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Now that crashed saucers seem to have replaced alien abductions as the “gold standard” of UFOlogical excitement, there is something of a “gold rush” to promote additional crash sites. Already well-established are the legendary Roswell, New Mexico, crash of 1947, and the Keeksburg, Pennsylvania, crash of 1965 (actually the Great Lakes Fireball of December 9, 1965-see this column, May/ June, 2004).

One up-and-coming entrant in the UFO Crash Derby is the tiny town of Aztec in northwest New Mexico, not far from Four Corners. The Aztec crash yarn began with entertainment columnist Frank Scully’s 1950 book Behind the Flying Saucers. Among its many dubious claims was that a saucer 99.99 feet in diameter (the saucers allegedly followed “the rule of Nines,” when measured in multiples of a long-dead British monarch’s foot) crashed in Hart Canyon, containing the bodies of sixteen little men, dressed in die clothing styles of 1890. Scully’s book generated a lot of publicity and interest, which abrupdy faded when his chief informant, Silas Newton, was convicted as a swindler.

But sunken UFO stories, like rubber duckies, have an amazing propensity for popping up to die surface again and again. Recently Stanton Friedman, the “flying saucer physicist,” wrote, “Years ago I was indeed dubious about the Aztec case, thanks to Bill Steinman, Silas Newton, etc., etc. However, once I did my homework, visited the site, and spent time with Scott Ramsey and others who have been doing theirs, I became convinced that indeed a saucer crashed at Hart Canyon near Aztec in March, 1948, and its retrieval was indeed, as one might expect, covered up by the U.S. Government. Scott has really dug into the documentation, and found witnesses, etc. I would probably still rank Roswell the number one crash” (Saucer Smear, May 1, 2006). An annual UFO symposium has been held in Aztec since 1998 (the Web site claims “of the sixteen recovered “crashed disks,” twelve were recovered in New Mexico alone”-see www.aztecufo.com). Given that there is little other reason for anyone to visit the tiny town, its semi-famous UFO crash site has obviously become one of Aztec’s greatest assets.

Perhaps sensing a profitable venture, some folks are working hard to rehabilitate the once-infamous (and now virtually forgotten) alleged UFO crash at Carbondale, Pennsylvania. On the night of November 9, 1974, three teenage boys reportedly heard a noise in the sky, then looked up to see a red ball of light coming at them from over a nearby mountain. They claimed it plunged into a small pond, from whose depths a light could be seen glowing faintly. The authorities were notified, and thus began a two-day vigil next at the water s edge. Finally, after Geiger counter readings showed that the pond was not radioactive, a determined diver named Mark Stamey braved the depths and soon returned with an amazing find: a battery-powered railroad lantern. It was never determined who had thrown it into the pond.

Aah, but more than thirty years later, “the truth” is coming out: According to BUFO, the Burlington UFO Internet Radio, “the ‘lantern story’ was a coverup for something much bigger-something that our government did not want us to know about.” Diver Stamey is now claiming that the lantern incident was “staged,” and a UFO remained in the water’s depths. If you want to get the lowdown on the great Carbondale UFO Crash, see www.burlingtonnews.net/ carbondale.html. BUFO claims to be the highest-ranked Internet radio site for UFOs and paranormal subjects.

However, repetitive UFO fatigue seems to be settling in to even die most well-established UFOlogical activities. Attendance at this year’s annual Roswell UFO Festival was “pathetically low” according to UFOlogist Dennis Balthaser; no official numbers were released. The organizers blamed the decline in attendance on the high price of gasoline. Nonetheless, the city of Roswell is taking over sponsorship for next year’s festival. The National UFO Conference, originally scheduled to take place in Hollywood during the Labor Day weekend, was unexpectedly cancelled; as of this writing the organizers, battling the calendar, hope to hold a last-minute UFO conference in December in San Diego.

However, what we are witnessing does not appear to be the demise of belief in UFOs and related claptrap. Instead, it is gradually transforming itself from a participatory activity to a spectator sport, in keeping with larger social trends that are turning many people into couch potatoes. The Science Fiction Channel has announced a new weekly series, Sci Fi Investigates, promising to look into such worthwhile subjects as life after death, Mothman, voodoo, Roswell, paranormal hotspots and Bigfoot. The era of the individual UFO sighting, membership in UFO clubs, and attending paranormal conferences is fading away. Even UFO magazines and most books on the subject are now irrelevant. Taking their place is what seems to be practically the all-paranormal, all-the-time programming on certain cable TV channels, where exciting state-of-the-art visual effects give undeserved credibility to the same old tired and unsubstantiated claims. Just as the cable news channels talk endlessly about news developments on which they have little or no real information, the History and Science Fiction Channels (among others) now endlessly re-hash and re-re-hash featherweight UFO claims to titillate the masses. UFOs are alive and well, except they’re not seen in the skies any more. You’ll find them zooming in on digital cable to your new plasma flat-screen HDTV.

Some “mysteries” aren’t all that hard to solve; indeed, they make you wonder how they ever qualified as a “mystery” in the first place. The mystery-mongering late night talk show Coast to Coast AM featured on its Web site an account called “The Message on a Microwave Clock.” Listener Scott F. writes, “On a weekend in March of this year something strange happened again with our microwave as it had about three months prior. My brother was heating his meal in the microwave and moved toward it when it was finished. He then noticed that the digital clock on the microwave spelt the word child. This had happened one time late in 2005 with exactly the same word on the same microwave. That time, we were so creeped out by it that we immediately pressed the button to clear; it required several attempts before die word was removed and the time was displayed again as usual. . . there have not been any other strange occurrences here. Additionally, there are not any children in my family or neighborhood that have passed on within my lifetime.” But the Webmaster added the following “update” at the bottom of the page: “Many listeners have pointed out that this message indicates the microwaves ‘Child Lock’ feature is enabled.” Of course, this doesn’t mean that the next strange message displayed on a microwave clock won’t be supernatural….

30 Seconds to Mars’ “This Is War” featured in Dragon Age: Origins, brought to you as an ABSOLUTExclusive from AbsolutePunk.net.

