91 results found.
... , nicely executed, and I recommend it highly", Icarus. 288 pages, hardcover, $17.95, 66 illustrations,4 indexes 1986. 874 references, LC 86-60231, ISBN 915554-20-8 , 7x10 format. Stars, Galaxies, Cosmos: A Catalog of Astronomical Anomalies Sorry: Out of Print. No longer available. Did the Big Bang really begin the existence of all we know? Do we honestly know how the stars (and our sun) work? Can we rely on Newton's Law of Gravitation? According to this volume the answer seems to be "Probably not ! " Typical subjects covered: Optical bursters and flare stars * Estorical color change of Sirius * Infrared cirrus clouds * Quasar-galaxy associations * The red-shift controversy * Quantization of red shifts * The quasar energy paradox * Apparent faster-than-light velocities in quasars and galaxies * Evidence for universal rotation * Swiss cheese structure of universe * Is the "missing mass" really missing ? * Superluminous infrared galaxies * Shells around elliptical galaxies Comments from reviews: ". .. it never fails to be interesting, challenging and stimulating", New Scientist 246 pages, hardcover, $17.95, 50 illustrations, 4 indexes 1987. 817 references, LC 87-60007, ISBN 915554-21-6 , 7x10 format. Handbooks Mysterious Universe: A Handbook of Astronomical Anomalies Sorry, Out of print Our Astronomy Handbook covers much the same ground as the three preceding Astronomy Catalogs, but in more detail. For example, the quotations are ...
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... Curious Phenomenonin Venezuala, Scientific American, 55:389, 1886.) The article in Infinite Energy discusses in some depth the reality of ball lightning, the similarities to modern UFO reports, the reliability of anecdotes, and, especially, the nature of the physiological effects, which resemble, in some aspects, radiation sickness resulting from exposure to intense X-rays or nuclear devices. It is also interesting that this anecdote, long-consigned to "fringe" publications, has now been resurrected in digital form by Scientific American, which is an establishment publication if there ever was one. Kaswell writes to this point as follows: My purpose was (in part) to show that mainstream scientists in main-stream publications like Scientific American evaluate the largely anecdotal evidence for the relatively non-controversial ball lightning by a different and more lenient standard than that they reserve for the highly controversial UFO reports. The Maracaibo case illustrates this beautifully, precisely because the report has aspects similar to both phenomena. (Kaswell, Gordon David; "Phenomenon in Venezuela: A Documented Case of Unexplained Radiation Exposure," Infinite Energy, 6:33, no. 32, 2000. Journal address: P.O . Box 2816, Concord, NH 03302-2816.) Comment. The conversion of science archives to digital form so that they can be accessed on the Web is shallow time-wise. The appearance of this 1886 item is an exception. Much old information is being excluded by this transformation of media. In effect, if not intent, it is like the destruction of ...
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... natural forces. No question about it; there was not a soupcon of artificiality. But it now seems that if you look at the "Face" at other lighting angles and process the same data in different ways, the "Face" reappears looking more artificial than ever. T. Van Flandern elaborates: The MGS spacecraft took a high resolution photo of the "Face on Mars" in April 1998. That image suffered from four handicaps: a low viewing angle; a low sun angle from the direction of under the "chin"; an almost complete lack of contrast; and enough cloudiness to scatter most of the light and eliminate shadows. To add to these difficult circumstances, JPL-MIPL [Jet Propulsion Laboratory-Mission Image Processing Laboratory] personnel, apparently judging that the controversy over artificiality would not be ended when the actual photo was released, processed the image through two filters having the effect of flattening and suppressing image details. This step is documented at a JPL web site. Here we do image processing correctly and present the results of computer corrections to compensate for the poor lighting and low viewing angle. The actual image shows clearly the impropriety of the JPL-MIPL actions because the visual impression of artificiality persists. However, appearances after a discovery are not a valid basis for drawing conclusions, but only for forming hypotheses for further testing. This is called the a priori principle of scientific method. The 1976 Viking imagery allowed the formation of competing hypotheses, natural vs. artificial origin, and tests to distinguish them. When applied to the high-resolution ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 134: MAR-APR 2001 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Speaking of ALH 84001 Among the various magnetic grains comprising ALH 84001 are some nanometersized, hexagonal prisms that are "indistinguishable" from those excreted by terrestrial magnetotactic bacteria: Just when scientists in general were convinced that ALH 84001's "worms" had a mineralogical (i .e ., non-biological) origin, along comes this revelation. The ALH-84001 controversy is not over yet. (Kerr, Richard A.; "Tiny Magnets Point to Martian Life," Science, 290:2242, 2000.) Comment. In terrestrial magnetotactic bacteria, these magnetic crystals are strung together to make a sort of compass needle that helps orient the organism in muck and other lightless and lowly habitats.) From Science Frontiers #134, MAR-APR 2001 . 2001 William R. Corliss Other Sites of Interest SIS . Catastrophism, archaeoastronomy, ancient history, mythology and astronomy. Lobster . The journal of intelligence and political conspiracy (CIA, FBI, JFK, MI5, NSA, etc) Homeworking.com . Free resource for people thinking about working at home. ABC dating and personals . For people looking for relationships. Place your ad free. ...
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... the jargon of climatologists): .. .under conditions that resemble those encountered in the Eemian interglacial ice of central Greenland (from about 125,000 to 115,000 years ago---impurity fluctuations may be separated from ice of the same age by as much as 50 cm. This distance is comparable to the ice thickness of the contested sudden cooling events in the Eemian ice from the GRIP core. Translation: The accepted picture of the earth's climate history over the last few hundred thousand years may be seriously distorted. (Rempel, A.W ., et al; "Possible Displacement of the Climate Signal in Ancient Ice by Premelting and Anomalous Diffusion," Nature, 411:568, 2001.) Comment. This discovery could impact the global-warming controversy as well as our model of human activities during the Ice Ages. From Science Frontiers #137, SEP-OCT 2001 . 2001 William R. Corliss Other Sites of Interest SIS . Catastrophism, archaeoastronomy, ancient history, mythology and astronomy. Lobster . The journal of intelligence and political conspiracy (CIA, FBI, JFK, MI5, NSA, etc) Homeworking.com . Free resource for people thinking about working at home. ABC dating and personals . For people looking for relationships. Place your ad free. ...
