The American Association for Laboratory Accreditation is proud to announce the accreditation of its first Scope in the field of Forensic Testing. The first of many to come, this occasion follows A2LA’s announcement of the launch of its Forensic Examination Accreditation Program and is the result of diligent work by our staff and A2LA contracted assessors, with assistance from our member organizations and supporters.

This first accreditation was granted on November 11, 2011 to Forensic Testing Laboratories, Inc located in Las Cruces, New Mexico. The location is a branch facility of Genetics Testing Laboratory, Inc., an A2LA-accredited testing laboratory, and was assessed to ISO/IEC 17025 and the A2LA supplemental document, R221 – Specific Requirements: Forensic Examination Accreditation Program-Testing.

Forensic Testing Laboratories, Inc.’s Scope of Accreditation includes presumptive testing for blood, semen and saliva as well as DNA testing of forensic samples for nuclear DNA.

It is hoped that the addition of the forensic examination program to A2LA’s accreditation offerings will help to bridge the gap between what is normally considered forensic examination (e.g., DNA, fingerprints, and crime scene examination) and the often overlooked work of the commercial industry for civil litigation (e.g., environmental investigation, forensic engineering, failure analysis, and accident analysis).

The program consists of two separate accreditation options. The first is for assessment and accreditation of forensic testing laboratories. Laboratories seeking accreditation under this option will be assessed for compliance to the international standard, ISO/IEC 17025, and A2LA policies and requirements including the A2LA supplemental document, R221 – Specific Requirements: Forensic Examination Accreditation Program–Testing.

The second accreditation option is for the assessment and accreditation of forensic inspection bodies (e.g., crime scene units, environmental inspection units, forensic engineering – structural failure inspection units). Organizations seeking accreditation under this option will be assessed for compliance to the international standard, ISO/IEC 17020, and A2LA policies and requirements including the A2LA supplemental document, R309 – Specific Requirements: Forensic Examination Accreditation Program–Inspection.

A2LA is currently accepting new applications for accreditation from testing laboratories and inspection body organizations under the Forensic Examination Accreditation Program. Further, A2LA is working with existing accredited organizations to add compliance with these new requirements to their existing Scopes of Accreditation. There are resources devoted to ensure prompt attention to all interested parties’ needs. Please direct any questions on applying for accreditation to the contact listed above. Organizations already accredited by A2LA should direct questions on expanding their Scope (through the use of A2LA form, F108 – Request for Expansion of Scope of Accreditation–Testing) to their current Accreditation Officer contact at A2LA.

ABOUT A2LA:

A2LA is a nonprofit, non-governmental, public service, membership society, whose stated mission is to “provide world-class accreditation and training services for testing and calibration laboratories, inspection bodies, proficiency testing providers, reference material producers and product certifiers. These and other future services should create stakeholder confidence in the quality, competence and integrity of all A2LA-accredited organizations and in their products and services.”

Services are available to any type of conformity assessment body (CAB), whether governmental or private. A2LA is the largest multi-discipline accreditation body in the United States.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Karin Athanas
A2LA Contact for A2LA Forensic Examination Accreditation Program
The American Association for Laboratory Accreditation (A2LA)
Phone: 301 644 3236
Email: kathanas(at)A2LA(dot)org
Web: http://www.A2LA.org

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With the ability to enhance light 10,000 times, the air ambulance service’s new night vision goggles essentially turn night into day.

“You can see a lit cigarette 10 miles away,” said Wilson Matthews, R.N., E.M.T., chief flight nurse for LifeFlight’s base in Lebanon, Tenn., who is part of the night vision transition. “You go from seeing nothing to seeing the texture of tree leaves.”

Matthews said night vision will be most useful when making scene landings because pilots and nurses will be able to see the trees, power lines, rising terrain and other hazards on the ground.

“Night vision is absolutely amazing. I have been at LifeFlight since 1997, and this is the single best thing we have done to enhance safety,” he said.

