232 results found.
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 75: May-Jun 1991 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Of iron whiskers and particles that increase mass with age!Two pillars of the Big Bang hypothesis are: (1 ) Redshifts of galaxies support the notion of an expanding universe; and (2 ) The background microwave radiation can be interpreted as the dying embers of the Big Bang itself. Proponents of the Big Bang feel secure atop these pillars. But should they? A few Big-Bang skeptics, who have survived considerable establishment pressure, see growing cracks in those pillars. J. Narlikar identified two such cracks and, best of all, offered exciting remedies: (1 ) The redshift relationship, which works well with galaxies, falls apart when applied to quasars (see graphs); and (2 ) The background microwave radiation is much too smooth to come from the lumpy universe we observe. Narlikar opines as follows: Plot of red shift versus galaxy faintness supports the proposition that red shift is proportional to distance The same plot for quasars produces a scatter of points, suggesting that here red shifts have nothing to do with distance. "Given these problems, it is not a sound strategy to put all of our cosmic eggs in one big-bang basket. Rather, we should explore other possibilities. Thirty years ago, there was a more open debate on alternative theories, which made valuable contributions to our undersanding of cosmology. For a healthy growth of the subject, the big bang hypothesis needs competition from other ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf075/sf075a05.htm
... example. " Sunset Beach -- Just what is that noise that residents along the coast have been hearing? "Reverberations powerful enough to shake beach cottages are heard several times every autumn along the coast in New Hanover and Brunswick counties. "' It moves the earth, I tell you,' Minnie Hunt of Sunset Beach said. 'Sometimes you get two or three in a row.' .. .. . "Residents who are now grandparents say their own grandparents remembered the rumbles, so they predate the sonic booms of jets breaking the sound barrier. .. .. . "The noises clearly emanate from the sea, she said...'It's not a land phenomenon.' .. .. . "The sounds occur most often in the fall and spring, though they occasionally shiver across the beaches in other seasons. Sometimes they shake the coast more than once a day. Sometimes they happen a few days in a row. Sometimes they are weeks apart. They have been reported as far north as Carteret County, but are most frequent near Wilmington and southward." (Mysteries, Marvels and Things That Go Boom at the Beach," Asheville Citizen , September 4, 1990. Cr. J. Fisher via L. Farish) Comment. Waterguns, a.k .a . mistpouffers, Barisal Guns, etc., are dealt with in depth under GSD1 in our catalog: Earthquakes, Tides, Anomalous Sounds. To order this book, visit here . From Science Frontiers #73, JAN-FEB 1991 . ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 14 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf073/sf073g12.htm
... heard and felt an explosion. Its source was unknown until W. Mitchell checked to find out why Double Creek had backed up. He found a scene of curious devastation, which was then linked to the earlier explosion. "The explosion blasted up large shale rocks, some estimated to weigh more than a ton, and filled about 150 feet of creekbed with shattered stone. Trees were blown down and the creek was partly blocked. "The water level upstream from the site is 3 to 4 feet higher than below, although water is flowing under the rocks. .. .. . "' It looks like a giant mole went all under the ground,' Mitchell said, .. .' There is no telling how big a hole is under there. You can hear water falling. Gas was bubbling up all along the bank. In one place the water was shooting up a couple of feet yesterday, like a fountain, but it has gone down now.' "Large pieces of shale landed 20 to 30 feet from the creek bank, mud was blown outward from the explosion and pieces of shale as large as a big tennis shoe were found as much as 200 feet from the creek." (Smith, Charlotte Anne; "Nowata Creek Blocked after Apparent Explosion," Tulsa World , March 4, 1990. Cr. P.A . Roales.) Comment. A similar, though more violent, natural gas explosion occurred in 1890 in a river bed near Waldron, Indiana. See ESC4-X3 in the Catalog: Anomalies in Geology. ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 14 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf070/sf070g13.htm
... 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: 14 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf067/sf067p17.htm
... they have a European flavor. What can one make out of all this? Petersen is only able to state: "Although the site is undoubtedly human-made, its function, antiquity and cultural attribution cannot be precisely specified on the basis of the unique characteristics of both the artifacts and the cist. Tentative interpretations allow suggestion that it is attributable to some portion of the historical period, a European cultural tradition, and probably is contemporaneous with or postdates local stone working at the site." In other words, we could have anything from a pre-Columbian European contact to rock doodling by Colonial stoneworkers. (Petersen, James B.; "Grand Lake Stream, The Elliott II Site: An Archaeologist's Preliminary Report," NEARA Journal, 25:3 , Summer/Fall, 1990.) From Science Frontiers #75, MAY-JUN 1991 . 1991-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 14 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf075/sf075a01.htm
... But rotating at 13,000 rpm counterclockwise, the 175-gram gyroscope lost about 10 milligrams. The balance's sensitivity was 0.3 milligram. This is a very large effect; and the weight loss increased linearly with increased speed of rotation. Obviously, the physicists are most perplexed by this "antigravity" effect. Perplexity has been accompanied by outright disbelief. R.L . Park, a physics professor at Maryland, remarked: "It would be revolutionary if true. But it is almost certainly wrong. Almost all extraordinary claims are wrong." R.L . Forward, an Air Force consultant, con-curs: "It's a careful experiment. But I doubt it's real, primarily because I've seen so many of these things fall apart." (Anonymous; "Anti-Gravity Effect Claim by Japanese," San Francisco Chronicle, December 28, 1989. Cr. J. Covey. Also: Anonymous; "A Gyroscope's Gravity-Defying Feat," Science News, 137:15, 1990.) Comment. The amazing thing - the anomaly - is that such "misguided" research got funded at all and the results published. But then, maybe Japanese research proposals do not have to get by 7 (that's seven) reviewers, as required by the U.S . National Science Foundation! From Science Frontiers #68, MAR-APR 1990 . 1990-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 13 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf068/sf068p18.htm
