On the north of the mountain are twin lakes dubbed as the "lover Lakes", one with fresh water and the other with salty water.Lover Lakes should be called Venus Craters.
DELINGHA (QINGHAI), June 19 (Xinhuanet) -- A group of nine Chinese scientists will go to west China's Qinghai Province this month to closely examine the relics thought by some to have been left by extraterrestrial beings (ET).China Baffled By 'Alien' Pyramid, CNN, Jun 2002
It will be the first time scientists seriously study the mysterious site near Delingha City in the depths of the Qaidam Basin, according to government sources with the Haixi Mongolian and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, where Delingha is located.
The site, known by local people as "the ET relics", is on MountBaigong about 40 kilometers to the southwest of Delingha City.
On the north of the mountain are twin lakes dubbed as the "lover Lakes", one with fresh water and the other with salty water.
The so-called ET relics structure is located on the south bank of the salty lake. It looks like a pyramid and is between 50 to 60meters high.
At the front of the pyramid are three caves with triangular openings. The cave in the middle is the biggest, with its floor standing two meters above the ground and its top eight meters above the ground.
This cave is about six meters in depth. Inside there is a half-pipe about 40 centimeters in diameter tilting from the top to the inner end of the cave. Another pipe of the same diameter goes intothe earth with only its top visible above the ground.
Above the cave are a dozen pipes of various diameters which runinto the mountain.
All the pipes are red brownish, the same color as that of surrounding rocks.
The two smaller caves have collapsed and are inaccessible.
Scattered about the caves and on the bank of the salty lake area large number of rusty scraps, pipes of various diameters and strangely shaped stones. Some of the pipes run into the lake.
According to Qin Jianwen, head of the publicity department of the Delingha government, the scraps were once taken to a local smeltery for analysis.
The result shows that they are made up of 30 percent ferric oxide with a large amount of silicon dioxide and calcium oxide. Eight percent of the content could not be identified.
"The large content of silicon dioxide and calcium oxide is a result of long interaction between iron and sandstone, which meansthe pipes must be very old," said Liu Shaolin, the engineer who did the analysis.
"This result has made the site even more mysterious," Qin said."Nature is harsh here. There are no residents let alone modern industry in the area, only a few migrant herdsmen to the north of the mountain."
Someone has suggested that the site might have been a launch tower left by ET.
The area is high in altitude, with thin and transparent air. Itis an ideal place to practice astronomy, Qin said.
BEIJING, China -- A team of Chinese scientists is to head out to the far west of the country to investigate a mystery pyramid that local legend says is a launch tower left by aliens from space.Heng, L., Mysterious Pipes Left by 'ET' Reported From Qinghai, People's Daily, Jun 2002
Nine scientists will travel this month to probe the origins of the 50-60 meter (165-198 ft) tall structure -- dubbed "the ET relics" -- in the western province of Qinghai, China's state-run Xinhua agency said on Wednesday.
The mystery pyramid sits on Mount Baigong, has three caves with triangular openings on its facade and is filled with red-hued pipes leading into the mountain and a nearby salt water lake, Xinhua said.
The widespread news of mysterious iron pipes at the foot of Mount Baigong, located in the depths of the Qaidam Basin, Qinghai Province, has roused concern from related departments.
Some experts believe that these might be relics left behind by extraterrestrial beings (ET), for the site, with its high altitude and thin, crisp air, has long been held as an ideal place to practice astronomy.
A re-examination of the available Gigantopithecus material has revealed that most of the supposed "man-like" characteristics of this fossil primate are not, in fact, hominid at all.Ciochon, R., Dated Co-Occurrence of Homo Erectus and Gigantopithecus from Tham Khuyen Cave Vietnam, PNAS, Volume 93, Number 7, Pages 3016-3020, Apr 1996
The dated co-occurrence of Homo erectus and Gigantopithecus blacki at Tham Khuyen helps to establish the long co-existence of these two species throughout east Asia during the Early and Middle Pleistocene.Giant Ape Lived Alongside Humans, Science Daily, Nov 2005
ScienceDaily (Nov. 13, 2005) — A gigantic ape, measuring about 10 feet tall and weighing up to 1,200 pounds, co-existed alongside humans, a geochronologist at McMaster University has discovered.Carey, B., Gigantic Apes Coexisted with Early Humans, Study Finds, Live Science, Nov 2005
Now Jack Rink, a geochronologist at McMaster University in Ontario, has used a high-precision absolute-dating method to determine that this ape – the largest primate ever – roamed Southeast Asia for nearly a million years before the species died out 100,000 years ago during the Pleistocene period. By this time, humans had existed for a million years.Harder, B., Giant Asian Ape and Humans Coexisted, May Have Interacted, National Geographic, Dec 2005
Stalking through the forest, an early human hunter might have glimpsed an oversize ape through a thicket of bamboo.
We may never know the outcome of such a prehistoric encounter—or even if a meeting occurred. The mysterious ape, called Gigantopithecus blacki, has long since vanished from the Earth, and so has the early human species.
But researchers have determined that the giant ape—which might have been the closest thing to a real King Kong—did in fact live at the same time and in roughly the same place as early humans.
In China 300,000 years ago the two species might well have crossed paths, according to W. Jack Rink of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.
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PIEDILUCO, 13 km south of Terni/Umbria. Meaning of the name: Piedi (lat.foot) lucus (lat.sacred woods)
Piediluco is known for its peculiar hill, la montagna dell'Eco "echo mountain", which is able to reproduce the echo of an eleven verses rhime by Dante Alighieri (Italian poet)! Italian exaggeration or evidence of an artificial structure?
Piediluco is also known for its splendor and creativity in celebrating the summer solstice festival on 21 June on Italy's most scenic lake.
There are more than 16 pyramids spread over Greece. The oldest one is the Pyramid of Hellinikon.
At the South-eastern edge of the plain of Argolid, near the springs of the Erasinos river (nowadays 'Kephalari') and on the main arterial road which in antiquity lead from Argos to Tegea and the rest of Arcadia and Kynouria, there is a small structure at present known as the Pyramid of Hellenikon.
The Academy of Athens has published results of dating the Hellenikon pyramid ( 9-2-1995). Dating measurements were performed by the Laboratory of Archaeometry at Dimokritos Resarch Institute in Athens and by the Nuclear Dating Laboratory of the department of Physics at the University of Edinbourgh in Scotland.
The method of Optical Thermoluminescence was employed to date samples taken from the pyramid. It was determined that the pyramid was erected at about 2720 B.C.
It must be noted that, according to these results, the Hellenikon pyramid predates, by at least 100 years, the oldest Egyptian pyramid (Djoser - 2620 B.C.) and by 170 years the Great Pyramid of Cheops (Khufu - 2550 B.C.).
