511 results found.
... Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects A Continent Lost In The Pacific Ocean Our title is also the English title of a book published recently in Japan. The subtitle quoted below implies that we are not discussing the supposed lost continent of Mu. "Riddle of the Submarine Ruins in the Ryukyu Islands" Rather, the underwater site is that introduced in SF#118 and located southwest of Okinawa. It is hardly the size of a continent. The book's author is Masaaki Kimura, and he has filled his book with stunning underwater photographs and diagrams of this "lost continent." Unfortunately, except for a Contents page, which is in English, the rest of the book is in Japanese. We'll have to settle for the Contents page, which is rather revealing. Human Beings under the Sea The Submarine Ruins Discovered Were the Ryukyu Islands a Continent? Discovery of a Civilization Lost in the Sea An Ancient Civilization in Southernmost Japan A Continent Lost in the Pacific Ocean Submersion of the Land and Tectonics of the Earth Hypotheses for the Land Lost in the Pacific Ocean A Utopia Sunk in the Pacific Ocean Pretty inflammatory stuff, so much so that we must be wary indeed! One of the drawings in our photocopy is good enough to reproduce here. The immediate impression, as with many of the underwater photographs, is that surely this structure is artificial. But we must remember that Nature has her playful moods and has deposited simulacra everywhere, perhaps even on Mars, certainly with the Grand Tetons! (Kimura, Masaaki; A Continent Lost in the Pacific , all ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 121: Jan-Feb 1999 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Is intelligence a deadly pathogen?A recent letter in Nature reinforces our comment in SF#120 concerning the threat humans pose to the workings of Gaia. (The Gaia Hypothesis asserts that the biosphere acts in ways that maintain environmental conditions favorable to the existence of life.) In his letter, A. Longhurst wonders whether the earth's biosphere acting as a whole -- Gaiafashion -- may have erred in creating an environment conducive to the evolution of intelligence. It is is not clear, he says, that the sentient part of the biosphere (meaning "us") can develop enough self-control to reverse global warming, pollution, etc. He concludes as follows: "In short, is intelligence a pathogen to which the biosphere can adjust, or is it terminal? Perhaps it is as well that we cannot yet observe other habitable planets, to discover what became of their sentient life." (Longhurst, Alan; "Too Intelligent for Our Own Good," Nature, 395:9 , 1998.) From Science Frontiers #121, JAN-FEB 1999 . 1999-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 68: Mar-Apr 1990 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Higher Sight In the January 4, 1990, issue of Nature, G. Humphreys reviews a book that is just too expensive for us to consider buying. The title is: Synesthesia; A Union of the Senses . It costs $75 and is published by Springer/Verlag. The review, however, is expansive and provides some facts about synesthesia worth passing on to our readers. Syesthesia is an "oddity" of human perception in which words, musical instruments, objects, concepts, evoke sensations sharply different from what is actually being processed by the brain. For example, specific musical tones elicit specific color sensations; that is, B-flat evokes the color green; A-sharp, yellow, etc. Or the phenomenon may be more complex, with Mozart being green; Wagner, red, etc. Most "synesthetites" seem to experience colors, but geometrical figures sometimes appear in response to particular stimuli. As for the stimuli that call forth these exotic sensations; they are usually music or numbers. To some synesthetites, the cardinal numbers are associated with specific colors. The books's author is R.E . Cytowic, and he has provided some very interesting observations about synesthetites: There is much consistency among them; that is, if the number 5 evokes a red sensation with one, it does with most others, too. Also, synesthetites seem to run in families. Perhaps most ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 122: Mar-Apr 1999 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology The mosier mounds El nino -- bueno? The black pyramids Astronomy Our lucky star Ghost galaxies Is a singularity worse than a spinning cosmos? Biology Are we running on martian time? Another skin shedder A GENETIC DISCONNECT Another sucker Geology The earth hums more loudly in the afternoons Geophysics Bizarre phsiological effects of lightning Unusual wave Psychology Exceptional human experiences A FEW POTENTIAL EHEs Unclassified A REALLY MEANINGFUL COINCIDENCE Ach du lieber himmel Now we know why! ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 122: Mar-Apr 1999 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Are We Running On Martian Time?It is really very curious. In the absence of all external time cues, the human body slowly shifts its internal clock from earth time (24-hour days) to Martian time (24.9 -hour days). Could we all have been Martians in the deep, distant past? This thought was triggered by the recent surmises that earth life might have originated on Mars and been brought here by an immigrant meteorite. (Packard, Gabriel; "Martian Day," New Scientist, p. 54, October 10, 1998.) From Science Frontiers #122, MAR-APR 1999 . 1999-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 95: Sep-Oct 1994 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The urge to replicate: part ii In an earlier issue (SF#46), we related how the morphology of the megabats (the "flying foxes") displays primate overtones. The very idea that bats of any kind could be closely related to humans and apes was quickly dismissed by most zoologists. Flying mammals -- the bats -- evolved only once according to mainstream theory; later the Order Chiroptera (" hand-wings") split into the small, mainly insect-eating microbats and the large, fruit-eating megabats. It was all pretty obvious; how could such complex, specialized animals have evolved twice? But in Science Frontiers, there is ever the "however": "Arnd Schreiber, Doris Erker and Klausdieter Bauer of the University of Heidelberg have looked at the proteins in the blood serum of megabats and primates and found enough in common to suggest a close taxonomic relationship between the two groups. (Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 51:359)" An explanation might be that the similarities between the microbats and megabats represent adaptations to similar environmental niches rather than a common ancestry. (Timson, John; "Did Bats Evolve Twice in History?" New Scientist, p. 16, June 4, 1994.) Comment. Does the black box labelled EVOLUTION contain a special subprogram for converting hands into membaneous wings whenever it seems profitable to do so? Or are we ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 96: Nov-Dec 1994 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Underwater Thumps "Scientists based on the central California coast are trying to identify the origin of a mysterious underwater sound that disturbed surfers and divers for three weeks -- and then just as mysteriously disappeared. "The sound, made up of thumps occurring at 10-second intervals, was compared by one diver to five or six giant bongo drums going off simultaneously. Most experts have concluded that it was of human origin." As usual in such cases, no governmental or military sources knew anything about the thumps. (Shurkin, Joel N.; "Underwater Thumps Baffle Ocean Scientists," Nature, 371: 274, 1994.) From Science Frontiers #96, NOV-DEC 1994 . 