Scientific maverick's theory on Earth's core up for a test[Herndon] draws unhappy conclusions from his bumpy scientific career. Had his two sons -- now physicians -- planned to become scientists, he says, "I would have steered them away from it because you can't make a living and do legitimate science; you have to 'howl with the wolves' or you don't survive. This is a sad testament to our times. There's something very wrong in American science."
by Keay Davidson
SF Chronicle
Monday, November 29, 2004
Ancient Earth Had Magnetic FieldJohn Tarduno decided to see if he could use the University's Superconducting Quantum Interference Device (nicknamed "SQUID"), a device normally used in computing chip design, which is extremely sensitive to the tiniest magnetic fields. Tarduno's team took samples from a 1955 lava flow in Hawaii and tried to determine if the paleointensity reading would match the actual Earth's magnetic field strength in 1955. It did. With the method tested, it was time for Tarduno to see what it revealed about the magnetic field back in the days of the dinos. His team took dozens of samples from lava flows in India that were nearly 100 million years old-an unusual time in Earth's history when the field was not reversing-and found that the intensity of the field was three times stronger than the old method suggested.
3x Stronger Than Once Thought
by Jonathan Sherwood