larry Smal, also departed the university to join her. Publi records show that n 200, the US. Department of Defense gave AC Gravity a grant for 448,970 to research the technology. However, these results were never published In fact, Dr Li never published anything again. And eventhough the business license for AC Gravity wes updated yearly through 2018, there is no record of any further work done by the company. Lis carer after 2002s the subject of great mystery. Barely Sociable research turned up a document showing that she gavea presentation at the 2003 MITRE conference tiled "Measurablty of AC Gravity Fields" The MITRE Corporation manages {federally funded research for several US. agencies. At the conference, she presented alongwith a Restone Arsenal fil fom US. Army Aviation and Misile Command, meaning that her research was sl being conducted up to that pont.‘The trall on Li ends after her lst documented correspondence in May 2008 when she sent a private emai to colleagues claiming to have conducted an experiment in which she observed an “I-Klowats of output effect” The significance ofthat amount is stilla mystery as well, Her absence id not go unnoticed. In 2004, journalist Tim Ventura sent an ema to another scientist in the fled named Rugene Podletnov with the subject lin “Tracking Down Dr. Ning Li In the ema, Ventura writes, "Every 2 months, re-try the lningacomeastnet email address that you gave me for Dr. Ning Li~ can tell from return-receipts that somebody is reading her email, but [never get a reply? Podkletnov responded, confirming her wellbeing ad that she was still working wth the DoD but unable to talk about her work. He also told Ventura that he was unable to get a working email address or phone number for her, ‘As the years passed, the conversation regarding Lis whereabouts started to amplify along with the conspiracies around itn July of 2008, a scientist named lack Sarfati provided a rather alarming update during an interview that was later posted on YouTube and included in the video ftom Barely Sociable, During the interview, Sarfati claims that Li was no longer working forthe DoD and had moved back to Chinato continue her work. The transcript of the interview conveys the seriousness ofthis accusation, “This is very important from a national security and political point of view. One ofthe key scientists... isa Chinese woman, named Ning Li She has disappeared and gone back to China’ said Sarfat “She was working at NASA and the Redstone Arsenal but she has disappeared for several years now: The people at The Pentagon cannot reach her anymore. She i allegedly back in China and the Chinese are pouring money into similar experiments nove. Thats why our intelligence guys are very intrested. ‘The most likely people to develop the frst antl-gravity propulsion technology ate the Chinese” ‘The vdeo about Ning Li ends shortly after Sarfati interview with no clear answer as to her carer after 2002.1 mmeditely| replayed the video and started to figure out how to continue this tory. ‘Various articles have been published online in the twa years since the YouTube video with only one update. An obituary was published on the Berryhill Funeral Home website: Dr. Ning Li passed away on July 27,202, However, her obituary revealed nothing else regarding her “disappearance” “She was 79 years ol..One ofthe worl’ leading scientists in super-conductivityanti-grait. Dr. Li constructed the fist 12" HTD ofthe world in the late 90s" the obituary reads Since Berryhill Funeral Home is located in Huntsville, ts safe to assume the accusations of Li leaving for China, or even being Kidnapped, were wrong. However, many readers casted doubts on the credibility ofthe obituary and continued to support various conspiracy theories instead. ‘The obituary contained the name of her son, George Guangyu Men, along with his children. After an embarrassing amount of research | found where Geonge has registered an LIC within the city and the phone number associated with his business. I took a bit to work up the courage, but was way too far down the rabbit hole t give up at this pont. gave George a call and, after getting to know each other abit, he was gracious enough to invite me into his home and tlk about his mother. George informed me that while no one has called his phone before, I wasnt the frst person to contact him on the topic. He has received varios letters from people in New Zealand, amongst other places, hoping to learn more about Dr. Lis research. He ‘ant elp but laugh when he recalls the one time he asked his mom about her wrkshed her once he recalled,“ sd“Mom, do you need to tll me something? She tld me, First of, you dont know anything ‘Second off if you eve think you might know something, you forget about tI suid okay that's ine” Geonge was vaguely aware tht people were sill interestedin his mom but he didnt understand justhow interested people ‘were played Barely Sociable’ video for im and his two children in his ving room alongwith shoving him some ofthe online Liscourse ane was able to claify some things peopl have speculated on oer the years. Most importantly, Dr Li never fet the DoD and never left the country to work forthe Chinese government. There is one nugget of information that ines up with Sarfatis 2008 interview: George said that his mother wa visited by Chinese officials on one ocasion in 2008 when members ofthe CCP were visting America. They did attempt to recruit her back tothe country to continue her work, but Li had no interest Li had migrated along ‘ith George inthe late 80s and had no desie to leave her postion. She did attempt to return fr her mother’s funeral ater she assed avay, Dut George says that she was denied permission. “Lremember that o clearly’ he sid. “She was very upset? George also explained how he nciced change in his mom after leaving UAH for the private sector. He saysall he secrecy that ‘comes withthe jb began to change her demeanor and behavior over the years. “Wien she was at Univesity, she loved to publish her Findings” he recalled. “But ater she got her top secret clearance, she ‘wast allowed to share anything anymore with anyone. She became much queter. She would return from work looking worn ‘down with her makeup messed up. wasnt ke that when she was atthe University” "have filed requests through the Freedom of Information Act for the results of her 2001 grant long with any other research ‘rom her but it was denied alongwith requests from others. safe to assume that we wont be finding out the specifics of her research after 2002 for along time. Its immediately apparent, when talking to George, the admiration he sil holds for his mother, “My mother was very concentrated. She concentrated on one thing and only one thing atte he explained “She passed that {own too. She tld ws to find our one thing concentrate on it with ll you have and don el the ned to compare yourself to any other people, Just do the best you can with your passion, And think her grandkids wl learn from that” Dr. Li continued to workat Redstone Arsenal everyday until 2044 when Li was struck by a vehicle while crossing the treet on the UAH campus. This accident unfortunately hada lasting effect on thei family. His fther, Lis husband, suffered aheart attack atthe moment he saw his wife o 46 years being thrown from the impact He would pass away a year ater in 201, For Li this accident caused permanent brain damage that resued in Alzheimer’ disease shortly ater Lived with Geonge who ‘wok care of his mom forthe ast sx years of her life before she passed avay in 2021 These years were dificult for George ‘Watching a loved one sue rom Alzheimer's is always a horrendous thing. Add onto that he knew intimately how smart she was before the diease rants course and how much her intelligence meant to her. “For sx years, people asked how I could do that for six whole yeas? George sid." sad first of all she's my mother. Second of| all she gave usa better life, Without her, I wouldnt have been able to.come tothe states and get my education, Third, just really admired her a8 a person” George found comfort in his religion and his church community from the Chinese Christan Church of Madison during these times, He recalled how he could always tll when his mom was uncomfortable even when she couldn talk: When the Buddhism inspired music he was plying didnt succeed at comforting her, it was a member of his church who suggested playing Christian hymns and, according to Georg, he noticed the difference right away. [My conversation with George, along with this entire story, was one to be remembered, Iam amazed how such abriliant and intelligent woman seems largely forgotten in a community that places such an emphasis on brilliance and intelligence. |i our first phone cal, George asked me questions about what hoped to accomplish inthis story. had a general Mea atthe time, but became more and more apparent overtime, What George was able to share might not satisfy the swarms of conspiracy theorists and UFO enthusiasts that seek out information about his mom's research But hopefully we can bring more awareness, both within our community and online, about just how amazing of person De. 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