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NASA Exposed in ‘Massive’ New Climate Data Fraud

Written by P Gosselin, notrickszone.com

by P Gosselin, notrickszone.com

Veteran award-winning journalist Günter Ederer reports of a shocking new global warming data fraud in NASA’s global temperature data series, as relied on by the UN and government climate scientists. NASA FRAUD The data has been carefully analysed by a respected data computation expert Professor Dr. Friedrich Karl Ewert and is being made publicly available for independent verification.

Professor Ewert’s findings seem to show NASA has intentionally and systematically rigged the official government record of global temperatures to show recent global warming where none would exist without the upwards ‘revisions.’

The astonishing results are now available online to the public.  P Gosselin of notrickzone.com reports:

Ederer reports not long ago retired geologist and data computation expert Professor Dr. Friedrich Karl Ewert began looking at the data behind the global warming claims, and especially the datasets of NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Studies (GISS).

Ewert painstakingly examined and tabulated the reams of archived data from 1153 stations that go back to 1881 – which NASA has publicly available – data that the UN IPCC uses to base its conclusion that man is heating the Earth’s atmosphere through the burning of fossil fuels. According to Ederer, what Professor Ewert found is “unbelievable”:

From the publicly available data, Ewert made an unbelievable discovery: Between the years 2010 and 2012 the data measured since 1881 were altered so that they showed a significant warming, especially after 1950. […] A comparison of the data from 2010 with the data of 2012 shows that NASA-GISS had altered its own datasets so that especially after WWII a clear warming appears – although it never existed.”

Ederer writes that Ewert particularly found alterations at stations in the Arctic. Professor Ewert randomly selected 120 stations from all over the world and compared the 2010 archived data to the 2012 data and found that they had been tampered to produce warming.

The old data showed regular cycles of warming and cooling over the period, even as atmospheric CO2 concentration rose from 0.03{154653b9ea5f83bbbf00f55de12e21cba2da5b4b158a426ee0e27ae0c1b44117} to 0.04{154653b9ea5f83bbbf00f55de12e21cba2da5b4b158a426ee0e27ae0c1b44117}. According to the original NASA datasets, Ederer writes, the mean global temperature cooled from 13.8°C in 1881 to 12.9°C in 1895. Then it rose to 14.3°C by 1905 and fell back under 12.9°C by 1920, rose to 13.9°C by 1930, fell to 13° by 1975 before rising to 14°C by 2000. By 2010 the temperature fell back to 13.2°C.

But then came the “massive” altering of data, which also altered the entire overall trend for the period. According to journalist Ederer, Ewert uncovered 10 different methods NASA used to alter the data. The 6 most often used methods were:

• Reducing the annual mean in the early phase.
• Reducing the high values in the first warming phase.
• Increasing individual values during the second warming phase.
• Suppression of the second cooling phase starting in 1995.
• Shortening the early decades of the datasets.
• With the long-term datasets, even the first century was shortened.

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‘Spooky’: Did Einstein Get it Wrong?

Written by Ellie Zolfagharifard Dailymail.com

Einstein has been proven wrong, yet again – at least on one thing. Second paper proves ‘spooky action at a distance’ is real, contrary to Einstein’s view. The theory riled Einstein as it suggested data could travel faster than light. Albert Einstein

In quantum physics, entangled particles are connected despite distance. This means the action of one will instantly change behaviour of the other. But NIST showed it was possible by separating photon pairs and sending them by fiber optic cable to detectors in distant rooms 184 metres apart. 

Einstein called it “spooky” and was referring, specifically, to entanglement – the idea that pairs of sub-atomic particles can be invisibly connected in a way that transcends time and space.

This offended Einstein, since passing information between two points in space faster than the speed of light is supposed to be impossible.

In 1964, the scientist John Stewart Bell devised an experiment designed to rule out hidden variables that could offer a non-weird explanation for ‘action at a distance’.

But all the ‘Bell tests’ performed still contained ‘loopholes’ that, according to critics, could invalidate proof of entanglement. 

Now a new paper, which appears in the Physical Review Letters, has provided the most solid proof yet that entanglement does indeed exist. 