1994-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 96: Nov-Dec 1994 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The 536 ad dust-veil event Circa 536 AD, our planet suffered a great geophysical calamity, as proved in tree-ring measurements and human records of the period. Until astronomical catastrophism became more fashionable in recent years, the so-called "dust-veil" event of 536 AD was blamed on a huge volcanic eruption. Work by M.G .L . Baillie now casts doubt upon interpretation. "Now tree-ring data, published by Professor Mike Baillie of Queens University of Belfast, has brought catastrophes almost into modern times. The tree rings show that in the mid 530s -- just about the time civilisation on Earth suffered a sharp setback -- there was a sudden decline in the rate of tree growth which lasted about 15 years. Clearly, something dramatic had happened. "There are two possibilities: a huge volcanic eruption or a collision between the Earth and a solid object: an asteroid or comet. Ice-cores drilled from Greenland show no evidence of large-scale volcanic activity at that time, so Professor Baillie and others now believe a cosmic impact is more likely. The result would have been to throw up a huge veil of dust and debris, cooling the Earth and producing widespread crop failures." (Anonymous; "Raining Death and Dark Ages," London Times, July 27, 1994. Cr. A. Rothovius) In the scientific literature, Baillie has elaborated ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 60: Nov-Dec 1988 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects A NEW FACE ON MARS?The face on Mars does not seem to go away! Could it, after all, really be artificial? M. Carlotto, writing in Applied Optics, presents the results of his analysis of the photos of this engimatic "face." "The image enhancement results indicate that a second eye socket may be present on the right, shadowed side of the face; fine structure in the mouth suggests teeth are apparent." "Teeth?" This Martian face is becoming too human-like to be an accident of nature! Carlotto also tersely summarizes his impression of the face's features. ". .. results to date suggest that they may not be natural." (Hecht, Jeff; "Computer Does a Double-Take on the Face of Mars," New Scientist, p. 39, July 7, 1988. Also see: Applied Optics, 27:1926, 1988.) In a more light-hearted manner, P. Jones asserts that a second Martian face exists, and that somehow scientists have managed to keep it under wraps. A photo of the second face appears in the August 25, 1988, issue of New Scientist. Jones remarks on the second face as follows: "If faces are what you are looking for, it's reasonably convincing, perhaps more convincing than its better-known sibling. It has symmetry, two eyes ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 60: Nov-Dec 1988 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Mysterious Stone Rings After worrying so much above about possible scientific blunders, it is pleasant to relax with a minor geological (perhaps "archeological") anomaly. In Green Ridge State Forest, in Western Maryland, are found 150-200 annular piles of sandstone rocks. All lie on the western slope of Polish Mountain. No one seems to have a good explanation of their origin. Archeological digs have not unearthed any human artifacts. From a photograph of one ring, we estimate an outer diameter of 15 feet, and an inner hole 5 feet in diameter. The height of the rock ring is perhaps 2 feet. The sandstone rocks are generally slab-like. A popular theory states that the rocks were piled up to protect apple trees. (Anonymous; "Rings of Stone Pose Mystery in Md.," Washington Post, June 26, 1988. Cr. J. Judge.) Comment. We have classified this item under GEOLOGY because these rings could be periglacial phenomena; that is akin to patterned ground. Periglacial structures are occasionally found in the Appalachians. From Science Frontiers #60, NOV-DEC 1988 . 1988-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 10: Spring 1980 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects A SUN-AND-SPIRAL CLOCK The astronomical sophistication of ancient humans becomes more obvious each year. A novel method of keeping track of the seasons has been discovered on an isolated butte in New Mexico. Here, the Anasazi, who occupied Chaco Canyon between 400 and 1,300 A.D ., carved spiral petroglyphs into the face of a cliff. Then, they arranged stone slabs so that sharp slivers of sunlight fell on the spirals. The precise position of the sliver of light depends of course upon the location of the sun. The solstices and equinoxes are registered by unique configurations of light slivers and spirals. In contrast to other calendar sites, which rely upon the rising and setting points of sun on the horizon, the New Mexico clock depends upon the altitude of the sun at midday. Slivers of moonlight on the spirals also seem to have astronomical significance. (Sofaer, Anna, et al; "A Unique Solar Marking Construct," Science, 206:283, 1979.) Reference. Our Handbook Ancient Man contains much additional material on archeoastronomy. For a description of this large volume, go to: here . From Science Frontiers #10, Spring 1980 . 1980-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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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 The Ancient Dispersal Of Useful Plants George F. Carter, a noted geographer, summarizes the botanical evidence for early transoceanic voyages. Domestic cotton. Thousands of years old in the Americas; believed to be a hybrid between New World wild cotton and species from southwest Africa. Bottle gourds. Of African origin but known in Peru about 11,000 years ago; dispersible by ocean currents but appeared in Peru only after humans learned how to navigate on the oceans. Sweet potatoes. A New World plant that has been known in Polynesia for at least 500 years; but the South American name for the sweet potato (kumara) turns out to be a Sanskrit word from India, which is most perplexing. Coconuts. Arrived in the Americas from the Indian Ocean region via Polynesia; can be dispersed by ocean currents, but this long eastward voyage would have been counter to many currents. Peanuts. Well-established on the Peruvian coast thousands of years ago, but the same variety was known in preShang China before 1500 BC. (Carter, George F.; "Kilmer's Law: Plant Evidence of Early Voyages," Oceans, 12:8 , 1979.) Reference. Our Handbook Ancient Man contains much more evidence for Precolumbian contacts with the New World. Information on this large volume is located at: here . From Science Frontiers #9 , Winter 1979 . 