VISOKO, Bosnia-Herzegovina - Archaeologists began digging Friday for what they hope is an ancient pyramid hidden beneath a mysterious Bosnian hill that has long been the subject of legend.Times Online: Indiana Jones of the Balkans and the mystery of a hidden pyramid.
The Bosnian archaeologist leading the work says the 2,120-foot (650-meter) mound rising above the small town of Visoko resembles pyramid sites in Latin America that he has studied. It would be the first pyramid ever discovered in Europe.
Initial research on the hill, known as Visocica, found that it has perfectly shaped, 45-degree slopes pointing toward the cardinal points and a flat top. Under layers of dirt, workers discovered a paved entrance plateau, entrances to tunnels and large stone blocks that might be part of a pyramid's outer surface.
Satellite photographs and thermal imaging revealed two other, smaller pyramid-shaped hills in the Visoko Valley.
DRIVE 20 miles northwest of Sarajevo through the mountains of central Bosnia and you enter the broad Visoko valley, dissected by the meandering Bosna River. Beyond the river sits the town of Visoko, watched over by its minarets. And beyond Visoko rises an extraordinary triangular hill, 700ft (213m) high and looking for all the world like an ancient pyramid.BBC: Dig for ancient pyramid in Bosnia
Some say that is precisely what it is — a huge pyramid built perhaps 12,000 years ago by an unknown civilisation. And yesterday they set out to prove it.
In the spring sunshine, watched by crowds of locals, journalists and the contestants in this year’s Miss Bosnia competition, a team of archaeologists began excavating the so-called Pyramid of the Sun, hoping for one of the greatest finds in modern history.
Experts ridicule the notion. “This is total nonsense. It’s impossible. There was no high culture in this region at that time capable of building something on this scale,” said Professor Enver Imamovic, a respected archeologist from Sarajevo.
But there is just enough evidence to suggest that the experts could be wrong — and to persuade Semir Osmanagic, 45, a wealthy Bosnian who moved to Houston 15 years ago, to raise £100,000 for the project.
The four sides of the Visocica hill have regular slopes of almost exactly 45 degrees, facing north, south, east and west exactly. “Nature simply cannot build such a perfect geometric shape,” Mr Osmanagic said.
Scattered in the hill’s scrubby vegetation are sandstone slabs that look as though they have been polished and cut. Running into the west side is a “causeway” 500 yards long and 40 wide.
And beneath the valley there appears to be a network of tunnels. Yesterday the diggers opened one which, according to local folklore, runs more than two miles to the “pyramid”. They penetrated far enough to find side tunnels. “This is definitely not a natural formation,” declared Nadjia Nukic, a geologist.
There is more, claims Mr Osmanagic, who sports an Indiana Jones-style cowboy hat. “Radar analysis showed there are tunnels inside and they are perfectly straight and the intersections are at 90 degrees.” Satellite thermal images indicate that the hill cools faster than its surroundings, suggesting that is less dense. There was a curious “resonance” from the hill when the town was shelled during the Bosnian war.
“We’re talking about a huge construction effort here. The size of this pyramid will shock the archaeological world. It’s substantially higher than the Great Pyramid of Egypt,” said Mr Osmanagic, who has spent 15 years researching the pyramids of Central and South America. “We have discovered tunnels linking the pyramid with other hilltops. We have also found a huge entrance plateau, paved with thousands of handmade sandstone plates. Once the world accepts that we have this huge pyramid we will start trying to answer the questions: who? when? how? and why?”
Known as Visocica, the 650m (2,120ft) triangular mound, overlooking Visoko, has long been shrouded in local legend.
The Bosnian archaeologist leading the project says it resembles pyramid sites he has studied in Latin America.
Initial excavations have revealed a narrow entrance to what could be an underground network of tunnels.
On Friday, a team of rescue workers from a local coal mine, followed by archaeologists and geologists examined the tunnel, thought to be 2.4 miles (3.8km) long.
The team found two intersections with other tunnels leading off to the left and right.
Their conclusion was that it had to be man-made.
"This is definitely not a natural formation," said geologist Nadja Nukic.
Satellite photographs and thermal imaging revealed two other, smaller pyramid-shaped hills in the Visoko Valley, which archaeologists believe the tunnels could lead to.
This thin layer of ash -- the boundary between light and dark in the above picture -- is the split between when dinosaurs are found and when they aren't. What's amazing about this is that this tiny, thin film of a layer contains something in great abundance that the Earth doesn't have much of at all: the element iridium. Naturally, the Earth has so little iridium that it's inconceivable that this iridium could have come from Earth. Where could it have come from?
It seems the toughest thing for scientists to grasp - that a cherished paradigm like the big bang can be wrong. The latest crisis was reported in Physorg.com on May 5th: "Study plunges standard Theory of Cosmology into Crisis." The study of dwarf companion galaxies of the Milky Way support the view that a "modified Newton dynamic" [MOND] must be adopted. “This conclusion has far-reaching consequences for fundamental physics in general, and also for cosmological theories.” One of the researchers involved said, “it is conceivable that we have completely failed to comprehend the actual physics underlying the force of gravity.”
In my news of April 21st I wrote, “we are so far from understanding gravity that we don't know the right questions to ask.” There I proposed "Electrically Modified Newtonian Dynamics," or "E-MOND," as the solution for solar system stability. However, the problem involving the dwarf companion galaxies is more fundamental to cosmology. The first problem in physics is to choose the correct concepts to apply to our observations. That determines which physical laws to apply. But that's not the end of it. We must remain aware that all laws are man-made and provisional - they are subject to modification on appeal. Historically, cosmologists have denied that electricity has any relevance in space. They have refused to consider how the laws of plasma physics might apply to their otherwise incomprehensible observations. Provisionality is a formalism to mask dogma.
Richard Feynman, lecturing his students on how to look for a new law in physics, said, “First you guess. Don't laugh; this is the most important step. Then you compute the consequences. Compare the consequences to experience. If it disagrees with experience, the guess is wrong. In that simple statement is the key to science. It doesn't matter how beautiful your guess is or how smart you are or what your name is. If it disagrees with experience, it's wrong. That's all there is to it.”
Sounds simple? Perhaps that is why we see so many proposals for new laws of physics in the mad scramble for a Nobel Prize. But the emphasis is all wrong. It encourages wild guesswork and burgeoning complexity. Complexity facilitates endless "twiddling of knobs" to match new "experience." Theories become practically unfalsifiable and unscientific - as witness, "string theory." Underlying the guesswork in cosmology is the paradigm of the big bang. A paradigm is a system of belief that tends to be taken completely for granted. The guesswork is limited to modifications that don't disturb the conviction. Questioning the established paradigm is resisted. The case of "the modern Galileo," Halton Arp, is a classic example where the big bang "disagrees with experience" - and the experience is declared to be wrong. Feynman could usefully have added that it doesn't matter how many people believe a theory, “If it disagrees with experience, it's wrong. That's all there is to it.”
