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As an alternative to the Big Bang, Lerner adopted Alfvén's model of plasma cosmology that relied on [[plasma physics]] to explain most, if not all, cosmological observations by appealing to [[electromagnetic force]]s.<ref>Eric Lerner, "The Big Bang Never Happened", page 14</ref> Adopting an eternal universe, Lerner's explanation of observed cosmological evolution relied on a proposed a model of [[thermodynamics]] attributed in part to the work of [[Ilya Prigogine]] under which the universe has no definite age<ref>Eric Lerner, "The Big Bang Never Happened", footnote on page 388</ref> but continually increases in order in defiance of the [[second law of thermodynamics]].<ref>Eric Lerner, "The Big Bang Never Happened", pages 286-316</ref> Lerner also criticized modern cosmology as being equivalent to the [[Deferent_and_epicycle#Epicycles_on_epicycles|epicycle after epicycle]] complexities of [[Ptolemaic astronomy]].<ref>Eric Lerner, "The Big Bang Never Happened", page 54</ref>
As an alternative to the Big Bang, Lerner adopted Alfvén's model of plasma cosmology that relied on [[plasma physics]] to explain most, if not all, cosmological observations by appealing to [[electromagnetic force]]s.<ref>Eric Lerner, "The Big Bang Never Happened", page 14</ref> Adopting an eternal universe, Lerner's explanation of observed cosmological evolution relied on a proposed a model of [[thermodynamics]] attributed in part to the work of [[Ilya Prigogine]] under which the universe has no definite age<ref>Eric Lerner, "The Big Bang Never Happened", footnote on page 388</ref> but continually increases in order in defiance of the [[second law of thermodynamics]].<ref>Eric Lerner, "The Big Bang Never Happened", pages 286-316</ref> Lerner also criticized modern cosmology as being equivalent to the [[Deferent_and_epicycle#Epicycles_on_epicycles|epicycle after epicycle]] complexities of [[Ptolemaic astronomy]].<ref>Eric Lerner, "The Big Bang Never Happened", page 54</ref>


Professional cosmologists and physicists who have commented on Lerner's Big Bang critique have universally repudiated it.<ref name=Davies /><ref name=Stenger /><ref name=talkorigins /> For example, the size of superclusters is a feature that has been limited by subsequent observations to the [[end of greatness]] and explained in the astronomical journals as arising from a [[power spectrum]] of density fluctuations growing from the [[quantum fluctuation]]s predicted in [[cosmic inflation|inflationary models]].<ref name=Stenger /><ref name=talkorigins /><ref name=Wright /><ref name=Penzias /> Additionally, the anisotropies were discovered in subsequent analysis of the both COBE and [[BOOMERanG]] experiments and were more fully characterized by the [[Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe]].<ref name=Stenger /><ref name=talkorigins /><ref name=Wright />
Professional cosmologists and physicists who have commented on Lerner's Big Bang critique have universally repudiated it.<ref name=Davies /><ref name=Stenger /> For example, the size of superclusters is a feature that has been limited by subsequent observations to the [[end of greatness]] and explained in the astronomical journals as arising from a [[power spectrum]] of density fluctuations growing from the [[quantum fluctuation]]s predicted in [[cosmic inflation|inflationary models]].<ref name=Stenger /><ref name=Wright /><ref name=Penzias /> Additionally, the anisotropies were discovered in subsequent analysis of the both COBE and [[BOOMERanG]] experiments and were more fully characterized by the [[Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe]].<ref name=Stenger /><ref name=Wright />