1979-2000 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 Mammoth Fraud In Science The Holly Oak pendant, shown in the accompanying sketch, reveals a mammoth incised on a piece of seashell. Said to have been discovered in 1864 at a Delaware archeological site, it has been employed to "prove" two different theories: That humans were in North America as the Ice Ages waned and when mammoths still roamed the continent; and The the mammoth survived in North America well into the Christian era. In an article in American Antiquity, J.B . Griffin et al marshall considerable evidence implying that the Holly Oak pendant is a fraud. Much of this contrary evidence seems weak: The discoverer of the pendant, H.Y . Cresson, was not highly regarded in American archeological circles of the time; The pendant was not taken seriously by other archeologists; The drawing of the mammoth "looks like" it was copied from an accepted European engraved tusk; and The shell from which the Holly Oak pendant was made "looks like" shells found in other archeological sites with more recent dates; and so on. The only "hard" evidence that the pendant is a fake comes from radiocarbon dating, which suggests that the shell is only 1530 110 years old. The authors state that since mammoths positively did not survive that recently, the pendant must be a fraud. Griffin et al thus dump the Holly Oak oendant into the archeological wastebasket of "proven" frauds. This ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 126: Nov-Dec 1999 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Vegetable Connection Within the human brain, probably quite close to the number module, there must be a "vegetable module"; that is, a few brain cells that recognize and process information about vegetables. Furthermore, there must be cross-talk between the vegetable and number modules. This is obvious from the following query posted in New Scientist. "Why is it that when you repeatedly ask someone addition problems that all add up to six (such as two plus four, one plus five) for a number of minutes and then ask them to think of a vegetable, 90 per cent of people will say "carrot"? "The person you are asking must have no knowledge of what you are asking them or why. The questions should be asked rapidly, encouraging the person answering to answer them quickly with little thought." (Versteegen, Adam; "Carrot Brains," New Scientist, p. 97, Jule 24, 1999.) From Science Frontiers #126, NOV-DEC 1999 . 1999-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 96: Nov-Dec 1994 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Close Encounters With Unknown Missiles In addition to all those alien-controlled UFOs in terrestrial airspace, human pilots sometimes encounter bizarre missiles or objects of enigmatic origin. C. Svahn and A. Liljegren have collected several intriguing cases. Here follows the so-called "Britannia Encounter": "A few weeks later, on July 15 [1991], another Britannia Airways Boeing 737 on a holiday flight from Crete to Gatwick (London) had a similar encounter, this one at 5:45 p.m . Descending 15,000 feet, the copilot caught sight of a "small black lozenge-shaped object" some 500 meters ahead and above. The object was on a collision course, and within two seconds it passed the aircraft's wing at a distance of only 100 meters at less than 10 meters above the wing. The crew felt no impact or wake, and the passengers were not alerted. The pilot assessed the risk of collision as high. When reported to London Air Traffic Control Center, the missile was picked up on radar moving away from the aircraft. It was moving at 100 mph in a southeasterly direction and was no known traffic since it had no transponder to identify it. Another aircraft was warned since the unknown target appeared to turn and head toward it, but the other aircraft saw nothing. The radar target, however, may have been a helicopter at a lower altitude. " ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 40: Jul-Aug 1985 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Circadian Rhythms And Chemotherapy The toxicities of many commonly used anticancer drugs depend upon when they are administered during the day. This phenomenon occurs in humans and other animals. The effect is not trivial but "profound." (Hrushesky, W.J .M .; "Circadian Timing of Chemotherapy," Science, 228:73, 1985.) Comment. This "profound" effect should, by extrapolation, also apply to drug potency, the workings of the immune system, and all biochemical reactions. The location of and reason for the circadian clock are matters of conjecture. From Science Frontiers #40, JUL-AUG 1985 . 1985-2000 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 Synchronous Rhythmic Flashing Of Fireflies We humans are pretty smug about our ability to communicate complex messages via sound waves. Of course, we recognize that whales and other cetaceans also seem to "talk" to one another, and that other animals employ their sense of smell for relaying messages. But most of us do not realize that lowly fireflies congregate to communicate en masse, with untold thousands of individuals cooperating in huge synchronized light displays. In reading some of the descriptions of these great natural phenomena, one recalls the light displays used to communicate with the aliens in the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind . J. Buck has been studying flashing fireflies for over half a century. In fact, his first review paper was published in 1938. Buck has now brought that paper up to date in the current Quarterly Review of Biology with a 24page contribution. It is difficult to do justice to this impressive work in a newsletter. Our readers will have to be satisfied with a mere two paragraphs, in which Buck summarizes some of the incredible synchronies. "More than three centuries later Porter observed a very different behavior in far southwestern Indiana in which, from the ends of a long row of tall riverbank trees, synchronized flashes '. .. began moving toward each other, met at the middle, crossed and traveled to the ends, as when two pebbles are dropped simultaneously into the ends of a long narrow tank of water ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 40: Jul-Aug 1985 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Glitch in the evolution of funnelweb spider venom?The Australian funnelweb spider has a venom that appears to be effective only against humans, monkeys, baby rats, and fruit flies. None of these animals is normally on the spider's menu; those prey that are seem unaffected by the venom. Did the evolution of the poison miss its intended targets or did the spider's usual prey evolve resistance? It is interesting that mature rats are immune to the venom, although neonatal rats are not. (Anonymous; "Did You Know?" Ex Ni hilo, 7:16, no. 3, 1985.) Facts taken from The Australian Doctor, January 20, 1984.) From Science Frontiers #40, JUL-AUG 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 127: Jan-Feb 2000 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Some Funny Things Happened On The Way Around The World Weird things happen in the weightlessness of an orbiting spacecraft. In the many videos shot aboard the Space Shuttle s, we are treated to tools, even gently oscillating globules of water, floating aimlessly in midair. Even stranger are the effects of microgravity on humans and other life forms. Astronauts, for example, when they first arrive in orbit, sometimes perceive their world to be upside-down regardless of their orientation. Their nervous systems were apparently thrown for a loop when the force of gravity was cancelled out. These illusions disappear later in the mission. Speaking of loops, consider the medaka. This fish is the only vertebrate to have mated and laid eggs that developed into offspring in microgravity. Said offspring are doomed to lives of somersaulting swimming. (Wassersug, Richard J.; "Life without Gravity," Nature, 401:758, 1999.) Comment. Could there be a connection to the nervous affliction of tumbler pigeons? See BBB8 in Biological Anomalies: Birds. From Science Frontiers #127, JAN-FEB 2000 . 