Cosmology is in crisis because from the very outset the "big bang" was not science! The big bang invokes a miraculous creation of the universe from nothing. It is a misguided attempt to manufacture a creation story to complement, or compete with, the biblical Genesis story. But real science doesn't do miracles. There was no contest anyway. The biblical creation story, like those of all other ancient cultures on Earth, has nothing to do with the creation of the universe. To believe so is to misunderstand the ancient meanings of "heaven" and "earth."
A scientific, forensic investigation of mankind's earliest ideas about heaven and earth show that "heaven" was the arena of the planetary "gods," whose behavior was fearfully witnessed by our prehistoric ancestors in a catastrophic period of awful electrical splendor in the skies.
Using such diverse sources as old ship logs, literary texts, tax accounts, newly translated legal documents and even mounted trophies, Census researchers are piecing together images - some flickering, others in high definition - of fish of such sizes, abundance and distribution in ages past that they stagger modern imaginations.
They are also documenting the timelines over which those giant marine life populations declined.
For example, Census scientists say the size of freshwater fish caught by Europeans started shrinking in medieval times.
FOR years a few imaginative authors have argued, based on 16th century maps, that the ice-covered continent of Antarctica was discovered and mapped by an ancient civilization, perhaps one from another planet. The latter proposition was dismissed by most geographers and historians as preposterous.Sullivan, W., New Analysis Hints Ancient Explorers Mapped Antarctic, The New York Times, Sep 1984
Nevertheless, a careful comparison of information appearing on the maps with what is now known of the continent has led a leading geologist and polar specialist to propose that the outlines of Antarctica may, in fact, have been known long before Columbus reached America.
The new find of roots and stems of wooden plants and of pollen in an area stretching about 1,300 kilometers along the Transantarctic Mountains means not only that the ice retreated but also that the climate was warm enough to support a shrublike beach forest. "The presence of the wood means that there was deglaciation on a major scale, with conditions radically different than they are today," says David Elliot, chief scientist of the recent National Science Foundation polar expedition, of which Webb's group was part. "This is a very significant find." Webb thinks the forest region a few million years ago must have resembled the present-day fjords of Chile and Norway.Weisburd, S., A Forest Grows In Antarctica, Science News, Volume 129, Number 148, Mar 1986
According to Webb, before the forest developed, the region was covered by a considerable amount of ice. So an important question is where the forest and pollen came from. "Had the forest been living there all the time, and are we overestimating the severity of the earlier glacial record?" he wonders.
The [Antarctic] ice sheet has resulted in one of the most extreme environments on the planet - mean annual temperature in the interior is between -50oC and -60oC - and yet in the distant past 200 million years ago the Antarctic was a continent of forests and plains with temperatures of around 10oC or more. Here we review evidence from the Antarctic continent of changes in climate that have taken place over the last 100 million years, a period that has seen the formation of a mountain range across the middle of the continent, and its change from an ice-free to an ice-covered state.Barrett, P., Antarctic Climate History Over The Last 100 Million Years, Terra Antarctica Reports, Volume 3, Pages 53-72, 1999
ScienceDaily (July 29, 2008) — A snapshot of New Zealand’s climate 40 million years ago reveals a greenhouse Earth, with warmer seas and little or no ice in Antarctica, according to research recently published in the journal Geology.Snapshot of Past Climate Reveals No Ice In Antarctica Millions of Years Ago, Science Daily, Jul 2008
The study suggests that Antarctica at that time was yet to develop extensive ice sheets. ...
“This is too warm to be the Antarctic water we know today,” said Dr Catherine (Cat) Burgess from Cardiff University and lead-author of the paper. “And the seawater chemistry shows there was little or no ice on the planet.”
"We now know the origin of one of the most peculiar magmas on Earth," said William Leeman, program director in the National Science Foundation (NSF)'s Division of Earth Sciences, which funded the research. "These scientists have found that, based on new studies of the chemistry of gas emissions at Oldoinyo Lengai, a very small amount of melting of Earth's mantle, akin to that beneath mid-ocean ridges, can produce carbonatites."
The carbonatites consist of high amounts of carbon dioxide, some 30 percent. Unlike most lavas that are liquid at temperatures above 900 degrees Celsius (1,652 F), carbonatites are much cooler and erupt at only 540 degrees Celsius (1,004 F). However, they're extremely fluid, with a viscosity like that of motor oil.
"We were able to collect pristine samples of the volcanic gases because Oldoinyo Lengai was erupting and under tremendous magma pressure at the time," said Tobias Fischer, a volcanologist at the University of New Mexico and lead author of the paper. "There was minimal air contamination."
"The gases reveal that the carbon dioxide comes directly from the upper mantle, just below the East African Rift," said David Hilton, a geochemist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
"These samples of mantle gases allow us to infer the carbon content of the upper mantle where the carbonatites are produced."
It's about 300 parts per million, a concentration virtually identical to that measured below mid-ocean ridges.
The finding is significant, said geochemist Bernard Marty of the CNRS-CRPG (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique-Centre de Recherches Pe'trographiques et Ge'ochimiques in France), "because it shows that these extremely bizarre lavas and their parent magmas, called nephelinites, were produced by melting of typical upper mantle minerals--which don't have a high carbon dioxide content."
Previous research, mainly based on laboratory experiments, suggested that a higher carbon dioxide content is needed to produce nephelinites and carbonatites.
"Oldoinyo Lengai magmas also contain an unusually high amount of sodium, up to about 35 percent," said Pete Burnard, a geochemist at CNRS-CRPG.
"It's this sodium content that makes the Lengai carbonatites solid rather than gas at the surface. At all other volcanoes on Earth, carbon dioxide 'degasses' into the atmosphere without forming the sodium-rich carbonatite magmas of Oldoinyo Lengai."
Not all Oldoinyo Lengai's carbon dioxide becomes carbonatite, however. Like other volcanoes, Oldoinyo Lengai does emit carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as a gas.
The scientists conclude that the upper mantle below the continents and the oceans is a uniform and well-mixed reservoir in which the compositions and abundances of carbon dioxide and other gases like nitrogen, argon and helium are essentially the same.
A Peruvian site previously reported as the oldest city in the Americas actually is a much larger complex of as many as 20 cities with huge pyramids and sunken plazas sprawled over three river valleys, researchers report.They found no evidence of military fortifications or weapons. But they did find cotton, fishing nets, and cocaine.
