78 results found.
... sudden resurgence around 5,000 BP. This resurgence and the associated worldwide climatic turmoil also marks the emergence of complex societies all over the planet. The Egyptians built pyramids, the Peruvians constructed temple mounds, civilizations rose and collapsed in the Middle East, and settled agrarian societies developed in many locations. Although not all cultures responded well to the climate changes, El Nino seems to have sparked the rise of modern civilizations. We are assuming that this was good! (Kerr, Richard A.; "El Nino Grew Strong As Cultures Were Born," Science, 283:467, 1999. Sandweiss, Daniel H., et al; "Transitions in the Mid-Holocene," Science, 283:499, 1999.) Comment. Wasn't that period of Global Warming between 12,000 and 5,000 BP the Golden Age when Atlantis throve, when Antarctica was ice-free, when the Sphinx was really built, and when the Garden of Eden was sinless? From Science Frontiers #122, MAR-APR 1999 . 1999-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Core-Mantle Boundary EQA6 Seismic Reflectors EQD SEISMIC DETECTION OF LARGE SCALE DISCONTINUITIES, ZONES, STRUCTURES EQD1 Velocity Discontinuities EQD2 Channels and Zones EQD3 Structural Anomalies of the Inner Core EQD4 Anomalies Associated with Mantle Convection Cells EQQ ANOMALOUS SEISMIC SIGNALS EQQ1 Deep-Focus Earthquakes ES STRATIGRAPHIC ANOMALIES ESA EMBEDDED ACCRETION STRUCTURES ESA1 Cylindrical Structures in Rock and Unconsolidated Sediments ESA2 Spherical Aggregates ESA3 Concretions ESA4 Small Fused Structures ESA5 Geodes ESA6 Orbicules ESB ANOMALOUS BIOLOGICAL PHENOMENA IN GEOLOGY ESB1 Biological Extinction Events ESB2 Biological Explosion Events ESB3 Recent Vegetation and Shallow Water Fossils at Great Depths ESB4 Long-Buried, Undecomposed Organic Matter ESB5 Living and Fossil Marine Organisms Found Far Inland ESB6 Living Organisms and Recent Fossils at Very High Altitudes ESB7 Growth Structures on Marine Organisms and Their Fossils ESB8 Animals Entombed in Rocks ESB9 Living Organisms at Great Depths ESB10 Fossils of Warm-Climate, Light Dependent Organisms Found in the Polar Regions ESB11 Time-Wise Anomalous Fossils ESB12 Skipping in the Fossil Record ESB13 "Special" Nature of Fossils ESC ANOMALOUS CHEMICAL PHENOMENA IN GEOLOGY ESC1 Chemical Anomalies in the Stratigraphic Record ESC2 Chemical Anomalies in Igneous and Metamorphic Rocks ESC3 Surface Films on Rocks ESC4 Spontaneous, Rapid, Exothermic Reactions in Nature ESC5 Death Gulches ESC6 Violent Lake Turnovers ESC7 Petrifactions and Lignifications ESC8 Geological Effects of Natural Combustion ESC9 Rocks and Sediments of Controverted Origins ESC10 Unusual Growth Structures ESC11 Possible Extraterrestrial Origin of Ocean Water ESC12 Chemical Anomalies of Lakes and Ground Water ESC13 Petroleum Anomalies ESC14 Coal Anomalies ESC15 Outgassing of Radon-222 ESC16 Methane Anomalies ESD DEPOSITS OF REMARKABLE SIZE ESD1 Bone Caves, Bone Caches,... ESD2 Bone Beds, Fish Beds,... ESD3 ...
