12 results found.
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 54: Nov-Dec 1987 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Toads Fall To Squashy Fate On Route 66, near Gallup, New Mexico, June 1949. "Temperature 104 . Absolute blue sunny skies. No clouds anywhere to be seen, from one horizon to the other for 360 . "Out of nowhere, without warning, it poured extremely hard rain, hail, and toads. The hail balls were maybe the size of grapes to the size of peas. The toads were a medium brown in color and approximately the size of an adult's thumbnail. This whole incident lasted for less than 5 minutes, if my memory is correct. .. .. . "The highway and the desert sands seemed to be one and the same, and the whole area seemed to be alive and moving. By now, we were down to a very slow speed, and under closer observation we noticed that the area was littered with millions of hailstones and those toads hopping all over. "The storm stopped as fast as it started, and the toads disappeared just as fast. I'll never forget how slippery the road was as we drove over those toads, and the popping of their bodies under the tires of my automobile." (Schuler, Richard A.; personal communication, July 23, 1987.) Comment. The sudden onset of the violent storm and the huge numbers of toads are both difficult-to-account for. If a whirlwind picked up ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 185 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf054/sf054g15.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 2: January 1978 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Hedgehogs Use Toad Venom For Defense European hedgehogs chew toad skins to extract venom from the paratoid glands. They then lick their spines with the saliva-venom mixture. Experiments with human volunteers prove that the venomanointed spines are much more painful and irritating than clean ones. Such hedgehog behavior is innate and fully developed before the juveniles leave the nest. Tenrecs, which are similar to hedgehogs but in an entirely different family, display a somewhat different self-anointing type of behavior that must have developed independently. Conclusion: self-anointing with toad venom is so useful that it developed twice under evolutionary pressures. (Brodie, Edmund D., Jr.; "Hedgehogs Use Toad Venom in Their Own Defense," Nature, 268:627, 1977.) Reference. Hedgehog anointing and other idiosyncrasies may be found in Chapter BMB in Biological Anomalies: Mammals I. This book is described here . From Science Frontiers #2 , January 1978 . 1978-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 103 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf002/sf002p05.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 127: Jan-Feb 2000 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Stoned Dogs When Australian dog owners see their pets come home frothing at the mouth and disoriented, they know they have a drug problem -- not coke or pot but toads! The ugly, venomous cane toad. Cane toads are consummate pests in Queensland. Their venom is so powerful that would-be predators avoid them. Early on, domestic dogs gave them a wide berth, too. Then, somehow, one dog discovered that by gently mouthing a cane toad, it acquired just enough venom to give it a high. Just how, we don't know, but in some way the word was passed around the canine world, and toad-mouthing became widespread. Some dogs are so hooked that they sneak out at night for quick fixes and even ignore their food dish. (Anonymous; "Feedback," New Scientist, p. 96, July 24, 1999.) From Science Frontiers #127, JAN-FEB 2000 . 1997 William R. Corliss ...
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... MORPHOLOGY Exceptional Abundance and Diversity in Australia Newts and Salamanders Are Penisless; They Use Spermatophores Like Scorpions Some Male Salamanders Have Special Teeth to Inject Females with Pheromones Discardable (Sometimes Autonomous) Tails Mimicry in Reptiles Sports, Terata She-Male Snakes and Lizards Sharp Differences within Some Frog Species Caecilians Are Just Vertebrate Bags of Fluid Salamanders with Ballistic Tongues Tuataras Have No Penis, Unique among Reptiles Lizard Color Changes with Temperature Caecilians Have Pop-Out Eyes Convergent Evolution among Island Lizards Some Lizard Eggs Luminous Snakes with Rudimentary Legs Night-Shining Eyes Hinged Teeth Grass inside Turtle Egg Lizard Mite Pockets Blind Batrachians Design and Purposes of Forked Tongues Gender Changes in Frogs Frogs and Snakes with Aerodynamic Surfaces [BRB] Receptacles for Carrying Eggs Young Reptiles with Lures Snake with Extra Hinge in Jaw Reptiles that Change Color Midwife-Toad Saga (Kammerer) Gecko with Velcro Feet Neoteny and Heterchrony All-Female Species [BRF Parthenogenesis, Virgin Birth] Giant Reptiles Tuatara Third Eye Salamander Cannibalistic Morphs Convergence among Island Lizards Living Fossils (Evolutionary Stasis) Throat Teeth in Snakes Fringed Feet on Desert Lizards Olms Hairy Frogs Snakes Have Two Penises Changing Color to Control Temperature Spines to Condense Moisture Frogs with Pouches for Young Incubator Structures on Toads Chameleon Tongues Longer Than Bodies Riddle of the Basilisk BRB BEHAVIOR Snakes Swallowing Young Frogs Swallowing Young Frogs "Appreciating" Music Arboreal Salamanders Frogs Croaking in Unison Lizards Running on Water Pair-Bonding in Frogs Unusual Copulation Technique in Iguanas Snake Balls Frog Battles Turtles Stomping for Worms Lizards Rain Down from Trees Unusual Lizard Courtship Lizards Mimicking Insects Fabled Snakes (Hoop and Milk Snakes) Iguana Sociality Toad Handedness Death Feints ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 24 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /cat-biol.