270 results found.
... collective human behavior * Handedness and longevity * Wolf-children * The "Mars Effect" * Telescopic vision *Dermo-optical perception * Hearing under anesthesia * Human navigation sense * Asymmetry in locomotion * Sex-ratio variations Comments From Reviews: "All I can say to Corliss is carry on cataloging". New Scientist View Cart Buy online via PayPal with MC/Visa/Amex 304 pages, hardcover, $19.95, 52 illus., 3 indexes, 1992. 548 references, LC 91-68541. ISBN 0-915554-26-7 , 7x10. Biological Anomalies: Humans II: A Catalog of Biological Anomalies Sorry, Out of print The second Catalog volume on human biological anomalies focuses upon the "internal" machinery of the body (1 ) Its major organs; (2 ) Its support structure (the skeleton); and (3 ) Its vital subsystems (the central nervous system and the immune system) Typical subjects covered: Enigma of the fetal graft * Phantom limbs * Blood chimeras * Anomalous human combustion * Bone shedders * Skin shedders * "Perfection" of the eye * Dearth of memory traces * Sudden increase of hominid brain size * Health and the weather * Periodicity of epidemics * Extreme longevity * AIDS anomalies * Cancer anomalies * Human limb regeneration * Nostril cycling * Voluntary suspended animation * Male menstruation [Picture caption: Is the complexity of the human eye anomalous?] 297 pages, hardcover, $19.95, 40 illus., 3 indexes, 1993. 494 references, LC 91-68541, ISBN 0- ...
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... CHEMISTRY, PHYSICS MATH, ESOTERICA Chemistry Physics Mathematics Esoterica The primary intent of this book is entertainment. Do not look for profundities! All I claim here is an edited collection of naturally occurring anomalies and curiosities that I have winnowed mainly from scientific journals and magazines published between 1976 and 1993. With this eclectic sampling I hope to demonstrate that nature is amusing, beguiling, sometimes bizarre, and, most important, liberating. "Liberating?" Yes! If there is anything profound between these covers, it is the influence of anomalies on the stability of stifling scientific paradigms. First, though, some statistics about my overall endeavor. This present collection consists of about 1500 items of science news and research originally published in the first 86 issues of Science Frontiers , my bimonthly newsletter. I have organized these items by scientific discipline (archeology, astronomy, etc.), updated them where required, and hopefully woven them into a coherent whole. Some bumpiness and gaps are to be expected because I selected only those tidbits that appealed to me. Complete coverage of all sciences was not a goal. Even so, I believe that most readers will be impressed by the vast panorama of nature laid out here before them. From 40,000-year-old archeological digs in the New World (definitely verboten), to the pseudofish displayed by some mussels, to the geological havoc wreaked by asteroid-raised tsumanis, the variety and richness of natural phenomena are to be seen on every page -- and so are the scientific puzzles they pose. I confess that my newsletter, ...
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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 Superorganisms: From Simplicity To Complexity Superorganisms are biological entities made up of large numbers of simpler entities that have banded together to perform functions they cannot do as individuals. Termite mounds are often mentioned as superoganisms. But here we examine colonies of organisms that are much simpler and much smaller than termites. What entices the anomalist to attend to superorganisms? Here are two of the several questions superorganisms raise. How do superorganisms evolve properties that its constituent individuals do not possess, such as mobility, unique sensors, and even a modicum of intelligence. Since superorganisms do not reproduce as superorganisms, how can natural selection operate on these superorganisms? Salps. Books dealing with the unexplained sometimes include a photograph of a huge marine creature identified as a sea monster. This famous photo is real and so is the monster in it. But this creature is not reptilian; it is really a salp, a colonial tunicate. Tunicates are tiny, primitive marine organisms usually classified as invertebrates. Some species of tunicates have somehow acquired the habit of aggregating in immense numbers to create long, hollow, snake-like tubes called "salpa." Salps may reach lengths of 45 feet, with diameters of 3 feet. No wonder they are falsely identified as sea monsters. Structurally, the tunicates comprising the salp are embedded in a gelatinous wall facing inward. Each possesses a siphon that pumps nutrient-carrying sea water. Working in unison, the tunicates create ...
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... microevolution"). J.A . Shapiro, a professor at the University of Chicago, is searching for a "third way," a scientific, non-Darwinian way. Shapiro maintains that five decades of genetic and molecular-biology research have transformed our vision of life. Ile compares the conceptual changes to those accompanying the transition from classical physics to relativity and quantum mechanics. This new theory of evolution -- his "third" way -- will emerge from the convergence of biology and information science. Genomes, asserts Shapiro, are not really the static "beads on a string" envisioned by the Darwinians. Rather, they are fluid and complex. Genes are now seen as multipurpose elements that turn on and off as required for the survival and well-being of the organism they belong to. In this paradigm-eroding paper (referenced below), Shapiro describes four categories of molecular discoveries that have revised our thinking about how evolution works: (1 ) Genome Organization; (2 ) Cellular-Repair Capabilities; (3 ) Mobile Genetic Elements and Natural Genetic Engineering; and (4 ) Cellular Information Processing. He then writes: The point of this discussion is that our current knowledge of genetic change is fundamentally at variance with neo-Darwinist postulates. We have progressed from the Constant Genome, subject only to random, localized changes at a more or less constant mutation rate, to the Fluid Genome, subject to episodic, massive and non-random reorganizations capable of producing new functional architectures. Inevitably, such a profound advance in awareness of genetic capabilities ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 106: Jul-Aug 1996 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects A SAGA OF SOOT: PART III "For the first time, researchers have found complex organic molecules on the Earth that came from outside the Solar System. American scientists say tiny sooty grains extracted from meteorites contain polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from interstellar dust clouds." This article continues with an acknowledgement that F. Hoyle did predict way back in the 1950s that some of earth's organic matter came from outer space. And that he was roundly scoffed at. Next, more evidence is presented suggesting that the universe is full of the basic ingredients of life: Recently, the spectrum of the amino acid glycine was detected near the center of our galaxy. (Hecht, Jeff; "Stardust Brought Down to Earth," New Scientist, p. 17, March 23, 1996) Cross reference. IN SF#101, we related how PAHs were found in meteorite ALH84001, which was picked up in the Antarctic, and which is believed to have originated on Mars. From Science Frontiers #106, JUL-AUG 1996 . 1996-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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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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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 137: SEP-OCT 2001 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Unexpected Signals Within Life Forms Multicellular organisms are information networks. They have to be because life is conferred by the flow of information. We all learn how the nervous system carries a heavy traffic of electrical signals, but we hear less about chemical signals, and they are more important. Chemical signalling molecules help cells learn what is going on around them so that they can make decisions concerning metabolism, division, and even whether to die not not. This is mainstream biochemistry, although there is much here yet to be learned. A signalling medium that still survives well off the mainstream is the old idea that information is carried from cell to cell via electromagnetic radiation. Yes, we mean mitogenetic radiation--the infamous M-rays of the 1920s and 1930s. During this period about a thousand technical papers were published on mitogenetic radiation -- mostly in Russian. The champion of mitogenetic radiation was A.G . Gurwitsch. He claimed that fundamental biological functions, such as cell division, were communicated via ultraviolet light. Although a few other researchers said they detected mitogenetic radiation, most could not replicate Gurwitsch's work. Mitogenetic radiation was thereafter subjected to the "cold-fusion" treatment; it was one of those things that "wasn't so"! In a recent article in the Journal of Scientific Exploration, R. Van Wijk tries to reignite interest in "bio-photons" that carry "bio ...
