279 results found.
... been detailed in a paper before the American Chrmical Society. "An authority on ancient building materials reported evidence Friday that the Egyptian pyramids were built of a remarkable synthetic stone that was cast on the site like concrete. "The new theory challenges the widely accepted belief that the pyramids were built from natural stone obtained from quarries and laboriously moved to the site on wooden rollers. "Dr. Joseph Davidovits said that the synthetic pyramid stone was made with cement far stronger than modern portland cement, which binds together the rock and sand in concrete. Portland cement has an average span of about 150 years, he said, but cements like those used in the pyramids last thousands of years. .. .. . "Davidovits said that a new deciphering of an ancient hieroglyphic text now provides some direct information about pyramid construction and supports his theory that synthetic stone was the construction material. .. .. . "Davidovits said the cement used in the pyramids binds the aggregate and other ingredients together chemically in a process similar to that involved in the formation of natural stone. "Portland cement, in contrast, involves mechanical rather then molecular bonding of the ingredients. Thus, pyramid stone is extremely difficult to distinguish from natural stone. "He cites a number of other pieces of evidence to support his theory. Chemical analyses of stone from the pyramids, for example, show it contains minerals not found in Egyptian quarry stone. "Laboratory analyses have also revealed indications of organic fibers -- possibly human or animal hair -- inside the stone used to built the pyramids. Davidovits said ...
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... Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Spiral-circle ground patterns in field crops G.T . Meaden has recently summarized his research into those marvelously sharp and complex designs cut into English field crops by atmospheric vortices. (Why other countries are not similarly affected is unknown.) The simple circles range from 3 to 30 meters in diameter. The central, flattened vegetation is crushed clockwise about half the time, counterclockwise in the other cases. On two known occasions, the flattening process has actually been observed. The invisible atmospheric vor tex does its work in 30 seconds or less and generates a high-pitched humming sound. The complex nature of these vortices is attested to by the rare ringed circles and multiple patterns. Both single- and double-ringed circles are known. The wind direction always alternates from central circle to first ring to second ring. The most common multiple patterns consist of large central circles flanked by two or four, smaller satellite circles, all nicely spaced. In the quintuplets, all five circles are usually flattened clockwise, but one case has presented theorists with four counterclockwise circles accompanied by a single improbable clockwise circle! (Meaden, G.T .; "The Mystery of Spiral-Circle Ground Patterns in Crops Made by a Natural Atmospheric-Vortex Phenomenon," Journal of Meteorology, U.K ., 13:203, 1988.) Quintuplet pattern in barley crop, west Wiltshire, 1987 From Science Frontiers #60, NOV-DEC 1988 . 1988-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... H-chondrites, they find that the meteorites' ages do not spread evenly through time. Instead, the ages seem to cluster at 7 and 30 million years." Astronomers have hitherto been content to attribute these clumped ages to collisions among the meteorites' parent bodies - the asteroids - which ply periodic orbits. However, S. Perlmutter and R.A . Muller, at Berkeley, point to the apparent 26- to 30-million-year periodicities of three terrestrial phenomena: Biological extinctions in the fossil record, Magnetic field reversals, and Terrestrial-crater ages. Could there be a connection between the clumped meteorite ages and these terrestrial phenomena? Perlmutter and Muller propose that all of these phenomena are the consequence of periodic storms of comets that invade the inner solar system from the direction of the Oort Cloud of comets that purportedly hovers at the fringe of the solar system. These comets not only devastate the earth but also collide with the asteroids, knocking off those bits and pieces we call meteorites. (Anonymous; "Do Meteorite Ages Tell of Comet Storms?" Astronomy, 17:12, January 1989.) Comment. Unanswered above is the question of why comet storms should be periodic. One hypothesis is that Nemesis, the so-called Death Star, a dark companion of our sun, lurks out there, periodically nudging the Oort Cloud of comets, causing it to release some of its comets. From Science Frontiers #62, MAR-APR 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 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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... or that Mars might at any moment depart from its present orbit, but rather that astronomers must now admit an inability to predict planetary motion over billions of years - even tens of millions of years! For the solar system, if those ubiquitous computers are correct, is not a well-behaved family of planets. J. Laskar concludes from extensive numerical experiments: "The motion of the Solar System is thus shown to be chaotic, not quasiperiodic. In particular, predictability of the orbits of the inner planets, including the Earth, is lost with a few tens of millions of years." (Laskar, J.; "A Numerical Experiment on the Chaotic Behavior of the Solar System," Nature, 338:237, 1989.) Comment. Laskar's comments are directed toward the future, but the same conclusions should apply if we ran the solar system backwards in time. From this very narrow perspective of celestial mechanics, one cannot say positively that the planets, the inner ones especially, could not have radically altered their orbits within the past few millions of years. Reference. See ABB1 in our catalog: The Sun and Solar System Debris for more on the solar system's instability. This book is described here . From Science Frontiers #63, MAY-JUN 1989 . 1989-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Subjects Life Currents In Space A few of the hundreds of meteorites picked up in the Antarctic wastes have chemical properties consistent with a Martian origin. Calculations, too, support the notion that a large meteoric impact could propel bits of the Martian surface into space where, statistically speaking, a tiny fraction would be captured by the earth's gravitational field. Some of these would fall to earth; others would remain in orbit. Now, the reverse scenario has been investigated numerically. S.A . Phinney and colleagues at the University of Arizona have calculated what would happen to small chunks of the earth's crust if a large meteor impact excavated a 60milewide crater. "Phinney's group used a computer to calculate where 1,000 particles would go if ejected from Earth in random directions, moving about 2.5 kilometers per second faster than the minimum speed necessary to escape. Of the 1,000 hypothetical particles, 291 hit Venus and 165 returned to Earth; 20 went to Mercury, 17 to Mars, 14 to Jupiter and 1 to Saturn. Another 492 left the solar system completely, primarily due to gravitational close encounters with either Jupiter or Mercury that 'slingshot' them on their way." (Eberhart, Jonathan; "Have Earth Rocks Gone to Mars?" Science News, 135:191, 1989.) Comment. One implication from the preceding analysis is that terrestrial bacteria and spores could well have infected every planet in the solar system and perhaps even planets in nearby star systems! Conceivably, if other star systems had histories like ours, ...
