A Beginner's View of Our Electric Universe - New

Introduction
“We have to discard ‘modern’ physics and return to classical physics of a century ago. This, perhaps,
is the greatest hurdle – to discard our training and prejudices and to approach the problem with a
beginner’s mind.”
4 | Introduction
(Wallace Thornhill (2006) commenting on the direction astro-science has taken.)
We exist in a universe that appears to us on a daily basis to be in balance; it is not apparent that anything actually
happens out there on the time-scales we have patience for. The forces we refer to that govern the universe are
those we call nuclear, electrical and gravitational. These are the forces which somehow are associated with each
other in ways that present to us everything our senses tell us is real. Together and individually, these forces are
fundamental to our understanding of how our universe works.
Today, the science behind the workings of our universe is described through the mainstream activities of
mathematicians and astro-scientists. This work generally comes under the labels of mathematics, astronomy,
astro-science, astro-physics and cosmology, or these same labels with the word ‘theoretical’ stuck in front. It
is confusing to be presented with a variety like this, so for the sake of simplicity in this book I will refer to all
possible permutations by the single term astro-science.
If we then consider the range of activities that today’s astro-science encompasses, is there a chance that a single
message, gathered from across all those areas of work, would also be confusing? Yes, a big chance, and this
confusion actually exists. Here, it seems that past attempts by mainstream astro-science to present a coherent
story of our universe in a sound scientific way have not met with success. There are two main reasons for
this; one, the theories relied upon are not proven and are regarded by many as unsound; two, the perceived
complexity of the information presented is off-putting for people trying to understand. Considering the latter
aspect alone, the interested public’s view of astro-science is therefore not one of a user-friendly subject area.
It should therefore not be a surprise to anyone that many of us choose not to pay much attention to astroscience,
so we just let it get on with its own business. This situation is further compounded by the ‘letting out’
in public of certain astro-scientists who like to be seen and listened to and who are particularly attracted to the
confusing fine detail and mathematics of their subjects. This introduces further unnecessary complication in the
minds of those who listen, and the situation it encourages actually works against all forms of effective public
communications. In mentioning this, I fully recognise there are many highly qualified people in science and
technology who do a first-class job of communicating their excellent ideas. I will say more about this ‘perceived
complexity’ point.