1997 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 99: May-Jun 1995 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology The inscribed bricks of comalcalco Ancient modern life and carbon dating Traces of the southern flotilla Astronomy Where have all the black holes gone? Ltps and ets Biology Curious brain asymmetries Did darwin get it all right? When scents make no sense Biological precursors of the 1995 kobe earthquake Geology Ballistic panspermia Geophysics Warning cars rolling uphill ahead 90-DAY SEA-LEVEL OSCILLATION AT WAKE ISLAND Luminous precursors of the 1995 kobe earthquake Psychology The untapped human mind Physics Why does spaghetti break into three pieces instead of two? ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 84: Nov-Dec 1992 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects THE WOMAN WHO COULDN'T DESCRIBE ANIMALS The astounding complexity of the human brain was underscored recently by a 70-year-old woman, who could describe anything she saw except animals. The woman had an immune-system disorder that had damaged a small portion of her brain's temporal lobe. Her other mental faculties were intact. "The woman could name plants, foods, and inanimate objects and describe them without hesitation. The scientists were impressed that when shown a trellis, not exactly your everyday object, she could correctly name it and describe its cross-hatched geometry. "But when shown a squirrel or a dog, she froze. She couldn't find the right name for either, nor could she describe their size or shape or furry coats. "Her deficit, involving only a tiny portion of her language skills, was amazingly narrow." (Bor, Jonathan; "The Woman Who Couldn't Describe Animals," Baltimore Sun, p. A1, September 7, 1992.) The implications of this strange case were described in Science News: "The peculiar inability of a 70-yearold woman to name animals has led scientists to propose that the brain harbors separate knowledge systems, one visual, the other verbal or language-based, for different categories of living and inanimate things, such as animals and household objects." (Bower, B.; "Clues to ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 100: Jul-Aug 1995 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Microbes threaten radiocarbon dating Astronomy Has jupiter flashed before? A POT POURRI OF MARTIAN CUSIOSITIES (AND WE DON'T MEAN "FACES" AND "PYRAMIDS") Biology Anomalous larvae and the burning of heretics When humans were an endangered species Straight from the horse's ear The watchmaker is not blind after all! Geology Weird icicles Giant sea-bed pockmarks Geophysics Anomalous phenomena associated with the 1908 tunguska event How can the moon affect the earth's temperature? Kobe quake jostles the geo- magnetic field Superhail Physics When different universes rub together Another starchy anomaly Unclassified Unidentified object ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 36: Nov-Dec 1984 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Evolution Of Man And Malaria Malarial parasites are customarily classified according to the species infected and then further subdivided by morphology and biological characteristics. The two assumptions implicit in this classification procedure, which is supposed to mirror actual historical evolution, are: Malarial parasites evolved in parallel with their hosts; and Morphology is a measure of evolutionary relatedness. With modern biochemical techniques it is possible to test these assumptions by comparing the DNA structures of the different malarial parasites. P. falcipa rum, the parasite transmitting the most deadly human malaria, turns out to be more closely related to rodent and avian malaria than the other primate malarias. Therefore, assumption #1 above is in correct in this view. Assumption #2 is also wrong because some species of malaria parasites which are very similar morphologically are quite different DNAwise. (McCutchan, Thomas F., et al; "Evolutionary Relatedness of Plasmodium Species as Determined by the Structure of DNA," Science, 225:808, 1984.) Comment. The article does not draw attention to still another assumption; namely, that similarities are measures of evolutionary relatedness. If this as sumption isn't correct, evolutionary family trees based on bodily structure, which means most of the family trees in the textbooks, may not truly reflect what really happened in the development of life. Further, if malarial parasites did evolve along with their hosts, hu man evolution seems farther removed from the evolution ...
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... Geology Geophysics Mathematics Psychology Physics Catalog of Anomalies (Subjects)Overview Astronomy Biology Chemistry/Physics Geology Geophysics Logic/mathemitics Archeology Psychology Miscellaneous phenomena Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online Science Frontiers: The Book Sourcebook Project Catalog of Anomalies (Subjects)Entries in the Sourcebook Project's Catalog of Anomalies are divided into the following nine "fields". (Click on the links to display the full list of subjects) ASTRONOMY (A ) BIOLOGY (B ) CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS (C ) GEOLOGY (E ) GEOPHYSICS (G ) LOGIC AND MATHEMATICS (L ) ARCHEOLOGY (M ) PSYCHOLOGY (P ) MISCELLANEOUS PHENOMENA (X ) Within each of these fields, catalog sections that are already in print are given alphanumerical labels. For example, BHB1 = B (Biology)+ H (Humans)+ B (Behavior)+ 1 (first anomaly in Chapter BHB). Some anomalies and curiosities that are listed below have not yet been cataloged and published in catalog format. These do not have the alphanumerical labels. Only the file descriptors are given in these cases. Three fields (C , L, X) are represented by extensive files but are not yet thoroughly organized and posted. Alphanumerical labels in brackets are cross references indicating possible overlapping files. The Catalog is always in a state of flux, with fresh material being added constantly. New Catalog volumes are published at the rate of about one per year. Eighteen volumes are now in print, with a final total of about 32 volumes planned. Full details here. Other Sites of Interest SIS . Catastrophism, archaeoastronomy ...