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... Virgin Mary over a Coptic Orthodox Church in Zeitoun, near Cairo, Egypt. When photographed, these phenomena appeared as irregular blobs of light. Primarily there were two types of events: small shortlived, highly kinetic lights (' doves') and more persistent coronal type displays that were situated primarily over the apical structures of the church. More detailed descriptions of the phenomena, such as visions often occurred as 'flashes'; their details usually reflected the religious background of the experient. "The characteristics of these luminous phenomena strongly suggested the existence of tectonic strain within the area. According to the hypothesis of tectonic strain, anomalous luminous phenomena are generated by brief, local changes in strain that precede earthquakes within the region. Psychological factors determine more elaborate details of the experiences because there are both direct stimulations of the observer's brain as well as indirect contributions from reinforcement history." The authors of the study at hand, J.S . Derr and M.A . Persinger, are well known for their theory associating anomalous, terrain-related, luminous phenomena with tectonic strains. In the Zeitoun case, they have discovered that a year before the phenomena commenced there was an unprecedented increase (by a factor of ten) in seismic activity some 400 kilometers to the southeast. Also, there was a moderate (0 .56) correlation between the luminous phenomena and increases in seismicity during the same or preceeding months. Derr and Persinger claim these observations support their hypothesis. (Derr, John S., and Persinger, Michael A.; "Geophysical Variables and Behavior ...
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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 Lunar Magnetic Mollusc From the abstract of a paper in Science: "Behavioral experiments indicated that the marine opisthobranch mollusk Tritonia diomedea can derive directional cues from the magnetic field of the earth. The magnetic direction toward which nudibrachs spontaneously oriented in the geomagnetic field showed recurring patterns of variation correlated with lunar phase, suggesting that the behavioral response to magnetism is modulated by circa-lunar rhythm." The magnetic and lunar-phase detectors of this mollusc are not known. In fact, the authors remark in their introductory paragraph that, even in organisms possessing ferromagnetic materials in their systems, there exists no "direct neurophysiological evidence implicating ferromagntic particles in the the detection of magnetic fields." (Lohmann, Kenneth J., and Willows, A.O . Dennis; "LunarModulated Geomagnetic Orientation by a Marine Mollusk," Science, 235:331, 1987.) From Science Frontiers #50, MAR-APR 1987 . 1987-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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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 Anatomy Of A Magnetic Field Reversal "A highly detailed record of both the direction and intensity of the Earth's magnetic field as it reverses has been obtained from a Miocene volcanic sequence. The transitional field is low in intensity and is typically non-axisymmetric. Geomagnetic impulses corresponding to astonishingly high rates of change of the field sometimes occur, suggesting that liquid velocity within the Earth's core increases during geomagnetic reversals." The time period required for the field to reverse was about 4500 years, as measured at Steens Mountain, Oregon. There were three periods of very rapid change (impulses), which hint at radical changes in the core. The average magnetic field at the earth's surface decreased to 20% of normal during the reversal. (Prevot, Michel, et al; "How the Geomagnetic Field Vector Reverses Polarity," Nature, 316:230, 1985.) Comment. The illustration reveals that the reversal was far from a clean 180 flip; there was much meandering. Just what was happening in the core during the reversal is a mystery. When the magnetic field dropped to low levels, flux of cosmic rays and other radiation at the earth's surface probably increased drastically. Terrestrial life might have been adversely affected. The Steene Mountains directional record. The numbers refer to the samples used from the volcanic sequence, in order of increasing age. Dotted lines represent field directions in the ...
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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 Expanding Phosphorescent Rings May 9, 1983. Gulf of Oman. Aboard the m.v . Mahsuri. "At 1650 GMT, a pale green glow was seen to emanate from the horizon ahead. This gave the appearance of strong moonlight upon the surface of the water. The moon, however, was not in evidence. At 1700 GMT, rapid flashes of light were observed sweeping across the sea directly ahead of the vessel, giving the initial impression of a sudden increase of wind speed causing excessive spray. By 1715 GMT, the vessel was totally surrounded by completely random movements of light as far as the eye could see. The onset of this phenomenon was so rapid, not to say eerie, that the Master was called to the bridge to witness the event. For the next 15 minutes the sea was at a height of activity, displaying several systems of the most unusual bioluminescence. The most significant of these were what appeared to be Phosphorescent Wheels, which, although they did not seem to rotate, originated from a central hub and spread out rings in rapid succession, forming concentric circles. This was pointed out by many of those who observed them as being similar to the instance of a stone being dropped into a quiet pond and causing waves to spread out. In this case each wave crest was a band of fantastic light. Each wheel would last for a couple of minutes, continually flashing out bands of ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 44: Mar-Apr 1986 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Neptune's partial rings Neptune's rings cannot be seen directly. Instead, earth-based astronomers watch for occultations or dimmings of stars as they pass behind the rings. This seems straightforward enough in theory, but the occultations have been perplexing in practice. First, one member of a closely spaced double star will be occulted normally by the rings but its companion won't . Second, some terrestrial observatories will record an occultation but another a few thousand miles away will not. Such experiences have led to the hypothesis that the rings are discontinuous; that is, they are arcs rather than complete rings. Why should Neptune's rings be different from those of the other major planets? On speculation maintains that the arcs are the consequence of one or more recently satellites. Another hypothesis, by J.J . Lissauer, has the arcs gravitationally shaped and maintained by two moons, one of the shepherd type (as with Saturn's rings), the other at a Lagrangian point in the arc's orbit. (Kerr, Richard A.; "Neptune's Ring Arcs Confirmed," Science, 230:1150, 1985. Also: Lissauer, Jack J.; "Shepherding Model for Neptune's Arc Ring," Nature, 318:544, 1985.) Comment. The theories employing "shepherd" moons to gravitationally mold and maintain planetary rings have been weakened by the apparent ...
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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 Lumps, clumps, and jumps "Astronomers have already discovered lumps, motion and structure never suspected in a universe once considered smooth and expanding uniformly in all directions. Two researchers now say the universe is even lumpier, has faster relative motion and shows larger structures than previously believed." N. Bahcall and R. Soneira have been studying the structures and motions of superclusters of galaxies. Each supercluster consists of clusters of clusters of galaxies and contains upwards of hundreds of billions of stars. (Obvious-ly, these are not inconsequential entities!) By analyzing the redshifts of galaxies, Bahcall and Soneira have found that the universe is much more dynamic and inhomogeneous than expected. (1 ) The clusters of galaxies are larger and more extensive. Superclusters can be 500 million light years across -- about 1% of the known universe (2 ) Relative motions within the clusters are as high as 2,000 kilometers per second more than one can account for using gravitational attraction alone. (Kleist; T.; "Lumps, Clumps and Jumps in the Universe," Science News, 130:7 , 1986.) Comment. Before swallowing whole such grand sketches of the cosmos, one should always examine the assumptions. Here, redshifts are assumed to be measures of velocity, which if an expanding universe is assumed, can be converted into distances. Local Group of galaxies, including the Milky Way. and nearby superclusters ...