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... Chemical Defenses in Some Birds and Frogs Snake Venoms Vary with Geography Human and Crocodile Hemoglobins Very Similar Electrodynamic Fields in Reptiles Poison Frogs Get Their Poison from Their Prey Electrical Fields around Frog Eggs Remarkable Biochemical Reactions during Tadpole Metamorphosis BRD DISTRIBUTION IN SPACE AND TIME Amphibian Decline Worldwide Blind Cave Dwellers Mass Migrations and Concentrations Out-of-Place Snakes Out-of-Place Alligators and Crocodiles Loggerhead Missing-Year Phenomenon Dearth of Frogs and Lizards in Southeast Asia Sea-Snake Concentrations Strange Geographical Distribution of Iguanas Entombed Animals [ESB8] Sea Snakes Only in Pacific Anomalous Distribution of Amphibians First-Year Garter Snakes Never Found in Winter Dens Surprising Diversity at High Latitudes BRE THE FOSSIL RECORD OF AMPHIBIANS AND REPTILES Dinosaur Extinction Origin of Vertebrates Tetrapod Origin Polar Dinosaurs Earliest Reptile Fossils Large-Scale Extinctions Polyphyletic Origin of Reptiles Warm-Blooded Dinosaurs Mammal-Like Reptiles Snakes with Legs Hairy and Feathered Dinosaurs Origin of Turtles Dinosaur Feeding Habits Correlated with Origin of Flowering Plants Mysterious Reptile Footprints Caecelian Origin Fish-Reptile Transition Fossils Crocodile Origin (Chemistry Contradicts Fossils) Ichthyosaur-Fish Convergence Dinosaurs with Bird-Like Bones Dinosaur Species Separated by Oceans Evolution of Flight Evolutionary Stasis Fish-Amphibian Transition Fossils Filter-Feeding Dinosaurs Sudden Appearances in the Fossil Record Orthogenesis Preadaptation in Reptiles Many Examples of Convergent Evolution Frog Origin Perplexing Ruminating Dinosaurs Unknown Purpose of Back Fans on Dinosaurs Origin of Fins on Marine Reptiles Evolutionary Stasis Vertical Flexure in Marine Reptiles Dinosaurs with Trunks Dinosaurs with Whale-Like Nostrils Web-Footed Dinosaurs BRF BODILY FUNTCIONS Parthenogenesis, Virgin Birth [BRA All-Female Species] Advantages of Female Promiscuity Survival of Freezing Tadpoleless-Frog ...
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... Frogs and Toads GWF12 Insect Falls GWF13 Bird Falls GWF14 Falls of Miscellaneous Living Animals Sewage Falls Falls of Liquids and Goo GWH LARGE STORM SYSTEMS GWH1 Ozone in Hurricanes GWH2 Hurricane Geographical Anomalies GWH3 Thunderstorm Systems Hypercanes Unusually Intense Storms Large-Scale Oscillations of the Atmosphere Wind Storms in the Upper Atmosphere Green Thunderstorms [GWC] Hurricane Fine Structure GWP ANOMALOUS PRECIPITATION GWP1 Precipitation from a Clear Sky GWP2 Giant Snowflakes GWP3 Conical Snowflakes GWP4 Hailstones with Anomalous Shapes GWP5 Giant Hailstones GWP6 Hail Strewn Patterns GWP7 Slowly Falling Hail GWP8 Unusual Inclusions in Hail GWP9 Explosive Hail GWP10 Colored Precipitation GWP11 Luminous Precipitation GWP12 Point Precipitation GWP13 Surplus Ice Crystals in Clouds GWP14 Decrease of Rainfall with Increasing Altitude GWP15 Rain Gushes Associated with Lightning Puzzle of Snowflake Symmetry Weekend Rain Rainfall Correlated with Soil Temperature GWR TEMPERATURE ANOMALIES GWR1 Temperature Flashes GWR2 Incendiary Phenomena Global Warming The Year without a Summer Weekends Getting Warmer Chilling of the Stratosphere GWS WEATHER AND ASTRONOMY GWS1 Correlation of Lunar Phase and Terrestrial Weather GWS2 Correlation of Lunar Phase and Thunderstorms GWS3 Thunderstorms Correlated with Solar Activity GWS4 Effects of Meteors on Weather GWS5 Correlations between Solar Activity and Weather GWS6 Influence of Lunar Phase on Atmospheric Ozone GWS7 The Lunar Temperature Effect GWS8 Purported Effect of the Planets on the Weather GWS9 Comets and the Weather Eclipse Wind Stratospheric Winds Correlated with Solar Activity Weather Correlated with the 18.6 -Year Cycle GWT THE IDIOSYNCRACIES OF TORNADOS AND WATERSPOUTS GWT1 The Tornado as an Electrical Machine GWT2 Burning and Hydration during Tornados GWT3 Tornados and Waterspouts with Horizontal Funnels GWT4 Multiwalled Waterspouts GWT5 Anomalous Historical Incidence of Tornados GWT6 Reversal of Rotation in Waterspouts GWT7 Pranks of the Tornado GWT8 Tornado Incidence Correlated with Magnetic Variation ...