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... their compositions are likely from Mars. These tiny chunks are believed to have been blasted off the Martian surface by five or six impacts of much larger meteorites. All save one of these Martian meteorites have formation ages of about 1.3 billion years. The only part of the Martian surface believed to be 1.3 billion years old is the TMOM (Tharsis Montes and Olympus Mons) region. The rest of Mars -- about 90% of it is much older. To have 12/13ths. of the Martian meteorites originate from 1/10th. of the planet's surface is highly unlikely. Something is wrong somewhere; probably a bad assumption. And what about that 13th. meteorite that did not get ejected from the TMOM region? This is ALH 84001, the controversial meteorite that contains strange worm-like structures resembling terrestrial bacteria. (See SF#130, #116, #110, #108, and #101.) (Taylor, Richard L.S ., and Mittlefehldt, David W.; "Missing Martian Meteorites," Science, 290:273, 2000.) From Science Frontiers #134, MAR-APR 2001 . 2001 William R. Corliss Other Sites of Interest SIS . Catastrophism, archaeoastronomy, ancient history, mythology and astronomy. Lobster . The journal of intelligence and political conspiracy (CIA, FBI, JFK, MI5, NSA, etc) Homeworking.com . Free resource for people thinking about working at home. ABC dating and personals . For people looking for relationships. Place your ad free. ...
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... earth. At this point in its trajectory, it came into the field of view of the X-ray astronomy satellite ROSAT. ROSAT was designed to look at stars whose extremely high temperatures can generate X-rays. It seemed ridiculous to point ROSAT's instruments at a comet composed mainly of ice and dust. How could a comet emit X-rays? When a German-American team of scientists proposed taking a peek at Hyakutake with ROSAT, scientific eyebrowns were raised. What a waste of observing time! At the most, the team thought they might pick up a smudge of weak X-rays where dust grains flying off Hyakutake collided with dust grains normally present in interplanetary space. The team did get ROSAT to take a look, and what the satellite saw ignited a controversy. Some 50,000 kilometers in front of the comet was a bright crescent of X-rays, 100 times brighter than the brightest "smudge" the team of scientists had hoped for. This was completely unexpected. All astronomers could do was come up with three rather unconvincing theories: (1 ) Solar X-rays were absorbed and reemited by the comet (Xray fluorescence); (2 ) Cometary material emitted X-rays when bathed in the solar wind; and (3 ) Charged particles were somehow accelerated by a magnetic field compressed by the comet's bow wave in the solar wind. Nobody is particularly happy with any of these theories. (Hecht, Jeff; "Comet Bids Farewell with Blaze of X-rays," New Scientist, p. 18 ...
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... fringe. After all, a pregnant woman's body responds to varying temperatures, changing amounts of sunlight, seasonal foods, and varying physical activity during the year. Such effects can be felt in utero, too. Many of the multitudinous studies looking into the season-of-birth correlations are very specialized and employ small samples. For example, English professional soccer players in the 1991-1992 season were twice as likely to have been born September through November. Mental traits are also influenced by season-ofbirth. More medical students are born April through June than can be explained by chance. Best of all (for us) is the following correlation: Perhaps the most unusual seasonal effect is found amongst scientists who support revolutionary theories. It seems that academics who were quick to support controversial theories such as relativity and evolution tended to he born between October and April. (Thomas, Jens; "Like a Virgo," New Scientist, p. 56, December 25, 1999.) Comment. So, there is a season for iconoclasts and anomalists! However, we (the editorial "we") bucked the trend. Could we have been born (unknowingly) in the Southern Hemisphere? From Science Frontiers #133, JAN-FEB 2001 . 2001 William R. Corliss Other Sites of Interest SIS . Catastrophism, archaeoastronomy, ancient history, mythology and astronomy. Lobster . The journal of intelligence and political conspiracy (CIA, FBI, JFK, MI5, NSA, etc) Homeworking.com . Free resource for people thinking about working at home. ABC ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 84: Nov-Dec 1992 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects American Pygmies Today's anthropological texts say little about pygmies populating ancient North America, but a century ago, when tiny graves replete with tiny skeletons were discovered in Tennessee, controversy erupted. Were they the bones of pygmies or children of normal-sized tribes? The latter choice was made, and we hear no more on the subject -- at least on the standard academic circuits. But a few reverberations are still detectable elsewhere. V.R . Pilapil, for example, asserts that the disputed Tennessee graves really did contain pygmy remains. Not only that, but he hypothesizes that the pygmies arrived in ancient times from southeast Asia, probably the Philippines, where today's diminutive Aetas live. To support his case, Pilapil recalls B. Fell's examination of the Tennessee skeletal material. Fell noted that: (1 ) The skull brain capacity was equivalent to only about 950 cubic centimeters, about the volume of a non-pygmy 7-yearold; (2 ) The teeth were completely developed and showed severe wear characteristic of mature individuals; and (3 ) The skulls were brachycephalic with projecting jaws. Fell had, in fact, described skulls very much like those of today's adult Philippine Aetas. Another line of evidence adduced by Pilapil involved the traditions of British Columbia tribes, which recognized a tribe of very small people called the Et-nane. More significant is the oral history of the ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 83: Sep-Oct 1992 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Flat-faced chephren not sphinx!J.A . West, mentioned above, holds that the Sphinx was not built by the pharaoh Chephren circa 2500 BC. Rather, the revisionists say, it was constructed some 5000 years earlier by predecessors of the "classical" Ancient Egyptians. Adding fuel to the controversy is a reconstruction of the Sphinx's visage by F. Domingo, top forensic artist of the New York Police Department. Domingo traveled to Egypt to measure first-hand the exact dimensions of the statue's facial features. When Domingo compared the Sphinx's profile as it probably appeared originally with the profile of Chephren taken from a statue in the Cairo Museum, there was scant resemblance. (West, John Anthony; "The Case of the Missing Pharaoh," New York Times, June 27, 1992. Cr. J. Covey) But the story doesn't end there. Orthodontist S. Peck responded to the Times article suggesting an even more radical notion: "The analytical techniques he [West] and Detective Frank Domingo used on facial photographs are not unlike methods orthodontists and surgeons use to study facial disfigurements. From the right lateral tracing of the statue's worn profile a pattern of bimaxilliary prognathism is clearly detectable. This is an anatomical condition of forward development in both jaws, more frequently found in people of African ancestry than in those from Asian or Indo-European stock. ...