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... 1986 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Curious Luminous Display Over The Pacific Ocean Our general policy admits only those phenomena described in the scientific literature, but here we must make an exception. This account, submitted by a retired Air Force colonel, is unlike anything we have found before -- either meteorological or auroral. "During the last week of August 1970, I was on a trip from Viet Nam to Clark AFB, Philippines. We were cruising at 9000 feet. We had departed Camron Bay between 2 and 3 AM. Upon reaching cruise altitude, I noticed a rather unusual display in the sky. Our magnetic heading from V.N . to Clark was approximately 155 . The display appeared on the horizon in an easterly direction. It consisted of a series of dashes perhaps the color of the moon with a south-to-north directional flow. There was no visible beginning of this display,such as you would see in a comet .. .. . "The awesome feature of this display was its magnitude. I thought if whatever was creating the display collided with our Earth, then we would no longer exist. I also feel that I was seeing only a small portion of the whole. As hindsight I can only regret that I did not report this sighting through Air Traffic Control channels. The crew discussed and speculated on what we had seen, then promptly forgot about it." The account continues, relating how on the next night, when the aircraft departed the Philippines for Guam and ...
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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 Phosphorescent Bars And Wheels May 29, 1955. The Java Sea. "At 0210 LMT I witnessed the start of a bioluminescent display. My first impression was that the ship was being 'attacked' on all sides from different directions by pulsing light-bands. A dull 'strobe-light' effect flashed through a mist, giving the bands a dirty white to gray colouration which was not a 'smooth' colour, but rather grainy in appearance. The bands were about 2 m wide and about 2 m apart and moving at speed. At first it was difficult to discern whether or not the bands were in the water or just above the surface, as no form of reflection or distortion was visible off the hull. In the end, I decided that the effect must be waterbourne if only because nothing was visible in the vessel's wake. "The most intense activity was observed on the starboard side of the ship where the phenomenon appeared to stretch as far as the horizon. At this stage, it did not appear localized, just a mass of high-speed interacting bands of light. The effect is shown in the first sketch. As is usual on an 'all aft' ship, you become 'deaf' to the constant background noises, but I gradually became aware that the pulses of light seemed to match those of the main engine's throb, that is, about two per ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 46: Jul-Aug 1986 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Cosmic Currents A survey of 390 elliptical galaxies have identified an unexpected streaming effect superimposed on the (postulated) general outward expansion of the universe. A team of seven astronomers first measured the velocities of the elliptical galaxies relative to the earth. Next they subtracted out the velocities of universal expansion and, lastly, the velocity of the earth relative to the 3 K cosmic background radiation. These subtractions enable us to determine how the 390 elliptical galaxies move relative to the cosmic background radiation -- which is about the best fixed reference frame we can come up with. For roughly 50 million parsecs in all directions from earth, the clusters and superclusters of galaxies are streaming through the cosmos in a group. What's more, they lie in and move parallel to a fairly well-defined plane. Just what this coordinated motion means in terms of the origin and evolution of the universe is anyone's guess. There doesn't seem to be anything in the Big Bang theory that would explain these cosmic currents. Something set all these galaxies in motion -- but what? (Waldrop, M. Mitchell; "The Currents of Space," Science, 232:26, 1986.) A giant elliptical galaxy containing many billions of stars. Hundreds of these immense assemblages are moving collectively though the cosmos. From Science Frontiers #46, JUL-AUG 1986 . 1986-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 44: Mar-Apr 1986 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Star Sludge All of a sudden it seem that astronomers are finding dark -- even "charcoal-black" -- materials in unlikely places in the solar system. Three "sludgy" sites have been high-lighted in the recent literature. (1 ) Comets. "Black" comets certainly defy our expectations. Are all those pictures of white, flaming apparitions wrong? Not really. The comets approaching the sun are made visible by sunlight reflected from the gases and dust in the coma and tail, plus some direct emission. However, the heart of the comet, its nucleus, has long been considered a "dirty snowball"; that is, a mixture of dirt and ices. Now it appears that comets are more like "icy dirtballs"! And some of that dirt is pitch black. New measurments of the bare nuclei of comets, using a visual-infrared technique, find that the nuclei reflect as little as 2% of the incident sunlight. They are indeed charcoal black. Comet nuclei, according to W. Hartmann and his colleagues, are colored by a brownishblack primordial organic sludge, and have the appearance of "a very dark Hershey bar." The use of the adjective "organic" may be premature, but in light of the next item, maybe not. (2 ) Carbonaceous chondrites . This well-known class of meteorites sometimes appears tarry and is characterized by carbon contents ...
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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 A Possible Crack In The Wall Of The Temple Of Relativity "Stefan Marinov is a remarkable iconoclast who is convinced that Einstein's special theory of relativity is mistaken." Marinov apparently has been expelled from Russia because of his scientific and political opinions. So infuriated is he by the reluctance of mainstream scientific journals, such as Nature, to print his anti-relativity papers that he has threatened to immolate himself outside the British embassy in Vienna. Happily, he didn't strike the match, because it may be that he has something. Marinov claims that he has demonstrated experimentally that the velocity of light is not the same in all directions in all reference frames, as Einstein insisted. He says he can even detect the motion of the earth through absolute space and time, contrary to most Michelson-Morley-type experiments. Based upon some recent theoretical analysis, the journal Nature has bent a bit and now calls for repetitions of Marinov's experiments. (Maddox, John; "Stefan Marinov Wins Some Friends," Nature, 316:209, 1985.) Comment. Recently, three books highly critical of relativity have been published: (1 ) Turner, Dean, and Hazelett, Richard, eds.; The Einstein Myth and the Ives Papers; (2 ) Santilla, Ruggero Maria; Il Grande Grido: Ethical Probe on Einstein's Followers in the U.S .A .; ( ...
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... Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Backtracking along the paluxy: or is there a deeper mystery?Ostensibly, the facts are as follows: Several series of tracks in the sedimentary rocks along the Paluxy River, in Texas, which many creationists have considered to be of human origin, have recently changed appearance, apparently due to erosion. "Due to an unknown cause, certain of the prints once labeled human are taking on a completely different character. The prints in the trail which I have called the 'Taylor Trail,' consisting of numerous readily visible impressions in a left-right sequence, have changed into what appear to be tridactyl (three-toed prints, evidently of some unidentified dinosaur. The changes in the impressions themselves are mostly confined to lengthening in the downriver direction. The most significant change, however, is that surrounding the toe area. In almost each of the prints in the trail, three large 'toes' have appeared, similar to nearby dinosaur tracks. These toes, typically, are coloration phenomena only, with no impressions, in most cases. Frequently the 'mud pushup' surrounding the original elongated track is crossed by this red coloration. The shape of the entire track, including both impression and coloration, is unlike any known dinosaur print." J. Moore, the author of this article and a creationist, suggests that creationists no longer use the Paluxy tracks as evidence that humans and dinosaurs once coexisted. But he adds that several mysteries still exist, two of which are: (1 ) Why is erosion improving the ...
