219 results found.
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 120: Nov-Dec 1998 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Force Is With Them The communication loop between earthbased ground stations and interplanetary spacecraft allows extremely accurate measurements of the radial velocities of these distant man-made machines. As these spacecraft hurtle toward the fringe of the solar system, the visible sun dwindles to a small, bright point, and its gravitational field falls off as the inverse square of the distance. At least that is what is supposed to happen. Four far-flung spacecraft, (Pioneer 10, Pioneer 11, Ulysses, and Galileo are experiencing a mysterious decelerating force not encompassed by the Law of Gravitation. It's a tiny force, but it seems to be real. Making it even more puzzling is the fact that it is decreasing according to the inverse of distance from the sun rather than the inverse square. Is it a non-solar force? Is it "new" physics? Or maybe just an artifact of the spacecraft and ground-based equipment? The fact that four spacecraft feel its tugging suggests the force is real. But the motions of the distant planets do not seem to be affected by it. So, everyone is perplexed. (Schilling, Govert; "Spacecraft Motions Puzzle Astronomers," Science, 281:1581, 1998. Seife, Charles; "If the Force Is with Them...," New Scientist, p. 4, September 12, 1998. Browne, Malcolm; "After Study, ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 50: Mar-Apr 1987 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects On The Trail Of The Fifth Force Well publicized lately has been the modern reanalysis of the old Eotvos balance experiments. Some think they show the presence of that famous "fifth force" which is supposed, according to some theories, to modify Newton's Law of Gravitation, and become measurable at distances of about 100 to 1000 meters. The Eotvos results may also be explicable in terms of laboratory air currents. But the fifth force may be showing up in geophysical experiments. "One of the most comprehensive geophysical experiments so far has been conducted by Frank Stacey at University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, and his colleagues. Working in two metal mines, the researchers have measured a gravitational constant that is 0.7 percent greater than that measured in the laboratory -- suggesting the presence of a fifth force." (Weisburd, Stefi; "Geophysics on the Fifth Force's Trail," Science News, 131: 6, 1987.) From Science Frontiers #50, MAR-APR 1987 . 1987-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... The spinning-egg water-sprinkler. It is generally known that you can separate fresh eggs from hard-boiled eggs by spinning them like a top. If they are hard-boiled they will spin on one of the ends. The fluid contents of fresh eggs, however, will slosh around and prevent top action. O.K .! this is not very curious, so we'll place a hard-boiled egg in a flat pan containing a thin layer of water and give it a spin. Not only does the egg spin on end but a layer of water creeps up the side of the egg. When the water is about half way up the side of the egg it breaks up into droplets and sprays out horizontally like a rotating lawn sprinkler. No mysterious forces are involved, nor are there spooky quantum mechanics effects. The major forces operating are gravity, centrifugal force, and adhesion between the egg surface and the water. As the film of water creeps up the egg, the centrifugal force increases and overcomes the force of adhesion. Then, water droplets spray outward. (Gutierrez, Gustavo, et al; "Fluid Flow up the Wall of a Spinning Egg," American Journal of Physics, 66:442, 1998.) Creating fluid corners in kitchen sinks. When a smooth column of water from your kitchen faucet hits the sink, it flows out radially. At a calculable radius, its height suddenly rises. This smooth, circular ridge is called a "hydraulic jump." Here, some of the kinetic energy of the ...
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... 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 Midi-Chlorians are with Us!Whoops! We meant to write "mitochondria" in that title. In the movie Star Wars, Episode 1: The Phantom Menace, Jedi master Qui-Gon Jinn explains the origin of the supernatural powers possessed by Jedi knights. It arises, he says, from microscopic lifeforms called chlorians" that dwell within all living cells and reveal the will of the Force. Mitochondria are popularly seen as mere powerhouses within cells, with little influence on the organisms they inhabit. They are, it is believed, just the distant progeny of bacteria that invaded complex cells hundreds of millions of years ago. With only 37 genes in their arsenal, human mitochondria would not seem to pose any threat to humanity. After all, we have about 100,000 genes per cell. Of course, mitochondria do evolve separately from us, and this is a bit disconcerting. Could they be more than mere symbionts? The midi-chlorians of the Jedi knights were "good guys", but our mitochondria sometimes seem to be working for an insidious alien Force. There is good evidence that they: Selected which of your mother's germ cells matured to produce you; Have decided your odds of living to be 100; and May influence your being afflicted with Parkinson's and Alzheimer's , as well as rarer disorders. The first item (or "force") is the most ...
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... Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects More Disorder Here Produces Order There Physicists use the word "entropy" to describe the well-observed tendency of the universe to run down; that is, become more disorderly. In some situations, though, the increase in disorder (entropy) in one part of the universe can create order elsewhere. For example, if you add tiny plastic spheres of two sizes to salty water, you will not get a uniform mixture. Instead the larger spheres will pack together into tightly ordered crystaline shapes (representing more order) while the smaller spheres become more disordered. It is like watching cream unstir itself from coffee. It smacks of magic, but it is all within the laws of thermodynamics. This strange "force" exerted by entropy may explain some puzzling biological phenomena, such as the expulsion of nuclei from mammalian red blood cells before they enter the bloodstream as sacks of hemoglobin. The idea being that the increasing entropy of the proliferating hemoglobin molecules (analogous to the smaller spheres) is maximized when the nuclei (large spheres) are squeezed out of the cells altogether. (Kestenbaum, David; "Gentle Force of Entropy Bridges Disciplines," Science, 279:1849, 1998.) Comments. The red-blood-cell example presented in the article is on shaky ground, because while mammalian red blood cells do lack nuclei those of birds and reptiles retain theirs. (See BMC6 in Mammals II .) In the above context, the origin of life (more order) anywhere in ...
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... 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 The Accelerating Universe Many laymen are uncomfortable with the idea that the entire universe originated at an infinitesimal point and is now expanding away from this cosmic navel. Many astronomers are equally disturbed by the recent discovery that all these fleeing stars and galaxies are not being reined in by the force of gravity. In fact, observations of distant supernovas indicate that this exodus of matter is actually speeding up. Some universal repulsive force, it seems, is operating on very large scales of distance. From an unknown somewhere energy is being added to all constituents of the cosmos. The universe is more than a cloud of debris flying away from the Big Bang's Ground Zero. Somewhere, perhaps beyond the ken of our primitive instruments, is a fount of energy of which we know nothing. All this is a serious challenge to our understanding of space, time, and matter. Cosmologists are now appealing to quantum mechanical "shimmers," to "X -matter," and to a property called "quintessence." (Glanz, James; "Exploding Stars Point to a Universal Repulsive Force," Science, 279:651, 1998. Also: Glanz, James; "Astronomers See a Cosmic Antigravity Force at Work," Science, 279:1298, 1998.) Comment. When theorists toss around terms like "X -matter" and "quintessence," you can be sure that the basic laws of the universe ...