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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 Geomagnetic Activity Related To Mental Activity "Several recent reports have indicated significant relations between extrasensory perception (ESP) experiences and performances and the Earth's geomagnetic field (GMF) activity. ESP experiences are reported more frequently, and accuracy of laboratory ESP is more accurate, on days of relatively quiet GMF activity. On the other hand, there are indications that a complementary paranormal process, psychokinesis, may be enhanced by high GMF activity. We conducted retrospective analyses of possible relations between GMF activity and (a ) electrodermal activity (as an index of sympathetic autonomic activity), (b ) rate of hemolysis of human red blood cells in, (c ) attempted distant mental (i .e ., psychokinetic) influence of electrodermal activity, and (d ) attempted distant mental (psychokinetic) influence of rate of hemolysis. For each of these four measures, high activity was associated with high GMF values, while low activity was associated with low GMF values. The relations were statistically significant for three of the four analyses and showed a consistent trend in the fourth." (Braud, William G., and Dennis, Stephen P.; "Geophysical Variables and Behavior; LVIII. Autonomic Activity, Hemolysis, and Biological Psychokinesis: Possible Relationships with Geomagnetic Field Activity," Perceptual and Motor Skill , 68:1243, 1989.) From Science Frontiers #67, JAN-FEB 1990 . 1990-2000 William R ...
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... JUN 2000 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects nnnbbbbbvccccccxzzzzzcvbn,;/////ppooo If you found the above message on your home-PC screen after returning with a cup of coffee, you have a cybercatastrophe on your hands. A feline friend has just ambled across your keyboard. In a worst-case scenario, cat curiosity may have caused your computer to crash. It is urgent and imperative that you install a program called "PawSense" that can detect pawprints -- and -- block further inputs. PawSense will also post the message: "Cat-Like Typing Detected." It will in addition generate sounds known to be very annoying to cats. You can regain control of events by typing the word "human." Sure, this is all pretty funny, but just how does a computer distinguish between paw-generated input and the gibberish present in e-mail addresses and the like? The rationale behind PawSense recognizes that cat paws are so broad that they actuate groups of adjacent keys simultaneously. (Mirsky, Steve; "C -A -T -T -T -T -T -T -T ," Scientific American, 282:26, March 2000.) Comment. Please note that we have refrained -- with some difficulty -- from introducing "cat-and-mouse" humor! From Science Frontiers #129, MAY-JUNE 2000 . 2000 William R. Corliss Other Sites of Interest SIS . Catastrophism, archaeoastronomy, ancient history, mythology and astronomy ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 130: Jul-Aug 2000 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Still Another East-Coast Pre-Clovis Dig There are More Pyramids in Sudan than All of Egypt Astronomy Anomalous High Altitude Luminosity (AHAL) Biogenic Magnetite in ALH84001 The Drifters Biology Attention, Pupils! Has Human Evolution Been Directed by Bacteria? The Midi-Chlorians are with Us ! Geology Baikal: The Inland Ocean Bog Breath Geophysics The Saguenay Earthquake Lights Hailstorms as Imaginative Sculptors Psychology Epiphanies as Vascular Anomalies! Physics Two Wrong-Way Phenomena! Unclassified A Magic Square with a Magic Product The Wimpatch ...
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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 Mystery Signals Beam From Space A report from the annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society. Over the past fourteen months, a radio telescope in Puerto Rico has analyzed over 30 billion signals, as it kept its 1,000-foot metallic ear cocked for messages wafting in from out space. Of this large number, only 164 signals cannot be explained either in terms of natural phenomena or human causes. Since some of these 164 signal sources are fixed in the same locations in the sky, they just might mean that "something" is trying to get our attention, or the attention of "something else" more intelligent than ourselves! (Anonymous; "Mystery Signals Beam from Space," Baltimore Sun, p. 2A, June 9, 1993.) From Science Frontiers #88, JUL-AUG 1993 . 1993-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 82: Jul-Aug 1992 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology A CONNECTICUT SOUTERRAIN? Did the ancient egyptians sail up the mississippi Perhaps they even reached oklahoma! Astronomy The phobos mystery object Warm, wet, fertile mars Big-bang brouhaha Biology The humongous organism contest! For some, sex = death Efficacy of homeopathy Even today natural selection is molding human populations Can you guess where this quotation comes from? Geology Did a half million meteors fall on the carolinas Geophysics An unusually complex marine light Fluid injection causes luminous phenomena Crop circle found inside a fenced compound in japan Chemistry and Physics Japanese claim generates new heat Does nature compute? ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 102: Nov-Dec 1995 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Huge fireball explosion in 1994 This remarkable event was mentioned by C. Keay in his review of D. Steel's book Rogue Asteroids and Doomsday Comets . It seems to have escaped or been ignored by the scientific press. We quote from Steel's book, in which he complains that such events get little publicity despite their ominous implications for the future of humanity. "It is therefore not surprising that the 10-meter-or-so asteroid that blew up over a largely vacant area of the western Pacific on February 1, 1994, producing an explosion equivalent to at least ten times that of the Hiroshima bomb (and possibly rather more), was not seen prior to impact. Surveillance satellites registered it as the brightest such explosion that they have picked up so far. Despite the efforts of numerous scientists in this area of study to make the military aware that such detonations do occur naturally, it appears that the U.S . President was awakened because the Pentagon thought that this incident might be a hostile nuclear explosion." From Science Frontiers #102 Nov-Dec 1995 . 