nature republic

An extensive area of rural Ireland was monitored in detail for natural background radiation (NBR); average background radiation values were derived for all District Electoral Divisions (DEDs) in this area. Cancer mortality rates were calculated for the DEDs aggregated according to average NBR. No association was apparent between cancer mortality rates and levels of natural background radiation.

Recent work has called into question whether nature can extract the rotational energy of a black hole via electromagnetic fields by appealing to an alleged ability to absorb current. We describe the strategies needed to properly treat the astrophysics in curved spacetime near black holes, showing that while the Blandford-Znajek effect is sound, the deeper nature of the electric nature of black holes remains unresolved.