From:    John Brawley                           
To:      Jack Brannan                           93-03-30 09:37:20

On (28 Mar 93) Jack Brannan wrote to John Brawley...

 JB>  JB> The universal constants, including radioactive decay rates, are
 JB>  JB> tightly linked to the constant 'c' (the "speed of light"). The
 JB>  JB> presence of the decay of nickel isotopes in both the laboratory
 JB>  JB> and in the light from supernova 1987a, which is roughly 130,000
 JB>  JB> lightyears away, allowed the decay rates, which are tightly
 JB>  JB> linked to the constant 'c', to be compared: they matched.
 JB>  JB> Therefore the decay rate (hence the constancy of 'c') in both
 JB>  JB> the lab here and the explosion of supernova 1987a, 130,000
 JB>  JB> lightyears distant and 130,000 years ago, of the nickel series
 JB>  JB> is and was exactly the same.  Therefore the "speed of light"
 JB>  JB> has not changed in at least 130,000 years, which is admittedly
 JB>  JB> less than several billion, but then, it only needs to be more
 JB>  JB> than 7,000.  Therefore this local area of the universe is
 JB>  JB> actually at least 130,000 years old and the constant 'c' has
 JB>  JB> not changed in that time.
 
 JB> What we have here is, the speed of light as known today applied to
 JB> supernova 1987a gives an age of 130,000 years. However this says
 JB> nothing about the speed of light being constant. It ASSUMES it is
 JB> constant.

No, what we have here is an empirical demonstration that neither
the speed of light _nor_ the decay rates have _changed_ in at least
130,000 years.  I don't think you understood, or carefully read,
what I wrote, or I didn't make it clear enough.  The decay rates
of isotopes and 'c' are _tightly_ dependent on one another.  We
already know that 1987a is 130,000 lightyears away, being in one
of the Magellanic Clouds, whose distance is rather well known
from other distancing methods.  The distance is not what's under
discussion.  What _is_ under discussion is the second-by-second
timing of nickel isotope _decay_rate_ processes that went on in
that supernova 130,000 years ago, and how they exactly match the
second-by-second timing of the _same_ nickel isotope decay processes
going on _here_, right _now_, 130,000 years later, in the laboratory.
This shows that the decay _RATES_ have not changed for at least
130,000 years, hence, due to the _TIGHT_, demonstrated correlation
between decay rates and 'c', neither has the "speed of light" ('c')
changed for that length of time.

 JB>  JB> References not offered; buried somewhere in the deeps of my
 JB>  JB> thoroughly confused hard disk.  Sorry.
 JB> 
 JB> No problem, you see I know there are no references to prove this.

Gad, Jack.  You've gotten somewhat testy lately.  Walt accused me
of that awhile ago; have you been backed into a corner?  The
reference exists; it's just buried in a pre-"Point" system offline
reader file somewhere, .ARJed or .ZIPped.  I gues I'll just have
to dig it out and let you have the full post.  It was here in
BioGenesis, I think....

(Anybody got easier access to that post --several months old--
containing the nickel-decay-rate/supernova 1987a data and
its citation?)

J B