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... therefore, seem to be careening about in a dense cloud of unseen, unknown masses. These might be dark, Jupiter-sized objects, black holes, and/or some exotic forms of matter. We must choose between the reality of dark matter or admit that something is awry with our laws of gravitation and motion when they are applied on a cosmological scale Now, let us examine those four darkmatter items from the recent literature: D. Lin, a University of California astronomer, has shown that the Large Magellanic Cloud that orbits around our own galaxy (the Milky Way) is being torn apart (" cannibalized") by the powerful gravitational pull of a dense cloud of dark matter surrounding the Milky Way. This dismemberment of the Large Magellanic Cloud cannot be explained by the gravitational forces exerted by the stars in our galaxy that we can see. Lin calculates that our halo of dark matter is equivalent to 600-800 billion solar masses, compared to the only 100 billion solar masses of visible matter. (Flam, Faye; "Spinning in the Dark," Science, 260:1593, 1993. Also: Anonymous; "' Dark Matter' Is Observed 'Cannibalizing' a Galaxy," Baltimore Sun, p. 8A, June 8, 1993.) The dark matter surrounding a galaxy will, according to the Theory of Relativity, act as a gravitational lens that will deflect light rays passing near it. This dark matter, acting like a telescope, should increase the number of quasars counted in the sky near galactic clusters. Such larger quasar counts ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 132: NOV-DEC 2000 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Theories that are Hard to Believe Explain Things We Cannot See That "something" we cannot see is that astronomical fudge factor called "dark matter". Astronomers are sure it exists because its presence, though unseen, explains two anomalies: The high circular velocity of the stars and gas in the outer reaches of galaxies. Circular velocities should decrease with distance from the galactic center, just as planet velocities do in the solar system. They don't , so some gravitational force from some unseen mass must counterbalancing centrifugal force (mark that this is presumptious! The "force" need not be gravity.) Observations suggesting that galaxies formed when the universe was less than a billion years old. The gravitational pull of the visible mass is inadequate to cause this clumping so quickly in the history of the universe. Many candidates have been proposed to play the dark-matter role. One of the more popular possibilities is that vast sea of neutrinos pervading the cosmos -- if they really do display just a hint of mass. Two other candidates now on the table are so bizarre that we marvel at the ingenuity of the theorists. One involves exceedingly large particles, the other unbelievably tiny clumps of particles. At the "giant" end of the size spectrum are galaxy-size particles weighing only 10-24 as much as an electron, which is itself by no means large. It would be hard to experimentally distinguish such ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 35: Sep-Oct 1984 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Gravity And Going Around In Ellipses We thought that our readers might like to know that the force of gravity apparently has no significant effect on circumnutation. Now circumnutation is the result of an "impressively ubiquitous mechanism" in all elongating plant organs. More simply, it is the elliptical weaving motion seen in the tips of growing leaves, shoots, flower stalks, branch roots, etc. In a 4- to 5-day-old sunflower seedling, the ellipse traced is 6-8 millimeters long and takes about 110 minutes. The ellipses result from differ-ential growth in the elongating plants. No one knew whether the force of gravity played a role in circumnutation until some sunflower seedlings were flown on Spacelab 1. Zero-g did not affect circumnutation at all. (Brown, Allan H. and Chapman, David K.; "Circumnutation Observed without Significant Gravitational Force in Spaceflight," Science, 225:230, 1984.) Comment. Nature seldom indulges in frivolous actions, but we just may have a phenomenon here that has absolutely no deeper significance. From Science Frontiers #35, SEP-OCT 1984 . 1984-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 30: Nov-Dec 1983 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Cancer: the price for higher life?For unknown reasons, plants and the simpler animals, such as sponges and jellyfish, do not get cancer. But all laterally symmetric organisms are prone to cancer. According to James Graham, the acquisition of cancer-initiating onco-genes by organisms (also an unexplained event) has forced these afflicted organ-isms to develop all sorts of defenses against external forces which might, with the help of the oncogenes, trigger cancer. Typical biological defenses include systems to insure accurate replication of cells, to destroy transformed cells, and to protect or immunize the organism against invading systems. Efficient im-mune systems in turn permitted life to invade mutagenic environments (such as sunlight) and to shed restrictive body coverings. In other words, cancer may have been a blessing in disguise -- the price of higher life| (Anonymous; "Cancer: The Price for Higher Life?" New Scientist, 99:766, 1983.) Comment. Note how easy it is for us to say "developed" this or that characteristic in response to some applied force. Exactly how such responses are made is a major mystery. And why do oncogenes exist? Are they a product of chance? They hardly confer short-term survival capability. Reference. The existence and insidious-ness of cancer pose many questions. These are broached in BHH23-35 in our catalog: Biological Anomalies ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 74: Mar-Apr 1991 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Repent! the phase change is coming!The world as we know it may not end in a nuclear holocaust or even in the greenhouse effect. Rather, suggest M. M. Grone and M. Sher, the universe-as-a -whole may undergo a phase change. Such an event has already happened once and it may again. Approximately 10-10 seconds after the Big Bang, the force laws changed discontinuously as the universe cooled. Some models of the cosmos predict that another such phase change may occur when photons suddenly acquire mass. Grone and Sher have sketched the effects on terrestrial civilization: "The most dramatic effect would be the elimination of all static electric and magnetic fields over a range greater than 1 cm, and the elimination of all electromagnetic radiation with frequencies smaller than a few hundred gigahertz. We have shown that there would be relatively little impact on atomic structure and on solar radiation. The absence of electrostatic fields would force a redesign of current power plants (to use smaller solenoids); the absence of radio and television waves would force a much greater use of cables. The elimination of solar and geomagnetic fields would have a significant meteorological impact. The potential ly most devastating effect could be on the propagation of neural impulse along motor neurons; it appears that the effects might be small, but they do depend on the precise value of the photon mass." Crone and Sher conclude that ...
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... 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 Death waves and seebars A comprehensive, 12-page article on seiches appeared in the July/August issue of American Scientist, and it was awash with curious observations. A seiche (pronounced "saysh") is a rhythmic rocking motion of a body of water that has been disturbed by natural forces, such as sudden weather changes and, especially, earthquakes. A famous example of the latter seichedriving force occurred on March 27, 1964, when the Great Alaskan Earthquake sent seismic waves rippling around the globe. Fourteen minutes after this quake, the tremors reached the U.S . Gulf coast and triggered numerous seiches in bays, harbors, canals, bayous, etc. Some crest-to-trough waterlevel oscillations reached 2 meters in amplitude. Startling though these seiches were to Gulf fishermen, most seiches are wellexplained. Bodies of water that are mostly enclosed have natural frequencies of oscillation or "sloshing," just as do coffee cups and bathtubs. The Alaskan quake just operated on a larger scale than a bump to your coffee cup! Short-period oscillations in the tidal record from Puerto Princesa, Palawan Island, Philippines. These are coastal seiches, but hardly "death waves"! So far, so good. But there are exists an interesting -- and sometimes dangerous -- class of related events that affects open coastal waters. The Irish call them "death waves." In the Baltic, they are ...