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... supporting the concept of life-as-a -whole manipulating the atmosphere, oceans, etc., to perpetuate and perhaps improve itself are highly anomalous, because the Gaia hypothesis is far out of the scientific mainstream. (Lovelock, James E.; "Geophysiology," American Meteorological Society, Bulletin, 67:392, 1986.) Comment. Our secret purpose here is to use the Lovelock article as an excuse to out-Gaia Gaia! Lovelock's article plus those preceding on Martian life, cosmic life, "geocorrosion," etc., made us wonder if Gaia as a closed terrestrial system (see diagram), is not too limited. If Hoyle and Wickramasinghe are correct, the diagram should have a box labelled "outer space," with an inwardly directed arrow carrying life-forms (Hoyle's space viruses and bacteria), meteorites, icy comets, etc. Likewise, the earth can contribute life-forms to the cosmos via impact and volcanic ejecta. Where does geocorrosion fit in? Life-as-a -whole could control terrestrial magnetic field reversals geochemically. This sounds more and more like science fiction, but life-as-a -whole must "want" to evolve to make itself more adaptable and capable of controlling and exploring the cosmos. (These are anthropomorphic desires we assign to life-as-awhole, which may have completely different objectives!) By occasionally reducing the earth's field to zero, bursts of space radiation would be admitted to stir the earth's pot of genes. We ...
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... Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Geocorrosion?In studying the minute electrochemical cells responsible for metal corrosion, J.G . Bellingham and M.L .A . MacVicar, at MIT, discovered a remarkable effect: "One interesting and surprising property of electrochemical cells was discovered by accident. Normally, the magnetometer scans each cell as the cell moves horizontally beneath the magnetometer. During one run, the researchers left the cell in a single position for a long time while the magnetometer was still on. After 20 minutes or so, the magnetic field strength began to drop. 'It was very dramatic to watch this field collapse,' says MacVicar. After about a minute at zero, the magnetic field grew larger again but in the opposite direction." These reversals occurred over and over again at regular intervals. (Peterson, I.; "Tracing Corrosion's Magnetic Field," Science News, 130:132, 1986.) Comment. The self-reversal of magnetic specimens has been observed before under some conditions, but here is a periodic reversal of an electrochemical system. Why place it under the heading of Geology? Because the earth's field seems to reverse on a fairly regular basis. Catastrophists have invoked as teroid or cometary collions to account for these flip-flops, but it might be that the earth contains giant electrochemical cells that spontaneously reverse on a million-year timescale rather than minutes. We know the earth's crust is filled with brines and other conducting fluids. Who knows what ...
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... 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 the Cretaceous has to some seemed suspiciously brief." (Anonymous; "Fossil Bird Shakes Evolutionary Hypotheses," Nature, 322:677, 1986.) Comment. But what about all those textbooks that assure us positively that birds descended from dinosaurs and that Archaeopteryx is a classic missing link? Fossil bones and artist's reconstruction of Protoavis. From Science Frontiers #48, NOV-DEC 1986 . 1986-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... south, had no crest, nor white streaks, and as it neared at quite a speed, I could see its front was nearly vertical. I yelled to the lookout man to come into the wheelhouse as he was on the starboard side of the bridge and could not see the wave. "As near as I could judge, about 80 to 100 yards away the wave started to break, and in another few seconds reached our ship and struck us fair abeam with three distinct separate shocks, sweeping our ship for her full length. Fortunately, the vessel rolled away just before the impact and this I am sure saved us from even more serious damage." "The wave was higher than our foremost track -- 85 ft above the water. As this wave approached from a direction 90 degrees different from the normal sea and wind, which had been northerly for a few days previously, I put its existence down to a submarine earthquake in the mid-Atlantic ridge. Certainly it appeared so much different from the normal wind-generated sea, of which I have seen thousands. There was no crest, nor white streaks, a nearly vertical front and quite fast approach." (Cameron, T. Wilson; "Treachery of Freak Wave," Marine Observer, 55:202, 1985.) Comment. Earthquake generated waves or tsunamis are hardly noticeable in deep water. Only when they approach shallow water and the shore do they crest dangerously. Reference. Giant solitary waves are covered in category GHW1 in our catalog: Earthquakes, Tides. Ordering information at ...
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... Feb 1987 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Personality And Immunity The following abstract appeared in the American Journal of Psychiatry: "Natural killer (NK) cells are important in immune function and appear, in part, to be regulated by the CNS (central nervous system). The authors compared NK cell activity and MMPI scores of 111 healthy college students and found weak but statistically significant correlations between NK values and psychopathology for 10 of 12 scales. Students with the highest NK values had a 'healthier' MMPI profile than those with the lowest. Students with high MMPI scores (T greater than 70) had NK values below the sample median. These findings support theories of interaction between mental state and immune status, but the mechanisms and direction of interaction remain largely unexplored." (Heisel, J. Stephen, et al; "Natural Killer Cell Activity and MMPI Scores of a Cohort of College Students," American Journal of Psychiatry, 143:1382, 1986. Also: Bower, B.; "Personality Linked to Immunity," Science News, 130:310, 1986) From Science Frontiers #49, JAN-FEB 1987 . 1987-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... they radioed back photos of a complex, very dynamic system of rings -- thousands of rings. Studies of these rings have led some astronomers to wonder if they are really as old as Saturn itself. Two lines of thinking suggest a recent origin: (1 ) The rings are composed of both light material (very likely water ice) and dark material (probably rocks and dust). The rocky fragments, according to the prevailing nebular theory, should have condensed early in solar-system history, and then been swept gravitationally into the planet as they were slowed by friction with the uncondensed nebular material. Yet, dark material is still in the rings. (2 ) The incessant bombardment of the rings by meteorites should have pulverized the rings, sending fragments and vaporized material in all directions. In just 10 million years the rings should have been largely erased. They are still there. (Cuzzi, Jeffrey N.; "Ringed Planets: Still Mysterious -- II," Sky and Telescope, 69:19, 1985.) Comment. Assuming the rings are young, where did they come from? What happened to Saturn in "recent" times? Reference. Several lines of evidence point to the youth of Saturn's rings. See: ARL16 in our catalog The Moon and the Planets. Ordering information here . From Science Frontiers #39, MAY-JUN 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... , the devils often were born in pairs; a big one followed by a modest little chap following behind by 100-150 yards. The devils ranged from just a foot or so in diameter to 500 yards and more. The giants were majestic masses of swirling sand that moved along