Bismuth
Bismuth (element 83, symbol Bi) is a post-transition metal notable for its unusually low thermal conductivity, high diamagnetic susceptibility, and layered crystal structure — cited in UAP disclosure research as the primary identified component of a metamaterial sample given to journalist Linda Moulton Howe in the 1990s by a military source, later physically analyzed and found by researcher Steve Colbern and the To The Stars Academy to consist of alternating layers of bismuth and magnesium arranged at ratios not occurring naturally, consistent with a manufactured metamaterial with anomalous properties relevant to electrogravitic or warp-field theoretical mechanisms.
The Howe sample analysis
The bismuth-magnesium layered sample — sometimes called the "Art's Parts" material after Art Bell, who originally received it — was analyzed by multiple independent parties. To The Stars Academy published an analysis noting that the bismuth layers were approximately 100 microns thick and the magnesium layers were enriched in the rare stable isotope Mg-26 (natural abundance ~11%, the sample reportedly showed higher concentrations). A paper by researcher Salvatore Pais working under a Navy contract proposed theoretical connections between such layered metamaterials and room-temperature superconductivity in the context of UAP-relevant propulsion. Hal Puthoff of TTSA discussed the sample in connection with theoretical frameworks for electromagnetic field manipulation using materials with engineered permeability.
Physical properties relevant to UAP theories
Bismuth is the most strongly diamagnetic of all naturally occurring elements, meaning it repels magnetic fields more strongly than any other natural material. Theoretical UAP propulsion frameworks involving magnetic field manipulation or inertia dampening through engineered materials cite bismuth's diamagnetic properties as a possible design rationale for its presence in a layered metamaterial. Bismuth also has anomalously low thermal conductivity for a metal — relevant to thermal management in high-energy electromagnetic systems.
TTSA, Oak Ridge, and the titanium-bismuth sample
A separate layered sample — consisting of titanium and bismuth rather than magnesium and bismuth — was brought to the attention of Tom DeLonge and his TTSA team and subsequently submitted to a formal government analysis process. Hal Puthoff described on The Joe Rogan Experience how TTSA arranged a contract with an Army office, which then coordinated with AARO (the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office) to have the material analyzed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The Oak Ridge analysis found that the layering geometry — with individual bismuth-titanium layers at the scale of a human hair — had no precedent in the documented history of materials science, and that Oak Ridge analysts could not identify any engineering purpose for such a structure using known physics. Isotopic analysis did not reveal anomalies that would confirm an extraterrestrial origin, but could not explain how or why the layered structure was produced.
Puthoff further described the Oak Ridge conclusion: the layers were at the scale of a human hair, and the laboratory stated it could find "no evidence in the history of development of materials of materials like that and can't even imagine why anybody would want to make it."
Impossibility of replication
To independently benchmark the manufacturing challenge, TTSA commissioned an aerospace corporation to attempt to bond bismuth and magnesium layers together — approximating the layering geometry seen in the Howe sample. The attempt produced only two bonded layers, destroyed the corporation's fabrication instruments, and cost over one million dollars. Puthoff cited the replication failure as evidence that the multi-layered samples — some reportedly containing approximately 18 or more layers — represent a manufacturing capability beyond current human technology, regardless of whether the material's isotopic composition is terrestrial.
Joe Rogan summarized the analytical situation: "So this is something that is of terrestrial origin in terms of materials when you measure the isotopes, but it's of a construction method that's not currently available." Puthoff confirmed: "That is a perfect description of the situation. And by the way, it certainly wasn't available back in the forties and fifties."
Crash retrieval material distribution
Beyond specific samples, Puthoff described a broader framework in which crash retrieval materials from non-human craft had been distributed selectively to defence contractors in the postwar decades — with some corporations receiving samples and building advanced technology from them while others were excluded. He noted that the legal and financial complications arising from this asymmetric distribution — corporations potentially suing one another and the government over inequitable access — were one of the factors making a clean legislative disclosure pathway difficult to construct.
High-K dielectric and Thomas Townsend Brown
Jesse Michels identified bismuth–magnesium as a "high K dielectric" — a material class relevant to the physics of anti-gravity and electrogravitic thrust generation — and noted that the material appears "over and over again" in the experimental research of Thomas Townsend Brown, whose mid-twentieth-century electrokinetic experiments explored dielectric materials as a mechanism for producing force asymmetries. The convergence of UAP crash-site material composition with the precise material class studied by Brown in his anti-gravity research represents, in Michels's view, a significant pattern.
Garry Nolan's access to the material
Garry Nolan, professor of microbiology and immunology at Stanford University and a documented researcher of anomalous UAP-related materials, physically possessed bismuth samples that were filmed during an American Alchemy episode. When asked about the specific bismuth pieces on the table during filming, Nolan acknowledged he could not immediately recall the precise provenance, prompting an on-camera call to Hal Puthoff to establish the chain of custody in real time.
The Garry Nolan–Hal Puthoff collaboration on material analysis sits within a broader framework of informal coordination between Stanford scientists, TTSA-affiliated physicists, and the intelligence community. Michels described how materials passed through the hands of Jacques Vallée — whose home address is reportedly publicly available within the research community for the explicit purpose of allowing crash material submissions to reach a trusted analyst — before reaching Nolan at Stanford.
Terahertz waveguide properties
According to Linda Moulton Howe's analysis of the bismuth–magnesium layered material, the laminate structure exhibits the property of functioning as a micro-sized waveguide for terahertz frequencies. The material reportedly reduces the size of the required microwave carrier-frequency structure to approximately one-thirtieth of its normal wavelength — meaning thirty waveguide channels could fit within the volume normally occupied by a single waveguide operating at terahertz frequencies.