Construction started about 5,000 years ago — nearly 400 years before the first pyramid was built in Egypt — at a time when most people around the world were simple hunters and gatherers, a team from Northern Illinois University and Chicago's Field Museum reports in today's issue of the journal Nature.
The society and its people — known only as the Andeans — persisted in virtually the same form for 1,200 years before they were overrun by more warlike neighbors. That is the longest time any known ancient civilization survived, according to archaeologist Jonathan Haas of the Field, who led the expedition.
The results greatly expand understanding of how complex states began in the Americas.
Rather than frigid clouds of dust and gas, spiraling filaments suggest electric currents in space.
Dust at a temperature near absolute zero shows up in the infrared image above as a blue fog deep in the heart of the Eagle nebula. The Eagle nebula is an active "star nursery" located in the constellation Serpens, approximately 7000 light-years away. It is a multi-spectral cloud of gas mixed with microscopic particles of dust.
The consensus view is that cold dust is a necessary ingredient when stars condense out of nebulae. When gas and dust start to collapse into a new star it naturally warms up and radiates energy. As the theory states, outward pressure is created that opposes the inward force of gravity. If the outward force wins and overcomes the force of gravity, the atoms in the gas will never be compressed enough to undergo nuclear fusion. However, if the dust in the nebula is cold enough, it allows the heat created in the gravitational collapse to be radiated away, therefore a new star can ignite.
On the other hand, when the Electric Universe theory is considered, cold nebulae are evidence of electrical activity even at temperatures near absolute zero. Bipolar symmetry is typical of most nebulae, and most of them are dense enough to emit light because they are extremely hot in some regions. But the middle of the Eagle nebula is cold: radio measurements indicate the dust clouds around the inner part are only one degree above absolute zero. We are able to see the center of the nebula because dust particles reflect light from the star.
The filamentary structure of the "fingers" and the way the filaments spiral away from the central stars indicates Birkeland currents, named after Kristian Birkeland, who first proposed their existence in the late 1800s. These currents form scalable tubes of plasma that can transmit electric power all around the galaxy. Electromagnetic forces sometimes cause them to pinch down to smaller and smaller sizes. Plasma confined within the center of the pinch is crushed and increases in current density until the so-called "z-pinch" produces a star. Plasma surrounding the star will often glow as an "emission nebula," but in some conditions of opacity and density the surrounding plasma can be cold, as in the Eagle Nebula, revealing its presence only in infrared light.
Conventional astronomers do not know how stars throw off clouds of gas and dust that eventually become other stars because stars are not made of gas and dust. A star is the focus of Birkeland currents that make up circuits flowing around the galaxy. The electromagnetic pinch that squeezes plasma into the star also forms a toroidal current around the star’s equator. The density of the current causes the plasma in the ring to glow. The Electric Universe explanation is that we are looking at plasma structures when we look at nebulae, and they behave according to the laws of electrical discharges and circuits.
Instead of mechanical action and cold gas, the Orion Nebula’s radiant new stars were created in a boost of electric current. It is not necessary to prevent young stars from heating up by shielding them in cold dust. The electrical sheath around a new star receives input from the galactic Birkeland currents in which it is immersed and gets pushed into the "glow" discharge state. Gravity has little if anything to do with the processes of star formation.
Comets are said to be composed of "dusty ices." Why have crystalline structures that require high temperatures been found in them?
NASA scientists launched the Stardust mission on February 7, 1999. Its primary task was to collect dust particles from the coma of comet Wild 2 and then return to Earth. Fuel savings meant that the capsule required a gravity boost, so it returned to Earth orbit from deep space after almost two years of travel time. As it flew by the home planet, it was accelerated back out to its aphelion, 400 million kilometers from the Sun, reaching a distance greater than any other solar-powered spacecraft.
So that mission specialists could test the camera operation and other instrument packages, Stardust briefly encountered the 4-kilometer asteroid Annefrank on November 2, 2002 at a distance of 3000 kilometers while moving at 7 kilometers per second. Although the dust collectors on board were open to space, no material collection was expected in the vicinity and none was achieved.
After a five year journey, Stardust finally intersected Wild 2's orbit on January 2, 2004, passing through its coma at the metaphorical hair's breadth distance of 240 kilometers. The aerogel dust-capture system worked perfectly, scooping up fine bits of rock and trapping them inside for their return journey to Earth on January 15, 2006.
Although the spacecraft traveled more than a billion kilometers over a 7 year time span, the mothership successfully released its payload and the parachutes deployed, cushioning the precious cargo for a soft landing in the Utah desert. The aerogel was delivered to a thrilled team of researchers for analysis. That's when the surprise and shock began.
Minerals such as anorthite and forsterite were found embedded in the aerogel—compounds that form only at extremely high temperatures—along with olivine. Perplexed scientists wondered how an object that was supposed to be a remnant from the early nebular cloud out of which the Solar System condensed, and that should have been kept in frozen hibernation in a theoretical "Oort cloud" billions of kilometers from the Sun, could exhibit crystalline structures that would require a blast furnace to create.
Stardust mission team leader Donald Brownlee said at the time, “In the coldest part of the solar system we’ve found samples that formed at extremely high temperatures.”
Now, according to a recent paper in the science journal Nature, a mechanism by which such high temperature crystals might form has been announced. A team led by Attila Juhász from the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy examined the light emitted by EX Lupi, thought to be a young star in the constellation Lupus. EX Lupi is a variable star, meaning it periodically brightens over a several month period. After one energetic pulse in 2008, the infrared spectral signature of the star seemed to indicate that some of the orbiting dust had been changed from a glasslike substance to one that is similar to what was seen in the spectrum of comet Wild 2: high temperature crystals.
The unfortunate part of the observation is the conclusion that was reached. Among astrophysicists, the consensus opinion is that stars like EX Lupi undergo energetic eruptions because they gravitationally drag material from their surroundings and accumulate it on their surfaces. The added mass compresses to the point where it explodes in a thermonuclear reaction and the stars "go nova." Note that this is quite different from a supernova explosion where a star casts off its outer layers due to a disruption in its hypothetical core fusion reactions.
The supposed nova on EX Lupi is said to have heated the glasslike matter around the star until it became "thermally annealed" and changed its physical structure into harder crystals like the forsterite discovered in the coma of Wild 2. In other words, it is the old standby of gravity, heat, and shock waves that are responsible for what is observed.
Electric Universe advocates see things differently. Stars and comets share common characteristics because they are both born of similar parentage. Stars are nodes in vast electrical circuits connected by Birkeland current filaments within galaxies. Planets, moons, asteroids, and comets are electrically charged and exist within a radial electric current that surrounds stars like our own Sun.