at leisurely paces. These appeared harmless enough, but stepping through the outer wall into the vortex sucked the air out of the lungs. "Outside our hangar there is a large stretch of wind-sheltered concrete which becomes intensely hot. In this area, close to the foot of the hangar, one can start up one's own little devils on occasions by a quick sweep of a signalling bat (which is shaped like a large ping-pong bat) from shoulder level in circular and downwards direction to a point almost touching the ground; one must step rapidly back or the vortex that is set up is spoilt. Such a miniature thermal starts about a foot in diameter and quickly assumes a conical shape about two feet high, moving along the ground at a walking pace. Its rotation increases very rapidly, until one has the impression of a whirling snake in front of one. As it reaches the edge of the concrete a little sand is thrown up and the thermal dies away." (Swinn, R.H ., "On Flying Gliders into Wind Devils," Journal of Meteorology, U.K ., 10:17, 1985.) From Science Frontiers #39, MAY-JUN 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... crops. One eyewitness account of the formation of a single spial pattern has been found. However, the multiple spiral patterns excite the most interest because of their geometric regularity. Between 1980 and 1984, eight quintuplet patterns have been found consisting of a large central circle and four smaller satellite circles. Triplets were also discovered. Although the origins of the multiplet patterns are still unexplained, some interesting generalizations have emerged: 1. The whirlwinds responsible for the flattened circles of crops have lifetimes of only a few seconds, whereas dust devils may persist for many minutes; 2. These whirlwinds seem to occur around evening time instead of during the heat of the day; and 3. They are all anticyclonic, while tornados are almost all cyclonic and true heat whirlwinds are split about evenly in their spin direction. (Meaden, G.T .; "Advances in Understanding of Whirlwind Spiral Patterns in Cereal Fields," Journal of Meteorology, U.K ., 10:73, 1985.) Quintuplet circles found in a grain field near Cley Hill, England. From Science Frontiers #40, JUL-AUG 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 40: Jul-Aug 1985 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Messengers of a "new physics"In a "garage" off the road tunnel running deep under Mont Blanc sits a huge particle detector called Nusex. A second, complementary experiment resides 600 meters below the surface in a Minnesota mine. Both experiments are tuned to measure charged particles of very high energy, especially muons, which penetrate their high rocky ceilings with ease. These two arrays of buried detectors have both picked up fluxes of muons coming from the direction of Cygnus X-3 Now Cygnus X-3 is already classed as a remarkable object because it spews out pulses of X-rays and gamma-rays. It turns out that the muon fluxes arrive in phase with the pulses of gamma-rays and X-rays, and are thus definitely linked to Cygnus X-3 . The problem here is that muons are electrically charged particles that would assuredly be thrown far off course by intergalactic magnetic fields if they originated at Cygnus X-3 . The muons, therefore, must be created by electrically neutral particles arriving at the earth's atmosphere from Cygnus X-3 . Neutrons can be ruled out because they would decay in transit. X-ray photons and neutrinos have also been ruled out. The only alternative left seems to be some unknown neutral particle generated at Cygnus X-3 . Cygnus X-3may be a huge particle accelerator which "may operate in a realm of physics inaccessible on Earth, ...
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... of the temporal structure of electrical signals. These animals produce an electrical signal within a species-specific frequency range via an electric organ, and they detect these signals by electroreceptors located throughout the body surface. In the context of one electrosensory behaviour, the jamming avoidance response (JAR), the fish Eigenmannia determines whether a neighbour's electric organ discharge (EOD), which is jamming its own signal, is higher or lower in frequency than its own. The fish then decreases or increases its frequency, respectively. To determine the sign of the frequency difference, the fish must detect the modulations in the amplitude and in the differential timing, or temporal disparity, of signals received by different regions of its body surface. The fish is able to shift its discharge frequency in the appropriate direction in at least 90% of all trials for temporal disparities as small as 400 ns." (Rose, Gary, and Heiligenberg, Walter; "Temporal Hyperacuity in the Electric Sense of Fish," Nature, 318:178, 1985.) Comment. ns = nanosecond = 10-9 second. There must be some chips in those fish! Sorry, couldn't resist that one. From Science Frontiers #43, JAN-FEB 1986 . 1986-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... sighting was 2220 GMT. The target, once detected, gave a very strong echo and gave the impression of being a large target. It was plotted and found to be stationary. The initial course of 023 was altered to 028 in order to enable the vessel to close the passing distance. "Throughout the observations neither light followed any set characteristic. Instead they just flashed at random, but never together. The intensity of the bright light would have put many a lighthouse to shame. As the light came on the beam they both seemed to be on one and the same object -- perhaps at each end of a light float was one possibility suggested. As the lights came on the beam at a distance of 1.3 n. mile the Aldis lamp was shone in their direction but with no success in identifying them..... "The two previous voyages had been to Brazil and France and the lights were observed on every occasion near the equator; they were identical in every way, but in the previous encounters the lights, both dim and bright, were more numerous." (Guy, M.E .; "Unidentified Flashing Object," Marine Observer, 55:79, 1985.) Comment. Similar lights have been reported in this area and elsewhere at sea. See GLN1 in Lightning, Auroras, Nocturnal Lights. This catalog is described here . From Science Frontiers #44, MAR-APR 1986 . 1986-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 43: Jan-Feb 1986 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Everglades astrobleme?Astrobleme means "star wound," and the southern tip of Florida seems to have been wounded by an asteroid or some other celestial projectile. At a recent meeting of the Geological Society of America, E.J . Petuch proposed that the Everglades region received a direct hit from an asteroid about 36 million years ago. The Everglades region is a swampy, forested area surrounded by an oval-shaped system of ridges. Geologists usually maintain that the Everglades represent a collapse feature caused by groundwater dissolving away limestone. (Buildings and cars seem to be swallowed fairly regularly by Florida sinkholes.) Petuch disagrees with the collapse theory and points to the following evidence for an impact origin: 1. The presence of a strong positive magnetic anomaly; 2. Eocene formations, 40 million years old, are missing over the southern Everglades; 3. A network of fractures pervades rock layers older than Eocene; 4. High iridium concentrations, probably of extraterrestrial origin, exist at the Eocene-Oligocene boundary on nearby Barbados; and 5. The oval reef structure that seems to have grown around the impact area as sealevels rose. Some geologists do not concur with the asteroid theory, but they are all reviewing Florida's geological history in a new light. (Weisburd, S.; "Asteroid Origin of the Everglades?" Science News, 128:294, 1985.) Reference. Very large craters and astroblemes ...
