vernadsky and his biosphere winter 2007... · 2017-05-03 · geochemistry and the biosphere: essays...

Geochemistry and the Biosphere:Essays by Vladimir I. VernadskyEd. Frank B. SalisburySanta Fe, N.M.: Synergetic Press, 2006Paperback, 427 pages, $49.95

The publication in English of a newvolume of writings, Essays on

Geochemistry and the Biosphere, by thegreat Russian-Ukrainian scientist VladimirVernadsky, should be viewed with greatinterest, and not only by those active in thescientific fields with which these essaysdeal. It is also to be hoped that the publi-cation is a harbinger of more to come inEnglish from the Vernadsky writings.

The work of this towering giant ofRussian science has been woefully neg-lected here in the West, and particularlyin the United States. Ironically, much ofVernadsky’s work was picked up duringthe 1970s by representatives of the envi-ronmentalist movement, who then triedto draw similarities between Vernadskywith their own particular back-to-natureGaia philosophy, virtually turning him onhis head, and obfuscating both the con-tent and the intent of Vernadsky’s life-work.

The publication of more of Vernadsky’sown writings in English should help to setthe record straight on this point. A majorstep in correcting this distortion ofVernadsky has been the writings of econ-omist and statesman Lyndon LaRoucheon the work of Vernadsky, and his intro-duction of the work of Vernadsky into theLaRouche Youth Movement, which hascreated recognition of the true signifi-cance and import of Vernadsky’s work bya much broader segment of the Americanpublic than ever before.

The present volume, a translation of awork published in Russian in 1967under the title Biosfera, includes severalessays by Vernadsky on the subject ofgeochemistry, as well as his final editing,in the last decade of his life, of the thirdedition of his groundbreaking study, TheBiosphere. This volume gives the readera good sense of the range of Vernadsky’s

thinking in various fields of science.His chapter on the “History of

Geochemistry,” depicts how this disci-pline, with which his name has beenmost prominently associated, evolvedout of the field of chemistry and soil sci-ence. The period of Vernadsky’s educa-tion at St. Petersburg University, 1881-1890, was undoubtedly one of the mostfertile periods in the history of that insti-tution, with some of the greatest scientif-ic thinkers of the country located there,including names like Mendeleyev,Butlerov, and Dokuchaev, who served asmentors, and as an inspiration to youngstudents like Vernadsky.

The lecture halls were always filledwhen Mendeleyev lectured, Vernadskyrelates. “We entered a new and wondrousworld during his lectures, as if releasedfrom the grip of a powerful vise.”Vernadsky also relates how the St.Petersburg department of mineralogy pro-moted a more dynamic view of chemistry,concentrating not simply on the chemicalcomposition of the Earth’s mantle, but alsoon the dispersion of the chemical ele-

ments, their “migrations,” deep into theEarth’s crust over geological time.

Here already we see some of the firstindications of Vernadsky’s own ground-breaking theory of how living matteritself, through such chemical and atom-ic “migrations,” actually forms the outercrust of the Earth’s surface. HereMendeleyev also played a key role. “In[Mendeleyev’s] Principles of Chemistry,the problems of geochemistry and spacechemistry were not only fully described,but were also often dominant,”Vernadsky writes in his historical essay.

The other intellectual influence on theyoung Vernadsky was Vasilii VasilievichDokuchaev, who held the chair in min-eralogy at St. Petersburg University, andon behalf of whom he would oftenundertake expeditions in various parts of

BOOKS 21st CENTURY Fall-Winter 2006 95

Vernadsky and His Biosphereby William Jones

BOOKS

Courtesy of Synergetic Press

Vernadsky (second row, third from right), along with a good part of the faculty atMoscow University, shown here in 1911, when they resigned in protest of repressivemeasures imposed by the Stolypin government against the Education Ministry.

the Russian Empire. Dokuchaev’s TheRussian Black Earth Region, the result ofa seven-years-long labor, also broughtVernadsky a greater understanding of hisbeloved Ukraine, where he conductedexpeditions under Dokuchayev’s direc-tion, examining the soil of the region.

Later in the years of the Russian civilwar, Vernadsky, who had fled to the fam-ily estate in Ukraine, was doing his ownstudies in the Ukrainian countryside.Already at this early stage, seeing theeconomic devastation that was causedby the civil war and revolution, he pre-dicted that because of the lack of invest-ment in the agricultural sector, this mostfertile region would again be facing a sit-uation of famine.‘Father of the Soviet Nuclear Program’

In the same historical essay, Vernadskyalso touches upon the important role ofradioactive elements in the Earth’s crust,a phenomenon on which he placed greatsignificance. From a trip in the early partof the century, looking in Central Asia forradioactive elements, and later, from thework he would accomplish with theCuries at the Radium Institute in Paris,Vernadsky placed great interest in this“new physics.” By 1909, he had estab-lished a radiological laboratory inMoscow, and later, in 1922, he set up aRadium Institute, modelled on that of theCuries in Paris. Vernadsky also estab-lished the first cyclotron in the SovietUnion at the Radium Institute, on whichIgor Kurchatov and other leading figuresin the Soviet atomic bomb programwould get their initial training.