While there was favorable reaction from non-experts to Lerner's book,<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/product-description/067974049X | title = Editorial Reviews | work = Amazon.com }}</ref> cosmologists who have commented on the book have generally criticized it. In particular, [[Edward L. Wright]], who teaches cosmology and astrophysics at [[UCLA]],<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~wright/intro.html | title = Edward L. (Ned) Wright | work = UCLA Astronomy Dept.}}</ref> has criticized the specifics of Lerner's alternative cosmology asserting that his alternative model for [[Hubble's Law]] is dynamically unstable, that the [[number density]] of distant [[radio astronomy|radio sources]] falsifies Lerner's explanation for the [[cosmic microwave background]], and that Lerner's explanation that the helium abundance is due to [[stellar nucleosynthesis]] fails because of the small observed abundance heavier elements.<ref name=Wright /> Wright has also directly criticized Lerner for making errors of fact and interpretation.<ref name=Wright>[[Edward L. Wright|Wright, Edward L.]] "''[http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~wright/lerner_errors.html Errors in "The Big Bang Never Happened"]</ref> Lerner has directly disputed Wright's critique.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://bigbangneverhappened.org/p25.htm | title = The Big Bang Never Happened: Dr. Wright is Wrong | accessdate = 2008-07-13}}</ref>
While there was favorable reaction from non-experts to Lerner's book,<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/product-description/067974049X | title = Editorial Reviews | work = Amazon.com }}</ref> cosmologists who have commented on the book have generally criticized it. In particular, [[Edward L. Wright]], who teaches cosmology and astrophysics at [[UCLA]],<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~wright/intro.html | title = Edward L. (Ned) Wright | work = UCLA Astronomy Dept.}}</ref> has criticized the specifics of Lerner's alternative cosmology asserting that his alternative model for [[Hubble's Law]] is dynamically unstable, that the [[number density]] of distant [[radio astronomy|radio sources]] falsifies Lerner's explanation for the [[cosmic microwave background]], and that Lerner's explanation that the helium abundance is due to [[stellar nucleosynthesis]] fails because of the small observed abundance heavier elements.<ref name=Wright /> Wright has also directly criticized Lerner for making errors of fact and interpretation.<ref name=Wright>[[Edward L. Wright|Wright, Edward L.]] "''[http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~wright/lerner_errors.html Errors in "The Big Bang Never Happened"]</ref> Lerner has directly disputed Wright's critique.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://bigbangneverhappened.org/p25.htm | title = The Big Bang Never Happened: Dr. Wright is Wrong | accessdate = 2008-07-13}}</ref>


The book received and continues to receive unfavorable reviews from other professional cosmologists and physicists.<ref name=Davies>[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CEFD8123CF932A3575AC0A967958260 "Did the Big Bang Happen?"], New York Times, Sep 1, 1991</ref><ref name=Stenger>{{cite journal | first = Victor J. | last = Stenger | title = Is the Big Bang a Bust? | url = http://www.colorado.edu/philosophy/vstenger/Cosmo/bang.txt | journal = [[Skeptical Inquirer]] | volume = 16 | issue = 412 | date = Summer 1992 }}</ref><ref name=Penzias>[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CE5DD1F39F93BA25755C0A967958260 "Big Bang Theory Makes Sense of Cosmic Facts; No Contradiction"], New York Times, June 18, 1991</ref><ref name=talkorigins>{{cite web|author=Feuerbacher and Scranton|url=http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/astronomy/bigbang.html#lerner|title=Evidence for the Big Bang}}</ref><ref name=Carroll>A critique of the tactics of Eric Lerner mentioning him explicitly by name appears on [[Sean Carroll]]'s [[blog]], [http://preposterousuniverse.blogspot.com/2004/05/doubt-and-dissent-are-not-tolerated.html ''Preposterous Universe'']</ref>
The book received and continues to receive unfavorable reviews from other professional cosmologists and physicists.<ref name=Davies>[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CEFD8123CF932A3575AC0A967958260 "Did the Big Bang Happen?"], New York Times, Sep 1, 1991</ref><ref name=Stenger>{{cite journal | first = Victor J. | last = Stenger | title = Is the Big Bang a Bust? | url = http://www.colorado.edu/philosophy/vstenger/Cosmo/bang.txt | journal = [[Skeptical Inquirer]] | volume = 16 | issue = 412 | date = Summer 1992 }}</ref><ref name=Penzias>[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CE5DD1F39F93BA25755C0A967958260 "Big Bang Theory Makes Sense of Cosmic Facts; No Contradiction"], New York Times, June 18, 1991</ref><ref name=Carroll>A critique of the tactics of Eric Lerner mentioning him explicitly by name appears on [[Sean Carroll]]'s [[blog]], [http://preposterousuniverse.blogspot.com/2004/05/doubt-and-dissent-are-not-tolerated.html ''Preposterous Universe'']</ref>


