Eric Lerner
Encyclopedia
Eric J. Lerner is an American
popular science
writer, independent plasma
researcher, and serves as the president of Lawrenceville Plasma Physics, Inc. He authored the 1991 book The Big Bang Never Happened, which advocates Hannes Alfvén
's alternative to the dominant Big Bang
theory, Plasma Cosmology
.
in physics
from Columbia University
and did graduate work in physics at the University of Maryland, College Park
, before pursuing 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. He believes that it can also be used to produce useful aneutronic fusion
energy, in a process he calls "Focus Fusion".
Lerner is a critic
of the Big Bang
model and advocates an infinitely
old Universe
. 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.
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.
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 and recounted a well known cosmological feature that supercluster
s are larger than the largest structures that could have formed through gravitational collapse in the age of the universe
.
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. Adopting an eternal universe, Lerner's explanation of observed cosmological evolution relied on a proposed model of thermodynamics
attributed in part to the work of Ilya Prigogine
under which the universe has no definite age but continually increases in order—in defiance of the second law of thermodynamics
. Lerner also criticized modern cosmology as being equivalent to the epicycle after epicycle complexities of Ptolemaic astronomy.
Lerner's criticisms of the Big Bang theory have been rejected by physicists and cosmologists who have reviewed his book. 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 inflationary models
. Anisotropies were discovered in subsequent analysis of the both COBE and BOOMERanG
experiments and were more fully characterized by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe
.
While there was favorable reaction from non-experts to Lerner's book, physical cosmologists who have commented on the book have generally criticized it. In particular, Edward L. Wright
, who teaches cosmology and astrophysics at UCLA, 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 of heavier elements. Wright has also directly criticized Lerner for making errors of fact and interpretation. Lerner has directly disputed Wright's critique.
and helped organize the 1968 Columbia Student Strike
.
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.
More recently, Lerner sought civil rights
protection for immigrants as a member and spokesman for the New Jersey Civil Rights Defense Committee. He participated in the Occupy Wall Street
protests in 2011.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
popular science
Popular science
Popular science, sometimes called literature of science, is interpretation of science intended for a general audience. While science journalism focuses on recent scientific developments, popular science is broad-ranging, often written by scientists as well as journalists, and is presented in many...
writer, independent plasma
Plasma (physics)
In physics and chemistry, plasma is a state of matter similar to gas in which a certain portion of the particles are ionized. Heating a gas may ionize its molecules or atoms , thus turning it into a plasma, which contains charged particles: positive ions and negative electrons or ions...
researcher, and serves as the president of Lawrenceville Plasma Physics, Inc. He authored the 1991 book The Big Bang Never Happened, which advocates Hannes Alfvén
Hannes Alfvén
Hannes Olof Gösta Alfvén was a Swedish electrical engineer, plasma physicist and winner of the 1970 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on magnetohydrodynamics . He described the class of MHD waves now known as Alfvén waves...
's alternative to the dominant Big Bang
Big Bang
The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological model that explains the early development of the Universe. According to the Big Bang theory, the Universe was once in an extremely hot and dense state which expanded rapidly. This rapid expansion caused the young Universe to cool and resulted in...
theory, Plasma Cosmology
Plasma cosmology
Plasma cosmology is a non-standard cosmology generally attributed to a 1970 Nobel laureate named Hannes Alfvén. Ionized gases, or plasmas, play the central part in plasma cosmology's explanation for the development of the universe, thus dominated largely by electrodynamic forces rather than...
.
Professional work
Lerner received a BABachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
in physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
from Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
and did graduate work in physics at the University of Maryland, College Park
University of Maryland, College Park
The University of Maryland, College Park is a top-ranked public research university located in the city of College Park in Prince George's County, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C...
, before pursuing a career in popular science writing.
In 1984, he began studying plasma
Plasma (physics)
In physics and chemistry, plasma is a state of matter similar to gas in which a certain portion of the particles are ionized. Heating a gas may ionize its molecules or atoms , thus turning it into a plasma, which contains charged particles: positive ions and negative electrons or ions...
phenomena and laboratory fusion devices, performing experimental work on the dense plasma focus
Dense plasma focus
A dense plasma focus is a machine that produces, by electromagnetic acceleration and compression, a short-lived plasma that is so hot and dense that it can cause nuclear fusion and emit X-rays. The electromagnetic compression of the plasma is called a pinch. It was invented in the early 1960s by...
