A NEW PARADIGM OF SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT - THE ELECTRIC UNIVERSE

   Article 3 : RESTORING THE EXPERIMENTAL BASIS

   - by Rev Nicholas Sykes


   In the last article a fundamental problem with the Theory of
   Relativity was cited: it does not cohere adequately with another
   foundation theory of modern Physics, namely Quantum Mechanics. We may
   touch on what Quantum Mechanics is later on in the series, and how the
   Electric Universe paradigm may supply this mainly mathematically
   oriented theory with a more adequate physical basis than it currently
   enjoys.  But enough of that for now.


   Einstein's Relativity explorations too are mathematical in character.
   Indeed it is said that Einstein himself, unlike Sir Isaac Newton,
   hated to do experiments, and ceased attempting to do any from an early
   age. Critics of Einstein point out that his "gedankenexperimenten"
   (thought experiments) cannot substitute for real experiments in the
   process of building a verifiable theory, but should always lead to
   them. For example, the whole concept of a four dimensional space-time
   continuum, which forms a mathematical basis for Relativity Theory, is
   something that a person may conceptualise in thought; yet there is no
   known person on this planet that actually experiences space and time
   in such a manner. It appears that without exception, humans see space
   in three dimensions, with the flow of time being sensed in a manner
   that is entirely different from and independent of the way
   three-dimensional space is experienced. (Perhaps there might be a form
   of severe mental disturbance that could cause someone to actually
   "see" reality in the way Relativity proposes, but I am not aware of
   any such case.) Relativity Theory also predicts that the simultaneity
   of two events occurring at the same time is not absolute, but is
   relative to the relationship between the "frame of reference" of the
   observed events and that of the observer himself. In other words, two
   things which happen at the same time in one frame of reference, may
   not happen at the same time in another. Common sense, of course, finds
   this outrageous.


   Relativity Theory is upheld by a captivated public, but could this be
   in the same way as the fabled naked emperor's clothing was heralded as
   magnificent by his fawning admirers? In any case I will continue to be
   one of the growing number of those small boys who are horrid enough to
   say what they see. There is much more to be said on this, but it must
   wait. We will move on to those who, like Michael Faraday, progressed
   Physics through their experiments.


   Kristian Birkeland (1867 - 1917) was one such scientist, perhaps best
   known for his "terrella" (laboratory model of the earth) experiments.
   His terrella, simulating the earth, was made from naturally magnetised
   lodestone, and, having suspended it in an evacuated box, he subjected
   it to electric fields and currents.


   He organized several expeditions to Norway's high-latitude regions
   where he established a network of observatories under the auroral
   regions (i.e. the regions where the aurora borealis, or Northern
   Lights take place) to collect magnetic field data. The results of the
   Norwegian Polar Expedition conducted from 1899 to 1900 contained the
   first determination of the global pattern of electric currents in the
   polar region from ground magnetic field measurements.  Birkeland also
   developed vacuum chambers to study the influence of magnets on cathode
   rays (electrons). Birkeland noticed that an electron beam directed
   toward a magnetised terrella was guided toward the magnetic poles and
   produced rings of light around the poles, and he concluded that the
   aurora could be produced in a similar way. He developed a theory in
   which energetic electrons were ejected from sunspots on the solar
   surface, directed to the Earth, and guided to the Earth's polar
   regions by the geomagnetic field where they produced the visible
   aurora.

   In 1916, Birkeland was probably the first person successfully to
   predict that the solar wind behaves as do all charged particles in an
   electric field: "From a physical point of view it is most probable
   that solar rays are neither exclusively negative nor positive rays,
   but of both kinds" In other words, the Solar Wind consists of both
   negative electrons and positive ions.

   Birkeland suggested that polar electric currents -- today referred to
   as auroral electrojets--were connected to a system of currents that
   flowed along geomagnetic field lines into and away from the polar
   region. He provided a diagram of field-aligned currents in his book,
   The Norwegian Aurora Polaris Expedition 1902-1903.  Birkeland's vision
   of field-aligned currents became the source of a controversy that
   continued for a quarter of a century. Hannes Alfvén, following
   Birkeland's lead, believed the auroras to be powered by charged
   particles from the Sun, but Sydney Chapman categorically denying any
   role of electric currents across interplanetary space developed a
   mathematically elegant hypothesis that the auroras were generated
   entirely in the Earth's magnetosphere by a "buffeting" of the solar
   wind.

   The proof of Birkeland's field-aligned currents, however, eventually
   came from observations made above the iononsphere with satellites.
   A magnetometer onboard a U.S. Navy navigation satellite launched in
   1963 observed magnetic disturbances on nearly every pass over the
   high-latitude regions of the Earth. It was soon realized that they
   were due to field-aligned or Birkeland currents.

   In 1913, Birkeland may have been the first to predict that plasma was
   ubiquitous in space. He wrote: "It seems to be a natural consequence
   of our points of view to assume that the whole of space is filled with
   electrons and flying electric ions of all kinds. We have assumed that
   each stellar system in evolutions throws off electric corpuscles into
   space. It does not seem unreasonable therefore to think that the
   greater part of the material masses in the universe is found, not in
   the solar systems or nebulae, but in 'empty' space."

   Amazingly, Birkeland's insights on the electrical composition of
   space, like John Herschel's (see my Article 2), in spite of
   Birkeland's posthumous vindication by the experimental confirmation of
   Birkeland currents, remain sidelined by the great bulk of mainstream
   Physics today, which speaks instead of such ideas as "magnetic
   reconnection" with extraordinary confidence and authority. But about
   this, I shall write some more another time.