First live HD broadcast from International Space Station. Astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria shows us the interior of one of the modules. Part 2: www.youtube.com

We all know that Cancun real estate is beautiful – luxury condos on a perfectly white beach, with the turquoise blue ocean.  But can you imagine what Cancun would look like from space? In a live interview broadcast today that the Televisa network. Mexican astronaut Jose Hernandez, part of the mission on U.S. space shuttle Discovery, said that the waters of Cancun are “extremely beautiful” even from space.

The U.S. space shuttle Discovery landed at dawn on Sunday 30 August at the International Space Station, two days after leaving Earth with seven astronauts on board for a 13-day mission.

NASA says that it is the first interview in history live from space, made from a communication base in Latin America. Hernandez said that one of the things that surprised him most is seeing the world as a unit, without borders.

The astronaut, the son of Mexican immigrants to the United States, said that when passing over Mexico, he is always trying to locate Michoacan, the home state of his family. At night, “Mexico City is all lit up” and during the day “the waters of Cancun look very beautiful from here,” he said.

“You can see for yourself the wonder that the world is,” he said.  “We should bring all the leaders of the world to see the world from this perspective,” he said, to see that “political boundaries are not so important.”  This sentiment is not so distant from what Cancun represents.  Cancun real estate has residents and draws buyers from all over the world; in a way it is like a little world without borders.

To search for the ideal Cancun real estate – your own piece of this place that looks like paradise even from space – take a look at our listings, and contact us.

TOPMexicoRealEstate NETWORK;   Mexico’s Leading Network of Specialists for Finding and Purchasing Mexican Properties Safely

In the United States there will be 590,349 pilots collectively flying some 28 million hours in 228,000 different aircraft this year alone, according to the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). To navigate, those pilots use altimeters, global positioning, and good old-fashioned maps, creating an opportunity for one ecommerce merchant. Eric Boles

Aviation maps or charts are typically four-foot-by-six-foot rectangles that take up a lot room, are hard to manipulate in a tight cockpit, and wear out easily as pilots fold and refold them flight after flight.

Eric Boles, a private pilot and the founder of Skysectionals.com, saw a need and believed that pilots would for pay for smaller, easier to use maps. But bringing a product to market isn’t easy, especially if that product ends up being intangible.

“There was a fair amount of discussion about what would work,” Boles said. “At one point, Ross [Patron, a friend and pilot] and I kicked around the idea of just laminating the charts because they wear out fast, you know like laminated road maps. They are handy, but the cost of something like that …I didn’t feel like there was going to be much of a market for $30 charts when people are used to paying $7.”

Peck: Describe your product development process, what general steps did you go through to set up Sky Sectionals printable maps?

Eric Boles: We first needed to understand the customer need we’d be addressing. As a pilot myself, I was very familiar with the frustrations of the large-format aviation charts. You’re constantly unfolding and refolding them in the cockpit making it difficult to keep track of your route—especially in a small cockpit. By providing the charts in letter-sized panels, they’d be much more convenient to use on a kneeboard—a standard accessory that most pilots use to keep track of other paperwork in the cockpit.

With that premise, we looked into pre-printed charts in this format, but the printing and inventory costs proved to be too high—especially since the products have a two- to six-month lifespan before new editions are released. Realizing, however, that an e-product would not only be more cost-effective but ultimately more convenient (immediate delivery, ability to print multiple copies, etc.) we opted to go down that path.

Peck: Certainly not all physical products are good candidates for transformation into a downloadable product, but what advice would you have for other merchants that might be looking at moving from tangible to intangible inventory?

Eric Boles: Moving from tangible inventory to downloadable inventory can be challenging. In Sky Sectionals’ case, we started with an e-product and never had to make that transition within our own business. For more detail visit www.joint-ventures-secret.com we developed a product that had built in familiarity to our audience as it is complementary to the standard aviation charts. In addition, our e-products were developed to be more convenient than the tangible products our customer audience is used to.

Peck: Are there any special challenges or concerns that retailers specializing in downloadable need to be concerned about?

Eric Boles: Most e-products will require some level of technical experience on the customer side—you need to remember to take that into account when developing the products and ensure that your target audience will have the necessary software/hardware to use what you’re selling. When converting a tangible product to an e-product, try to stick to industry standards and be sure to support both the PC and Mac platforms.

You also want to be prepared for good after-sales support to help customers work through any challenges they may encounter. Thankfully, people have become more and more familiar with PDF, audio and video formats in recent years.

Peck: You mentioned in our earlier conversations, that you spent a lot of time looking for a shopping cart vendor. Would you explain what you did to research shopping carts, what challenges you faced, and then explain which vendor you ultimately used?

Eric Boles: Skysectionals.com has been in operation just over a year now and we’re already on our second e-commerce platform. There are many great solutions out there, for more detail visit www.joint-venture-guide.com but none of them excel at everything. We’ve had challenges finding a shopping cart vendor that supports the file sizes that our charts come in at (~50MB each…and we have over 100 charts which are updated constantly). We’ve also had challenges with email marketing and analytics integration.

We started off with 1shoppingcart.com. They offered great integration with their email marketing tools but did not provide the integration with Google Analytics that we needed. In addition, while they support the file sizes we had, were incredibly slow and unreliable.

E-Junkie provides some basic integration with Aweber.com and we transitioned our email marketing to them. However, the integration isn’t as robust as 1Shoppingcart.com and we lost the ability to automatically classify between prospects and customers and segment based one niche products ordered.

We’re still looking for the ideal shopping cart platform that delivers all of the features we need. I’m optimistic that E-Junkie will continue to improve and I regularly follow developments of other solutions—like Magneto and FoxyCart.com.

Just where is this place, called “heaven” that Christians and other religions speak? Is there such a PLACE, a geographical location? And if so might it be in some other universe(s)? The BIG BANG theory says that God (a commonly used name in the Western world) created SOMETHING out of NOTHING. Could it be that God created SOMETHING out of EVERYTHING? Wrap your mind around that one for a little while. 