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... some 4,000 stone tools collected at 15 sites in the Siberian permafrost to bolster his claim that Siberia, too, was a point of origin for hominids (see map). "Molchanov's controversial evidence is indeed striking: a collection of chipped and flaked rocks that are clearly artifacts fashioned by humanlike hands and that he contends are 2.5 million years old -- plus or minus a half-million years. "Remarkably, that same era marked the time when early human ancestors known as Homo habilis lived and left their remains in the tropical Olduvai Gorge of what is now Tanzania. Mochanov's collection of tools closely resembles the ones that anthropologists have long collected from digs in Africa." All this contrasts strongly with the dominant view of hominid evolution, which cites warm, verdant African forests and savannas as our most likely place of origin. Siberia, with its -50 winters and fleeting summers, hardly seems conducive to hominid speciation. Mochanov's rationale is that this severe climate actually stimulated ancient hominids to create tools, fashion warm clothing, and build winter shelters -- these Siberian hominids had to evolve or perish! In addition to the climate factor are two other problems: (1 ) The Siberian sites have yielded no hominid bones nor have animal bones of any kind been found; and (2 ) The dating of the tools is shaky. They cannot be radiometrically dated. Instead, Mochanov has had to rely on the tools' similarity to African tools of 2 million years ago, magnetostratigraphy, the decayed luminescence of the soil, and ...
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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. 91: Jan-Feb 1994 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Fiber Fall March 12, 1993, South Pacific Ocean, aboard the m.v . Alam Selamat . At 0630, as a frontal system passed the vessel, there was a sudden rain shower lasting about 25 minutes. Captain J.N . Gowrie reported: "As the rain began to dry on the warm decks, we noticed patches of what first looked like slime but after it had dried appeared to be wool or cotton. We send you a sample of the material and the facsimile chart of the relevant surface analysis, showing my additions of ship's position at the time as 41 43'S , 167 40'W , course 100 , speed 13 knots." (Gowrie, J.N .; "Raining -- Sheep?" Marine Observer, 63:199, 1993. This journal may be ordered from: The Stationery Publications Centre, P.O . Box 276, London, SW8 5DT, ENGLAND) Comment. Incomprehensible as it may seem, there really are falls of slime, jelly-like globs (pwdre ser), and "angel hair!" See GWP in our catalog Tornados, Dark Days. To order visit here . From Science Frontiers #91, JAN-FEB 1994 . 1994-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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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 Warm lake found under antarctic ice sheet Russian scientists using "ice radar" and artificial seismic waves have discovered a vast warmwater lake under their Antarctic base. Named after the Russian base, which is located 1,300 kilometers from the South Pole, Lake Vostok lies under 3,800 meters of solid ice and, apparently, directly under the base. This remarkable body of water was reported in the journal Kyokuchi , published by the Japan Polar Research Association. The lake is 250 kilometers long, 40 wide, and 400 meters deep. Obviously, it requires some sort of explanation as to why is not frozen. Two theories have been proposed: (1 ) Heat from the earth's interior has kept it from freezing; (2 ) The lake has not yet had time enough to freeze after a temperate period that ended about 5,000 years ago. (Anonymous; "Lake Discovered beneath Antarctic Ice," The Japan Times , May 23, 1995. Cr. N. Masuya) Comment. Can there be a connection between this discovery and the ice-free Antarctica suggested by C.H . Hapgood in his Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings ? From Science Frontiers #102 Nov-Dec 1995 . 