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Study: More Extreme Climate Existed Prior to Pre-industrial Era

Written by Myles, PSI Researcher

University of Vermont climate study of sedimentary cores shows periods of extreme storminess occurred thousands of years before any human influence. cyclone

Previous periods of extreme storminess: A 13,000 year scientific study of lake sediments by the reliable method of drilling and retrieving cores reveals that the climate of the United States has been through numerous periods of more extreme climate. The research explains:

   “ Storm magnitude, as estimated by average terrigenous layer thickness, was greatest at 11,800, 10,800, and 1,200 years before present, when New England climate was cool and moist.”

   “Storminess reached variable maxima lasting ~1,500 years, centered at approximately 2,600, 5,800, 9,100, and 11,900 years ago, and appears to be presently increasing toward another peak.”

https://www.uvm.edu/cosmolab/people/noren/noren_ms_thesis.pdf

Here we see the periods of greatest climate variation from the established normal happen when conditions are “cool and moist,” which runs contrary to current climate alarmism theory which states that a warmer, drier climate will result in more extreme events.

The research points out that the USA is “increasing towards another peak” in storminess therefore the peaks of extreme climate were larger before the industrial revolution that started in 1851.

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Hurricane activity down a stunning 80% from a decade ago

Written by Thomas Richard, examiner.com

As the 2015 Atlantic hurricane season winds down, NOAA is fear mongering again even as Atlantic hurricane activity has dropped a whopping 80 percent from 10 years ago. hurricane damage

That’s according to a new analysis released yesterday by Dr. Roy Spencer, a meteorologist and team leader for the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer flying on NASA’s Aqua satellite. To blunt this historical news, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced yesterday that global warming could be to blame for an active hurricane season last year around Hawaii. Meanwhile, as the Atlantic hurricane season finishes out its eleventh year, there hasn’t been a category 3 or higher hurricane to hit landfall in over a decade.

With the upcoming UN-sponsored Paris Climate Talks in early December, NOAA’s scientists have instead released a new report saying that global warming may have played a role in the increased hurricane activity around Hawaii last year. To hammer home its point, NOAA reiterated that “tropical storm Iselle slammed into the Big Island in August 2014 and was one of three tropical disturbances that approached Hawaii last year, making it the third largest number” since recordkeeping began.

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This article convinces 46% of climate alarmists to become skeptical

Written by Hajo Smit, climategate.nl

David Siegel of medium.com ran the article,  ‘What I Learned about Climate Change: The Science is not Settled‘ about his conversion from global warming alarmist to climate skeptic. 

antedecarbonizationSiegel’s article has now been read 9,000 times and suggests 46{154653b9ea5f83bbbf00f55de12e21cba2da5b4b158a426ee0e27ae0c1b44117} of alarmists are now climate skeptics.

More specifically the survey at the bottom of the article asked readers: If you were a supporter of decarbonization before reading this essay, please state your new view on climate change …  a large proportion of respondents indicated that:  “I found it very convincing and will try to have conversations with others about this.”  Brilliant right?

Meanwhile, Siegel has this follow-up  written on WUWT and he summarized his climate odyssey on climatecurious.org. He also has a follow up article giving a three-step recipe on how  “climate change” can be solved:

  1. We must focus on liberal media outlets to get them to learn how biased they are and why they are buying the wrong story. It’s a huge challenge because they associate decarbonization with doing good for the environment, and to them, anyone who says otherwise is a hardcore conservative bent on destroying the future. It’s hard for them to admit they are wrong. The media parrots what the PR people tell them to say. Ask hard questions. Do what you can to influence liberal media, blogs, journalists, and others. Simply having conversations, asking questions, and sending people my essay will help.
  2. I would like to target a small number of well-known people to convert and then they will spread the message naturally. The people on my list are influential liberals: Bill Gates, Paul Allen, Jeff Skoll, Jon Stewart, Elan Musk, George Clooney, Mike Bloomberg, George Soros, Thomas Steyer, etc. My goal is to put together a very small, very exclusive event where a few of such people can spend a day with the people I list in my article and learn what’s really going on in climate science. Then people can use verifiable science and influence to help us put the environmental movement (and climate science) back on track. If you can help me reach them, I hope to make this event a reality.

