It dawned on me just today why the name Niels Harrit sounded familiar.
(As you know, Bob...) Robert Heinlein published a novel titled The Number Of The Beast in 1980. On one level, at least, the book is a long string of thinly disguised references to various people.
One of the 'Black Hats' we meet early on is a university professor named "Neil O'Heret Brain", regarded by some of his peers as a crackpot and sometimes referred to, behind his back, as "N.O. Brain".
Now, while "Neil O'Heret Brain" is an anagram of "Robert A. Heinlein" (the book is full of self-referencing anagrams), that's still a pretty close resemblance, and casting the character as a crackpot professor... well, it just makes one wonder.
Of course the publication, and Mr. Heinlein's later death (1988) were years before 9/11 and the various nutjobs claims, but RAH kept up pretty well with the research in various scientific fields and could well have known of Harrit in 1980.
Just sort of random thoughts...
