84 results found.
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 73: Jan-Feb 1991 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Five Reasons Why Ufos Are Not Extraterrestrial Machines Regardless of what mainstream science thinks of them, UFO observations continue to pile up -- by the tens of thousands! In fact, like the crop-circle events, UFO reports are increasing in number and strangeness. It doesn't matter that the UFOs and their alleged occupants may be physically real. There are tens of thousands of people who think that they have observed something strange -- even after all hoaxes and misinterpretations of natural phenomena have been culled out. Most of those who are willing to accept UFOs as valid phenomenon think they are real hardware piloted by extraterrestrials. J. Vallee, a computer scientist and prolific writer on the subject, demurs, and he gives five reasons why: "( 1 ) Unexplained close encounters are far more numerous than required for any physical survey of the earth; (2 ) The humanoid body structure of the alleged 'aliens' is not likely to have originated on another planet and is not biologically adapted to space travel; (3 ) The reported behavior in thousands of abduction reports contradicts the hypothesis of genetic or scientific experimentation on humans by an advanced race; (4 ) The extension of the phenomenon throughout recorded history demonstrates that UFOs are not a contemporary phenomenon; and (5 ) The apparent ability of UFOs to manipulate space and time suggests radically different and richer alternatives." If not extraterrestrial hardware, what are the UFOs ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 127 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf073/sf073g16.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 3: April 1978 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Extraterrestrial Influences On Chemical And Biological Systems Conventional science shows little interest in the subject indicated by the title, except for some work that is done on circadian rhythms. However, readers of the journals Cycles and the Journal of Interdisciplinary Cycle Research are treated regularly to a wide variety of purported correlations of biological systems with solar and other extraterres-trial influences. The present paper suggests that extraterrestrial forces influence the earth's weather which, in turn controls physiological processes. The physiological processes studied include blood precipitation rate and blood hemoglobin values. Also mentioned are Piccardi's precipitation-rate experiments that seem to show a highly variable behavior of simple chemical systems that bear no obvious relationship to weather conditions. Tromp concludes from these data that unknown forces, probably extraterrestrial in nature, act upon the earth and its inhabitants. (Tromp, Solco W.; "Study of Possibly Extraterrestrial Influences on Colloidal Systems and Living Processes on Earth," Cycles, 28:34, 1977.) From Science Frontiers #3 , April 1978 . 1978-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 106 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf003/sf003p11.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 111: May-Jun 1997 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Extraterrestrial Handedness Human life forms favor right-handedness over left-handedness by a 9:1 ratio. Other terrestrial animals are also asymmetrical in various ways. But on the molecular level, terrestrial biochemistry is all left-handed. As far as scientists can determine, only left-handed amino acids are incorporated into proteins. In nonlife (if such a state really exists), amino-acid molecules are right- and lefthanded in equal numbers -- as least this has been the theory up until now. Amino acids are found in substances we assume are non-life or of abiotic origin. In fact, amino acids are present in meteorites, often in substantial amounts. They are profuse in Australia's Murchison meteorite, a carbonaceous chondrite. However, analysis of the Murchison's amino acids indicates that there are slightly more (7 -9 %) left-handed than right-handed amino acids present. This extraterrestrial handedness is of great import to both cosmologists and biologists, because the carbonaceous chondrites are thought to have formed 4.5 billion years ago -- long before life on earth originated. Furthermore, some of the Murchison's amino acids have never been found in terrestrial life, and they are also slightly left-handed. For some unfathomed reason, chemical and biological evolution both tilt to the left! (Bada, Jeffrey L.; "Extraterrestrial Handedness?" Science, 275 ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 86 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf111/sf111p03.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 24: Nov-Dec 1982 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects A Hint Of Extraterrestrial Oceans The Allende carbonaceous chondrite (a well-known meteorite) contains a layered mineral related to serpentine, which seems to have been formed under aqueous conditions before it was incorporated into the meteoric mass. In the sometimes obscure language of science, the authors say that the unusual characteristics of this mineral may ". .. reflect undetermined extraterrestrial conditions experienced by some chondrules and aggregates." (Tomeoka, Kazushige, and Buseck, Peter R.; "An Unusual Layered Mineral in Chondrules and Aggregates of the Allende Carbonaceous Chondrite," Nature, 299:327, 1982.) Comment. Usually "hydrous" and "sedimentary" meteorites are quickly forgotten! They don't conform to expectations. From Science Frontiers #24, NOV-DEC 1982 . 1982-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 69 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf024/sf024p07.htm
... 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 Oceans From Space In keeping with the foregoing extraterrestrial flavor, we are happy to report that our oceans may be exogenous; that is, derived from extraterrestrial materials. Once again, comets seem to be the culprits. C.F . Chyba has examined the lunar impact record and derived an estimate of the total mass of objects impacting the moon during the (hypothetical) period of heavy bombardment 3.8 to 4.5 billion years ago. This allowed him to calculate the mass influx for the earth during this period. His conclusion: if only about 10% of the incoming mass consisted of comets (mostly ice), the earth would have acquired all its ocean water. (Chyba, Christopher F.; "The Cometary Contribution to the Oceans of Primitive Earth," Nature, 330:632, 1987.) Comment. Frank claims that the earth today is continually bombarded by small icy comets, which down the eons may have kept the ocean basins full. So, we have two possible extraterrestrial sources of oceans -- both of a cometary nature. It was only yesterday that the idea of ice surviving in outer space was ridiculed; no one even dreamed that our oceans could be composed of space ice! From Science Frontiers #56, MAR-APR 1988 . 1988-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 42 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf056/sf056g10.htm
... , 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 of up to 2% and more. The Japanese have just reported the analysis of Yamoto 791198, a carbonaceous chondrite picked up in the Antarctic. This meteorite is loaded with amino acids, 20 kinds of them. These extraterrestrial amino acids are not considered biogenic because they are half left-handed and half right-handed; whereas all amino acids synthesized by terrestrial animals, plants, etc. are left-handed. [This is obviously presumptious because we have no notion how extraterrestrial life works, assuming it exists at all.] (3 ) The rings of Uranus . Voyager photos reveal that these rings are composed of unknown dark material quite unlike that in the high-albedo (bright) rings of Saturn. References. (Kerr, Richard A.; "A Comet's Heart May Be Big But Black," Science, 229:372, 1985. Also: Emsley, John; "Amino Acids from Outer Space," New Scientist, p. 30, December 19/26 ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 38 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf044/sf044p05.htm