1995-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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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 300,000-YEAR-OLD SITE IN BRAZIL "Central, Brazil -- Archaeologists excavating a cave in Brazil's remote northeastern backlands say that they have found evidence that man has lived in the New World for at least 300,000 years. "If confirmed, it would be the first proof of pre-Neanderthal man in the Americas and a severe blow to current theories that the first humans came here from Asia during the last Ice Age, only about 35,000 years ago. "The scientists also report that they have discovered what may be the world's oldest astronomical observatory. .. .. . "The signs of man were found in a cave called Toca da Esperanca (Grotto of Hope), deep in the black limestone cliffs of the Serra Negra mountains, 1,100 miles northeast of Rio de Janeiro. "The site caught the interest of the scientific community after archaeologist Maria Beltrao reported finding a stone implement and the cut bones of an extinct species of horse in the dig last year. "The bones were so old that they could not be dated by carbon-14, which can measure about 40,000 years. The Weak Radiation Laboratory in France tested them by a more sensitive uraniumthorium method, and came back with a staggering date of 300,000 years. .. .. . "A cave called Grotto of the Cosmos at nearby Xique-Xique contained ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 131: SEP-OCT 2000 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Beware of Rapidly Ascending Armadillos After watching armadillos awkwardly snuffling for tidbits, one might conclude that these "little armored ones" are not too bright and certainly no threat to humans. But armadillos possess a remarkable defense mechanism you should be aware of. Not all of them curl up into tight, nigh-impenetrable balls when threatened as the field guides promise us. Instead, some suddenly jump straight up -- as much as 8 feet high! Woe be to anyone hovering over armadillos favoring this type of defense. Broken noses, loosened teeth, and black eyes have been inflicted by these armored projectiles. Another unexpected habit of the armadillo is its crossing of small streams by walking along the bottom underwater. It can swim if necessary and gains buoyancy by filling its intestines with air. (From Biological Anomalies: Mammals I ) (White, Robb; "Armadillos, and Dangerous," Natural History, 109:86, July-August 2000.) From Science Frontiers #131, SEP-OCT 2000 . 2000 William R. Corliss Other Sites of Interest SIS . Catastrophism, archaeoastronomy, ancient history, mythology and astronomy. Lobster . The journal of intelligence and political conspiracy (CIA, FBI, JFK, MI5, NSA, etc) Homeworking.com . Free resource for people thinking about working at home. ABC dating and personals . For people looking for relationships. Place your ad free. ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 85: Jan-Feb 1993 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Clams before columbus Europe's mystery people Astronomy Heavy traffic in near-earth space WHY INTELLIGENT LIFE NEEDS GIANT PLANETS Biology Biology's big bang Singing caterpillars The lures of mussels WHEN A BIRD IN THE HAND IS WORSE THAN TWO IN THE BUSH Growth spurts in children GEOMAGNETIC STORMS AND HUMAN HEALTH Our chemical brain Geology Biogeology Two tsumani tales Geophysics A PARADE OF SPINNING PHOSPHORESCENT WHEELS BALL LIGHTNING PUNCHES CIRCULAR HOLE IN WINDOW Unclassified Three views of mortality Electronic channeling ...
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... few years old. Before it was built, archeologists were allowed to explore the meadows making up the construction site. L. Therkorn, an archeologist from the University of Amsterdam, led the exploration team. The digs yielded artifacts going as far back as 300 AD, when this region was sparsely populated by farmers. However, if Therkorn et al had dug up only these old bones and pottery shards, we would not be writing this for SF! For anomalists, it was the pits -- old pits that had been filled in and that seemed to be arranged in an intricate pattern that mirrored the star constellations making up the classical Greek zodiac. But this revelation didn't come until later. After all, pits are common in archeology. Often they contain just rubbish, sometimes human remains. "But the pits at Muggenburg are different. There are 57 of them, each about a meter wide and deep, extending over about half a hectare [about 1 acres] They were certainly not used for storage because the level of the groundwater is too high. Nor were they used as dumps; archaeological evidence shows that they were filled in shortly after they were dug, and some have very little in them." It was only when Therkorn mapped the pits did she see that they were not distributed at random. Connecting them as children do with dot-puzzles, she quickly recognized the constellations Taurus (bull), Canis Major (dog), Pegasus (winged horse), and Hercules. The pits were geoglyphs of a new sort, streching for more ...
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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 hypothesis of formative causation lives!Rupert Sheldrake's hypothesis has been roundly condemned by many scientists, presumably because it departs so radically from current thinking. Basically, the hypothesis maintains that the forms of things (from crystals to life forms) and the behavior of organisms is influenced by "morphic resonance emanating from past events." Convergent evolution, wherein human eyes closely resemble squid eyes, might well be explained by the hypothesis. Sheldrake has been testing his idea in various ways. One experiment involves the accompanying illustration containing a hidden image. Once the solution of this illustration is learned, it is hard to forget, but few people see the answer right off. The hypothesis of formative causation insists that once one or more persons learn the drawing's secret, the easier it will be for others to see the solution. Actual tests consisted of broadcasting the illustration and its solution (that is, the hidden image) on English television combined with before-and-after checks elsewhere in the world outside TV range. The results strongly supported the hypothesis, for it was far easier for people outside England to identify the hidden images after the broadcast. (Sheldrake, Rupert; "Formative Causation: The Hypothesis Supported," New Scientist, 100:279, 1983.) Comment. With all this prior publicity, the hidden image should pop immediately into the reader's mind. But if it doesn' ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 133: JAN-FEB 2001 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Animal Miscellany Animals interact with humans in many curious ways. Here are a few tidbits that we have recently added to our files. The dark side of black cats. Folklore assures us that black cats are bad luck. There may be something to this notion---at least for some people. Shahzad Hussain and his colleagues at the Long Island College Hospital in New York gave a questionnaire to 321 allergy sufferers asking them to describe their cats and assess the severity of their symptoms. Those with dark cats were four times as likely to have severe symptoms as people with light-coloured cats. "We were surprised," says Hussain. "So many questions need to be answered." (Anonymous; "The Dark Side of Black Cats," New Scientist, p. 27, November 4, 2000) Tales of toppling penguins. British scientists are heading for the South Atlantic in an attempt to disprove claims that penguins fall over backwards when aircraft fly overhead. Royal Navy and RAF pilots have been bringing back reports of toppling penguins since the Falklands War in 1982. The flightless birds are said to be so mesmerized by helicopters and jets that they lose their balance as they attempt to keep track of them. (Tweedie, Neil; "Scientists to Check on Toppling Penguins," The Age, November 2, 2000. As downloaded from the web: www.theage.com.au/frontpage/ ...