... .) such sperm represents only errors on the assembly line. These abnormal sperm have no special purpose, at least in mammals. (Harcourt, A.H .; "Sperm Competition and the Evolution of Nonfertilizing Sperm in Mammals," Evolution , 45:314, 1991.) Comment. Even if mammals haven't yet developed kamikaze sperm, some animals have; and one must wonder exactly how multipurpose sperm (and ova, too) evolved. For a copulatory plug to be effective, large numbers of mutant sperm with special plugging properties and knowing just where to go, would have to be generated all at once. That would seem to require a lot of chance mutations all at once! The "perfection" problem once again. Reference. Kamikaze and other deviant sperms fall into category BMF18 in our catalog: Biological Anomalies: Mammals II. Ordering information here . From Science Frontiers #78, NOV-DEC 1991 . 1991-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 13 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf078/sf078b07.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 Tunguska-like event in new zealand 800 years ago?" Very calm and placid have become the raging billows, That caused the total destruction of the Moa, When the horns of the Moon fell from above down." Thus have the Maoris sung. Their myths, songs, and poetry clearly link the demise of the moa, not to their own overhunting as others maintain, but rather to a cataclysmic event that occurred some 800 years ago. Maori oral history tells of "the falling of the skies, raging winds, upheaval of the Earth, and mysterious devastating fire from space." Even some of the place names in New Zealand relate to some kind of catastrophe. In the province of Otago, there is Waipahi (place of the exploding fire) and Tapanui (big explosion). Oral history is entertaining, but scientists want something more palpable before they will entertain Velikovskian ideas about recent history. Well, if you visit Tapanui (big explosion place), you can find Landslip Crater, a 900 x 600meter depression 130 meters deep. This does not have the appearance of a bona fide meteor crater, but all around it are suspicious signs. For example, treefall distribution from 800 years ago was radially away from Tapanui out to 4080 kilometers. In the same area one finds the trinities, small globules of silicates with tektite overtones. And then there is the extirpation of the moas about this time. ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 13 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf078/sf078g11.htm
... ." Burbidge is not concerned by the fact that some astronomers find the data unconvincing, rather he objects to the so-obvious attempts to brush such anomalous data under the rug. His concluding remarks are pertinent to all of science: "I cannot end this part of the discussion without making two points which are rarely made, but which are important: Evidence of the kind just mentioned which is favorable to the cosmological interpretations of the redshifts does not negate the other evidence. It simply means that the world is a complicated place. Only in articles of this kind is one expected to describe such re sults. In articles such as that by Weedman, it is somehow considered all right to totally the noncosmological hypothesis." "The fairest way to deal with the problem is not to fall back on authority (what eminent authorities believe or don't believe) but to examine the evidence for oneself. The most extensive collection of this evidence is in the book by Halton C. Arp. .. .If, after examining the statistics yourself and understanding the evidence, you are unconvinced, so be it. Remember, if the conventional view is correct, all of these apparent juxtapositions must be accidental. Above all, do not be swayed by the views of the authorities, be they Dan Weedman, Allan Sandage, Maarten Schmidt, Chip Arp, or myself. We are fallible, too, and some of us (ask the others!) have axes to grind." (Burbidge, Geoffrey; "Quasars in the Balance," Mercury , 17: ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 13 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf065/sf065a03.htm
... errors may be large indeed. Take the Pennsylvanian period for example. It is part of the Carboniferous period, when many of the great coal deposits were laid down. The classical duration of the Pennsylvanian -- used in many texts -- is 34 million years. A meticulous new study of central European stratigraphy now pegs the Pennsylvanian as spanning only 19 million years. Now that's a 44% change! This new figure for the duration of the Pennsylvanian has already cast doubt on the origin of the famous Pennsylvanian cyclothems (repetitive strata) in North America. It had been thought that these seemingly cyclic deposits were correlated with sea level changes forced by variations in the earth's orbit (the Milankovitch periods). With this substantial compression of Pennsylvan-ian time, this correlation falls apart. The cyclothems, which are of impressive area and thickness, now seem to have been created by some other, still unrecognized phenomenon. (Klein, George deV.; "Pennsylvanian Time Scales and Cycle Periods," Geology , 18:455, 1990.) Comment. Even worse, perhaps, is the fuzziness conferred on the entire geological time scale by this compression of the Pennsylvanian and the possibility of similar revisions for other periods. From Science Frontiers #71, SEP-OCT 1990 . 1990-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 13 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf071/sf071g11.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 54: Nov-Dec 1987 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Toads Fall To Squashy Fate On Route 66, near Gallup, New Mexico, June 1949. "Temperature 104 . Absolute blue sunny skies. No clouds anywhere to be seen, from one horizon to the other for 360 . "Out of nowhere, without warning, it poured extremely hard rain, hail, and toads. The hail balls were maybe the size of grapes to the size of peas. The toads were a medium brown in color and approximately the size of an adult's thumbnail. This whole incident lasted for less than 5 minutes, if my memory is correct. .. .. . "The highway and the desert sands seemed to be one and the same, and the whole area seemed to be alive and moving. By now, we were down to a very slow speed, and under closer observation we noticed that the area was littered with millions of hailstones and those toads hopping all over. "The storm stopped as fast as it started, and the toads disappeared just as fast. I'll never forget how slippery the road was as we drove over those toads, and the popping of their bodies under the tires of my automobile." (Schuler, Richard A.; personal communication, July 23, 1987.) Comment. The sudden onset of the violent storm and the huge numbers of toads are both difficult-to-account for. If a whirlwind picked up ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 66 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf054/sf054g15.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 57: May-Jun 1988 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Unusually Large Snowflakes In a recent review of records of falls of very large snowflakes, W.S . Pike lists eleven instances where flakes more than 5 centimeters (2 inches) in diameter have been observed. Of these, we have already cataloged six in GWP2, in Tornados, Dark Days, Anomalous Precipita tion, including the prize of the lot: the 15-inch snowflakes that parachuted down on Fort Keough, Montana, on January 28, 1887. Five of Pike's cases that we did not catalog have diameters of "only" 5 or 6 centimeters. The sixth uncataloged observation would certainly have been worth including if we had known about it: March 24, 1888. Shirenewton, England. "Snowstorm with extraordinary flakes, some were 3 3/4 in. in diameter, yet only in. thick, falling like plates. The storm lasted only 2 minutes but in this short period the ground was covered 2 in. deep." The quotation is from British Rainfall, 1988, as requoted by Pike. In all cases, huge snowflakes are really aggregations of many thousands of individual flakes. Observers have thought that the big flakes attract individual flakes. (Pike, W.S .; "Unusually-Large Snowflakes," Journal of Meteorology, U.K ., 13:3 , 1988.) Comment. Could electrostatic forces be involved? Reference. The catalog Tornados, Dark ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 42 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf057/sf057g16.htm