... labelled-release experiments on both landers produced positive results every time a nutrient was added to fresh Martian soil. (The nutrient was tagged with carbon-14, and radioactive carbon dioxide always evolved, suggesting biological metabolism.) Further, the soil samples, when sterilized by heat, gave uniformly negative results. On earth. such repeatable experiments would be considered strong evidence that life existed in the samples. The reason the Viking experiments were described as "negative" is that the other two life detection experiments produced negative or equivocal results. The gas chromatograph, for example, detected no organic molecules in the Martian soil; and it is difficult to conceive of life without organic molecules. At first, most scientists preferred to explain the ambiguous life-detection-experiment results in terms of strange extraterrestrial chemistry. Nevertheless, strange extraterrestrial life would explain the data equally well. Everyone should be aware that the Viking biology team still considers life on Mars as a real possibility. (Lewis, Richard; "Yes. There Is Life on Mars," New Scientist, 80:106, 1978.) Comment. Most research into the possibility of extraterrestrial life assume "life-as-we-know-it." For more information on the Viking experiments, read entry AME14 in our Catalog: The Moon and the Planets. Ordering information here . From Science Frontiers #6 , February 1979 . 1979-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 37 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf006/sf006p04.htm
... boundary, some 65 million years ago, grinds on. Some physical scientists claim rather imperiously that the dinosaurs and many other species were done in by the impact of a huge asteroid/meteorite. The worldwide iridium spike is conclusive, they say. Many paleontologists and geologists, however, remain unconvinced and prefer widespread volcanism. We have already covered the various arguments in past issues of Science Frontiers; here, we want to advise our readers that a pair of excellent articles by principals in this debate have appeared in Scientific American. Generally speaking, it seems that the proponents of the impact theory are now listening to the other side. For example, multiple impacts are now proposed to account for evidence of the type introduced below. (Alvarez, Walter, and Asaro, Frank; "An Extraterrestrial Impact," Scientific American, 263:78, October 1990. Also: Courtillot, Vincent E.; "A Volcanic Eruption," Scientific American, 263:85, October 1990.) A spike dulled. The case for a single asteroid/meteorite impact has been weakened by a recent reexamination of the classic exposure of the CretaceousTertiary boundary at Gubbio, Italy. Here, the discovery of an iridium "spike" at the boundary was thought to betoken a sudden, catastrophic, extraterrestrial event. On further study, though, the spike no longer seems so sharp. In fact, it is spread through about 3 meters of sediments at the boundary. Said sediments apparently took 500,000 years to accumulate! This broad smear of iridium no longer seems indicative of a single ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 36 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf073/sf073g09.htm
... They find that on and near the surface of the earth there is much more water and carbon than can be ascribed to the weathering of the earth's rocks. For example, the amount of carbon tied up in rocks (carbonates, etc.) is 600 times that now found in the combined atmosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere. Where did all this extra carbon come from? The same question can be asked about the earth's water inventory. Geologists have long assumed that this excess water and carbon came from the outgassing of volcanos. But recent quantitative estimates tell us that the volcanic sources are grossly inadequate. So are all other possible terrestrial sources. Therefore, some scientists, such as D. Deming, University of Oklahoma, have been looking spaceward. Deming ventures that extraterrestrial sources of water and carbon may be four or five orders of magnitude greater than suspected. Obviously, a steady bombardment of icy comets might fulfill Deming's requirements. Down the long eons of geological time, they could have filled the oceans and showered all that excess carbon onto the planet's surface. Deming ups the stakes in the icy-comet controversy when he links these fluffy snowballs to the well-known vagaries of life on earth. "The extraterrestrial influx rate may also act as the pacemaker of terrestrial evolution, at times leading to mass extinctions through climatic shifts induced by changes in accretion rates with concommitant disruptions of the carbon and nitrogen cycles. Life on earth may be balanced precariously between cosmic processes which deliver an intermittent stream of life-sustaining volatiles from the outer ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 36 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf126/sf126p08.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 21: May-Jun 1982 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Don't build von neumann machines Back in April 1981, Frank J. Tipler published a comment in Physics Today entitled, "Extraterrestrial Beings Do Not Exist." A key element of his argument was that the first intelligent civilization would inevitably colonize the entire universe with themselves or their self-reproducing (von Neumann) machines. Since we can detect neither kind of colonist, we must be the first and only intelligent civilization. Essentially Tipler was criticizing the prevailing notion that, from a statistical point of view, there must be many other civilizations among the numberless stars and galaxies. Tipler's thoughts evoked a richly provocative group of letters, some of which were published in the March 1982 issue of Physics Today along with a closely related article by Ornstein. Ornstein tackled the problem of estimating the probability that intelligent life would evolve on other planets from a biologist's perspective. Whereas some physical scientists have set this probability at about 1.0 , Ornstein inclines toward 10-9 , believing that intelligent life is probably unique to the earth. But concludes Ornstein, the 15 separate developments of eyes among disparate terrestrial organisms may infer some unrecognized directing factor in evolution that would force him to revise his estimate upwards drastically. On the other hand, those 15 eyes might indicate a common, but still undiscovered, eye-possessing ancestor far back along evolution's track. The fossil record might be mute on this matter ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 32 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf021/sf021p08.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 101: Sep-Oct 1995 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The great exodus Those who believe that the universe is populated by many technically advanced civilizations have long wondered why we earthlings have not been officially invited to join the Intergalactic Federation. Where are those extraterrestrial emissaries anyway? Unfortunately, the extraterrestrial traffic seems to be going at warp speed in the wrong direction. Instead of interstellar spaceships converging on earth full of helpful aliens, everyone (or everything) seems to be fleeing our environs. The proof positive is in all those quasars with high redshifts. In reality, they are not energetic astronomical objects but rather spaceships emitting great power fluxes in our direction from their engines. Earthbound astronomers are really viewing the aft ends of rapidly receding spacecraft. No one ever sees any blueshifted quasars that would tell us that visitors are coming to see us! We are thus truly alone in space, perhaps "deserted" is a better word. What did we do wrong? (Duncan, Dave; "What Do They Know?" New Scientist, p. 52. May 13, 1995.) From Science Frontiers #101 Sep-Oct 1995 . 1995-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 27 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf101/sf101u16.htm
... Collectors coated with silicone oil are deployed. To them stick tiny bits of interplanetary and interstellar debris that have been caught by earth's gravity and are slowly drifting downward in the atmospshere. Some of these micron-sized particles come from asteroid collisions; others from the disintegration of comets. This rain of cosmic matter is not negligible; the earth harvests about 40,000 tons annually from the fertile fields of outer space. "Fertile?" Yes, outer space is a vast biochemical retort. D. Brownlee, R. Walker, and others: ". .. suggest that interplanetary dust has probably carried organic matter to Earth since the early aeons of the solar system. The complexity of the organic molecules found on these particles has fueled the imaginations of many who ponder the role extraterrestrial matter may have played in the prebiological evolution of organic material on the primordial Earth." Beyond these conjectures, several other things about interplanetary dust particles bother scientists: "' What is surprising,' Walker notes, 'and still not understood, is the fact that the organic molecules we see in the dust particles are different from those previously seen in meteorites.' Another enigma is the observation of striking isotopic anomalies -- large enrichments of deuterium relative to hydrogen, as much as ten times greater than one sees in terrestrial samples -- in the particles in which Zare's group observed the organic molecules." Yes, the original dust of life may have been extraterrestrial. (Zeman, Ellen J.; "Complex Organic Molecules Found in Interplanetary Dust Particles," Physics ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 26 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf093/sf093a04.htm