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... planets (Venus and Jupiter, in this case) do affect the peak electron density in the earth's ionosphere. The effect is most noticeable when these planets are close to earth and dwindles as they swing around to the other side of the sun. The authors are at a loss to explain this effect in terms of gravitation, suggesting that perhaps Venus or Jupiter may instead affect solar activity, which in turn modifies the terrestrial ionosphere. (Harnischmacher, E., and Rawer, K.; "Lunar and Planetary Influences upon the Peak Electron Density of the Ionosphere," Journal of Atmospheric and Terrestrial Electricity, 43:643, 1981.) Comment. Actually, no one has shown how the planets can possibly influence the sun with known action-at-a -distance forces. Electrical forces are taboo. There are no other "recognized" forces. From Science Frontiers #18, NOV-DEC 1981 . 1981-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 138: NOV-DEC 2001 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The 8 Greatest Mysteries of Cosmology Such is the title of a lengthy article in the June 2001 issue of Astronomy. It is always dangerous to employ superlatives; "greatest" is particularly hazardous. Anyway, it is useful to review what mainstream astronomers consider to be their major unsolved problems. Naturally, we shall add a few that we think should have been on the list. How multidimensional is the universe? For example, gravitons, which are believed to exist in a fifth dimension, are supposed to transmit gravitational force. This dimension is barely separated from our well-known four. The thin barrier separating us from the graviton universe seems to leak a bit therebyallowing gravity, the weakest of all our universe's forces, to exist. Sounds pretty far-out, but not as bizarre as string theory which requires many more dimensions! How did the universe begin? The cosmic microwave background is much too smooth. If it was smoothed out by a sudden expansion of the universe (so-called "inflation"), what caused the inflation? Why does matter fill the universe? in other words, where is all the antimatter that we think must have been created in equal amounts? (This equality is a human philosophical requirement. The universe can do anything it wants!) How did galaxies form? What is cold dark matter? This "substance" seems to be filaments threading the surfaces of cosmic ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 70: Jul-Aug 1990 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Belgian Flying Triangle "The Belgian air force has been on alert for three nights running", writes Lucy Kellaway. Two Hawker Siddeley aircraft equipped with infrared cameras and sophisticated electronic sensors have been patrolling the skies. Down below, the Belgian police force has kept a constant watch, helped by more than 1,000 concerned civilians. Along the border with Germany, 20 lookout posts have been set up. Their target: an Unidentified Flying Object. "Since December, there have been 800 reported sightings, and even though some resemble a lamp-post more closely than a UFO, many of the others are being earnestly examined by SOBEPS, the Belgian Society for Studying Special Phenomena. "More surprising is how seriously the army is taking the whole thing. For the time being it says it is viewing the matter as a 'technical curiosity' as the intruder has shown no aggressive signs. Should it turn nasty, it will be a different matter altogether. .. .. . "Scientists on the ground appear in the past few days to have produced a clear image of the object, which is said to correspond to the reports of eyewitnesses. It is a triangle 30m-50m in diameter, with red, green and white lights at the corners, 10 times brighter than any star. It has a convex underbelly and makes a sharp whistling noise." (Anonymous; "Flying Triangle Has Belgians Going around ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 119: Sep-Oct 1998 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Cassowary, 1; Automobile, 0 Many birds are done in by fast-moving cars. The usual avian mode of retaliation involves defecation, especially on freshly washed and polished automobiles. On occasion, though, birds will use brute force. For example, keas (New Zealand parrots) consider it their duty to pry out the rubber gaskets around automobile windshields with their powerful bills. A cassowary can be even more forceful. Recently, a motorist near Cairns, Australia, was forced to stop by a sixfoot cassowary standing in the middle of the road. He edged the car forward slowly, but the huge bird stood its ground. Then, he blew his horn. Bad move! The cassowary objected by kicking the auto, pushing the radiator into the fan, which cut a hole in it. (Anonymous; "Feedback," New Scientist, p. 104, June 13, 1998.) Comment. The flightless cassowaries are armed with sharp toenails, with which they disembowel New Guinea natives who displease them. Besides disposing of obstreperous automobiles, cassowaries are said to catch fish by wading into streams, spreading out their wings, waiting, and then closing them on sheltering fish. (From: Biological Anomalies: Birds). From Science Frontiers #119, SEP-OCT 1998 . 1998-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 61: Jan-Feb 1989 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects A Truly Fortean House A host of Fortean forces descended upon a house in Orland Hills, Illinois, in 1988. "Once, a blue flame an inch in diameter shot out of a wall socket for more than 30 seconds, and the outlet still worked. That incident was witnessed by two police officers. Another time, a similar flame set a mattress afire while investigators were prowling outside. "In all, there were 26 separate incidents, all of them witnessed by either police or fire investigators... "' I was there one night when the room was filled with a white haze. I couldn't see my hand in front of my face,' Smith said. 'There was a strong sulfur smell and my eyes were burning. I took a sample (of the vapor) in a vacuum canister. We came up with nothing.' "Neither did engineers, chemists and geologists." Understandably, the occupants of this hexed house had moved out long ago with such goings-on. Teams of experts ruled out arson, natural gas, methane leaks, sewer gas, and electrical malfunctions. The house was finally bulldozed in October 1988. (Elsner, David; "Bulldozers Lay House to Rest," Chicago Tribune, October 16, 1988. Cr. K. Fabian. Also: Anonymous; "Strange Phenomena Force Bulldozing of House," Lorain (Ohio) Journal, October ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 88: Jul-Aug 1993 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Bruised Apples A serious problem has cropped up in supermarkets, where fresh, ripe apples are piled up high in beckoning pyramids. Surely, as the heights of the pyramids increase, the bottom-most apples will be crushed, particularly those in the center under the apexes. Common sense tells us that crushing forces will be greatest at Position #4 in the illustration. But grocers need not be concerned about Apple #4 . Two Czech researchers, J. Schmid and J. Novosad, using pressure sensors, found that in a horizontal plane through a stacked pyramid the maximum pressure actually occurs in a ring of objects (apples) some distance from the pyramid's vertical axis. How come? (Watson, A.; "The Perplexing Puzzle Posed by a Pile of Apples," New Scientist, p. 19, December 14, 1991.) A theoretical analysis of the problem by J. Grindlay doesn't help much. He analyzed a two-dimensional pile of disks, as shown, and calculated that maximum bruising forces should occur at the outermost disks instead of at the center, (Grindlay, J.; "Bruised Apples," American Journal of Physics, 61:469, 1993.) Comment. Thus, common-sense expectations, experimental measurements, and theoretical calculations lead to three different results. Much more work needs to be done here. From Science Frontiers #88, JUL ...