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... with specific celestial positions of the real stellar constellations. The pit-zodiac story does not end at Muggenburg. At Velserbroek, over 40 kilometers distant, Taurus and Pegasus pit-patterns have been identified. These are dated at 600 BC -- 1,000 years earlier than Muggenburg. The pit-zodiacs show astronomical sophistication unexpected in European farmers 2,600 years ago. And how did these "barbarians" learn about the zodiac of the "civilized" Greeks and Babylonians long before the Roman legions pushed north into Gaul? Of course, the mainstream archeologists will have none of this. (Schilling, Govert; "Stars Fell on Muggenburg," New Scientist, p. 33, December 16, 1995) Comment. Across the Channel in Britain, one also finds the equally controversial Glastonbury Zodiac, as seen by those soinclined in the arrangement of some natural and artificial geographical features. From Science Frontiers #104, MAR-APR 1996 . 1996-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 105: May-Jun 1996 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Darwinism in archeology!Archeologists were initially attracted to Pedra Furada, in northeastern Brazil, by the area's rich and colorful rock art, some of which would not be allowed on the Internet! But it is not the rock art that is controversial about Pedra Furada; it is the 595 pieces of quartz selected by French archeologist N. Guidon. These bits of stone closely resemble humancrafted choppers, scrapers, and cutting tools. Indeed, if they had been found in more recent deposits, they would have been judged "man-made" by everyone. The trouble is that Guidon has dated them at 50,000 BP - a date mainstream archeologists cannot swallow. Any New World dates earlier than 12,000 BP, maybe 20,000 BP for a few daring souls, have to be erroneous. How are the Pedra Furada chipped stones explained by mainstream archeologists? They are "geofacts, not artifacts. They were created when quartzite rocks were released by erosion and fell off cliffs to be smashed upon impact below. Gravity and not the human hand broke the quartz into pieces that just happen to look like prehistoric tools. F. Parenti, a coworker of Guidon, has tried to exorcise the geofact argument, which is used wherever tools are "too old", by showing that the 595 pieces of quartz have characteristics quite unlike those created by natural flaking. The doubters are unswayed. You see, despite ...
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... Medical Journal: "Many doctors do not believe that homoeopathy [sic] is an efficacious treatment as it is highly implausible that infinitesimally diluted substances retain their biological effects. It is also often said that homoeopathy has not been evaluated with modern methods -- that is, controlled trials. The first argument may be true, the second is not. [J .] Kleijnen et searched the literature and found 96 reports containing 107 controlled trials of homoeopathy. Most trials turned out to be of very low quality, but there were many exceptions. The results show the same trend regardless of the quality of the trial or the variety of homoeopathy used. Overall. of the 105 trials with interpretable results, 81 showed positive results of homoeopathic treatment. A complicating factor in such reviews, especially of controversial subjects such as homoeopathy, is publication bias. If the results of Kleijnen et do not reflect the true state of affairs, publication bias must be considered a great problem in evaluations of homoeopathy. In any event, there is a legitimate case for further evaluation of homoeopathy, but only by means of trials with sound methodology." (Anonymous; "Clinical Trials of Homoeopathy," British Medical Journal, February 9, 1991. Cr. M. Truzzi.) Comment. Of course publication bias applies to most of the subjects presented in Science Frontiers since we intentionally concentrate on mainstream journals. Even so, anomalies are ubiquitous! From Science Frontiers #82, JUL-AUG 1992 . 1992-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... a distance away, going fast on a motorway -- but the sound did not come any closer). The national grid reference was ST 866392 approximately. "These four spinning shapes (like the top of a cotton bud -- not dense and solid) went round and round in a clockwise direction. They came together in the middle, out and round and round. They did this several times (once, one went off to the right but came back into 'formation'), and then they came back together and just disappeared." (Haines, David, and Haines, Elaine; "An Observation of Four Luminous Spinning Vortices, 21 July 1991," Journal of Meteorology, U.K ., 17:24, 1992.) Comment. Could the controversial crop circles, common in Wiltshire, be related to these luminous objects, or are they all hoaxes? From Science Frontiers #81, MAY-JUN 1992 . 1992-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 67: Jan-Feb 1990 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The ancient-humans-in-europe controversy Many times in the published pages of SF appears the question: "When did humans first arrive in the Americas? It is amu sing to find that European archeologists have an analogous problem, only there the accepted date is about 1,000,000 years ago, compared to 12,000 years for the Americas. Most European archeologists believe that primitive humans migrated northward from Africa into Europe, but the timing has always been a little fuzzy. The Europeans are willing to consider minor adjustments in the million-year figure. However, there are now several sites seeming to boast human artifacts that are about 2.5 million years old. This is just too old, and a debate has commenced. The most controversial site is Saint Eble, just below Mont Coupet, in southcentral France. Here one finds quartz fragments that look manmade to some archeologists, but seem products of natural fracturing to others. These crude objects are what some American archeologists call "Carterfacts," after G. Carter, who has found similar rock fragments in the Americas and dates them much, much earlier than 12,000 B.P . In Europe, there is little argument about the 2.5 -million-year-date for the stratum in which the controversial rocks are found. The debate is over whether they are natural or products of human manu facture. The French champion of ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 65: Sep-Oct 1989 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Samurai And The Ainu Findings by American anthropologist C. Loring Brace, University of Michigan, will surely be controversial in race conscious Japan. The eye of the predicted storm will be the Ainu, a "racially different" group of some 18,000 people now living on the northern island of Hokkaido. Pure-blooded Ainu are easy to spot: they have lighter skin, more body hair, and higher-bridged noses than most Japanese. Most Japanese tend to look down on the Ainu. Brace has studied the skeletons of about 1,100 Japanese, Ainu, and other Asian ethnic groups and has concluded that the revered samurai of Japan are actually descendants of the Ainu, not of the Yayoi from whom most modern Japanese are descended. In fact, Brace threw more fuel on the fire with: "Dr. Brace said this interpretation also explains why the facial features of the Japanese ruling class are so often unlike those of typical modern Japanese. The Ainu-related samurai achieved such power and prestige in medieval Japan that they intermarried with royality and nobility, passing on Jomon-Ainu blood in the upper classes, while other Japanese were primarily descended from the Yoyoi." The reactions of Japanese scientists have been muted so. One Japanese anthropologist did say to Brace," I hope you are wrong." The Ainu and their origin have always been rather mysterious, with some people claiming that the Ainu are ...
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... galaxies lay. (Gribbin, John; "' Bunched' Red Shifts Question Cosmology," New Scientist, p. 10, December 21/28, 1991.) The work of Guthrie and Napier is elaborated upon in the next item. Sec ond, B. Koo and R. Krone, at the University of Chicago, using optical red-shift measurements, discovered that, in one direction at least , "the clusters of galaxies, each containing hundreds of millions of stars, seemed to be concentrated in evenly spaced layers." (Browne, Malcolm W.; "In Chile, GalaxyWatching Robot Seeks Measure of Universe," New York Times, December 17, 1991. Cr. P. Gunkel.) Comment. Explanations for the unexpected bunching vary and are highly controversial: There are systematic defects in the radiotelescopes and/or the observational techniques. But, as just reported by Koo and Krone, the phenomenon is also seen with optical instruments. The red shifts are not entirely due to the Doppler Effect and the recessional velocities of galaxies. If this is so, the dimensions and age of the universe would have to be revised. The red-shift bunching occurs because some galaxies are arranged in shells surrounding the earth. To some, this would be philosophically disastrous, because it would place humanity in a favored spot in the cosmos. Reference. The work of Tifft on quantized redshifts is cataloged in AWF8 in our volume: Stars, Galaxies, Cosmos. Ordering information here . From Science Frontiers #80, MAR-APR 1992 . 1992- ...
