In his new article Energy from the Vacuum scientist Josh Mitteldorf observes: “There are persistent stories of people who invent perpetual motion machines only to disappear or to die mysteriously or become insane.” After looking at the physics of various proposed free energy technologies, he notes: “Many people have speculated that such technologies are not only possible, but that they have been developed and deployed by an elite group of powerful individuals or for advanced military applications, but kept secret from the public…Free energy could threaten the world’s reserve currency.