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Open Letter: Australian Education System ‘Broken’

Written by Stephen J. Crothers

Dear Science, Mathematics (and other) Teachers of Australia, 
 
The Australian education system is broken, and it is doubtful that it can be salvaged. broken education I have not heard or seen any teachers association in Australia object to the demonstrable nonsense that is peddled nowadays as science, in our schools, technical colleges, universities, textbooks, and by celebrity Authorities (some with a Nobel Prize) on television and radio programmes. 
 
Having taught in Australian high schools, TAFE colleges, and universities, I am dismayed and appalled by the apathy and ignorance of Australian teachers at large.
 
It is no wonder that physics and mathematics in particular, in Australia, have become decrepit, when no voice is raised by teachers associations against the tide of mysticism and other claptrap that now engulfs our education system.
 
It seems that Australian teachers are either (1) ignorant of their subject matter, (2) prepared to put hidden agendas before scholarship, or (3) both (1) and (2). For what other reasons can there be for their silence? 
 
As a case in point I draw your attention to the appearance of astronomer Professor Brian Schmidt, Nobel Laureate (Physics), Australian National University, on the ABC programme Q&A on 15 September 2014, where, on national television, he gravely misinformed a thoughtful 11 year old boy interested in physics; and the audience besides.

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Open Letter: Australian Education System ‘Broken’

Written by Stephen J. Crothers

Dear Science, Mathematics (and other) Teachers of Australia, 
 
The Australian education system is broken, and it is doubtful that it can be salvaged. broken education I have not heard or seen any teachers association in Australia object to the demonstrable nonsense that is peddled nowadays as science, in our schools, technical colleges, universities, textbooks, and by celebrity Authorities (some with a Nobel Prize) on television and radio programmes. 
 
Having taught in Australian high schools, TAFE colleges, and universities, I am dismayed and appalled by the apathy and ignorance of Australian teachers at large.
 
It is no wonder that physics and mathematics in particular, in Australia, have become decrepit, when no voice is raised by teachers associations against the tide of mysticism and other claptrap that now engulfs our education system.
 
It seems that Australian teachers are either (1) ignorant of their subject matter, (2) prepared to put hidden agendas before scholarship, or (3) both (1) and (2). For what other reasons can there be for their silence? 
 
As a case in point I draw your attention to the appearance of astronomer Professor Brian Schmidt, Nobel Laureate (Physics), Australian National University, on the ABC programme Q&A on 15 September 2014, where, on national television, he gravely misinformed a thoughtful 11 year old boy interested in physics; and the audience besides.

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Even ‘Lukewarmer’ Position on Global Warming has Become Untenable

Written by hockeyschtick.blogspot.co.uk

Even the “lukewarmer” position on anthropogenic global warming has become untenable on the basis of both observations and theory: richard lindzen

1. Lindzen (pictured) & Choi papers based on ERBE satellite observations showed sensitivity (to doubled CO2 levels) of only ~0.18C

http://hockeyschtick.blogspot.com/2013/01/new-paper-confirms-findings-of-lindzen.html

2. Dr. David Evans has shown, using the same flawed radiative model of the IPCC as the basis, that  “The ECS might be almost zero, is likely less than 0.25 °C”

http://joannenova.com.au/2015/11/new-science-18-finally-climate-sensitivity-calculated-at-just-one-tenth-of-official-estimates/

3. Kimoto has shown climate sensitivity is ~.15-.2C due to the IPCC false assumptions of a fixed lapse rate and a mathematical error in calculating the Planck feedback parameter:

http://hockeyschtick.blogspot.com/search?q=kimoto

4 Volokin et al have shown that planetary surface temperatures are a function of solar insolation and surface pressure only, not greenhouse gas concentrations, on all 8 planets for which we have adequate data, including Earth & Venus.