Comets, specifically, have nothing to do with an ancient nebular cloud of cold gas and dust that became gravitationally unstable and collapsed into the Solar System of today. Comets and their asteroid sisters are relative newcomers to the solar family and might have been blasted out of larger bodies by tremendously powerful electric discharges in the recent past. They are not "snowballs" or blobs of muddy slush, they are solid, rocky, cratered, electrically charged objects.
When Stardust arrived at Wild 2, it found that the coma contained the "signature" of water vapor, although the distribution was anomalous. The farther from the surface of the comet, the greater the amount of vapor, surely a result that is diametrically opposed to the theoretical model of sublimating ices jetting out from the nucleus. So what was the "water vapor?"
Whatever water or hydroxyl compounds that can be found in cometary comas is created there because ionized oxygen from the comet reacts with hydrogen ions streaming out from the Sun. No "jets" of water vapor spew from comets, and no icy plains have ever been observed. It is electric effects that are seen—discharges and arcs form the comet phenomena.
Similarly, stars do not oscillate in brightness or energy output because they are accumulating excess mass. They do so because they are experiencing an increased electrical input from the galaxy. The electric current flowing into the star causes it to change its discharge behavior. It might go from a stable and (what is for it) "normal" glow mode to a more intense arc mode state. The greater current flow might cause z-pinch regions around the star where its plasma could then be reformed into different chemical compounds. It is more likely that processes involving plasma are responsible for the changes in stellar spectrograms.
So, in conclusion, The Sun and comets are part of one electrically active circuit that is occupied by many different regions of charge distribution. The Sun receives its power from the protean electric generator we call the Milky Way. Accordingly, planets and other bodies exist within a flow of charged particles constantly streaming from the Sun. As any first year electrical engineering student knows, a stream of charged particles is an electric current.
Study off Santa Barbara is first to quantify oil in sediments
A new study by researchers at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) is the first to quantify the amount of oil residue in seafloor sediments that result from natural petroleum seeps off Santa Barbara, California.
The new study shows the oil content of sediments is highest closest to the seeps and tails off with distance, creating an oil fallout shadow. It estimates the amount of oil in the sediments down current from the seeps to be the equivalent of approximately 8-80 Exxon Valdez oil spills.
The paper is being published in the May 15 issue of Environmental Science & Technology.
"Farwell developed and mapped out our plan for collecting sediment samples from the ocean floor," said WHOI marine chemist Chris Reddy, referring to lead author Chris Farwell, at the time an undergraduate working with UCSB's Dave Valentine. "After conducting the analysis of the samples, we were able to make some spectacular findings."
There is an oil spill everyday at Coal Oil Point (COP), the natural seeps off Santa Barbara, California, where 20-25 tons of oil have leaked from the seafloor each day for the last several hundred thousand years.
Earlier research by Reddy and Valentine at the site found that microbes were capable of degrading a significant portion of the oil molecules as they traveled from the reservoir to the ocean bottom and that once the oil floated to sea surface, about 10 percent of the molecules evaporated within minutes.
"One of the natural questions is: What happens to all of this oil?" Valentine said. "So much oil seeps up and floats on the sea surface. It's something we've long wondered. We know some of it will come ashore as tar balls, but it doesn't stick around. And then there are the massive slicks. You can see them, sometimes extending 20 miles from the seeps. But what really is the ultimate fate?"
Based on their previous research, Valentine and Reddy surmised that the oil was sinking "because this oil is heavy to begin with," Valentine said. "It's a good bet that it ends up in the sediments because it's not ending up on land. It's not dissolving in ocean water, so it's almost certain that it is ending up in the sediments."
To conduct their sampling, the team used the research vessel Atlantis, the 274-foot ship that serves as the support vessel for the Alvin submersible.
"We were conducting research at the seeps using Alvin during the summer of 2007," recalls Reddy. "One night during that two-week cruise, after the day's Alvin dive was complete and its crew prepared the sub for the next day's dive, Captain AD Colburn guided the Atlantis on an all-night sediment sampling campaign. It was no easy task for the crew of the Atlantis. We were operating at night, awfully close to land with a big ship where hazards are frequent. I tip my hat to Captain Colburn, his crew, and the shipboard technician for making this sampling effort so seamless."
The research team sampled 16 locations in a 90 km2 (35 square mile) grid starting 4 km west of the active seeps. Sample stations were arranged in five longitudinal transects with three water depths (40, 60, and 80 m) for each transect, with one additional comparison sample obtained from within the seep field.
To be certain that the oil they measured in the sediments came from the natural seeps, Farwell worked in Reddy's lab at WHOI using a comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatograph (GC×GC), that allowed them to identify specific compounds in the oil, which can differ depending on where the oil originates.
"The instrument reveals distinct biomarkers or chemical fossils -- like bones for an archeologist -- present in the oil. These fossils were a perfect match for the oil from the reservoir, the oil collected leaking into the ocean bottom, oil on the sea surface, and oil back in the sediment. We could say with confidence that the oil we found in the sediments was genetically connected to the oil reservoir and not from an accidental spill or runoff from land."
The oil that remained in the sediments represents what was not removed by "weathering" -- dissolving into the water, evaporating into the air, or being degraded by microbes. Next steps for this research team involve investigating why microbes consume most, but not all, of the compounds in the oil.
"Nature does an amazing job acting on this oil but somehow the microbes stopped eating, leaving a small fraction of the compounds in the sediments," said Reddy. "Why this happens is still a mystery, but we are getting closer."
ScienceDaily (May 11, 2009) — Imagine a time when the entire universe froze. According to a new model for dark energy, that is essentially what happened about 11.5 billion years ago, when the universe was a quarter of the size it is today.Evidence? Who needs evidence?
As modern cosmologists rely more and more on the ominous "dark matter" to explain otherwise inexplicable observations, much effort has gone into the detection of this mysterious substance in the last two decades, yet no direct proof could be found that it actually exists. Even if it does exist, dark matter would be unable to reconcile all the current discrepancies between actual measurements and predictions based on theoretical models. Hence the number of physicists questioning the existence of dark matter has been increasing for some time now. Competing theories of gravitation have already been developed which are independent of this construction. Their only problem is that they conflict with Newton's theory of gravitation. "Maybe Newton was indeed wrong", declares Professor Dr. Pavel Kroupa of Bonn University´s Argelander-Institut für Astronomie (AIfA). "Although his theory does, in fact, describe the everyday effects of gravity on Earth, things we can see and measure, it is conceivable that we have completely failed to comprehend the actual physics underlying the force of gravity".