==References==
==References==

Revision as of 23:34, 19 January 2009

File:Lerner at google.jpg
Lerner at a Google TechTalks presentation in 2007

Eric J. Lerner is an American popular science writer, independent plasma researcher,[1] and serves as the executive director of the Focus Fusion Society and president of Lawrenceville Plasma Physics, Inc.[2] He is an advocate of plasma cosmology,[3] a nonstandard cosmology, and authored the 1991 book The Big Bang Never Happened, which advocates Hannes Alfvén's alternative to the dominant Big Bang theory.

Professional work

Lerner was born in 1947 in Brookline, Massachusetts, and received a BA in physics from Columbia University.[4] He did graduate work in physics at the University of Maryland, College Park,[5] and then pursued a career in popular science writing.

In 1984, he began studying plasma phenomena and laboratory fusion devices, performing experimental work on the dense plasma focus. Lerner received funding from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 1994 and 2001 to explore whether the dense plasma focus could be an effective ion thruster to propel spacecraft.[6][7] He believes that it can also be used to produce useful aneutronic fusion energy.[8]

Lerner is a critic of the Big Bang model and advocates an infinitely old Universe.[9] In 2006 he accepted an invitation to be a Visiting Scientist at the European Southern Observatory in Chile, offered at the initiative of fellow Big Bang critic and MOND enthusiast Riccardo Scarpa.[10]

Lerner is also an active general science writer, estimating that he has had about 600 articles published. He has received journalism awards between 1984 and 1993 from the Aviation Space Writers Association.[11]

Activism

While at Columbia, Lerner participated in the 1965 Selma March[12] and helped organize the 1968 Columbia Student Strike.[13]

In the 1970s, Lerner became involved in the National Caucus of Labor Committees, an offshoot of the Columbia University Students for a Democratic Society. Lerner left the National Caucus in 1978, later stating in a lawsuit that he had resisted pressure from the US Labor Party, an organization led by Lyndon LaRouche, to violate election law by channeling profits of an engineering firm to the organization.[14]

Lerner has been involved in political activism. He has sought civil rights protection for immigrants as a member and spokesman for the New Jersey Civil Rights Defense Committee.[15][16]

The Big Bang Never Happened

File:Big-bang-never-happened.jpg
Lerner's 1991 book, The Big Bang Never Happened

The Big Bang Never Happened: A Startling Refutation of the Dominant Theory of the Origin of the Universe (1991) is Lerner's controversial book rejecting mainstream Big Bang cosmology and advancing instead a non-standard plasma cosmology originally proposed by Hannes Alfvén in the 1960s. The book appeared at a time when results from the Cosmic Background Explorer satellite were of some concern to astrophysicists who expected to see Cosmic microwave background anisotropies but instead measured a perfect blackbody spectrum with no variation across the sky. Lerner referred to this as evidence that the Big Bang was a failed paradigm. He also denigrated the observational evidence for dark matter[17] and recounted a well known cosmological feature that superclusters are larger than the largest virialized structures that have formed in the age of the universe.[18]

As an alternative to the Big Bang, Lerner adopted Alfvén's model of plasma cosmology that relied on plasma physics to explain most, if not all, cosmological observations by appealing to electromagnetic forces.[19] Adopting an eternal universe, Lerner's explanation of observed cosmological evolution relied on a proposed a model of thermodynamics attributed in part to the work of Ilya Prigogine under which the universe has no definite age[20] but continually increases in order in defiance of the second law of thermodynamics.[21] Lerner also criticized modern cosmology as being equivalent to the epicycle after epicycle complexities of Ptolemaic astronomy.[22]

Professional cosmologists and physicists who have commented on Lerner's Big Bang critique have universally repudiated it.[23][24] For example, the size of superclusters is a feature that has been limited by subsequent observations to the end of greatness and explained in the astronomical journals as arising from a power spectrum of density fluctuations growing from the quantum fluctuations predicted in inflationary models.[24][25][26] Additionally, the anisotropies were discovered in subsequent analysis of the both COBE and BOOMERanG experiments and were more fully characterized by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe.[24][25]