1995-2000 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 A DEEP-SEA HYDROTHERMAL VENT INSTEAD OF A WARM LITTLE POND?If earth life didn't arrive from outer space (See under ASTRONOMY.), it may have arisen a couple miles below the ocean's surface at hydrothermal vents. The curious glows recently remarked at these vents (SF#87) have stimulated much speculation as to the potential role of these glows in the origin of life: "The history of hydrothermal activity predates the origin of life, and light in the deep sea has been a continuous phenomenon on a geological time scale and may have served either as a seed or refugium for the evolution of biological photochemical reactions or adaptations." We formally classify this item under GEOPHYSICS because scientists are still pondering how these glows are created. Some of the light is obviously black-body radiation from the very hot (350 C) water but: ". .. other potential, narrow-band sources of light may be superimposed on the blackbody radiation spectrum, including crystaloluminescence, Cerenkov radiation, chemiluminescence, triboluminescence, sonoluminescence, and the burning of methane in supercritical water." (Van Dover, Cindy Lee, et al; "Light at Deep Sea Hydrothermal Vents," Eos, vol. 75, 1994.) Comment. If cold, diffuse molecular clouds in deep space can synthesize glycine, imagine what the hot, chemically-rich fluids around hydrothermal vents might be able to do. ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 93: May-Jun 1994 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Cold-blooded birds?Zoologists have been taking it for granted that birds evolved from warm-blooded, active dinosaurs. They may now have to redraw that part of the avian family tree, because the microscopic structure of the leg bones of two species of long-extinct birds suggest otherwise. "Cross sections of the bones of these birds, which lived during the time of the dinosaurs, reveal growth rings -- concentric rings where normal bone growth was interrupted, possibly because of seasonal temperature changes. No such rings are found in the bones of modern birds, which maintain their body temperatures metabolically even in cold weather. But growth rings are found in such reptiles as crocodiles, which cannot maintain their temperatures metabolically, and in some fossil dinosaurs." (Browne, Malcolm W.; "Study May Shake Birds Down from the Dinosaur Tree," New York Times, March 17, 1994. Cr. J. Covey.) From Science Frontiers #93, MAY-JUN 1994 . 1994-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 99: May-Jun 1995 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Ballistic Panspermia Scientists are already convinced that cratering events on the moon and Mars have propelled rocky debris in the direction of the earth, and that some of these fragments have landed here in the guise of meteorites. A logical question is: Can life forms and/or chemical precursors of life be transported thus across the far reaches of the solar system? Can one planet infect another ballistically? An analysis by M.K . Wallis and N.C . Wickramasinghe is rather warm towards this idea: "The mass of escaping ejecta from the presumed 10-km comet that caused the 180-km Chicxulub crater, with a radius of roughly 10 km and 1 m deep, amounted to ~300 Mm3 , of which one third may have been rock and 10% higher-speed ejecta that could have transited directly to Mars. It may have taken 10 Ma to impact Mars but...the probability is not exceedingly low but 0.1 -1 %. "The survival and replication of microorganisms once they are released at destination would depend on the local conditions that prevail. Although viability on the present-day Martian surface is problematical, Earth-to-Mars transfers of life were feasible during an earlier 'wet' phase of the planet, prior to 3.5 Ga ago. The Martian atmosphere was also denser at that epoch, with several bars of CO2 , thus serving to decelerate meteorites, as ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 95: Sep-Oct 1994 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Blondes in ancient china Evidence of tobacco in ancient egypt Dwarf mammoths in ancient egypt? Astronomy "AN UNPRECEDENTED AND BIZARRE OBJECT" Comets, asteroids, or neither? This was the big one, but where did it come from? Snowballs in hell? Biology It's according to hoyle and wickramasinghe Music of the hemispheres The urge to replicate: part i The urge to replicate: part ii Geology Might diamonds be dead bacteria? Deep quake deepens mystery Geophysics Sylvanshine: a newly recognized optical phenomenon Gamma-ray flashes in the upper atmosphere A DEEP-SEA HYDROTHERMAL VENT INSTEAD OF A WARM LITTLE POND? Psychology The solar wind and hallucinations Physics Cold fusion update: 1994 Miscellaneous A SKEPTIC'S NDE -- NOT SO MYSTICAL ...