But more to the point, how did the Mayans know that there were black holes out there?

Without the aid of a telescope, how could they SEE something so far away and something that’s really so dark? Were they transported in some way to a closer vantage point? Were they visited by some being, some energy that we’re not aware. How did they SEE the things that they SAW and reported to us,  hundreds of years ago.  And, it’s not just the Mayans but many more ancient indigenous cultures as well.

What have our ancestors known that we’re yet to figure out?

And how was it known that the sun has a rotational period of 37 days at the poles and a rotational period of only 26 days at the equator? Doesn’t one have to have a much different view or vantage point than from planet earth? There are so many questions and so few answers. Worse yet, most people aren’t asking any questions at all other than how much of a raise will I get next year, or what’s the new fall line-up of TV shows going to be?

Of course we live in an entirely different world!

We don’t have time, nor take time, to watch the stars. Most of us couldn’t see the stars if we wanted to as we live in cities layered with smog, pollution, and junk! Not content with trashing our planet, we’ve been busy scattering debris throughout the magnetosphere in the form of burned satellites and other rocket debris. Maybe we should do as John Shelby Spong recommended and turn our telescopes from pointing out there to looking within ourselves.

Could it be that all that we need to know lies within?

How will we ever know unless we make understanding, examining, and expanding our consciousness a point of interest beyond that which a few psychologists and sociologists embrace?

No matter what the economic or political situations are, there are always going to be ample opportunities to add some gains to your portfolio. And one of those reasons has to do with breakthrough technologies. You see, people are always at work, developing the latest and greatest ways to improve humanity’s quality of life.

I have visited and interviewed many of these people… Scientists, businessmen and everyday people from all walks of life… They’re all working on ideas not only from their own imaginations, but improving on ideas and inventions built generations ago.

The thing is, most of them work for companies not heard of by anyone else. Some of these companies are on the map and have been established for a few years, whereas many of their companies are still startups. In any case, Wall Street hasn’t noticed them or their work…yet. But when it does, these companies and their investors are sure to take off sky-high. And you want to be invested in them while they’re still on the ground, before they make it into the upper stratosphere.

Today, I wanted to talk to you about two of these opportunities to go sky high. I’ve shared the names of these companies with my Breakthrough Technology Alert readers, but I at least wanted to share with you some information about what they’re working on right now…

What the Telomerase Breakthrough Means for Weight Loss Companies

There’s about to be a shake-up in the $55 billion weight loss industry – and it’s one that could make a big upside move in your portfolio…

I’m finishing this month’s Breakthrough Technology Alert issue right now. Nevertheless, there are big things happening, and I have to tell you about some of them. I’m also excited about the company I’m covering this month. It is a leader in search for the next generation of weight loss drugs and poised to take off, probably this year.

Weight loss is an area we’ve been looking at for a long time now. The economics are compelling. Obesity is a major risk factor in various diseases, from arthritis and cancer to diabetes, hypertension and heart disease. Any drug that can help people lose weight safely is, therefore, going to offer true value. Moreover, obesity increases with age. As the baby boom, the wealthiest generation in history, rolls into its senior years, the demand and the need for an obesity treatment is growing dramatically.

Until now, we haven’t chosen a company in this sector, for several reasons. One is simply that the field is crowded. There were a lot of companies and technologies to vet. Many people are working on fat drugs. Normally, this might have kept me out of the sector, but there’s room in this market for more than one winner. Buyers of these products often use them in combination.

Another reason we were particularly careful is that we’re going to see brand-new strategies for weight control in coming years. These new approaches, which I expect from several new sciences, including RNA interference, will probably leapfrog anything that comes out in the next year or so. Nevertheless, the demand is so great and the FDA is so resistant to new technologies, I expect some serious profits from innovators over the next five years. More importantly, this company has the potential and platform to evolve into a major biotech success story with many other targeted therapies.

Speaking of health and weight, I hope you’ve studied the new research regarding vitamin D I’ve told you about. Your health, after all, is your biggest asset. The newly discovered importance of optimal serum D levels should be seen as an opportunity to garner significant yields in health at very low costs.

Personally, since I’ve gotten my serum D levels up, I’ve noticed a number of obvious changes and benefits. One of the most welcome is that long-standing rotator cuff problems in my shoulders have nearly disappeared. I didn’t expect those results, but I’ve been able to increase the intensity of my workouts. For the first time in years, I’m adding pounds and reps to my weight training routine.

(You don’t need to do Navy SEAL levels of exercise to get real benefits, by the way. The benefits of exercise kick in quickly at relatively low levels. Just 20 minutes of walking or time on a treadmill or climber three times a week produces remarkable benefits, as I’m sure you know.)

Among the benefits that would interest investors are increased mental acuity. It seems like a new article on this subject appears practically every week, but a recent New York Times article is relatively comprehensive. I find this line extremely interesting: “Exercise causes the release of growth factors, proteins that increase the number of connections between neurons, and the birth of neurons in the hippocampus, a brain region important for memory.”

Of even more importance both to your portfolio and to your health is a recent article published in the American Heart Association’s journal, Circulation. It is titled “Physical Exercise Prevents Cellular Senescence in Circulating Leukocytes and in the Vessel Wall.” According to this research, the increased health and life spans associated with exercise come from the increased production of telomerase.

Telomerase, as you may know, is the enzyme that triggers regeneration of telomeres. Telomeres are the end caps that protect the double strands of DNA. As we age, our cells reproduce. Each time a cell’s DNA splits and reproduces, a telomere is used up. When the supply of telomeres is exhausted, the cell’s “Hayflick limit” is reached and it dies.

Even before cell death, however, cell function begins to suffer. We get “old.” In the journal article, German scientists show that exercise provokes telomerase production. Telomerase, the “immortalizing” enzyme, protects and restores telomeres. This, in turn, increases health and lengthens life spans.

The financial importance of the study is that it emphasizes the power of telomeres and telomerase. This is what regenerative medicine is all about. Stem cells have full youthful telomeres. When those cells are adopted by a patient, that patient’s new cells are functionally youthful, with full human life spans ahead of them.

