Space Weather – implications for Planet Earth and Humankind

According to Richard Fisher, head of NASA's Heliophysics Division: "Earth and space are about to come into contact in a way that's new to human history. I believe we're on the threshold of a new era in which space weather can be as influential in our daily lives as ordinary terrestrial weather. We take this very seriously indeed." For a long time we believed that we lived in a gravity driven universe. According to Susan Joy Rennison, and many others in the meantime, we do not; instead, we live in an electromagnetic universe. At this time thousands of scientists are studying the behaviour of the sun to predict Space Weather. Plasma and particle bursts can and have disrupted satellites, high frequency radio communications, GPS failures, power grids etc. and looking at the rather turbulent life our sun is presently leading, more is on the way. Most textbooks and literature about cosmology are completely out of date, reason for Rennison to educate people about why scientists studying Space Weather find that they have had to abandon many old ideas. But the understanding of an electromagnetic universe is already over 100 years old, having been promoted by great Nobel Prize winning minds like Hannes Alfvén. Rennison thinks engineering students need to realize that during severe Space Weather events, uncontrolled electric currents will flow through virtually everything on the planet. Discussion of quantum mechanics will not help. It is more important for people to realise that in the bombardment of planet Earth we are also receiving dark energy and dark matter and scientists have tried to understand how that will effect Earth, but, Rennison claims, the astronomical impact is still discussed from an outdated point of view. This is where Rennison combines modern science with a more spiritual approach. It has been over 35 years since Fritjof Kapra wrote his book 'The Tao of Physics,' an attempt to bring Western science and Eastern philosophy together. Even as much as 100 years ago, physicists wondered about quantum physics and its consequences of a relation between mind and matter. Since that time science has been divided between those who believe matter stands on its own in a gravity controlled universe - the majority of scientists - and those who believe we, as human observers, co-create the conscious universe we live in. Are all the world's crises a sign that something really has to change in our way of thinking and acting? Susan Joy Rennison will discuss the latest press releases from NASA and ESA and other books and articles published since she wrote her book "Tuning the Diamonds" in 2006, on the relation between electromagnetism and spirituality. Since then, many of her ideas have become reality as Space Weather is becoming more and more of an issue in everyday life. Although hardly discussed in the media, Space Weather is strongly affecting our life. Both in the technology we use and in our bodies, which are after all electromagnetic systems as well. There is, Rennison states, a serious problem with the electromagnetic understanding of the human body. Most scientist prefer people to think of themselves in terms of chemicals. Yet DNA is a nanotube that obeys quantum mechanical laws. Progress in DNA research has shown that DNA behaves in a much more adaptable way than earlier assumed.