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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 More On The Soviet Plume Events A recent issue of Eos, published by the American Geophysical Union, presents some amazing and at the same time unsettling photographs of immense plumes taken by satellites passing over Soviet Arctic islands. Eleven such events are tabulated from October 12, 1980, to June 12, 1986. Perhaps the most dramatic event occurred on March 12, 1982, over Novaya Zemlya. The picture shows a sharply etched tongue of cold vapor arcing some 175 kilometers at a maximum altitude of 9.5 -10 kilometers. As with most of the plumes, movement of the vapor does not correspond to wind direction. Volcanic activity and natural methane gas releases are considered unlikely explanations. Since the islands involved are used for Soviet weapons tests, the plumes may be due to some incredibly energetic devices, although no radioactive releases or seismic activity seem correlated with the plume appearances. Queries to Soviet scientists have gone unanswered. (Anonymous; "Large Plume Events in the Soviet Arctic," Eos, 67:1372, 1986.) From Science Frontiers #50, MAR-APR 1987 . 1987-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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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 Sailing Through A Waterspout Sailing on the Pagan in the mid-Pacific, One July morning J. Caldwell spotted a tropic waterspout. Having heard that spouts had hurricane force winds in-side, whirlpools at their bases that could suck a ship under, and a solid wall of water being sucked up into the clouds, Caldwell threw caution to the winds and headed directly for the spout. "Pagan was swallowed by a cold wet fog and whirring wind. The decks tilted. A volley of spray swept across the decks. The rigging howled. Suddenly it was dark as night. My hair whipped my eyes, I breathed wet air, and the hard cold wind wet me through. Pagan's gunwales were under and she pitched into the choppy seaway. There was no solid trunk of water being sucked from the sea; no hurricane winds to blow down sails and masts; and no whirlpool to gulp me out of sight. Instead, I sailed into a high dark column from 75 to 100 feet wide, inside of which was a damp circular wind of 30 knots, if it was that strong. As suddenly as I had entered the waterspout I rode out into bright free air. The high dark wall of singing wind ran away. For me another mystery of the sea was solved." (Caldwell, John; "On Sailing through a Waterspout," Journal of Meteorology, U.K ., ...
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... , consciousness, as we know it today, is a relatively new faculty, one that did not exist until as recently as 2000 B.C . He holds that a basic difference between contemporary and ancient man is the process of decision-making. When faced with a novel situation today, man considers alternatives, thinks about future consequences, makes a decision, ruminates over it, and finally acts. He then reconsiders his action, evaluates it, worries about it, feels good or bad about it, makes resolves about future decisions, and so forth. The cerebral activity that precedes and follows an action response is consciousness. Jaynes believes that man of antiquity had no consciousness -- that when faced with a novel situation, he simply reacted. He reacted without hesitation by following the directions of a personal voice that told him exactly what to do. Ancient man called this voice God; today it is called an auditory hallucination. To ancient man, God was not a mental image or a deified thought but an actual voice heard when one was presented with a situation requiring decisive action." You must really read Jaynes' book to appreciate the evidence he has collected in support of his hypothesis. In the present article, J. Hamilton has found additional support for Jaynes' theory. His abstract follows: "When a system for communicating with nonverbal, quadriplegic, institutionalized residents was developed, it was discovered that many were experiencing auditory hallucinations. Nine cases are presented in this study. The 'voices' described have many similar characteristics, the primary one being that they ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 31: Jan-Feb 1984 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Hearing Via Acoustic Holograms Humans and the higher primates can locate the source of a sound without turning their ears or heads. Other animals are not so fortunate. Current theories of hearing, according to Hugo Zuccarelli, cannot explain this human capability, which we all take for granted. He has come up with a new theory that pictures our ears as truly remarkable organs. First, our ear itself is a sound emitter. It emits a reference sound that combines with incoming sound to form an interference pattern inside the ear. The nature of this pattern is sensitive to the direction of the incoming sound. Our ear's cochlea detects and analyzes this pattern as if it were an acoustic hologram. The brain then interprets this data and infers the direction of the sound. (Zuccarelli, Hugo; "Ears Hear by Making Sounds," New Scientist, 100:438, 1983.) Comment. We have been able to appreciate this slick biological trick only after we "discovered" holograms. We should wonder if we are missing anything else! Two letters quickly appeared casting doubt on not only Zuccarelli's Theory but his personal scientific capabilities. (Baxter, A.J ., and Kemp, David T.; "Zuccarelli's Theory," New Scientist, 100:606, 1983.) From Science Frontiers #31, JAN-FEB 1984 . 1984-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 35: Sep-Oct 1984 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Getting The Pouch Right When we think of kangaroos hopping about Australia (which isn't very often), we know that all baby kangaroos are safely "buckled in" their mothers' pouches -- nature's own vehicle restraint system. How fortunate it is that kangaroo pouches open at the top; otherwise, little kangaroos would be falling out all over the place. While some marsupials have pouches opening "up" or "forward" in quite a few others evolution got the directions for pouch manufacture reversed. The koala, the wombat, the thylacine, and the marsupial mole all have backward-opening pouches. Obviously, a forward-opening pouch on the mole would act like a dirt scoop, to the great inconvenience of any occupants. On the other quadrupeds, the backwardopening pouch may protect the young from branches and vegetation. (Marshall, Jeremy H.; "Directional Pouches," Nature, 309:300, 1984.) Comment. This is an example of the socalled Problem of Perfection, where life seems marvelously attuned to its environment; that is, "fittest." Somewhere among the millions of species alive today, there must be one out-and-out failure. Of course, if full-scale nuclear war breaks out, we will know that evolution did make at least one mistake! Evolution gone wrong! Nature's cartoon of a kangaroo with a wrong-way ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 30: Nov-Dec 1983 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Cosmic Rays Not Random Conventional wisdom maintains that the cosmic rays intercepted by the earth are randomly distributed in space and time because of the smoothing action of the galactic magnetic field. But a cosmic-ray telescope buried beneath 600 meters of rock has recently detected bursts of cosmic rays emanating from specific directions. The two major sources are in the direction of the galactic north pole and the constellation Cygnus. Since the galactic magnetic field seems sufficient to randomize all charged particles during their long flights through space, pristine cosmic rays may not be charged particles at all. (Hecht, Jeff, and Torrey, Lee; "Scientists Find Sources of Cosmic Rays," New Scientist, 99:764, 1983.) Reference. The many anomalies of cosmic radiation are cataloged it: Stars, Galaxies, Cosmos. Details on this book at: here . From Science Frontiers #30, NOV-DEC 1983 . 