Eric Lerner#Professional activities

In 1984, he began studying plasma phenomena and laboratory fusion devices, performing experimental work on a machine called a dense plasma focus (DPF). NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has funded mainstream as well as alternative approaches to fusion, and between 1994 and 2001 NASA provided a grant to Lawrenceville Plasma Physics, the company of which Lerner was the only employee, to explore whether Lerner's alternative approach to fusion might be useful to propel spacecraft; a 2007 New York Times article noted that Lerner had not received funding from the United States Department of Energy.Kenneth Chang, [https://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/27/science/27fusion.html?_r=3&th=&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&emc=th&adxnnlx=1172588880-XacSLlMti1+1/2yzSxBbsA&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin&oref=slogin "Practical Fusion, or Just a Bubble?"], The New York Times, February 27, 2007[http://trs-new.jpl.nasa.gov/dspace/bitstream/2014/23572/1/96-0007.pdf JPL Contract 959962] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110719202509/http://trs-new.jpl.nasa.gov/dspace/bitstream/2014/23572/1/96-0007.pdf |date=July 19, 2011 }}, pg 8, and JPL Contract 960283 He believes that a dense plasma focus can also be used to produce useful aneutronic fusion energy.Patrick Huyghe, [http://discovermagazine.com/2008/jun/29-3-ideas-that-are-pushing-the-edge-of-science "3 Ideas That Are Pushing the Edge of Science"], Discover Magazine, June 2008[http://www.economist.com/sciencetechnology/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14698355 A Novel Form of Fusion Power], The Economist, October 22, 2009 Lerner explained his "Focus Fusion" approach in a 2007 Google Tech Talk.{{cite web | url= http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1518007279479871760

| title= Focus Fusion: The Fastest Route to Cheap, Clean Energy

| last= Lerner | first= Eric | author-link= Eric Lerner

|date= October 3, 2007 | format= video |work= Google TechTalks | access-date= January 8, 2009 }}

On November 14, 2008, Lerner received funding for continued research, to test the scientific feasibility of Focus Fusion.{{cite web | url= http://www.lawrencevilleplasmaphysics.com/index.php?pr=News

| title= LPP Receives Major Investments, Initiates Experimental Project

| date= November 22, 2008 | publisher= Lawrenceville Plasma Physics, Inc.

| access-date= January 8, 2009 }} On January 28, 2011, LPP published preliminary results.{{cite journal | title= Theory and Experimental Program for p-B11 Fusion with the Dense Plasma Focus

| date= January 28, 2011 | journal= Journal of Fusion Energy

| doi= 10.1007/s10894-011-9385-4

| last1= Lerner

| first1= Eric J.

| last2= Krupakar Murali

| first2= S.

| last3= Haboub

| first3= A.

| volume= 30

| issue= 5

| pages= 367–376

| bibcode= 2011JFuE...30..367L | s2cid= 122230379 }} In March 2012, the company published a paper saying that it had achieved temperatures of 1.8 billion degrees, beating the old record of 1.1 billion that had survived since 1978.{{cite journal|last=Lerner|first=Eric J. |author2=S. Krupakar Murali |author3=Derek Shannon |author4=Aaron M. Blake |author5=Fred Van Roessel|s2cid=120207711 |title=Fusion reactions from >150 keV ions in a dense plasma focus plasmoid|journal=Physics of Plasmas|date=March 23, 2012|volume=19|issue=3|pages=032704 |doi=10.1063/1.3694746|bibcode = 2012PhPl...19c2704L }} In 2012 the company announced a collaboration with a lab at the Islamic Azad University Central Tehran Branch in Iran.{{cite news|last1=Knapp|first1=Alex|title=U.S. Company Teams With Iranian University To Develop Fusion Power|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexknapp/2012/06/04/u-s-company-teams-with-iranian-university-to-develop-fusion-power/|work=Forbes|date=June 4, 2012}} In 2017, Lerner et al. published evidence of confined ion energies in excess of 200 keV, with the best “shot” having a mean ion energy of 240 keV ± 20 keV which was reported as a record for confined fusion plasmas.{{cite journal |last1=Lerner |first1=Eric J. |last2=Hassan |first2=Syed M. |last3=Karamitsos |first3=Ivana |last4=Von Roessel |first4=Fred |title=Confined ion energy >200 keV and increased fusion yield in a DPF with monolithic tungsten electrodes and pre-ionization |journal=Physics of Plasmas |date=1 October 2017 |volume=24 |issue=10 |doi=10.1063/1.4989859 |bibcode=2017PhPl...24j2708L |language=en |issn=1070-664X|doi-access=free }}

In his book The Big Bang Never Happened: A Startling Refutation of the Dominant Theory of the Origin of the Universe (Knopf Doubleday, 1992), Lerner rejects mainstream Big Bang cosmology, and instead advances a non-standard plasma cosmology originally proposed in the 1960s by Hannes Alfvén.{{cite journal |last=Chown |first=Marcus|title=Did the big bang really happen? |journal=New Scientist |date=July 2, 2005 |url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg18625061.800-did-the-big-bang-really-happen.html}}

Lerner's ideas have been rejected by mainstream physicists and cosmologists. In these critiques, critics have explained that, contrary to Lerner's assertions, the size of superclusters is a feature limited by subsequent observations to the end of greatness and is consistent with having arisen from a power spectrum of density fluctuations growing from the quantum fluctuations predicted in inflationary models. Anisotropies were discovered in subsequent analysis of both the COBE and BOOMERanG experiments and were more fully characterized by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe and the Planck space observatory.