Because military demand had dropped, this is the first time that the goggles are available to civilian aviation operations.

Three of LifeFlight’s four bases are already using night vision, and the final base should be trained by early 2010.

A five-hour training program is required for pilots and nurses, and pilots have additional required hours of use in the sky, including take-off, landing, emergency procedures and transitioning between night vision and regular vision.

Night vision works by gathering ambient light from the moon, stars or distant light sources into a special tube. The tube enhances the energy level of the light and hurls the particles at a phosphorus screen that creates the amplified image seen through the eyepiece.

Night vision is known for its eerie green hue. That color was chosen because the eye can differentiate more shades of green than any other color.

Pilot Mike Cobb dons the new night vision goggles. The goggles look like binoculars and are mounted on the front of the helmet. Matthews said one disadvantage is the loss of peripheral vision.

“It’s like looking through two tubes,” he said. “Pilots also have to transition from looking through night vision to looking down at the instrument panel with regular vision. They are also heavy on the helmet and can give you a sore neck the next day.”

Matthews cautioned that night vision will not allow LifeFlight to make flights that were deemed too risky in the past, but it will greatly enhance the safety of their current capabilities.

“LifeFlight will still have to say no when the weather is bad or we can’t land safely, but night vision is a huge step forward for us. We can be more confident in our landings and put more focus on great patient care,” he said.

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Source: Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Photo: Tim Hurst, R.N., E.M.T., poses for a photo taken through LifeFlight’s new night vision goggles. (Photo by Joe Howell)

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Brain injuries generally occur when mechanical (physical) loads are placed on the brain, leading to problems in the functionality of the brain. Generally, these injuries are seen in car crashes or sporting accidents where a high velocity object is involved. However, in a combat scenario involving explosive devices, new research indicates that one of the reasons for the high instances of brain injuries in soldiers close to a blast is the force wave generated by the explosion. This force causes a squeezing of the skull or an extreme and sudden acceleration of the head, either of which can cause serious physical pressure to be placed on the brain and potentially damaging it.

In today’s conflicts, especially those in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan, improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and other explosives are regularly used to damage vehicles, slow supply caravans, and inflict serious casualties on those caught within the blast radius. The protective gear currently issued to soldiers is designed to protect against direct impacts and shrapnel. However, current body armor and helmets lack the ability to properly defend against brain injuries resulting from indirect exposure to explosions.

New research may help technicians and engineers design equipment that can better protect against the dangers of non-lethal blast waves. Two teams of researchers from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the University of Rochester have released a report analyzing the results of a cutting-edge computer study showing the relationship between non-impact bomb blasts and the incidents of brain injury in military personnel.

Using the latest in three dimensional modeling and simulation technology, researchers were able to study and identify the exact mechanics of brain injuries occurring in soldiers. The computer simulations showed that even explosions which were non-lethal caused the skull to flex, putting a heavy load on the brain and possibly damaging it without any direct impact on the skull. This new information means that new products will be designed to compensate and correct the flex pressure in the skull, potentially taking the danger out of non-lethal blasts near military personnel.

Suffering a traumatic brain injury at any time can be a debilitating injury. Oftentimes, those afflicted find themselves unable to work, concentrate, or perform as they had before the injury. Now that researchers have a better understanding of how and why non-lethal blasts cause brain injuries they will be able design new armor that will better protect soldiers and other military personnel.

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For centuries, people have measured time with reference to movement. The hands of a clock moving around a clock-face to denote the passage of hours, minutes and seconds. The orbit of the Earth around the Sun to describe a year. The orbit of the moon around the Earth to describe a month. A day is described by the rotation of the Earth itself. In fact space and time are closely related.

Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity suggests time is closely entwined with the concept of space. He suggested that both time and space began with the Big Bang and the creation of the Universe some 14 Billion years ago. At the instance just before the Big Bang, all matter was tightly packed into a tremendously dense, infinitely small, hot state. It’s hard for us to comprehend but the universe, stars, planets and all matter contained within them emerged in a split second from this infinitely small dot.