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... this stripling of a quasar appears perfectly "normal" with no signs of youth! Its spectrum indicates that even at this young age, the elements were present in the same abundances found in older quasars. And, of course, at this quasar's core there must be a billion-solar-mass black hole (Who would risk..etc.?). Current theory is hardpressed to explain this very rapid evolution of a "normal" quasar with its immense black hole. (Peterson, I.; "Quasar Illuminates the Most Distant Past," Science News, 136: 340, 1989.) Comment. Could it be that our fanatically held ideas about redshifts, black holes, and Big Bangs are wrong? You bet it could! Reference. The redshift controversy the the anomalies that create it are cataloged in: Stars, Galaxies, Cosmos. Ordering information here . From Science Frontiers #67, JAN-FEB 1990 . 1990-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 71: Sep-Oct 1990 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Duesberg Revisited P. Duesberg is a molecular biologist at the University of California, Berkeley. He contends that the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is not the cause of AIDS and is, instead, a harmless "passenger" in the bodies of AIDS victims. Naturally, this stance is controversial, and just as naturally we have had cause to mention Duesberg before. Duesberg is back in the news again because his iconoclastic views were prominently featured in a TV documen tary entitled "The AIDS Catch" seen in Britain in June. The scientific community was furious, claiming that the documentary was one-sided and selective. Further, it was maintained that Duesberg's arguments have been completely refuted. Briefly, Duesberg believes that AIDS is not an infectious disease because: Too few T-lymphocytes in the peripheral blood are infected to cause the disease; HIV carriers without symptoms exist; and HIV in pure form doesn't seem to induce Aids in humans or animals. Rather, says Duesberg, AIDS is a collection of symptoms arising from such factors as the repeated use of intravenous drugs and malnutrition. Mainstream researchers think that Duesberg is wrong on (1 ); that (2 ) is irrevelant, since asymptomatic carriers of typhoid and cholera exist; and that (3 ) may be incorrect, since SIV (Simian Immunodeficiency Virus) does induce simian AIDS in monkeys. (Weiss, Robin A., and Jaffe, ...
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... minute over the whole atmosphere) as those predicted by L.A . Frank. Frank's icy comets have been received with about as much warmth as "cold fusion." One reason for the unpopularity of icy comets is that they would have provided sufficient water to fill the ocean basins, thus undermining the accepted view that our oceans derived from outgassed water vapor from deep within the earth. Besides this mindset, the minicomets do have some counts registered against them: (1 ) The effects of all the purported water vapor on the ionosphere should be easily detected but they are not; (2 ) Seismometers emplaced on the moon have not detected their impacts there; and (3 ) Military surveillance satellites have not seen these housesized objects. (Monastersky, Richard; "Small Comet Controversy Flares Again," Science News, 137:365, 1990. Also: Emsley, John; "Are 'Minicomets' Peppering the Earth's Atmosphere?" New Scientist, p. 36, June 9, 1990.) From Science Frontiers #72, NOV-DEC 1990 . 1990-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... stones and pepples picked out of gravel pits and similar accumulations of rocky debris that look like human heads, ape heads, primitive tools, etc. Some of the pebbles do indeed resemble humanmade artifacts. (See accompanying sketch.) Most, though, require some imagination. The import of these artifacts, if that is what they really are, comes home when one learns that they come from deposits that are millions of years old! If any of these pebbles are really human-made, anthropology will be stood on its head. Since the present report is the 20th in a series, one can assume that the contributors to Archaeologische Berich ten have amassed incredibly large collections of ancient stones and pebbles that "look like" artifacts. Comment. Similar purported artifacts have been found at the controversial Calico Hills site, California, in Pleistocene deposits that may be 100,000 years old. And don't forget that "Face on Mars"! From Science Frontiers #77, SEP-OCT 1991 . 1991-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... issue of Nature. They fired small (0 .131-gram) steel ball bearings at an ice tar-get made with 99.9 % deuterium. Despite the violent shattering of the deuterated ice, no significant numbers of neutrons were measured. (Sobotka, L.G ., and Winter, P.; "Fracture without Fusion," Nature, 343:601, 1990.) Comment. Whatever the fate of fractofusion, several labs around the world are still pursuing cold fusion. The sci entific mainstream, though, considers cold fusion a dead issue, even though anomalous neutrons and heat emission have been found in several experiments. We are happy to report, however, that cold fusion has definitely generated its first book: Cold Fusion : The Making of a Scientific Controversy, F.D . Peat. From Science Frontiers #69, MAY-JUN 1990 . 1990-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 58: Jul-Aug 1988 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects One of the most astonishing discoveries of modern science!We take this title from P. Huyghe's recent overview of the "oceans from space" controversy, printed not surprisingly in Oceans . (See p.000.) As readers will recall, we have been following this debate for over two years. Rather than retrace all the details, it is sufficient to say that the scientific community has been generally negative and often condemnatory about L. Frank's assertion and evidence that each year some 10 million icy comets, each averaging sixty compact cars in weight, strike the earth's atmosphere and, in the fullness of time, help fill the ocean basins. In his article Huyghe reviews the considerable evidence that has accumulated supporting Frank's claim: The water in Halley's comet had the same abundances of two key isotopes as the earth's oceans; The rocket detection of unexpected amounts of water vapor in the upper atmosphere; The microwave detection of unusual water-vapor events in the upper atmosphere; The Lyman-alpha detection of hydrogen concentrated near the earth; and The photographic detection of small, incoming objects with the characteristics of the debated icy comets. (Huyghe, Patrick; "Oceans from Space -- New Evidence," Oceans , 21:9 , April 1988.) Item 5. has been reported in other publications: "Using a telescope with a moving field of view ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 55: Jan-Feb 1988 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Archeological Stonewalling And Shadow Science In past issues of SF, we have presented considerable evidence for the existence of humans in America well before 12,000 years ago -- the "acceptable" limit. For example, in SF#54, we mentioned the 300,000-BP site in Brazil. There are many more. Of course, controversy hangs over all these sites and the dates assigned to them. The controversies about the specifics are good; but now the archeological establishment seems to be trying to enforce the 12,000-year dogma through authoritarian pronouncements in key publications. By way of illustration, we have P.S . Martin's article in Natural History, entitled "Clovisia the Beautiful!", bearing the subtitle: "If humans lived in the New World more than 12,000 years ago, There'd be no secret about it." Now, some archeologists are even trying to roll forward the 12,000-year date. See, for example, R. Lewin's review in Science (referenced below), which is subtitled: "In recent years anthropological opinion has been shifting in favor of a relatively recent date (not much more than 11,500 years ago) for the first human colonization of the Americas." In all of these articles, anomalous data are simply labelled "erroneous." (Martin, Paul S.; "Clovisia the ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 56: Mar-Apr 1988 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects How To Be Unfamous In Astronomy When Sky and Telescope devotes almost five full pages to a new book, you may be sure that something important has happened. The book is H. Arp's Quasars, Redshifts, and Controversies . We know that we have perhaps overplayed the shakiness of the redshiftdistance hypothesis and the fizzling of the Big Bang, but our whole cosmological outlook is at stake. Now, rather than review again the scientific pros and cons (you can read Arp's book for that), we will be content here with a few comments about how science has failed to work well in Arp's case. G. Burbidge, who reviews the book, recalls how the politics of science works in the following quotation: ". .. the important factors for a successful career are your sponsors (where and with