Solco Walle Tromp (9, March 1909 - 17, March 1983) was a Dutch

geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the structure, composition, and History of Earth, history of Earth. Geologists incorporate techniques from physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, and geography to perform research in the Field research, ...

and biometeorologist. Tromp was from 1947 to 1950 Professor of geology at

Cairo University Cairo University () is Egypt's premier public university. Its main campus is in Giza, immediately across the Nile from Cairo. It was founded on 21 December 1908;"Brief history and development of Cairo University." Cairo University Faculty of En ...

. He co-founded the

International Society of Biometeorology The International Society of Biometeorology (ISB) is a professional society for scientists interested in biometeorology, specifically environmental and ecological aspects of the interaction of the atmosphere and biosphere. The organization's state ...

and published pioneering writings on

biometeorology Biometeorology is the interdisciplinary field of science that studies the interactions between living things (plants, microbes, vertebrates, invertebrates) and atmospheric phenomena (wind, temperature, humidity, sunlight, greenhouse gas concentrati ...

. Tromp took a deep interest in

dowsing Dowsing is a type of divination employed in attempts to locate ground water, buried metals or ores, gemstones, Petroleum, oil, claimed radiations (radiesthesia),As translated from one preface of the Kassel experiments, "roughly 10,000 active do ...

and

radiesthesia Radiesthesia describes a physical ability to detect radiation emitted by a person, animal, object or geographical feature. One of its practitioners, J. Cecil Maby, defined it as "The faculty and study of certain reflexive physical responses of ...

. He conducted experiments and came to the conclusion that dowsing is a real phenomenon due to activity of

electromagnetic field An electromagnetic field (also EM field) is a physical field, varying in space and time, that represents the electric and magnetic influences generated by and acting upon electric charges. The field at any point in space and time can be regarde ...

s. His views on dowsing were criticized by the

scientific community The scientific community is a diverse network of interacting scientists. It includes many "working group, sub-communities" working on particular scientific fields, and within particular institutions; interdisciplinary and cross-institutional acti ...

and have been described by critics as an example of

pseudoscience Pseudoscience consists of statements, beliefs, or practices that claim to be both scientific and factual but are incompatible with the scientific method. Pseudoscience is often characterized by contradictory, exaggerated or unfalsifiable cl ...

. Gardner, Martin. (2012 edition, originally published in 1957). ''

Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science ''Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science'' (1957)—originally published in 1952 as ''In the Name of Science: An Entertaining Survey of the High Priests and Cultists of Science, Past and Present''—was Martin Gardner's second book. A survey o ...

''. Dover Publications. pp. 103-106.

Publications

*''The Religion of the Modern Scientist: Neo-Materialism'' (1947) *''Psychical Physics: A Scientific Analysis of Dowsing Radiesthesia and Kindred Divining Phenomena'' (1949) *''Medical Biometeorology: Weather, Climate, and the Living Organism'' (1963) *''Pathological Biometeorology'' (1977)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tromp, Solco Walle 1909 births 1983 deaths Cairo University alumni Dowsing 20th-century Dutch geologists