Author Archive

On NASA’s ‘Powering Saturn’s Active Ocean Moon’

Written by Edsel Chromie

On November. 6, 2017, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory issued an article with the subject of “Powering Saturn’s Active Ocean Moon”.

It states:

“This study, published in the journal Nature Astronomy, helps resolve a question scientists have grappled with for a decade: Where does the energy to power the extraordinary geologic activity on Enceladus come from. Where Enceladus gets the sustained power to remain active has always been a mystery, but we’ve now considered in greater detail how the structure and composition of the moon’s rocky core could play a key role in generating the necessary energy” said the study’s lead author, Gael Choblet from the University of Nantes in France. Heat from friction could power hydrothermal activity on Saturn’s moon Enceladus for billions of years if the moon has a highly porous core, according to a new modeling study by European and U. S. Researchers working on NASA’s Cassini mission.”

 This is ludicrous but it conforms with their belief, so it is published as a possibility.

 In 2009 I sent an email to Dr. Porco ( NASA Cassini Imaging Team Leader) explaining my concept that it is the combined energy of the magnetic field of Enceladus plus the magnetic field Saturn and radiated energy from the Sun that is stimulating the gases in the vicinity to a glowing, visible state of excitement. It read:

“I refer to the images taken by Cassini dated June 24, 2009, Dec. 15, 2009. and 3 taken Nov. 1, 2008. They all show a gray to black surface with only a small strip of cream color, not white. In an area where the warmest temperature is reported to be minus 154 degrees F., these particles would not melt or disappear.

Over a span of 4 years, certainly enough ice crystals would have fallen back to the surface to appear to be white. Even in the fissures from where the particles would be spewing, it appears black, also. In the June 24, 2009 “Plume Vent Models” illustration, models A. B. and C. were deemed unlikely while model D “may be plausible” and model E is “perhaps most likely”. After 4 years of study, your team does not even have a definitive explanation of the origin of the “icy particles”. With my concept, I not only offer a detailed explanation of how this anomaly can be assimilated by even a grade school child. I do not understand how you can be so smug and defensive of a concept that has failed to provide a complete and sensible explanation after 4 years of study by many credible scientists.”

In an email dated Friday, November 20, 2009 Dr. Porco replied:

“I have no idea what you are talking about. The tiger stripe area is completely white in visible light. In the images of the jets, you are seeing fine solid particles, not atoms or molecules. And we know that most of the material does indeed fall back to the surface.. It is possibly the cause for the smooth-looking ramparts of the cracks from which the jets issue. Also, we think the vents probably close off and open down the crack elsewhere, explaining why there is no local distinct ‘residue’. Hope this helps, Carolyn Porco, Cassini Imaging Team Leader”

 It was two years after this email on April 20, 2011 that a NASA Advisory reported: “Cassini Sees Saturn Electric Link with Enceladus” It reported: “The magnetic field lines of the magnetic connection between Saturn and its moon Enceladus are not visible to the naked eye, but are detected by the ultraviolet imaging spectrograph and the fields and particle instruments on NASA’s Cassini spacecraft”.

This article and a NASA artists drawing of this magnetic field connection with Saturn was published on Oct. 15, 2011 by Salem News at http://salem-news.com/articles/october152011/saturn-nasa-cc.php [link no longer active]

The drawing  shows the magnetic field current flowing from Saturn right through the south pole of Enceladus where the “geysers” are believed to flow from the surface. This is exactly the magnetic field that I wrote in the email to Dr. Porco about the magnetic field stimulating atoms of gases in the vicinity to a glowing, visible state of excitement.

If you look at the glow of the purported “geysers” it looks more like the glow of a fluorescent tube than particles reflecting sunlight. Since Dr. Porco was aware of my suggestion only two years earlier, you would think that she would have seriously considered this as a possibility. Now it is 8 years later and they are still trying to concoct a way for their water ice geyser folly to be created.

They claim:

“The study is the first to explain several key characteristics of Enceladus observed by Cassini: the global ocean, internal heating, thinner ice at the south pole. And hydrothermal activity It doesn’t explain why the north and south poles are so different though”.

 Today the scientists report:

“Multiple lines of evidence from Cassini indicate that hydrothermal activity – hot water interacting chemically with rock – is taking place on the seafloor. Choblet and co-authors found that a loose, rocky core with 20 to 30 percent empty space would do the trick. Their simulations show that as Enceladus orbits Saturn, rocks in the porous core flex and rub together, generating heat. The loose interior also allows water from the ocean to percolate deep down, where it heats up, then rises, interacting chemically with the rocks. The models show this activity should be at a maximum at the moon’s poles. Plumes of the warm, mineral laden water gush from the seafloor and travel upward, thinning the moon’s ice shell from beneath to only half a mile to 3 miles at the south pole. And this same water is then expelled into space through fractures in the ice.”

It is unfortunate that the news media will not publish items of interest as alternative possibilities to explain what the science community publicly concedes have defied explanation under current knowledge of physics because of the fear of being vilified by the science community.

I am certain that if my explanations were discussed by many young scientists who are not brainwashed by their predecessors some of them will have an open mind and evaluate it in the proper context of true science methodology.

Unfortunately, the consensus science community is more interested in stifling alternative ideas that contradict their beliefs than they are in the advancement of science. Thirty one years have been wasted by the NASA scientists. I wrote a letter to the editor in 1980 explaining how the rings of Saturn were created.