Einstein’s theory also suggested that ultimately in many billions of year’s time, the Universe would reach a maximum size and begin to collapse back in on itself. The universe would shrink, becoming denser and hotter and return to a state similar to that from which it emerged. However, some of the latest observations of the universe by modern telescopes have shown that the galaxies are actually moving away from each other at an ever-increasing rate. These observations imply that the Universe will continually accelerate, cool and expand.

The study of the measurement of time is called Horology. Human history is littered with a large variety of devices developed to measure time. Sundials were among the earliest examples of ancient time measurement devices. A sundial uses the sun to cast a shadow on markings that indicate the hour of day. Later, mechanical clocks regulated by the movement of a pendulum were developed to accurately measure the passage of time. Today, we mainly use electronic clocks, which are based on the resonance, or movement, of a precisely cut crystal oscillator.

Modern technology has seen the introduction of caesium atomic clocks, based on frequency reference masers, which can measure the passage of time to an astonishing degree. These clocks are typically accurate to one second in one million years.. Atomic clocks form the basis of the Global Positioning System (GPS), which can provide positioning information for any location on the planet. The Internet is synchronised using NTP time servers which reference atomic clocks to ensure the synchronisation of computers across the globe.

The precise measurement of time is critical to our modern lifestyles. So much so that International standards exist to coordinate the measurement of time across the continents of the world. This International standard is known as Coordinated Universal Time or UTC. World time is split into a series of longitudinal time zones. Time zones are generally one hour apart and their local time is referenced as an offset from UTC time.

To conclude, time is an abstract concept that is inextricably linked to the concept of space and the creation of the Universe. For millennia, humans have striven to maintain precise time references. Today, modern technology allows us to maintain highly precise time references of astonishing accuracy. Atomic clock technology has resulted in the creation of many modern high-technology tools such as the GPS system and Internet time servers.

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About the Author:
Dave Evans is a technical author who specializes in computer network time synchronization systems. He has written many articles and white papers on the subject of timing. If you would like more information about NTP Server and Time Server solutions please visit: http://www.timetools.co.uk/.

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There are among us those who at some point are sure to have contemplated “why is the sky blue?” Is there a reason for this, an explanation, or could it all have been merely coincidence that the sky would be of such a color? Could the sky have been any other hue? Red, perhaps? Yellow, green, purple or pink, even?

The truth is that there is actually a scientific explanation for why is the sky blue. This is because of a phenomenon known as “Raleigh Scattering,” wherein light is scattered off of the molecules present in the atmosphere. While most of the wavelengths of light, most especially the longer wavelengths, can easily pass through the atmosphere as light travels through it, shorter wavelengths are usually unable to do so and instead end up getting absorbed by gas molecules which absorb all the color from light. Certain colors are easily absorbed more than others, with blue being one of the readily-absorbed hues of light.

To have a clear picture of just why is the sky blue, one should take into account what takes place when the gas molecules in the atmosphere absorb blue light. Once it is absorbed, blue light is dispersed in numerous directions all across the sky. Although sunlight is actually made up of a wide array of colors, blue light is so spread out throughout the sky that it is seen in that color regardless of where one’s location is or in what direction one would choose to look at it.

One may notice that the color of the sky close to the horizon actually looks paler compared to the shade of blue in the portion of the sky directly above. The reason for this is because the farther away that light is situated the more air it has to pass through before it arrives at one’s line of sight. As the blue light in the distance gets dispersed in various directions, very little of it reaches one’s view, thus giving the horizon a very pale shade of blue, and even white at its palest.

But even though the sky appears blue when viewed from the ground, it in fact appears black when seen from space. This is because there is no atmosphere present in outer space for sunlight to scatter through. If the Earth had no atmosphere, like on the moon, everyone would see the sky as colored black (of course, no one would even survive if the Earth had no atmosphere, but that’s another matter entirely).