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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 Hums Ho!Down the years, several mysterious hums have been recorded in the pages of SF. First, there was the persistent, widespread, annoying "English hum" reported in 1977. Most famous has been the "Taos hum" in New Mexico, mentioned here in 1993, and still going strong. We presume the English hum, the Hueytown hum, and all the others are still driving those who can hear them to distraction. There have been some desultory inquiries into the sources of these hums, but no one has come up with anything more specific than engine noises, wind blowing across chimney tops (an organ effect), or some nefarious secret military project. Whatever the cause(s ), the hums have devastating effects on those particularly sensitive to them. Case 1. Take, for example, the Kokomo, Indiana, hum that started about 1999. "Almost immediately after the noise began, nearly every resident reported having chronic and severe headaches and were awakened several times at night and were fatigued." wrote Lisa Hurt Kozarovich, a freelancer. "About 30 residents said they were also nauseated and had other symptoms -- the most common being pressure or ringing in their ears, chronic joint pain, dizziness, depression and diarrhea." (Sharpe, Tom; "Pondering the Hum," Santa Fe New Mexican, July 24, 2001. Cr. D. Perkins via L. ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 128: MAR-APR 2000 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects "Uprooting the Tree of Life"Yes, that is the title of a long article in the February 2000 issue of Scientific American. In the Table of Contents, we see words concerning this article that we never thought would be permitted in a mainstream science magazine. After first noting that 10 years ago it was generally agreed that all organisms evolved from a single ancestral cell that existed about 3.5 billion years ago, there comes the assertion that the Tree of Life: "is far more complicated than was believed and may not have had a single root at all." The article proper relates how the Tree of Life has its own evolutionary history. Twenty years ago, scientists had that single ancestral cell splitting into two main trunks: the prokaryotes (bacteria) and the eukaryotes (every-thing else). More recently, a third trunk has been grafted onto the Tree; namely, the archaea (microorganisms that look like bacteria but possess markedly different genes). The archaea favor extreme environments and, curiously, are more closely related to you and me than are the bacteria. But according to this article (by W.F . Doolittle), the triple-trunked Tree of Life is simplistic. One reason for this is that genes, once thought to flow only from parent to progeny, are now known to travel laterally. Species barriers are broken. Genes jump from trunk to trunk, from ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 137: SEP-OCT 2001 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Something Rotten At The Core Of Science H.F . Horrobin is a long-time critic of the anonymous peer-review system used in the scientific community. Most anomalists will readily subscribe to his complaint: The core system by which the scientific community allots prestige (in terms of oral presentations at major meetings and publication in major journals) and funding is a non-validated charade whose processes generate results little better than does chance. Given the fact that most reviewers are likely to be mainstream and broadly supportive of the existing organization of the scientific enterprise, it would not be surprising if the likelihood of support for truly innovative research was considerably less than that provided by chance. (Horrobin, David F.; "Something Rotten at the Core of Science," Meta Research Bulletin, 10:17, June 15, 2001.) From Science Frontiers #137, SEP-OCT 2001 . 2001 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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... -AUG 2001 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Genome-map User Beware!Omissions. Amid much hullabaloo, it was announced recently that the human genome has now been mapped. To everyone's surprise, we are said to be constructed from blueprints containing only about 30,000 genes. But how accurate are these maps that were drawn up so hastily in the bitterly contested race between the publically and privately sponsored programs? How good are those computer programs that identified these 30,000 or so genes? According to W. Haseltine, who heads Human Genome Sciences, "They're reading smudged text through foggy glasses." Haseltine's company claims to have found more than 90,000 human genes. Two other organizations have identified between 60,000 and 65,000 genes. A research group at Ohio State University at Columbus analyzed the same data used by the public consortium and estimates that there are actually human 80,000 genes! In fact, this groups avers, the public consortium's software seems to have missed 850,000 gene segments for which there already exists protein or RNA evidence. The human genome map seems to harbor many terrae incognitae. So, we best not draw profound conclusions just yet. (Kintisch, Eli; "So What's the Score?" New Scientist, p. 16, May 12, 2001.) Errors. The genome-mapping efforts of both the public consortium and private company (Celera) depended heavily upon computers and software. That ...
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... -Aug 1996 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Stonehenge in the 1990s: a mainstream view In a recent number of Nature, C. Ruggles reviewed the present status of Stonehenge as mainstream archeologists now see this world-famous monument. oThe construction of Stonehenge began a bit earlier than previously thought: 2950 50 BC. But beneath the present parking area are post holes dated 4,000 years earlier! They are apparently not related to the Stonehenge we know. oThe idea that Stonehenge's bluestones, which originated in the Preseli Mountains of southwest Wales, 200 kilometers distant, were carried to Salisbury Plain by glaciers has been emphatically disproved by geologists. These 4-ton stones were transported by people! This great effort required precocious social organization, communication, and some kind of psychological impetus. oThe sarsens -- those even bigger stones that define Stonehenge in our mind's view -- evoke the same sorts of questions as this issue's eccentric flints: Why? and How? Ruggles writes: "Why it was important to bring stones from so far away is an open question, as is the issue of how people achieved the almost unimaginable feat of hauling the sarsens, weighing 25 tonnes or more, over 30 km from the Marlborough Downs in the north." oNew studies of the other ancient monuments in the vicinity of Stonehenge have revealed that they were not placed at random. Many are visible from Stonehenge. Stonehenge is at the center of a number of "nested bowls." [? ] Further ...
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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 Where Is The Maestro?As we learn more and more about the gene complements of our planet's multitudinous life forms, the more it seems that the vaunted genome may not incorporate all of the information necessary to construct a living organism. Despite assurances to the contrary, we must ask if we really know the whole story. These doubts manifest themselves as we see that creatures that are very much alike genetically may be radically different morphologically. In this vein, C. Ventner asserts that all higher vertebrates have roughly the same genes. The animals that result from these re-markedly similar genomes depend upon when specific genes are turned on and off. Ventner says, "We have the same number of genes as cats and dogs, but differently regulated." The genes themselves are supposed to be simply protein factories. Somehow, they are turned on and off (" expressing" themselves) in just the right sequences to help build the target animal. In a far-stretched analogy, the genes are the instruments in an orchestra and the proteins they produce are the notes in a symphony. But where are the symphony's score and its conductor? Very similar orchestras, it seems, can play radically different symphonies given different scores as interpreted by a maestro. Each living thing is likewise a symphony of proteins, each played by the genome at just the right time. But just where are the score -- ...