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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 Sylvanshine: a newly recognized optical phenomenon Driving along a forested British Columbia road on a warm August night, A.B . Fraser noticed that some trees in the dark woods glowed spectacularly in the car's headlights -- almost as if they were covered with snow. Obviously snow was out of the question. Instead, the glow was some form of reflection from dew-covered leaves, and only from certain species of trees at that. "Later nocturnal expeditions with a powerful flashlight (a proceeding that aroused dark suspicions in at least one local gamekeeper) showed that it favoured only certain types of conifer and a few shrubs such as the yew and rhododendron. The explanation lies in the contact angle of the droplets on the leaves: as this rises above 90 degrees or so, the proportion of light from the car's headlamps that is reflected back towards the occupant increases, and for angles above 140 degrees, the retroreflection becomes spectacular. Blue spruces show the glow particularly well." (Matthews, Lindsay; "Reflections on a Summer's Night," Nature, 369:441, 1994.) From Science Frontiers #95, SEP-OCT 1994 . 1994-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... planet's axis of rotation, but the latter lies almost in Uranus' orbital plane. Q1. Why are the magnetic fields of Neptune and Uranus tilted at such grotesque angles with the axes of rotation? A1. Probably because of giant impacts. Q2. "Why does Mercury have an iron core twice as massive, relative to its size, as any other rocky planet?" A2. Probably because a giant impact tore off its rocky mantle. Q3. "How can Neptune sustain 1400-kilometer-per-hour winds -- faster than Jupiter's -- when it is so far from the sun, whose heat powers atmospheric circulation?" A3. ?? Q4. "How could Mars -- now more than 50 C below freezing -- have been warm enough in its early days to have water flowing on its surface?" A4. Possibly due to geothermal heat. (Kerr, Richard A.; "The Solar System's New Diversity," Science, 265:1360, 1994.) Reference. A large collection of solar-system anomalies exists in our catalog volume: The Moon and the Planets. To order, visit here . From Science Frontiers #97, JAN-FEB 1995 . 1995-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 102: Nov-Dec 1995 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology ANCIENT ACOUSTICAL ENGINEERING THE CANDELABRA OF THE ANDES Astronomy HUGE FIREBALL EXPLOSION IN 1994 2,000,000,000 BC: THE EPOCH OF QUASARS Biology TWO POLITICALLY INCORRECT BIOCHEMICAL ANOMALIES FROM DUST UNTO ABYSSAL MUD PERFECT PITCH AND SUNDRY SYNDROMES KING CRAB CONGREGATIONS THE BIRDS Geology WARM LAKE FOUND UNDER ANTARCTIC ICE SHEET REMNANTS OF TUNGUSKA "WEIRD ICICLES" IN A REFRIGERATOR Geophysics A TUNGUSKA-LIKE BLAST IN BRAZIL IN 1930 STYTHE? ICE "METEORITES" FALL LONG-LIVED BUBBLE IN THE ATMOSPHERE Psychology UNCONVENTIONAL WATER DETECTION FUNGAL PHANTASMS Mathematics 1, 089, 533, 431, 247, 059, 310, 875, 780, 378, 922, 957, 447, 308, 967, 213, 141, 717, 486, 151 Physics SOUR GRAPES! ...