Early on, Vernadsky realized thetremendous benefit mankind wouldreceive if it achieved mastery of thepower of the atom. Like others knowl-edgeable in the field, he was also awareof its tremendous potentially destructivepower. In his opening speech at theRadium Institute, Vernadsky said: “Soonman will have atomic power at hishands. This is a power source which willgive him the possibility to build his life ashe wishes. Will he be able to use thisforce for good purposes and not self-destruction?”

During the twenties and thirties hekept well abreast of the field, meetingwith Otto Hahn, Lise Meitner, and ArthurSommerfield in Germany; FrederickSoddy in Montreal; and the Curies inParis. It is something of an irony that

Vernadsky would first learn of anAmerican atomic bomb program throughan interpretation from the New YorkTimes in 1943, sent to him by his son,George, who, after the BolshevikRevolution, emigrated to the UnitedStates, where he became a professor inRussian history at Yale University.George had attached a note to the clip-ping with the message to his father:“Don’t be late!”

After receiving this, Vernadsky formeda troika with two of his closest collabo-rators, to work out a program for thedevelopment of atomic energy. This ledto the formation of the UraniumCommittee, which would later chart thecourse of the Soviet atomic bomb pro-gram. Illness and old age (Vernadskywas then in his eighties), did not permithim a major role in the development ofthe bomb, but he was often consulted onaspects of the program. His pioneeringrole in the field really makes him deserv-ing of the title “father of the Sovietnuclear program.”

In the essay “Chemical Elements in theEarth’s Crust,” Vernadsky deals with theactual chemical composition of the plan-et, utilizing the research conducted inthe United States by F.W. Clarke at theCarnegie Institution, which he had visit-ed on a trip to the United States in 1913.Here he is on very familiar ground,studying particular instances of thechemical dispersion of certain elements

from the biosphere into the Earth’s outermantle.

In the essay “Carbon and LivingMatter,” Vernadsky deals with the studyof the hydrocarbons and petroleumdeposits. In the context of the alleged “oilcrisis” so much bandied about today, theessay of Vernadsky may have more than apassing interest. He holds firmly to thepredominant theory that hydrocarbonswill only be found as the remains of fos-sils, that is, they are a result of the decayof living matter, a theory which has beenquestioned in the work of the late CornellUniversity astrophysicist Thomas Gold.As Vernadsky himself indicates,Mendeleyev, also, thought that there maywell be a non-organic origin of oil.

The third edition of The Biosphere,published in this volume, may be of someinterest to the readers of the earlier edi-tion, published in English. The years of hisediting this edition were those in whichhe was expanding on his early theories,always reconceptualizing and reformulat-ing many of his central hypotheses onMan and the Universe. Some of this isreflected in the changes he made in thelast edition of that great work. But thosewell-versed in the 1926 edition will feelthemselves on rather familiar ground inreading this last edition.

Vernadsky’s ‘Political’ MissionBut, it was not only purely theoretical

scientific work that Vernadsky wasengaged in, in those years. Rather, hesaw his scientific work as his major con-tribution to the progress of humanity.Although more restricted during theSoviet years in his direct political activi-ty, he felt that his work in science andeducation was his major contribution inthe development of the species, of theNoösphere.

Already in his student years,Vernadsky was involved in politics.Some of his closest friends in those lib-eral circles of his student days, a smallgroup of friends that called themselves“The Brotherhood,” would later wind upin a variety of political formations, pop-ulist “narodniki,” or communists, or fol-lowers of the philosophy of Leo Tolstoy.Vernadsky chose another path, devotinghimself, as a “cavalier of science” to thenatural sciences as a means of promot-ing the welfare of the people.

During the time of the 1905Revolution, Vernadsky played an impor-

96 Fall-Winter 2006 21st CENTURY BOOKS


Vernadsky as a member of thePresidium of the International Geo-logical Congress, in Moscow in 1937.

tant role in the formation of theConstitutional Democrats, (Kadets). Whensome extremely repressive measures hadbeen imposed on student activity duringvarious phases of that 1905 period,Vernadsky was one of those who went tospeak with the Premier, Sergei Witte, inorder to help mitigate those measures. In1911, he, together with a good part of thefaculty at Moscow University, resigned inprotest of repressive measures imposed bythe Stolypin government.

In 1915, during World War I,Vernadsky was involved in setting up theCommission for the Study of the NaturalProductive Forces of Russia (KEPS), withthe task of investigating the strategicresources and raw materials at Russia’sdisposal, a project that had been close tothe heart of his old teacher Dokuchayev.The significance of this body was recog-nized by V.I. Lenin, who decided toretain it in the new Soviet Republic.

When the Bolsheviks took power, adisillusioned Vernadsky left Moscow forUkraine, where the civil war was raging.He spent some time doing research inthe countryside, setting up the UkrainianAcademy of Sciences, to which he waselected as head. Later, during WorldWar II, when Vernadsky was evacuatedto what is today Kazakhstan, he similar-ly gathered together the scientific layersthere, and set up another Academy.