... been reported suggesting a link between historical oscillations of scientific creativity and solar cyclic variation. Eddy's discovery of abnormal secular periods of solar inactivity (' Maunder minimum' type) offered the opportunity to put the present hypothesis to a crucial test. Using time series of flourish years of creators in science, literature, and painting (AD600-AD1800), it was found that, as expected: Cultural flourish curves show marked discontinuities (bursts) after the onset of secular solar excursions, synchronously in Europe and China; During periods of extended solar excursions, bursts of creativity in painting, literature, and science succeeded one another with lags of about 10-15 years; The reported regularities of cultural output are prominent throughout with eminent creators. They decrease with ordinary professionals. "The hypothesized extraterrestrial connection of human cultural history has thus been considerably strengthened." (Ertel, Suitbert; "Synchronous Bursts of Creativity in Independent Cultures; Evidence for an Extraterrestrial Connec tion," The Explorer, 5:12, Fall 1989.) Comment. With apologies to the author, a few minor changes in punctuation have been made above. From Science Frontiers #67, JAN-FEB 1990 . 1990-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 25 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf067/sf067p17.htm
... ) was a catastrophist. To him, the record of death in the layers of fossiliferous rocks was obviously the consequence of terrestrial convulsions. But Cuvier's ideas were swept aside by the uniformitarians who saw the earth and its cargo of life unfolding with almost agonizing slowness. But Cuvier is making a comeback, as illustrated by the following back-to-back articles in Nature. We quote from the abstracts. "Closely spaced samples from an uninterupted calcareous pelagic sequence across the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary reveal that the extinction of planktonic Foraminifera and nannofossils was abrupt without any previous warning in the sedimentary record, and that the moment of extinction was coupled with anomalous trace element enrichments, especially of iridium and osmium. The rarity of these two elements in the crust of the Earth indicates that an extraterrestrial source, such as the impact of a large meteorite may have provided the required amounts of iridium and osmium." (Smit, J., and Hertogen, J.; "An Extraterrestrial Event at the Cretaceous-Tertiary Boundary," Nature, 285:198, 1980.) "Evidence is presented indicating that the extinction, at the end of the Cretaceous, of large terrestrial animals was caused by atmospheric heating during a cometary impact and that the extinction of calcareous marine plankton was a consequence of poisoning by cyanide released by the fallen comet and of a catastrophic rise in calcitecompensation depth in the oceans after the detoxification of the cyanide." (Hsu, Kenneth J.; "Terrestrial Catastrophe Caused by Cometary Impact at the End of Cretaceous," Nature, 285:201 ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 24 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf012/sf012p08.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 68: Mar-Apr 1990 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Impact Delivery Of Early Oceans Where did the earth's oceans come from? For decades the stock answer has been: from the condensation of vapors escaping from the planet's cooling crust; that is, "outgassing." The possibility that some terrestrial water might have ar rived from extraterrestrial sources after the earth's formation has been discounted. The major reason behind this neglect was the expectation that the erosive effects of large-scale impacts of water-carrying comets and asteroids would preclude any net accumulation of volatiles, and could even reduce any existing inventories of surface water. C.F . Chyba has recently reexamined this question of cometary water influx vs. impact-caused water losses using the latest estimates of comet/asteroid fluxes during the period between 4.5 and 3.5 billion years ago, when bombardment of the inner solar system was thought to be especially severe. Rather than the expected net loss, Chyba computes that the earth would really have gained more than 0.2 - 0.7 ocean masses in that billion-year period. Venus would have fared equally well, but Mars, more sensitive to impact erosion, would have accreted "only" a layer of water 10-100 meters deep over the whole planet! (This Martian water is now mostly below the surface supposedly.) (Chyba, Christopher F.; "Impact Delivery and Erosion of Planetary Oceans in the Early ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 24 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf068/sf068g12.htm
... has been thought. In fact, they may be characterized as small icy comets; that is, compositionally like the dirty snowballs that comets are now thought to be, but much, much smaller. The implication is that from 1,000 to 10,000 times more material is being added to the earth's atmosphere than previously believed -- most of it being water. (Weisburd, S.; "Atmospheric Footprints of Icy Meteors," Science News, 128:391, 1985.) Comment. From this launchpad, one's thoughts can really take off. How much water can this bombardment of icy meteors add to the earth, Mars, and other solar system bodies? In the item under GEOLOGY about the Greenland ice cores, it was indicated that the extraterrestrial dust influx during the Ice Ages might have been as high as 3 x 107 tons per year. If 10,000 times this amount of water is added to the atmosphere from icy meteors, we are approaching 1012 tons of extraterrestrial water per year -- far from an inconsiderable amount. The effects on the earth's climate could be large. If even greater fluxes of icy meteors were intercepted in the past, one might account for "pluvial episodes" on the planets. And further, comets now seem to transport "primordial organic sludge" around the solar system, as mentioned earlier under ASTRONOMY. We will leave further speculation to the reader. From Science Frontiers #44, MAR-APR 1986 . 1986-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 24 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf044/sf044p13.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 45: May-Jun 1986 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Antarctic Meteorites Are Different The thousands of meteorites rescued from the Antarctic ice are markedly different from those collected elsewhere on our planet. First, the Antarctic collections contain rare types that seem to have come from the moon and perhaps Mars. Second, the trace elements in the Antarctic specimens differ substantially from those found elsewhere. Age is a third distinguishing parameter. The Antarctic specimens seem to have been residing on and in the ice for some 300,000 years. Almost all meteorites collected elsewhere are less than 200 years old, having been picked up soon after they fell. The implication is that those extraterrestrial projectiles that have accumulated in Antarctica had a different source. (Dennison, Jane E., et al; "Antarctic and non-Antarctic Meteorites Form Different Populations," Nature, 319:391, 1986.) Comment. A dedicated catastrophist would ask what extraterrestrial event occurred 300,000 years ago? Did it involve the moon? Was terrestrial life, including humans, affected? From Science Frontiers #45, MAY-JUN 1986 . 1986-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 24 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf045/sf045p05.htm