... Ham in London on 26 May 1984. He thought nothing more of the noises until next morning when he went outside and saw half a dozen fish in the backyard and on his roof. They were flounders and whitings, about 10 to 15 centimetres long. "Two residents of nearby Canning Town also reported between 30 and 40 fish scattered over their gardens. Could a flight of herons returning from the Thames have dropped their catch? The Natural History Museum identified the fish as just what you would expect to find in the lower Thames. Could a waterspout on the Thames have lifted the fish up to cloud level, carried them a few kilometres north, and dropped them on Canning Town and East Ham? .. .. . "On 16 June 1984, a month after the fish falls in London, the owner of a service station near Thirsk in north Yorkshire found winkles and starfish covering the forecourt of his garage and the top of its high canopy. The winkles were salty and many were still alive. Thirsk is 45 kilometres from the sea, and the garage owner thought that this collection of marine life arrived with the torrential thunderstorms during the night. Though proof remains elusive, the winkles and starfish were probably lifted by a waterspout along the east coast and carried aloft for an hour or more within the powerful updrafts of the thunderstorms." Several more anecdotes of a similar nature can be found in this article. (Elsom, Derek; "Catch a Falling Frog," New Scientist, 1988.) Reference. Falls of fish and other anomalous material are cataloged ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 34 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf059/sf059p14.htm
... Some examples given of self-organizing biological phenomena are: (1 ) the sequencing of amino acids into selfreplicating structures; (2 ) slime-mold organization; and (3 ) the origin of the lens structure of the firefly. All of these claims are accompanied by computer simulations of self-organizing reactions. (Madore, Barry F., and Freedman, Wendy L.; "Self-Organizing Structures," American Scientist, 75:252, 1987.) Comment. While we believe that science is the best way yet discovered to search for truth, we have to admit that scientists sometimes get carried away in their zeal to explain things, especially with computer graphics. The Belousov-Zha botinskii reaction is certainly impressive. So is crystal growth. But are the atoms falling together to form a crystal analogous to soldiers falling into ranks; or the assembly of genetic information into the genotypes for our planet's multitudinous species? How far can we apply reductionism? Spectacular, evolving forms erupt in the Belousov-Zhabotinskii reaction. Waves of chemical activity propagate through a receptive liquid medium. From Science Frontiers #53, SEP-OCT 1987 . 1987-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 24 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf053/sf053b07.htm
... South America. Plan view of some Santa Valley geoglyphs from Peru. The scale at the lower left represents 10 meters. The vertical double line is not a geoglyph but rather the azimuth heading 280-degrees. It is hard to imagine how such underground drawings could be used for rituals. "For example, several areas that contain crosscrossing lines and figures similar to those of Nazca have recently been studied on the central coast [of Peru] between the FortalezaPativilca and Rimac valleys. Additional lines have been reported for Viru Valley, on the north coast, and for the Zana Valley, over 1,000 km to the north of Nazca. Interestingly, most coastal ground drawings that can be dated tentatively, either by associated ceramic remains and sites or by their similarity to diagnostic pottery motifs, fall in the earlier part of the Early Intermediate period (ca. 350 B.C . to A.D . 650) - i.e ., to a time following the establishment of irrigation agriculture as the primary subsistence focus, but prior to the rise of state societies. .. .. . "As is well known, several studies have been conducted that involved mapping and computer analysis of the Nazca lines to examine the hypothesis that they were related to astronomical phenomena. This theory is now discounted, at least as it applies to the great majority of the lines which do not appear to have been oriented toward the sky. More recent studies dealing with the lines have provided convincing arguments. primarily through comparison with lines currently in use on the Bolivian altiplano, that they ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf063/sf063a01.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 58: Jul-Aug 1988 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Is the earth seeding the rest of the solar system?We begin with the lead paragraph from a recent letter to Nature from H.J . Melosh; "Recent evidence that the SNC meteorites originated on Mars raises the question of whether large impacts on Earth may eject rocks that could fall on Mars (or other planets in the Solar System) and, if so whether they might contain spores or some sort of viable microorganisms that would have the opportunity to colonize Mars." After some computations Melosh concludes: "It seems likely that the impacts that produced craters on Earth that are greater than 100 km in diameter would each have ejected millions of tons of near-surface rocks carrying viable microorganisms into interplanetary space, much in the form of boulders large enough to shield those organisms from ultraviolet radiation, low-energy cosmic rays, and even galactic cosmic rays. Under such circumstances spores might remain viable for long periods of time." (Melosh, H.J .; "The Rocky Road to Panspermia," Nature, 332:687, 1988.) Comment. Next we need a reasonable mechanism that spreads life through interstellar space. Light pressure, that's it; and the idea is over a century old! Incidentally, SNC is short for Shergottites, Nakhalites, Chassignites; all rare classes of meteorites. From Science Frontiers #58, JUL-AUG 1988 . 1988-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf058/sf058a03.htm