Both his son and his daughter chose toleave the country rather than stay underthe rule of the Bolsheviks. Vernadskyelected to return to the Soviet Union. Notthat he had any sympathies with theBolshevik leadership, but many of hisfriends were still active in the Russian aca-demic world, some of whom had becomecommunists. More than any other con-cern which propelled him to make whatmust have been a difficult decision, washis firm belief in the power of Russian sci-ence to revive a beleaguered nation.

Biogeochemistry Is BornAlthough he stood in undisputed mas-

tery of his own fields of expertise, in min-eralogy and geochemistry, many of hisbolder hypotheses and fundamental writ-ings on the nature of the universe wentlargely unpublished. Vernadsky wasaccepted as a scientific genius of sorts,but one often attacked and viewed gener-ally by the mandarins of dialectical mate-rialism as an “idealist” and a “vitalist.”

In something of a master-stroke,

Vernadsky created an entirely new field,biogeochemistry, and established aninstitute around that study in order tohave a forum in which his own notion ofthe formative role of the biosphere in thechemistry of the planet, also frownedupon by the authorities, might be stud-ied without repercussions.

His most farsighted writings criticizingthe prevalent notions of Euclidean spaceand time in physics, as defective forunderstanding the phenomena that werebeing investigated in the biological sci-ences, and calling instead for the appli-cation of a Riemannian, rather than aEuclidean, geometry, went totallybeyond the ken of the guardians of“Diamat,” and were either suppressed orprinted in scholarly journals with a verylimited circulation.

In the essays presented here, Vernadskyalso outlines the two principal premises onwhich his life’s work was based. The first isthe principle of Christiaan Huygens, that lifeexists throughout the universe and not sim-ply here on Earth, a thesis which Huygensdeveloped most succinctly in his 1698book, Cosmotheoros. His second funda-mental premise was based on the thesis of a16th Century Florentine doctor, FrancescoRedi, which said “All life comes from life.”

This was an implicit denial of the the-ory of abiogenesis, as well as sponta-

neous generation. Neither the evolution-ists nor the creationists would be happywith Vernadsky. But he simply couldfind no scientific basis for either of thesehypotheses, attributing them both to reli-gious or philosophical principles, ratherthan to scientific study of the phenome-non of life.

Appended to the Essays (as probablythey were to the 1967 Russian edition ofBiosfera), are Vernadsky’s short but pow-erful theses: “Some Words About theNoösphere,” published in 21st Century,Spring 2005, these short notes would befamiliar to readers of this magazine, butlittle has hitherto been said about theirorigin.

Vernadsky was to have elaborated onhis concept of the Noösphere in a thirdpart of his final work, “The ChemicalStructure of the Biosphere and ItsSurroundings.” That chapter was neverwritten. In many respects, the “SomeWords” represents his most elaborateview of the topic, although the concept,if not the term, which he borrowed fromEdouard LeRoy, permeates most of hiswork from his student days. But forVernadsky, “Some Words About theNoösphere” really represented a post-war program for the world.

In 1943, there were celebrations onthe 80th birthday of Vernadsky. He



Vernadsky in his office in Moscow, in 1940.

received the Stalin Prize and an awardof 200,000 rubles. As was customary, hesent half of the sum back to be used forthe war effort. He also penned a note toStalin: “Dear Joseph Vissarionovich, Irequest that 100,000 rubles of the prizenamed for you, which I have received,be directed to defense needs, whereveryou see fit. Our cause is just, and at thepresent time it spontaneously coincideswith the onset of the Noösphere—a newstate of the domain of life, theBiosphere—the foundation of a historicprocess, when the human mindbecomes an enormous geological plane-tary force. Academician Vernadsky.”

Later that year, when he had complet-ed “Some Words About the Noösphere,”he sent his article to two addresses: tothe editorial board of Pravda, and, to besure, to Stalin personally.

Here is what he wrote in an accompa-nying note: “Borovoye, 27 July, 1943.Dear Joseph Vissarionovich, I am sendingyou the text of my article, which I havesimultaneously submitted to the editors ofPravda, and which it would be useful topublish in the newspaper, because I iden-tify a spontaneous natural process, whichwill ensure our fundamental victory inthis world war. In the telegram I sent you,donating to the Red Army half of the prizenamed for you, which I received, I indi-cate the significance of the Noösphere.With deep respect and devotion. V.Vernadsky. I am sending you the article,because I don’t know if it will be pub-lished.” The article was never publishedin Pravda, nor is Joseph Stalin known to

ever have replied—or received—Vernadsky’s note.1

The ‘Book of Life’The volume before us gives a tantaliz-

ing look at the powerful mind of a greatscientist, but it leaves one looking forsomething more substantial, an elabora-tion of ideas that are only touched uponin these essays. We are encouraged tohear that the same publisher is consider-ing also translating and publishinganother book-length study by Vernadsky,Scientific Thought and Scientific Work asa Geological Force in the Biosphere.

