Number 104 (Story #2), November 25, 1992 by Phillip F. Schewe and Ben Stein COULD GALAXY REDSHIFTS BE QUANTIZED? Redshifts are traditionally thought to depend primarily on one simple factor: the velocity by which the galaxy recedes from Earth. However, a few astronomers suggest there may be more complex factors, perhaps even some large-scale quantum effect, at work. As early as 1970, William G. Tifft of the University of Arizona performed comparisons of redshifts within a single galaxy cluster, and found that the individual redshifts differed by multiples of 72 km/sec. Last year Bruce N. G. Guthrie and William M. Napier of the Royal University at Edinburgh compared the redshifts from 89 single spiral galaxies. They found a periodicity of 37.2 km/sec--very close to Tifft's recently revised quantum multiple of 36.2 km/sec for this class of galaxies. Many skeptical astrophysicists, who take notice of this independent study, still believe that further investigations are in order and that the evidence compiled thus far does not yet necessitate the quantization of redshifts. (Scientific American, December 1992.)