whom did you get your Ph.D ); field of research (popular or unpopular); and diplomatic skills (always speak quietly with great conviction, and, when in doubt, agree with the wisest person present, who by definition must come from one of the the very few [recognized] institutions). Look upon new ideas with great disapproval and never discover a phenomenon for which no explanation exists, and certainly not one for which an explanation within the framework of known physics does not appear to be possible." Arp played this game for 29 years at the Mount ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 63: May-Jun 1989 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Explaining the "artifact gaps"Earthquake researchers speak of "seismic gaps," where earthquakes "should occur but don't . Well, "artifact gaps" exist, too, namely in North America and northern Australia. Both Australia and the Americas seem to have been peopled late; and both regions seem to have been invaded from the north - according to conventional thinking. Serious anomalies arise because some controversial dates of human occupation from South America and southern Australia are considerably older than those from North America and northern Australia* - at least if we dismiss those North American dates considered as "unreliable" by the archeological establishment. In the Americas, reliable dates older than 12,000 years are found in South America (Monte Verde, Chile); in Australia, all dates exceeding 24,000 years are found along the southern coast.* The "artifact gaps" are therefore clearly established! R.G . Bednarik, in a recent paper in Antiquity, offers a related observation: "It is generally agreed that both regions have been settled from the north, yet no trace has been found of the first settlers in either North America or northern Australia. In northern Australia one finds groundedge axes at up to 23,000 b.p ., which have no counterparts in the probable catchment area of the first colonizers, Indonesia; while in North America the earlist human settlers used elaborate projectile points, which ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 64: Jul-Aug 1989 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Who left these artifacts in burrows cave?Burrows Cave artifacts. Right are pictured two artifacts extracted from a controversial site in Illinois called Burrows Cave. A large quantity of epigraphic material has been found there, and it certainly doesn't seem to be fare digestible by mainstream archeologists. The artifacts are somewhat reminiscent of the Davenport, Iowa, and Wilmington, Ohio, tablets, both of which are also of doubtful authenticity. (Anonymous; Mid-Atlantic Chapter of the Epigraphic Society, Occasional News letter , no. 2, May 1, 1989.) References. The Davenport and Wilming-ton tablets mentioned above are described in our handbook Ancient Man. To order, visit: here . From Science Frontiers #64, JUL-AUG 1989 . 1989-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... . Ward) Three months after the above article was published. the journal Science jumped into the fray. Additional points of interest: Duesberg considers the HIV to be such a "pussycat" that he would gladly be injected with the virus. Duesberg has published his reservations in Cancer Research , but no formal response from the scientific community has resulted, although there has been plenty of unpublished name-calling. The HIV behaves like no other known virus; viz., its long latency and its persistence despite the production of antibodies. (Actually, the herpes family of viruses is also known for its long latency.) (Booth, William; "A Rebel without a Cause of AIDS," Science, 239:1485, 1988.) Comment. There is much more to this controversy than we can cover here, including charges of financial improprieties and the existence of an AIDS Mafia. Reference. AIDS anomalies are cataloged in BHH14 through BHH22 in: Biological Anomalies: Humans II. For a description of this book, visit: here . From Science Frontiers #57, MAY-JUN 1988 . 1988-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 61: Jan-Feb 1989 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Sodium Surges Over Illinois An advanced lidar device, located at Urbana, Illinois, has been sending pulses of light up into the atmosphere and measuring the reflections from atmospheric atoms and molecules. To the researchers' surprise, this instrument detected sudden appearances of clouds of sodium atoms at about 85 kilometers altitude. The clouds quickly dissipate, but where do they come from? The best guess is that their source is meteors vaporizing in the upper atmosphere. (Raloff, Janet: "Sudden Sodium Surges Seen over Illinois," Science News, 134: 238, 1988.) Comment. Could these sodium clouds have any connection with the controversial icy comets? From Science Frontiers #61, JAN-FEB 1989 . 1989-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 63: May-Jun 1989 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Taking The Radon Cure "An internationally respected radon researcher has uncovered some surprising and perplexing evidence. High levels of radon exposure are known to cause lung cancer. Studies of people exposed to such levels in mines demonstrate that conclusively. Then it follows, most peo-ple have thought, that the best level is zero, and any increase should produce an increasing rate of lung cancer. But controversial studies show that this may not be so. "In one study Dr. Bernard Cohen of the University of Pittsburgh compared average lung-cancer rates in many counties with the average radon rates found in the respective counties. It's an ambitious study - 39,000 measurements in 415 counties. "The results: In counties where lung cancer in women would have been expected to be up 25 percent from the radon levels, the incidences of cancer were actually down 30 percent. There are others. Finland has average indoor-radon levels of 2.5 picocuries per liter - 2.5 times higher than the world average. Yet the female lung-cancer rate in Finland is only 70 percent that of other industrialized countries." (Gilmore, C.P .; "Radon: Cancer Killer?" Popular Science, p. 8, May 1989. Cr. R.W Schiller) From Science Frontiers #63, MAY-JUN 1989 . 1989-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... . At this Pennsylvania site, the six deepest dates definitely associated with cultural material indicate that humans were here 13,955 to 14,555 years ago. (Adovasio, J.M ., and Carlisle, Ronald C.; "The Meadowcroft Rockshelter," Science, 239:713, 1988.) Kansas River skeletal remains . Using electron-spin resonance to date a piece of a human skull, W. Dort and L.D . Martin affirm a date of 15,400 years before the present. (Bower, B.; "Skeletal Aging of New World Settlers," Science News, 133: 215, 1988.) A Review of the Paleoindian Debate . W. Bray recounts in Nature what happened at a meeting at the Smithsonian last September. Various controversial sites were discussed, such as Calico Hills (200,000 years claimed) and Toca de Esperanca, Brazil (3 ,000,000 years claimed). But, oddly enough, the Meadowcroft Rockshelter and Kansas River data were not mentioned. Chiefly, though, Bray was concerned with what did and what did not constitute generally acceptable proof in archeological dating. That this matter goes beyond idealized science is evident in Bray's quote of anthropologist E. Leach: "Justification in terms of scientific methodology is in part self-deception, for when the figures turn out wrong the true believer will always shuffle the figures; when contrary evidence shows up, he throws doubt upon the credentials of the investigator." (Bray, Warwick; "The Palaeoindian Debate," Nature, ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 63: May-Jun 1989 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects A New Look At The Bat Creek Inscription The Bat Creek Stone. Which side is up has been a problem! The January 1989 issue of the Tennessee Anthropologist contains a long article on the Bat Creek Stone by J.H . McCullock, of Ohio State University. We rely here upon a summary written by R. Strong. "The Bat Creek Stone has generated so much controversy, yet it was excavated in an undisturbed burial mound in 1889 under the direction of Cyrus Thomas, Project Director of the Bureau of American Ethnology's Mound Survey, a part of the Smithsonian Institution. There could be no question of forgery because it was found under the head of one of the nine skeletons that were excavated. Pieces of wood presumed to be the remains of wooden earspools were preserved in the Smithsonian's collections as were a pair of brass C-shaped bracelets. Thomas immediately declared the nine characters on the stone to be Cherokee and the burial assumed to be post-contact - what else could the bracelets be but trade items or native copper?" That would seem to be the end of the story, but some language students failed to see any resemblance between the Bat Creek Inscription and the written Cherokee language. Further, C. Gordon, admittedly a