Fwd: dark matter

[Andrew Karam <karam.1@osu.edu>]

>You can go to "http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/astro-ph/9805142";, and download the
>paper in postscript, pdf, or whatever format you want.  
>

This is the URL for the paper I mentioned Wednesday about volcanogenic dark
matter and mass extinctions.  Anyone who is interested in the paper but
doesn't have Acrobat Reader or otherwise can't access the paper can e-mail
me and I'll fax or mail you a copy.  

The paper claims that the Earth periodically runs through clumps of dark
matter that cause massive mutations and death in the biosphere, accumulates
near the core of the Earth, and annihilates.  The energy released by the
annihilation generates mantle plumes, leading to massive volcanic eruptions
and further mass extinctions about 5 million years later.

In my opinion, the scenario outlined is dubious and depends on some
unproved (and potentially unprovable) assumptions:

-Dark matter interacts physically (not just gravitationally) with normal
matter
-Dark matter clumps passing by the Earth result in radiation dose
"comparable to the neutron radiation from a close nuclear explosion
protracted over the time required for...passage
-Dark matter is unstable or reacts with normal matter to annihilate and
release heat
-Dark matter radiation causes cancer 
-This cancer can be detected in old (several hundred million years old)
fossils

There's more, but anyone who's interested can read the paper themselves
rather than my inflicting it on everyone.

Andy



The opinions expressed above are well-reasoned and insightful.  Needless to
say, they are not those of my employer. (with apologies to Michael Feldman)		

Andrew Karam, MS, CHP					(614) 292-1284 (phone)
The Ohio State University 					(614) 292-7002 (fax)
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(karam.1@osu.edu)