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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 Unidentified Cellular Object The multitudinous cells that make up our bodies are miniscule factories humming with activity. The microscope reveals mitochondria, chromosomes, centrioles, granules, and a host of entities doing their own things. But even after generations have scrutinized our cells, new objects are discovered. The latest, only recognized in 1986, look like a miniature hand grenades. Called "vaults" these objects are composed of proteins and ribosomal DNA. They exist only in the cells of the higher organisms -- like us. Biologists surmise that they are important in some way but have no idea what they do. (Anonymous; "Cell Biology Mystery," Science, 289:355, 2000.) A "vault," a mammalian cellular object of unknown purpose. From Science Frontiers #132, NOV-DEC 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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... No. 134: MAR-APR 2001 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Speaking of ALH 84001 Among the various magnetic grains comprising ALH 84001 are some nanometersized, hexagonal prisms that are "indistinguishable" from those excreted by terrestrial magnetotactic bacteria: Just when scientists in general were convinced that ALH 84001's "worms" had a mineralogical (i .e ., non-biological) origin, along comes this revelation. The ALH-84001 controversy is not over yet. (Kerr, Richard A.; "Tiny Magnets Point to Martian Life," Science, 290:2242, 2000.) Comment. In terrestrial magnetotactic bacteria, these magnetic crystals are strung together to make a sort of compass needle that helps orient the organism in muck and other lightless and lowly habitats.) From Science Frontiers #134, MAR-APR 2001 . 2001 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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... multiplication table, can be recorded on a protein "hard drive." Are the bits representing the multiplication table encoded in a line of proteins of different types or in their sequence or, perhaps, their three-dimensional configurations? Does anyone really know what our brain's hard drive looks like? Maybe memory is hologrammic. And when a memory is pulled off the mind's hard drive, how is the information conveyed to the central processing unit, assuming there is one? Is it all done through nervous impulses, or are proteins transferred bodily. This computer analogy is probably incorrect. Nature is probably cleverer than PC makers! The demonstrable fact is that human memory is malleable, and this seems anomalous in terms of the evolution paradigm. Wouldn't the survival of an organism be better served by permanent, accurate memories of past events? From Science Frontiers #133, JAN-FEB 2001 . 2001 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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... being, in all nine cases, the more seriously injured. The remarkable part of the occurrence is that the house was uninjured, all the doors and windows being closed at the time. No trace of lightning could afterward be observed in any part of the building, and all the sufferers unite in saying that there was no detonation, but only the loud humming already mentioned. Another curious attendant circumstance is that the trees around the house showed no signs of injury until the ninth day, when they suddenly withered, almost simultaneously with the development of the sores upon the bodies of the occupants of the house. This is perhaps a mere coincidence, but it is remarkable that the same susceptibility to electrical effects, with the same lapse of time, should be observed in both animal and vegetable organisms. I have visited the sufferers, who are now in one of the hospitals of this city; and although their appearance is truly horrible, yet it is hoped that in no case will the injuries prove fatal. (Signed: Warner Cowgill, U.S . Consulate, Maracaibo, Venezuela, November 17, 1886.) (Cowgill, Warner; "Curious Phenomenonin Venezuala, Scientific American, 55:389, 1886.) The article in Infinite Energy discusses in some depth the reality of ball lightning, the similarities to modern UFO reports, the reliability of anecdotes, and, especially, the nature of the physiological effects, which resemble, in some aspects, radiation sickness resulting from exposure to intense X-rays or nuclear devices. It is also interesting that this anecdote ...
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... replaced by the ancestors of our familiar deer, horses, and canines that streamed across the now-open Bering Land Bridge. Geology, too, provides evidence of this traumatic event. Ocean-bottom cores reveal landslide debris that was probably triggered by the sudden decomposition of great masses of methane hydrate. Seismic probes of the ocean sediments reveal chaotic zones suggesting a violent event. (Kerr, Richard A.; "A Smoking Gun for an Ancient Methane Discharge," Science, 286:1465, 1999. Monastersky, R.; "Global Burp Gassed Ancient Earth," Science News, 156:260, 1999.) Philosophical observation. Just as natural fires of grasslands and forests eventually lead to vigorous new growth, it appears that methane (a natural product of the decomposition of organic material) also sweeps out old species and replaces them with new ones. No doubt this planetary cleansing is another ramification of the Gaia Hypothesis. Be advised that Gala still lives, and that huge, unstable, methane-hydrate deposits still lie buried under many continental shelves. From Science Frontiers #128, MAR-APR 2000 . 1997 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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... ring comes to a dead stop. The other balls in each track line up behind the leader in a tiny arc, even though the magnet is still whirling away below. Example 2. In water, large, fatty molecules (phospholipids) are observed to self-assemble into double layers with their water-loving bonds pointing outwards. This sort of structure closely resembles that of the biological membranes so vital to terrestrial life. This potentially biologically useful structure self-assembles! It seems that on the mesoscopic scale, under certain conditions, ensembles of particles (e .g ., iron balls and large molecules) may snap into "dominant states" that exhibit unexpected properties. In this context Nobelist R. Laughlin remarks: The discoveries that matter are the grand surprises that occur when matter organizes itself. Of course, the question has always been whether something "special" or "vital" has to be done to an ensemble of molecules to confer life upon it. In his Darwin's Black Box, M. Behe insists that life is irreducibly complex and requires intelligent design. (Designer unidentified!) This is seen as a cop-out by most scientists who are searching for "natural" (designerless) explanations for those "emergent" properties of matter -- such as life. To this end, H. Frauenfelder and P. Wolynes, both at the University of California at San Diego, have been mapping the "energy landscape" of proteins as these long chains of amino acids fold into the incredibly complex shapes required by their functions in life forms ...
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... of fine white particles often decorate the surface of the warm, shallow waters around the Bahamas. Called "whitings," these clouds of suspended material are not minor phenomena to file away and forget. Some of the bright streaks are 200 square kilometers in area and can be seen from the Space Shuttle. The source of the whitings has not been determined with certainty. The locals claim that schools of fish stir up the fine, white, calcareous sediments. This is doubted because fish are very scarce in the areas where whitings occur. Another thought was that calcium carbonate was being precipitated directly from the ocean water. Chemical tests showed this to be impossible. A new theory has schools of sharks intentionally raising clouds of bottom sediments to blind fish. The sharks then move in with their electrosensitive organs, which are unaffected by the "white-out," and pick off the helpless fish.(Copley, Jon; "Sneak Attack," New Scientist, p. 22, December 2, 2000.) Comment. It would take a lot of sharks to stir up 200 square kilometers of sediment! And why bother if fish are scarce where whitings are seen? A similar phenomenon is seen in the sudden whitenings of the Dead Sea. Details in GHC4 in Earthquakes, Tides,... From Science Frontiers #135, MAY-JUN 2001 . 2001 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 ...