It has been asked in rhetorical and philosophical terms, but the question “why is the sky blue” has long been answered in scientific terms. It’s another one of life’s little mysteries that has been solved, but this shouldn’t stop us from dreamily gazing at the sky and look on in awe at how nature and science works in fascinating and rational ways to provide us with such a breathtaking backdrop to our everyday existence on this wonderful planet.

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About the Author:
Brian Jones – Please visit these sites for more information about why is the sky blue ( http://www.whyguides.com/why-is-the-sky-blue.html ) or ( http://www.whyguides.com/why-do-leaves-change-color-in-the-fall.html ) why do leaves change color in the fall in particular.

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First, learn to love and use the library effectively. With so many books, movies, tapes, and cd’s the library is a place that is full of learning potential. The library is an affordable place for anyone looking to reach higher level of learning. The library is affordable because using a library is free, unless you return materials late.

All you need to do to receive a card is bring in proof of residency. Sign up for a borrower’s card today and start learning at the local library. Most libraries have an extensive collection of books. When you take the time to read can learn lots about different subjects. You can read about geology, history, advertising, cooking, sewing, ship building; basically anything you want to learn about you can find information about it in a book.

Another great way to use the library is to listen to books on tape. You can listen to books on tape while driving in the car, walking, doing the dishes, or washing the laundry. It will help you more effectively use your time and keep you entertained while doing chores.

Second, use a hands-on approach to learning. This approach will help you see how things work in real life application. For example, if you want to learn to cook, find a recipe and make it. If you want to learn chemistry, get some lab supplies, chemicals, and books and start experimenting. If you want to learn how to fix a car, look at an engine. All of us have things that we have always wanted to learn. Write these things down and then start working on them. The best time to start learning is today. A hands-on approach to learning will give you greater understanding as well as help you develop lifelong skills.

Third, take the opportunity to learn from others and volunteer. Don’t be afraid to call up various organizations and companies to see if they need help in certain areas. One of the best ways to learn is from helping others. Service often puts us in new environments. In these places we are able to learn new things. It gives you new perspective and understanding of people and of the world. Without taking the time to serve and volunteer you never learn important life lessons.

Fourth, using the internet as a resource is a key tool for learning. There is a wealth of information located on the internet. All of this data is available to you with an easy click of a button. There are many websites, blogs, games, articles, newspapers, and many other sources on the internet that will give you more information. On the internet, there are many interesting and marketable courses that are available. Many colleges and universities offer students the option to study online at their own pace and within their own schedule. Some courses are free and some will come with a small fee. You may want to verify the validity of the school and course before your register or pay online. You don’t want to learn the hard way if the program is not professionally run.

Fifth, go on field trips that are of interest to you. Go to various places that you want to see, have questions about, or just find intriguing. You will see that there is a lot to be learned even in your local area. Visit the museums, historical sites, theater performances, and other special places in your community. Once you get to a location, find out the history and stories that can be told there. Look at what interests you and be willing to ask questions.

Sixth, in almost every community there are free seminars and lectures that are available to the public. They will have professionals and experts on a particular subject come in and teach for an hour or so. Take advantage of these learning opportunities. The topics of these lectures can range greatly. One may be about the overwhelming wolf population in Wyoming, another may be about how to make crystals using basic lab supplies, and another lecture may be about general budgeting. One way to find out about these lectures is to go to your public library. They often have a schedule. You may also want to check on your county or state website. Often they will have a calendar with all the dates of various events.

All of these steps can be effective ways to learn in everyday life. As you come to embrace these habits you will become a lifelong learner.

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About the Author:
Jack R. Landry has worked since 1987 selling laboratory products and supplies to various labs and schools across the country. He recommends (http://www.Avogadro-Lab-Supply.com) for lab supplies.

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However do these optical illusions have any other value than brief entertainment? Can they be used to improve people’s perception?