proponent of early Phoenician contact with the New World, declared that the Bat Creek characters were Paleo-Hebrew, a family of languages that includes Phoenician. Then ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 48: Nov-Dec 1986 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The kensington stone: a mystery not solved It is safe to say that the great majority of professional archeologists consider the Kensington Stone, with its runic inscription, to be a hoax. E. Wahlgren's 1958 book bears the title: The Kensington Stone: A Mystery Solved. This title reflects the professional attitude, although not the disdain, even contempt, with which academics now view this controversial artifact. Two major challenges to the authenticity of the Kensington Stone are: (1 ) Its use of Arabic number placement: that is, decimal placement, and (2 ) Its use of the symbol for 10. Professional archeologists and epigraphers maintain that genuine runic inscriptions did not use these Arabic innovations. In the present article, R. Nielsen, University of Denmark, demonstrates with actual, well-established runic inscriptions that the above criticisms are without foundation. Such notation and convention were employed. In fact, the use of Arabic innovations actually supports the authenticity of the Kensington Stone. (Nielsen, Richard; "The Arabic Numbering System on the Kensington Rune Stone," Epigraphic Society, Occasional Publications, 15:47, 1986.) Reference. For more on the controversy surrounding the Kensington Stone, see our handbook Ancient Man. Details at: here . From Science Frontiers #48, NOV-DEC 1986 . 1986-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 50: Mar-Apr 1987 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Feathered Flights Of Fancy Some more salvos have been fired in an endlessly fascinating controversy (at least it is that to us). First, F. Hoyle and C. Wickramasinghe, hardly strangers to these columns, have published Archaeopteryx, The Primordial Bird: A Case of Fossil Forgery. The book elaborates their theory that the Archaeopteryx fossils, much ballyhooed as "proofs" of evolution, are outright forgeries. Second, T. Kemp, a zoologist on the staff of the University Museum, has returned the fire with a mean-minded review. He states that Hoyle and Wickramasinghe "exhibit a staggering ignorance about the nature of fossils and fossilization processes." Kemp concludes his review with an admission that the possibility of forgery should indeed be investigated. "But it should be done by those who actually understand fossils, fossilization and fossil preparation, not by a couple of people who exhibit nothing more than a gargantuan conceit that they are clever enough to solve other people's problems for them when they do not even begin to recognize the nature and complexity of the problems." (Kemp, Tom; "Feather Flights of Fancy," Nature, 324:185, 1986.) Finally, Hoyle and Wickramasinghe reply in a letter to Nature that L.M . Spetner and his colleagues in Israel have analyzed samples of the Archaeopteryx fossil with a scanning electron microscope and X-ray spectroscopy. Results: the rock ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 48: Nov-Dec 1986 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Archaeopteryx a dead end?" Just as the 150-million-year-old Archaeopteryx fossil is being reinstated as the earliest known bird after considerable controversy, along come two crowsize skeletons that are not only 75 million years older than Archaeopteryx but also more birdlike, according to the paleontologists who discovered them. The Washington, D.C .- based National Geographic Society, which funded the work, announced this week that Sankar Chatterjee and his colleagues at Texas Tech University in Lubbock found the 225-million-year-old fossils near Post, Tex." (Weisburd, S.; "Oldest Bird and Longest Dinosaur," Science News, 130:103, 1986.) Chatterjee has named the new fossil Protoavis. "Protoavis seems certain to reopen the long-running controversy on the evolution of birds. In particular whether the common ancestor of birds and dinosaurs was itself a dinosaur. Protoavis, from the late Triassic, appears at the time of the earliest dinosaurs, and if the identification is upheld it seems likely that it will be used to argue against the view of John Ostrom of Yale University that birds are descended from the dinosaurs. It also tends to confirm what many paleontologists have long suspected, that Archaeopteryx is not on the direct line to modern birds. It is in some ways more reptilian than Protoavis, and the period between the late Jurassic Archaeopteryx and the world-wide radiation of birds in ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 41: Sep-Oct 1985 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects California Skeletons Not So Old After All About a decade ago, considerable controversy erupted when some obviously old human skeletons were dated at 37,000, 44,000, and even 70,000 BP by a new dating technique called Aspartic Acid Racemization (AAR). Conventional radioactive dating had put all of these skeletons at well under 10,000 BP, well within bounds of the Bering Strait migration hypothesis. The early AAR dates were thus at odds with current archeological thinking and, in addition, very encouraging to those who believed that humans occupied North America long before 10,000 BP. J.L . Bada, a proponent of AAR dating, now states that the controversial AAR dates were based on calibration skeletons which had been erroneously dated by radioactive methods. It seems that AAR dating requires an accurately dated reference skeleton. With the reference skeleton dates now known to be incorrect, Bada had to recalibrate his AAR dating scheme. The reference skeletons were therefore redated using a more accurate radioactive technique. All of the incredibly ancient skeletons have now been redated by AAR methods using the revised reference skeletons. The 37,000 BP date now becomes a reasonable 5,100 2000 BP figure. The AAR dating crisis seems to be over. All anomalies have been expunged. (Bada, Jeffrey L.; "Aspartic Acid Racemization Ages of California Paleoindian Skeletons," American Antiquity, 50:645, 1985.) From ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 49: Jan-Feb 1987 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Halley's confounding fireworks "Serendipitous discovery in science so often comes as a surprise, even when it might reasonably be expected. Such was the case with Comet Halley in the wake of an observation program that dwarfed all preceding efforts. The surprises included sudden outbursts in the presumably steady vaporization of its icy nucleus and a periodic, complex pulsation of the comet's brightness. Whether this pulsation reflects the rotation of the nucleus, or some still unimagined phenomenon became a controversial focus of the recent meeting on the Exploration of Halley's Comet in Heidelberg." Some of the data presented and some of the attendees at this conference supported a rotational period of 2.2 days; others favored 7.4 days; a few liked a 2.2 -day period with a 7.4 -day wobble superimposed. (Kerr, Richard A.; "Halley's Confounding Fireworks," Science, 234:1196, 1986. Also: Campbell, Philip; "How Fast Does Halley Spin?" Nature, 324:213, 1986.) Halley's fireworks (visible outbursts) have also stimulated comet model-making. The latest is an icy-glue construction of sorts. See the accompanying figure and the accurate but not-particularlyenlightening caption. (Gombosi, Tamas I., and Houpis, Harry L.F .; "An Icy-Glue Model of Cometary Nuclei," Nature ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 47: Sep-Oct 1986 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Humans in the americas 32,000 years ago?The following abstract is from Nature. Ir relates to one of the most controversial digs in the New World: Pedra Furada, in Brazil. "The view that man did not arrive on the American continent before the last glaciation has been supported by the fact that until now the known and dated archaeological sites have not been of very great antiquity. But now we report radiocarbon dates from a Brazilian site which establish that early man was living in South America at least 32,000 years ago. These new findings come from the large painted rock shelter of Boqueirao do Sitio da Pedra Furada, the walls and ceiling of which are decorated with a rich set of prehistoric paintings. We have excavated a sequence containing abundant lithic industry and well-structured hearths at all levels. Carbon-14 dates from charcoal establish a continuous chronology indicating human occupation from 6,160 130 to 32, 160 100 years BP. A date of 17,000 400 BP, obtained from charcoal found in a level with fragments of a pictograph fallen from the walls, testifies to the antiquity of rupestral art in the region of Brazil." (Guidon, N., and Delibrias, G.; "Carbon-14 Dates Point to Man in the Americas 32,000 Years Ago," Nature, 321: 769, 1986.) Comment. The Nature article just abstracted and other reports ...
