Science, Politics and Global Warming

Global warming
Global warming

“In the end, science offers us the only way out of politics. And if we allow science to become politicized, then we are lost. We will enter the Internet version of the dark ages, an era of shifting fears and wild prejudices, transmitted to people who don’t know any better. That’s not a good future…


Electric Sun Verified

"Heliospheric ribbon" in the IBEX data.
"Heliospheric ribbon" in the IBEX data.

“Is it likely that any astonishing new developments are lying in wait for us? Is it possible that the cosmology of 500 years hence will extend as far beyond our present beliefs as our cosmology goes beyond that of Newton?”  —Fred Hoyle, The Nature of the Universe NASA’s IBEX (Interstellar Boundary Explorer) spacecraft has made…


The Simple ELECTRIC UNIVERSE®

Playing with a magnet and a plasma discharge tube, the "Aurora Borealis Tube Display," by Resonance Research Corporation.
Playing with a magnet and a plasma discharge tube, the "Aurora Borealis Tube Display," by Resonance Research Corporation.

“Some people in each successive generation believe that theirs is the one that has at last seen everything clearly, that their insights point to the truth, the final answer. Yet scientific discovery marches on and today’s truth will become tomorrow’s anecdotes.” —Gerrit L. Verschuur, Interstellar Matters Since my last report I have been in England…


The Mystery of the Shrinking Red Star

An image of Betelgeuse’s atmosphere observed at a wavelength of 7mm.
An image of Betelgeuse’s atmosphere observed at a wavelength of 7mm.

We cannot see what is not on our mental ‘map.’ Almost the entire visible universe is in the form of highly-conductive plasma but electrical discharge in plasma is nowhere on the map. The red supergiant star Betelgeuse, the bright reddish star in the constellation Orion, has steadily shrunk over the past 15 years, according to…


Cosmology in Crisis—Again!

The only place in the universe where we find the big bang.
The only place in the universe where we find the big bang.

“Nothing comes from nothing. Nothing ever could.” —from The Sound of Music. 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…


Newton’s Electric Clockwork Solar System

Charged planets
Charged planets

We are told that gravity rules the cosmos. The story of the big bang, the origin of galaxies and stars, and our ultimate fate are founded on this belief. But the March 2009 Astronomy magazine carries the surprising headline, “Is there something we don’t know about gravity?” The question should be, “why do we think…


The Black Hole at the Heart of Astronomy

This image shows the form of the plasmoid at the center of the galaxy (and the particle jets created when the magnetic field begins to collapse).
This image shows the form of the plasmoid at the center of the galaxy (and the particle jets created when the magnetic field begins to collapse).

“Astronomical fads have always involved miracle working to some degree, and their discussion in so-called workshops and in the streams of papers that pour into the journals have affinities to the incantations of Macbeth’s witches on the blasted heath.” —Fred Hoyle, Home is where the wind blows. The so-called “queen” of the sciences, cosmology, is…


It’s Time for Change

Time for change
Time for change

But scientists, who ought to know  Assure us that it must be so.  Oh, let us never, never doubt  What nobody is sure about. —Hilaire Belloc Tumultuous times like these encourage questioning of long-held convictions. Our predicament seems the result of complacent reliance on consensus and a failure of commonsense. But for adventurous, practical souls…


Astronomy has little to celebrate in 2009!

Excerpt from the letter from the telescope allocation committee barring Arp from access to telescopes.
Excerpt from the letter from the telescope allocation committee barring Arp from access to telescopes.

For those who haven’t noticed, this year is “The International Year of Astronomy (IYA2009).” The International Year of Astronomy will involve 135 nations and thousands of events around the world. It marks the celebration of the 400th anniversary of the first use of an astronomical telescope by Galileo Galilei. However, astronomers have little to celebrate…