... Trails of extracellular slime are secreted and serve as highways for the directed movement of thousands of cells, rhythmic waves pulse through the entire population, streams of bacteria move to and from the center and edges of a spreading colony, and bacteria aggregate at specific places within the colony to construct cysts or, in some species, to form elaborate fruiting bodies." The Myxobacteria also collectively form baglike traps to engulf and digest prey. It is apparent now that as simple as a single bacterium may seem, bacterial colonies are pretty complex. (Shapiro, James A.; "Bacteria as Multicellular Organisms," Scientific American, 258:82, June 1988.) Comment. How are the collective actions of bacteria effected? Is there a central control center? Oh, oh! We are falling into the reductionist trap again! Life forms do not have to operate like computers do, nor do their functions have to be defined in those block diagrams we like so well. There may be holistic forces involved that escape reductionist thought. It is all very remarkable that bacteria which have been around for billions of years (See article below.) should have acquired such sophistication so quickly, waiting only for the earth to cool a bit. From Science Frontiers #58, JUL-AUG 1988 . 1988-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 14 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf058/sf058b09.htm
... All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Eels Strike Back Credit cards and bank cards are commonly kept in holders made from eelskin. So what! Who likes eels anyway? Well, there may be more to eelskin than meets the eye. Thousands of bank cards, when taken out of their eelskin holders, have failed to work in bank machines. The electronic coding on the cards has somehow been erased or scrambled. Perhaps, says one theory, the eelskins have bits of magnetite in their skins for navigational purposes. (Some other animals have such magnetic particles in their bodies to help orient them.) But could these tiny particles be powerful enough to erase card information? Another theory is that magnetic clamps on purses and handbags are the culprits. (Anonymous; "Credit Cards Fall Prey to Primitive Fish," New Scientist, p. 30, March 3, 1988.) Banking-business bane. From Science Frontiers #57, MAY-JUN 1988 . 1988-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 14 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf057/sf057b09.htm
... these chambers seem unlikely potato cellars! J. Egan has provided architectural details on 14 impressive stone chambers located in southern New England. Of these, two seem hardly the work of practical farmers. The first is the Pearson Chamber, at Upton, Massachusetts. It is 10 feet high and 11 feet wide inside -- pretty large for vegetable storage. The second is the Hunt's Brook "souterrain," Montville, Connecticut. It is 38 feet long and only about 3 feet high for most of its length, and ends in a 5-feet-high chamber. We cannot visualize farmers crawling this distance for potatoes! In fact, this structure does resemble the megalithic "souterrains" of Europe. (Egan, Jim; NEARA Journal, 22:6 , Summer/Fall 1987. NEARA = New England Antiquities Research Association.) Plan view of Hunt's Brook "souterrain", almost 38 feet long. The dotted lines represent capstones. Adapted from the NEARA Journal. From Science Frontiers #57, MAY-JUN 1988 . 1988-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 14 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf057/sf057a02.htm
... dramatically from year to year, yet each whale in an oceanwide population always sings the same song as the others. How, with the form changing so fast, does everyone keep the verses straight? Biologists Linda Guinee and Katharine Payne have been looking into the matter, and they have come up with an intriguing possibility. It seems that humpbacks, like humans, use rhyme." Guinee and Payne suspect that whales rhyme because they have detected particular subphrases turning up in the same position in adjacent themes. (Cowley, Geoffrey; "Rap Songs from the Deep," Newsweek, p. 63, March 20, 1989. Cr. J. Covey) Comment. This is all wonderfully fascinating, but why do whales rhyme at all, or sing such long complex songs? Biologists fall back on that hackneyed old theory that it has something to do with mating and/or dominance displays. Next, we'll hear that human poets write poems only to improve their chances of breeding and passing their genes on to their progeny! Reference. Whale "communication" is the subject of BMT8 in our catalog: Biologi cal Anomalies: Mammals I. Details here . From Science Frontiers #64, JUL-AUG 1989 . 1989-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 13 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf064/sf064b05.htm
... 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, in 1987, the wood accompanying the Bat Creek Stone was radiocarbon-dated in the range 32- 769 AD - definitely not "post-contact." Modern analysis was also applied to the bracelets, leading to the discovery that they had the same proportions of lead and zinc as the brass made by the Romans between 45 BC and 200 AD. In sum, the Bat Creek Stone now seems more likely to be something inscribed by early Phoenician visitors to North America. (Strong, Roslyn; "A New Look at the Bat Creek Inscription," NEARA Journal, 23:26, Summer/Fall 1988. NEARA = New England Antiquities Research Association.) From Science Frontiers #63, MAY-JUN 1989 . 1989-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 13 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf063/sf063a02.htm
... 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 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 ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 13 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf063/sf063a07.htm
... 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 1500-POUND ICE CHUNK FALLS FROM SKY June 26, 1985. Hartford, Connecticut. "Scientists yesterday tried to determine the origin of a 1500-pound sheet of ice that mysteriously dropped from the sky and smashed into a backyard fence. David H. Menke, directory of the Copernican Observatory and Planetarium, said the ice was probably 6 feet long, 8 inches thick and moving at about 200 mph. 'It's unusual in the fact that it fell from the sky,' said Craig Robinson, curator at the planetarium. 'That does not happen often.' A 13year-old boy was in his backyard Monday with a friend when the ice came 'whirling' from the sky and smashed into the fence about 10 feet away from them." The remainder of the article gives the opinions of some scientists who were contacted about the fall. The director of the observatory thought the ice probably fell off the wing of an aircraft. The director of the American Meteor Society suggested a cosmic origin, providing the ice were pure. An astronomy professor assured everyone that it couldn't be cometary, because the sun would melt particles of ice in outer space. Instead, he opted for strong thunderstorm winds picking the ice up from "somewhere" and dropping it on Hartford! (Anonymous; "1 ,500-Pound Ice Chunk Falls from Sky," Manchester (NH) Union Leader, June ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 116 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf043/sf043p17.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 39: May-Jun 1985 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Falls Of All Sorts Of Things About May 16, 1983. Chippenham, Wilt shire, England. A group of students at Chippenham Technical College reported that a lot of tadpoles had fallen during a thunderstorm. The River Avon is nearby; and a waterspout or small tornado was suspected. (Meaden G.T .; "Shower of Tadpoles...," Journal of Meteorology, U.K .; 9:337, 1984.) May 26 or 27, 1984. East London. Flounders found on the ground, smelt on the roof. June 19, 1984. Thirsk, North Yorkshire. After a heavy thunderstorm, a small area was covered with winkles (shellfish), some still alive, and starfish. (Rickard, R.J .M .; "A Remarkable Fall of Fish in East London 26 or 27 May 1984," Journal of Meteorology, U.K ., 9:290, 1984.) July 24, 1984. "I was in my car waiting at traffic lights in Winton, Bournemouth, when a sheet of off-white or dove-grey liquid fell from the blue sky on to the roof, windscreen and bonnet of my car. A yellow bus next to me and the road around were also affected." No aircraft could be seen. (Hodge, E.J .; "Fall of a Mysterious Liquid from the Sky," ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 97 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf039/sf039p18.htm