For that I was vilified by a member of the Planetary Society because my explanation did not conform with known information in any science textbooks. Certainly any mystery or explanation of any mystery would not appear in any textbook or it would not be a mystery in the first place.

So much consensus in science is a curse not a blessing.

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Twenty reasons not to worry about polar bears, the 2017 update

Written by Dr Susan J Crockford

Just in time for Polar Bears International’s self-proclaimed fall Polar Bear Week (5-11 November 2017), here’s a new resource for cooling the polar bear spin.

I’ve updated my 2015 summary of reasons not to worry about polar bears, which is now more than two years old. In this new version, you will find links to supporting information, including published papers and fully referenced blog posts of mine that provide background, maps and bibliographies, although some of the most important graphs and maps have been reproduced here.

I hope you find it a useful resource for refuting the pessimism and prophecies of catastrophe about the future of polar bears. Please feel free to share it.

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NASA’s Dirty Little Planetary Electro-magnetic Secret

Written by Edsel Chromie

For more than thirty years NASA has maintained a policy of not accepting any scientific evidence pointing to an electro-magnetic explanation in planetary theory. With consensus science swamped with so much “unexplained” phenomena, Edsel Chromie shows why such scientists should re-think their anti-electric dogma.

Chromie writes:

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Emma Schierbaum Welcomes Shy Introverts to Baylab

Written by sciencegrrl.co.uk

New research finds that introverted students suffer disproportionately when it comes to practical science lessons in schools. Almost half of teachers consulted confirmed that introverted students were more likely to hold themselves back from taking part, rather than engage with hands-on experimentation, due to lack of equipment.

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100 Women: Seven trailblazing women in science

Written by BBC

Marie CurieImage copyright: GETTY IMAGES

More than half of people in the UK can’t name a famous woman in science, a survey suggests. This week, BBC 100 Women aims to change that number.

A 2014 YouGov survey of almost 3,000 people, conducted on behalf of UK grassroots group ScienceGrrl, found that only 47% of those asked could name a famous woman scientist. Many identified Marie Curie. Others simply named a male scientist. Tuesday 7 November marks the 150th anniversary of Curie’s birth.

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Stanford Professor sues skeptical scientists for $10M

Written by Dr Judith Curry

Mannian litigation gone wild. — Steve McIntyre. Details given by Michael Schellenberger in Environmental Progress:

Stanford University professor Mark Z. Jacobson has filed a lawsuit, demanding $10 million in damages, against the peer-reviewed scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) [link to published paper] and a group of eminent scientists (Clack et al.) for their study showing that Jacobson made improper assumptions in order to claim that he had demonstrated U.S. energy could be provided exclusively by renewable energy, primarily wind, water, and solar.

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NASA: ‘Natural Variability,’ Not The UN, Shrank The Ozone Layer Hole

Written by Michael Bastasch

The extent of the dreaded “hole” in the Earth’s ozone layer over Antarctica is the smallest it’s been since government scientists began monitoring it nearly three decades ago.

Some attributed the shrunken ozone layer to the ratifying of the Montreal Protocol in the 1980s. In that agreement, countries agreed to phase out ozone-depleting chemicals over time.

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Prominent environmentalist proposes a ‘climate dictatorship’

Written by Bjørn Lomborg

Image may contain: text

Jørgen Randers, professor of climate strategy at BI Norwegian Business School: “If people don’t want my preferred solution, then people are stupid, shouldn’t be allowed to decide their fate, and we should install a climate dictatorship instead.” – “The advantage is that once decision is made, everything goes quickly. There is no opposition fighting back” is representative of Jørgen Randers’ argument, but actually comes from the same article from Anders Wijkman, who’s spokesperson for the Club of Rome, of which Randers is member of their executive committee.

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Fission and Radiation directing Evolution

Written by Richard F Cronin

Fission tracks are minute damage trails, or tracks, left by fission fragments in certain uranium-bearing minerals and glasses.

The linked article speaks of fission tracks observed in minerals from the PreCambrian Era (2.5 billion to 500 million years ago). Furthermore, the linked article speaks of fission tracks in enantiomorphic minerals as a key to the emergence of homochirality.

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The Changing World Energy Economy

Written by James Smith And Alex Hatch

In recent years, particularly in the United States, we have seen a substantial change in public opinion regarding the production and distribution of energy, as well as its associated costs in the marketplace.

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A Simple, Affordable Way to Measure CO2 Release at Volcanoes

Written by deepcarbon.net

Keeping tabs on carbon dioxide emitted from volcanoes can be valuable, both for forecasting potential eruptions and for determining how much deep carbon the volcano releases to the atmosphere. Some volcanoes, however, release more carbon dioxide as diffuse degassing along the flanks than through the main plume of the volcano. These volcanoes are difficult to study using a single monitoring station, complicating scientists’ attempts to monitor the “state and evolution” of volcanoes.

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Why is it so difficult to discover new antibiotics?

Written by Tim Jinks

Komodo dragonsImage copyright: GETTY IMAGES
Image caption: Sources being checked for new antibiotics include the blood of Komodo dragons

Over-reliance on and misuse of antibiotics has led to warnings of a future without effective medicines. Why is it so difficult for scientists to discover new drugs?

It’s a tale of scientific discovery taught the world over: the serendipitous find of a mould that revolutionised modern medicine.

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