Scientist seeks a cup of Stardust dust

Saturday, March 24, 2007 | 7:01 a.m.

For controversial physicist Steven Jones, Stardust dust is a must.

The Utah scientist needs dust from the Stardust implosion to test his theory that the World Trade Center towers were brought down on 9/11 with the help of pre-positioned explosives - a hypothesis that implicates the government in a sweeping cover-up scheme.

To study his theory, Jones needs no more than a cup of dust, gathered with a plastic spoon into a plastic bag .

So it's too bad, really, that Jones couldn't make it to the March 13 demolition, when post-implosion powder came down so thick and fast that an onlooker laid on his back and formed dust angels.

But shortly after the 2:30 a.m. implosion, a 100- person clean up crew armed with vacuum trucks and street sweepers started the six-hour street sanitization process. And there went any hope by Jones of easy dust pickings.

Today, the 63-acre demolition site is boarded off. Behind the eight-foot barrier walls, all that's left of the 32-story casino is a pile of concrete.

But Jones is determined to get his dust. And so working with like-minded 9/11 conspiracy theorists, he's calling on Las Vegas residents to scoop up any of the stuff they can find. His research depends on it.

"We're homing in on something that looks very definitive," Jones said. "A cup will suffice. A quart would be great."

Jones' dream for the Stardust dust? To use it as a control, comparing it with dust samples he collected after Sept. 11.

Jones says World Trade Center dust tests suggest certain chemicals - ones that can be detected in the residue - were used to weaken the steel-supported building before hidden explosives were detonated to finish the job. The two planes that crashed into the towers couldn't have taken the buildings down without help, he says.

It's a theory that hasn't made Jones popular with the government he accuses of withholding information.

The physicist left Brigham Young University this year with contention at his heels, and his research has been brutally bandied about by academics. Jones says this is to be expected when you're at the height of groundbreaking research. (Others have called it the pits of quackery.)

"We haven't had a lot of cooperation, oddly enough," Jones said.

Jones said a heavy schedule prevented him from attending the Stardust implosion.

For the record, says Mark Loizeaux, president of Controlled Demolition Inc. , the Stardust was leveled with dynamite - and without the assistance of any other structure -weakening chemicals.