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... 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 ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 74: Mar-Apr 1991 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Mechanical Paradox In Thrust Faulting In many parts of the world, older rocks are found on top of younger rocks. Ob-viously the Principle of Superposition is contradicted in such situations. Two possible explanations exist for these inverted strata: (1 ) The dating of the rocks is incorrect; or (2 ) Geological forces somehow slid the older rocks over the top of the younger rocks. Few mainstream scientists give any thought to the first possibility because it implies that evolution did not proceed as presently envisioned. (Rocks are often dated by their fossil contents.) So, geologists are left with the problems of sliding great masses of rock over rough surfaces for great distances. Sketch of the forces acting upon a thrust block being pushed by a wedge-shaped driver Low-angle thrust faulting is not a trivial geological process. To illustrate, the Lewis Overthrust in Montana and adjacent Canada involves the shoving of a block of old strata hundreds of feet thick, hundreds of miles long, over younger rock for a distance of possibly 50 miles. In contemplating such overthrusts, one immediately comes face to face with the Mechanical Paradox. Brief-ly, given the coefficient of friction between the layers of rock, the weight of the thrust block, and the mechanical strength of the rock being pushed, it can be shown that pushing the thrust block at the rear edge will crush it long before it begins to slide. For ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 116: Mar-Apr 1998 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects G: The Embarrassing Constant Of Nature Of the four fundamental forces of nature, gravity was the first to be discovered. Even the Neanderthals knew of it! That's hardly surprising; it's everywhere. Unfortunately, we don't know much more about it than the Neanderthals. Though it seems powerful when you trip and fall, gravity is the weakest of the fundamental four. In a helium nucleus, the force of repulsion between two protons is 1040 times the gravitational attraction between them. Weak though it may be, gravity controls the trajectory of a baseball, the motion of the planets, and the shape of our Galaxy. Physicists describe gravitation with Newton's Law of Gravitation, which incorporates the Gravitational Constant G. Here's where the embarrassment arises. Many other constants of nature, such as the charge on the electron, are known to eight significant figures. We only know G to three. What's worse, modern attempts to refine the measurement of G come up with wildly different answers. Torsion-pendulum experiments in the U.S ., Germany, and New Zealand are far apart in their G-measurements. And physicists are perplexed -- to put it mildly. Of course, G is hard to measure. Seismic waves from ocean surf hundreds of miles away can affect the experiments. If a colleague a few offices away brings in some boxes of books for his ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 9: Winter 1979 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Venus and earth: engaged or divorced?Proponents of astronomical catastrophism have made much of the supposed resonance between the earth and Venus, in which Venus rotates exactly four times between the times of its closest approach to earth (inferior conjunction). Astronomers have maintained that the gravitational forces are too slight to force a resonance lock. This has led to speculation that the two planets were once much closer. The most recent measurements of the rotational period of Venus show it to be 243.01 days rather than the 243.16 days for exact resonance. I.I . Shapiro (of MIT) and his colleagues, who made the measurements, wonder whether Venus may be just approaching or just escaping a resonance lock. Whichever the case, the near-resonance is not likely to be a coincidence. (Anonymous; "Venus and Earth: Engaged or Divorced?" Astronomy, 7:58, October 1979.) Comment. If Venus is just escaping resonance lock, how long ago was the lock exact? A few thousand years? And how close were the two planets? Reference. The solar system is full of curious resonances. See ABB4 in our Catalog: The Sun and Solar System Debris. This book is described here . From Science Frontiers #9 , Winter 1979 . 1979-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 14: Winter 1981 Supplement Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Do lightning channels accelerate matter?E.W . Crew suggests in this paper that two rare classes of meteorological observations may be created by the intense electrostatic accelerating forces present in lightning channels. The first class of observations consists of blasts of hot air noted some distance from violent lightning strikes but seeming associated with the discharges. Second, some superhailstones (hydrometeors) also seem to be correlated with violent lightning. The physical mechanism for the concentration and propulsion of matter is the electrostatic force naturally present in lightning discharge channels; it functions much the same as the particle accelerators in the physics lab. The observations of hot air blasts and superhailstones collected by Crew to support his theory are indeed suggestive, but more are needed. Crew also feels that some UFO sightings may be produced by the same mechanism. (Crew, E.W .; "Meteorological Flying Objects," Royal Astronomical Society Quarterly Journal, 21:216, 1980.) Comment. Note also that the fall of thunderstones is usually coincident with lightning discharges; and that some high quality observations of thunderstone falls are on record -- despite the tendency of Science to relegate them to myth. One must also consider the possibility that the passage of a meteor or superhailstone through the atmosphere might trigger lightning, thus putting the cart before the horse. From Science Frontiers #14, Winter 1981 . 1981-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 6: February 1979 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Stacked Deck In Esp Experiment Balanovski and Taylor have assumed that the many purported extrasensory phenomena are very likely effected by electromagnetic forces -- the only known action-at-a -distance force they believe could be involved. Therefore, they assembled a wide variety of very sensitive electromagnetic instruments (antennas, EM probes, skin electrodes, magnetometers, etc.) and tried to find electromagnetic fields associated with people claiming paranormal abilities. Despite the high sensitivities of the apparatus, no ESP-connected electromagnetic fields were detected. (Balanovski, E., and Taylor, J.G .; "Can Electromagnetism Account for Extra-Sensory Phenomena?" Nature, 276:64, 1978.) Comment. J.G . Taylor is the author of Superminds, a rather unabashed proparanormal book. He has since recanted. His experiment (described briefly above) certainly has not disproved the existence of ESP, only that there are no accompanying electromagnetic fields. ESP, if it exists, may work through "unknown" fields or, perhaps, no fields at all, as we understand them. Although caveats appear in the article relative to the limited nature of the experiment, such an article in a key scientific journal just makes most doubting scientists say "I told you so." From Science Frontiers #6 , February 1979 . 1979-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... NSF-supported scientists have discovered the presence of an ancient conduit deep in the Earth's mantle beneath Brazil. "The conduit appears to have remained geographically fixed with respect to the overlying continent despite thousands of kilometers of South American plate motion. This observation runs contrary to a major tenet of plate tectonic theory -- that the motion of lithospheric plates is essentially independent of flow in the upper mantle beneath the plates -- and implies that the upper mantle and the overlying South American continent have remained coupled since the breakup of the Gondwanaland super-continent and opening of the South Atlantic Ocean some 120 million years ago. This result also implies that large-scale convection in the mantle may be responsible for the motion of the great continental plates, such as South America, where the driving
force for plate motion has not been well understood." (Dybas, Cheryl; NSFNEWS Digest 54, November 8, 1995. Cr. D. Swaner. NSF= National Science Foundation. The cyber-address for the NSFNEWS Digest is:
[email protected] The computerless may read more in: VanDecar, John C., et al; "Seismic Evidence for a Fossil Mantle Plume beneath South America and Implications for Plate Driving
Forces," Nature, 378:25, 1995. From Science Frontiers #103, JAN-FEB 1996 . 1996-2000 William R. Corliss
...