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... target. Genes also work in concert. It is not one gene coding for one protein, which then has a singular role in creating an operational human being. For example, some 5,692 genes are active in breast-cancer cells. Genes may also have multiple roles. Our present blueprint of the human genome does not display all the mobility and complex interrelationships of the genes. We do know that genes are the blue-prints for the manufacture of proteins. Of these, there may be over 1,000,000 different -- more than ten times the number of genes! These multitudinous proteins are continually being created and transported to where they perform their assigned tasks and are eventually deconstructed. It is this population of proteins (collectively the "proteome") that develops organisms and gives them life. We do not begin to have a blue-print for the proteome, which really tells us how life works. Then, there are epigenetic influences. "Epigenetic?" Yes, the manufacture of proteins according to genome blueprints is altered by chemical groups that attach themselves to strands of DNA. Methyl groups, for example, can completely silence genes. Scientists are strugglingto understand just how epigenetic factors affect inheritance and the creation of new species. There is much more to biology than DNA and genes. The genome is complex enough, but the proteome adds still another layer of complexity, and epigenetic spoons stir the pot further. (Ezzell, Carol; "Beyond the Human Genome," Scientific American, 283:64. July 2000. Anonymous; " ...
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... hot and steaming like those seen where geothermal heat is close to the surface, as in New Zealand, Java, and Yellowstone. They are also unique in their entrainment of subterranean fossils and bringing them to the surface. "There is no explanation of the way the springs ooze a pale, cold, grey mud to the surface, forming blisters that spurt high into the air. "Neville Hollingworth of the Natural Environment Research Council said: 'They are like a fossil conveyor belt bringing up finds from the clay layers below and then washing them out in a nearby stream.'" The fossil conveyor belt yields bones of marine reptiles, oyster shells, and the remains of sea creatures that lived during the Jurassic, about 165 million years ago. Some of the bivalves still retain their organic ligaments. Geologists wonder what forces squeeze the mud to the surface like toothpaste from a tube. (Nuttall, Nick; "Mud Springs a Surprise after 165 Million Years," London Times, May 2, 1996. Cr. A.C .A . Silk) From Science Frontiers #106, JUL-AUG 1996 . 1996-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... 134: MAR-APR 2001 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects I Must Go Down To The Goo Again!With apologies to Masefield for mangling a line of his poetry. it really is tine to go down to the sea and examine its microstructure. The ocean is not what it seems. When you snorkel in crystal-clear Caribbean waters, you do not sense that you are swimming in a very thin jelly. In reality, ocean water is filled with a complex tangle of microscopic strands and particles of gel. According to F. A zam , an oceanographer at Scripps: It's not in the textbooks or in the classical explanations. The gel's existence fundamentally changes our ideas of the microcosmos in which sea organisms live. It has added another layer of complexity that people are only now starting to consider in the context of whole ocean systems . . Gel is like the dark matter of the sea. While sea gel does not impede the snorkeler, . it does herd microbes into clumps or microniches . which we cannot see either. These microbes. in effect, exist in a tangled. 3-D mesh that affects not only their movements but also those of their prey and predators. A few statistics confirm the amazing complexity of the seawater microcosm and its incredibly high microbe population density. The long strands in the oceanic gel are mostly crosslinked polysaccharides. If the polysaccharides in 1 milliliter of seawater could be placed end-to-end, they would stretch out to 5,600 kilometers! ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 87: May-Jun 1993 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Cosmic Soot And Organic Asteroids Just as we were getting used to carbonaceous chondrites and tarry comets, we have been hit with cosmic soot and organic asteroids. Truly, it seems as if the universe is one vast factory of complex chemicals. This is not a trivial observation, for it betrays a synthesizing, efflorescent cosmos rather than a universe slowly succumbing to the deepfreezing Second Law of Thermodynamics. Any of these soots and tars wafting down upon the surface of a suitable planet might initiate or accelerate life processes. Cosmic soot. A 70-year-old astronomical enigma is the origin of the DIBs (Diffuse Interstellar absorption Bands). These dark absorption bands in stellar spectra have never been correlated with known chemical compounds. Now, L. Allamandola and F. Salama (NASA-Ames) find that the DIBs may be due to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons! A more digestible descriptor would be "soot," like that found in automobile exhaust and on your barbecued steak. (Weiss, Peter; "Cosmic Soot Fills Space between the Stars," New Scientist, p. 15, March 13, 1993.) Organic asteroids. Some asteroids are abnormally red. Newly discovered asteroid 5145 Pholus is 3 times brighter at near-infrared wavelengths than it is in the visible portion of the spectrum. The best explanation so far for this redness is that 5145 Pholus is veneered with organic compounds called "tholins." Tholins are synthesized ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 82: Jul-Aug 1992 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The humongous organism contest!When we read of that 10,000-kilogram fungus discovered in Michigan, it sounded like a good item for Science Frontiers. But then it was described as the "largest and oldest living organism," and we knew that if we waited a couple months this Guinness-like record would be eclipsed. (Superlatives are risky in this business!) A killer fungus in Washington State. In the foothills of Mount Adams, a specimen of the fungus Armillaria ostoyae covers 1,500 acres and seems to be 400-1 ,000 years old, as comapred to the 38-acre, 1,500-year-old Michigan fungus. Although younger than its Michigan counterpart, the Washington fungus is lethal and can wipe out whole populations of trees. (Anonymous; "The Great Fungus," Nature, May 21, 1992.) Comment. It has also been reported that a huge, spreading, pathological growth exists in Washington, DC ! Some even more humongous plants. "A grass clone, Holcus mollis , has been found with a diameter of 900 metres and an age of over 1000 years. A clone of box-huckleberry has been found with a diameter of 2000 metres and an age of 13 000 years. The big granddaddy is, however, an aspen ( Populus fremaloides ) covering 81 hectares and over 10 000 years old." (Bullock, James; ...
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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 Life-creation from a different perspective The preceding discussion of life's origin at hydrothermal vents was penned by an oceanographer. Astronomers, it seems, prefer different scenarios. C. Chyba and C. Sagan, in a major review article in Nature, see a two-fold problem: (1 ) identifying the source of the raw materials; and (2 ) identifying the source(s ) of energy required for the synthesis of complex organic chemicals. First, they point to the steady drizzle of tiny, organic-rich particles drifting down to earth from cometary debris. These particles, which even carry spacesynthesized amino acids down to the earth's surface, seem likely chemical precursors of life. However, the atmosphere is also a potential source of prebiotic chemicals -- providing energy sources are available. Chyba and Sagan suggest as sources: lightning, ultraviolet radiation, and the shock energy derived from meteorite/asteroid/comet impacts. Together these energy sources, especially ultraviolet light, might synthesize thousands of tons of complex organic compounds each year. (Chyba, Christopher, and Sagan, Carl; "Endogenous Production, Exogenous Delivery and Impact-Shock Synthesis of Organic Molecules: An Inventory for the Origins of Life," Nature, 355:125, 1992. Also: Henbest, Nigel; "Organic Molecules from Space Rained Down on Early Earth," New Scientist, 2. 27, January 25, ...