... 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 Nazca Figures Duplicated Sensational literature makes much of the huge geometrical figures and outlines of animals etched into the high Peruvian tablelands. Most of these figures and lines are so large that one can fully appreciate them only from the air. This fact has led some writers to invoke ancient astronauts and even ancient Peruvian balloon technology. The fact of the matter is that archeological evidence is pretty convincing that the Nazca Indians constructed the lines about 500 A.D . But did they have extraterrestrial help or use some advanced technology? The author of the subject article, with the help of a few friends, answered these questions quite convincingly -- in the negative -- in the summer of 1982. Using sticks and string, they scaled up a small copy of the famous Nazca "condor" into a 440-foot replica of the real thing on a Kentucky landfill. The scaling up involved no high technology; in fact, even angular measurements were avoided. Instead of removing stones to make the lines, as the Nazcans did, lime was applied. The whole figure was laid out and limed in just a few man-hours. Then, from an aircraft at 1,000 feet, photos were taken. Lo and behold, a very convincing replica of the Nazca condor appeared on the prints. Still unanswered, though, is why anyone would want to make such huge drawings. (Nickell, Joe; "The Nazca Drawings ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf028/sf028p02.htm
... 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 Bimini Archeological Anomalies Bimini offshore features. C marks regular blocks. E indicates ancient beach lines. F is the current shore. G is forested shore. See text for A, B and D. The famous Bimini "wall" or "road," in the Bahamas, has engendered many a sensational article in the popular press. Atlanteans and even extraterrestrials have been credited with the building of the "road" and other constructions reported around the Caribbean island. The fact is that the "road" does exist, but the weight of opinion among those who have investigated it is that it is a natural formation of beach rock fractured in a disturbingly regular manner. But this assessment does not mean that all anomalies in the shallows around Bimini have been exorcised. D.G . Richards, in a splendid article in the Journal of Scientific Exploration gives us a blow-by-blow account of the investigations (both amateur and professional) of Bimini waters. It is a curious panorama of wild claims by adherents of the Cayce-inspired Atlantis searchers and the knee-jerk academic scoffers - both of which go overboard! Be this as it may, our purpose here is the recording of some of the features near Bimini that Richards thinks are still anomalous. Three of these are located at A, B, and D in the accompanying drawing, which is based on an aerial photo taken at 6,000 feet. ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf064/sf064a01.htm
... 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 Non-lethal tektites It is the fashion these days to blame the many so-called "extinctions" prevalent in the fossil record on extraterrestrial cataclysms. Some deposits of tektites and microtektites have indeed been correlated with the disappearances of some species. Since tektites are supposedly formed during meteor collisions with the earth, many scientists thought the evidence, circumstantial though it may be, very convincing. What has not been publicized as well is the fact that many microtektites, particularly in sediments 30-40 million years old, have no correlations whatsoever with any important biological extinctions. (Anonymous; "Non-lethal Tektites," New Scientist, 99:345, 1983.) Reference. The many paradoxes and anomalies associated with tektites are cataloged at ESM3 in: Neglected Geological Anomalies. Information on this book may be found here . From Science Frontiers #30, NOV-DEC 1983 . 1983-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf030/sf030p10.htm
... 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 Giant ice block falls in china April 11, 1983. Wuxi, China. In full view of passers-by, a 50-kilogram block of ice hurtled from the sky and splintered on the pavement. The ice was milky white (some say greyish), and apparently of roundish shape before breaking up. Chinese scientists hurried to the scene and were able to preserve specimens. Their study of the meteorological conditions and specimens led them to conclude that the ice was truly meteoric; that is, extraterrestrial. (Wei, Chen; "Giant Ice-Block Falls in East China City," Journal of Meteorology, U.K ., 8:188, 1983.) Comment. In the West, such ice falls are automatically attributed to chunks falling from aircraft overhead. From Science Frontiers #30, NOV-DEC 1983 . 1983-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf030/sf030p13.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 53: Sep-Oct 1987 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Men in black (mibs)A.K . Bender seems to be one of the first humans contacted by MIBs. In 1953, just after he had written a letter to a friend stating that he had learned the origin and ultimate goal of extraterrestrial visitations to earth, he was approached by three men dressed in black suits. They had his letter! After this contact, Bender ceased all his UFO-related activities. So goes this classic MIB tale. "MIB activity flourished with the increased sightings of UFOs during the 'flap' of 1966-67, and numerous UFO researchers claimed MIB experiences. MIB have been reported to arrive unannounced, sometimes alone or in twos, traditionally in threes, at the homes or places of employment of selected UFO witnesses and investi gators or their research assistants, usually before the witness or researcher has reported the UFO experience to anyone; or in the case of some investigators, before they have even undergone a UFO experience of any kind. People have reported that MIB know more about them than the average stranger could possibly know, and thus MIB can posses an omniscient air." The central thesis of this lengthy article is the close relationship of MIBs and the ancient figure of the Devil. Also treated are the similarities between older folklore traditions and the UFO/ MIB phenomena. The author also notes that UFO percipients also often see Bigfoot-like creatures and other "monsters." ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf053/sf053p16.htm
... 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 The fault, dear reader, is not in our stars but our pigs!Fred Hoyle, in his usual maverick style, has hypothesized that some human flu epidemics are caused by new viruses in jected into the biosphere from outer space. (See his book Diseases from Space .) In yet another book, Evolution from Space , he goes further, stating that the evolution of terrestrial life can also be affected by the extraterrestrial inoculation of genetic material. But, just maybe, influenza pandemics are due to pigs! Every 10-20 years, new flu viruses seem to crop up against which humans have little resistance. The latest theory is that there exists a human-duck-pig connection. It seems that human flu viruses can multiply in ducks, but are not transmitted among ducks. It is also likely that duck viruses multiply in humans, but are not transmitted from one person to another. But enter the pigs: "There is firm evidence that pigs can become infected by and may transmit both human and avian influenza viruses not only amongst other pigs but also back to the original hosts. Therefore, pigs seem to be 'mixing vessels' where two separate reservoirs meet and where reassortment between avian and human influenza A viruses occurs, giving rise to the antigenic shift by creating new human pandemic influenza strains with new surface antigens." The article stimulating this discussion worries about new aquaculture practices, especially in Asia ( ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf056/sf056b06.htm
... 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 Young Interplanetary Dust Here follows an abstract of an article that appeared in Science: "Nuclear tracks have been identified in interplanetary dust particles (IDP's ) collected from the stratosphere. The presence of tracks unambiguously confirms the extraterrestrial nature of IDP's , and the high track densities (1010 to 1011 per square centimeter) suggest an exposure age of approximately 104 years within the inner solar system." (Bradley, J.P ., et al; "Discovery of Nuclear Tracks in Interplanetary Dust," Science, 226:1432, 1984.) Comment. Where does this young dust come from? The Poynting-Robertson drag is supposed to sweep the inner solar system clear of dust fairly quickly. If comets supply a steady stream of dust, the particles should display a wide range of exposure ages. Apparent path of star SAO 186001 behind Neptune. The star's light was reduced at the black circle. From Science Frontiers #38, MAR-APR 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf038/sf038p06.htm