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... same night in counties far from each other); there have been very few cases of detection of hoax, despite massive surveillance in the Mariborough/Devizes area, where so many of the events took place; circles (including a dumbbell formation) occurred within visual and radar range of a hi-tech watch mounted by [G .T .] Meaden and supported by anti-hoax equipment without a trace of human action. It is clear that hoax cannot account for all we have been seeing. "Very recently, laboratories in the US, acting in collaboration with CCCS's Crop Research Panel, have reported interesting physical changes in crops and soil collected from circle formations as compared with control samples. Other 'hard' evidence is accumulating for the action of some short-lived force in the formation of genuine events, and its nature seems to be such that human activity cannot account for it. It may or may not be evidence for the operation of Meaden's 'plasma vortex' (in whatever form he decides to develop it). The only thing to add at this stage is that if the "plasma vortex" is in question, it seems capable of far more elaboration in the creation of crop formations than Meaden has yet allowed. For sheer exuberance and inventiveness, there has been no force in scientific history to match it." (Noyes, Ralph; Letter to UFO Brigantia, November 23, 1991.) Comment. We shall be looking forward to documentation of the lab tests mentioned. It is "interesting" that both UFO and ...
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... vital part of the general scientific outlook. How shaky is the Big Bang? L.M . Krauss of Yale, admits that all cosmological theories are "tenuous." He adds: "There are a lot of fundamental assumptions we base our model on that may be wrong." A leading Big-Bang basher in H. Arp, of whom we have written frequently in SF. We will therefore not pursue his sort of bashing any further here. It is sufficient to say that Arp's doubts about the red-shift/distance relationship continue to receive support through observations of the heavens and in the lab. The other Big-Bang basher featured in Scientific American is H. Alfven, a Nobel-Prize winner in physics. Alfven postulates a universe dominated by electromagnetic forces, which he believes to be more important in shaping the cosmos than gravitation. His electromagnetic theory disallows any universe smaller than 1/10 the diameter of our present universe, thus excluding the Big Bang's point origin. Electromagnetic forces can account for all types of galaxies without resorting to the infamous "missing mass." Alfven can even account for the cosmic microwave background. Furthermore, Alfven's theories are supported by observations of solar-system plasma and magnetic fields. NASA's T.E . Eastman allows: "There is a revolution brewing in applying this knowledge to astrophysics." (Horgan, John; "Big-Bang Bashers," Scientific American, 257:22, September 1987.) Reference. Many more doubts about the Big Bang are cataloged ...
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... what one scientist calls Bell's Theorem. Certainly not all scientists would agree with such an absolute declaration. Since Bell's Theorem lurks in the fog-shrouded country of quantum mechanics, most biologists probably haven't even heard of it. In any event, they would probably think the discovery of the genetic code more profound. Why all the fuss over Bell's Theo-rem? In the laboratory, Bell's Theorem is associated with an admittedly spooky effect: the measurements made on one particle affect the measurements made on a second, far-removed particle. In theory, the second particle could be on the other side of the galaxy, with absolutely no physical connection between the two -- unless you admit to spooky action-at-a -distance forces. (Some over-ly zealous think-tankers have even contemplated applying this effect to long distance, untappable, unjammable communications with submarines!) The article (referenced below) in which this apparent magic is discussed also dwells on another profundity associated with quantum mechanics: does that which is not observed exist? Einstein felt intuitively that it did; and one of his remarks on the subject led to this article's title. Unfortunately for Einstein, all recent laboratory experiments demonstrate that spooky actionat-a -distance forces do exist and that Einstein's intuition was incorrect. (Mermin, N. David; "Is the Moon There When Nobody Looks? Reality and the Quantum Theory," Physics Today, 38: 38, April 1985.) Comment. The laboratory experiments ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 93: May-Jun 1994 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Giant Crystal At The Heart Of The Earth Geophysicists have been forced to consider this possibility because of two anomalies: Seismic waves from earthquakes pass through the earth's core faster when they travel parallel to the earth's axis than when they travel in the plane of the equator. The transit time difference is 2-4 seconds. Apparently, the earth's core is not perfectly spherical or its properties are different in different directions. The natural vibration or "ringing" frequencies of the earth are "split," that is, instead of a series of single "tones" we detect a series of closely paired frequencies. This is symptomatic of a core that is anisotropic; that is, its properties are different in different directions. J. Tromp, of Harvard, may have de-anomalized both sets of observations with a single theory: "For the shape of the core alone to explain the observations, he says, the shape of the inner core would have to be very unrealistic. Instead, he claims that the inner core behaves like a giant asymmetric crystal, aligned with the Earth's axis so that seismic waves travel faster in that direction. Tromp's analysis fits neatly with suggestions that the inner core is made of a high-pressure phase of iron in which the atoms are close-packed in hexagons, because such a 'sigma' phase is anisotropic." But, ...
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... you wonder why mainstream science advised that Sheldrake's book, A New Science of Life , be BURNT! Well, there was a lot of smoke but the theory survives. Nature, in fact, is full of observations, such as parallel evolution, that support the idea of morphic resonance. And in the laboratory, a few brave souls are conducting experiments that seem to confirm the theory more directly. "Using a novel laboratory approach, researchers at Yale University have been able to create a morphogenetic effect after stimulating only 100 subjects. They employed a series of trivial paper-and-pencil tasks (such as "Put an X in any one of the four boxes shown below"). Experimenters tallied how an initial group of 100 students responded to these tasks. Then they forced a second group of 100 students to respond to the tasks in a set manner (" Put an X in the third box below"). Finally, they presented the same tasks to a third group of 100 students, allowing them to complete them, as with the first group, however they wished." Results showed that in one task the third group had been unknowingly influenced by what the second group had been forced to do! This was interpreted as evidence of morphic resonance. (Anonymous; "New Evidence for Morphogenetic Field," Venture Inward , p. 10, September/October 1994.) Comment. There can be no doubt that morphogenetic fields do exist. Ever since they first made the pages of Science Frontiers in 1981 (SF#16), we ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 6: February 1979 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Earth, the magic top The Journal of Physics is a most respectable British scientific publication, but in a recent issue we find an article that would warm the heart of Ignatius Donnelly, to say nothing of Hapgood, Brown, Velikovsky, and more recent catastrophists. Employing a wide span of data from complex top theory to ancient legend, Warlow suggests that the earth has undergone many violent catastrophes, some of them within the time of man. Flood legends, geomagnetic reversals, tektites, paleoclimatology, salinity crises, and other familiar standbys of the catastrophists force P. Warlow to examine the stability of the earth in the presence of astronomical collisions and near-collisions. He shows that the earth rotates slowly and that, even with the stabilizing equatorial bulge, our planet is rather sensitive to outside forces. It is, he says, like a tippe top or magic top; a 8,000-mile-diameter top that turns over repeatedly in response to external influences. Did not the ancient Egyptians write that the sun once rose in the west? Are there not massive faunal extinctions? Have not stray solar-system bodies left scars on all the inner planets? (Warlow, P.; "Geomagnetic Reversals," Journal of Physics,11:2107, 1978.) From Science Frontiers #6 , February 1979 . 