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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 Did we learn to swim before we learned to walk?This item adds another facet to the Aquatic Ape Hypothesis: "Humans may have first walked upright because they had to carry the baby -- not because it was born less developed than other primates, but because its parents were ex-aquatic apes." (Morgan, Elaine; "Lucy's Child," New Scientist, p. 13, December 25, 1986.) From Science Frontiers #50, MAR-APR 1987 . 1987-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 106: Jul-Aug 1996 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Oklahoma's ornate flints: "eccentric" or fraudulent? Stonehenge in the 1990s: a mainstream view Astronomy A SAGA OF SOOT: PART I A SAGA OF SOOT: PART II A SAGA OF SOOT: PART III Biology It's a mole-rat, jim, but not as we know it Facing up to divebombers Fiddling up worms Ichthometers measure pollution A BOON TO THE LUMBER INDUSTRY? Geology Mud springs regurgitate ancient fossils Impact craters: the party line revised and re-revised Geophysics Looking up into a tornado funnel Multiple phosphorescent wheels Psychology Does the human brain compute, or does it do more? Slamming the door on parapschology -- again ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 28: Jul-Aug 1983 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Evolution By Numbers The following paragraph is taken from a letter to Nature by a "practising geneticist." "In the discussion in your columns about the application of quantitative methodology based on the study of evolutionary processes to the analysis of the development of human culture, there is an unquestioned assumption on both sides of that issue that quantitative theory, as expounded by practitioners such as Fisher, Haldane, Wright, Cavalli-Sforza and Maynard Smith, has been successful in illuminating and explaining the process of biological evolution and the genetic relationships between species. As far as I know, there is no evidence to support this assumption. Indeed, there is a vast number of observations unaccounted for in the extant quantitative evolutionary theories. Many of these observations (inducible mutation systems, rapid genomic changes involving mobile genetic elements, programmed changes in chromosome structure) challenge the most fundamental assumptions which these evolutionary theories make about the mechanisms of hereditary variation and the fixation of genetic differences." (Shapiro, James A.; "Evolution by Numbers," Nature, 303:196, 1983.) Comments. The "observations unaccounted for" are buried in such obscure journals as S.B . ges. Morph. Physio. (Munchen). It is pretty obvious that the Sourcebook Project is just scratching the surface. From Science Frontiers #28, JUL-AUG 1983 . 1983-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 135: MAY-JUN 2001 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Let There Be Dark!And there was dark. And nobody liked it. Bye and bye, a large gentleman with a grossly damaged liver happened by and helped the dark-immersed denizens of the planet. He showed humans how to make "dark-suckers." The first dark-suckers were made of wood and simple in design. Unfortunately, these primitive models often got out of control and sucked in too much dark. Another early dark sucker was the candle. The black wicks of these models attest to their dark-sucking capabilities. Modern dark suckers, such as the incandescent bulb, are much more efficient. These bulbs become greyer with age revealing how they function to rid the world of dark. (Walke, Ken; "Grey Matter," New Scientist, p. 117, February 24, 2001.) Comment. In his revisionist thinking, Walke exposed our misconceptions about light in reponse to the following question: "The surfaces of the incandescent light bulbs where I work become progressively greyer over time.Why?" Now we know why this is so! (Left) A candle immersed in dark with unactivated wick. (Middle) Activated candle wick sucks in the surrounding dark. (Right) The dark in the vicinity has been fully absorbed on the blackened candle wick. From Science Frontiers #135, MAY-JUN 2001 . 2001 William R. Corliss Other Sites of Interest SIS ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 47: Sep-Oct 1986 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Magnetic Theory Of Dowsing The following two paragraphs were taken from a letter to Nature: "David Marks, in The Skeptical Inquirer, asserts that there are no theories to account for paranormal effects. This is not true for dowsing. Serious dowsing claims, such as those made by Soviet geologists, which are difficult to account for in terms of the reception of normal sensory cues, may be explained by postulating human sensitivity to small magnetic field gradient changes. The theory is supported by a series of tests involving 150 subjects. "The magnetic theory predicts that dowsers can achieve above-chance re sults only if the features they claim to detect are associated with magnetic gradients of at least one nanotesla per metre. This was not the case in Randi's recent experiments, so his chance results are therefore consistent with the magnetic theory, which merits further investigation." (Williamson, Tom; "Dowsing Explained," Nature, 320:569, 1985.) From Science Frontiers #47, SEP-OCT 1986 . 1986-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 107: Sep-Oct 1996 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Who Built The Kaimanawa Wall?Some 30 kilometers south of Lake Taupo, in New Zealand, stands an enigmatic array of stone blocks. It "looks" like a wall; a human-built wall. It also "looks" old; perhaps 2,000 years old according to some. Who built it? Passions are running high in New Zealand, where three hypotheses are being advanced: The wall was built some 2,000 years ago by the first settlers of New Zealand, the Waitahas, who were subsequently nearly exterminated by the Maoris, who arrived only 800 years ago. There are political problems with this theory, for the Maoris insist they are the original New Zealanders and therefore are due compensation for lands expropriated by later Europeans. The wall is merely what's left of a sawmill built only 50 or so years ago. The wall is simply a natural rock formation that has happened to split neatly into rectangular blocks -- like those slabs of beach rock that comprise the controversial Bimini "road" in the Bahamas. Future study of the "wall" will doubtless narrow the list to one. Meanwhile, let's take a look at the wall itself. B. Brailsford, of Christchurch, has been the chief investigator of the Kaimanawa wall, aided by American D.H . Childress, and others. The stones that make up the wall are 4-ton blocks of ignimbrite, ...