... 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 Did the australites fall recently?Many thousands of australites, tektites strewn over Australia and Tasmania, have been found over the years; but, except for five, all were discovered loose on the surface or in unconsolidated sediments. Even the five australites found in rocks were in grit, sandstone, and other rocks that were hard to date and could have been recently lithified. Although the "official" date for the australite fall is 700,000 BP, the authors of this article, and presumably other Australian geologists, find "it difficult to believe that australites fell as long as 700,000 years ago." (Cleverly, W.H ., and Kirsch, Steve; Meteoritics, 19:91, 1984.) Comment. A few geologists even venture that this catastrophic event may have occurred just a few thousand years ago, and may be reflected in myth and legend. Reference. The "tektite age paradox" is covered more thoroughly in ESM3 in our catalog: Neglected Geological Anomalies. To order, visit: here . From Science Frontiers #41, SEP-OCT 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 69 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf041/sf041p14.htm
... until he found similar blobs on Main Street and on the gas station pumps. State officials denied that the blobs were dropped by a plane. They were soon absorbed into the pavement, but a little goo was saved and was being studied at the state's Department of Environmental Quality Engineering. Preliminary results showed that they were not toxic." (Anonymous; "Vanishing Goo," Fortean Times, no. 43, p. 23, Spring 1985. Extracted from USA Today of December 22, 1983.) Comment. These disappearing blobs represent a typically Fortean phenomenon with a history going back before the first aircraft. The reports are generally ridiculed and quickly written off. Given their historical persistence, perhaps we should pay more attention to them, trivial though they seem. Speaking of falling goo, a detailed historical study of pwdre ser in folklore and science has just appeared. Pwdre ser, as readers of our Handbooks and Catalogs will know, is the Welsh name for star jelly. That jelly-like lumps of materials have been found in the fields after the fall of a shooting star is an integral part of European folklore. Here is a typical poetic mention by Donne: "As he that sees a starre fall, runs apace, And findes a gellie in the place..." (Belcher, Hilary, and Swale, Erica; "Catch a Falling Star," Folklore, 95: 210, 1984.) Reference. Pwdre ser and similar fallen substances are cataloged in GWF7 in: Tornados, Dark Days. For more information on this book ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 48 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf040/sf040p16.htm
... 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 Monarch Migration An Illusion "The epic autumn migration of the eastern monarch butterfly to wintering grounds in Mexico, where millions cluster on trees in semi-dormancy to await spring, has become known as one of the standard 'wonders of nature' in the decade since the Mexican winter clusters were found." There are, however, some flies in this ointment: Monarchs tagged in the north have never been found in the Mexican clusters. Fall-fattened monarchs can store only enough energy for a flight of about 200 miles -- far too short, unless they refuel along the way (no one knows if they do or not); and The monarchs seen in Mexico are almost always in pristine condition and show no wing wear or tattering. A.M . Wenner, University of California at Santa Barbara, thinks that the "appearance" of mass migration reported frequently from many locales may just be due to a curious fall habit of the monarchs. It seems that widely scattered individuals begin to fly into the wind, and the wind concentrates and channels them to local roosts where they spend the winter. In other words, there is no long distance migration at all. (Rensberger, Boyce; Washington Post, September 15, 1986. Cr. J. Judge) From Science Frontiers #49, JAN-FEB 1987 . 1987-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 29 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf049/sf049p13.htm
... 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 A True Fish Story "It happened during a smelt storm in early spring with the Rhonda K foundering dead in the icy water amid terrifying six- and eight-foot waves off Lake Huron's Thunder Bay light near Alpena." Wait a minute! A SMELT STORM? "' Spookiest thing I even saw,' Stiles said of the small fish carried from the water by the winds. 'Something I never heard of before. Smelt started falling from the sky. Thousands of smelt falling like a silver rain, and thousands of gulls going after them. The gulls were all around our heads picking up the smelt.'" (Barton, John; "A True Fish Story," Ann Arbor News, July 24, 1986. Cr. C.R . Engholm.) From Science Frontiers #47, SEP-OCT 1986 . 1986-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 27 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf047/sf047p16.htm
... 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 Blinded By The Night Ron Westrum is a sociologist who specializes in cases where scientific data are rejected out-of-hand because they challenge prevailing paradigms too strongly. In this article, Westrum describes several classical cases where science has ultimately admitted its errors and embraced the formerly rejected data: 1. The fall of stones from the sky; 2. The existence of thousands of parent-battered children; and 3. The reality of the coelacanth. In connection with meteorite falls, he provides a wonderful quote from James Pringle, of the Royal Society: "I venture to affirm that, after perusing all the accounts I could find of these phenomena, I have met with no well-vouched instance of such an event; nor is it to be imagined, but that, if these meteors had really fallen, there must have been long ago so strong evidence of the fact as to leave no room to doubt of it at present." Next, Westrum tackles spontaneous human combustion and ball lightning, neither of which have been assimilated by science. He closes with a very complimentary paragraph on the Sourcebook Project and our Catalog of Anomalies, for which we thank him. (Westrum, Ron; "Blinded by the Night," The Sciences, 25:48, May-June 1985.) From Science Frontiers #41, SEP-OCT 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 27 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf041/sf041p20.htm
... , 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 properties, among which surface tension and the opportunities for energetically advantageous migration will be impor tant. But the symmetry of a whole crystal, represented by the exquisite six-fold symmetry of the standard snowflake, must be the consequence of some cooperative phenomenon involving the growing crystal ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf038/sf038p19.htm