1979-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 108: Nov-Dec 1996 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Earthquakes And Mima Mounds In a recent paper in Nature, P.B . Umbanhower et al described how they created regular geometric patterns in a layer of fine particles (only 0.15 mm in diameter) spread on a vibrating surface. At various forcing frequencies, they saw the layer of tiny brass spheres heap up into hexagonal honeycombs, circular piles, and even stranger shapes. (Umbanhower, Paul B., et al; "Localized Excitations in a Vertically Vibrated Granular Layer," Nature, 382: 793, 1996) Comment. Nothing anomalous here, you say? Quite right, but perhaps there is in this experiment an explanation of a long-recognized geological anomaly: The origin of the famed Mima Mounds found scattered by the thousands in various regions of the planet, such as Mima Prairie near Puget Sound, in Washington State. Actually, the demonstration of Umbanhower et al was preceded by a similar experiment back in 1990. In that year, A.W . Berg reported in Geology how he had covered a piece of plywood with a thin layer of fine sand (loess) and subjected the plywood sheet to impacts simulating earthquakes. Lo and behold, the sand rose up in an array of Mima Mound-like heaps. (See: SF#69 and p. 201 in the book Science Frontiers. This book is described here . Umbanhower, a physicist, probably doesn't read Geology ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 114: Nov-Dec 1997 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The world's largest "playa-slider" furrow Most studies of playa sliders (" moving rocks") have been conducted at Racetrack Playa, near Death Valley, California. There one finds good-sized rocks at the ends of long tracks they have made when some force has propelled them across the flat playa surface. What has moved these rocks, some of which weigh 700 pounds? The current consensus holds that wind is the motive force, but that it is inadequate to move the rocks directly. Instead, the wind acts upon sheets of ice in which the rocks are frozen. As these sheets of ice are moved across the playa, the keels of the frozen-in rocks leave those curious trails that have intrigued Forteans for many decades. (SF#109) Playa sliders have also been found at Magdalenasmeer Playa in South Africa, and in Nevada and Tunisia. In a recent issue of Geology Today, C.C . Reeves, Jr., Texas Tech University, adds to the list a playa at Double Lakes, Texas. Of special interest at Double Lakes is not the rocks and other debris blown across the playa but a discarded hotwater tank. It, too, is a playa slider. It first left a trail a few hundred meters long when it was frozen in an ice sheet spigot down, with the spigot furrow quite obvious. The ice sheet then melted, and the tank ...
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... . 99: May-Jun 1995 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Did darwin get it all right?Believe it or not, the above title appeared in Science rather than the Creation Research Society Quarterly. (We never thought we'd see the day!) And right beneath, in large type, is: "The most thorough study yet of species formation in the fossil record confirms that new species appear with a most un-Darwinian abruptness after long periods of stability." In the article that follows, R.A . Kerr reviews several recent studies of fossil bryozoans and snails. Some of these painstaking dissections of the fossil record were carried out by scientists initially committed to Darwinian gradualism. Even these researchers have been forced to acknowledge that much biological evolution proceeds not in minute steps but by large jumps or saltations. Such abrupt speciation is tough enough to explain, but even more daunting are those species untouched by change over millions, even hundreds of millions of years. Indeed, the major characteristic of the fossil record and, therefore, earth life as a whole, has been stasis rather than speciation, despite all manner of asteroid impacts and climatic traumas. Nevertheless, many biologists think that species are somehow frozen in time by environmental forces that keep them from straying from their little niches. This being so, paleontologist D. Jablonski, University of Chicago, asks: If stability is the rule, how do you get large-scale shifts in morphology? How do you get from funny little Mesozoic mammals ...
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... great mass of data collected over many years, deserves to be checked out." While Gauquelin has concentrated on sports champions, he has found similar effects for other vocations. Musicians, for example, have a negative Mars Effect. (Obviously, violinists should not compete in the broad jump!) Scientists are positive with Saturn; actors are positive with Jupiter. And so on. (Gauquelin, Michel; "Is There a Mars Effect?" Journal of Scientific Exploration, 2:29, 1988.) Comment. In the indented quotation above, Abell could not imagine a "mechanism" for the Mars Effect. Yet, Mars and the other planets are drawn to the sun by gravitation, which is just as "mechanismless" as are the other actionat-a -distance forces. We can write an equation for gravitational force, and perhaps because of this and long familiarity, we feel comfortable with gravitation. But is it any less spooky than the Mars Effect? Reference. The "Mars Effect" and related phenomena are covered in BHB27-BHB30 in our catalog: Biological Anomalies: Humans I. Details about this book may be found at: here . From Science Frontiers #61, JAN-FEB 1989 . 1989-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... constructed! However, it now seems that the situation is even worse than chaotic! Some systems, perhaps most systems, are also indeterminate, meaning that we cannot predict their qualitative behavior either. A simple example is the water swirling down the bathtub drain. This is not only chaotic but it has two qualitative final states: clockwise and counterclockwise. Regardless of which hemisphere you are in, you can change the direction of swirl with negligible effort. Each of the two final states of motion is still quanti tatively unpredictable. Systems that are more complex will possess many different final states, all chaotic. Can nature really be fundamentally chaotic as well as qualitatively uncertain? J.C . Sommerer and E. Ott have mathematically examined a relatively simple system consisting of a single particle moving in a force field, experiencing friction, and being periodically jolted. Besides settling into chaotic motion, this particle may also be forced away to infinity -- two radically different final states. The analysis revealed that for any set of initial conditions leading to the first type of behavior, there was an infinite number of slightly different initial conditions that would lead to the second type of behavior. In other words, systems that we have long thought to be deterministic, like the motions of the planets, may be not only chaotic but indeterminate. Since Sommerer and Ott found their indeterminate system easily, we must face the possibility that the future behavior of just about everything is beyond our capability to predict, even with our best instruments and computers. Apparently the universe is built in such a way that exact ...
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... didn't have supercomputers but they were able to incorporate into their theory much more than physics and cosmology. Below, E.G . McClain provides some insight into ancient Sumerian thinking: "In ancient Mesopotania,music, mathematics, art, science, religion, and poetic fantasy were fused. Around 3000 B.C ., the Sumerians simultaneously developed cuneiform writing, in which they recorded their pantheon, and a base-60 number system. Their gods were assigned numbers that encoded the primary ratios of music, with the gods' functions corresponding to their numbers in acoustical theory. Thus the Sumerians created an extensive tonal/arithmetical model for the cosmos. In this far-reaching allegory, the physical world is known by analogy, and the gods give divinity not only to natural forces but also to a 'supernatural,' intuitive understanding of mathematical patterns and psychological forces." To understand the role of musical theory in modeling the cosmos, one must realize that it involves: "the definition of intervals, the distance between pitches, by ratios of integers or counting numbers." For the ancient Sumerians music was a tool that helped them describe the cosmos. (McClain, Ernest G.; "Musical Theory and Ancient Cosmology," The World and I , p. 371, February 1994. Cr. L. Ellenberger) Comment. Five thousand years ago, the Sumerians were (supposedly) just emerging from barbarism. What did they need all this musical and mathematical modeling for? Why did their sophisticated analytical talents evolve at all? They would seem to ...