http://hockeyschtick.blogspot.com/search?q=volokin

5. The surface temperature and tropospheric temperature profile can easily be derived from physical first principles including the 1st LoT, Ideal Gas Law, Poisson Equation, Newton’s 2nd Law, and Stefan-Boltzmann Law for solar forcing only, and without greenhouse gas “radiative forcing,” and perfectly replicates the verified 1976 US Standard Atmosphere. Thus, once again, sensitivity to CO2 is mathematically proven to be essentially zero. 

http://hockeyschtick.blogspot.com/search?q=greenhouse+equation

6. Convection dominates radiative-convective equilibrium in the troposphere by a factor of ~8X, and increased greenhouse gases accelerate convection, thereby erasing any alleged cold-heats-hot greenhouse gas radiative effects on the surface. 

http://hockeyschtick.blogspot.com/2015/08/why-greenhouse-gases-accelerate.html

7. Many other climate sensitivity estimates have concluded climate sensitivity is effectively zero, or so close to zero as to be unmeasurable and negligible.

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Great news: carbon dioxide rose less than 2 parts per million in 2014!

Written by Thomas Richard, examiner.com

A new report released this week by the U.N.-funded WMO said that the levels of the three most potent ‘greenhouse gases’ in our atmosphere reached new levels in 2014. english greenhouseThe good news is that CO2 rose less than 2 ppm, with the other two gases barely climbing at all. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said carbon dioxide (CO2) levels increased to only 397.7 parts per million (PPM), up 1.9 PPM from 2013.

They also said methane levels measured 1,833 parts per billion (PPB) in 2014, and were up only 9 PPB from 2013. The globally averaged level of nitrous oxide in 2014 grew to 327.1 PPB, which is 1.1 PPB above the previous year. The largest greenhouse gas in our atmosphere is water vapor, which makes up 95{154653b9ea5f83bbbf00f55de12e21cba2da5b4b158a426ee0e27ae0c1b44117} of all so-called greenhouse gases. All of which may be bad news if you’ve instituted economy-crippling policies ahead of a UN-sponsored climate treaty.

But if you’ve ever wondered what the greenhouse gas/effect means, this may help: A greenhouse is a glass-covered enclosure that is pumped with higher amounts of CO2 (usually around 1,800 PPM) to promote plant growth. As the sun’s visible and ultraviolet light passes through the glass ceiling and walls, it gets absorbed by the floor, ground, and greenhouse contents. This heat then radiates off the items in the greenhouse and, because it’s in an enclosed structure (the glass), is unable to escape into the cooler air around the structure.

Think of it like your car in the hot sun. It’s not filled with CO2, but the heat has no way to escape because of the glass and steel enclosure. Government climate scientists believe that gases like water vapor and CO2 act like the glass and steel, preventing the heat from escaping into space, giving you an Earth-sized greenhouse. Hence the term “greenhouse effect” and “greenhouse gases.” But they seem to overlook the fact earth’s atmosphere is open to space (i.e. nothing like a closed greenhouse). 

The theory of global warming involves a lot of assumptions. First it states that, with all things being equal, the Earth “maintains a constant average temperature averaged out over the course of a year.” As sunlight comes in, it heats the air and Earth, some gets absorbed, some gets emitted back into outer space, and what’s left maintains a relatively moderate temperature for the planet. Remember, energy can’t be destroyed. So what comes in has to either be converted into something else, absorbed, or reflected back into outer space.

According to the ‘theory’ how fast this energy is radiated back into outer space depends on how much of a particular gas is in the atmosphere, like water vapor, clouds, carbon dioxide, and methane. The more of a particular gas we have in the atmosphere, the less energy can get bounced back out into space.

This, say climate scientists, causes the lower atmosphere to stay warmer (near the surface), but also warms the upper atmosphere (remember, energy can’t be destroyed). Water vapor is the most potent shield for keeping this energy from escaping the Earth. For a more in-depth tutorial and examples, go here.

Global warming theory also says that increased levels of carbon dioxide and certain other gases are causing an increase in the average temperature of the Earth’s atmosphere. It predicts that the upper atmosphere will warm from trapped heat, just like in a greenhouse. The surface of the Earth warms later to reach equilibrium. Except since 1979, we’ve had orbiting satellites measuring the atmosphere and it shows the upper atmosphere is warming much less than expected by this theory.