Physical cosmologists who have commented on the book have generally dismissed it.{{cite journal | first = Victor J. | last = Stenger | title = Is the Big Bang a Bust? | url = http://www.colorado.edu/philosophy/vstenger/Cosmo/bang.txt | journal = Skeptical Inquirer | volume = 16 | issue = 412 | date =Summer 1992 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060925150243/http://www.colorado.edu/philosophy/vstenger/Cosmo/bang.txt | archive-date = September 25, 2006 }}[https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CE5DD1F39F93BA25755C0A967958260 "Big Bang Theory Makes Sense of Cosmic Facts; No Contradiction"], The New York Times, June 18, 1991[https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CEFD8123CF932A3575AC0A967958260 "Did the Big Bang Happen?"], The New York Times, September 1, 1991{{cite web|author=Feuerbacher|author2=Scranton|name-list-style=amp|url=http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/astronomy/bigbang.html#lerner|title=Evidence for the Big Bang}}{{cite web|url=http://www.evolutionpages.com/big_bang_no_myth.htm|title=The Big Bang is not a Myth|author=Macandrew, Alec}}A critique of the tactics of Eric Lerner mentioning him explicitly by name appears on Sean Carroll's blog, [http://preposterousuniverse.blogspot.com/2004/05/doubt-and-dissent-are-not-tolerated.html Preposterous Universe] In particular, American astrophysicist and cosmologist Edward L. Wright criticized Lerner for making errors of fact and interpretation, arguing that:Wright, Edward L. "[http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~wright/lerner_errors.html Errors in "The Big Bang Never Happened"]

• Lerner's alternative model for Hubble's law is dynamically unstable
• the number density of distant radio sources falsifies Lerner's explanation for the cosmic microwave background
• Lerner's explanation that the helium abundance is due to stellar nucleosynthesis fails because of the small observed abundance of heavier elements

While at Columbia, Lerner participated in the 1965 Selma March{{cite web |last1=Manoocheri|first1=Kasra |title=Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement — Eric Lerner |url=http://www.crmvet.org/vet/lernere.htm |website=crmvet.org|date=February 2007}} and helped organize the 1968 Columbia Student Strike.[http://beatl.barnard.columbia.edu/columbia68/documents/doc18.htm "A Memorandum from the Strike Education Committee"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060907191103/http://beatl.barnard.columbia.edu/columbia68/documents/doc18.htm |date=September 7, 2006 }}, Columbia University archives, May 4, 1968. Lists Eric Lerner as one of the committee members.[http://www.columbia1968.com/eric_lerne/ Eric Lerner | Columbia University 1968]

In the 1970s, Lerner became involved in the National Caucus of Labor Committees, an offshoot of the Columbia University Students for a Democratic Society. Lerner left the National Caucus in 1978, later stating in a lawsuit that he had resisted pressure from the U.S. Labor Party, an organization led by Lyndon LaRouche, to violate election law by channeling profits of an engineering firm to the organization.{{cite book |title=Lyndon LaRouche and the New American Fascism |last=King |first=Dennis |year=1989 |publisher=Doubleday |isbn=978-0-385-23880-9 |chapter=Chapter 32 |chapter-url=http://lyndonlarouchewatch.org/fascism32.htm |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/lyndonlarouchene0000king }}{{Cite news| edition = Eastern| page = 1 | author = Dennis King|author2=Patricia Lynch| title = The Empire of Lyndon LaRouche| work = The Wall Street Journal| date = May 27, 1986}}

Lerner sought civil rights protection for immigrants as a member and spokesman for the New Jersey Civil Rights Defense Committee.{{cite news |last1=Hsu |first1=Spencer S. |title=Immigrants Mistreated, Report Says |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/16/AR2007011601463_pf.html |access-date=31 January 2024 |date=January 17, 2007|newspaper=The Washington Post}}Eman Varoqua, [https://web.archive.org/web/20121022051014/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-103196116.html "Not Everyone Is A Terrorist"], The Record (Bergen County, NJ), December 7, 2004 He participated in the Occupy Wall Street protests in 2011.Harkinson, Josh. "[http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/10/occupy-wall-street-demands-new-deal Occupy Protesters' One Demand: A New New Deal—Well, Maybe]", Mother Jones, October 18, 2011.

{{reflist}}

• [https://lppfusion.com/ LPPFusion]
• [https://www.focusfusion.org Focus Fusion Society]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20190103073616/http://www.bigbangneverhappened.org/ The Big Bang Never Happened] (archived)

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lerner, Eric}}

Category:1947 births

Category:Living people

Category:21st-century American inventors

Category:21st-century American physicists

Category:American cosmologists

Category:American plasma physicists

Category:American science writers

Category:American socialists

Category:Columbia College (New York) alumni

Category:Discover (magazine) people

Category:Pseudoscientific physicists

Category:Scientists from Brookline, Massachusetts

Category:University System of Maryland alumni

Category:Writers from Brookline, Massachusetts