Having read parts of the Russian editionof Vernadsky’s final, and not fully editedwork, The Chemical Structure of theEarth’s Biosphere and Its Surroundings, Ihave great hope that this book, whichVernadsky himself considered the culmi-nation of his life’s work—“the book oflife” as he called it—will also soon findthe light of day in an English version.

In this work, Vernadsky does not sim-ply expand on an earlier text, as he didwith the various versions of TheBiosphere, but rather approaches theentire issue from a somewhat higherstandpoint, from the point of view of theCosmos as a whole, incorporating all thenew ideas that he had developed in thelast decades of his most productive life.Vernadsky viewed this final work as hisequivalent to the great “Cosmos” thatfinal work of his beloved scientific fore-bear, Alexander von Humboldt, whosebooks had impelled the youngVernadsky on a career of science.

While EIR and 21st Century Science &

Technology magazine have publishedtwo parts of a three-part project byVernadsky dealing with the more com-prehensive space-time issues provokedby his work in biogeochemistry, thethird and final part of that series, “Onthe Conditions of Physical Space,” stillremains completely unavailable to non-Russian speakers. It is hoped that thepresent volume will indeed lead to aresurgence of interest in this remarkablescientist, and to more of his writings inthe English language.

While, in this day and age of radar andsatellite imaging, many of Vernadsky’s“facts” may be somewhat dated (indeedhe himself would underline the fact thatwith the progress of science that must bethe case), his unique view of man andthe universe would be of tremendousbenefit to those working in fields aboutwhich Vernadsky could have onlydreamed—from terraforming Mars toastrobiology.

More important, the fundamentalhumanist outlook of Vladimir Vernadsky,who viewed the human species and itsproductive activity as the most impor-tant “geological force in the develop-ment of the universe,” might help revivein society at large, some of the optimismthat has been so seriously underminedby the doomsday scenarios of the envi-ronmentalist lobby.Footnotes _________________________________1. The text later reports that Vernadsky’s article

was published in a small Academy journal calledAchievements of Modern Biology. Vernadskyread the proofs in the Fall of 1944, and lived tosee the issue in which it appeared.

Return to the Moon: Exploration,Enterprise, and Energy in the HumanSettlement of Spaceby Harrison SchmittNew York: Copernicus Books, 2006Hardcover, 335 pp., $25.00

Since President Bush presented hisJanuary 2004 initiative for America to

return to the Moon, many comments,criticisms, and offers of advice have

been written by the science, engineer-ing, and space communities. But few areas qualified to offer proposals on howthis program should be carried out asgeologist, Apollo 17 astronaut, formerSenator, and professor of engineering,Harrison Schmitt.

When most former astronauts writebooks, they are usually memoirs of theirlives and experiences in space. Harrison

Schmitt has worked, virtually since hewas the last man to leave his footprintson the Moon in 1972, on the question ofhow astronauts will return. His newbook lays out his plan.

For nearly 20 years, Dr. Schmitt has


Mining the Moon for Helium-3To Power Fusion Reactorsby Marsha Freeman

worked with Dr. Gerald Kulcinski andother researchers at the FusionTechnology Institute at the University ofWisconsin in Madison, who are investi-gating the possibility of creating ther-monuclear fusion energy using the rareisotope of helium-3.

The reason this particular program isof great interest to Schmitt, is that thenearest and most accessible reservoir ofhelium-3 is on the Moon.

Helium-3 as a fuel for fusion powerhas advantages over the heavy hydro-gen isotopes deuterium and tritium,which are used in today’s fusionexperiments around the world. (Seethe Summer 1990 issue of 21st Cen-tury Science & Technology magazinefor a comprehensive discussion of fus-ion using helium-3.) There is enoughhelium-3 deposited by the solar windon and near the surface of the Moonto power the world’s economy formillennia.

The importance of the treasure-troveof helium-3 on the Moon as the fuel forfusion has been well recognized byother nations. Japan, Russia, and Chinastress obtaining the energy resources ofthe Moon as a goal of their explorationprograms.

On Dec. 26, Nikolay Sevastiyanov,president of Russia’s space enterprise,RSC Energia, stated: “One way or theother, we will have to go beyond ourplanet in the search for new, environ-mentally friendly power soures. A goodcandidate is the isotope helium-3 fornuclear power. It is available on theMoon” and “can fully meet the entireEarth’s power demand for . . . more than1,000 years.”

Given that fusion power is necessary,and helium-3 powered fusion is a mostdesirable pathway, the task is to consid-er how this can be accomplished.

Is It ‘Competitive’?For more than three decades, the

United States had no program to returnto the Moon, nor an adequately funded,broad-ranging effort to develop fusionenergy. In response to the lack ofFederal support, the University ofWisconsin scientists have proposed tofinance their fusion energy researchthrough private funding, by offeringspinoffs from their work as commercialproducts. These include the productionof medical isotopes for diagnostic imag-

ing, and land-mine detection.Similarly, Harrison Schmitt, after

decades of watching a rudderless NASA,proposes that private investors beorganized to fund space infrastructure—such as heavy lift rockets—and thehelium-3 lunar mining and processesfacilities.