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 79: Jan-Feb 1992 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Crop circles: if some are hoaxes, are they all hoaxes?One could almost hear a sigh of relief among the skeptics of unusual natural phenomena when two Britons admitted to manufacturing scores of crop circles. After all, the crop circles are about as outrageous as UFOs and toads-entombedin-stone. However, the crop circles have not gone away. In fact, plant and soil samples from the circles seem to point to bizarre, highly energetic processes at work. This aspect of the phenomenon has been discussed by R. Noyes, Secretary of the Center for Crop Circle Studies (CCCS). First, though, Noyes has asserted that hoaxes cannot explain the large numbers of circles that have been counted -- about 1000 between 1980 and 1989. He con tinued as follows: "The events of 1990 and 1991 (totalling about a further 1000 over the two years) certainly present a puzzle. Hoax is beyond doubt in some cases, but it seems very unlikely as a general explanation. Many events have been very large and very elaborate; they have occurred widely about the country (sometimes several on the same night in counties far from each other); there have been very few cases of detection of hoax, despite massive surveillance in the Mariborough/Devizes area, where so many of the events took place; circles (including a dumbbell formation) occurred within visual and radar range of a hi-tech ...
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... , has remarked: "[ Amphibians] were here when the dinosaurs were here, and [they] survived the age of mammals. If they're checking out now, I think it is significant." In this context, Wake believes that there is a single, global, still-unidentified cause operating. (Barinaga, Marcia; "Where Have All the Froggies Gone?" Science, 247:1033, 1990. Also: Cowen, Ron; "Tales from the Froglog and Others," Science News, 137:158, 1990.) In the same issue of Science, S.A . Temple reviewed the book: Where Have All the Birds Gone? The situation for North American forest-dwelling song birds is not as critical as that for frogs and toads, but it is still very serious. The populations of warblers, vireos, and thrushes are declining rapidly, even though the North American forests are now expanding. (Temple, Stanley A.; "Winter Absences," Science, 247: 1128, 1990.) From Science Frontiers #69, MAY-JUN 1990 . 1990-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 2: January 1978 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology The Stone Enigmas of New England Astronomy Sun-Earth-Moon System May Not Be Stable Changes in Solar Rotation Biology Hopeful Monsters Rather Than Gradual Evolution? Hedgehogs Use Toad Venom for Defense Blind Man Runs on Lunar Time Infections From Comets Geology Will Radiohalos in Coalified Wood Upset Geological Clocks? How Real Are Biological Extinctions in the Fossil Record? Geophysics Another Indian Ocean Light Wheel Ghostly White Disk and Light Beam in Sky Fast-moving Dark Bands Cross Halo The Morning Glory Giant Ball Lightning Psychology Does Man Survive Death? ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 14 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf002/index.htm
... Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Frog Fall June 16, 1937. Frackville, Pennsylvania. "Astonished householders of this little mining town, ten miles north of Pottsville, went out with brooms and swept bullfrogs off their open porches after a thunderstorm today. "The tiny frogs sounded like the thudding of hailstones as they dropped by hundreds on tin roofs. "Miniature "twisters" accompanying the rain had lifted the frogs several yards into the air, it was suggested, and dropped them over Frackville." (Anonymous; "Bullfrogs by the Hundred Fall in Pennsylvania Rain," New York Times, June 17, 1937. Cr. M. Piechota. Comment. The "whirlwind theory" is always trotted out to account for fish, frog, and toad falls. It is not easy to find hundreds of tiny frogs in a marsh and then vacuum them up without also levitating considerable plant debris and other marsh dwellers. From Science Frontiers #115, JAN-FEB 1998 . 1998-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... still do not know the cause. 'It's a loud and audible mechanical raspy hum,' said Waldo Point Harbormaster Ted Rose, who said the vexing noise sounded like an electric razor. 'It sounds like this mzmzmzmzmzmzmzm,' Rose said. 