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JUNE-JULY 1996 ARMIN BICKEL'S SUPER SCINTILLATION COUNTER 'qUippe~ wit~ ai phot~multiplier tube wi,th a quantum ~fficiency. of 35 per cent, itE-can register mformatlOn from an ore iample 25 feet dIstant whIch ordmar5' com mercial seintiUators of five to dO per cent efficiency can pick up only one foot away. Bickel, who has also heen able to perform such miracles as growing six pound lemons by stimulating the roots of llemon trees with specific ultrasonic frequencies, says thal his "Algor Super Sci.ntillation Counter" depends on the fact that constant changes due to crystallisation in geo'logical formations that have been going on for half a billion years can, through the proper use of isotope detection, provide clues about what lies b.elow gmund. Before 1913 it Was believed that each and every atom of any element Was identical in mas.s. Then it was discovered that an atom could, under certain natural condjtions, lose or gain a particle, thereby altering its mass and energy state. Tbese altered atoms, which we.re later produced artificially in atom-smashers, needed a new name. Called "isot9P~s", their nucle~ had the same number of protons but different numbers of ncutrons. By 1921 Francis WilIiam Aston in England had detected 202 isotopes in 71 elelJlents. Today the number has risen to more than 1,500 with an average of four to each element. Only 10 per cent of all known isotopes arc found in nature where they Ca-ll be produced by the interaction of radiations froJfi radioactive substances in the interior of the Earth or cos mLe rays from outer space. The rest are engendered by artificial excitatlojl. Thus, a nor mal gold atom, represented as 79Au l91 (meaning that Au, short for the Latin word autum gold-has 197 heavier particles in its nucleus, of which 79 are charged protons and 118 uncharged neutrons), can be artificially a,ltered to produce different isotopes from ?9Au18s to 1',Au2fJ3, only one of which, 19Au l96, is abundantly found in nature. It is the energy from this single natural isotope which is detectable by the Bickel invention. In May 1974, Bickel was invited to explore the area around the iPaullsnard gold mine, [50 kilometres ftom Sainn Laurent du Maroni in French Guiana. Opcrating from an air prane, ilis machine recorded! only average to bel'ow-average r.eadings fOF gold above the mine site. Above-average readings indicated 'hot spots' for gold in many places five to 20 kdometres from the mine in two dire.etio-ns. CoppeF mineralisation was also located, says Bickel, ncar the town of Santonia. Given the near 'impossibility of surveying de.nsely wooded terrain normally found in places like French Guiana, Bickel may be correct in stating that his super scintillation detector "is the only tool for exploring South Ameri'can jungles". Bickel reported that his scintillators arc currently being used by diamond-seekers i.D. South Africa to search for undiscQvered funnel-shaped bodies of bluish diamond-rich rock ealkd "Kimberlite pipes". Volcanic in origin, Kimberlite ore has subnormally low radioactivity common to the basalt family of which it is a member. Therefore, when Bickel's c_ounter provides a near-zero negative reading, it indicates a likely place to find one of the "pipes". Bickel asserts that he has twice detected a "complete blackout"-a zero negativc read ing-in California, one of which, he believes, indicates a 30-foot-diameter funnel on Figueroa Mountain, 50 miles Jlorth of Santa Barbara. The blackouts, he says, can only be caused by Kimberlite ore deposits or pipes of active thermal steam. Intensive aerial search may locate many more of them. Bickel is confident that his invention's greatest potential lies in its adaptability to oil search. Oil-bearing fornations act as buffers to block the normal background radiation NEXUS • 39