The problem with such an approach isthat high-risk, multidecade research anddevelopment programs such as the oneproposed, should not, and in fact, can-not, be justified on the basis of the prof-it they will return to shareholders. Onlya Federally funded long-term commit-ment will work.

Schmitt and the fusion scientistsbelieve that fusion energy must bedeveloped to provide the magnitude ofenergy that will be required by a grow-ing world, at least by the middle of thiscentury. But by trying to justify why pri-vate companies and utilities will ordersuch plants in future decades, Schmittends up trying to prove that it will becompetitive with coal.

But fusion energy must be developed,regardless of what private companies,utilites, or stockholders support. Thesame was the case for the developmentof the railroads, other transport infra-structure, nuclear power, and the Apolloprogram. The criterion should not bewhether fusion power, or, for that matter,space exploration in general, is “com-petitive.” They are urgent nationalneeds.

In his book, Dr. Schmitt makes clearthat he has put forward his private fund-ing proposal because he does notbelieve this nation will make the neces-sary commitment to return to theMoon—but he has not given up hope.

When George Bush became Presidentin 2001, Schmitt offered his views on thechanges that should be made in spacepolicy, and the space agency, for a long-term program to be viable.

On the policy level, decreasing risk,and increasing confidence in spaceassets, Schmitt advises, depends uponadequate support. Underfunding of theearly Space Shuttle design, he states, ledto high-risk compromises. “Service inthe United States Senate [1977-1983]during this period allowed me to witnessthis irresponsible Congressional andAdministrative behavior first hand,” hereports.

For the space agency to be able tocarry out a program with the breadthand scope of Apollo, a return to Apollo-style management is required, Schmittstates.

Youth Is the Key.“The enthusiasm, imagination, and

stamina of young men and womenformed the heart and soul of Apollo,” hesays. His first proposal is “that most ofNASA be made up of engineers andtechnicians in their 20s and managers intheir 30s.” This would return the spaceagency to the imagination and vitalitythat it took for the Apollo program tosucceed.

Just as Harrison Schmitt’s book wasbeing released, near the end of 2005,he was appointed by NASA Ad-ministrator Mike Griffin to head theNASA Advisory Council. He is now in aposition to use his well-earned scientif-ic and political knowledge, experience,and prestige to help bring the spaceagency back to where it was, when itcarried out the program that tookHarrison Schmitt, and 11 other men, tothe Moon.


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Thermal Comfort Honeycomb Housing:The Affordable Alternative to TerraceHousingby Mohd Peter Davis, Mazlin Ghazali, NorAzian NordinKuala Lumpur, Malaysia: Universiti PutraMalaysia, 2006Hardcover, 187 pp., $50.00 (postpaid fromMalaysia)*

This book is an inspiring example ofhow human creativity and determi-

nation can solve a problem that willchange the lives of many people for thebetter. As the authors’ “honeycombhousing” becomes a reality in Malaysia(where the government and housingdevelopers are awarding honeycombprojects), the idea should catch on, tobuild comfortable housing around theworld—and to tackle other very solvabledevelopment challenges.

In the first chapter, author Mohd PeterDavis explains how when he moved toMalaysia from Australia, he found hiswife’s house in Kuala Lumpur lovely, buttoo hot. It was a typical terraced row-house, but so hot during the day that hecouldn’t think and so hot at night that hecouldn’t sleep. Malaysia has 2 million ofthese grossly overheated houses, bothlow cost and luxury versions, he says,and the capital, Kuala Lumpur, is now aserious “urban heat island.”

The older, traditional wooden kam-pong houses in the rural areas were coolat night, but unbearably hot “torturechambers” during the day. So, highlymotivated by heat stress, Peter Davisdecided to design and build a new kindof house that would be comfortably coolwithout air conditioning. He succeeded,and has been living with his family intheir dream house for 14 years.

As he writes, “Our dream bungalow,designed to suit our family needs, hasserved a wider purpose; it is the first sci-entific demonstration that energy effi-cient thermally comfortable houses canbe built in Malaysia without using air-conditioning.” Davis calculated that hisdecision not to use air-conditioning will

save him the entire cost ofbuilding the house in another 9years. (Note that he is notagainst air-conditioning, how-ever, and recommends that forbad heat waves or large gather-ings, people could have oneunit for their living area.)

Thermal ComfortDavis then took on the project

of improving Malaysia’s existingurban housing and developingan attractive, comfortable, cooldesign for new housing thatcould be easily and inexpensively mass-produced. He and his colleagues scientif-ically studied, first of all, individual ther-mal comfort—what a tolerable tempera-ture was for most people in Malaysia’shot, humid, climate—and then measuredthe temperatures night and day of variouskinds of existing housing. For most peo-ple, the thermal comfort zone is between24° and 28°C (75.2°-82.4°F).

They charted the Malaysian climatefor every day in a year, and studied howhouses heat up, and cool down.Although Kuala Lumpur’s humid out-door temperature didn’t get above 35°C(95°F), the indoor temperature reached49°C under the roof.