1983-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 35: Sep-Oct 1984 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Blooms in the desert?Particle physicists have recently observed anomalous events in data from the proton-antiproton collider at the European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN). These unexpected events occur when a proton hits an antiproton head-on at very high energies. Highly collimated jets of charged particles shoot out in one direction, while an unrecognized "something" takes off in the opposite direction. The reactions take place at energies just beyond the masses of the newly discovered W and Z particles. Till now, this energy region has been dubbed a "desert" because, according to the so-called Grand Unification Theory of particle interactions, nothing is supposed to happen there. But there is something there after all; and whatever it is, it does not seem to be remotely like any known or predicted particle. (Waldrop, M. Mitchell; "Blooms in the Desert?" Science, 224:589, 1984.) From Science Frontiers #35, SEP-OCT 1984 . 1984-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 34: Jul-Aug 1984 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects A Gathering Of Quasars The universe is supposed to be approximately uniform in all directions -- the evenly distributed smoke from the Big Bang. Halton Arp, an energetic opponent of the standard cosmological view, points out that quasars are socializing in disgracefully large numbers in one region of the sky. In the direction of the so-called Local Cluster of galaxies, between redshifts 1.2 -2 .5 , there are roughly four times as many quasars per unit volume as in the other parts of the sky. This unexpected clumping of quasars affects a region 1,3000 million light years in diameter and 4.875 million light years deep, a rather substantial chunk of the cosmos. Arp's discovery places astronomy in a no-win situation. Either the distribution of quasars is too clumpy for current theory or the redshift/distance law is wrong. Neither situation makes astronomers very happy. (Anonymous; "Quasars and Quasi Quasars," New Scientist, p. 20, May 17, 1984.) From Science Frontiers #34, JUL-AUG 1984 . 1984-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 31: Jan-Feb 1984 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Unidentified Phenomena September 17, 1982. South Atlantic Ocean. 2103 GMT on a clear dark night. "The first thing noticed was the formation of a bright patch of white light in the general area between Rasalhague and Alphecca. Gradually a dark eye formed in the centre of the patch in which shortly afterwards a very bright object appeared like a star of magnitude -2 . After one or two seconds this object appeared to undergo a tremendous explosion and became a large bright orange gaseous fireball, which appeared to be hurled earthwards directly down the observer's line of sight, growing constantly larger and larger. One witness described the fireball as resembling rolling orange smoke. The ball then ceased to increase in size, giving the impression that it had stopped. Its orange colour rapidly gave way to rainbow colours which gradually gave way to white and faded in brilliance until all that remained were several patches of luminous white light, although these were impressive in their own right." A similar phenomenon was noted the following night, although the ship was 7 farther south. September 18, 1982. South Atlantic Ocean. From a different ship in the same area as the one above. "The altitude of the first sighting was approximately 24 , level with the planet Jupiter and offset to its right. The six subsequent bursts were above the first, and slightly to the right, leaving a fantail of purple/white lenticular clouds which leaned ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 27: May-Jun 1983 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects A COMPASS IN OUR SINUSES?You may not feel any north-directed nasal twinges, but the thin hard bones lining the human sinuses contain deposits of magnetic ferric iron. This discovery adds man to a long list of organisms from bacteria to birds known to possess localized accumulations of magnetic material. Experiments with these animals, including humans, seem to indicate a widespread ability to detect ambient magnetic fields. Some animals appear to use this sense for navigation. Whether humans do or do not is still a moot question. (Baker, Robin R., et al; "Magnetic Bones in Human Sinuses," Nature, 301: 78, 1983.) From Science Frontiers #27, MAY-JUN 1983 . 1983-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 32: Mar-Apr 1984 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects When The Earth Shifted Gears No one really knows just how the terrestrial magnetic field is generated or why it has reversed its direction so frequently in past geological time. Per-haps there is a clue in the following correlation: "The Mesozoic-Cenozoic histories of reversals in the earth's magnetic field and of periods of widespread anoxia in the ocean basins show a remarkable correlation; periods of black-shale deposition (' anoxic events') occur during lengthy periods without magnetic reversals (' quiet periods'). My assembly of published work indicates a remote connection between quiet periods and anoxic events and suggests its form: Magnetic quiet periods coincide with fast seafloor spreading. During these periods, buoyant spreading ridges displace seawater into broad shelves, thus decreasing earth's albedo and causing global warming. Temperature gradients, and thus density gradients, from pole to equator decrease in surface waters, and the deep ocean currents of oxygenated polar waters wane. Oxygen minimum zones intensify and widen; anoxic conditions throughout entire basins are indicated by black shales deposited in the deep sea. These relations thus suggest that the earth's interior processes and its climates are related and their status recorded by both magnetic polarity and anoxic event chronologies of the earth." (Force, Eric R.; "A Relation among Geomagnetic Reversals, Seafloor Spreading Rate, Paleoclimate, and Black Shales," Eos, 65:18, 1984.) Comment ...
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... how the orchid's seeds are dispersed is still a mystery. (Cooke, John; "Hidden Assets," Natural History, 93:75, October 1984.) Bats navigate by somehow constructing an image of the external world from the echoes of their squeaks. Since bats have but two ears, one wonders how they can develop a three-dimensional image from a two-dimensional sensor; ie., two ears give right-and-left information only. The moustache bat makes up for this deficiency by generating echo-locating pulses at three distinct harmonics: 30, 60, and 90 kilohertz. Its external ears are so shaped that each of these three frequencies has a different acoustic axis, giving the bat in effect three separate sets of ears pointing in three different directions. Inside the bat's head, in the inferior colliculus of the brain, are three sepa rate sets of neurons sensitive to the three different frequencies. No one knows how the bat processes such information into a "display" it can use in swooping after insects at night. (Anonymous; "The Ins and Outs of a Bat's Ears," New Scientist, 20, August 30, 1984.) Reference. For more on bat navigational prowess, see section BMT3 in our catalog: Biological Anomalies: Mammals II. This volume is described here . The three acoustic axes of the moustache bat. From Science Frontiers #36, NOV-DEC 1984 . 