... 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 Two Snowflake Anomalies Rarely is there anything in the scientific literature suggesting that anything about snowflakes could possibly be mysterious. Surprisingly, two articles on snowflake anomalies have appeared recently. To form at all above -40 F, snowflakes supposedly require a solid seed or nucleus around which ice can crystallize -- or so scientists have assumed for many years. It was long believed that airborne dust, perhaps augmented by extraterrestrial micrometeoroids, served as the necessary nuclei. But cloud studies prove that there are about a thousand times more ice crystals than dust nuclei. Now, some are convinced that bacteria blown off plants and flung into the air by ocean waves are the true nuclei of atmospheric ice crystals. Remember this the next time you tast a handful of snow! (Carey, John; "Crystallizing the Truth," National Wildlife, 23:43, December/ January 1985.) Comment. The possibility that the fall of snow and all other forms of precipitation is largely dependent upon bacter-ia brings to mind the Gaia Hypothesis; that is, all life forms work in unison to further the goals of life. The second item is from Nature and is naturally more technical. After reviewing the great difficulties scientists are having in mathematically describing the growth of even the simplest crystal, the author homes in on one of the fascinating puzzles of snowflake growth: "The aggregation of particles into a growing surface will be determined exclusively by local ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf038/sf038p19.htm
... Fossils at Great Depths ESB4 Long-Buried, Undecomposed Organic Matter ESB5 Living and Fossil Marine Organisms Found Far Inland ESB6 Living Organisms and Recent Fossils at Very High Altitudes ESB7 Growth Structures on Marine Organisms and Their Fossils ESB8 Animals Entombed in Rocks ESB9 Living Organisms at Great Depths ESB10 Fossils of Warm-Climate, Light Dependent Organisms Found in the Polar Regions ESB11 Time-Wise Anomalous Fossils ESB12 Skipping in the Fossil Record ESB13 "Special" Nature of Fossils ESC ANOMALOUS CHEMICAL PHENOMENA IN GEOLOGY ESC1 Chemical Anomalies in the Stratigraphic Record ESC2 Chemical Anomalies in Igneous and Metamorphic Rocks ESC3 Surface Films on Rocks ESC4 Spontaneous, Rapid, Exothermic Reactions in Nature ESC5 Death Gulches ESC6 Violent Lake Turnovers ESC7 Petrifactions and Lignifications ESC8 Geological Effects of Natural Combustion ESC9 Rocks and Sediments of Controverted Origins ESC10 Unusual Growth Structures ESC11 Possible Extraterrestrial Origin of Ocean Water ESC12 Chemical Anomalies of Lakes and Ground Water ESC13 Petroleum Anomalies ESC14 Coal Anomalies ESC15 Outgassing of Radon-222 ESC16 Methane Anomalies ESD DEPOSITS OF REMARKABLE SIZE ESD1 Bone Caves, Bone Caches,... ESD2 Bone Beds, Fish Beds,... ESD3 Sedimentary Deposits of Exceptional Volume ESD4 Historical Evidence for Large Scale Flooding ESD5 Recent Large Reductions of Polar Ice Cover ESD6 Giant Basalt Flows and Traps ESD7 Giant Accumulations of Oil ESD8 Giant Erratics and Megabreccias ESD9 Deposits of Great Areal Extent ESI INCLUSIONS ESI1 Inclusions in Crystals ESI2 Microdebris ESI3 Erratic Boulders, Stones, and Mineral Patches ESI4 Anomalous Amber Inclusions ESI5 Microfossil-Like Inclusions ESI6 Oil in Fossil Cavities ESI7 Carbon Dust on Fossil Plants ESI8 Great Rarity of Fossil Meteorites and Tektites ESI9 Stretched Pebbles ESM ANOMALOUS SUPERFICIAL GEOLOGICAL MATERIALS ESM1 ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /cat-geol.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 73: Jan-Feb 1991 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Crop Circle Corner The Wiltshire crop "scroll". Dimensions in meters. Every week, it seems, some new facet of the crop circle phenomenon appears. It is reminiscent of the early days of UFOs. Several books have appeared. A periodical, The Cereologist , now promises to keep everyone up-to-date. People are scouring the old literature and pouring over aerial photos for pre-1980 examples. Theories abound, especially those invoking extraterrestrials! We have room here for only a few brief items. Scorched earth in Xenia, Ohio. A hired hand of Gene Eck was harvesting a field of soybeans when he came upon a circle of flattened plants -- bent but not broken -- some 80 feet in diameter. Inside this circle was a 40-foot-diameter ring of burnt stubble. Within the ring was a patch of undisturbed foxtail 14 feet in diameter. The soybean circle was a half mile from the nearest road; no tracks led into it. (Williams, Nat; Illinois Agri-News, November 9, 1990. Cr. R.A . Ford) Column of light in Wiltshire. During the summer of 1990, teams of English ob servers scanned the cereal fields at night. At 2:30 AM, on July 25, R. Fla-herty, an experienced wildlife photographer, saw a single shaft of light descending from high in the sky toward a Wiltshire wheat ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf073/sf073g11.htm
... 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 The 1977 "wow" signal Anatomy of a "WOW" signal. Vertical ordinate represents intensity; horizontal axis is frequency in intervals of 10 kilohertz. Time axis runs into the chart with 12-second intervals. Over the years, several large radio astronomy antennas have listened for "intelligent" radio signals from outer space. The acronym SETI is customarily applied to such searches; SETI standing for Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. There have been a few exciting false alarms during these listening periods, but most could be attributed to known natural radio sources or manmade interference. All in all, it has been rather disappointing to those who are sure someone else is out there. The major exception in the SETI record was the so-called "WOW" (like Egad!) signal picked up in 1977 by a radio telescope at Ohio State University, in Columbus. The bandwidth of the sig nal was narrower than those of most natural sources; there was also some evidence of periodic and drifting features. The signal never recurred, nor could it be correlated with any manmade or natural radio sources. (Eberhart, Jonathan; "Listening for ET," Science News, 135:296, 1989.) Comment. We can only speculate as to what alien intelligence might mean. Then, too, aliens have probably progressed far beyond primitive radio communication! From Science Frontiers #64, JUL-AUG 1989 . 1989-2000 ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf064/sf064g14.htm
... 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 "HIGH"-TECH FARMING AT TIAHUANACO One of Tiahuanaco's (or Tiwanaku's ) many puzzles has been how food for such a large city was grown at an altitude of circa 3,850 meters (12,600 feet) in the frosty, windswept Bolivian Andes. This problem along with the fabulous stonework and extensive ruins have precipitated theories involving extraterrestrial visitors and an age for the site in the hundreds of thousands of years. At least the food-supply puzzle now seems to be in hand. Stereoscopic aerial photographs show in startling detail: ". .. immense, curvilinear platforms of earth...these fields form elevated planting surfaces ranging from five to 15 meters wide and up to 200 meters long...Extensive and nearly continuous tracts of these fields -- all of which have been abandoned for centuries -- run from the edge of Lake Titicaca to about 15 kilometers inland, and form virtually the only topographic relief in the broad, gradually sloping plain." Some of the raised fields are remarkably sophisticated in design. At the base is a layer of cobblestones for stability. These are covered by a 10-centimeter layer of clay. On top of the clay are three distinct layers of sorted gravel; all capped by rich organic topsoil. These fields were simultaneously an aquifer for the fresh water percolating down from the surrounding hills and a barrier to the brackish water from Lake Titicaca ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf050/sf050p03.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 78: Nov-Dec 1991 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Heavy bombardment of southeast asia 700,000 years ago Tektites are found all over much of Australasia -- an immense area. The tiny, often-illustrated teardrop- and button-shaped tektites clearly seem to have been formed when an extraterrestrial object smashed into the earth, melted terrestrial rock and soil, and splashed the fluid droplets over thousands of kilometers of Australia and Southeast Asia. Solidifying in flight, these par-ticles fell by the millions. Aerodynamically sculpted Australasian tektite But another type of tektite is also found in Southeast Asia. These are the layered or Muong-Nong tektites, which are not aerodynamically sculptured. They come instead in large, irregular masses, 3-20 centimeters thick, weighing up to 24 kilograms. Their layered appearance is thought to result from flow and stirrings as they solidified in small pools of melted rock and soil splashed from nearby impact craters. These irregular chunks of solidified melt could not have traveled great distances like their streamlined brothers. They lie at most only a few crater diameters from their parent craters. Since layered tektites are found over an area 800 x 1140 kilometers in extent, and they are not far-travelers, Southeast Asia must have been peppered with many small cosmic projectiles 700,000 years ago (the disputed age of the event). Whereas geologists have been searching diligently for a single huge crater (perhaps 100 kilometers in diameter) to explain the Australasia strewn field, ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf078/sf078g10.