ISIS Report 19/08/08
Science in Society #40 Autumn 2008
SiS 40 | Subscribe here
Letters to the Editor
I totally agree with The Full Monty on Food
(SiS 40). I grow food in my own garden, and
harvested more than 50 kilo of sweet potatoes and two batches of fresh corn
every year, plus many kinds of vegetables and fruits. Of course we still need
to buy some meat, veggies and grains. Please see my plots, but it’s a pity
you can't hear the bird song.
Li Kangmin, Wuxi, Shangdong, China
No Nuclear! But Cold Fusion OK
It is alarming how the G8 nations are determined to build new nuclear power
stations (Nuclear Renaissance
Runs Aground, SiS 40), that would no doubt spread to other nations..
New Zealand is committed to opposing nuclear power, and I hope will
remain so.
It would not take much of an accident to totally contaminate our small country.
Your articles on low energy nuclear reactions (From Cold Fusion
to Condensed Matter Nuclear Science and others in the series, SiS
36) were very informative and showed how nuclear power can be harnessed for
us without harm. Please publicise the benefits of low energy nuclear reactions
I am also an advocate of solar power (Solar Power to the Masses,
SiS 39), and can see the day when solar panels will cover the roofs
of our homes.
I am glad there is an organisation like ISIS to keep us informed!
Cecelia Martin. Eden Park, Auckland, New Zealand
Dr. Mae-Wan Ho replies
Look out for a new series on low energy nuclear
reactions coming up in next issue of SiS.
Concentrating Solar Power Debate
I have been enthused by the idea of CSP since first learning about it a couple
of years ago. But your article Solar Power to the Masses
(SiS 39) gave me some food for thought.
I understood that high voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission lent itself
to underground or undersea cabling, and therefore assumed that it could actually
reduce the visual impact in the landscape (see http://faulknerforcongress.org/energy/),
and also wondered if running cables under the ground would reduce electro-magnetic
field effects above ground do you know if this is the case?
Nick Dunlop the Secretary General of e-Parliament, an organisation
he set up to network parliamentarians around the world is an ardent advocate
of the super-grid (HVDC) as a way of linking the various forms of renewable
energy (CSP in the south, wind, tidal, photo-voltaic and hydro further north)
in order to create an effective, affordable and stable renewable power system.
I mentioned your article to him, and he tells me that he was recently
at a meeting where there was a debate about small scale solar generation being
the solution, and while persuaded of its benefits still feels that in the
long run a supergrid enabling CSP to be fed into the grid would be an important
element, and would be of benefit to the small scale and micro-generation systems.
David Ashton, UK
Dr. Mae-Wan Ho replies
There is much confusion over the HVDC supergrid. It has been proposed
just for CSP and Africa-Europe connection, but also for wind power and pan-Europe
connection. The HVDC cables are not completely buried underground, and where
cables are installed unburied in the seabed, there are environmental impacts
that have not been assessed. CSP however, can be localised, just like other
solar installations, and does not depend on a HVDC supergrid. I have not been
able to find any detailed description of the supergrid project, and remain
unconvinced of its merits.
Dream Farm Chile
Hola! Together with my family and partner, we are creating a demonstration
farm in El Manzano in the VIII region of Chile, based on permaculture
and agroecological principles, see www.ecoescuela.cl.
I have been reading and studying your articles about dream farm for
couple years (most recent Dream Farm 2 a Work of
Art, SiS 40), and we are slowly but steadily evolving towards the dream
farm model. We intend to apply for government funding.
We are also currently running Permaculture Design Certificate
Courses here in Chile and would like to include the dream farm model as part
of the curriculum, if that is OK with you.
Javiera Carrión, El Manzano, Chile
Dr. Mae-Wan Ho replies
No problems! Contact us if you need other help
Sublime reactions
I belong to a small group of women, post-graduates who come together to study
and discuss cosmology, and ways of moving current understanding through our
writing, art, poetry, music, storytelling, and reverence (and irreverence
when necessary). We call ourselves the Cosmic Boat Women, as we are all somewhat
rebels and castaways from the mainstream learning community here in the San
Francisco Bay Area.
We have been following your writings on water (most recent, Liquid Crystalline Water
at the Interface, SiS 39) and liquid crystalline form (latest.
Quantum Jazz,
The Tao of Biology, SiS 34) We think you rock, and we are
so glad you are giving the world of science the kick in the arse it so badly
needs. Not to mention that you are coming up with what we think are the
keys to blowing this whole paradigm open.
I also read In Search of
the Sublime (SiS 39) and in response to the magnificent insights
it contained, I send a poem I wrote [below, short version, and slightly edited]
about one year ago, before I read your article, that reflects what
you were saying. The poem was inspired by an experience I had after reading
about some discoveries at Berkeley regarding quantum coherence in the photosynthetic
process. What struck me was the amount of time the researchers considered
to be the crucial 'lingering moment' of resonance, a few femtoseconds! Yet
that’s all it takes for something to get our attention.
I am a poet and a musician with particular interest in the harmonic nature
of form and energy, which I think is what draws us into our own moments of
sublime connection to all-that-is.
On behalf of all of the Cosmic Boat Women, rock on!
Falling into Femtoseconds
On my bike ride to work today,
stopping for a traffic light,
I noticed the gingko tree growing out of a square
in the sidewalk at Fifth Street and Mission.
I pass it nearly every day. It’s not new.
I just noticed it.
For the non-duality yogi, the next question would be,
Who is doing the noticing?
Some hue of color changed slightly, maybe, or
some way the light was hitting it this time of the year
that caught my attention. A thought rose: Beautiful Gingko.
Then another,
Memories of golden Gingko trees in Autumns past:
It’s already September, nearly Equinox.
Something grabbed me, only for an instant, and I fell
into that femtosecond,
when the light of the Gingko resonated
with something in me
and out of the quantum field rose
thoughts, memories, feelings of
warmth, beauty, and belonging
all those things that happen all at once when nature
strums a chord. I wonder
Christine McQuiston (pen name: Purple Hazel Green), San Francisco,
USA
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