1984-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... it, like an afterglow. Also trailing astern of the object was a light trail of sparks (possibly large solid particles). The object disappeared behind clouds, bearing about 170 (T ) at an elevation of approximately 35 , and lighting the edges of the clouds. The time taken for the passage was around 20 seconds. It was obviously a very large object, judging from its apparent size as seen from sea level. The impression given was that of an object within the atmosphere, easily showing around a one-penny piece held at arm's length." (Edwards, R.A .F .; "Unidentified Flying Object," Marine Observer, 54:82, 1984) Comment. This seems to be a description of a large fireball, but the direction of flight (north-south) is unusual and the time of passage (20 seconds) extremely long for a meteor. Large, very sluggish fireball trailing sparks over the North Atlantic. From Science Frontiers #38, MAR-APR 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... inches in length coming from a white centre. I felt nothing, but was startled. There was no damage to the water heater or anything else. Just as I exclaimed at the blue flashes, I heard my mother cry out and ran to her in the living room. She was sitting in a chair about ten feet from the window, under which stands the television set, plugged in but not switched on. About eight feet from the floor and four feet in front of the double-glazed window (i .e . between the television and the fireplace, but not quite over or opposite either), appeared an orange fireball, rather smaller than a football, with straight lines of orange light, varying from about one to two feet in length coming from it in all directions. This ball seemed to hover for up to five seconds before disappearing. I did not see it myself. My mother quickly recovered from the shock and there was no damage in the room." (Gilbey, J.C .M .; "Orange-Coloured Ball Lightning.....," Journal of Meteorology, U.K ., 9:245, 1984.) Living room: orange fireball with orange rays From Science Frontiers #38, MAR-APR 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... of diseases mentioned as possible consequences of virus infection are those involving the faulty manufacture of insulin, neurotransmitters, hormones, and immune system regulators. (Miller, J.A .; "Subtle is the Virus: Cells Stay Intact," Science News, 125: 70, 1984.) Comment. This item dwells on the negative aspects of vial infections. Indeed, we automatically assume every infection by any virus or bacterium to be bad for the organism. This may not be so. Now that we have discovered that viruses can cause bodily changes without damaging the cells of the infected organism, we should ask whether favorable physical changes might not be caused by viruses, but not recognized as such. Going a few steps further: Is intelligence a disease? Could evolution be accelerated or directed through the mediation of viruses? See below for more on this. From Science Frontiers #32, MAR-APR 1984 . 1984-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Kaleidoscopic Brain "It first hit me early in the morning of December 27, 1970. Suspended in the dreamy state just before waking and with my eyes still closed, I experienced an extraordinarily vivid visual image. Extending before me was an infinite array of diamond-shaped amber regions; each was filled with a regular pattern of black spade-like forms, all pointing straight up, or, in alternate diamonds, to the left. A latticework of delicately beveled edges, gleaming like polished gold, framed with diamonds. The whole array shimmered before me in perfect amber and gold splendor for what must have been several seconds." This kind of geometrical visual experience occurs rarely to some people during "twilight" states just before falling asleep or waking. Direct pressure on the optic nerve produces similar geo meters' delights; so can drugs, fever, sleeplessness, and other altered states of consciousness. Migraine headaches, too, are often presaged by floating, semicircular fields of closely spaced parallel lines or bars arranged in zigzag patterns. This geometrical visual phenomenon may, like a berserk TV screen, be diagnostic and betray regularities in the brain's circuitry. The kaleidoscopic patterns seem to occur when imput signals from the eyes are weak or suspended, leaving the brain to generate its own "favorite" patterns. (Shepard, Roger N.; "The Kaleidoscopic Brain," Psychology Today, 17:62, June 1983.) Comment. But why the elaborate geometry? Could this apparently "built-in" pattern-generating capacity ...
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... All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The inca's use of bismuth From Machu Picchu, Peru, comes a unique artifact: a llama-head knife made from two types of bronze. The knife blade and stem are made from low-tin bronze (not at all unusual), but the llama head is bronze with 18% bismuth. Bismuth occurs as a native metal in Peru and it is not surprising that the Incas knew of it. This is the first artifact, however, containing any appreciable proportion of bismuth in bronze. The authors of this paper believe that the use of bismuth was intentional for at least two reasons. (1 ) It gave the llama head an attractive lighter tone than the rest of the knife. (2 ) The handle was cast directly on the stem, and the use of bismuth in the bronze would prevent the bronze from expanding too much during solidification. The handle, therefore, would be more securely attached to the stem. The Incas thus seem to have been better metallurgists than we have supposed. (Gordon, Robert B., and Rutledge, John W.; "Bismuth Bronze from Machu Picchu, Peru," Science, 223:585, 1984.) From Science Frontiers #33, MAY-JUN 1984 . 1984-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 26: Mar-Apr 1983 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Slithering Patch Of Light September 8, 1981. Te Ngaere, New Zealand. Inside a house during a thunderstorm. "The next lightning seemed directly overhead and very bright and was accompanied by a simultaneous very loud clap of thunder. I looked up as the whole house shook and then looked down and saw a flow of light come in under the door. It settled in a blob near the edge of the area where the tools were laid out. It was not in any true shape but about 3 or 4 inches long and 2 inches wide, moving along the floor, less than half an inch thick, seemingly fluid in shape and texture. It reminded me of quicksilver, being a bluish-silver colour and it had rounded sides like a blob of mercury. It was brighter at the edges than in the middle, but it did not seem, especially in the light of the room, to glow, nor did it give out sparks. From the central body arms flowed out like runs of oil among the tools. The trails weaved through the tools -- not actually over them but round them -- moving back into the main body of the blob and then going out doing the same kind of movement over again. There was no sound or smell. The arms finally all went back into the blob which disappeared again suddenly out under the door. There was no bang and when I ventured to touch ...
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... systems. (Science, 221:568, 1983.) Also, men who have recently lost their wives to breast cancer have immune systems less responsive to mitogens. (Journal of the American Medical Association, 250:374, 1984.) (Maddox, John; "Psychoimmunology Before Its Time," Nature, 309:400, 1984.) Comment. This is an appropriate time to suggest that "psychoevolution" may be physiologically possible. If the brain can fight disease and even control cell growth, why not a role for the mind in stimulating the development of new spe cies, perhaps in response to extreme environmental pressures, and perhaps not on the conscious level? The body's sensory system would detect great external stresses, the brain would process the information, and direct some astute genetic shuffling. The genetic inheritance of an organism is not sacrosanct. Radiation, chemicals, and various others mutagens are recognized. There seems to be no a priori reason why the brainbody combination cannot generate mutagens -- possibly not randomly but intelligently! (We ignore here selfish DNA and Sheldrake's morphogenic fields.) Does this mean that if we wish to mutate, we can? Well, it's probably not as simple as wishing warts away, but Maddox's editorial underscores the complexity and subtlety of the brain-body combination. From Science Frontiers #35, SEP-OCT 1984 . 1984-2000 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 Mental Control Of Allergies "Most of the effort directed at understanding the problems of allergy has focused on the interacting components of the immune system. The possibility that histamine may be released as a learned response has now been tested. In a classical conditioning procedure in which an immunologic challenge was paired with the presentation of an odor, guinea pigs showed a plasma histamine increase when presented with the odor alone. This suggests that the immune response can been hanced through activity of the central nervous system." The article begins by noting that many anecdotal reports suggest that allergic reactions can be induced by suggestion; viz., an allergy to roses induced by an artificial rose. (Russell, Michael, et al; "Learned Histamine Release," Science, 225:733, 1984.) From Science Frontiers #36, NOV-DEC 1984 . 1984-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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