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Eric J. Lerner is currently the executive director of the Focus Fusion Society and president of Lawrenceville Plasma Physics, Inc. in West Orange, New Jersey, which describes itself as a technology research, consulting and communications firm. He is an independent plasma researcher and advocates plasma cosmology, a nonstandard cosmology. Lerner wrote a popular science book, The Big Bang Never Happened (1991), which criticized the research and theories regarding the Big Bang and received unfavorable reviews from professional cosmologists.

Personal history

Lerner was born in 1947 in Brookline, Massachusetts. He received a BA in physics from Columbia University and did graduate work in physics at the University of Maryland, College Park without completing a degree. He has studied cosmic plasma phenomena and laboratory fusion devices, especially the dense plasma focus, and is the author of a popular account of plasma cosmology, The Big Bang Never Happened (1991).

Professional activities

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

Lerner has done experimental work on the dense plasma focus funded by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in collaboration with the University of Illinois in 1994, and with Texas A&M University in 2001. In addition, he believes he has demonstrated that the production of useful energy from aneutronic fusion can be made more feasible.

Lerner is also a prolific general science writer, who estimates about 600 articles published, has received several journalism awards from the Aviation Space Writers Association from 1984 to 1993,

Reception of The Big Bang Never Happened

Lerner received some notoriety with the publishing of his popular-level book in 1991, which disputed Big Bang cosmology. In this work, Lerner asserts that:

The phenomena that the Big Bang seeks to explain with a mysterious ancient catacylsm, plasma theories attribute to electrical and magnetic processes occurring in the universe today.

He states that his major problem with the Big Bang is that "enormous ribbons of matter... refute a basic premise of the Big Bang."

James Van Allen, a space scientist who discovered the Earth's Van Allen belts, provided the following review:

"Eric J. Lerner gives both a provocative critique of the Big Bang and a stimulating account of the insightful and creative, although controversial, cosmology of Nobel Laureate Hannes Alfven."

In general Lerner's ideas have not been acknowledged or adopted by cosmologists or astronomers. The response of professional cosmologists to Lerner's ideas has been negative; Paul Davies reviewed his book for the New York Times and panned it. The newspaper published a rebuttal by Lerner which was itself criticized by Arno A. Penzias, winner of the 1978 Nobel Prize for Physics:

"The sizes of the vast ribbons of galaxies that Eric J. Lerner refers to come straight out of the Big Bang model itself.... Contrary to Mr. Lerner's claim, therefore, the 'simple mathematics' he cites rests upon, rather than contradicts the Big Bang model."

Subsequent to this, Davies himself responded to Lerner's criticism of his review:

'"It seems to me that the theory proposed by Mr. Lerner has serious problems in relation to thermodynamics. This is merely my professional opinion, for what it is worth. Others can judge for themselves.... I accept that Mr. Lerner's book reports work that is largely due to Hannes Alfven, but this does not render it immune from criticism."

Victor J. Stenger, Professor Emeritus of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Hawaii, criticized Lerner's book in a 1992 edition of the popular magazine, Skeptical Inquirer. He stated that, "The big bang may be wrong, but Lerner can't seriously expect to prove it in a popular book." He also wrote:

Lerner uses the kinds of arguments one often hears in public discourse on science, but rarely among professional scientists themselves. For example, he argues that plasma cosmology is in closer agreement with everyday observation than Big Bang cosmology, and hence is the more sensible. A look through a telescope reveals spirals and other structures similar to those observed in the plasma laboratory, and as cosmologist Rocky Kolb has remarked, in your bathroom toilet as well. Following Lerner's line of reasoning, we would conclude, as people once did, that the earth is flat, that the sun goes around the earth, and that species are immutable."

Professor E. L. Wright of UCLA says that there are several errors of fact in the book, and Sean M. Carroll has also written a critique of advocacy like Eric Lerner's.

References

1. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1518007279479871760&q=Google+tech+talks+lerner&pr=goog-sl
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. ^ Wright, E. L. "Errors in "The Big Bang Never Happened"
5. ^ Letter to the Editor June 18, 1991
6. ^ New York Times (Late Edition (East Coast)). New York, N.Y.: Sep 1, 1991. p. A.4
7. ^ Stenger, Victor J. (Summer 1992). "Is the Big Bang a Bust?". Skeptical Inquirer. 16 (412).
8. Columbia Alumni Directory, 1988 edition, p.211.
9. Biography at the Space Show
10. Retrieved November 10, 2006.
11. JPL Contract 959962
12. JPL Contract 960283
13. Prospects for P11B Fusion with the Dense Plasma Focus: New Results Invited presentation, 5th Symposium "Current Trends in International Fusion Research: A Review" March 24-28, 2003, Washington, D.C. Arxiv
14. Lerner estimates he has had about 600 articles published, in article such as Discover, and Industrial Physicist.
15. Eric Lerner, "The Big Bang Never Happened", page 14
16. Eric Lerner, "The Big Bang Never Happened", page 13
17. Included on the back cover of the hardback edition of The Big Bang Never Happened
18. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CEFD8123CF932A3575AC0A967958260
19. Sean Carroll offers a direct critique of these alternatives on his blog Preposterous Universe http://preposterousuniverse.blogspot.com/2004/05/doubt-and-dissent-are-not-tolerated.html

External links and references

• Focus Fusion Society
• Eric Lerner, "The Big Bang Never Happened"
  • Edward Wright, "Errors in the "The Big Bang Never Happened".
  • Eric Lerner, "Dr. Wright is Wrong -- a reply to Ned Wright's "Errors in The Big Bang Never Happened"
• "An Open Letter to the Scientific Community"cosmologystatement.org. Published in New Scientist, May 22, 2004.
• Focus Fusion provides competition to $10 billion Tokamak - Interview with Eric Lerner. (OSEN; Nov. 2, 2005) (also at PESN)
• Eric Lerner biography
• Lawrenceville Plasma Physics, Inc.

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• Columbia University alumni
• Living people
• American science writers
• 1947 births