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anew. The results of supernova explosions form a cloud which attains angular momentum. In a way already described by Kant and Laplace some 200 years ago, planets form by accretion of matter. The results of the supernova explosion will get separated in accordance with their mass as they are propelled away for distances in accordance with their mass. The inner planets will be small "stony" (heavy) bodies, while with distance they become bigger but are made up of ever lighter materials—the "gas giants" in the outer reaches of the solar system." As our solar system contains all the known naturally occurring chemical elements, it has evidently gone through a supernova stage and is hence a second-generation cosmic formation. That is about as far as our factual knowledge of the cosmic history of the solar system goes. "geological evolution" of the Earth is not a function of the cooling of the formerly molten astral body, but rather a function of the ongoing equilibration of what initially may well have been a cos- mic refuse dump. Gravitational accretion, aided by asteroid impacts, is held responsible for the thermal processes indicated by the geological record. THE REAL ORIGIN OF CRUDE OIL The conventional wisdom was established over the 19th century and is based primarily on geophysical data, i.e., the refraction of shock waves caused by earthquakes (and, of late, also the tremors caused by man-made explosions) on discontinuities of materials of different density within the bowels of the Earth. All this evi- dence is of an indirect nature and is in the main a "truth" that has emerged from the consensus of generations of scientists who have added innumerable props to an age-old, inductively derived "thought model", where wish was the father of ideas. Whatever solid evidence there really is, is denigrated and not considered (as it is outside the "paradigm"). When Thomas Samuel Kuhn wrote The Structure of Scientific Revolutions,'° he probably wanted to write a diagnosis. Some are left to wonder as to why it is now administered as therapy. Thomas Gold showed that when we think of the biosphere, we tend to do so in terms of what we can see, not even considering the possibility that what we know to be the Earth may be "alive" as well.” His concept of the deep, hot biosphere holds that what we usually consider the biosphere may not even be half of all the life on Earth! Drill holes going down to a depth of some 5,000 metres into the crystalline core of the Scandinavian Shield within the (asteroid) impact structure at Siljan in Sweden, and into a similar environ- ment in Canada, yielded both crude oil and viable bacteria from that depth! The rocks, either of igneous provenance or in a highly HELIUM IN EARTHLY MATTER Sir Fred Hoyle and Chandra Wickramasinghe showed by way of spectrosopy that a major portion of all matter in the Universe is of organic nature.” In light of this, Professor Thomas Gold of Cornell University argued that a similar proportion of the matter which later aggregated to form our planet must have been of organic nature as well! One of his crucial arguments relates to the isotopic composition of helium in earthly matter. Although helium occurs in the Earth's atmosphere only to the extent of one part in 200,000 (0.0005 per cent), and small amounts occur in radioactive minerals, meteoric iron and mineral springs, great volumes of helium are found as a component (up to 7.6 per cent) in natural gas (methane, CH,). The common helium isotope, helium-4 (4He), "probably comes from radioactive alpha emitters in rocks" (Encarta® Encyclopedia, 2002). Encyclopaedia Britannica (in its online edi- tion) is slightly less cryptic on the origin of helium: "The helium that is present on Earth is not a primordial component of the Earth but has been generated by radioactive decay. Alpha particles, ejected from the nuclei of heavier radioactive substances, are nuclei of the isotope helium-4". Radioactive alpha radiation is hence not an electromagnetic phenomenon but consists of particle beams! "Know-it-all" sci- ence "decreed" in 1959 that "Alpha particles are of little signifi- cance because the outer layers of the skin prevent these radiations from penetrating into the body" (Encarta Encyclopedia, 2002), so nobody has unduly worried about this ever since. On planet Earth at sea level, helium occurs in the atmosphere as 5.4 parts per million of total air. The proportion increases slightly at higher altitudes. About one in 700,000 parts of atmospheric helium consists of helium isotope 3 (3He), now thought to be a product of the decay of tritium," a radioactive hydrogen isotope of mass 3. Most atmospheric helium is isotope 4 (4He). When organisms breathe in air, they take in this isotopic mix of 3He and 4He; when organisms die, their remains contain that mix of helium isotopes. The year 1987 saw one of the most significant advances of meaningful cosmology (which was based on fact, rather than the usual fancy) when Thomas Gold, the inventor of radioastronomy, applied to our "little blue-green planet" the results of his decade- long quest to unravel the mysteries of space.'* He advanced the concept of the "deep, hot biosphere".'° Implicit in this model for the formation and evolution of the Earth is that the Earth was never a molten, homogeneous cosmic body which then segregated into different spheres according to density and/or the crystallisation temperatures of minerals during the "cooling" of the body. Gold argues that what we call the ‘ , } of VegTICAUALY with THE Jer a AMPLE FOLKD BAce T cant TAKE DIGITAL PERS AS te Tt nige CC e - —_— cond an (REAUY., Yours TUST cuTS | GRASS? IF X Howe mu’ a NEXUS * 35 AUGUST —- SEPTEMBER 2004 www.nexusmagazine.com