... , at the University of Iowa, had detected dark spots on satellite images of the earth's dayglow. Frank thought that the spots might be due to clouds of water vapor released as small, icy comets hit the atmosphere. P. Huyghe has recently written more about Frank's discovery, his theory, and its reception by the scientific community. "These comets are not occasional visitors, he [Frank] says, like the one that comes by every 76 years and -- lucky for us -- never actually drops in. No, these are very small, cometlike objects that enter our atmosphere at a rate of 20 per minute, he says. These comets, which he believes must contain about 100 tons of water apiece, vaporize on impact with the atmosphere and fall as rain or snow. Now that may seem like one sizeable cold shower, but on a yearly basis he says it's actually only a tiny fraction of the annual preciptation. Then again, over a span of 4.5 billion years, which is about how old the earth is, that's enough water, he says -- trumpets blaring -- to create the oceans." Naturally, such a theory is very disturbing because it runs counter to the widely accepted idea that the oceans were created by the outgassing of water vapor from the newly accreted earth. As a consequence, Frank's data are readily accepted, but his explanation of them is not. "That's as crazy as they come." (A noted astronomer) ". ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf047/sf047p13.htm
... comprise them. This is a sad situation, according to Moto Milgrom, an Israeli astrophysicist. Maybe there is nothing hidden and Newton's Law of Gravitation is wrong. After all, it was derived solely on the basis of solar-system observations. On a larger scale, it might be incorrect. Milgrom offers a startling alternative: for accelerations greater than a , let Newton's Law be; below that value, let the square of the acceleration be proportional to the mass of the attracting body and the inverse square of the distance. This done and presto the need for missing mass disappears. Even more remarkable is the fact that a particle with the acceleration a just reaches the speed of light over the age of the universe. (Milgrom, Moto; "Newtonian Gravity Falls Down," New Scientist, p. 45, March 7, 1985.) Comment. It would be more than passing strange for cosmic laws to suddenly shift gears so radically at a specific value of acceleration. Reference. The "missing mass" problem is covered in depth in AWB5 and other entries in Stars, Galaxies, Cosmos. For more on this Catalog volume, visit: here . From Science Frontiers #39, MAY-JUN 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 14 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf039/sf039p04.htm
... s Note . This article by John O'Keefe puts forth a viewpoint with which most planetologists disagree strongly. On the ground that a fresh airing of the long-standing discussion on lunar volcanism is appropriate, Eos offers this article, untouched by editors or referees, and awaits reply by readers." O'Keefe's article reviews considerable evidence supporting his two points: for Point One; crater dimensions and frequencies, craters with dark floors, lunar soil constituents; and, for Point Two; tektite analysis. He also remarks that the ages of the terrestrial tektite fields correlate with biological extinctions. This can be explained in terms of lunar volcanism as follows: lunar volcanos expel material violently, some of which escapes the moon's gravitational field and is drawn toward earth. Some falls as tektites; the rest forms a temporary ring around the earth. The ring shadows parts of the earth, causing radical climate changes and, as a consequence, biological extinctions. (O 'Keefe, John A.; "The Coming Revolution in Planetology," Eos, 66:89, 1985.) Comment. The Editor's Note does not really convey the depth of the antagonism in the controversy about tektite origin. From Science Frontiers #39, MAY-JUN 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 14 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf039/sf039p12.htm
... of quantization. The redshifts of pairs of galaxies differed by quantized amounts (see figure). More evidence exists for galactic quantization, but this should give the reader a feeling for the conceptual disaster waiting on the wings of astronomy. Can galaxies, like atoms and mole cules, posses quantized states? And do the findings of Tifft and Cocke undermine the redshift-distance relationship? The answer might be YES; and then all of astronomy and our entire view of the universe and its history would have to be reformulated. (Tifft, William G., and Cocke, W. John; "Quantized Galaxy Redshifts," Sky and Telescope, 73:19, 1987.) Redshift differences for double galaxies. Instead of following the expected distribution (dotted line), they tend to fall into bins separated by 72-km/sec. From Science Frontiers #50, MAR-APR 1987 . 1987-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 14 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf050/sf050p07.htm
... (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, 1985. Also: Anonymous; "Fine Particles Viewed in Uranus' Rings Leave Scientists 'Happily Bewildered'." Baltimore Sun, January 28, 1986.) Comment. How and where is star sludge manufactured? Again we have to venture that the venerable "primordial soup" in which life mysteriously assembled itself is located in outer space rather than in warm, sunlit earthly ponds. It also seems strange that all these extraterrestrial amino acids just seem to "fall together," with little urging, in seemingly hostile environments. More on this in the item that follows. From Science Frontiers #44, MAR-APR 1986 . 1986-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 14 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf044/sf044p05.htm
... species known, fossil or recent. Its importance lies not in that its transitional nature is unique -- there are many such transitional forms at all taxonomic levels -- but in the fact that it is an obvious and comprehensible example of organic evolution. There have been recent allegations that the feather impressions on Archaeopteryx are a forgery. In this report, proof of authenticity is provided by exactly matching hairline cracks and dendrites on the feathered areas of the opposing slabs, which show the absence of the artificial cement layer into which modern feathers could have been pressed by a forger." (Charig, Alan J., et al; "Archaeopteryx Is Not a Forgery," Science, 232:622, 1986.) Comment. The article itself offers some new evidence, but seems to fall a bit short of the proof promised in the Abstract. Let us wait for a rebuttal by Hoyle & Co. The Abstract's claim that many transitional forms exist at all taxonomic levels certainly does not square with the fossil record described by the punctuated evolutionists! In any event, the fossil record gap between dinosaurs and sophisticatedly feathered Archaeopteryx is still a Marianas Trench. From Science Frontiers #46, JUL-AUG 1986 . 1986-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 14 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf046/sf046p11.htm