Primarily we have to define which type of optical illusion we are referring to as there are three; literal optical illusions, physiological illusions and cognitive illusions. The latter plays on unconscious inferences and assumptions about the world that are embedded into our minds and therefore can dictate our perception because of what we expect to see.

Physiological illusions are typified by exposure to excessive stimuli such as bright lights or movement. These cause an imbalance in the viewer’s visual channels, resulting in altered observation. Finally, literal optical illusions create images that differ from the actual objects and components that create them.

Physiological illusions such as The Hermann grid, take advantage of the theory that specific stimuli have already established neural channels from the participants early stages of visual processing. It is then the repetitive stimulation of one or two of these paths that causes the physiological disparity that adjusts the inspection and gives the affect of an illusion. Therefore experimenting with these illusions may not improve your optical vision but it will certainly exercise your mental perceptions.

If we apply Gestalt theory to cognitive illusions we can decipher that we as observers, make sense of the world by organizing different stimuli and individual sensory experiences, and put them together into a meaningful whole. Our brains are compelled to perform this amalgamation and this ethos explains such illusions as the Kanizsa triangle which exploits the realms of individual’s depth perception. Frequently, our eyes and mind feel obligated to put what we see together and come to the conclusion we believe we are supposed to. In many 2D images, perspective is often alluded to through certain artistic techniques and mathematical rules, which combine to make the viewer see 3 dimensions present although there are obviously only 2. Again, these optical illusions are excellent for exercising the mind but unfortunately do very little for the voyeur’s visual ability.

Therefore we can conclude that although it is doubtful that gazing longingly at optical illusions will improve your actual vision, they can have a significant affect on the observer’s psychological capacities and consequently their perception. Of course this doesn’t mean you should stare at M.C Escher’s paradoxical illusions such as “Ascending and Descending.” This image depicts an impossible set of stairs, and I wouldn’t advise gawking at it for extended periods of time because it’s quite possible it’ll send you clinically insane.

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About the Author:
John McE writes articles on a number of subjects including eye-sight exercises and optical improvement. You can find more of John’s work at Focus Clinics.

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Children begin to become interested in learning at a very young age. By the time most people are only 4 years old they are discovering more and more about the things they are interested in. So how do we encourage this behavior? How do we help our children want to learn and develop a desire for knowledge?

They only way to help children stay interested in learning is to make learning something they want to do. As with most successful child-learning-support techniques it involves YOU the parent/teacher. It’s really quite simple!

Children learn best by doing things, whatever they are. By learning from your example and from hands-on experience we get a real example of how things work. Setting the precedent that you want to learn is the first step.

When you are picking an activity to do with your children try to let them pick an activity. Letting them pick increases your chances of keeping them focused through the whole task and shows them that they can get excited about things they’re learning and that you can learn even from fun things.

Have them choose ahead of time so you can prepare, or have several activities prepared and let them choose from those. Even if they don’t like all of the choices at least they get to choose, a symptom of which they will subtly learn responsibility for their own choices.

If your kids are into sports, teach them about Physics. Sports where you hit a ball like Baseball, Cricket, Tennis, and Golf deal with many Physical concepts. You could discuss how the speed and spin of the ball effects the game, or how the angle you hit the ball, or the bounce as the ball hits the turf effect the game. Professional baseball players have many different formulas for getting a Triple Play! Formulas in themselves are scientific.

All sports can be a fantastic lesson in physiology! Studying how our bodies work is vital to athletes and trainers alike. Everything from studying how certain muscles move to better understand how to train a certain movement like a throw or a jump, to how your body uses food for fuel and how your pulmonary system works to keep you oxygenated during vigorous activity, it’s all science!

Just going for a walk in your neighborhood can become a lesson in science. Playground equipment can help teach physical concepts. You can talk about the fulcrum in a see saw, or how swings work by shifting your weight. The slide is a lesson in inertia and friction and “monkey bars” are full of opportunities for studying gravity and the wonders of muscles in our body.

