Dutchman predicts scientific revolution
One would not think, reading what we are served in current media, that there could be much wrong with Science itself. Yet, there are problems which actually impede real progress in the development of technologies necessary for getting into space. Current physics is not a small weight around the necks of leading developers of the cutting edge technologies we need.
There are dissident scientists who have recognized the limitations of the current model of our universe, but they are generally "frozen out" from discussion and publication of ideas. The Natural Philosophy Alliance is a loose association uniting many of today's dissidents. One of their members, Eit Gaastra from the Netherlands, has sent a translation of an article in a local newspaper, the Groninger Gezinsbode, which introduces his ideas to a larger public.
Dutchman predicts scientific revolution
Before twenty years we'll laugh at Einstein and the Big BangText: Hans Berens
Physics and astronomy took a wrong turn with Albert Einstein. Also Newton was wrong with his ideas about gravity, that’s how Eit Gaastra (41) is thinking. “Within twenty years we laugh at the Big Bang-theory, the idea of a universe originating from a small point much smaller than an atom, and also about black holes that would suck up everything.”
“A paradigm shift within astronomy is at hand, like five hundred years ago, when Copernicus argued that the Earth orbits the Sun instead of the Sun orbiting the Earth as scientists thought at that time. After a paradigm shift within astronomy a paradigm shift within physics will follow: Einstein’s relativity and Newtonian gravity will be left for theories that can explain things in a better and more coherent way. The Universe is infinite and eternal, and there’s no doubt about other life being around in it. Our current thoughts about a universe that is only fifteen billion years old will turn out to be untenable; galaxies are much older than fifteen billion years.”
Gaastra, a chemical engineer, is fascinated by fundamental questions concerning physics and astronomy. With interest he read about the physics before Einstein’s theory of relativity came to the front, and concluded that relativity being dominant in today’s physics and astronomy is something that has to be changed. “Einstein said that the velocity of light is always constant relative to an observer and turned this into a fundamental law of physics. But the velocity of light only appears to be constant relative to an observer and this can easily be explained with an ether theory. Hundred years ago, before Einstein published his special theory of relativity in 1905, scientists were thinking about a medium, the so-called ether, that was needed by light in order to propagate itself. Like sound needs air molecules in order to propagate itself light too would have a medium in order to propagate itself. This vision vanished to the background in 1919 when Einstein’s theory more or less became holy because scientists measured, during an eclipse of the Sun, that starlight speeding to the Earth while passing the Sun at a short distance bends, this was predicted by Einstein. In the 1920s a Russian mathematician mathematically proved that we ought to live in an expanding universe if the formulas of the theory of relativity were correct. My idea, and many other scientists independently found the same, is that light adjusts its velocity to ether particles, possible gravitons. With an ether theory one gets completely different physics, and from there a completely different astronomy.”
Big bang“In 1965 the so-called cosmic background radiation was discovered. This background radiation was predicted by astronomers with the concept of a big bang originating our Universe. With the discovery of the background radiation the Big Bang was considered to be proven. But the cosmic background radiation was predicted prior and better by astronomers who worked with an infinite universe model, infinite in both time and space. A universe without a beginning or ending is difficult to understand by us, because we, as humans, are finite, but the thought of an infinite universe is fine with me rather than the ugliness of a Big Bang universe.”
“The current idea is that our Universe originated from a Big Bang that took place fifteen billion years ago. But there are many observations pointing out that the Universe is much older. The formation of galaxies, stars and solar systems is much easier to understand with an endless old universe. Following Einstein also leads to nothing in a different respect. Black holes, for instance, which come out of the heads of mathematicians running wild the formulas of relativity, would suck up everything, even light. Black holes are just a theoretical concept. According to astronomers black holes would hide themselves from view in the centres of galaxies and quasars. But the very strong concentrations of mass in the centres of galaxies and quasars are nothing but very strongly shrunk remnants of extremely old galaxies.”
Dimensions“If you come to talk with conventional scientists about things like this, one sometimes literally hears: ‘I believe in Einstein.’ Just like 500 years ago it was taken for granted that the Sun orbited the Earth today it is taken for granted that the theory of relativity is The Indisputable Truth. Blindly following Einstein leads to all kind of outgrowths, like the assumption that there are more than three dimensions. According to the string theory, which tries to connect the theory of relativity with quantum mechanics by mathematics, there are even much more. Einstein gave the start by pronouncing time as the fourth dimension and by now the mathematicians of the string theory are singing hallelujah with a fifth, sixth and even eleventh dimension. Eventually the string theory will blow up as a scientific soap-bubble, and the same will happen to the theory of relativity, quantum mechanics, the idea of a Big Bang and Newtonian gravity.”
DilemmasAccording to Gaastra there are dilemmas within physics and astronomy that can’t be solved with relativity and quantum mechanics. “Current theories are under pressure because all kind of observations can’t be explained with it. We have to go back to the discussion before Einstein came by, we even have to go back to Newton because an alternative for Newtonian gravity was thought up 300 years ago by a contemporary of Newton. The last decade strong alternatives have been developed for today’s conventional physics by physicists who have come to think different, for instance the physics professor Assis in Brazil. A lot of scientists have joined the Natural Philosophy Alliance, me too, which has been founded in California by the late Dr. John. E. Chappell, Jr. and which tries to change the course of science, especially where it concerns physics.”
It is hard for Gaastra to get his entrance into conventional science: “Physics has closed itself in order to protect itself. Within astronomy, which has my concern rather than physics, I see possibilities because within astronomy more and more observations come to the front that put extremely strong strains on the current astronomical models, more and more problems are ravaging the yet still beloved Big Bang model. When astronomy crashes into a paradigm shift physics will follow shortly after.”
The wondrous ways of a romantic chemistEit Gaastra studied at the Technical University of Delft in the eighties. Not only chemistry had his attention in that period, he also experienced a strong urge to express himself in novels and paintings.
Though, at that moment he did not feel enough self-confidence to take off into a total different direction and thus at 21 he decided to finish his study chemical engineering and work as an engineer for a few years.
After getting his MSc diploma Gaastra indeed worked as an environmental researcher at the universities of Rotterdam and Amsterdam. Blood is thicker than water, and after two years working he quit his job in order to start writing his first novel ‘The seven ways of madness’ under the pseudonym Durk Wille, about a chemical engineer trying to get rid of his frustrations in Barcelona. In the novel, published in 1995, Gaastra/Wille philosophizes about a theory that tries to connect different scientific disciplines, like philosophy, psychology, biology and physics.
During his search for the ‘meaning of life’ Gaastra more and more became interested in physics and astronomy. Where former fellow students have well paid jobs at multinationals Gaastra sits in a social security situation while advancing his life's work: changing the course of astronomy which is, according to Gaastra, at a dead end. Gaastra thinks that a revolution within astronomy will be followed by a revolution within conventional physics, on which today’s astronomy has been built. He has recorded his ideas on a website: www.eitgaastra.nl
Since 1996 Gaastra lives and works in Groningen in the Netherlands.
RelatedSee my own thoughts on the one-way street the physical sciences have taken here.
posted by Sepp Hasslberger on Thursday September 18 2003
updated on Tuesday December 21 2010URL of this article:
http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/2003/09/18/dutchman_predicts_scientific_revolution.htm
