A Beginner's View of Our Electric Universe - New

It was hard in those days to get a fair hearing if your views went against the orthodoxy of the science establishment.
Lord Kelvin (William Thomson 1824 - 1907) seemed to be one particular hurdle in this respect. Although his
own contribution as a respected member of the science establishment at that time was great, he did have a bit of
a narrow attitude towards the work of some others. It seems also that his thinking was in line with other powerful
voices in the science community back then, so altogether, this situation presented a hard nut for any scientist
outside that clique to crack. Kelvin is remembered for expressing his lack of belief that electrical currents could
exist in space; criticising the idea of X-rays and saying that aircraft would never catch on. He is also recorded
as saying that “There is nothing new to be discovered in physics now.” This level of hubris typically drove the
type of reaction Birkeland was up against in his attempts to have his work receive a fair hearing. In the end, the
mainstream science establishment steered its own course based on pet theories that did not include Birkeland’s
work. However, despite the hostility shown towards his work, it was Birkeland’s well constructed equipment and
experiments, plus his hard work and detailed analysis of data and an inevitable build-up of supporting evidence
that eventually proved his theories correct within plasma science circles.
His work was seen as proof of how auroras are formed, but did any of
his detractors eat their hats? I think not.
A significant discovery that was named in honour of Birkeland's work is
where electric currents are observed to flow in filamentary (thread-like)
form within plasma. This came mainly from the work of Hannes Alfvén
who found that these filaments tended to form in pairs and twist around
each other. The resulting helical structure, now known as a 'Birkeland
current', is constrained within the combined magnetic field those currentcarrying
filaments produce. This was extremely important for plasma
science because it is the fundamental method by which powerful electric
currents flow throughout space.
4 | The work of the honourable but ignored
The concept of a helical Birkeland current @ author
Credit: ESA & Digitized Sky Survey (Caltech)
As an example from our everyday world, it is Birkeland
currents that provide the dancing display inside the ‘Plasma
Ball’ ornaments you can buy from novelty shops. However,
on a very much larger scale, these current-carrying plasma
filaments feature prominently in the information to come.
Here in this picture is an example of plasma filaments as
seen in space in the Cygnus Loop supernova remnant.