While you are at the park take some time to notice any wildlife around you. Birds and other animals can become a biology lesson. Ask your kids to attempt to identify all the animals you see. Maybe you could have them make note of how many different animals they noticed and any interesting behaviors they observed in a field journal. You can also do this with flowers and trees.

Letting your kids help you cook dinner is the perfect time to discuss science. Talk about the equipment you are using, how the temperature affects your recipe, how the ingredients interact. Explain how water boils, how evaporation occurs to thicken your sauce or how baking soda and yeast help to make bread rise.

There are also many safety issues that can be discussed in the kitchen, and many of those directly relate to working in a laboratory when your kids are older. Safety when dealing with heat, boiling liquids, and cross contamination are all things they can learn about at home with you and apply in class.

Science is all around us. Cooking is chemistry, carpentry is engineering, gardening is botany with a touch of geology. Even the arts, especially music, involve science and math. No violin or electric guitar could make a sound without physics.

So many everyday things can be approached from a scientific stance. You can take any subject that your children are interested in and show them it can be fun to learn!

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About the Author:
Sara Jones was a fine student but science was a source of frustration she didn’t want her kids to suffer. She met Rick and Amanda Birmingham and realized their grasp of everyday science was the secret to making science fun. To learn more about the solution to science visit Super Fun Science.

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The recently published tabloid article by Emma Cox leads off proclaiming: “A FEARSOME mutant fish has started killing people after feeding on human corpses, scientists fear,” under a headline of “Humans scoffed by mutant fish.” (Scoff being British/Canadian slang for gobble.)

Tracking the Goonch for the show ”Nature Shock,” biologist Jeremy Wade presents ichthyological scare story, complete with needle-toothed monsters from the deep that may have risen from bottom scavengers to apex predators.

Folk Theory

Along the Great Kali River, flowing between India and Nepal, some villagers told Wade that they believe a “monster” dwells in their midst. Their theory is that it has evolved from eating prawns to a killer with an acquired taste for humans.

According to Wade’s interview in the SUN: “The locals have told me of a theory that this monster has grown extra large on a diet of partially burnt corpses. It has perhaps got this taste for flesh by feasting on remains of funeral pyres. There will be a few freak individuals that grow bigger than the other ones and if you throw in extra food, they will grow even bigger.”

While there are also crocodiles in these waters, Jeremy lays the blame of attacks on humans to the toothy Goonch lurking offshore. As part of the television exploration, his team caught a claimed world-record Goonch weighing in at 161 lbs. (73 kg). “If that got hold of you, there’d be no getting away,” he quipped.

Facts

Poorly documented reports of people being grabbed by mysterious aquatic creatures date back to 1988, when a 17-year-old Nepalese youth bathing in shallow water was attacked and pulled underwater by an unseen animal. The scene was repeated a few months later, when a small boy was taken to an unknown fate by an aquatic predator.

The latest fatality occurred last year, when an 18-year-old Nepali was hit from beneath and carried down by a creature one witnessed said looked like “an elongated pig.”

Biologists are skeptical of some of these yarns, and there is unanimity in their disclaiming that the goonch has somehow “mutated” into a maneating monster. Whether one or more renegade individuals have developed an aberrant taste for humans is not beyond the boundaries of plausibility. Nature is full of surprises, but these require research and proof before being swallowed hook-line-and-sinker. For a reality check, Fishbase experts classify the Goonch as “harmless” and “sluggish.”

This is a fish with the size, strength, and teeth to be a frightful threat in the water, but it is a leap to believe that the species has moved from feeding on relatively small river crustaceans to full-scale humans.

The British Channel 5 program ”Nature Shock” may be viewed online at http://demand.five.tv.

Watch your local aquarium shop for the rare but sometimes seen baby Goonch, which sometimes arrives among “assorted Asian catfishes.”