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... is transmitted through the material they are resting on. You and I cannot hear caterpillar songs, but some ants can, and they are attracted to these insect sirens. The singing caterpillars belong to the Lycaenidae, which include such butterflies as the hairstreaks and blues. It is not only the singing or vibrating of this group of caterpillars that makes them remarkable, it is the complexity of their symbiotic relationships with several species of ants and a plant. Since both the ants and the caterpillars favor the Croton plant, they could well meet by chance, but the caterpillars' singing serves to accelerate contact. Once met on the Croton plant, a fascinating triangle is completed. Player 1. The Croton plant provides nourishment to the caterpillars through both its leaves and specially evolved nectaries (nectar-producing organs), but receives nothing in return. The ants also dote on the nectaries, but they at least protect the plant from all herbivorous insects except the singing caterpillars. Player 2. The ants get food from both the Croton plant and the caterpillars. The latter have evolved extrudable glands called "nectary organs." For their part of the bargain, the ants protect the caterpillar from predatory wasps, just as they defend the Croton plant from its enemies. Player 3. The caterpillars, though seemingly benign, are the heavies in this menage-a -trois! They get both leaves and nectar from the plant for nothing. They do supply the ants with nectar in exchange for protection, but subtle subversion prevails here! First they attract the ants with their songs; then, ...
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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 Self-organized stone stripes "Geometrically regular stripes of stones are found on many unvegetated alpine and polar hillslopes; known as 'sorted stripes' because of the characteristic textural sorting between surface stones and fine-grained soil, they contrast markedly with the lack of order typical of natural landscapes. The spacing of the stripes can range from centimeters to meters (about 10-20 times the average stone diameter), with individual stripes extending downslope for many tens of meters. A variety of formative mechanisms have been proposed, but it is still unclear how such orderly stripes can arise spontaneously, and what dictates the spacing." B.T . Werner and B. Hallet, authors of the foregoing partial abstract, have mathematically simulated the displacement of surface stones under the forces generated by the growth of needle ice in the underlying soil. As the number of freeze-thaw cycles increases into the thousands, computer simulations show the surface stones gradually arraying themselves into linear patterns. (Werner, B.T ., and Hallet, B.; "Numerical Simulation of Self-Organized Stone Stripes," Nature, 361:142, 1993.) Reference. These stone stripes represent just one type of "patterned ground." Other examples may be found in ETP1 in our catalog: Carolina Bays, Mima Mounds, described here . From Science Frontiers #88, JUL-AUG 1993 . 1993-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... , when the research submersible Alvin was exploring those remarkable hydrothermal vents or "black smokers." Its CCD (Charge-Coupled Device) camera detected a ghostly glow emanating from the vents. Since this mineral-laden water gushing from these cracks in the deep-sea floor exits at 350 -400 C, the simplest explanation of the vent glow is that is is simply thermal radiation from the hot fluid. Indeed, color filters on the camera recorded a spectrum close to that of a 350 C plume. But the deep-sea shrimp camped around the vents have raised second thoughts. The shrimp, only a few inches long, live in the perpetual darkness of the miles-deep vents. They do not need and do not have ordinary eyes. Rather, they sport a mysterious organ on their backs that is connected to their brains by a nerve-fiber bundle much like an optic nerve. This organ is packed with the same light-sensitive pigments found in the eyes of surface creatures. Despite its unusual location on the shrimp, it is an "eye" of sorts. But of what use is it in the Stygian abysses? To find, perhaps, vent glows that betray the presence of chemosynthetic food sources. If this is so, the shrimps' optical organ, which is most sensitive in the blue-green portion of the spectrum, is badly mismatched to the infrared of the vent glow. It is a truism that nature is a perfectionist and would not tolerate such bad design. The eyes of animals are always well-tuned to their ways ...
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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 Archaea: the living ancestors of all life forms Life's place of origin may soon shift from that long-favored "warm little pond" to undersea hydrothermal vents. "Important new discoveries on the properties of the early earth and atmosphere, including the frequency and size of bolide impacts, have strongly implicated submarine hydrothermal vent systems as the likely habitat for the earliest organisms and ecosystems, while stimulating considerable discussion, hypotheses and experiments related to chemical and biochemical evolution. Some of the key questions regarding the origins of life at submarine hydrothermal vent environments are focussed on the effects of temperature on synthesis and stability of organic compounds and the characteristics of the earliest organisms on earth. There is strong molecular and physiological evidence from present-day mircoorganisms that the earliest organisms on earth were capable of growing at high temperatures (about 90 C) and under conditions found in volcanic environments. These 'Archaea', the living ancestors of all life forms, display a variety of strategies for growth and survival at high temperatures, including thermostable enzymes active at temperatures about 140 C. Further molecular and biochemical characterization of the presently cultured thermophiles, as well as future work with the many species, particularly from subsurface crustal environments, not yet isolated in culture, may help resolve some of the important questions regarding the nature of the first organisms that evolved on earth." (Baross, J.A .; "Hyperthermophilic Archaea: Implications for the ...
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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 The star of the star-nosed mole (Left) Tenticle-like rays surrounding one nostril of the star-like mole. (Right) The number of rays around the other nostril give the density of sensory receptors. The star-nosed mole is one of North America's more bizarre mammals. Its nostrils are surrounded by mobile, Medusa-like appendages that are richly suppled with nerves and blood vessels. These tentacle-like structures form the "star," which has long been considered a tactile organ used for feeling for prey. However, behavioral experiments by E. Gould et al indicate that the star may be more than a tactile organ. It seems to sport electrical sensors that detect the minute electrical fields surrounding worms, leeches, insect larvae, and other favorite mole tidbits. This conclusion derives from experiments in which starnosed moles preferentially attacked the parts of worms that are most strongly electrical. Actually, scientists have been puzzled as to how this mole found its prey, for this mammal is semiaquatic and somehow locates its dinner in muddy water even though it has poor eyesight. Although some fish possess electrical sensors, they are uncommon in mammals. Half way around the planet, another strange creature, also classified with the mammals, frequents muddy waters looking for the same sort of prey favored by the star-nosed mole. The Australian platypus also has weak vision and employs search techniques similar to those of ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 81: May-Jun 1992 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The tyranny of the [normal] senses R.O . Becker, author of Cross Currents , has contributed a thought-provoking article on the mechanisms by which humans perceive the cosmos. From the many stimulating ideas he presented, we select his rationale for believing that an electromagnetic basis may exist for the reception and processing of psi signals. A key concept in Becker's scheme is his belief in the presence, in humans and other organisms, of a dual system for receiving and processing information arriving from the environment. The system we are all aware of and which scientists study in depth is the nerve impulse system, which transmits digital signals; i.e ., 0s and 1s. This system connects to all our everyday senses and controls our motor functions. The second system Becker designates as "primitive." It transmits information in analog (continuously varying) form via electrical currents and magnetic fields, rather than as impulses along neurons. This second system is not recognized by mainstream science. Becker advances the notions that: (1 ) Psi-type phenomena are actually handled by the "primitive" analog system; (2 ) The flood of information normally arriving from our sensory organs via the "modern" digital system masks the psi-type signals; and (3 ) These assertions are consistent with the elusive nature of psi phenomena in both everyday experience and the parapsychological laboratories. Becker's ideas also ...