Another exciting possibility is either to provoke telomerase production or actually introduce telomerase into our cells. This would restore our telomeres to youthful levels. I’m talking to world-renowned scientists now, each working on a different means of accomplishing this goal. There’s no way to know who’s going to solve the problem first. I have no doubt, however, that it will be solved.

In the meantime, practical steps like an exercise regimen and vitamin D supplementation are a good option. And on the investing front, I’m excited about the potential my new weight loss play has to offer. To learn more, visit the Breakthrough Technology Alert website…

Keep in mind, health issues, such as weight loss, exercise and DNA are not the only ways breakthrough technology is making noise in our world. In fact, some technologies are making it out of this world…literally.

Remember what I said earlier, about how people are developing new technologies even during down-turned economies? Well, there’s a space-related technology out there now partly because of what’s happened in America in recent years. And while it might be some time before most people see it on the market, so to speak, but once it’s out there you could stand to ride this technology across the stars (provided you’ve invested some of your income in it, of course)…

Investing in a Real-World Space Cannon

Space is indeed the final frontier for mankind – and for your investments. Here’s a sneak peek at why a nascent space cannon investment could change the world in the very near term…

Due in part to the ballooning U.S. deficit, America’s replacement for the shuttle program, Constellation, is being canceled. Once the last shuttle mission is completed, Americans will be riding on Russian rockets to get to the International Space Station. America will, however, return to space exploration. The reason is simply that space, as my old friend Robert Heinlein pointed out, is the high ground militarily. Americans may be willing to share the high ground. They won’t cede it.

Using conventional technology, the costs involved in extending space exploration to the moon and Mars are prohibitive. Alternatives to conventional rocket launch must be found if costs are to be significantly reduced to allow real exploration and commercialization.

For this reason, the cancellation of the Constellation program may be a blessing in disguise. NASA-developed technology has not only served as a vehicle for getting astronauts into space, it has also been an excellent vehicle for delivering pork to congressional districts. In place of rockets designed and built by bureaucratic committee, much of the Constellation funding will now go instead to commercial space companies that will serve up a “space taxi” role.

This is great news for commercial space enterprises and their investors. We’ve already seen the potential of space-based businesses as wealthy tourists buy multimillion-dollar tickets on Russian ships. We’ve also seen the beginnings of private space access from Burt Rutan’s Scaled Composites’ collaboration with Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group company, Virgin Galactic.

I first interviewed Rutan, by the way, in 1986: before his Voyager craft made history by flying nonstop around the world without in-flight refueling. Today, he is more than able to put passengers safely into orbit. To make the space tourism business viable, however, there has to be someplace nice to stay once you’ve achieved orbit. Conventional rocketry, however, is too expensive for any cargo other than human beings. Fortunately, there exists a vastly less-expensive alternative to deliver payloads to orbit.

Jules Verne once wrote anything a man can imagine, another can make real. In one of the earliest examples of the science fiction genre, Jules Verne wrote of a voyage to the moon enabled by a gigantic space gun. The fictional cannon, called Columbiad, fired a projectile holding three travelers to the moon. Verne was an extraordinary author and his fertile imagination has inspired generations of scientists and engineers. Even Verne, however, would be surprised, I think, to see how some of his more fantastic ideas are moving toward practical application.

During the Space Race of the 1960s, the United States investigated every possible method to gain an advantage. One was a collaboration between the U.S. and Canadian defense departments. Unlike more conventional (and expensive) rocket-based technology that would become the standard method of access to orbit, this project was based on the use of large guns.

In fact, the gun itself was based on a recycled 16-inch naval gun. Called HARP, the acronym for High Altitude Research Project, the project achieved several speed and altitude records. The final versions of the projectile/vehicle, called Martlet, blasted 180 kg payloads out of the barrel at speeds nearing 4 kilometers per second. These reached altitudes of 180 kilometers, after being subjected to a brief and brutal acceleration exceeding 14,000 Gs.

Unfortunately, bureaucratic infighting between the different U.S. service branches, as well as anti-Vietnam War fallout, ended the U.S./Canadian collaboration. Funding was terminated by 1967. The brilliant but enigmatic Canadian mastermind behind it, Gerald Bull, went on to design advanced artillery for Saddam Hussein. A super gun capable of firing a payload of more than a ton a thousand miles was nearly completed. He also improved Iraq’s Scud missiles, the sort fired into Saudi Arabia and Israel during the first Gulf War. In 1990, he was murdered, apparently assassinated, by unknown parties in his Brussels apartment. The movie Doomsday Gun is about Bull.

In the 1980s, the U.S. government revisited the space gun concept, launching the Super High Altitude Research Project (SHARP). Headed by Dr. John Hunter from 1989–1995 and conducted at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, SHARP used technology far advanced over the old HARP project’s. Instead of cordite explosive detonation, SHARP used gas gun technology. SHARP set records for kinetic energy above Mach 9. It also successfully launched hypersonic scramjet test vehicles for the Air Force between Mach 5 and Mach 9.

Since then, Dr. Hunter has started a new company, Quicklaunch Inc. Its goal is to commercialize the technology he helped develop at Lawrence Livermore. The advantages of this technology over traditional rocketry are significant.

From a military defense standpoint, another advantage of the space gun is responsive launch. If there is a critical need to surveil some point on the globe from space, the space gun could put an observation platform in space on demand within minutes or hours.

Quicklaunch owns this technology. There is significant IP and expertise involved in the space gun technology, and Hunter and Quicklaunch have a monopoly there. Obviously, the timeline to profitability is filled with unknowns. We aren’t ready yet to invest in this sort of enterprise, but we will be someday.

In the meantime, if you’ve got significant venture funds and want to make the future happen faster, contact me. I’d be happy to introduce you to Dr. Hunter and the Quicklaunch team.

A telescope is an instrument designed to look into faraway places. The first ones were created as far back as the 11th century by Arabian scientists. This era was known as the Golden Age of Islam and the invention of the optical lens that later lead to the development of the first telescope was one of numerous inventions of many other ‘firsts’ by Arab or Muslim Scientists.