This is a problematical hypothesis that has nevertheless gained increasing ground in recent years, especially in Europe. Two new studies could well lend further support to it. In these studies, Professor Kroupa and his former colleague Dr. Manuel Metz, working in collaboration with Professor Dr. Gerhard Hensler and Dr. Christian Theis from the University of Vienna, and Dr. Helmut Jerjen from the Australian National University, Canberra, have examined so-called "satellite galaxies". This term is used for dwarf galaxy companions of the Milky Way, some of which contain only a few thousand stars. According to the best cosmological models, they exist presumably in hundreds around most of the major galaxies. Up to now, however, only 30 such satellites have been observed around the Milky Way, a discrepancy in numbers which is commonly attributed to the fact that the light emitted from the majority of satellite galaxies is so faint they remain invisible.
A detailed study of these stellar agglomerates has revealed some astonishing phenomena: "First of all, there is something unusual about their distribution", Professor Kroupa explains, "the satellites should be uniformly arranged around their mother galaxy, but this is not what we found". More precisely, all classical satellites of the Milky Way – the eleven brightest dwarf galaxies – lie more or less in the same plane, they are forming some sort of a disc in the sky. The research team has also been able to show that most of these satellite galaxies rotate in the same direction around the Milky Way – like the planets revolve around the Sun.
Contradiction upon Contradiction
The physicists do belief that this phenomenon can only be explained if the satellites were created a long time ago through collisions between younger galaxies. "The fragments produced by such an event can form rotating dwarf galaxies", explains Dr. Metz, who has recently moved across to the Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (German Aero-space Center). But there is an interesting catch to this crash theory, "theoretical calculations tell us that the satellites created cannot contain any dark matter". This assumption, however, stands in contradiction to another observation. "The stars in the satellites we have observed are moving much faster than predicted by the Gravitational Law. If classical physics holds this can only be attributed to the presence of dark matter", Manuel Metz states.
Or one must assume that some basic fundamental principles of physics have hitherto been incorrectly understood. "The only solution would be to reject Newton´s classical theory of gravitation", says Pavel Kroupa. "We probably live in a non-Newton universe. If this is true, then our observations could be explained without dark matter". Such approaches are finding support amongst other research teams in Europe, too.
It would not be the first time that Newton's theory of gravitation had to be modified over the past hundred years. This became necessary in three special cases: when high velocities are involved (through the Special Theory of Relativity), in the proximity of large masses (through the theory of General Relativity), and on sub-atomic scales (through quantum mechanics). The deviations detected in the satellite galaxy data support the hypothesis that in space where extremely weak accelerations predominate, a "modified Newton dynamic" must be adopted. This conclusion has far-reaching consequences for fundamental physics in general, and also for cosmological theories. Famous astrophysicist Bob Sanders from the University of Groningen declares: "The authors of this paper make a strong argument. Their result is entirely consistent with the expectations of modified Newtonian dynamics (MOND), but completely opposite to the predictions of the dark matter hypothesis. Rarely is an observational test so definite."
The flood of new data during the space age has also inundated astronomers with surprises.Read the whole thing.
New instruments have acquired images and measurements that traditional theories about gravity and gas didn’t expect. The data hasn’t “made sense” until exceptions or additions or revisions have been made to the theories.
But insights into the behavior of plasma have made sense of the data—without modifications. A new field of study has arisen: Plasma Cosmology is a part of the world’s largest professional organization, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE)
In a similar manner, the data of ancient art, artifacts, and narratives (myths and legends) haven’t made sense in any comprehensive way. The familiar ideas of common natural events, social structures, or shamanic hallucinations have provided scant intellectual satisfaction in explaining individual myths and designs.
But the obvious similarities of themes around the world in different and independent societies have gone begging to be accounted for. Again, the data hasn’t made sense, insights into the behavior of plasma have made sense of the data. “Making sense” is not “proving” the hypothesis. Hard and ongoing work of testing—against further data and alternative hypotheses—is still required.
One researcher, Rens van der Sluijs, has proposed that this application of plasma principles to ancient historical data be called Plasma Mythology. As happened with plasma cosmology, plasma mythology turns accepted explanations on their heads:
"Durkheim's and Dumézil’s assertion that many myths reflect aspects of human society are on target, although they were not inspired by those aspects, but acted as models for them. Jung’s archetypes and Lévi-Strauss’ binary structure exist and operate in the mind as suggested, but were the imprint rather than the origin of the myths."
The implications of this new awareness of plasma touch almost every traditional field of study with the promise (or threat, depending on one’s appetite for adventure) of revolution. For example, imagine a new field of Plasma Politics.
The deepest of the wells feeding the floating Tahiti platform reaches 26,700 feet below the surface of the Gulf, a record for a producing well, the company said.Below the depth of any biological material.
Can there be any truth in the traditional linkage of a total conjunction of planets and universal disaster or is this just arrant nonsense?
“All that the earth inherits will … be consigned to flame when the planets, which now move in different orbits, all assemble in Cancer, so arranged in one row that a straight line may pass through their spheres. When the same gathering takes place in Capricorn, then we are in danger of the deluge.”
This statement is attributed to the Babylonian priest, Bēl-re’ušunu (3rd century BCE), better known as Berossus, and epitomises the once widespread astronomical concept of the ‘Great Year’. From the Roman Empire to China, ancient philosophers defined the ‘Great Year’ as a large cosmic cycle, completed when the five naked-eye planets, the sun and the moon appear in linear conjunction. It was thought that such complete conjunctions occasioned cosmic catastrophes – devastating floods and fires that destroyed the preceding cosmos and inaugurated a new world.
Standard astronomical models do not acknowledge any mechanisms accounting for global tides or fires in response to planetary conjunctions. While the tidal effects of the moon are satisfactorily explained with gravity [I disagree on this point -- OIM], the same force cannot demonstrably be made to work for the planets, as has often been pointed out.
The crux is that this dismissal rests on the antiquated perception of interplanetary space as a vacuum, in which gravity is the only operational force. With the coming of the Space Age, this simplistic paradigm has been incontrovertibly refuted. It is now known that most of the interplanetary space, and of the entire cosmos, consists of plasma and almost every body in the solar system is enclosed in a plasma sheath, technically a double-layer structure that serves to shield the object inside from electric fields impinging on the shell.
Teardrop-shaped magnetotails, which are structurally comparable to the comas and ion tails of comets, extend out into space from the earth, Venus, and most other planets. These are often so long as to extend to the orbit of the next planet, sometimes ‘tickling’ the protective sheath around that object as they point away from the sun. The solar equivalent to these planetary magnetospheres is the solar wind, which is ultimately responsible for auroral displays on the earth and on other planets.
The physical composition and the interaction of these magnetospheres are extremely complex and scientists are only just beginning to get a handle on the subject. What is already clear, however, is that the possibility of the sun or any of the planets ‘influencing’ the electromagnetic weather on another body is no longer so remote.