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... the lab with the flasks, they were more friendly and relaxed than normal. He could not divine the reason until some months later when he decided to cover the flasks of skin-derived substances. Curiously, the lab workers soon reverted to their usual grumpy selves! What could account for this strange behavior change? Knowing that animals often communicated with one another employing chemicals called pheromones, Berliner suspected that the flasks had been releasing odorless human pheromones. Sure enough, analysis of the skin-derived materials proved him correct. Next: A Look Up the Nose. Biologists have long realized that animal noses actually contain two sensory channels. The first is the familiar olfactory system, which humans also possess. The second channel is the vomeronasal system. In animals, each system has its own separate organs, nerves, and bumps in the brain. The function of the vomeronasal system is pheromone detection. It was widely believed that humans had long ago discarded this sensory system along evolution's trail. But a closer look at the human nose by B. Jafek and D. Moran, affiliated with the Rocky Mountain Taste and Smell Center at the University of Colorado, revealed that all humans examined displayed two tiny pits on both sides of the septum, just inside the the opening of the nose. Behind the holes were tubes lined with unique cells that could well be pheromone detectors, since they responded positively to puffs of air laden with pheromones. In conclusion, we humans actually do have a sixth sense, and we are all enveloped in an aura -- not the luminous aura ...
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... of its vivid verbiage -- something absent from the modern reports: "August 13, 1986. Northwest Indian Ocean. The entire sea surface took on an intense white glow which was not unlike viewing the negative of a photograph." The milky sea is a rather common phenomenon. In fact, the British Meteorological Office has established a Bioluminescence Database, which presently contains 235 reports of milky seas seen since 1915. P.J . Herring and M. Watson have employed this Database in a review paper on these impressive displays. Geographical plotting of the reports shows a strong concentration in the northwest Indian Ocean (see figure). Seasonally, there is a strong peaking in August and a secondary blip in January. The phenomenon is independent of water depth and distance from land. Surely bioluminescent organisms must be the explanation for milky seas. But most such organisms simply flash briefly and are incapable of generating the strong, steady glow of the milky sea. Marine bacteria alone glow steadily. However, calculations show that unrealistic concentrations of bacteria would be needed to generate the observed light. Furthermore, samples from the affected waters show no such bacteria. Herring and Watson admit there is no acceptable explanation of the milky sea. What, they ask, is so special about the northwest Indian Ocean? Why do milky seas not occur in the adjacent Red Sea and Persian Gulf? These bodies of water seem equally promising. (Herring, P.J ., and Watson, M.; "Milky Seas: A Bioluminescent Puzzle," Marine Observer, 63:22, 1993. ...
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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 Early Life Surprisingly Diverse The three life forms sketched below are tiny microorganisms, not the worms they appear to be. They are thought to be bacteria, for they closely resemble modern cyanobacteria. What is most important about these fossilized micro-organisms is that they were found in the Apex chert of Western Australia. The Apex chert is designated Early Archean and assigned an age of 3.465 billion years [Four significant figures!]. It is rare to find any fossils at all in rocks this old, but apparently the Apex chert escaped most of the fossil-destroying metamorphism afflicting most Precambrian formations. Even more remarkable is the diversity of these suspected bacteria. J.W . Schopf reports finding no less than eleven different kinds so far--and our planet was only a few hundred million years old at the time the Apex chert was formed. Schopf's discoveries generate at least three questions: How could life have originated and diversified to such an extent in just a few hundred millions years? Why after such rapid diversification did these microorganisms remain essentially unchanged for the next 3.465 billion years? Such stasis, common in biology, is puzzling. If these microorganisms are really cyanobacteria, they would have released oxygen to the atmosphere. Is the standard assumption that the earth's atmosphere lacked oxygen until 2.2 billion years ago correct? (Schopf, J. William; "Microfossils of the Early ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 83: Sep-Oct 1992 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Distressing near-death experiences (ndes)Noting that most NDEs are touted as involving "profound feelings of peace, joy, and cosmic unity," B. Greyson and N.E . Bush have collected much contrary testimony, which they organized into three categories: "( 1 ) Phenomenology similar to peaceful near-death experiences but interpreted as unpleasant, (2 ) A sense of nonexistence or eternal void, or, (3 ) Graphic hellish landscapes and entities." One of these testimonies, from Category 3, is worth reproducing here. The percipient was a woodworker with little interest in religion, although he was married to a "religious fanatic." He had been saving for a vacation for years, but just before they were about to leave, he was arrested for drunk driving and heavily fined, losing his license and vacation savings. Distraught, he tried to hang himself. He testified: "From the roof of the utility shed in my backyard I jumped to the ground. Luckily for me I had forgot the broken lawn chair that lay near the shed. My feet hit the chair and broke my fall, or my neck would have been broken. I hung in the rope and strangled. I was outside my physical body. I saw my body hanging in the rope; it looked awful. I was terrified, could see and hear, but it was different -- hard to explain ...
