Following the publication of Black Gold Stranglehold: The Myth of Scarcity and the Politics of Oil, Craig Smith and I have received e-mails from Alexander A. Kitchka, a Russian research scientist who is a member of the National Academy of Science in the Ukrane and the secretary of the Association of Ukranian Geologists. Kitchka’s research strongly supports the abiotic, “Deep-Earth” theory of the origin of oil.

Deep underwater, and deeper underground, scientists see surprising hints that gas and oil deposits can be replenished, filling up again, sometimes rapidly. Although it sounds too good to be true, increasing evidence from the Gulf of Mexico suggests that some old oil fields are being refilled by petroleum surging up from deep below, scientists report. That may mean that current estimates of oil and gas abundance are far too low.

Nearly everything we know about the celestial universe has come from applying principles we have learned in terrestrial physics: Newton’s laws of motion, our studies of the spectrum of light, our explorations of the nucleus of the atom and other major discoveries in our physics laboratories have contributed to our enlightenment about the stars-their motions, their chemical composition, their temperatures and their source of energy.

Yet there is one great branch of physics which up to now has told us little or nothing about astronomy. That branch, is electricity. It is rather astonishing that this phenomenon, which has been so exhaustively studied on the earth, has been of so little help in the celestial sphere. Electricity has illuminated our cities but has shed no light on stellar phenomena; it has linked the earth with a dense net, of communications but has given no information about the universe around us.

The clean, green car of the future will cruise the highway on a tankful of powdered metal – welcome to the new Iron Age

Running on iron

IF smog-choked streets test our love for petrol and diesel engines, then rocketing fuel prices and global warming could end that relationship once and for all. But before you start saving for the fuel-cell-powered electric car that industry experts keep promising, there’s something you should know. The car of the future will run on metal.