As the plasma sheaths of different bodies brush against each other in the ecliptic plane, they effectively complete a giant electric circuit, allowing a transfer of electric charge between adjacent planets. Such discharging offers a straightforward explanation for the ‘forgotten’ Pythagorean conviction that ‘comets’ arise when planets form linear conjunctions. Can it also account for the destructions by fire and flood the ancients believed would happen when the planets line up?
To find out, it is necessary to make a careful distinction between apparent linear conjunctions as seen from a viewpoint on earth and actual linear conjunctions in space.
Insofar as some or all the naked-eye planets are regularly seen to arrange themselves in linear conjunctions, ancient astronomers might have based their ideas concerning a ‘Great Year’ on observation. The approximate conjunction of Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, Venus, Mercury and the rising sun stretched out over a number of constellations on the 15th. April 2002 is comparable to the so-called thema mundi or ‘cosmic birth chart’ outlined by Hellenistic astrologers, in which the seven traditional ‘planets’ span across the entire starry sky. Could such ‘apparent’ lineups of planets have inspired associations with transient events of the kind envisioned by the likes of Berossus?
In theory, current knowledge about the solar wind and the ‘windsock’ behaviour of planetary magnetotails allows that a lineup of bodies in the solar system might cause extremely violent disturbances of the geomagnetic field. For such a magnetospheric explanation to work, however, the linear arrangement of the moon, the sun and the five naked-eye planets cannot have been apparent, as, in that case, the plasma tails of these bodies could not line up to produce a ‘closed electric circuit’.
Also, the earth would have to be physically displaced outside the string of planets, yet if it was to experience any of the resulting ‘fireworks’, it must have been caught in the crossfire itself. As the earth’s ionosphere would be loaded to excess with charged particles, an outburst of auroral activity might go some way towards explaining the reported ‘conflagration’ of the world.
The requirement of a ‘real’ linear conjunction of planets, including the earth, in true state fits better with Berossus’ intimation that the “gathering” of the seven players occurred in a single constellation, but results in a visual separation of the exterior planets on the night side and the interior planets on the day side, in solar transit. The ancient authorities on the subject of the Great Year all lived at times when astronomy was advanced enough to distinguish apparent visual arrangements in the sky from inferred physical models of reality.
That a great conjunction triggers destructive interplanetary ‘storms’ fits into the segment in time when astronomers first became interested in the periodicities of planets. The idea may have received its ultimate inspiration from mythical memories about a time when comets and meteors were rampant, when the world suffered in flames, and when stars and planets saw an apparent reorganisation that followed the breakup of a previous linear arrangement of bodies. In the real world, a linear alignment of planets with the solar wind may sometimes have coincided with an exceptionally intense discharge event.
The above is not to suggest that planetary conjunctions must always precipitate cosmic discharging or ‘bad weather’ on earth – far from it. It is easy to think of complicating factors that help to explain why, for example, the conjunction of 2002 did not wreak any havoc. For one thing, many congregations of planets may simply be loose enough to allow sufficient leeway for plasma tails to ‘miss’ the sheaths of other planets. The role of coronal mass ejections warrants investigation – are these a required cause or a consequence of the ‘fireworks’ accompanying a great conjunction?
What are the restrictions on the orientation of the solar wind on such occasions? Finally, the intensity of electric discharging during conjunction must be modulated by the initial charge differential between the bodies involved, but this will vary over time, gradually being cancelled out during quiescent periods, when no extraneous forces impinge on the system.
The bottom line is that ancient speculations about a link between catastrophic events and planetary movements present a challenge that is well worth renewed attention. In this particular case, plasma physics offers an intellectually palatable way to vindicate the ‘astrological’ claim that the antics of the planets can affect the conditions of life on earth as a whole. The role of concomitant effects, such as the repositioning of the geomagnetic field, tsunamis and earthquakes, also invites further consideration. As a theory of cosmic time, the ancient notion of a ‘Great Year’ may thus be rescued from the dustbin of scientific theorising.
ScienceDaily (May 4, 2009) — What happened in the first trillionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a second after the Big Bang?Kant would lol. The Big Bang and first trillionth of a second after the Big Bang are not objects of experience. But electromagnetic microwaves are.
Super-sensitive microwave detectors, built at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), may soon help scientists find out.
Geologist,
Although I refrain answering to anonymous letters, I do it because you express your opinion in a legitimate way. Nevertheless I would prefer to address you in person.
Relevant to the issue and the possibility of earthquake prediction, actually there are two aspects: The purely scientific aspect, and the aspect of practical applicability.
As for the scientific aspect anyone who is involved in earthquake and earthquake prediction research knows that the problem of the physics of the earthquake source is not solved yet. On the other hand observation shows that earthquakes require concentration of energy in space and time, and that the earthquake is a quantized phenomenon, i.e., unless the necessary quantity of energy is provided, equivalent to the ~2´10^6 Joules/kg of latent energy the earthquake cannot occur, the same way boiling cannot occur; and the temperature of boiling water is 100 degrees Celsius, no matter the amount of boiling water is 1 gram, 1 kg or 1000 tons. Similarly the intensity of ground motion at the epicentral point is magnitude independent. That being so means that at these boundary conditions the phenomenon is time and space scale independent. It might never occur in a large spatial scale, or the whole process might be completed within seconds, if it does occur; the two extremes being by far the most usual cases. This by no mean means that determinism is lost; it means that as in the unit circle the functions of an angle are absolutely deterministic, all points are equally possible within the limits of the unit circle, the radius of which in the case of mid-term earthquake prediction is ~150 km. In other words an earthquake, as a wave, is a chaotic but not an arbitrary function.
It is also known that there are about 400 precursors, among which radon emissions are probably one of the most promising, along with dilatancy, changes in the electromagnetic field etc. But taking into consideration the previously mentioned deterministic uncertainty (odd as it may sound), it means that you might have this and other precursors and the strong earthquake never occur, or it may occur even within seconds after the detection of these precursors.
Furthermore the mainstream plate tectonics, elastic rebound and static stress context misdirects thought and asks the wrong questions, thus giving the wrong answers, e.g., earthquakes being a result of horizontal motion of plates.
And now we come to the practical applicability aspect of earthquake prediction. Taking for granted that all rules of the scientific method have been followed, and given that the area is more or less well determined if there is a previous earthquake activity (in the case of the L’Aquila earthquake it was an ellipse ~26 km by ~13 km, or so), there is the time scale uncertainty. In all cases the only measure that can be taken is the orderly evacuation of the area, in order to save lives and injuries, which of course is of paramount importance. But, this means the need to accommodate thousands to million of people practically for an unknown period of time.
