“If you are only skeptical, then no new ideas make it through to you. You become a crotchety old person convinced that nonsense is ruling the world. (There is, of course, much data to support you.) But every now and … Continue reading →

Poincaré, at the conclusion of the preface to his book, ‘Hypothéses Cosmogoniques’, states: “One fact that strikes everyone is the spiral shape of some nebulae; it is encountered much too often for us to believe that it is due to … Continue reading →

“There are some ideas so wrong that only a very intelligent person could believe them.” —George Orwell Consensus discourages dissent… It is the enemy of science, just as it is the triumph of politics. A theory accepted by 99 percent … Continue reading →

“I don’t like the ‘terrorist geology of impact’, which is not the same thing as saying that no impacts have ever occurred.” —V. Axel Firsoff. One of the key arguments used to support the impact origin of craters in the … Continue reading →

“…with his [Birkeland's] extraordinary intuition he had a feeling for the huge electrical importance of the universe. Future research may show that such messages from the sun are equally important to us as Galileo’s understanding of messages from the stars … Continue reading →

“And pray that there’s intelligent life somewhere up in space, ’cause there’s bugger-all down here on Earth!” —Eric Idle from The Galaxy Song. On August 21the Chandra X-Ray Observatory website released the news: NASA Finds Direct Proof of Dark Matter … Continue reading →

“We find that whole communities suddenly fix their minds upon one object, and go mad in its pursuit; that millions of people become simultaneously impressed with one new delusion, and run after it, till their attention is caught by some … Continue reading →

This is a report on a few aspects of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) International Conference on Plasma Science (ICOPS 2006), held in Michigan earlier this month. The IEEE is the world’s leading professional association for the … Continue reading →

There will be no news item this month due to attendance at an International Plasma Science Conference and other meetings in the US. It is hoped that some of the results of the meetings will be available for posting late … Continue reading →

“You are not looking at a twin [Venus] to the Earth at all. There are very many substantial differences, ..the differences are so great it makes you wonder whether you could ever produce a twin of the Earth in some … Continue reading →