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... think that these coastal seiches are the consequence of internal waves (solitons*) formed at the southeastern edge of the Caribbean where tidal effects are particularly powerful 2 days after new and full moons. These slowmoving internal waves take 5 days to reach Puerto Rico, where they emerge as coastal seiches. Similar internal waves created by tidal currents at the edges of the continental shelves and deepwater sills may explain the mysterious coastal seiches recorded in the Anadaman and Sulu Seas. So far, no one has suggested origins for the Irish "death waves" and Baltic "seebars." (Korgen, Ben J.; "Seiches," American Scientist, 83:330, 1995.) *Internal waves or solitons move, mostly unseen at the surface, along the ocean's thermoclinethe plane separating warm surface water from much colder water below. The vertical amplitude of the solitons may be hundreds of meters, but at the surface they are represented by only small, gently domed, slowly moving waves or by regions of turbulence. Coastal seiches appear when the solitons impinge on coasts. For more on unusual waves and solitons, see: Earthquakes, Tides, etc. This book is listed here . From Science Frontiers #101 Sep-Oct 1995 . 1995-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 100: Jul-Aug 1995 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects How can the moon affect the earth's temperature?Several weather phenomena, such as precipitation and thunderstorm frequency, have been linked to the phase of the moon. Now, it seems that the moon's "cold" emanations can also raise the earth's temperature. Explaining how the moon's phase can have any warming effect at all on the earth's atmosphere is difficult, because the infrared energy received from the moon is only 10-5 that in sunlight. Nevertheless, a slight but statistically significant temperature effect does exist. In one study, the microwave emission of molecular oxygen was measured by a polar-orbit satellite. These data gave meteorologists the temperatures of the lowest 6 kilometers of the atmosphere from all areas of the planet. The temperature difference between full moon and new moon was only 0.02 C, with the full-moon temperature being the higher. (Ref. 1) A second study took actual surface temperatures measured at noon GMT each day at 51,200 locations around the world. These near-surface temperatures revealed a difference of 0.2 C between full and new moons -- ten times larger than that from the satellite study. (Ref. 2) 0.2 C and even 0.02 C are much too large to be attributed to direct lunar "heating." Instead, geophysicists wonder if the moon's orbit modulates the influx ...
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... . 97: Jan-Feb 1995 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Age Of Fire And Gravel Back in 1883, I. Donnelly wrote his seminal Ragnarok , to which he attached as a subtitle: The Age of Fire and Gravel . He hypothesized that all those sheets of unconsolidated rocky debris strewn across the planet--called the "drift" -- were the consequence of impacts of comets. But in Donnelly's day, all geologists were uniformitarians and wedded to glacial theory. Donnelly's "age of fire and gravel" was really a succession of Ice Ages. Quite a difference in mechanism! Glacial theory, however, has difficulty in explaining apparent glaciations during periods when the earth was supposed to be very warm. Nor does it account easily for glacial-like debris in equatorial regions. With the current ascendancy of "impact geology," some brave geologists are reinterpreting supposed glacial deposits in terms of sheets of ballistic ejecta from the impacts of comets and/or asteroids. Modern estimates of terrestrial cratering suggest that 10% of our planet's surface could be covered by 10+ meters of ejecta, and 2% by 200+ meters. Now that's a lot of ejecta! (Rampino, Michael R.; "Tillites, Diamictites, and Ballistic Ejecta of Large Impacts," Journal of Geology, 102:439, 1994.) Comment. The Ice Ages won't be melted completely away by such reinterpretations. Nor will I. Donnelly ever get any credit for ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 116: Mar-Apr 1998 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Global cooling has begun!G. Bond of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and his colleagues have been tracking the movements of past ice sheets using the trails of rocky debris they leave behind on the ocean floor. A type of igneous rock called "gabbro" is indicative of the passage of past ice sheets. For example, 100,000 years ago, when the last ice age began, the amount of gabbro in ocean-floor sediments jumped from 2% to 8%. Despite all today's furor over global warming, Bond et al are finding in current ocean sediments the same gabbro precursors. Conclusion: a new ice age is in the making. (Anonymous; "Big Freeze," New Scientist, p. 21, December 20/27, 1997.) From Science Frontiers #116, MAR-APR 1998 . 1998-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 110: Mar-Apr 1997 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Unusual Circulating Cloud Object July 24, 1996. Malborough, South Devon. About midnight on this date, E. Netley and his wife observed a most peculiar cloud formation. It was so well-formed and precisely organized that Netley felt that the term "cloud object" was appropriate. Even so, he was confident that the apparition represented a natural phenomenon. "Natural" probably, but certainly the strangest cloud we have encountered in 30 years of literature research. The evening of July 23 was warm and a bit humid, with a modest breeze blowing in from the ocean. Netley and wife first saw the "cloud object" from a distance of about a kilometer; they eventually walked to within 400 meters of the phenomenon. The "object" consisted of a slowly rotating ring of thin, vertically oriented clouds. (See figure.) The cloud ring was 80-100 meters across and seemed to rotate in a horizontal plane at the rate of about one revolution per minute. As though this were not strange enough, the rotating "cloud object" itself moved in a larger circle 8-10 times the diameter of the "cloud object." The "cloud object" took 4-5 minutes to complete a trip around the larger circle. The phenomenon lasted for about an hour before dissipating. (Netley, Edward; "Unusual Circulating Cloud Object," Journal of Meteorology, U.K . ...