Then Davis and co-authors worked onthe science of the architecture and thebuilding materials. First, they developed a“cool roof,” which reduced indoor tem-perature by 3.5°C (6.6°F). They foundthat the common Malaysian practice ofusing natural ventilation—doors and win-dows open—during the day made thehouse hotter, because it brought in thehottest air of the day from outside.

Conversly, opening the doors andwindows at night—the opposite of usualMalaysian practice—cooled down thehouse and stored the coolness, keepingthe house cooler the next day. Amechanical ventilation system at night(such as an exhaust fan) helped thisprocess. They found that between 14 to28 air changes per hour were most effec-

tive. Roof wind turbines, they discov-ered, had no cooling effect.

By combining the cooling features,the improved house was 5.6°C (10°F)cooler than conventional houses. Thekey was keeping the roof from heat gainfrom the Sun. They accomplished this,working with industry, by finding awhite metal that would stay clean, notleak, and not store as much heat as theusual red concrete tile Malaysian roof.They tested both glass wool and rockwool insulation, which both worked, allin all reducing thermal discomfort in atwo-story house by 80 percent and in aone-story house by 70 percent.

To keep the walls from heat gain, theydesigned wrap-around verandas. Thisenabled the concrete building materialsto store the coolness from night ventila-tion, instead of the heat from the Sun.

The authors proposed that the govern-ment replace the current urban roofswith the new “cool roof,” which wouldcut the thermal discomfort factor by 80percent. But no one wanted to pay forthe renovation. And so, they decided toconcentrate on building new housingthat was thermally comfortable—at noadditional cost to the builder or buyer.

It should be noted that in the past,Malaysia has been a housing successstory, constructing “reasonable qualityurban housing,” Davis says, to keeppace with the population increase andthe migration from the rural areas. The


How to Build Comfortable,Cool, and Attractive Housingby Marjorie Mazel Hecht

problem is today that the price ofbuying a row house is too high formost working families, who liveinstead in high-rise “pigeon-hole”apartment buildings.

The Honeycomb DesignArchitect Mazlin Ghazali’s hon-

eycomb design addresses the costquestion, and also two other com-plaints by residents of current low-cost housing: thermal discomfortand too-small kitchens. He alsoconsidered the lack of communityspaces and the unfriendliness ofconventional urban designs.

The Ghazali design revamps thetraditional urban row house designby placing housing units around acentral space in hexagonal forma-tions. This gives the group of hous-es an inner courtyard. Instead of“monotonous terrace houses withsmall front yards,” Ghazali says,there are “semi-detached houseswith generous gardens . . . at noextra cost to the buyers.”

The Ghazali tessellating designis not only attractive, but is moreefficient than the usual row housedesign, accommodating morehousing units per acre, usingduplexes, triplexes, and quadru-plexes. He has designed wholeneighborhoods in a hexagonalgrid, and all types of housing,including honeycomb four- andfive-story apartment buildings. Thedesign allows for mature trees tohave the room to grow in the innercourtyards, unimpeded by sewerand utility lines.

A basic consideration was howto provide safe play areas for chil-dren, and community recreationalspaces in an urban setting, and how tomake quality homes available for everyMalaysian family. Toward this end, forthe last four years, the authors have beentalking about thermal honeycomb hous-ing with consumers, developers, and thegovernment. In one market survey, theirscale model of “My First Home” had 80percent approval among respondents.When you look at the housing layouts,and the sketches of the honeycombcommunity, it is easy to see why theywould be preferred to the usual rowhouse.

The authors note that the world needs

“about 500 million new houses, mainlyin developing countries.” They see theirdesign as a counterpole to the greenswho advocate going back to nature andthe Stone Age. Instead, they write, wehave to go “back to the optimism ofthe great Biosphere scientist VladimirVernardsky and his concept of theNoösphere. . . .”

We need 1,000 new cities in thedeveloping world, the authors state, andMalaysia is positioned to play a leadingrole as a city builder. Where will thesecities be located? The authors cite theEurasian Land-Bridge, as pioneered byLyndon and Helga LaRouche, as the

location for these new cities.The book concludes: “We can only

agree with Vernadsky: ‘The future is inour hands. We will not let it go.’ ”

The first honeycomb cities, to befunded by the Malaysian government,are on the drawing board (see figure).

If Malaysia can do it, why not NewOrleans?Notes ____________________________________* The book can be obtained directly from the

authors in Malaysia. Send a bank draft forU.S.$50.00 (which includes postage), payableto Peter Davis, and mail to him at Institute ofAdvanced Technology, Universiti PutraMalaysia, UPM 43400 Serdang, Selangor,MALAYSIA. For more information, contact PeterDavis at e-mail: [email protected].


An early concept proposal for a satellite city envisioned to house 100,000 residents in2,000 acres.