Large telescope mirrors only came about much later. These reflectors were designed to reflect light in such a manner as to reveal or highlight shadowed areas. Glass large telescope mirrors (it was silver coated) were replaced by metal mirrors in reflector telescopes only in the mid nineteenth century. At the time it was considered a huge improvement in the quality of the telescope.

Modern Telescopes

Large telescopes have been developed and have tremendously improved over the last few decades. The newest telescopes are only as good as the performance of its reflectors. A reflector is designed to redirect light. Sunlight or starlight is being absorbed and the redirected by the reflector. The main objective for this redirection is to enable the viewer to spot or observe areas that are shadowed or obscured. This makes it ideal for deep space probing.

The further the object, the bigger the reflector. Huge reflectors are currently found in observatories around the globe. To be able to see what is happening in deep space areas, large telescope mirrors have been designed and built into these reflectors. These large telescope mirrors are specially crafted and technically designed to reveal more details about everything out there.

Images observed from the large telescope mirrors are on many occasions breathtaking. Because of reflector telescopes finer details are revealed on the moon as well as distant planets. The enormous amount of nebulas as well as clusters of stars may become easier identifiable. For the amateur astronomer it is relatively easy to build a reflector telescope with a large telescope mirror from scratch. After a sightseeing tour into space will have most amateurs go for bigger and better.

Where are They Found?

The largest and most magnificent telescope that was put into space was of course “The Hubble Telescope”. After an initial flaw in one of its mirrors scientists occasionally go into space to service Hubble. Because of Hubble’s ability to reflect images of deep space a lot more clearly and accurately it has enabled astrophysicists to uncover many breakthroughs.

A space station astronaut has photographed Hurricane Earl as it heads towards the U.S. coast as a powerful Category 4 storm. View full post on SPACE.com

The questions of how the universe originated, where it leads to, and how the laws maintaining its order and balance work have always been topics of interest. Scientists and thinkers have thought about this subject endlessly and have produced quite a few theories.

The prevailing thought until the early 20th century was that the universe had infinite dimensions, that it had existed since eternity, and that it would continue to exist forever. According to this view, called the ‘static universe model’, the universe had neither a beginning nor an end.

Laying the groundwork for the materialist philosophy, this view denied the existence of a Creator while it maintained that the universe is a constant, stable, and unchanging collection of matter.

Materialism is a system of thought that holds matter to be an absolute being and denies the existence of anything but matter. Having its roots in ancient Greece and gaining ever-increasing acceptance in the 19th century, this system of thought became famous in the shape of the dialectical materialism of Karl Marx.

As we have stated earlier, the static universe model of the 19th century prepared the grounds for the materialist philosophy. In his book Principes Fondamentaux de Philosophie, George Politzer stated concerning the basis of this universe model that “the universe was not a created object”, and added:

If it were, then it would have to be created instantaneously by God and brought into existence from nothing. To admit creation, one has to admit, in the first place, the existence of a moment when the universe did not exist, and that something came out of nothingness. This is something to which science cannot accede.(1)

When Politzer asserted that the universe was not created out of nothingness, he was relying on the static universe model of the 19th century, and thinking that he was posing a scientific claim. However, the 20th century’s developing science and technology demolished primitive concepts such as the static universe model that laid the grounds for the materialists. Today, on the brink of the 21st century, modern physics has proved with many experiments, observations and calculations that the universe had a beginning and that it was created out of nothing with a big explosion.

That the universe had a beginning means that the cosmos was brought into being out of nothing, that is, that it was created. If a created thing exists (which did not exist beforehand), then it certainly should have a Creator. Being from non-being is something inconceivable by the human mind. (Man cannot practically conceive it since he has no chance of experiencing it.) Therefore, being from non-being is very different from bringing objects together to form a new object (such as works of art or technological inventions). It is a sign of Allah’s creation alone that everything formed perfectly all at once and in a single moment, when the created things had no previous examples and not even time and space existed in which to create them.

The coming of the universe into being from non-being is the greatest proof possible that it has been created. Consideration of this fact will change a lot of things. It helps people understand the meaning of life and review their attitudes and purposes. This is why many scientific communities have tried to disregard the fact of creation which they could not fully comprehend, even though its evidence was clear to them. The fact that all scientific evidence points to the existence of a Creator has compelled them to invent alternatives to create confusion in the minds of people. Nevertheless, the evidence of science itself puts a definite end to these theories.

Now, let us take a brief look at the scientific developmental process through which the universe came about.

THE EXPANSION OF THE UNIVERSE

In 1929, in the California Mount Wilson observatory, an American astronomer by the name of Edwin Hubble made one of the greatest discoveries in the history of astronomy. While he observed the stars with a giant telescope, he found out that the light from them was shifted to the red end of the spectrum and that this shift was more pronounced the further a star was from the earth. This discovery had an electrifying effect in the world of science, because according to the recognized rules of physics, the spectra of light beams travelling towards the point of observation tend towards violet while the spectra of the light beams moving away from the point of observation tend towards red. During Hubble’s observations, the light from stars was discovered to tend towards red. This meant that they were constantly moving away from us.

Before long, Hubble made another very important discovery: Stars and galaxies moved away not only from us, but also from one another. The only conclusion that could be derived from a universe where everything moves away from everything else is that the universe constantly ‘expands’.

To better understand, the universe can be thought of as the surface of a balloon being blown up. Just as the points on the surface of a balloon move apart from each other as the balloon is inflated, so do the objects in space move apart from each other as the universe keeps expanding.

In fact, this had been theoretically discovered even earlier. Albert Einstein, who is considered the greatest scientist of the century, had concluded after the calculations he made in theoretical physics that the universe could not be static. However, he had laid his discovery to rest simply not to conflict with the widely recognized static universe model of his time. Later on, Einstein was to identify his act as ‘the greatest mistake of his career’. Subsequently, it became definite by Hubble’s observations that the universe expands.

