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Eric Lerner

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

Eric J. Lerner (b. 1947, Brookline, MA.) is an advocate of plasma cosmology, a controversial alternative cosmology. He 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. Lerner has also authored a popular science book, The Big Bang Never Happened (1991), which criticized research and theories regarding the Big Bang model.

Personal history

Lerner 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. Lerner wrote a popularization of plasma cosmology, The Big Bang Never Happened (1991). He has studied cosmic plasma phenomena and laboratory fusion devices, especially the dense plasma focus.

Lerner describes himself as a life-long political activist, having been a veteran of the 1965 Selma March, one of the committee members that helped organize the 1968 Columbia Student Strike, a current member of the NJ Civil Rights Defense Committee, , and the Workers Democracy Network.

Scientific activities

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Lerner is a critic of the big bang theory and advocates an infinitely old Universe. Lerner has developed original theories of quasars, large scale structure, the microwave background and the origin of light elements all based on the plasma cosmology approach. He claims that the intergalactic medium is a strong absorber of the cosmic microwave background radiation with the absorption occurring in a fog of narrow filaments. He has suggested that data on the surface brightness of galaxies contradict the predictions of expanding-universe models.

Lerner developed a theory postulating that quasars are not related to black holes but are rather produced by a magnetic self-compression process similar to that occurring in the plasma focus. Based on this theory, he proposed that the plasma focus could achieve high ion and electron energies at high densities, suitable for advanced fuel fusion and space propulsion. Lerner has done experimental work on the plasma focus in collaboration with the University of Illinois in 1994, with Texas A&M University in 2001 and with the Chilean Nuclear Energy Commission. In addition, he developed a model of the role of the strong magnetic field effect on plasma functioning, showing that this effect could make net energy production more feasible.

He has presented this approach to fusion at several scientific conferences including (in the past five years) the IEEE International Conference on Plasma Science, 2002: the American Physical Society, 2003 and the XI Latin American Workshop on Plasma Physics, 2005. Lerner was an invited speaker at both the Fifth (2003) and Sixth (2005) Symposia on Current Trends in International Fusion Research, which is sponsored by the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). In the Sixth Symposium the paper was presented with Robert E. Terry, Naval Research Laboratory()

In 2006 he accepted an invitation, offered at the initiative of fellow Big Bang critic and MOND enthusiast Riccardo Scarpa, to be a visiting astronomer at the European Southern Observatory in Chile.

Reception of Lerner's ideas

Lerner's ideas have largely been ignored by most astronomers and cosmologists. He received some notoriety with the publishing of his book in 1991, which disputed Big Bang cosmology. The book received varying reviews. The general response, however, of the scientific community to Lerner's dispute with standard cosmology has been negative. For example, Arno A. Penzias, winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics, wrote to the New York Times:

"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."

Univ. of Hawaii Professor Emeritus of Physics and Astronomy, Victor J. Stenger, and author of "God: The Failed Hypothesis", criticized Lerner's book in a 1992 edition of the popular magazine, Skeptical Inquirer. Stenger writes:

"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."

On the other hand, James Van Allen, a space scientist who discovered the Earth's Van Allen belts, was quoted on the back cover of Lerner's The Big Bang Never Happened:

"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."

Partial list of papers and articles

Publications in The Astrophysical Journal
Publications in Astrophysics and Space Science
Publications in Laser and Particle Beams
Publications in IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science'
Industrial Physicist articles
Popular level articles and opinion pieces

Notes

  1. H. Ratcliffe, "The First Crisis in Cosmology Conference" (PDF), Progress in Physics (Oct 2005)
  2. See Personnel listed on the Web site for Lawrenceville Plasma Physics, Inc
  3. Columbia Alumni Directory, p.211 1988 edition.
  4. Biography at the Space Show
  5. Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement website, as confirmed by the subject
  6. A Memorandum from the Strike Education Committee, archived by Columbia University, clearly listing Eric Lerner as one of their members.
  7. NJ Civil Rights Defense Committee
  8. See "Jails must stop using dogs near immigration detainees" SignOnSanDiego.com December 7, 2004.
  9. See "Immigrant detainee breaks fast in Passaic" NorthJersey.com March 16, 2005
  10. See "Lectures discuss international banking", The Daily Targum, Issue date: 3/28/00
  11. http://www.physicsessays.com/doc/s2005/Lerner_Transparencies.pdf]
  12. Logged at the ESO website
  13. Letter to the Editor June 18, 1991
  14. Stenger, Victor J. (Summer 1992). "Is the Big Bang a Bust?". Skeptical Inquirer. 16 (412).

External links and references

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