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 89: Sep-Oct 1993 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Transcendental Messages In Transcendental Numbers Those complex crop circles supposedly conveying messages from extraterrestrial entities all seem to be hoaxes. We must, therefore, search out other sources of transcendental signals. Fortunately, a brand-new, unhoaxable communication channel has opened up. Forget standard numerology, the Number of the Beast (666), and all that. Instead, give the letter A the value 1, B = 2, C = 3, etc. Next, add to your scheme a breakthrough discovery of L. Sallows, let 0 = _, and interpret _ to be a space, so that we can make sentences out of words. Finally, discard our usual base of 10 and adopt as a base 27 -- the number of letters in our alphabet plus _, the space. In this system, B_C decodes as 2 x 272+ 0 x 271+ 3 x 270 , which equals 1461 in decimal. Now we have a way to convert numbers into words in a novel, though tedious, way, and vice versa. For example, CHAT+ TALK = WIND, which is not an unlikely word equation. Really fantastic word-number equalities can be found with the help of a computer. Who would have ever guessed that the following magic square of meaningful words could be constructed? DIM OWE TUG RAP RIG TAP DOT RAY THE TIP NAP DID PAP DUD SPY TOW The magic constant is ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf089/sf089g16.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 92: Mar-Apr 1994 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Target Earth Let Jupiter take care of itself! What about us -- Terra, the third planet? A February article in Sky and Telescope begins: "Military satellites have been watching huge meteoroids slam into the Earth's atmosphere for nearly two decades." Secret until recently, infrared scanner data from military satellites have detected 136 atmospheric explosions since 1975 with yields of 1 kiloton or more. There may actually have been as many as four times this number, because the satellites are programmed to look for unnatural events, such as nuclear detonations. They often ignore extraterrestrial projectiles. Why aren't earthbound observers aware of all these atmospheric explosions? Because most are infrared events; few emit enough visible light to attract the attention of ground-based observers. However, two of these "secret" meteoric events might explain some Fortean phenomena recorded over the last two centuries. April 15, 1978. Over Indonesia. A military satellite watched a colossal daylight fireball that, for one second only, would have rivaled the sun to anyone watching from the ground below and alert to such phenomena. The TNT yield was estimated at 5 kilotons. August 3, 1963. Between South Africa and Antarctica. A huge airburst equivalent to a 500 kilotons was picked up by a worldwide network of acoustic detectors. The cosmic interloper this time was believed to have been a small asteroid about 20 meters in diameter. (Beatty, J. Kelly ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf092/sf092a04.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 69: May-Jun 1990 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects New species emerging?" A San Diego science writer named Anne Cardoza is sending out flyers asking anyone who has given birth to a child by an extraterrestrial to submit a 3,000-word, first-person account. "She's compiling a book on breeding between humans and inhabitants of UFOs. She won't pay for the stories but she promises confidentiality." (Anonymous; "Talk about Mixed Marriages!" San Diego Tribune, January ?, 1990. Cr. D. Clements via L. Farish.) From Science Frontiers #69, MAY-JUN 1990 . 1990-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf069/sf069b07.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 95: Sep-Oct 1994 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects It's according to hoyle and wickramasinghe The June 17, 1994 issue of Science did not ignore it. In fact, this conservative journal devoted almost an entire page to a paper presented by Yi-Jehng Kuan and Yanti Miao at the recent Minneapolis meeting of the American Astronomical Society. Students of L. Snyder, at the University of Illinois, Kuan and Miao reported that the amino acid glycine had been detected in a molecular cloud named Sagittarius B2. Glycine has only ten atoms and is the smallest of the 20 amino acids vital to life-as-we-know-it. The Science article supposed that this discovery of extraterrestrial glycine might reignite speculation that earth life might not be unique after all. (Travis, John; "Hints of First Amino Acid outside Solar System," Science, 264:1669, 1994.) Structure of the amino acid glycine What Science did not mention but New Scientist did is that F. Hoyle and C. Wickramasinghe have long predicted that the molecules of life, as well as life itself, would be found in outer space. Now, after much ridicule, they are being vindicated. "It's been a long hard struggle," said Hoyle. Wickramasinghe remarked that the discovery was "no surprise at all." "He believes it is only a matter of time before other amino acids, together with nucleotide bases, the components of nucleic acids that ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf095/sf095b08.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 23: Sep-Oct 1982 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The cretaceous-tertiary extinction bolide The recently discovered worldwide iridium-rich layer is taken by many scientists as evidence of the collision of an asteroid or comet with the earth about 65 million years ago. This cataclysmic event is also blamed (by some, at least) for the apparent sudden biological extinctions recorded on these pages of the fossil record. In this setting, the authors of this paper calculate the effects on the earth of a 10-kilometer-diameter object impacting at about 20/km/sec. Do the theoretical results jibe with the geological and paleontological data? Very definitely. Crater ejecta rich in extraterrestrial material would be blasted to an altitude of 10 km, where winds would insure global distribution. In terms of biological stress, the 10-km projectile would transfer 40-50% of its kinetic energy to the atmosphere, creating a heat pulse that could raise global temperatures 30 C (50 F) for several days. Many large animals might well succumb to such a temperature transient. In addition, the protective ozone layer might be blown away by shock waves and not reform for a decade. (O 'Keefe, John D., and Ahrens, Thomas J.; "Impact Mechanics of the Cretaceous-Tertiary Extinction Bolide," Nature, 298,123, 1982.) Reference. We catalog biological extinctions at ESB1 in Anomalies in Geology. To order this book, visit: here ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf023/sf023p09.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 111: May-Jun 1997 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Ancient entertainments Tobacco and cocaine in ancient egypt An anasazi ley line? Astronomy Extraterrestrial handedness Biology Circaseptennial rhythm in ear growth Life on different scales Chromosome choreograph Is perfect pitch favored by natural selection? Carnot creatures Geology Methane burps and gas-hydrate reservoirs Why some sands sing, squeak, and boom Geophysics White streak from a tv set Exotic seismic signals Psychology Malleable memories Math & Physics Levitation and levity! Something strange is going on! ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf111/index.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 24: Nov-Dec 1982 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Africa Not Man's Origin! Early Chinese Voyages to Australia The Calico Site Revisited Astronomy Mysterious "thing" in Orbit Around Saturn The Spin We're In Islands of Hope for Life Eternal A Hint of Extraterrestrial Oceans Biology Why Cancer? Mice Transmit Human Gene Sequences to Their Progeny Biological Regeneration: Two Anomalies Geology Seismic Ghost Slithers Under California Powerful Earth Current Enters North America From the Pacific The Polyna Mystery Geophysics Balls of Fire Enter Room Through Metal Screens Massive Freak Wave Psychology The Cinema of the Mind ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf024/index.