Here, the difference in the remoteness of various galaxies and the extent to which they tend towards red are shown. The vertical line at the top indicates a certain point on the spectrum. In other spectra, this point tends towards the right as far as the horizontal arrows go. The tendency towards red, which is an indication of remoteness, increases as a galaxy moves farther away from the earth.

What importance, then, did the fact that the universe expands have on the existence of the universe?

The expansion of the universe implied that if it could travel backwards in time, the universe would prove to have originated from a single point. The calculations showed that this ‘single point’ that harbored all the matter of the universe should have ‘zero volume’ and ‘infinite density’. The universe had come about by the explosion of this single point with zero volume. This great explosion that marked the beginning of the universe was named the ‘Big Bang’ and the theory started to be so called.

It has to be stated that ‘zero volume’ is a theoretical expression used for descriptive purposes. Science can define the concept of ‘nothingness’, which is beyond the limits of human comprehension, only by expressing it as ‘a point with zero volume’. In truth, ‘a point with no volume’ means ‘nothingness’. The universe has come into being from nothingness. In other words, it was created.

The Big Bang theory showed that in the beginning all the objects in the universe were of one piece and then were parted. This fact, which was revealed by the Big Bang theory was stated in the Qur’an 14 centuries ago, when people had a very limited knowledge about the universe:

Do not the Unbelievers see that the heavens and the earth were joined together (as one unit of creation), before We clove them asunder? We made from water every living thing. Will they not then believe? (Surat al-Anbiya, 30)

As stated in the verse, everything, even the ‘heavens and the earth’ that were not yet created, were created with a Big Bang out of a single point, and shaped the present universe by being parted from each other.

When we compare the statements in the verse with the Big Bang theory, we see that they fully agree with each other. However, the Big Bang was introduced as a scientific theory only in the 20th century.

The expansion of the universe is one of the most important pieces of evidence that the universe was created out of nothing. Although this fact was not discovered by science until the 20th century, Allah has informed us of this reality in the Qur’an revealed 1,400 years ago: It is We who have built the universe with (Our creative) power, and, verily, it is We who are steadily expanding it. (Surat adh-Dhariyat, 47)

THE SEARCH FOR ALTERNATIVES TO THE BIG BANG THEORY

As clearly seen, the Big Bang theory proved that the universe was ‘created from nothing’, in other words, that it was created by Allah. For this reason, astronomers committed to the materialist philosophy continued to resist the Big Bang and uphold the steady-state theory. The reason for this effort was revealed in the following words of A. S. Eddington, one of the foremost materialist physicists:

‘Philosophically, the notion of an abrupt beginning to the present order of Nature is repugnant to me.’(2)

Sir Fred Hoyle was one of those who were disturbed by the Big Bang theory. In the middle of the century, Hoyle championed a theory called the steady-state which was similar to the ‘constant universe’ approach of the 19th century. The steady-state theory argued that the universe was both infinite in size and eternal in duration. With the sole visible aim of supporting the materialist philosophy, this theory was totally at variance with the ‘Big Bang’ theory, which held that the universe had a beginning.

Those who defended the steady-state theory opposed the Big Bang for a long time. Science, however, was working against them.

Some scientists, on the other hand, looked for ways to develop alternatives.

In 1948, George Gamov came up with another idea concerning the Big Bang. He stated that after the formation of the universe by a big explosion, a radiation surplus should have existed in the universe left over from this explosion. Moreover, this radiation ought to be uniformly diffused across the universe.

This evidence which ‘ought to have existed’ was soon to be found.

MORE EVIDENCE: COSMIC BACKGROUND RADIATION

In 1965, two researchers by the name of Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson discovered these waves by chance. This radiation, called the ‘cosmic background radiation’, did not seem to radiate from a particular source but rather pervaded the whole of space. Thus, it was understood that the heat waves that were radiated uniformly from all around space were left over from the initial stages of the Big Bang. Penzias and Wilson were awarded a Nobel Prize for their discovery.

In 1989, NASA sent the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) satellite into space to do research on cosmic background radiation. It took only eight minutes for the sensitive scanners on this satellite to confirm the measurements of Penzias and Wilson. The COBE had found the remains of the big explosion that had taken place at the outset of the universe.

Defined as the greatest astronomic discovery of all times, this finding explicitly proved the Big Bang theory. The findings of the COBE 2 satellite which was sent into space after the COBE satellite also confirmed the calculations based on the Big Bang.

Another important piece of evidence for the Big Bang was the amount of hydrogen and helium in space. In the latest calculations, it was understood that the hydrogen-helium concentration in the universe complied with the theoretical calculations of the hydrogen-helium concentration remaining from the Big Bang. If the universe had no beginning and if it had existed since eternity, its hydrogen constituent should have been completely consumed and converted to helium.

All of this compelling evidence caused the Big Bang theory to be embraced by the scientific community. The Big Bang model was the latest point reached by science concerning the formation and beginning of the universe.

Defending the steady-state theory alongside Fred Hoyle for years, Dennis Sciama described the final position they had reached after all the evidence for the Big Bang theory was revealed. Sciama stated that he had taken part in the heated debate between the defenders of the steady-state theory and those who tested that theory with the hope of refuting it. He added that he had defended the steady-state theory, not because he deemed it valid, but because he wished that it were valid. Fred Hoyle stood out against all objections as evidence against this theory began to unfold. Sciama goes on to say that he had first taken a stand along with Hoyle but, as evidence began to pile up, he had to admit that the game was over and that the steady-state theory had to be dismissed.(3)

Prof. George Abel from the University of California also states that currently available evidence shows that the universe originated billions of years ago with the Big Bang. He concedes that he has no choice but to accept the Big Bang theory.