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... nearly as well as memory experts. The key seems to be the use of mnemonic devices and other methods of imposing some sort of order or meaning on the information involved. To illustrate, a chess master can usually recall the positions of all the pieces on a chessboard after a quick glance. But if the chessmen are arranged randomly and meaninglessly, his memory is reduced to near-normal. The gist is that long prac-tice and the application of mnemonic devices can vastly improve anyone's memory and, in consequence, memory prodigies are not really so anomalous. (Ericsson, K. Anders, and Chase, William G.; "Exceptional Memory," American Scientist, 70:607, 1982.) Comment. The real anomaly here may be the fact that the human memory and related memory faculties seem orders of magnitude better than needed for survival. How did such capabilities evolve? Of what use is a prodigious memory to an Ice Age man facing a cave bear? Are we dealing with prescient evolution, like the moth described above, holding capabilities in reserve until they are really needed. From Science Frontiers #26, MAR-APR 1983 . 1983-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 92: Mar-Apr 1994 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Did humans evolve in siberia? Tractors of the gods? Astronomy Jovian lightning or cosmic short circuit? Target earth Biology Flies fly into frogmouth's mouth Is immortality only a mutation away? The world before our world Geology Back to siberia: the biggest flood? Diamonds are an anomalist's best friend Unidentified light Geophysics Crop circles not hoaxes: a correction Expanding luminescent rings Chilean astronomer reports unidentified atmospheric phenomena Chemistry and Physics High temperature suppresses radioactive decay Chaos at the amusement park ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 53: Sep-Oct 1987 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology A TSUNAMI AND A PERUVIAN CULTURAL GLITCH Lenses in antiquity Strange craters Astronomy Hypnotic mars The perseus flasher: mystery solved! Three planetary notes Biology Has the second law been repealed? Human direction finding Magnetic "dead" reckoning Another tale of ogopogo Geology Meteor-impact winters, magnetic field reversals and tektites Tektite-like objects at lonar crater, india Geophysics Are the soviet plumes only orographic clouds? Lightning triggered from the magnetosphere Psychology Magnetic fields and the imagination Men in black (mibs) Folie a famille A "MAGICAL GENIUS" Pi and ramanajan A MODEST EXAMPLE OF THE LONG ARM OF SYNCHRONICITY ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 47: Sep-Oct 1986 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Brain architecture: beyond genes "The human brain probably contains more than 1014 synapses, and there are simply not enough genes to account for this complexity." .. .. "Neuroscientists at a recent meeting highlighted how extragenetic factors -- including neuronal activity, contact with other cells, radiation, and chemical factors -- influence brain circuitry, especially during development." In computer terms, our brains are constantly reprogramming themselves in response to internal and external forces. (Barnes, Deborah M.; "Brain Architecture: Beyond Genes," Science, 233: 155, 1986.) Comment. Musing in a Lamarckian way, can the brain, as reprogrammed by external influences, ever feed back information to the genes? From Science Frontiers #47, SEP-OCT 1986 . 1986-2000 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 An Innovative Computer In SF#106, we chronicled the chess match between IBM's Big Blue computer and human champion G.K . Kasparov. Incidental to the match itself was the fact that Big Blue sometimes made different moves when confronted with identical chessboards! With these denials of cyberdeterminism in mind, consider the following anecdote. About 40 years ago, D. Herschbach witnessed the first test of an early chess-playing program written by the renowned S. Ulam for the MANIAC I computer. "In this test, the MANIAC I computer played both sides of the board. After a rather bizarre game, Black made a move that checkmated White. Only then did Ulam realize that the program did not say what to do when mated; it just required that a move be made to escape check. While Ulam and his colleagues debated what might happen, the computer whirred on for about ten minutes. Finally it punched out White's move (on paper tape, then the mode). The uncanny solution: a spurious pawn appeared and began to march down the board to become a new queen." (Herschbach, Dudley; "Computer Milestones," Discover, 17:12, October 1996) Comment. If vacuum-tube-equipped MANIAC I was so resourceful and innovative, what might a modern supercomputer "think" up? Remember HAL of 2001: A Space Odyssey and treat your own computer ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 47: Sep-Oct 1986 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Explaining the Nazca Lines Humans in the Americas 32,000 Years Ago? Astronomy Lumps, Clumps, and Jumps Clump of Antimatter 1986: "Tired Light" Revived Again Biology Something Big Down There! Brain Architecture: Beyond Genes Heretical Evolutionary Theory The Chromosome Gap How the Cheetah Lost its Stotts Earth's Womb Geology Oil & Gas From the Earth's Core Oceans From Outer Space? Continental Graveyard? Two Points of Great Impact Geophysics A True Fish Story Booming Dunes Another Luminous Aerial Bubble Psychology Magnetic Theory of Dowsing Chemistry & Physics Unpredictable Things ...
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... "delayed choice" experiments have been consummated in physics labs. In such experiments, the result depends upon what the observer tries to measure; viz., light as particulate-in-nature or light as wave-like-in-nature. The funny thing is that it doesn't matter when the experimenter decides what to measure; he can do this months before the experiment or even afterwards! The effect of the choice is the same -- before or after. Now that is weird! But everyone believes it because a theory for it exists. (Thomsen, Dietrick E.; "Changing Your Mind in a Hurry," Science News, 129:137, 1986.) Bizarre effects in psychokinesis. Recently, several laboratories have been trying to determine if the human mind can affect random physical events, such as radioactive decay. "Surprisingly, the PK effect appears quite independent of physical variables, such as the distance or the complexity of the random generator. The subjects succeed by aiming at the result, regardless of the intermediate steps required to reach this result. Such a goal-oriented, even non-casual feature of PK has been emphasized by PK experiments with pre-recorded, random events. In these experiments, random events were first pre-recorded, and later played back to a PK subject who tried to enforce a certain outcome. These experiments gave positive results, even though the subject's mental effort occurred after the random events had been macroscopically recorded." Now, that is weird, too! (In fact, ...
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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 Nominative Determinism We can no longer resist passing along this very important anomaly, which in essence is the human compulsion to take up a profession described by his or her surname. No less an authority than C. Jung wondered about this common phenomenon in his classic Synchronicity; An Acausal Connecting Principle . He noted, for example, that Herr Feist (Mr. Stout) was the food minister and Herr Rosstauscher (Mr. Horsetrader) was a lawyer. He mused: "Are these whimsicalities of chance, or the suggestive effects of the name, as Stekel seems to suggest, or are they 'meaningful coincidences'?" Jung never answered his own question. The British New Scientist, in its "Feedback" column, has since tackled this enigmatic phenomenon many times. Nominative determinism was introduced first in 1994, when it was remarked that a paper on incontinence in the British Journal of Urology was authored by J.W . Splatt and D. Weedon! New Scientist readers added many more examples, proving just how powerful this psychological force really is. "The head of planning for British Airways is Rod Muddle...Frances Crook is the director of the Howard League for Penal Reform...S .M . Breedlove writes on sexual dimorphism for the Journal of Neuroscience...The US Heritage Foundation's senior researcher on children in foster care is Patrick Fagan...etc. ad infinitum. ...
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