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 117: May-June 1998 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Experimental induction of the "sensed presence"Down the millennia, a few individuals in all cultures have claimed they have been visited by spirits, gods, angels, or extraterrestrial entities. C.M . Cook and M.A . Persinger associate these visitations with the phenomenon of "sensed presence" or the awareness of an extrapersonal, incorporeal entity. Cook and Persinger assert first that the so-called "sense of self" is a construct of the brain's left hemisphere -- the side usually associated with language. Second, they hypothesize that a "sensed presence" (spirit, god, etc.) is really only a fleeting right-brain homologue of the left-brain "sense of self," something like a transient shortcircuit between brain hemispheres that probably travels along that interconnecting conduit called the "corpus callosum." Repairing to their laboratory at the Laurentian University, Cook and Persinger asked subjects to press a button when they felt a "mystical presence." Unbeknownst to the subjects, they were occasionally exposed to weak magnetic fields. More often than chance would allow, mystical presences (button pushes) correlated with applications of magnetic fields. (Cook, C.M ., and Persinger, M.A .; "Experimental Induction of the "Sensed Presence" in Normal Subjects and an Exceptional Subject," Perceptual and Motor Skills, 85:683, 1997.) Comments. It ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf117/sf117p13.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 123: May-Jun 1999 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Storm-Swept Cosmos Snug and comfy beneath our insulating atmosphere and magnetosphere, we muse glibly about voyages to the stars and wonder whether extraterrestrials may already have established galactic civilizations. What we often ignore is the fact that forces and energies almost beyond our comprehension course through the cosmos. Even the Starship Enterprise could not really survive out there. Three cautionary tidits will illustrate the hazards as well as our ignorance of them. "What could possibly accelerate a single subatomic particle to such a high speed, 99.99999999999999999999 percent that of light, that it would smash into the earth's atmosphere with the energy of a hard-hit tennis ball? If you don't have a clue you're not alone. These particles are ultra-high-energy cosmic rays, which are billions of times more energetic than the run-of-the-mill cosmic rays that continuously bombard earth's atmosphere." (Anonymous; "Space Streakers," Astronomy, 27:34, March 1999.) "The most powerful explosion ever ever observed -- a deep space eruption detected in January -- released in just seconds a burst of energy equal to billions of years of light from thousands of suns. Researchers say in studies to be published today that the explosion, called a gamma-ray burst, occurred 9 billion light years from earth. What caused the explosion is a mystery." (Anonymous ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf123/sf123p06.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 52: Jul-Aug 1987 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Meteorites Also Transport Organic Payloads Excerpts from the Abstract of a paper printed in Nature: "Much effort has been directed to analyses of organic compounds in carbonaceous chondrites because of their implications for orgainc chemical evolution and the origin of life. We have determined the isotopic composition of hydrogen, nitrogen and carbon in amino acid and monocarboxylic extracts from the Murchison meteorite. .. .. . "These results confirm the extraterrestrial origin of both classes of compounds, and provide the first evidence suggesting a direct relationship between the massive organo-synthesis occurring in interstellar clouds and the presence of pre-biotic compounds in primitive planetary bodies." (Epstein, S., et al; "Unusual Stable Isotope Ratios in Amino Acid and Carboxylic Acid Extracts from the Murchison Meteorite," Nature, 326:477, 1987.) From Science Frontiers #52, JUL-AUG 1987 . 1987-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf052/sf052a05.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 130: JUL-AUG 2000 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Drifters Sure, there may now be or once have been primitive life forms on Mars, but there does seem to be a serious shortage of carbon-based life forms elsewhere in the universe. In fact, there seems to be a great dearth of small, cool, solid, water-and-carbon-rich planets circling beneficent suns. Can it be that we are looking for extraterrestrial life in the wrong places? Life may have originated and prospered on the multitude of sun-less aggregations of matter drifting through the void, some doubtless quite close to us. Myriad nomadic planets may be roaming our Galaxy free from the clutches of parent stars. Two teams of astronomers think they have detected 25 of these free-floating planets, and say there could be hundreds of millions of them wandering the Milky Way. These free-floaters or "drifters" were created when small clouds of gas and dust coalesced under gravity's urging. If such collapsing clouds were less than 80 times Jupiter's mass, they would not be able to sustain nuclear reactions and become long-lived stars. Many would be-come "brown dwarfs." Still smaller aggregations -- less than 14 Jupiters -- would never shine at all. These would remain warm for a while as they dissipated the gravitational energy that created them. Such small objects would be temporarily detectable by infrared telescopes. Hundreds of such infrared " ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf130/sf130p04.htm
... atmosphere for their organic component to survive the impact intact. .. .. . "The idea that comets supplied the Earth with the organic material needed to create life has been around for more than 20 years, but as often as some scientists have put forth the hypothesis, others have shot it down. "About 20% of comet nuclei are composed of organic matter, the rest ice and dust. Most of the organic component appears to be in a complex, polymerized form similar to kerogen, which is found in sedimentary rocks on Earth. From 4.33.7 billion years ago, during the period of heaviest bombardment by meteorites and comets, an estimated 1023 g of organic material would have been added to Earth by comet impacts had they made up 10% of the extraterrestrial flux. That is 1001000 times larger than most estimates of the photochemical production of the compounds over the same period." (Anonymous; "Comets and Life," Eos, no. 13, 1989.) Comment. Nowhere in the above article does one find the name of Fred Hoyle, whose ideas along these lines have been ridiculed for years. From Science Frontiers #63, MAY-JUN 1989 . 1989-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 14 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf063/sf063a06.htm
... 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 Chemical surprises at the k-t boundary The presence of high iridium concentrations at the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K -T ) boundary, some 65 million years ago, has led to the widely accepted notion that an extraterrestrial projectile slammed into the earth at that time, wreaking geological and biological havoc. But the K-T boundary is anything but simple chemically and paleontologically. To illustrate, J.L . Bada and M. Zhao have found unusual amino acids in sediments laid down before and after this geological time marker. "They find that Danish sediments spanning the narrow boundary layer contain two amino acids, alpha-aminoisobutyric acid and isovaline, that are relatively uncommon in biological materials but abundant in the organicrich meteorites. They suggest that the body which collided with Earth 65 million years ago and left the telltale iridium residue may have been organic-rich, perhaps like a C-type asteroid or a comet. Such a possibility has interesting implications for the extinction and related atmospheric effects, and supports the idea that impact events could have supplied the Earth during a much earlier period with the raw materials for organic chemical evolution." Actually, the above quotation is pretty much in line with present mainstream thinking. Perhaps so, but Bada and Zhao identified two troubling anomalies. First, the amounts of amino acids found were surprisingly high. How could these complex molecules survive the searing temperatures engendered by high-velocity impact? Second ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 14 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf065/sf065g10.htm
... Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Iridium And Mass Extinctions Alvarez and his colleagues at the University of California, while chemically analyzing a series of sedimentary strata from Italy, discovered that one layer had 25 times the concentration of iridium residing in adjacent strata. The iridium-rich layer forms the boundary between the Cretaceous and Tertiary periods, 65 million years ago. During that death-filled interval, 50% of the earth's genera were wiped out. Such are the two correlated facts: iridium increase and mass extinction. But do they have the same cause? Alvarez et al point out that iridium is rare on earth but much more common out in space. The anomalous concentration of iridium could have been injected by a massive solar flare, a big meteor impact, or come other extraterrestrial catastrophe. Thus is catastrophism being resurrected. (Anonymous; "An Iridium Clue to the Dinosaur's Demise," New Scientist, 82: 798, 1979.) From Science Frontiers #8 , Fall 1979 . 1979-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 14 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf008/sf008p11.htm
... probabilities, such as the evolution of intelligent life in the universe. All this (and there is a lot of it) leads to the following: "Making only the assumption that you are a random intelligent observer, limits for the total longevity of our species of 0.2 million to 8 million years can be derived at the 95% confidence level. Further consideration indicates that we are unlikely to colonize the Galaxy, and that we are likely to have a higher population than the median for intelligent species." Why won't we colonize the Galaxy? Not because we are not able to, Gott says, but because "living things do not usually live up to their maximum potential." Also of interest here is Gott's assessment of SETI (our Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence). Will our big radio telescopes pick up intelligent murmurings arriving from outer space? Gott's calculations are very pessimistic here: "Thus, we do not expect to see a Dyson sphere civilization within our Galaxy, or a Karadashev type III civilization within the current observable horizon." (Gott, J. Richard, III; "Implications of the Copernican Principle for Our Future Prospects." Nature, 363:315, 1993.) *A line from Stephen Spender's poem: From All These Events, from the Slump, from the War, from the Boom . Comment. But perhaps the Copernican Principle, Darwinism, or some other of Gott's assumptions are in error. From Science Frontiers #88, JUL-AUG 1993 . 1993-2000 ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 14 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf088/sf088g19.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 16: Summer 1981 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Paradox Of The Drowned Carbonate Platforms The biological processes that build carbonate reefs and platforms are so efficient that platform growth potential is easily several times the rate of average geological subsidence or sea-level rise. Therein lies the paradox: the geological record is full of drowned carbonate platforms, inferring that the sea has frequently engulfed them in episodes that must be termed catastrophic. Since the usual long-term geologic processes are clearly inadequate, Schlager proposes several more violent schemes; including massive submarine volcanism (Middle Cretaceous) and extraterrestrial deterioration of the oceanic biological environment (Lake Devonian). (Schlager, Wolfgang; "The Paradox of Drowned Reefs and Carbonate Platforms," Geological Society of America, Bulletin, 92:197, 1981.) Reference. See Category ETE2 in our Catalog: Carolina Bays, Mima Mounds, for more on drowned sections of crust. More on this book can be found here . From Science Frontiers #16, Summer 1981 . 1981-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 14 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf016/sf016p11.htm
... pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects How can the sun influence chemical reaction rates?When water is added to bismuth trichloride, a precipitate, bismuth oxychloride, forms. The precipitation rate seems to vary with time, being different from one month to the next. This time variation has been confirmed at many laboratories around the world and is not dependent on any obvious meteorological condition. Instead, some investigators claim to have found a rather good correlation with the sunspot cycle! (Majorino, Gianfranco, and Zecca, Luigi; "Period Analysis of the Picardi P-Test," Cycles, 33:78, 1982.) Comment. This precipitation test, called the Piccardi P-Test, has been offered for years by cycle students as proof of extraterrestrial influences on earthly chemistry, including biochemistry. No explanation has been suggested; and one reads about it only in "fringe" publications. From Science Frontiers #22, JUL-AUG 1982 . 1982-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 14 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf022/sf022p13.htm
... 700,000 years old. This is unfortunate for several proposed scenarios of recent catastrophism, which envision an iceless Antarctica. At least 20 amino acids appear in the more than 40 carbonaceous chondrites picked up with sterile equipment. These meteorites are dated as 4.5 billion years old, or 1 billion years older than the earliest terrestrial life found in the rocks. These finds highlight the old question: Did meteorites seed life on earth? The much-publicized "lunar" meteorite, supposedly blasted out of the moon's crust by asteroid impact, thence falling to earth, shows little evidence of mechanical shock. If this meteorite, with a composition so similar to the Apollo samples is not from the moon, where did it come from? (Marvin, Ursula B.; "Extraterrestrials Have Landed on Antarctica," New Scientist, 97:710, 1983.) From Science Frontiers #27, MAY-JUN 1983 . 1983-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 14 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf027/sf027p08.htm
... discovery of many new and frequently bizarre organisms clustered around deep-sea vents has forced a reexamination of high-temperature life. It seems that bacteria actually flourish in the 350 C water streams from the deep-sea vents. In the lab, these same bacteria multiply rapidly in water at 250 C kept liquid by pressures of 265 atmospheres of pressure. What a surprise! Quoting a concluding sentence from this article: "This greatly increases the number of environments and conditions both on Earth and elsewhere in the Universe where life can exist." (Baross, John A., and Deming, Jody W.; "Growth of 'Black Smoker' Bacteria at Temperatures of at Least 250 C," Nature, 303:423, 1983.) Comment. Ignoring for the moment the extraterrestrial possibilities, the earth is riddled like a Swiss cheese with hot, fluid environments, which we may now consider potential abodes of life. Subterranean life represents a new biological frontier. Who knows what kinds of organisms have developed to feed upon the planet's heat? Could they have con-tributed to our supplies of petroleum and natural gas? From Science Frontiers #29, SEP-OCT 1983 . 1983-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 14 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf029/sf029p07.htm
... structures decorate the deserts and plains of the Middle East. Most are V-shaped terminating in a cul de sac studded with large rock piles. (See illustration.) Most of the wall arms are 300-3 ,000 meters long. They are constructed of basalt rocks from ancient lava flows. Artifacts found nearby suggest ages of at least 7,000 years. Younger, but very similar, structures have been found in Central Asia. A. Betts of the University of Sydney has been exploring these walls and attempting to discern their purpose. The best explanation seems to be that the ancient inhabitants of the region drove herds of wild animals into the wide mouths of the kites and then slaughtered them when they were trapped at the corral-like ends. The worst explanation is that extraterrestrials built them for some unknown purpose! (Anderson, Ian; "Prehistoric Prey Met Death through a Keyhole," New Scientist, p. 15, September 24, 1994.) Comment. Some kite walls extend 30 kilometers (18 miles) and represent a considerable investment of labor. See also: Field, Henry; "Early Man in North Arabia," Natural History, 29:32, 1929. Of course, aliens could have herded ancient humans into the kites. Remember the classic sci-fi story: "To Serve Man"? From Science Frontiers #96, NOV-DEC 1994 . 1994-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 14 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf096/sf096a02.htm