'Sometimes it gets so loud you have to talk above it. It can drown out conversations and wake people from a dead sleep.' For reasons no one understands, the noise can be heard only from about 8 p.m . until sunrise, and it goes silent from late September until mid-April, when it begins humming again through the summer." Acoustical engineers from Berkeley could not pinpoint the source of the sound with the help of instruments and a diver. Biologists believe the noise is made by the singing toad-fish, also called the plainfin midshipman. (Leery, Kevin, "Sausalito's Weird Hum Is Back, " San Francisco Chronicle, July 29, 1985. Cr. P. Bartindale. Also: Anderson, fan; "Humming Fish Disturb the Peace, " New Scientist, p. 64, September 12, 1985.) (See Category GSMI in EARTHQUAKES, TIDES, UNIDENTIFIED SOUNDS for more instances of underwater sounds, especially those mysterious sounds heard near the mouth of the Pascagoula River, Mississippi. (WRC) From Science Frontiers #42, NOV-DEC 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... been added artificially!! (Morris, John D.; "The Paluxy River Mystery," ICR Impact Series no. 151, January 1986. ICR = Institute for Creation Research.) Comment. Fraud is certainly implied by the suggestion of artificiality. Would the enemies of creationism go out at night with a brush to destroy a key datum supporting creationism? Of course we don't know. But the whole business bears a fascinating resemblance to the case of Paul Kammerer, who in the 1920s reported lab data supporting the inheritance of acquired characteristics. Evolutionists were aghast and attacked Kammerer vigorously. Then one scientist discovered that some of Kammerer's specimens had been deliberatel tampered with. Kammerer eventually committed suicide. However, A. Koestler, in his book The Case of the Midwife Toad, reviewed the affair and suggested that Kammerer may have been framed by someone who surreptitiously injected India ink into the feet of some of Kammerer's specimens. A curious parallelism, is it not? Moral: Theories are more important than facts!? Original Paluxy footprint (left) and their present appearance (right). The coloration goes right across the mud pushups. From Science Frontiers #45, MAY-JUN 1986 . 1986-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 54: Nov-Dec 1987 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology 300,000-YEAR-OLD SITE IN BRAZIL Egyptian pyramids actually made of synthetic stone? Astronomy Icebergs and crouching giants Big-bang bashers Fractals, fractals everywhere Biology Instances of observed speciation Plants are not color blind! Electric-power plants! Honest, this is the last "plant" item! The insects' revenge Geology Now, it's comet showers that did it The changing magnetic climate: does it affect civilizations? Huge underground electrical circuit What heats the earth Geophysics Toads fall to squashy fate Ball lightning in bavaria Psychology A HOAX ADMITTED Esp of atoms? Chemistry and physics Through a peephole tantalizingly Unclassified The uncertainty of knowledge ...
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... Ice Crystals in Cumulus Clouds GWC16 Cloud Brightness Changes GWC17 Anomalous High-Altitude Haze Green Clouds [GWH] Bright-Night Phenomenon High-Altitude Layers of Material Natural Sodium Clouds Bromine Pulses Arctic Plumes Stratospheric Water Flow and Reservoirs Miscellaneous Unexplained Clouds Holes in the Ionosphere (Icy Comets) Ozone Holes Ozone Clouds GWD DARK DAYS, FOGS, AND OTHER OBSCURATIONS GWD1 Dark Days GWD2 Pogonips and Other Ice Fogs GWD3 Mists and Epidemics GWD4 Dry Fogs and Dust Fogs GWF FALLS GWF1 Ice Falls or Hydrometeors GWF2 Stone Falls GWF3 Sulphur/Pollen Falls GWF4 Falls of Miscellaneous Inorganic Substances GWF5 The Fall of Manna GWF6 Unusual Falls of Hay and Leaves GWF7 Gelatinous Meteors or Pwdre Ser GWF8 Prodigious Falls of Web-Like Material (Angel Hair) GWF9 Falls of Miscellaneous Organic Substances GWF10 Fish Falls GWF11 Falls of Frogs and Toads GWF12 Insect Falls GWF13 Bird Falls GWF14 Falls of Miscellaneous Living Animals Sewage Falls Falls of Liquids and Goo GWH LARGE STORM SYSTEMS GWH1 Ozone in Hurricanes GWH2 Hurricane Geographical Anomalies GWH3 Thunderstorm Systems Hypercanes Unusually Intense Storms Large-Scale Oscillations of the Atmosphere Wind Storms in the Upper Atmosphere Green Thunderstorms [GWC] Hurricane Fine Structure GWP ANOMALOUS PRECIPITATION GWP1 Precipitation from a Clear Sky GWP2 Giant Snowflakes GWP3 Conical Snowflakes GWP4 Hailstones with Anomalous Shapes GWP5 Giant Hailstones GWP6 Hail Strewn Patterns GWP7 Slowly Falling Hail GWP8 Unusual Inclusions in Hail GWP9 Explosive Hail GWP10 Colored Precipitation GWP11 Luminous Precipitation GWP12 Point Precipitation GWP13 Surplus Ice Crystals in Clouds GWP14 Decrease of Rainfall with Increasing Altitude GWP15 Rain Gushes Associated with Lightning Puzzle of Snowflake Symmetry Weekend Rain Rainfall Correlated with Soil Temperature GWR TEMPERATURE ANOMALIES GWR1 Temperature Flashes GWR2 Incendiary Phenomena Global Warming The ...
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