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About the Author:
James Lawrence is the editor of Microcosm Aquarium Explorer, an educational resource for conscientious aquarium keepers, offering thousands of species profiles and identifying images. For more Goonch facts and images: http://MicrocosmAquariumExplorer.com.

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When we plan each day, it is around the sun. The sun determines our scheduled activities in the daylight and during the dark of each night. The changing seasons are a function of the number of hours of sunlight. So, if the sun is such a factor in our lives each day, why do we not even consider the sun as a catalyst for future global climate change?

The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has been looking in the wrong place for the cause of global climate change. It’s global climate change projections do not include the influence of the sun. As a result, it’s computer-generated model, which predicts a one-degree Fahrenheit increase in global temperature in each decade of this century due to human-emitted carbon dioxide gas, is in need of drastic repair.

The truth is that it is becoming clearer with each passing day that global climate change is a function of the sun and not a function of an increase in man-made CO2 emissions. The fact is that global temperatures have not increased in the last ten years, since 1998, even with a significant global increase in CO2. Also, consider that the first half of this year (2008) was actually the coolest of the last five years, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

So, the current trend of global temperature is becoming colder, not warmer, despite the continued increase in CO2. Of course, the reality for the United Nations is that, in all probability, the extent of their error is about to soon get much worse. Since they are looking at the wrong catalyst of global climate change, they really have no idea what is about to happen next. To more adequately predict global temperature in the next few decades, the IPCC should be looking at the activity of the sun.

Indeed, studying the sun is exactly what astrophysicist Dr. Willie Soon, a researcher at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has been doing for years. Dr. Soon has identified a clear link between the sun’s activity as indicated by it’s magnetic activity and temperature variations in the Arctic and Greenland over a period of time of about 130 years.

Dr. Soon chose this area for study since it has good temperature records and is an area sensitive to climate change, so that the signal from any one climatic influence should be easier to spot. He also says he can point to a physical mechanism in the circulation of the ocean linking the sun’s influence on temperature in the region.

Dr. Soon discussed the conclusions of his research work recently as follows: “Global temperature change can be attributed to slight variations in the sun’s energy output, not man-made carbon dioxide emissions.”

He continues, “When the sun is slightly brighter, meaning giving more light to Earth’s system, the temperature warms in the Arctic. With the cooling that we observed in the Arctic from the 1940s to the 1970s, guess what the sun is doing? It’s actually dimming slightly, ever so slightly. And then, guess what happened after the late 1970s? The sun brightens again.”

Meanwhile, a new research paper from the Astronomical Society of Australia also identifies the sun as the catalyst for global climate change. The paper contends that the level of activity on the Sun will significantly diminish sometime in the next decade and remain low for about 20 to 30 years. On each occasion that the Sun has done this in the past the World’s mean temperature has dropped by 1 – 2 degrees C.

Of course, all this recent research just confirms earlier findings about the sun’s role in global climate change. Consider that the sun’s influence in the long term cooling and warming of the planet was discovered by the Danish Meteorological Institute in 1991. The Institute released a study using data that went back centuries which showed that global temperatures closely tracked solar cycles.

Then, several years later, a Hoover Institution Study examined the same historical data and came to a similar conclusion. “The effects of solar activity and volcanoes are impossible to miss. Temperatures fluctuated exactly as expected, and the pattern was so clear that, statistically, the odds of the correlation existing by chance were one in 100,” according to Hoover fellow Bruce Berkowitz.

As world politicians and the United Nations continue a misguided global warming focus on man-made CO2 emissions, evidence of the sun ‘s role in global climate change continues to grow.

So, it should not be surprising that to predict global climate change in the decades ahead we should look to the sun, just like we do in preparation for each calendar day.

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About the Author:
James William Smith has worked in Senior management positions for some of the largest Financial Services firms in the United States for the last twenty five years. He has also provided business consulting support for insurance organizations and start up businesses. Visit his website at http://www.eWorldvu.com or his daily blog at http://www.eworldvublog.blogspot.com

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