. Lerner received funding from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Jet Propulsion Laboratory is a federally funded research and development center and NASA field center located in the San Gabriel Valley area of Los Angeles County, California, United States. The facility is headquartered in the city of Pasadena on the border of La Cañada Flintridge and Pasadena...
in 1994 and 2001 to explore whether the dense plasma focus could be an effective ion thruster
Ion thruster
An ion thruster is a form of electric propulsion used for spacecraft propulsion that creates thrust by accelerating ions. Ion thrusters are categorized by how they accelerate the ions, using either electrostatic or electromagnetic force. Electrostatic ion thrusters use the Coulomb force and...
to propel spacecraft. He believes that it can also be used to produce useful aneutronic fusion
Aneutronic fusion
Aneutronic fusion is any form of fusion power where neutrons carry no more than 1% of the total released energy. The most-studied fusion reactions release up to 80% of their energy in neutrons...
energy, in a process he calls "Focus Fusion".
Lerner is a critic
Critic
A critic is anyone who expresses a value judgement. Informally, criticism is a common aspect of all human expression and need not necessarily imply skilled or accurate expressions of judgement. Critical judgements, good or bad, may be positive , negative , or balanced...
of the Big Bang
Big Bang
The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological model that explains the early development of the Universe. According to the Big Bang theory, the Universe was once in an extremely hot and dense state which expanded rapidly. This rapid expansion caused the young Universe to cool and resulted in...
model and advocates an infinitely
Infinity
Infinity is a concept in many fields, most predominantly mathematics and physics, that refers to a quantity without bound or end. People have developed various ideas throughout history about the nature of infinity...
old Universe
Universe
The Universe is commonly defined as the totality of everything that exists, including all matter and energy, the planets, stars, galaxies, and the contents of intergalactic space. Definitions and usage vary and similar terms include the cosmos, the world and nature...
. In 2006 he accepted an invitation to be a Visiting Scientist at the European Southern Observatory
European Southern Observatory
The European Southern Observatory is an intergovernmental research organisation for astronomy, supported by fifteen countries...
in Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
, offered at the initiative of fellow Big Bang critic and MOND
Mond
Mond may refer to:* MOND - Modified Newtonian Dynamics. A proposed adjustment to the classical inverse-square law of gravity.* Der Mond, an opera in one act* Mond Nickel Company, a defunct mining company...
enthusiast Riccardo Scarpa.
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.
The Big Bang Never Happened
Plasma cosmology
Plasma cosmology is a non-standard cosmology generally attributed to a 1970 Nobel laureate named Hannes Alfvén. Ionized gases, or plasmas, play the central part in plasma cosmology's explanation for the development of the universe, thus dominated largely by electrodynamic forces rather than...
originally proposed by Hannes Alfvén
Hannes Alfvén
Hannes Olof Gösta Alfvén was a Swedish electrical engineer, plasma physicist and winner of the 1970 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on magnetohydrodynamics . He described the class of MHD waves now known as Alfvén waves...
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 and recounted a well known cosmological feature that supercluster
Supercluster
Superclusters are large groups of smaller galaxy groups and clusters and are among the largest known structures of the cosmos. They are so large that they are not gravitationally bound and, consequently, partake in the Hubble expansion.-Existence:...
s are larger than the largest structures that could have formed through gravitational collapse in the age of the universe
Age of the universe
The age of the universe is the time elapsed since the Big Bang posited by the most widely accepted scientific model of cosmology. The best current estimate of the age of the universe is 13.75 ± 0.13 billion years within the Lambda-CDM concordance model...
.
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. Adopting an eternal universe, Lerner's explanation of observed cosmological evolution relied on a proposed model of thermodynamics
Thermodynamics
Thermodynamics is a physical science that studies the effects on material bodies, and on radiation in regions of space, of transfer of heat and of work done on or by the bodies or radiation...
attributed in part to the work of Ilya Prigogine
Ilya Prigogine
Ilya, Viscount Prigogine was a Russian-born naturalized Belgian physical chemist and Nobel Laureate noted for his work on dissipative structures, complex systems, and irreversibility.-Biography :...
under which the universe has no definite age but continually increases in order—in defiance of the second law of thermodynamics
Second law of thermodynamics
The second law of thermodynamics is an expression of the tendency that over time, differences in temperature, pressure, and chemical potential equilibrate in an isolated physical system. From the state of thermodynamic equilibrium, the law deduced the principle of the increase of entropy and...
. Lerner also criticized modern cosmology as being equivalent to the epicycle after epicycle complexities of Ptolemaic astronomy.