Swords at Sunset: Last Stand of NorthAmerica’s Grail Knightsby Michael Bradley with Joelle LauriolAncaster, Ontario: Manor HousePublishing, 2006Paperback, 240 pp., $24.95

S words at Sunset was written in anattempt to prove that America was

discovered in 1398 by the Scotch princeHenry Sinclair of Rosslyn, Scotland.According to author Bradley, a settle-ment was set up in what later becameNova Scotia, Canada, with colonistsconsisting of refugee Templar Knightswho were fleeing persecution by theFrench and English kings.

That America was discovered by anexpedition led by Prince Henry 100 yearsbefore Columbus is not exactly a newidea; it has been debated for the last 400years, since the publication of a book andmaps by the Venetian Niccolo Zeno (“TheZeno Narrative”). However, to push thecontroversy further, Bradley claims thatthe expedition and subsequent colonieswere largely Scotch Templar Knights.Bradley is obsessed with the legends con-cerning the Templar Order and the HolyGrail, whatever that may be.

As readers may have noticed, a floodof books, films, and television programshas appeared since the publication ofthe book Holy Blood, Holy Grail, in1981. These books, along with otherfungus productions, conspire to bringabout a cultural change in America andEurope by pushing feudalism and a newDark Age.

The themes here are the Holy Grail,revisionist Christianity, pagan cults, andspeculation about oligarchical familytrees. That the Crusades of the EuropeanMiddle Ages were a curse upon human-ity, a promoter of genocide and thedestruction of civilization, no one actu-ally familiar with history can deny!Military orders such as the KnightsTemplar and the Knights of Malta wereleaders and organizers at the behest ofthe oligarchy of this sorry mess. The so-called Republic of Venice was the con-troller of the feudal system.

Aside from Bradley’s feudal andpagan outlook, he has done some seri-ous antiquarian investigations over thelast 20 years, looking at strange ruinsand artifacts in the United States andCanada. In other words, he may havemade some genuine and important his-torical discoveries of pre-Columbianhistory.

Bradley received a letter in December1981, requesting that he come and inves-tigate a strange ruin on the letter-writer’sproperty in Nova Scotia, which resem-bled the remains of a castle or fort ofstone-rubble-type construction, a com-mon style in medieval Europe. The loca-tion of the ruin was a town northwest ofHalifax, Nova Scotia, called The Cross.

Bradley went to see the ruin, takingphotos of the walls and looking aroundthe area for objects. He urged the NovaScotia government’s Ministry ofRecreation, Culture, and Fitness to con-duct an investigation, reporting that theruins could very well be medievalEuropean, built by religious refugeesfleeing persecution. And, yes, theycould be relics of the Sinclair expeditionof 1398, as well.

Bradley’s secondary axiom was thatthe historical Templars were Christianheretics, many of whom were givenrefuge in Scotland by King Robert theBruce, after their suppression in 1307 bythe French King Philip le Bel and thePope.

A few years later, Bradley wasinformed of another possible Scotch ruinlocated on the Vermont-Quebec border,near Lake Mephremogog. People livingaround the lake had dug up artifacts inthe course of house construction. Onefind was an iron spearhead, but themajor anomaly there was a giganticstone dam, some cut blocks of whichweighed a ton or more. Stakes of sprucewood used to lay out the structure werediscovered under the dam and, subject-ed to radio carbon dating, were found tobe at least 500 years old, a date prior toFrench settlement of the area. Nearby, astone carving of a gargoyle was also dis-

covered in a style possibly Scotch orNorse. This discovery was filmed for atelevision documentary.

The Zeno ConnectionThe old book mentioned above was

supposedly written at the time of thealleged Sinclair discovery in 1398, by aVenetian sailor who was employed as theleader of the Sinclair fleet of ships.1 Thebook was discovered 160 years later inItalian, and soon English editions cameout. It gave an account of a voyage fromScotland to the Atlantic coast of Canadaof several ships and seamen, and morethan a hundred fighting men. Landfallswere cited on Iceland, Greenland, aplace called Friesland (still not identified),and an island or peninsula called in thenarrative Esstiltoland, which is thought tobe modern Nova Scotia.

This Zeno narrative, with its maps, hasbeen disputed for the last 400 years, so,beware, as this book was written by oneof the leading oligarchical families ofVenice. Nevertheless, Henry Sinclairhad good reasons to attempt an Atlanticcrossing when he did, because Henrypossessed a significant fleet of ocean-going ships, which also served the rulersof Norway; he was a vassal of Norway,having the title Earl of Norway.

In this period, Scotland looked towardthe north, and not toward England.Norway at this time pulled, or had con-trolling influence over, Denmark,Sweden, Iceland, and Greenland. TheZeno family and their country, Venice,wished to take part in the extensive andprofitable trade in fish, timber, furs, andseal oil. Venice was cut off from its east-ern trade, because it was blockaded bythe Turks, who suspected that Venicewas running the Crusades againstTurkey.

Perhaps Venice wanted to be part of aNorth Atlantic empire which would out-flank the Hanseatic league, which had a


Templar Knights in North America?by Charles Hughes

monopoly on the North Sea trade.Fishing grounds were all controlled byrivals, and of course fish were veryimportant in the Middle Ages, when theChurch forbade the consumption ofmeat during Lent and other numerousfast days.