With the Big Bang’s victory, the concept of ‘eternal matter’ that constituted the basis of the materialist philosophy is thrown into the trash-heap of history. What, then, was before the Big Bang and what was the power that brought the universe into ‘being’ with this big explosion when it was ‘non-existent’? This question certainly implies, in Arthur Eddington’s words, the ‘philosophically unfavorable’ fact for the materialists, that is, the existence of a Creator. The renowned atheist philosopher Antony Flew comments on the issue:

Notoriously, confession is good for the soul. I will therefore begin by confessing that the Stratonician atheist has to be embarrassed by the contemporary cosmological consensus. For it seems that the cosmologists are providing a scientific proof of what St. Thomas contended could not be proved philosophically; namely, that the universe had a beginning. So long as the universe can be comfortably thought of as being not only without end but also without beginning, it remains easy to urge that its brute existence, and whatever are found to be its most fundamental features, should be accepted as the explanatory ultimates. Although I believe that it remains still correct, it certainly is neither easy nor comfortable to maintain this position in the face of the Big Bang story.(4)

Many scientists who do not blindly condition themselves to be atheists have admitted the role of an almighty Creator in the creation of the universe. This Creator must be a being Who has created both matter and time, yet Who is independent of both. Well-known astrophysicist Hugh Ross has this to say:

If time’s beginning is concurrent with the beginning of the universe, as the space-theorem says, then the cause of the universe must be some entity operating in a time dimension completely independent of and preexistent to the time dimension of the cosmos. This conclusion is powerfully important to our understanding of who God is and who or what God isn’t. It tells us that God is not the universe itself, nor is God contained within the universe.(5)

Matter and time are created by the almighty Creator Who is independent of all these notions. This Creator is Allah, Who is the Lord of the heavens and the earth.

DELICATE BALANCES IN SPACE

In truth, the Big Bang caused much greater trouble for the materialists than the above confessions of the atheist philosopher, Antony Flew. For the Big Bang not only proves that the universe was created out of nothing, but also that it was brought into being in a very planned, systematic and controlled manner.

The Big Bang took place with the explosion of the point which contained all the matter and energy of the universe and its dispersion into space in all ections with a terrifying speed. Out of this matter and energy, there came about a great balance containing galaxies, stars, the sun, the earth and all other heavenly bodies. Moreover, laws were formed called the ‘laws of physics’, which are uniform throughout the whole universe and do not change. All these indicate that a perfect order arose after the Big Bang.

Explosions, however, do not bring about order. All of the observable explosions tend to harm, disintegrate, and destroy what is present. For example, the atom and hydrogen bomb explosions, fire-damp explosions, volcanic explosions, natural gas explosions, solar explosions: they all have destructive effects.

If we were to be introduced to a very detailed order after an explosion – for instance, if an explosion under the ground gave rise to perfect works of art, huge palaces, or imposing houses – we might conclude that there was a ‘supernatural’ intervention behind this explosion and that all the pieces dispersed by the explosion had been made to move in a very controlled way.

The quote from Sir Fred Hoyle, who accepted his mistake after many years of opposition to the Big Bang Theory, expresses this situation very well:

The big bang theory holds that the universe began with a single explosion. Yet as can be seen below, an explosion merely throws matter apart, while the big bang has mysteriously produced the opposite effect – with matter clumping together in the form of galaxies.(6)

While stating that the Big Bang’s giving way to order is contradictory, he surely interprets the Big Bang with a materialistic bias and assumes that this was an ‘uncontrolled explosion’. He, however, was in reality the one who became self-contradictory by making such a statement simply to dismiss the existence of a Creator. For if a great order arose with an explosion, then the concept of an ‘uncontrolled explosion’ should have been set aside and it should be accepted that the explosion was extraordinarily controlled.

Another aspect of this extraordinary order formed in the universe following the Big Bang is the creation of a ‘habitable universe’. The conditions for the formation of a habitable planet are so many and so complex that it is almost impossible to think that this formation is coincidental.

Paul Davies, a renowned professor of theoretical physics, calculated how ‘fine tuned’ the pace of expansion after the Big Bang was, and he reached an incredible conclusion. According to Davies, if the rate of expansion after the Big Bang had been different even by the ratio of one over a billion times a billion, no habitable star type would have been formed:

Careful measurement puts the rate of expansion very close to a critical value at which the universe will just escape its own gravity and expand forever. A little slower and the cosmos would collapse, a little faster and the cosmic material would have long ago completely dispersed. It is interesting to ask precisely how delicately the rate of expansion has been ‘fine-tuned’ to fall on this narrow dividing line between two catastrophes. If at time I S (by which time the pattern of expansion was already firmly established) the expansion rate had differed from its actual value by more than 10-18, it would have been sufficient to throw the delicate balance out. The explosive vigor of the universe is thus matched with almost unbelievable accuracy to its gravitating power. The big bang was not, evidently, any old bang, but an explosion of exquisitely arranged magnitude.(7)

The laws of physics that emerged together with the Big Bang did not change at all over a period of 15 billion years. Furthermore, these laws stand on calculations so scrupulous that even a millimetre’s variation from their current values can result in the destruction of the whole structure and configuration of the universe.

The famous physicist Prof. Stephen Hawking states in his book A Brief History of Time, that the universe is set on calculations and balances more finely tuned than we can conceive. Hawking states with reference to the rate of expansion of the universe:

Why did the universe start out with so nearly the critical rate of expansion that separates models that recollapse from those that go on expanding forever, so that even now, ten thousand million years later, it is still expanding at nearly the critical rate? If the rate of expansion one second after the big bang had been smaller by even one part in a hundred thousand million million, the universe would have recollapsed before it ever reached its present size.(8)

Paul Davies also explains the unavoidable consequence to be derived from these incredibly precise balances and calculations:

It is hard to resist the impression that the present structure of the universe, apparently so sensitive to minor alterations in the numbers, has been rather carefully thought out… The seemingly miraculous concurrence of numerical values that nature has assigned to her fundamental constants must remain the most compelling evidence for an element of cosmic design.(9)

In relation to the same fact, an American professor of Astronomy, George Greenstein, writes in his book The Symbiotic Universe:

As we survey all the evidence, the thought insistently arises that some supernatural agency – or, rather Agency – must be involved.(10)

THE CREATION OF MATTER

The atom, the building-block of matter, came into being after the Big Bang. These atoms then came together to make up the universe with its stars, earth and sun. Afterwards, the same atoms established life on the earth. Everything you see around you: your body, the chair you sit on, the book you hold in your hand, the sky seen through the window, the soil, the concrete, the fruits, the plants, all living things and everything that you can imagine have come to life with the gathering of atoms.