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... 50 and 600 kilohertz. Its emissions are known as the "auroral kilometric radiation" or AKR. While some of these terrestrial emissions are spontaneous, others are stimulated by Type-III solar radio bursts. The newly discovered Jovian laser operates at hectometric wavelengths and is also triggered by the solar radio bursts. (Calvert, W.; "Triggered Jovian Radio Emissions," Geophysical Research Letters, 12:179, 1985.) Comment. Earth and Jupiter thus act like radio transponders, releasing large bursts in response to small solar stimuli. The role of electricity in the history of the solar system is only beginning to be appreciated. Of course, the radio lasers mentioned above are not very powerful, but what might have occurred during the formative stages of the solar system? Could electromagnetic forces have been more important then than they are now? In this regard, note that electrical forces seem to be strongly involved in the dynamics of Saturn's rings. And Saturn's rings themselves may resemble a miniature solar system in the accretion phase. From Science Frontiers #40, JUL-AUG 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Apr 1984 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Thou canst not stir a flower, without troubling of a star This poetic title from Francis Thompson tries to express the unity of nature from the smallest to the largest realms. One characteristic of the realms even smaller than that of the flower is the quantization typical of the subatomic world -- that is, microscopic nature. At the human locus in the dimensional scheme of things, quantization is difficult to detect outside the physics laboratory. Daniel M. Greenberger, perhaps with the above title in mind, asked whether quantization might not also exist in astronomy and cosmology -- that is, macroscopic nature. He has applied the principles of quantum mechanics to nature in-the-large where gravitational forces are dominant. (Gravitational forces are negligible in the subatomic world.) His math cannot be reproduced here. Suffice it to say that Greenberger has applied his findings to the absorption lines of quasars and the elliptical rings surrounding normal galaxies. Now, quasars and galaxies are far from atomic nuclei, being vast assemblages of diverse matter. Somewhat surprisingly, his equations are successful in predicting some features of these two macroscopic entities. (Greenberger, Daniel M.; "Quantization in the Large," Foundations of Physics, 13:903, 1983.) Comment. At the very least it is mindstretching to find that complex systems with millions of stars may exhibit quantum effects. With some relief, we note that like microscopic quantization effects, the consequences of macroscopic quantization will be hard to ...
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... One theory has it that periodic comet showers have created this regular pulse beat in the history of life. A recent issue of Science presents the results of an analysis of the ups and downs of 20,000 marine genera -- that is, percent extinctions over a period of 600 million years, as revealed by the fossil record. The graph of ten groups of 1000 genera shows at least two things: (1 ) strong hints of periodicity; and (2 ) suggestions that extinctions, whatever they really are, "cut across functional, physiological, and ecological lines." The plotters of these graphs, D. Raup and G. Boyajian, claim that whatever the mechanism, "major pulses of extinction result from geographically pervasive environmental disturbances." What besides powerful, external physical forces (read "comets and asteroids") could affect such wide ranges of marine organisms? (Lewin, Roger; "Pattern and Process in Extinctions," Science, 241:26, 1988.) Comment . This all sounds so reasonable that one must wonder why it is given space in Science Frontier. The reason is that we have a suspicion that it is all too easy, too simplistic. Could something more subtle be at work? After all, we really know next to nothing about the real workings of life-as-a -whole, its ups and downs. It is so easy to say that a group of organisms was done in by a temperature change or the fall of acid rain brought on by the impact of an asteroid. We always look for ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 67: Jan-Feb 1990 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Astronomers up against the "great wall"" For more than a decade now, astronomers have been haunted by a sense that the universe is controlled by forces they don't understand. And now comes a striking confirmation: 'The Great Wall.'" The Great Wall is the largest known structure in the universe at present, having superceded sundry superclusters and clusters of superclusters. The Wall is a "thin" (15 million-light-year) sheet of galaxies 500 million light years long by 200 wide; and it may extend even farther. It is emplaced some 200-300 million light years from earth. It helps outline contiguaous parts of vast "bubbles" of nearly empty space. Both the Wall and the adjacent voids are just too large for current theories to deal with. All popular theories have great difficulties in accounting for such large inhomogeneities. To illustrate an important observable -- the 2.7 K cosmic background radiation -- which is usually described as the afterglow of the Big Bang, ar gues for a very smooth, uniform distribution of galaxies. Great Walls are definitely anomalous. M.J . Geller, codiscoverer of the Great Wall with J.P . Huchra, remarked: "My view is that there is something fundamentally wrong in our approach to understanding such large-scale structure -- some key piece of the puzzle that we're missing." (Waldrop, ...
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... 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 Has the second law been repealed?" From the largest to the smallest scales, the universe is evolving. Matter, in the form of galaxies, is undergoing a colossal expansion. Gas, condensed into stars, is radiating thermonuclear energy out across an infall of matter, drawn by gravity. The simplest of chemical reactions and the most complex of biological activities are occurring on the surface of the earth in a state far from equilibrium; they are heated by the sun and cooled by the vacuum of space. This pervasive cosmic imbalance is the driving force in producing an environment conducive to the formation of structure and complexity." This sweeping statement seems to apply to the entire universe. The Second Law of Thermodynamics, however, insists that, on the average, for the entire universe, the above paragraph cannot be true. The article introduced by this unqualified assertion about the evolution of the universe is really about self-organizing chemical reactions. We classify it under biology because the authors imply that some biological phenomena are self-organizing. The famous Belousov-Zhabotinskii reaction is used as the prime example of chemical self-organization. First, one takes a shallow dish filled with a solution of bromate ions in a highly acidic medium. Here's what happens: "A dish, thinly spread with a lightly colored liquid, sits quietly for a moment after its preparation. The liquid is then suddenly swept by a spontaneous ...