... for the biological extinctions at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary some 65 million years ago. C.J .H . Hartnady believes he had found the culprit. It is somewhat larger than expected (300 kilometers in diameter instead of 100200), but it is of the right age. Supporting this notion is the observation that the Seychelles Bank and Madagascar suddenly shifted their locations at about this time. (Murray, M.; "Point of Impact: The Indian Ocean," Science News, 129:356, 1986.) The existence of another terrestrial cat aclysm at an earlier date is suggested by a layer of shattered crustal rock fragments stretching over at least 260 kilometers in South Australia. Folded within Precambrian marine shales, these fragments reach 30 centimeters in diameter and show evidence of vertical fall. Evidence points to an origin near Lake Acraman, about 300 kilometers west. (Gostin, Victor A., et al; "Impact Ejecta Horizon within Late Precambrian Shales, Adelaide Geosyncline, South Australia," Science, 233:198, 1986.) Reference. The subject of very large terrestrial craters is discussed in ETC2 in our catalog: Carolina Bays, Mima Mounds. Description here . The Amirante Basin (black circle) lies about 500 kilometers north-east of Madagascar. From Science Frontiers #47, SEP-OCT 1986 . 1986-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 13 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf047/sf047p15.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 Why are antarctic meteorites different?Here's the problem: "Differences exist between Antarctic and non-Antarctic meteorites, and the significance of this is only now beginning to be recognized. Dennison et al point out that relative to non-Antarctic falls, the Antarctic population is underabundant in iron and stony iron meteorites, among others." Trace-element studies: ". .. demonstrate a statistical unlikelihood that both sample populations derive from the same parent population." One reason for the differences is that the Antarctic ice has been accumulating meteorites for many thousands of years longer than modern man has been picking up non-Antarctic meteorites. (Lipschutz, Michael E., and Cassidy, William A.; "Antarctic Meteorites: A Progress Report," Eos, 67:1339, 1986.) Comment. If Antarctic meteorites differ because they impacted the earth over a longer span of time, it must be that the meteor population in the vicinity of the earth has been changing. Why? From Science Frontiers #50, MAR-APR 1987 . 1987-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 13 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf050/sf050p18.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 33: May-Jun 1984 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Falling Masses Swerve South In 1901, Florian Cajori had a paper published in Science with the title: "The Unexplained Southerly Deviation of Falling Bodies." Cajori reviewed the pertinent measurements that had been made prior to 1901 on falling bodies, emphasizing that the anomaly described in the title of his paper truly existed. In a recent letter to the American Journal of Physics, A.P . French brings the record up to date. (It should be pointed out here that a slight easterly deflection of falling bodies is predicted, but that a southerly deflection should be negligible, although not zero.) In the post-1901 experiments, small southerly and northerly deflections have been detected. These should not occur for an ideal rotating sphere -- which the earth isn't . French ends his brief review by stating that the earth's gravitational field is now known well enough so that further experiments with falling objects might once-and-for-all determine the nature (and reality) of the delightful anomaly. (French, A.P ., "The Deflection of Falling Objects," American Journal of Physics, 52:199, 1984.) From Science Frontiers #33, MAY-JUN 1984 . 1984-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 165 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf033/sf033p24.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: 106 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf030/sf030p13.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 33: May-Jun 1984 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Crab Fall At Brighton June 5, 1983. Brighton, England. A large spider crab dropped out of a storm cloud in front of Julian Cowan. The crab measured 25 centimeters across and had a 7-8 centimeter shell. It was dead and lacked two legs and one claw. The fall was followed almost immediately by wind-driven hailstones. (Meaden, G.T .; "The Remarkable 'Fall' of a Crab at Brighton, 5 June 1983," Journal of Meteorology, U.K ., 9:56, 1984.) Reference. A broad spectrum of falling animals is described at GWF10-14 in our Catalog: Tornados, Dark Days. Information on this book is located here . From Science Frontiers #33, MAY-JUN 1984 . 1984-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 102 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf033/sf033p21.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 25: Jan-Feb 1983 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Lageos Falls Too Fast In May of 1976, NASA launched a geodetic satellite into an orbit over the poles about 3700 miles out. The satellite, called Lageos, is covered with laser reflectors so that it can be tracked with high precision. At its altitude of 3700 miles, the earth's atmosphere is supposed to be so thin that friction will bring the satellite only 1/250th of an inch closer to the earth each day. The trouble is that Lageos actually falls at ten times this rate. In 1979 it descended 60% faster than it does now. Lageos will stay in orbit several hundred thou-sand years, but space scientists are understandably concerned about their theories about the upper atmosphere. Many suggestions have been made to explain this anomaly. Some say the atmosphere is thicker than expected; others prefer to think there is more helium than predicted; but the "plasma drag" effect seems to fit the situation the best. Lageos may, in fact, be electrically charged and interacting with the surrounding cloud of electrically charged particles and is ever so slightly braked by the electrical forces. (Maran, Stephen P.; "Fall from Space," Natural History, 91:74, December 1982.) From Science Frontiers #25, JAN-FEB 1983 . 1983-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 89 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf025/sf025p04.htm
... 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 Burning mass falls in b.c .March 11, 1984. Duncan, BC. David Thompson was returning home at 8:30 PM, when he spotted a soccer-ball-size burning mass high over the trees. It landed in the road about 200 feet away, sounding like a light bulb popping. For about 3 seconds, it flamed. When approached, it was still sizzling, probably because the road was wet. The fallen substance quickly hardened, but samples were scraped off the asphalt. It turned out to be an odorless, rock-like substance. Left outside overnight, it had become soft by the next day and seemed to be melting. Samples were sent to Victoria for analysis. (Hausch, Karen; Cowichan Leader, March 15, 1984. Cr. L. Farish) Reference. All manner of anomalous falling materials are covered in Chapter GWF in our Catalog: Tornados, Dark Days. For a description of this book, visit: here . From Science Frontiers #35, SEP-OCT 1984 . 1984-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 63 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf035/sf035p19.htm