Because nature abhors imbalances, global warming theory also says that the lower atmosphere must then respond to this upper atmospheric heat by increasing in temperature until the energy coming in equals the energy going out. To do this, the Earth’s temperature at the surface goes up to meet the temperature of the upper atmosphere and balance is restored. But as noted above that isn’t happening. That fact alone should put the greenhouse gas theory into the coffin.

But there is far too much money involved in the global-warming cottage industry and, as less hysterical climate scientists keep trying to say, the planet is not as sensitive to imbalances as some people would have you believe. In fact, the Earth is quite adept at keeping up with changes as it has done so for the last 4.5 billion years.

The largest CO2 sponge on the planet are the oceans around us. The largest emitter of CO2 on the planet are microbes that produce CO2 as they consumer decaying organic matter. What man contributes, while significant, barely registers when compared to natural, ongoing processes (including, but not limited to, volcanic activity beneath the oceans).

Regardless of all this, the 2014 CO2 level is actually a 12-month average as CO2 in the atmosphere fluctuates throughout the year, and is lower when the Northern Hemisphere is in full bloom (plants absorb CO2) and higher in the winter (when more ocean is covered in ice and fewer plants are in bloom).

To put this in context, CO2 levels went up on such an infinitesimal scale as to be unquantifiable. Methane, which is considered to have 21-23 times the heat trapping power of CO2, rose to 1,833 PPB in 2014. That’s up 9 parts per billion (with a B). Mix 9 red marbles into a billion white marbles, and you begin to understand the silliness that ensues every time one of these reports come out.

Which always seem to happen right before a UN-sponsored climate conference like the one coming up in December.

Read more by Thomas Richard at www.examiner.com

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EU Energy-wasteful Vacuum Cleaner Law Backfires

Written by Dr Klaus L.E. Kaiser

New European Union (EU) law intending to be ‘green’ by limiting electricity power usage in domestic vacuum cleaners turns out to be more wasteful in energy. old vacuumScientists and consumers baffled by Brussels lawmakers’ faux pas.

North Americans, don’t be afraid, your old vacuum cleaner is just fine but if you feel like buying a new one anyway, no problem either.

If you live across the pond in the EU, however, you might just want to hang on to your old vac. The good bureaucrats of the EU have prescribed a new ‘greener’ standard: new vacuum cleaners have been limited to a maximum energy use of 1.6 kW (as of September 2014) and 0.9 kW as of September 2017. That’s a major change in energy consumption, mandated by EU law; needless to say, some manufacturers are not happy and the consumers—they’ll have to find out.

What’s the Issue?

Though I barely know such household gadgets, I think most vacs sold on this continent are using motors rated in the 1.5+ kW range, well above the 2017 limit mandated by the EU standard. I hazard the guess that few of the bureaucrats who wrote the new regulations ever use any vacuum themselves. After all, they are there to make regulations, not to live by them.

If they did use a vac, they might just realize that working twice as long with a 0.9 kW “energy-saving” implement compared to a 1.5 kW system for half the time does not save any energy at all. In fact, it consumes more energy (consumed energy = power x time). 

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Just in Time for Paris—Ice Galore

Written by Dr Klaus L.E. Kaiser

You’ll have heard of it, COP-21, the latest United Nation conference on all things climate, coming to Paris (France) in December. cop 21Wouldn’t you know it, just in time for that “cataclysmic” event, nature does not want to play according to the organizers’ script.

Rather than the polar ice caps having shrivelled to mere remnants by now, forecast for many years by all climate modelling enthusiasts, the polar ice shields have been growing by leaps and bounds. For example, according to a recent report by NASA scientists HJ Zwally et al., the Antarctic ice shield has been growing for 15 years already, even at an alarming rate. Then we learn that near the earth’s opposite pole, in Greenland, the rate of ice accumulation is breaking new records too; see the figure below (source: Danish Met. Inst., Nov. 7, 2015) and, last not least, the seasonal growth of the sea ice extent in the Arctic is not far behind.