What then is the atom, the building block of everything, made of and what kind of a structure does it have?

When we examine the structure of atoms, we see that all of them have an outstanding design and order. Every atom has a nucleus in which there are certain numbers of protons and neutrons. In addition to these, there are electrons which move around the nucleus in a constant orbit with a speed of 1,000 kms per second.(11) Electrons and protons of an atom are equal in number, because positively charged protons and negatively charged electrons always balance each other. If one of these numbers were different, there would be no atom, since its electromagnetic balance would be disturbed. An atom’s nucleus, the protons and the neutrons in it, and the electrons around it are always in motion. These revolve both around themselves and each other unerringly at certain speeds. Those speeds are always proportionate to each other and provide the subsistence of the atom. No disorder, disparity, or change ever occurs.

It is very remarkable that such highly ordered and determined entities could come into being after a great explosion that took place in non-being. If the Big Bang were an uncontrolled, coincidental explosion, then it ought to have been followed by random events and everything that formed subsequently ought to have been dispersed in a great chaos.

In fact, a flawless order has prevailed at every point since the beginning of existence. For example, although atoms are formed at different places and times, they are so organized that they seem as though they were produced from a single factory with an awareness of each kind. First, electrons find themselves a nucleus and start to turn around it. Later, atoms come together to form matter and all these bring about meaningful, purposeful and reasonable objects. Ambiguous, useless, abnormal and purposeless things never occur. Everything from the smallest unit to the biggest component is organized and has manifold purposes.

All of this is solid evidence of the existence of the Creator, Who is exalted in power, and indicate the fact that everything comes into existence however He wants and whenever He wills. In the Qur’an, Allah refers to His creation thus:

He it is Who has created the heavens and the earth with truth, and on the day He says: Be, it is. His word is the truth. (Surat al-An’am, 73)

AFTER THE BIG BANG

As Roger Penrose, a physicist who has done extensive research on the origin of the universe, has stated the fact that the universe rests where it is not by mere coincidence shows that it definitely has a purpose. For some people, ‘the universe is just there’ and it just goes on being there. We just happened to find ourselves right in the middle of this whole thing. This viewpoint would probably not help us in understanding the universe. According to Penrose’s view, there are many deep affairs going on within the universe whose existence we cannot today perceive.(12)

The ideas of Roger Penrose are indeed good food for thought. As these words imply, many people wrongly entertain thoughts that the universe with all its perfect harmony exists for nothing and that they live in this universe again for idle play.

However, it can by no means be considered as ordinary that a quite perfect and wondrous order came about after the Big Bang, which is considered by the scientific community to be the means of the formation of the universe.

The order in the structure of the atom rules the whole universe. With the atom and its particles moving in a certain order, the mountains are not scattered, lands do not break apart, the sky is not split asunder and, in short, matter is held together and is constant.

Briefly, when we examine the glorious system in the universe, we see that the existence of the universe and its workings rest on extremely delicate balances and an order too complex to be explained away by coincidental causes. As is evident, it is by no means possible for this delicate balance and order to have been formed on its own and by coincidence after a great explosion. The formation of such an order following an explosion such as the Big Bang could only have been possible as a result of a supernatural creation.

This matchless plan and order in the universe certainly proves the existence of a Creator with infinite knowledge, might and wisdom, Who has created matter from nothing and Who controls and manages it incessantly. This Creator is Allah, the Lord of the heavens, the earth and all that is in between.

All these facts also show us how the claims of the materialist philosophy, which is simply a 19th century dogma, are invalidated by 20th century science.

By exposing the great plan, design and order prevalent in the universe, modern science has proved the existence of a Creator Who has created and rules all beings: that is, Allah.

Holding sway over a great number of people for centuries and having even disguised itself with the mask of ‘science’, materialism, by deeming everything to consist of nothing but matter, has made a great mistake and denied the existence of Allah, Who created and ordered matter from nothing. One day, materialism will be remembered in history as a primitive and superstitious belief opposing both reason and science.

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1. George Politzer, Principes Fondamentaux de Philosophie, Editions Sociales, Paris, 1954, p. 84

2. Recounted in Jaki, S. (1980) Cosmos and Creator Regnery Gateway, Chicago

3. Stephen Hawking, Evreni Kucaklayan Karinca, Alkim Kitapcilik ve Yayincilik, 1993, p. 62-63

4. Henry Margenau and Roy Abraham Varghese, eds., Cosmos, Bios, Theos, La Salle, IL: Open Court Publishing, 1992, p. 241

5. Hugh Ross, Ph.D., The Creator and the Cosmos, Navpress, 1995, p. 76

6. W.R. Bird, The Origin of Species Revisited, Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1991; originally published by Philosophical Library in 1987, p. 462

7. W.R. Bird, The Origin of Species Revisited, Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1991; originally published by Philosophical Library in 1987, pp. 405-406

8. Stephen W. Hawking, A Brief History of Time, Bantam Books, April, 1988, p. 121

9. Paul Davies, God and the New Physics, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1983, p. 189

10. Hugh Ross, The Fingerprint of God, 2nd. Ed., Orange, CA: Promise Publishing Co., 1991, pp. 114-115

11. A Dorling Kindersley Book – The Science, published in the United States by Dorling Kindersley Inc., p. 24

12. Stephen Hawking, Evreni Kucaklayan Karinca, Alkim Kitapcilik ve Yayincilik, 1993, p. 143

Under the pen name of Harun Yahya, Adnan Oktar has written some 250 works. His books contain a total of 46,000 pages and 31,500 illustrations. Of these books, 7,000 pages and 6,000 illustrations deal with the collapse of the Theory of Evolution. You can read, free of charge, all the books Adnan Oktar has written under the pen name Harun Yahya on these websites www.harunyahya.com