A new set of revolutions in science is underway, driven by Russia and China’s alliance and most people have no clue.

China recently announced that one of the largest cosmic radiation observatories will become functional by the end of 2019. This observatory, that will give humanity greater insight into the history of our universe is located in the Sichuan Province China as part of a collaborative project which included Russia. Some months earlier, the Russia-China Arctic Research Center was created as a vital component of the fast emerging “Polar Silk Road”, which is extending the framework of the BRI to Russia’s Arctic and beyond. The press release for the research center stated: “the newly established Center will take China-Russia scientific cooperation to a new level. Jointly we will be able to initiate and implement major projects, including joint Arctic expeditions, to foster innovative dialogue as related to exploration of ocean mineral and biological resources to preserve unique subsea ecological systems.” The fields which will be explored include “climatic, geological, biogeochemical processes and trends of ecosystem changes in the Arctic region”.

These two projects are deeply connected as the revolutionary transformation in human relations ushered in by the new Belt and Road Initiative is more than merely political.

The importance of the Arctic for frontier scientific research extends beyond the mere geopolitical concerns and strikes deeper at the heart of human existence. It has long been recognized by serious scientists for over a century that it is only at the poles of the earth that mankind can properly investigate a phenomenon which is coming to be recognized as the driving force of climate change, ice ages, earthquakes, and even the evolution of life itself!

A Return to a Vernadskian Biogeochemistry

Cosmic radiation and the relationship between Earth’s variable Ionosphere and magnetic field with the dense ocean of cosmic radiation washing over (and through) the earth as we orbit around a sun on a small arm of one of many galaxies is a field of study which has long been overlooked by mainstream science in the west but which both the Chinese and Russians are increasingly taking a leading interest in. This shouldn’t come as a surprise as the scientific methods of the great Russian biogeochemist Vladimir Vernadsky (founder of the Ukrainian Academy of Science and founder of the fields of Biogeochemistry and radiogeology) are warmly embraced in the east, whereas his name is nearly unknown in the west. In his book the Biosphere (1926), Vernadsky described his incredible understanding of the Biosphere when he stated:

“The biosphere may be regarded as a region of transformers that convert cosmic radiations into active energy in electrical, chemical, mechanical, thermal, and other forms. Radiations from all stars enter the biosphere, but we catch and perceive only an insignificant part of the total. The existence of radiation originating in the most distant regions of the cosmos cannot be doubted. Stars and nebulae are constantly emitting specific radiations, and everything suggests that the penetrating radiation discovered in the upper regions of the atmosphere by Hess originates beyond the limits of the solar system, perhaps in the Milky Way, in nebulae, or in stars …The importance of this will not be clear for some time, but this penetrating cosmic radiation determines the character and mechanism of the biosphere.”

What Are Cosmic Rays?

Cosmic radiation was only discovered a few years earlier by Austrian physicist Victor Hess who first confirmed the existence of various forms of high energy electrons and neutrons entering the earth from space using a cloud chamber and balloon. In 1912, during a test conducted during a solar eclipse, Hess proved that the ionizing radiation could not merely be coming from the sun, but was coming from the entire universe! His work proved conclusively that space was not empty as Newtonian physics assumed, but rather that the universe was densely saturated with a complex array of cosmic radiations.

Up until the early 1960s, frontier scientists knew that it was in the domain of cosmic radiation that the greatest breakthroughs in science would occur. These scientists knew that mankind’s leap into the space age and into the atomic age were two sides of the same coin which depended upon a moral commitment to the future and respect for the past. Frank Capra’s 1959 film The Strange Case of Cosmic Rays is worth watching to revisit this lost morality.

The Sacrifice of Truth and the 1968 Paradigm Shift

By the end of the 1960s, a decade of assassinations, Cold War terror, CIA-funded drugs and anarchist youth counterculture caused a seismic rift in western society. The baby boomer generation was trained to “not trust anyone over 30”, and turned their backs not only on the idea of the “nuclear family” but the very ethic of scientific and technological progress that had been the bedrock of western culture since the time of the Golden Renaissance.

With the rejection of truthfulness and progress as cultural standards, mathematical modelling of statistical “probability” became the craze as the “me” generation of the 1980s found infinite ways to model the economy using casino-inspired formulas like Monte Carlo analysis. At the same time, those same statistical models became hegemonic in climate science and quantum theory alike. “Mathematical complexity” became the invisible wall beyond which no human mind could leap as ever better techniques of “dice rolling” were generated with modern day oracles like Alan Greenspan “guessing” what markets would do from day to day. Since no long term planning was permitted under this globalizing speculative world, uncertainty grew by the day, and high tech guessing was all the future could be known by. The Malthusian revival blossomed under this new pessimistic and increasingly mystical cultural terrain.

China and Russia Revive True Science

The Chinese and Russian scientists forming the new Arctic research center and cosmic radiation observatories will be exploring these phenomena which promise to revolutionize humanity’s knowledge of the universe and self-understanding alike (since we are a product of those same galactic processes that we investigate).

The Cosmic radiation observatory is located 4410 meters above sea level dubbed the Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO). The stated purpose is to trace all high energy protons and atomic nuclei entering the earth’s atmosphere from suns, supernovae (like the Crab Nebula) and extragalactic blazars. A year earlier, in June 2018, China and Russia began a joint project to explore the plasma dynamics of the earth’s ionosphere through a series of experiments whereby the Russian-based EURA ionospheric heating facility sent radio waves to the upper ionospheric plasma 310 miles above the Earth’s surface. The results of the heated ionosphere and spikes in electron density were mapped by China’s Seismo-electo magnetic satellite Zhangeng-1.

This research dovetails China’s stated mission of developing a space program not only to mine Helium-3 fusion fuel from the Moon but also discover the geochemical composition of the solar system in order to gain a better understanding of the forces of creative change behind its formation. The fact that Helium-3 is the most efficient fuel for fusion reactions should remind us that China has also increasingly become a leader in fusion research. Many cutting edge scientists have taken note that the organized vortices and other structures we encounter in plasmas during fusion reactions are also found when one explores the ionosphere-driven weather patterns and even galaxy-formations. From this vantage point, the unbridgeable gulf separating micro and macro physics under the particle-driven standard theory dominant in the west increasingly disappears.

Humankind as a New Geological Force

The fact is that unlike other species of the biosphere, mankind uniquely leaps beyond his ecosystem using new discoveries and technologies. As recent examples in terraforming deserts, flood management and forestation has demonstrated, humanity also has the unique capacity to extend the biosphere into desert regions that otherwise might take millions of years for nature to accomplish left to its own devices.

As China’s BRI extends mankind’s influence over the earth and beyond (even increasing the biosphere itself) let us end with some thoughts from Vladimir Vernadsky, whose pioneering work took him beyond the limited notions of the biosphere (aka; the domain of matter animated by life) and into the realm of the noösphere (aka: the domain of matter animated by thought). Witnessing the tragic folly of the Second World War, Vernadsky looked upon the new epoch that he knew was contained in our higher destiny when he wrote “Some Words About the Noosphere” in 1943:

“Now we live in the period of a new geological evolutionary change in the biosphere. We are entering the noösphere. This new elemental geological process is taking place at a stormy time, in the epoch of a destructive world war. But the important fact is that our democratic ideals are in tune with the elemental geological processes, with the law of nature, and with the noösphere. Therefore we may face the future with confidence. It is in our hands. We will not let it go.”