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... (Anonymous; "New Study Questions Expanding Universe," Astronomy, 14:64, August 1986.) Gratuitous comment. In all three of the foregoing items, observations are challenging fundamental astronomical hypotheses: the Big Bang, the Expanding Universe, redshifts as cosmological yardstocks, etc. With more and more such data accumulating all the time, the strains in the key girders of astronomical thought are beginning to show. Of course, most astronomers will vehemently deny this assertion. Those who care to read the biological tidbits that follow will discover that biological paradigms are also feeling the pressure of radical change. Geology and psychology are also being wracked by disturbing anomalies. It's like being on the San Andreas fault, these little quakes only presage major shift to come. Reference. The redshift controversy is presented in greater depth in our catalog: Stars, Galaxies, Cosmos. For details, visit: here . From Science Frontiers #47, SEP-OCT 1986 . 1986-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... out that John's results are consistent with the holographic theory of brain function supported by Pribram and Bohm. "In a hologram, every element of the subject is distributed throughout the photographic plate, making it possible to reconstruct the entire original image from any portion of the picture. In this paradigm, the brain stores memory and deals with interactions by interpreting and integrating frequencies, retaining the data not in a localized area but dispersed throughout its substance." (Rosch, Paul J.; "The Brain as Hologram," Science News, 130:355, 1986.) Comment. Curiously enough, the same issue of Science News carries an advertisement for the book The Fabric of Mind, in which R. Bergland: ". .. offers the revolutionary theory, already stirring controversy among fellow researchers, that the brain is actually a gland and depends on changes of hormones and molecules for its function....While he does not deny that electrical impulses occur in the brain, they are only superficial signals, he says, and not as important in conveying messages to the brain and within it, as hormones are." Comment. Obviously, no consensus yet exists as to brain-functioning and memory. Reference. More on the possible biological basis of memory may be found in BHO23 in our catalog: Biological Anomalies: Humans II. To order, visit: here . From Science Frontiers #49, JAN-FEB 1987 . 1987-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... frequencies, craters with dark floors, lunar soil constituents; and, for Point Two; tektite analysis. He also remarks that the ages of the terrestrial tektite fields correlate with biological extinctions. This can be explained in terms of lunar volcanism as follows: lunar volcanos expel material violently, some of which escapes the moon's gravitational field and is drawn toward earth. Some falls as tektites; the rest forms a temporary ring around the earth. The ring shadows parts of the earth, causing radical climate changes and, as a consequence, biological extinctions. (O 'Keefe, John A.; "The Coming Revolution in Planetology," Eos, 66:89, 1985.) Comment. The Editor's Note does not really convey the depth of the antagonism in the controversy about tektite origin. From Science Frontiers #39, MAY-JUN 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... (Few dare to suggest nonbiological origins!) Now, we learn that below the Cretaceous Athabasca oil sands lies a 70,000 square kilometer "carbonate triangle" estimated to contain about 2 x 1011 cubic meters (about 6 cubic kilometers) of bitumen. This bitumen is closely related chemically to the oil sands above it. A common origin seems likely. (Hoffmann, C.F ., and Strausz, O.P .; "Bitumen Accumulation in Grosmont Platform Complex, Upper Devonian, Alberta, Canada," American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Bulletin, 70:1113, 1986.) Comment. Many geologists believe that these incredible accumulations of organic matter migrated from some distant source to their present location. But just where was this prodigious wellspring of biological activity? Reference. Controversies regarding the origin of oil are covered in ESC13 in our catalog: Anomalies in Geology. This book is described here . From Science Frontiers #48, NOV-DEC 1986 . 1986-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... post-mare formation.) Such an origin would seem to favor random distribution of these craters. "However, it appears that the distribution of these large, fresh craters is far from random, contrary to what would be expected if their mechanism of formation was by impact. Even the most casual observer of the Moon cannot help but note that the maria contain very few large craters. The more experienced observer will take note of several apparent anomalies. Six magnificent post-mare craters are almost fortuitously located immediately adjacent to mare regions, these being Langrenus, Theophilus, Cavelerius, Aristoteles, Aristarchus, and Copernicus" The author of these observations then buttresses them with a statistical analysis, which indicates a strong, nonrandom distribution of all of these fresh craters. Apparently, the volcano-meteorite controversy is not completely settled after all these years. (Kitt, Michael T,; "Anomalous Distribution of Large, Fresh Lunar Craters," Strolling Astronomer, 31:22, 1985.) Comment. Some of the fresh craters on the mare borders, such as Aristarchus and Copernicus, are well-known sites of lunar transient phenomena. Could they be analogous to the terrestrial volcanos constituting the "ring of fire" around the Pacific Basin? From Science Frontiers #43, JAN-FEB 1986 . 1986-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... art and myth in China and ancient Mexico not be simple coincidence helped along by the rabbit-like visage of the full moon? Wicke's article deals with this possibility in depth, but he discounts it in the following paragraph: "Moreover, if one delves into the complexities of the association of hare and moon as manifest in mythology as well as in graphic imagery, correspondence between those of China and Mexico seem both too complex and too arbitrary to have been arrived at independently. Indeed, the mythology and imagery of the hare on the moon in Mesoamerica would seem to derive from Transpacific sources." (Wicke, Charles R.; "The Mesoamerican Rabbit in the Moon: An Influence from Han China?" Archaeoastronomy, 7:46, 1984.) Comment. Considerable controversy has accompanied the assertion that the elephant motif also appears in Mesoamerican art. See our handbook: Ancient Man. It is described here . From Science Frontiers #45, MAY-JUN 1986 . 1986-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 38: Mar-Apr 1985 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Hypnosis And Memory Hypnotic hypernesia is the unusually vivid and complete recall of information from memory while under hypnosis. The present article reviews the extensive literature on the subject and the longstanding controversy as to whether hypnosis can enhance memory at all. One fact does seem clear, hypnosis does not help subjects recall nonsense data or information without meaning, such as random numbers and words. When it comes to meaningful phrases, sentences, paragraphs, etc., hypnosis does aid recall to some extent. If the words evoke considerable imagery, as poetry often does, hypnosis seems to help recall even more. Finally, the recall of meaningful visual images and connected series of images is helped most of all by hypnosis. In fact, there is some evidence that eidetic imagery, that vivid, near-total recall of images, which is almost exclusively a talent of childhood, can be recovered by mature subjects under hypnosis. There do not seem to be any theories that explain all these effects of hypnosis on memory. (Relinger, Helmut; "Hypnotic Hypernesia," American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 26:212, 1984.) Comment. Of course, memory shorn of hypnotic effects cannot really be explained either. The results of Relinger's survey make one wonder whether the human brain is specially "wired" or built to efficiently handle visual imagery that is "meaningful" in the context of human experience and theoretical expectations. This ...