That requires central planning and a need oriented economy which does not exist in most of the countries, but even if it did exist still there is a problem of scientific credibility. From the social point of view someone might argue that it does not matter if the city is evacuated and the earthquake does not occur. It will be a good exercise. But, what about the economic cost because of the evacuation if the earthquake does not occur, and the economic cost of the destruction which will happen anyway, if the earthquake occurs during the time of the evacuation? Much worse what about if the earthquake happens after the return of the population? Or, if you were unsuccessful couple of times who is going to believe you the third time that might be proved to be successful? Then if someone is doing this warning frequently there is a chance, sometime to be successful. But then is it not like gambling? It is obvious that all that adds to discrediting a possibly very legitimate scientific effort.
This is why my opinion is that no matter how much frustrating and oppressing for a scientist might be, and I know it is, the socially responsible position is first to understand the scientific problem by asking the right questions in order to get the right answers, and then if he/she thinks has the right answers act in cooperation with the proper agencies and authorities in order to take the proper actions. In all cases a scientist must unite his/her voice with the people for good structures, constructed with the basic principle they do not collapse in the case of a local strong earthquake, and demand earthquake preparedness in general.
I hope it is understood that I do not undermine any effort. On the contrary I am trying to protect it from an unwarranted discredit, or accusations for a gambling success.
Stavros Tassos
In -747 a new calendar was introduced in the Middle East, and that year is known as "the beginning of the era of Nabonassar." It is asserted that some astronomical event gave birth to this new calendar, but the nature of the event is not known. The beginning of the age of Nabonassar, otherwise an obscure Babylonian king, was an astronomical date used as late as the second Christian century by the great mathematician and astronomer of the Alexandrian school, Ptolemy, and also by other scholars. It was employed as a point of departure of ancient astronomical tables.
"This was not a political or religious era.... Farther back there was no certainty in regard to the calculation of time. It is from that moment that the records of the eclipses begin which Ptolemy used." [Cumont, F., 1912] What was the astronomical event that closed the previous era and gave birth to a new era?
The astronomers responsible for the news feeds in our tabloids seem to have a profound disliking for the idea that the solar system, including the earth, has suffered catastrophic changes within the past few thousand years.While it is true Aristole's biggest vice was uniformitarianism, he did admit in the Meteorology that "the time must come when this place will be flooded again."
This intellectual preference is never explicitly stated. It rather acts on the unconscious mindsets of theoreticians, for example when evidence for cratering on the planets is immediately, without a second thought, relegated to the eventful ‘early days’ of the solar system; when the possibility of unpredictable fluctuations in the planetary orbits is tacitly ignored; or when the pioneering work of plasma physicists like Kristian Birkeland or Hannes Alfvén does not rate a mention in standard textbooks on astronomy.
What causes otherwise intelligent thinkers to shut off their minds for alternatives that seem genuinely possible, if not perfectly viable? A conspiracy? Ill will? Naivety? Or an intellectual blind spot? From a historical point of view, the legacy of Aristotle may prove very instructive.
In his dialogues, Aristotle’s teacher, Plato, had happily speculated about cyclical episodes of destruction both on earth and on a cosmic level. One of his main interests was to incorporate ancient traditions about a reversal of the sun, a worldwide flood or a consuming fire into models that made scientific sense. For Plato, the realm of absolute, immutable perfection was not that of the stars and planets, but lay outside the material world altogether.
His junior, Aristotle, would have none of this. Downplaying any traditions about global floods and fires, Aristotle regarded the spheres of stars and planets themselves as unalterable, immune to any form of decay or change. To such lengths would he go that even comets were removed from their place among the planets and relegated to the ‘elemental’ region below the moon, where meteors and auroras belong! If Plato had no qualms to contemplate catastrophes, Aristotle was an out-and-out uniformitarian thinker – a contrast lucidly discussed by the British historian, Peter James, among others.
Intriguingly, this change in sentiments seems to have repeated itself on a larger scale among post-medieval scholars in Europe. When Renaissance savants first rediscovered Greek literature, Platonic philosophy was all the mode, often tinged with Gnostic or Hermetic notions. During this time, the likes of William Whiston and Sir Edmond Halley felt no compunction to entertain the thought of comets precipitating the global flood of Noah or the tilting of the rotational axis.
The seeds for change were sown when Gottfried Leibniz, a cardiac Aristotelian, declared with overweening confidence that natura non facit saltus, ‘nature does not make a leap’, and worked with zeal on the theory of a great continuous ‘chain of being’ that would join all forms of life. This anti-catastrophist attitude snowballed into a movement culminating in the 19th century in the paradigms of steady evolution championed by Charles Lyell, Charles Darwin and a host of minor figures, which overshadowed any remaining catastrophists completely.
On a big-picture view, the course of western science since then can be seen as an on-going effort to liberate the study of transient events in space from the obfuscating clutches of latter-day Aristotelians. The reality of meteorite falls continued to be denied as late as 1833. Sunspots long sat uncomfortably with many who preferred an ‘unblemished’ sun and Herschel’s claim that sunspots may have an effect on terrestrial weather and climate continued to be vociferously opposed even in the early 20th century.
More recent developments in astronomical theory can be seen in the same light. Comet impacts remained taboo until Alvarez & Alvarez identified iridium in the extinction layer of the Dinosaurs in 1980. When comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 visibly impacted on Jupiter in 1994, any illusions that impacts only occurred millions of years in the past were firmly dispelled. Nevertheless, many astronomers carry on minimising the odds that the earth is hit by a Near-Earth Object (NEO) – but for how long? Evidence that the solar system is a highly structured electromagnetic apparatus continues to roll in and it may not be long before the full implications of a universe driven by plasma must be faced by all.
Mathematicians deserve much of the blame for the Aristotelian inertia that has obstructed progress for so long. Leibniz was a mathematician; the findings of Richard Carrington and Kristian Birkeland, since proven true, were mainly opposed with mathematical arguments; and today’s astronomers have a penchant for such mathematical fantasies as string theory, black holes, Big Bang analysis, and so on, which prevent any genuine understanding of the universe.
This state of affairs is hardly surprising. By nature, mathematicians are attracted to numerical precision, regularity and a cosmos running with a clockwork stability. For those with an instinctive visceral aversion to phenomena that are irregular, unpredictable or hard to measure and calculate, a universe with cometary intrusions, planets prone to orbital adjustments and stars of which the age and distance cannot be confidently inferred must be a nightmare.
Who is to say nature cares about a propensity for human number games? A scientist deserving of the name must bow to observational evidence and accept that good observations and traditions take precedence over theoretical preferences. Maths must be ancillary, not dominant, as the intellectual stupor of the Aristotelian outlook gives way to a Platonic curiosity and acceptance of what is.