Lerner's criticisms of the Big Bang theory have been rejected by physicists and cosmologists who have reviewed his book. 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
Quantum fluctuation
In quantum physics, a quantum fluctuation is the temporary change in the amount of energy in a point in space, arising from Werner Heisenberg's uncertainty principle.According to one formulation of the principle,energy and time can be related by the relation...
s predicted in inflationary models
Cosmic inflation
In physical cosmology, cosmic inflation, cosmological inflation or just inflation is the theorized extremely rapid exponential expansion of the early universe by a factor of at least 1078 in volume, driven by a negative-pressure vacuum energy density. The inflationary epoch comprises the first part...
. Anisotropies were discovered in subsequent analysis of the both COBE and BOOMERanG
Boomerang
A boomerang is a flying tool with a curved shape used as a weapon or for sport.-Description:A boomerang is usually thought of as a wooden device, although historically boomerang-like devices have also been made from bones. Modern boomerangs used for sport are often made from carbon fibre-reinforced...
experiments and were more fully characterized by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe
Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe
The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe — also known as the Microwave Anisotropy Probe , and Explorer 80 — is a spacecraft which measures differences in the temperature of the Big Bang's remnant radiant heat — the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation — across the full sky. Headed by Professor...
.
While there was favorable reaction from non-experts to Lerner's book, physical cosmologists who have commented on the book have generally criticized it. In particular, Edward L. Wright
Edward L. Wright
Edward L. Wright is an American astrophysicist and cosmologist, well known for his achievements in the COBE project and as a strong Big Bang proponent in web tutorials on cosmology and theory of relativity....
, who teaches cosmology and astrophysics at UCLA, has criticized the specifics of Lerner's alternative cosmology asserting that his alternative model for Hubble's Law
Hubble's law
Hubble's law is the name for the astronomical observation in physical cosmology that: all objects observed in deep space are found to have a doppler shift observable relative velocity to Earth, and to each other; and that this doppler-shift-measured velocity, of various galaxies receding from...
is dynamically unstable, that the number density
Number density
In physics, astronomy, and chemistry, number density is an intensive quantity used to describe the degree of concentration of countable objects in the three-dimensional physical space...
of distant radio sources
Radio astronomy
Radio astronomy is a subfield of astronomy that studies celestial objects at radio frequencies. The initial detection of radio waves from an astronomical object was made in the 1930s, when Karl Jansky observed radiation coming from the Milky Way. Subsequent observations have identified a number of...
falsifies Lerner's explanation for the cosmic microwave background, and that Lerner's explanation that the helium abundance is due to stellar nucleosynthesis
Stellar nucleosynthesis
Stellar nucleosynthesis is the collective term for the nuclear reactions taking place in stars to build the nuclei of the elements heavier than hydrogen. Some small quantity of these reactions also occur on the stellar surface under various circumstances...
fails because of the small observed abundance of heavier elements. Wright has also directly criticized Lerner for making errors of fact and interpretation. Lerner has directly disputed Wright's critique.
Activism
While at Columbia, Lerner participated in the 1965 Selma MarchSelma to Montgomery marches
The Selma to Montgomery marches were three marches in 1965 that marked the political and emotional peak of the American civil rights movement. They grew out of the voting rights movement in Selma, Alabama, launched by local African-Americans who formed the Dallas County Voters League...
and helped organize the 1968 Columbia Student Strike
Columbia University protests of 1968
The Columbia University protests of 1968 were among the many student demonstrations that occurred around the world in that year. The Columbia protests erupted over the spring of that year after students discovered links between the university and the institutional apparatus supporting the United...
.
In the 1970s, Lerner became involved in the National Caucus of Labor Committees
National Caucus of Labor Committees
The National Caucus of Labor Committees is a political cadre organization in the United States founded and controlled by political activist Lyndon LaRouche, who has sometimes described it as a "philosophical association"....
, an offshoot of the Columbia University Students for a Democratic Society
Students for a Democratic Society (1960 organization)
Students for a Democratic Society was a student activist movement in the United States that was one of the main iconic representations of the country's New Left. The organization developed and expanded rapidly in the mid-1960s before dissolving at its last convention in 1969...
. 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
Lyndon LaRouche
Lyndon Hermyle LaRouche, Jr. is an American political activist and founder of a network of political committees, parties, and publications known collectively as the LaRouche movement...
, to violate election law by channeling profits of an engineering firm to the organization.
More recently, Lerner sought civil rights
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
protection for immigrants as a member and spokesman for the New Jersey Civil Rights Defense Committee. He participated in the Occupy Wall Street
Occupy Wall Street
Occupy Wall Street is an ongoing series of demonstrations initiated by the Canadian activist group Adbusters which began September 17, 2011 in Zuccotti Park, located in New York City's Wall Street financial district...
protests in 2011.