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... Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Puzzling Winds The Amazon jungle seems to be receiving more than its share of natural calamities. Remember the meteor-devastated swaths and strange "crater" reported in SF#103? Well, here's another phenomenon that may or may not be related. "Scientists studying weather patterns in the Amazon Basin have detected extremely powerful, sudden bursts of wind over the rainforest. The winds, which appear to be associated with thunderstorms in the northwest part of Brazil, blow downward with tremendous force. Satellite photos indicate that a single episode demolished 10 square miles of jungle in only 20 minutes." (Anonymous; INFO Journal, no. 74, p. 39, Winter 1996. INFO = International Fortean Organization. Source cited: Alexandria Journal, June 30, 1995) From Science Frontiers #104, MAR-APR 1996 . 1996-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... . "At the end of the polished section was what appears to be a door, made of the same tura limestone and with tongue-and-groove fittings on the side that suggest it can be raised and lowered. It has two corroded copper fittings in the center; a piece of one fitting had broken off and was found lying in front of the stone. A small gap exists at the bottom of the stone, but the camera could not peer through it." But what could lie beyond this tiny door deep in a shaft too small for humans? Is there a hidden chamber? Might it contain the body of Khufu, builder of the Great Pyramid, whose remains have never been found? A suspicious layer of black dust outside the door suggests the past presence of organic matter. Egyptologists find the whole business "very annoying." German archeologist R. Stadelman stated, "There is surely no other chamber." Meanwhile, Gantenbrink plans to slip a fiber-optic camera through the crack under the "door" to resolve the matter. (Maugh, Thomas H., II; "A Robot's Mysterious Discovery," San Francisco Chronicle, May 2, 1993. Cr. J. Covey. Also found in the Wellington, New Zealand, Evening Post . May 1, 1993. Cr. P. Hassall.) From Science Frontiers #89, SEP-OCT 1993 . 1993-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... evolved a "jamming avoidance response," in which they both shift their pulse frequencies away from each other. To accomplish this, the fish must be able to detect time disparities between the two sets of signals less than 1 microsecond long. Their individual electroreceptors are not capable of handling such small time differences. Kawasaki has concluded that the jamming avoidance response can come only from highly sophisticated signal processing in the fish's central nervous system. (Kawasaki, Masashi; "Temporal Hyperacuity in the Gymnotiform Electric Fish Eigenmannia ," American Zoologist , 33:86, 1993.) Comment. Echo-locating bats and dolphins also possess sophisticated data processing apparatus for analyzing the echos they receive back from their prey and surroundings. It will be interesting to discover if evolution has come up with similar organic "components" for handling acoustic and electric signals. Further, we know that some insects have developed ears and sound generators to detect and jam hunting bats. Have the prey of electric fish evolved corresponding countermeasures? If not, why not? From Science Frontiers #89, SEP-OCT 1993 . 1993-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... -likely, since many of the researchers reporting HIV-negative cases of AIDS are the top HIV experts in the world. Another possibility is that there is a new virus that everyone has missed. This is again unlikely given the huge amount of retroviral research that has been performed in the past decade on AIDS patients. Finally, these may be the cases that demonstrate that AIDS can be produced by the types of synergistic, multifactorial assaults on the immune system that Joseph Sonnabend and I have been proposing for years." Although most AIDS researchers are still wedded to the theory that HIV is the sole and only cause of AIDS, cracks in the stonewalling are beginning to appear. In fact, C.A . Thomas, Jr., formerly a Professor of Biochemistry at Harvard, has organized the Group for the Scientific Reassessment of the HIV/ AIDS Hypothesis. (Root-Bernstein, Robert S.; "Rethinking AIDS," Frontier Perspectives , 3:11, Fall 1992.) Comment. If Duesberg and Root-Bernstein are correct, overzealous defense of the HIV paradigm may have cost billions in misdirected research! Reference. AIDS and HIV phenomena are cataloged in BHH14-BHH22 in our catalog: Biological Anomalies: Humans II. For further information, visit: here . From Science Frontiers #86, MAR-APR 1993 . 1993-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... ? .. .. . "Just ask scientific and medical reporter Karl Kruszelnicki, whose theory is based on a study of 150 cats that plummeted from windows at different heights. "Falling from 32 storeys, a cat had more time to work out a plan of action, because once it reached terminal velocity and stopped accelerating, it started to relax, he said in Sydney yesterday. "Once the moggie reached top speed of 100 kmh and realised it was not speeding up any more, it spreadeagled its limbs in the perfect position for maximum wind resistance. "' Once it reaches the ground, the cat just kisses the ground on all four paws simultaneously and the shock is absorbed,' Dr. Kruszelnicki told his bemused audience at the University of New South Wales during a talk organized by the Alumni Association. "Of the 150 cats that fell from highrise buildings in New York over a five-month period, 10 per cent died, with the chances of survival rising with the distance of the fall." It seems that at least one cat per day takes the plunge in New York City, but do they jump...or are they pushed? Dr. Kruszelnicki supposed that some may have leaped at passing birds! (Anonymous; "High-Flying Cats Have the Big Drop Licked," Wellington, New Zealand, The Dominion , September 17, 1992. Cr. P. Hassall) From Science Frontiers #84, NOV-DEC 1992 . 1992-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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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 Hunt For The Magnetoreceptor When magnetite particles were found in organisms from bacteria to bats, it was assumed that here was the long sought magnetoreceptor which animals used for magnetic navigation. But so far, biologists do not have the slightest notion how such magnetite particles can be turned into a "magnetic sense," which sends the brain information on the direction of the geomagnetic field or, perhaps, draws a magnetic map of sorts. A completely different sort of magnetreceptor is now under investigation, one that humans may also unknowingly possess. It utilizes special photoreceptors that employ an electron-spin resonance process which is modulated by the geomagnetic field. Some of our very sensitive magnetometers use similar phenomena. The biological version of such a receptor would be connected to the brain, as the eye is, and send signals as to the direction of the earth's magnetic field. Sounds interesting, but is there any basis for thinking such a sophisticated gadget could have evolved? It seems that some experiments with newts by J.B . Phillips and S.C . Borland support the idea. The newts were first trained to orient themselves in a certain direction with respect to the geomagnetic field. "When tested under one of four artificial field alignments (magnetic north at geographic north, east, south or west), the newts kept their training directions constant relative to the magnetic rather than the geographic system of reference, but they selected ...
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... I were walking along a beach. As we walked on the littoral zone -- the part of the beach between low and high tides -- strange blue lights lit up around our feet as we stepped on the sand. The lights were similar to lightning and the harder we stepped on the ground the more intense the blue lights became. Nobody has been able to provide us with a satisfactory explanation and, no, we were not under the influence of any drugs. Just what was happening?" (Roman, Suzanne; "Bright Sparks," New Scientist, inside back cover, January 13, 1996) Comment. A similar phenomenon was observed at Blundellsands, England, on June 5, 1902, when tiny flames erupted from a mud flat. Spontaneously igniting methane from buried organic matter is a possible explanation. See GLN1-X36 in Lightning, Auroras. For more information on this catalog, visit: here . From Science Frontiers #104, MAR-APR 1996 . 1996-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 87: May-Jun 1993 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Zuni Enigma The Zuni sacred rosette (top) closely resembles Japan's national symbol, a stylized chrysanthemum (bottom) The Zunis of New Mexico are different from other Native Americans in many ways. In an impressive, very detailed paper in the NEARA Journal, N.Y . Davis summarizes her investigation of these anomalies as follows: ". .. evidence suggesting Asian admixture is found in Zuni biology, lexicon, religion, social organization, and oral traditions of migration. Possible cultural and language links of Zuni to California, the social disruption at the end of the Heian period of the 12th century in Japan, the size of Japanese ships at the time of proposed migration, the cluster of significant changes in the late 13th century in Zuni, all lend further credibility to a relatively late prehistoric contact." We cannot delve into all classes of evidence adduced by Davis. Let us focus on the Zuni biological anomalies: Skeletal remains. These show a significant change in Zuni physical characteristics from 1250-1400 AD, suggesting the arrival of a new element in the Zuni population. Dentition. Three tooth features of the Zunis lie midway between those of Asians and other Native Americans; namely, shoveling, Carabelli's cusp, and 5-cusp pattern on the lower second molar. Blood-group characteristics. Blood Type B is frequent in East Asian populations but nearly absent in most Native Americans. Zuni, on ...