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... of 100 or more," says Wolf. If this much deflation is accepted by other scientists (It could be quite a fight!), then the age of the universe will also shrink, since it is based in part on our observations of the outer fringe of the universe and the speed of light. (Amato, I.; "Spectral Variations on a Universal Theme,: Science News, 130:166, 1986.) Comment. If we divide the currently accepted age of the universe, about 15 billion years, by 100, we are left with only 150 million years. But the radioactive clocks of the geologists register about 5 billion for the earth. There seems to be a problem somewhere! Reference. Wolf's work impinges on the acrimonious "redshift controversy." For details, see our catalog: Stars, Galaxies, Cosmos. To order, vist: here . From Science Frontiers #48, NOV-DEC 1986 . 1986-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 36: Nov-Dec 1984 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Why most people are right-handed Depending upon which estimate you believe, 6 to 16% of us are left-handed. On the surface, left-handers seem little different from right-handers. So why the highly skewed population? Why not 50% of each? Dr. Peter Irwin, at Sanddoz, Ltd., of Basle, Switzerland, has what is certain to be a controversial answer. He was led to his conclusion by a series of experiments with psychoactive drugs, performed in collaboration with Professor Max Fink, SUNY, Stony Brook. Left-handers, the study demonstrated, are much more sensitive to drugs that act upon the central nervous system. Irwin believes that this finding is consistent with the known association of left-handedness with epilepsy and learning disorders. "But perhaps the most exciting aspect of Irwin's hypothesis is that it makes evolutionary sense. 'A greater resistance of right-handers to centrally active substances, when Man was a forager and before he learned to identify non-toxic edibles, would have favoured righthanded survival. This might account for the skew in the present handedness distribution that is unique to humans.'" And why should left-handers be more sensitive to psychoactive substances? Irwin thinks they must absorb or metabolize them differently, or perhaps there is a difference in the blood-brain barrier that affects the transport of substances into the brain. (Grist ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 28: Jul-Aug 1983 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Romans in rio?In 1976, diver Jose Roberto Texeira salvaged two intact amphorae from the bottom of Guanabara Bay, 15 kilometers from Rio de Janeiro. Six years later, archeologist Robert Marx found thousands of pottery fragments in the same locality, including 200 necks from amphorae. Amphorae are tall storage vessels that were used widely throughout ancient Europe. These particular amphorae are of Roman manufacture, circa the second century B.C . Much controversy erupted around the finds because Spain and Portugal both claim to have discovered Brazil around 1500 A.D . Roman artifacts were distinctly unwelcome. More objectively, the thought of an ancient Roman crossing of the Atlantic is not so farfetched. Roman wrecks have been discovered in the Azores; and the shortest way across the Atlantic is from Africa to Brazil -- only 18 days using modern sailing vessels. (Sheckley, Robert; "Romans in Rio," Omni, 5:43, June 1983.) From Science Frontiers #28, JUL-AUG 1983 . 1983-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... observed, if: ". .. just one large redshift is not due to the universal expansion, Pandora's box is open. Much of our currently claimed knowledge of the extragalactic universe would be at risk, as would a number of scientific reputations." Indeed, reputations are on the line as are scientific ethics. Telescope time has been cut off from those supporting noncosmological redshifts. The papers written by scientists who haven't recanted are held up, refereed forever, and rejected. Come to think of it, the theological overtones of the call for "recantation" fit the redshift situation very well. (Anonymous; "Companion Galaxies Match Quasar Redshifts: The Debate Goes On," Physics Today, 37:17, December 1984.) Reference. The "redshift controversy is discussed in more detail in our Stars, Galaxies, Cosmos. To order, visit: here . From Science Frontiers #38, MAR-APR 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... the biological community. Today, cladism has become quite respectable. The cladists, however, are now fighting among themselves. One camp draws their "cladograms" (see illustration) using evolutionary theory as a guide. The other side believes that the cladograms should be drawn up first, based only upon actual characters and ignoring the theory of evolution -- let the species fall where they may. When evolutonary theory is omitted in the deliberations, radically different cladograms result. Mammals then seem more closely related to birds than reptiles, for example, as expressed in the illustration. A key connecting character here is mutual warmbloodedness. The shifting of a few lines in a cladogram may seem trivial to the nonbiologist, but saying that man is more closely related to a chicken than a lizard is pretty controversial stuff to the conservative evolutionist. DNA analysis supports the contention that humans are more closely related to birds than reptiles. Paleontological evidence, however, supports the opposite view. The fight rages on. (Benton, Mike; "Is a Dog More Like a Lizard or a Chicken?" New Scientist, p. 18, August 16, 1984.) Comment. It all seems to boil down to morphology in the end. Which is a more faithful record of the development of life through the long eons, the phenotype (what the organism looks like) or the genotype (what the DNA looks like)? This may be a dangerous simplification. Why? Because life just may be shaped by more than DNA. Standard evolution cladogram (left). Cladogram based only on ...
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