... 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 The solar-system dust bin For hundreds of thousands of years, miscellaneous rocky debris swirling around the sun has been falling upon the icy wastes of Antarctica. The motion of Antarctica's ice sheet carries these meteorites conveyor-belt fashion out towards the encircling seas. But where Antarctic mountains get in the way, the rocky cargo tends to get concentrated. Several thousand meteorites have already been picked up at these favored spots. In just a few brief summers of searching, these massive finds have posed unexpected questions. Here is a sampling. The terrestrial ages (times since arrival on earth) measure between 1,000 and 700,000 years, implying that the Antarctic ice sheet may be at least 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 ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 29 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf027/sf027p08.htm
... 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 Behind magnetic flip-flops The earth's magnetic field frequently reverses its polarity. Such flips can of-ten be correlated with climate changes, global ice volumes, sea-floor spreading rates, and deposition of black shales, tektite falls, biological extinctions, etc. The frustrating thing is the lack of clear-cut cause and effect; that is, how these phenomena are linked physically to the geomagnetic field. Part of the problem is that we can only guess at how the geomagnetic field is generated. Let us assume that the earth's magnetic field is created by dynamo action in the planet's fluid core. P. Olson finds analytically that the core dynamo may reverse sign due to fluctuations in core turbulence caused by two competing energy sources: heat loss at the mantle-core boundary and progressive growth of the inner core. In concept, the heat lost at the core-mantle boundary might be linked to climate changes and sea-floor spreading. Taking a different tack, D. Gubbins has investigated the possibility that field reversals are triggered by ice ages and meteorite impacts (tektite falls). The physical mechanism here would be the increase in pressure upon the core, which affects the rate of freezing in the outer core, and thus the power available to the core dynamo. Gubbins found that these externally caused pressure changes were too small to explain the polarity changes. However, the parameters involved ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 24 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf034/sf034p15.htm
... 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 ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf035/sf035p11.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 The spin we're in From planets to stars to entire galaxies, the rate of spin is related to mass. If one defines Q (see graph) as angular momentum divided by the object's mass and a density factor, it is roughly equal to the object's (mass)0 .7 . Such empirical equations are generally accurate only over a limited region, but this newly discovered relationship holds for almost 50 orders of magnitude. For some unfathomed reason, all astronomical entities spin at rates determined by their masses. Even clusters of galaxies fall into step, slowly pirouetting in intergalactic space to some unknown tune. (Anonymous; "How Things Spin," Sky and Telescope, 64:228, 1982.) Comment. In the foregoing item, a team of investigators reported that the entire cosmos may spin. Does the cosmos, too, obey this new momentum-mass formula? From Science Frontiers #24, NOV-DEC 1982 . 1982-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf024/sf024p05.htm
... 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 Three Anomalies In One Storm "During the passage of a cold frontal trough between 1030 and 1100 GMT on Monday 21 March 1983, squally thunderstorms affected south Cheshire and north Staffordshire. Two incidents of ball lightning, a fall of seashells and three occurrences of probable tornado damage were reported, mostly within a 10 km radius of Stoke-on-Kent." At Camillus Road, Knutton. Ball lightning about 40 cm in diameter with a luminous tail 4 m long. One observer saw it descend at an angle of 45 and hit the roadway. At Kingsley: "A large white luminous ball, probably over a metre in diameter, blasted its way into a factory workshop by shearing an irregular hole through a steel-mesh-reinforced window. There was no evidence of any fusion of the glass. The ball, accompanied by a deafening roar, passed very quickly in a straight line through the processing shop and left by blasting a 2 by 3 metre hole in a wall of 6 mm corrugated asbestos, fragments of which were later found 20 to 30 metres away outside the factory." At Dilhorne. Sea shells fell with heavy hail: "They extended for an area of about 50 by 20 metres and occurred in thousands on lawns, flower beds, paths and even the road. Roy was kind enough to give me half-a -dozen specimens for identification. They turned out to be small gastropods, almost ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf031/sf031p17.htm
... 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 Booms Startle Arkansas "A series of mysterious loud booms reported by residents of Hope, De Queen, Fulton, Mela, Ola, Baresville, Little Rock and other Arkansas cities will remain mysterious, at least for a while. Authorities are baffled about their source. "The noises, which have been described as sounding like an explosion, a sonic boom, a book falling off a shelf and a hand pounding on a wooden door, apparently have been occurring since the beginning of the recent cold weather. Inquiries have produced a number of theories and guesses but no plausible explanations." No supersonic aircraft could be implicated, so the most popular view was that the extreme cold weather caused house timbers to crack. (Anonymous; "Mysterious Booms Heard around State Baffle Authorities; Some Blame Ice Cold," Arkansas Gazette, December 24, 1983. Plus other Arkansas papers of December and January. Cr. L. Farish) Comment. If popping house timbers were the cause, similar reports would be expected from other states every winter. The Arkansas episode echoes the famous 1977-1978 series of booms heard all along the eastern coast of North America. These detonations also occurred during cold weather and were blamed, by some, on the Concorde SST. From Science Frontiers #32, MAR-APR 1984 . 1984-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf032/sf032p18.htm
... 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 Ancient old-world lamps turn up in new england In 1980, at a Boston antique fair, a Greek lamp, probably dating from the Sixth Century B.C . turned up. The antique dealer stated that the lamp had been dug up at an Indian site in Manchester, NH. (Totten, Norman; "Late Archaic Greek Lamp Excavated at Amoskeag Falls," Early Sites Research Society, Bulletin, 10:25, no. 2, 1983.) In 1952, a Byzantine oil lamp was found in the Clintin, CT, harbor shell-midden after plowing. The finder described it as an Indian pipe, but it is actually typical of the Mediterranean area circa 750-800 A.D . (Whittall. James P., II; "Byzantine Oil Lamp from Connecticut," Early Sites Research Society, Bulletin, 10:26, no. 2, 1983.) From Science Frontiers #34, JUL-AUG 1984 . 1984-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf034/sf034p05.htm