Consternation

It must come as total consternation to all those people who have claimed for years now that “climate change” or “global warming” as it used to be termed is about ready to “incinerate” all life on earth. For example, “climate modellers” like S. Rahmstorf at Germany’s PIK have claimed for years that the polar regions would be most sensitive to any warming and that the polar ice masses were going to recede in a great hurry and that the ocean levels would rise fast. In reality, none of that is the case.

In fact, the polar ice masses continue to grow, some reaching new all-time records in both ice extent and accumulated mass. Also ocean levels are NOT rising as previously predicted.

If you feel somewhat confused, please don’t shoot the messenger. As the lateAlan Caruba has claimed for years, the climate fear-mongering is nothing but an elaborate hoax. The fact that even Pope Francis subscribes to the climate gospel now does not cause the ice masses to shrink. Perhaps his Holiness’ recent encyclical letter “Laudato Si, on care for our common home”  may sway some folks’ views but even the Pontiff cannot dictate nature’s course. Just as an aside, the Vatican has never signed on to the Kyoto Protocol of 1997 that was to limit carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

If the now two-decade long lack of lack of the prophesized warming and actually increasing ice masses at the earth’s poles are not enough to worry about, there are even more dire facts that may jolt you back to reality.

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NASA to fly probe through Saturn’s moon plumes

Written by Shaun Nichols, theregister.co.uk

NASA is just days away from a flyby in which its Cassini space probe will fly through liquid plumes on Saturn’s moon Enceladus. saturn moon

The agency’s scientists said on Wednesday, October 28, its craft would fly down within 30 miles of the surface of the icy moon and attempt to pass through the plumes erupting from its south pole in hopes of determining whether the ocean moon has conditions suitable for life.

The hope, say NASA scientists, is to figure out if Enceladus has geothermic activity similar to that found in Earth’s ocean. The hot-water vents allow simple life forms such as bacteria to thrive in an otherwise inhospitable environment.

In its brief 19,000mph flyby, Cassini will collect little more than a droplet of liquid. While the craft lacks the instruments to detect microscopic life, the team believes Cassini’s hardware will at least be able to determine whether Enceladus has the hydrogen to suggest the conditions that could support life.

“This flyby can’t detect life, but it will provide valuable insights into how habitable the ocean in Enceladus might be,” said Cassini program scientist Curt Niebur.

“This is a very big step in a new era of exploring ocean worlds in our solar system, bodies with great potential to provide life.”

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Simple Nano Trick Purifies Silicon for Energy Applications

Written by Katherine Bourzac, spectrum.ieee.org

Silicon is the second most abundant element on earth. Unfortunately, it’s mostly found in impure forms, not the refined elemental stuff needed for integrated circuits and solar cells. nanotrick

The existing technology for making pure silicon is mature but it’s expensive and dirty, and it’s optimized for making electronics—not battery electrodes, thermoelectrics, and solar cells, which have different requirements, says Nanjing University’s Jia Zhu. He worked with Yi Cui, a materials scientist at Stanford University, to develop a simple and cheap nanotech trick to get 99.999 percent pure silicon from cheap bulk ferrosilicon.

First they grind bulk ferrosilicon in a ball mill, down to particles smaller than 100 nanometers. Inside the grinder, the material tends to break at points where there are impurities, which are now exposed on the huge surface area of the nanoparticles. A quick dip in a mix of strong acids strips away oxygen and metal impurities, converting the material from 84 percent silicon by weight to 99.999 percent.

This process is a throwback to WWII-era methods for silicon purification, but with a nano twist. Acid etching of silicon has been around since at least 1919, and during the Second World War metallurgical silicon was crushed and etched to make radar components. But this crush-and-etch method never achieved high purity, because no one had focused on getting the particles down to nano size. So an energy-intensive, expensive process that leads to very high purity became standard. The Siemens method uses temperatures of over 1000° C, to purify and deposit pure silicon from gases. It can produce very high purities, including the 99.9999999 percent pure silicon needed for today’s integrated circuits.