While there was favorable reaction from non-experts to Lerner's book,[27] cosmologists who have commented on the book have generally criticized it. In particular, Edward L. Wright, who teaches cosmology and astrophysics at UCLA,[28] has criticized the specifics of Lerner's alternative cosmology asserting that his alternative model for Hubble's Law is dynamically unstable, that the number density of distant radio sources falsifies Lerner's explanation for the cosmic microwave background, and that Lerner's explanation that the helium abundance is due to stellar nucleosynthesis fails because of the small observed abundance heavier elements.[25] Wright has also directly criticized Lerner for making errors of fact and interpretation.[25] Lerner has directly disputed Wright's critique.[29]

The book received and continues to receive unfavorable reviews from other professional cosmologists and physicists.[23][24][26][30]

References

  1. ^ John Wilford, "Novel Theory Challenges The Big Bang", New York Times, February 28, 1989
  2. ^ See Personnel listed on the Web site for Lawrenceville Plasma Physics, Inc.
  3. ^ H. Ratcliffe, "The First Crisis in Cosmology Conference" (PDF), Progress in Physics (Oct 2005)
  4. ^ Columbia Alumni Directory, 1988 edition, p.211
  5. ^ Biography at the Space Show, 2006
  6. ^ Kenneth Chang, "Practical Fusion, or Just a Bubble?", New York Times, Feb. 27, 2007
  7. ^ JPL Contract 959962, pg 8, and JPL Contract 960283
  8. ^ Patrick Huyghe, "3 Ideas That Are Pushing the Edge of Science", Discover Magazine, June 2008
  9. ^ Marcus Chown, "Did the Big Bang Really Happen?", New Scientist, 2 July 2005
  10. ^ ESO Senior Visits in 2006, activities, and ESO Santiago Science Colloquia and Seminars 2006
  11. ^ Lerner estimates he has had about 600 articles published, in article such as Discover,[1] and Industrial Physicist.[2]
  12. ^ Kasra Manoocheri, "Selma Interview: Eric Lerner", Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement web site, Feb. 2007
  13. ^ "A Memorandum from the Strike Education Committee", Columbia University archives, May 4, 1968. Lists Eric Lerner as one of the committee members.
  14. ^ King, Dennis (1989). "32". Lyndon LaRouche and the New American Fascism. Doubleday. ISBN 0385238800. {{cite book}}: External link in |chapterurl= (help); Unknown parameter |chapterurl= ignored (|chapter-url= suggested) (help)
  15. ^ Spencer S. Hsu, "Immigrants Mistreated, Report Says", Washington Post, Jan. 17, 2007; A08
  16. ^ Eman Varoqua, "Not Everyone Is A Terrorist", The Record (Bergen County, NJ), Dec. 7, 2004
  17. ^ Eric Lerner, "The Big Bang Never Happened", page 13
  18. ^ Eric Lerner, "The Big Bang Never Happened", page 12
  19. ^ Eric Lerner, "The Big Bang Never Happened", page 14
  20. ^ Eric Lerner, "The Big Bang Never Happened", footnote on page 388
  21. ^ Eric Lerner, "The Big Bang Never Happened", pages 286-316
  22. ^ Eric Lerner, "The Big Bang Never Happened", page 54
  23. ^ a b "Did the Big Bang Happen?", New York Times, Sep 1, 1991
  24. ^ a b c d Stenger, Victor J. (Summer 1992). "Is the Big Bang a Bust?". Skeptical Inquirer. 16 (412).
  25. ^ a b c d Wright, Edward L. "Errors in "The Big Bang Never Happened"
  26. ^ a b "Big Bang Theory Makes Sense of Cosmic Facts; No Contradiction", New York Times, June 18, 1991
  27. ^ "Editorial Reviews". Amazon.com.
  28. ^ "Edward L. (Ned) Wright". UCLA Astronomy Dept.
  29. ^ "The Big Bang Never Happened: Dr. Wright is Wrong". Retrieved 2008-07-13.
  30. ^ A critique of the tactics of Eric Lerner mentioning him explicitly by name appears on Sean Carroll's blog, Preposterous Universe

External links and references

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