Henry Sinclair could also have hadaccurate information on North Americafrom his contact with Norway, includingmaps. One such map, included in theZeno Narrative, was studied by mapexpert Arlington Mallery, and featured asa chapter in his book The Rediscovery ofLost America (Dutton, 1979). On theZeno map of the North Atlantic,Greenland is shown correctly positionedas to longitude and latitude, and isshown without ice, consisting of threeislands, a fact confirmed in moderntimes by seismic studies.

Mallery said that this must be a gen-uine map, predating the Middle Ages, ofpossibly Arab or Phoenician origin. Heclaims that a map can be the oldest writ-

ten record, and may precede knowledgeof writing. So the Zeno map looks like itmay be real, though anomalous, even ifthe text may not be reliable.

The Narrative relates that PrinceSinclair took a flotilla of ships and alarge crew of at least 100 fighting men,whom Bradley assumes were TemplarKnights. Sinclair may have been tired ofsupporting these people who, since theyhad been condemned by the Pope andthe Inquisition, were best sent West toset up a colony.

Prince Henry returned to Scotland in1399, and was killed in a battle thatyear. The majority of the colonistsremained in Nova Scotia, the initial set-tlement being at The Cross near Halifax,or perhaps at a place called Green Oaks.The area that most fits the description ofthe Zeno Narrative is the modern townof Stellerton, Nova Scotia, which has anexposed oil spring and gold-bearingbeach sands, both items mentioned inthe Narrative. This spring is a good indi-

cation that the Narrative refers to NovaScotia, because there are only two suchoil springs in North America (the other isin Los Angeles).

Bradley says that the colony, or sever-al colonies, kept moving west to avoidother Europeans after the 1500s. Werethese Scottish Templar Knights finallywiped out by the expanding onslaughtof the Iroquois? Bradley thinks so, andthinks that the final battles were foughtin the Rochester, New York, area, and inthe area around St. Catherine’s Ontario,no later than 1570. The major battletook place, according to Bradley, rightwhere the Latter Day Saints (Mormons)place the battle of Cumorah, nearPalmyra, New York. Could the family ofJoseph Smith, the Mormon founder,have been survivors of this battle, andpicked up an account of it from hisancestors?Notes _____________________________________1. The “Zeno Narrative” can be found in the New

England Antiquities Research AssociationJournal, Vol. 32, No. 2, Fall 1998.

Etruscan Explorersby Warren W. DexterSelf-publishedHardcover, 63 pp., $28.50 [email protected] 1 (800) 247-6553

Warren Dexter’s passion has been tocreate a photographic record of

ancient sites in America and other coun-tries, to preserve these artifacts for futuregenerations, at least in pictures. Now95, Mr. Dexter has made a selection ofhis thousands of photos available to thegeneral public in this small book,Etruscan Explorers.

As the dustjacket to his book quoteshim, “I’m not a verbiage writer but agraphic specialist.” The frontispiece rein-forces this, proclaiming: “This book is agraphic story board of the records leftbehind by Ancient Explorers. This is notin an academic or literary format, but thepictures tell the story.” And so they do.

Most spectacular is the subject of thecover photo and several inside photos,the Milk River sculptured heads locatedin Alberta, Canada, about 10 miles upthe river from the U.S. border. Sadly, theCanadian government did not see fit topreserve this ancient site, and pieces of

it have fallen into the Milk River, soDexter’s photos, taken in 1982, take onan increased importance. Vandals alsodemolished one of the sculptured headswith bullet holes, using the sculpture asa target.

These tall pillars are located on a cliffabout 65 feet above the river. The baseof one pillar has Ogam writing inscribedin a circular pattern. Using a montage ofDexter’s photographs, Dr. Barry Felldeciphered the vowel-less Ogam whichtells of using the flight of migrating birdsto prophesy the future. It describes thesame divination procedure attributed tothe ancient Etruscans.

That same pillar has a sculpted

Caucasian head, and next to it is another,smaller pillar with a sculpted Negrohead, similar in style to the Olmec sculpt-ed figures in Central America. (This iswhat you see clearly in the 1982 photos,although now both pillars are damaged.)

Dexter shows in his photos the onlytwo places that the raised letter Ogam,spelling out the name of the god Baal, isfound: in ancient (9th Century B.C.)Etruscan hut urns, used for crematedashes, and on a Milk River dolmen mon-ument, not far from the pillars decribedabove. Hence the name of his book.

Among the other unique photographsare some of ancient Zulu artifacts. Oneof these is an ancient gold trading stonewhich has six different alphabets,including Ogam.

The author has written and con-tributed to other books about ancientAmerica, including sites in his homestate of Vermont. But there are thou-sands of unpublished photos in WarrenDexter’s archive. It is hoped that enoughpeople will be intrigued by this volumeto support the publication of more of Mr.Dexter’s photographs.

—Marjorie Mazel Hecht


North American Evidence of Pre-Columbus Voyages

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