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Rosetta probe delivers shock discovery: Molecular oxygen

Written by Richard Chirgwin, www.theregister.co.uk

Rosetta has both delighted and upset astronomers after the probe sent back data that indicates the discovery of molecular oxygen on Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. rosetta comet

The scientists are excited because the O2, detected in the thin cloud of stuff surrounding the comet, is going to give them a pile of new science; and upset because it’s not really supposed to be there. After billions of years, most of the molecular oxygen was expected to have reacted with hydrogen to form water.

The fact that the oxygen has survived suggests the comet – and probably other bodies in the solar system – must have formed so gently that it never became hot enough to spark oxygen reactions.

The first detection of the oxygen molecules happened more than a year ago, but was so unexpected that the mission decided to monitor it rather than announcing it immediately.

Oxygen is plentiful – it’s the third most abundant element in the universe – but it’s also highly reactive, and usually turns up bound to other atoms and molecules (or with itself, as O3, ozone).

In data collected between September 2014 and March 2015, the mission found that O2 makes up 3.8 per cent of the cloud surrounding 67P, which is an order of magnitude greater than expected.

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Cancer-killing viruses have finally arrived

Written by Beth Mole, arstechnica.com

Viruses normally seem like evil little germs; they often invade our bodies’ cells and hijack their inner machinery to mass produce viral invaders, which eventually destroy their host cells as they bust out to besiege more cells. herpes virusThe process repeats ad nauseam. But what if that wicked master plan could be twisted to do our bidding? What if viruses only invaded cells we wanted them to kill—like cancer cells?

Researchers got the initial idea of using viruses decades ago (PDF) and racked up a number of enticing anecdotes that suggested the idea could work. After all, cancer cells, in their altered state that allows them to replicate quickly and uncontrollably, often shut off their anti-viral defenses and are prone to infection. But scientists’ attempts at training viruses to be cancer assassins fell short in bigger trials—until now.

On Tuesday, the Food and Drug Administration approved the first viral-based cancer therapy. The virus, called talimogene laherparepvec (T-VEC), is a genetically engineered herpes simplex virus that can help treat advanced melanoma. Its genetic tweaks make it incapable of usurping normal, healthy cells. Thus, it doesn’t cause herpes. But when it meets cancer cells, it initiates cellular carnage. The virus is also engineered to carry a gene encoding the GM-CSF protein, which triggers the immune system. As the virus ravages cancer cells, GM-CSF gets released, boosting a patient’s natural defenses.

So far, T-VEC isn’t a wonder drug, but it’s helpful. In a large clinical trial published in May in theJournal of Clinical Oncology, researchers found that the virus shrank tumors and extended patient survival by a median of 4.4 months. The results were just shy of showing a statistically significant benefit to overall health. Still, the researchers are hopeful that when the viral therapy is combined with traditional therapies, it could significantly boost survival rates in patients.

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Top French Mathematicians Praised for Getting Skeptical on Global Warming

Written by PSI Staff

Top French mathematicians go public to condemn climate alarmism and join growing worldwide army of sceptical scientists. France’s Societe de Calcul Mathematique declare: “The battle against global warming is an absurd, costly and pointless crusade” in a 195-page PDF.eiffel tower

In a letter published below, Dr.  Bernard Beauzamy of the Societe de Calcul Mathematique, SA (SCM) is warmly praised by prominent American skeptic scientist, Dr Martin Hertzberg for his organization’s damning new White Paper, “The battle against global warming“  in which France’s top mathematicians condemn climate alarmism.

After conducting its own rigorous study SCM declares that the global warming cult has had an “impact on the entire field of scientific research” and “is particularly clear and especially pernicious.”

SCM was established in 1987 by University professor, Dr. Beauzamy. Dr Hertzberg is co-founder and key scientist at Principia Scientific International (PSI). Both bodies separately, studiously and impartially applied their skills to separate fact from fiction in the heated climate debate. Both find carbon dioxide (CO2) to be innocent and nothing more than a benign trace atmospheric gas.

Both SCM and PSI agree bad science and misrepresentation of data has led poorly-trained climate ‘experts’ to wrongly conclude there exists a dangerous human impact on earth’s climate requiring urgent global action.

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