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... How did they do it? It was quickly ruled out that they were following specific ocean currents or the bottom topography. The hammerheads seemed to possess some sort of unrecognized navigation sense. Suspecting they might be sensing the geomagnetic field, Klimley began towing a magne tometer behind the boat. Sure enough, the hammerheads were following paths coincident with lines of high magnetic gradient. And Espiritu Santo itself turned out to be a sort of magnetic beacon from which radiated these magnetic "paths" that the hammerheads followed so exactly. Now the question became: How do hammerheads -- and perhaps other animals -- sense such exceedingly small changes in the geomagnetic field? Some birds and mammals do have small particles of magnetite in their bodies, but no one knows how they might be incorporated into a sensory organ. On the other hand, hammerheads and many other sharks are extraordinarily sensitive to electrical fields, responding to fields as low as 10-8 volt/centimeter. Possibly the sharks' forward motion cuts the magnetic lines of force generating an electrical navigational signal. No one knows as yet. And so one mystery leads to another. (Klimley, A. Peter; "Hammerhead City," Natural History, 104:33, October 1995) Comment. Some marine biologists suspect that some deep-water whales and dolphins inadvertently strand themselves while following magnetic "paths" like those radiating from Espiritu Santo. (See SF#38) From Science Frontiers #104, MAR-APR 1996 . 1996-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... at the Australia Telescope National Facility, while surveying just 16 regions of the Milky Way between 5,000 and 30,000 light years, detected a dozen intense methanol masers (6 .7 -12.2 gigahertz) arranged in lines. Early thinking is that these maser spots decorate the discs of gas clouds surrounding nascent stars. In other words, maser spots could be protoplanets. Given the small area of the sky sampled by Norris and Whiteoak, maser spots may be very common. (Dayton, Leigh; "Microwaves May Mark Position of Protoplanets," New Scientist, p. 16, July 10, 1993.) Questions. Whence all this interstellar methanol? And where does it all go when the protoplanets coalesce into planets? Could these molecular clouds also contain those other organic compounds necessary for the creation and development of life? If so, we can speculate that life may originate often and repeatedly as stars and planets are born. From Science Frontiers #90, NOV-DEC 1993 . 1993-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 86: Mar-Apr 1993 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects How A Fly Hears What A Cricket Hears As we all know, male crickets chirp long and loud for mates from spring until fall. That many males are successful in attracting females is obvious from this insect's population levels. Some of the singing males, however, attract parasitic flies that home in on their songs and deposit their maggots on or near them. Within 10 days, these singers are silent -- they have been consumed by the maggots. The really interesting part of this tale involves the hearing organs of the crickets and flies. Normally, they are radically different in design and frequency of operation. Crickets usually sing at frequencies above 3 kilohertz, and their ears are attuned to these high frequencies. The usual fly, on the other hand, hums and buzzes at only 100-500 hertz (cycles per second). Their ears are duly optimized at these frequencies. The cricket-hunting flies (genus Ormia ), however, would starve to death if they couldn't hear the highpitched cricket songs. Their response was to "evolve" a cricket-type ear so they could home in on their prey. This is a remarkable example of evolutionary convergence. (Robert, Daniel, et al; "The Evolutionary Convergence of Hearing in a Parasitoid Fly and Its Cricket Host," Science, 258:1135, 1992.) Comment. How did the parasitic flies survive until they evolved ...
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... deposit. (Duhig, Nathan C., et al; "Microbial Involvement in the Formation of Cambrian Sea-Floor Silica-Iron Oxide Deposits," Geology , 20:511, 1992.) Deeper implications. The formation of placer gold and ironstone are only part of the repertoire of deep-living microorganisms. A five-year survey of microbial life conducted by the U.S . Department of Energy (DOE) found that bacteria were everywhere -- even 3 kilo meters deep in a Virginia borehole. F. Wobber, the DOE manager of the project underscored the mystery and probable importance of "biogeology": "Besides asking how subsurface bacteria affect geology, he wonders how geologic processes could have carried living things so deep into the planet. 'When you find these organisms at great depths,' he says, 'you have to ask: Where did they come from?' Microbes from the soil could easily infiltrate shallow aquifers...but in very deep sediments, like those in the Texaco well, the microbes may have been entombed when the rock was first deposited, tens or hundreds of millions of years ago. If so, the deep Earth might be a den of survivors, toughened by millenia of evolution in their harsh environment. Attacking rock might be just one of their feats. (Appenzeller, Tim; "Deep-Living Microbes Mount a Relentless Attack on Rock," Science, 258:222. 1992.) Comment. Is Wobber suggesting that these super-tough, deep-living bacteria might be dangerous to humans, ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 75: May-Jun 1991 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Can organisms direct their evolution?" In 1988. Harvard molecular biologist John Cairns committed an act of scientific heresy. He proposed in a Nature article that bacteria living in an unfavorable environment are able to choose which mutations to produce to adapt to the stressful situation. Cairns made his directed-mutation hypothesis in response to an unusual finding -- data that strongly hinted bacterial mutations might occur more often when beneficial." The above quotation is the lead paragraph in a long BioScience article that details the consternation Cairns' results have created in the biological community. The problem that biology-as-a -discipline has is that it has deified a paradigm: neo-Darwinism. Now, neo-Darwinism is supported by many experiments showing that some mutations are indeed random. Consequently, as M. Gillis re-marks in her BioScience article, the biological community 'got locked into its belief that an organism cannot control its own mutation.' Furthermore, Cairns' claims recall the long battle with Lamarckism, a subject that biology has closed-the-book-on. In a nutshell, Lamarckism has been interred since the 1950s, and 'Nobody wants to give the appearance of straying from the neoDarwinism fold.' Gillis goes on to review some recent experiments supporting those of Cairns. But, impressive though these may be, there have been neo-Darwinian explanations for some of the results. Even so, more and ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 65: Sep-Oct 1989 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Fossil from mars?Who would have thought that the dreary Antarctic wastes would harbor a piece of Mars, much less a fossil of Martian life? Yet, British scientists, I.P . Wright et al, in Nature, come close to such a conclusion. "The meteorite EETA 79001, which many believe to have originated on Mars, contains carbonate minerals thought to be Martian weathering or alteration products. Accompanying the carbonates are unexpectedly high concentrations of organic materials (defined here as carbonaceous matter that has a low stability towards oxidation, and so combusts at less than 600 C; the term 'organic' does not necessarily imply an origin by biogenic processes.) Although the carbon isotope composition of these materials is indistinguishable from terrestrial biogenic components, and so cannot be used to assess the source, we argue here that their occurrence in an interior sample of a clean Antarctic meteority militates against a wholly terrestrial origin. A sample of Martian organic materials may thus be available for further study in the laboratory." (Wright, I.P ., et al; "Organic Materials in a Martian Meteorite," Nature, 340: 220, 1989.) But there are many "buts": Meteorite EETA 79001 may not have come from Mars after all, even though many scientists think it did. The organic material in EETA 79001 may have come instead from the comet that supposedly blasted the meteorite into space from the ...
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