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... 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 Honest, this is the last "plant" item!In the September issue of Scientific American, S.C .H . Barrett presents an excellent review of mimicry in the plant world. All sorts of wondrous mimicry are described, involving form, color, odor, texture and even synchrony of life cycles. Plants mimic insects, stones, other plants, and substrates (backgrounds). Repeatedly, Barrett asserts that all of these remarkable developments are the consequence of small, randome mutations guided by the forces of natural selection. To Barrett, plant mimicry is proof positive that evolution is true. It should not surprise the readers of Science Frontiers that this very same article is a goldmine of biological anomalies, that is, data that seem to challenge ruling paradigms. (Barrett, Spencer C.H .; "Mimicry in Plants," Scientific American, 257:76, September 1987.) Comment. Evolution, like beauty, must be in the eye of the beholder! At this point, we could easily launch into a lengthy harangue about why it seems highly improbable that a plant, through chance mutations, could hit upon just the right combination of form, color, odor, and flowering time to dupe an insect pollinator -- even with the aid of natural selection and a billion years. The point we wish to stress here is that the author of this paper sees the same facts and comes to ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 56: Mar-Apr 1988 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects A WEST COAST MOODUS?Late 1987 to date. Commerce, California. "Something is going bump in the night under the city of Commerce, rattling nerves and household items alike. "' When it goes off, it can shake so badly that you feel it up through your feet and it can collapse your spine.' said David Stacy, a resident. 'Sometimes it would rattle stuff in the house like the earthquake did.' "The underground explosions occur every 10 or 20 minutes, say residents in the area between Gage and Zindell avenues. They say the tremors have been forceful enough to wake them from their sleep, shake windows and knock down pieces of china." The muffled explosions are not accompanied by smoke or luminous phenomena. They may be due only to the subsidence of traffic noise. (Chong, Linda: "Commerce Becomes Reluctant Boom Town," Los Angeles Herald Examiner, January 17, 1988. Cr. K.H . Taylor) Comment. Will Californians let us know more about these subterranean sounds? They resemble the famous Moodus Sounds in Connecticut, which are thought to be of seismic origin. See Category GSD2 in Earthquakes, Tides, Unidentified Sounds. For ordering information on this book, visit: here . From Science Frontiers #56, MAR-APR 1988 . 1988-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 56: Mar-Apr 1988 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The new holism -- but is it whole enough?In the short space of two weeks, the New Scientist printed two articles that confront the obvious complexity of nature. Not only is this complexity persistent under the attack of the Second Law of Thermodynamics, but it seems to actually increase with time. Do formative or guiding principles exist that science does not take into account? The two articles have very different answers. The creative cosmos. "Most people accept without question that the physical world is coherent and harmonious. Yet according to the traditional scientific picture, the Universe is just a random collection of particles with blind forces acting upon them. There is, then a deep mystery as to how a seemingly directionless assembly of passive entities conspire to produce the elaborate structure and complex organisation found in nature." The author of this introductory paragraph, P. Davies, asks, as we all do, "What is the origin of this creative power?" In groping for an answer, he presents first a common example of "blind" organization: the hexagonal convection cells in a pan of heated water. Using for a stepping stone the cooperative action of atoms in a laser, he leaps to the development of an embryo from a single strand of DNA! All such systems are "open"; that is, energy can flow in and out. They are also nonlinear, which means that chaotic, unpredictable action ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 31: Jan-Feb 1984 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Sun As A Scientific Instrument In connection with the preceding item on solar oscillations and asymmetry, a few brave astrophysicists are now proposing that one mode of solar oscillation (the 160-minute period) is really a manifestation of the sun "ringing" in response to gravity waves sweeping through it! A nearby binary star, Geminga, has a period of this length. It seems that the 160-minute oscillation of the sun is far too long to be a solar pressure wave, and external forces could conceivably be involved. This article also mentions "the throbbing earth" reported in SF#30, an effect which may result from gravitational waves emanating from the center of our galaxy. (Walgate, Robert; "Gravitational Waves on the Sun?" Nature, 305:665, 1983.) From Science Frontiers #31, JAN-FEB 1984 . 1984-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 31: Jan-Feb 1984 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Cancer Even More Insidious A recent advance in cancer research has been the discovery that the development of some cancers is initiated by oncogenes -- genes which have been "switched on" by biological or environmental forces. That humans and other organisms harbor such Trojan Horses is unsettling enough, but it now seems that the development of cancer may require the stepwise cooperation of several different oncogenes. In other words, one oncogene controls the action of another and so on in cascade until the cancer is finally initiated. (Marx, Jean L.; "Cooperation between Oncogenes," Science, 222:602, 1983.) Comment. How and why would such a complex mechanism, without obvious short-term survival value, ever have developed? See "Cancer: The Price for Higher Life," in SF#30. Reference. More on the insidiousness of cancer and related anomalies, see BHH2335 in our Catalog: Biological Anomalies: Humans II. To order, visit: here . From Science Frontiers #31, JAN-FEB 1984 . 1984-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 80: Mar-Apr 1992 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects More evidence for galactic "shells" or "something else"Measurements of periodic red-shift bunching appeared in the literature at least as far back as 1977 in the work of W.G . Tifft. The implications of this phenomenon are apparently too terrible to contemplate, for astrophysicists have not taken up the challenge. They may be forced to take the phenomenon more seriously, because two new reports of redshift bunching have surfaced. First, B. Guthrie and W, Napier, at Edinburgh's Royal Observatory, have checked Tifft's "bunching" claim using accurately known red shifts of some nearby galaxies. They found a periodicity of 37.5 kilometers/second -- no matter in which direction the galaxies lay. (Gribbin, John; "' Bunched' Red Shifts Question Cosmology," New Scientist, p. 10, December 21/28, 1991.) The work of Guthrie and Napier is elaborated upon in the next item. Sec ond, B. Koo and R. Krone, at the University of Chicago, using optical red-shift measurements, discovered that, in one direction at least , "the clusters of galaxies, each containing hundreds of millions of stars, seemed to be concentrated in evenly spaced layers." (Browne, Malcolm W.; "In Chile, GalaxyWatching Robot Seeks Measure of Universe," New York Times, December 17, 1991. Cr. ...
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... 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 Subterranean life! (part 3)We almost forgot this recent tidbit from Science News that mentions microscopic life forms: "In recent years, scientists have found bacteria, as far down as 1,150 feet, in wells that penetrate deeply buried aquifers -- porous layers of rock that hold underground water. Such finds have forced hydrologists to question their traditional belief that deep aquifers were devoid of life. But it was not clear whether these bacteria were native residents of the aquifers or just contaminants from the world above, living solely within the wells. Moreover, no one had established how the bacteria were affecting the environment, if at all." Experiments have now shown that these subterranean bacteria are indigenous and are important to groundwater chem istry. The bacteria feed on organic molecules and display a curious propensity for metabolizing the carbon-13 isotope rather than carbon-12. Thus, carbon dissolved in some deep aquifer water is enriched in carbon-13 compared to surface water. None of the bacteria found so far seems dangerous to humans. (Monastersky, R.; "Bacteria Alive and Thriving at Depth," Science News, 133: 149, 1988.) Comment. Subterranean bacteria may be associated with the creation of oil and natural gas. From Science Frontiers #57, MAY-JUN 1988 . 1988-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 5: November 1978 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Fire-walking: anyone can do it San Pedro Manrique, Spain, 1969, the annual fire-walking ceremony. Arriving too late for the official ceremony, the author and his friends find a bed of coals too hot to stand near. Two members of a French TV crew remaining behind walk across the coals with no adverse effects. A Spanish companion does, too. Thus encouraged, the American takes off his shoes. He is advised: Make sure your feet are brushed free of grass and twigs; Place your feet firmly and with force; and Never hesitate, keep moving. The author walked across the coals without the slightest hint of burning. It was, he states, a "spiritual experience!" (McElroy, John Harmon; "Fire-Walking," Folklore, 89:113, 1978.) From Science Frontiers #5 , November 1978 . 1978-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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