Nicola Scafetta is a research scientist at Duke University

Duke University

Duke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...

 Physics Department. His research interests are in theoretical and applied statistics and nonlinear models of complex processes. He has published peer-reviewed papers in journals covering a wide variety of disciplines, including astronomy

Astronomy

Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...

, biology

Biology

Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...

, climatology

Climatology

Climatology is the study of climate, scientifically defined as weather conditions averaged over a period of time, and is a branch of the atmospheric sciences...

, economics

Economics

Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...

, medicine

Medicine

Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....

, physics

Physics

Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...

 and sociology

Sociology

Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...

.

Education

Scafetta was born in Italy. He graduated at the Universita' di Pisa and got a PhD in Physics from the University of North Texas.

Collaborations

Scafetta is a collaborator with Active Cavity Radiometer Irradiance Monitor

Active Cavity Radiometer Irradiance Monitor Satellite

ACRIMSAT is the acronym for Active Cavity Radiometer Irradiance Monitor Satellite. It is a dedicated satellite and instrument that is one of the 21 primary observational components of NASA's Earth Observing System program...

(ACRIM) which monitors total solar irradiance (TSI) as measured by the ACRIM satellite. Scafetta was involved in the scientific controversy between ACRIM and PMOD. PMOD analysis showed no upward trend in TSI from 1980-2000. In Scafette's view, the PMOD analysis was based on altering the published data from ACRIM and NIMBUS7 and the ACRIM and NIMBUS7 investigating teams rejected the PMOD adjustments as "arbitrary.". But Duffy, Wigley and Santer argue that Scafetta's interpretation makes the climate... mysteriously hypersensitive to solar variations

Contributions to science

Scafetta developed Diffusion Entropy Analysis, a method of statistical analysis which distinguishes between Levy Walk noises and Fractal Brownian Motion in complex systems. Scafetta's research first made news in 2002 regarding his analysis of teen pregnancy. Scafetta used this method to publish a number of peer-reviewed articles in a wide variety of scientific disciplines, researching subjects as diverse as teen pregnancy, distribution of wealth, human gait, earthquakes and DNA. A number of books have been published using and explaining Diffusion Entropy Analysis.

Views on climate change

In "Climate Change and its Causes, a Discussion about some Key Issue" Scafetta claims "At least 60% of the warming of the Earth observed since 1970 appears to be induced by natural cycles which are present in the solar system. A climatic stabilization or cooling until 2030-2040 is forecast by the phenomenological model." Using the theory, Scafetta has predicted global temperature changes up to the year 2100. This theory is disputed. These claims are not accepted in the scientific mainstream.

In 2009, Scafetta faced criticism for failing to disclose the computer code required to reproduce his research.

Selected publications

• Nicola Scafetta, Patti Hamilton and Paolo Grigolini, “The thermodynamics of social process: the teen birth phenomenon,” Fractals, 9, 193-208 (2001). http://www.fel.duke.edu/%7Escafetta/pdf/PRE36130_02.pdf
• Nicola Scafetta, Sergio Picozzi and Bruce J. West, “An out-of-equilibrium model of the distributions of wealth” Quantitative Finance 4, 353-364 (2004)." http://www.fel.duke.edu/~scafetta/pdf/qf4_3_010.pdf
• Nicola Scafetta and Bruce J. West, “Multiresolution diffusion entropy analysis of time series: an application to births to teenagers in Texas” Chaos, Solitons & Fractals 20, 119 (2004). http://www.fel.duke.edu/~scafetta/pdf/science_teen.pdf
• Nicola Scafetta, and Paolo Grigolini, “Scaling detection in time series: diffusion entropy analysis,” Phys. Rev. E 66, 036130 (2002)."http://www.fel.duke.edu/~scafetta/pdf/PRE36130_02.pdf
• Nicola Scafetta, Richard Moon, and Bruce J. West, “Fractal Response of Physiological Signals to Stress Conditions, Environmental Changes and Neurodegenerative Diseases,” Complexity 12, 12-17 (2007). http://www.fel.duke.edu/~scafetta/pdf/complexity2007.pdf
• Nicola Scafetta, and Bruce J. West, “Phenomenological reconstructions of the solar signature in the NH surface temperature records since 1600.” J. Geophys. Res., 112, D24S03, doi:10.1029/2007JD008437 (2007). http://www.fel.duke.edu/~scafetta/pdf/2007JD008437.pdf
• N. Scafetta, “Empirical analysis of the solar contribution to global mean air surface temperature change,” Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics 71, 1916–1923 (2009), doi:10.1016/j.jastp.2009.07.007. http://www.fel.duke.edu/%7Escafetta/pdf/Scafetta-JASP_1_2009.pdf
• Nicola Scafetta and Richard Willson, “ACRIM-gap and Total Solar Irradiance (TSI) trend issue resolved using a surface magnetic flux TSI proxy model”, Geophysical Research Letter 36, L05701, doi:10.1029/2008GL036307 (2009). http://www.fel.duke.edu/%7Escafetta/pdf/2008GL036307.pdf
• Craig Loehle and Nicola Scafetta, "Climate Change Attribution Using Empirical Decomposition of Climatic Data," The Open Atmospheric Science Journal, 2011 5, 74-86. Full text
• Loehle & Scafetta Supplemental Info

External links

• Duke web page
• Curriculum Vitae
• Dissertation
• Climate Change and Its Causes: A Discussion about Some Key Issues. Presentation to the EPA, February 2009