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... could not be determined, the bands appeared to be of great dimension. While still proceeding through the bioluminescence and observing astern, it was noted that the formation of the bands became disrupted and seemed to diffuse a ragged appearance at the perimeter of the wheel to the port side of the vessel. Judging by the distance of the vessels close by -- which were being tracked by radar -- the extent of the rotating bands to the west could not be determined but they were estimated to be between and n. mile. The duration of the phenomenon was 4 minutes from entering to leaving the bioluminescence." (Lehepuu, K.; "Bioluminescence," Marine Observer, 52:76, 1982.) Comment. Bright marine bioluminescence is not uncommon in the Atlantic, particularly in warm waters, but it is very unusual to find geometrically organized displays. The light wheels seen in the Persian Gulf and South China Sea are more frequent and more highly structured. No one has ever come up with a good explanation of how simple marine organisms cooperate to produce such large, complex, rotating displays. From Science Frontiers #117, MAY-JUN 1998 . 1998-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... hydrocarbons is a "deep, hot, biosphere." By "deep" Gold means 100 kilometers and more. It is this combination of a deep reservoir of hydrocarbons and life forms (probably mostly bacteria) that can account for (among other things): The fact that all helium comes from oil and gas wells The fact that the composition of petroleum is not what one would expect from the decomposition of plants and animals. It is really a mixture of primordial hydrocarbons with some added biochemical by-products; that is, products of that "deep" biosphere. Since carbonaceous material is now known to be common in the solar system (comets, carbonaceous chondrites, etc.), it is likely that many other planets also possess deep stores of hydrocarbons. In these deep, warm, protected, energyrich "wombs," complex biospheres might readily evolve. In Gold's view, deep biospheres may be the rule and surface life the exception! Finally, Gold sees life as merely a natural process with no more meaning and purpose than accelerating the breaking of chemical bonds and thereby increasing entropy! "It has been said that nature abhors a vacuum, but nature doesn't care much for free energy either. All of biology is just a device for degrading energy from chemical sources, and on the surface from the great temperature differential between the hot sun and the cold of space. Perhaps biology is just a branch of thermodynamics, and there is no sudden beginning of life, but a gradual systematic development toward more efficient ways of degrading energy. .. ...
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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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... there is a deep channel about 2 kilometers wide with steep sides running lengthwise along the lake floor. When wind blows across the lake's surface, wind-drag pushes surface water downwind. When the wind stops or changes direction, the piled-up water is freed, and standing waves are set up as the water sloshes back and forth in the lake basin. These waves are called "seiches." Lakes usually have characteristic periods of oscillation. For Lake Champlain, it is 4 hours, with amplitudes measured only in centimeters on the surface of the water. What makes Lake Champlain of more than usual interest is the presence of a second seiche, an internal phenomenon not visible on the surface. In the summer, Lake Champlain is stratified with a thermocline separating a layer of warm surface water from much colder deep water. You can only "see" the thermocline if you lower a thermometer into the water. This thermocline also exhibits seiches, but they are startlingly different from those on the surface. In Lake Champlain, the period of the internal seiche is 4 days rather than 4 hours. The amplitudes fall between 20 and 40 meters instead of being in the centimeter range. Just a few meters below the lake's surface, conditions are radically different. (Hunkins, Kenneth, et al; "Numerical Studies of the 4-Day Oscillation of Lake Champlain," Journal of Geophysical Re search, 103:18,425, 1998.) The seiches under discussion occur in the main part of Lake Champlain on the left. From Science Frontiers # ...
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... goes on to explore some of these many feedback mechanisms; one obscure loop involves the production of dimethyl sulfide by marine phytoplankton. Truly, it is a tangled bank! All of the feedback loops imply that the evolution of life forms is constrained (or dictated) by the need to keep the planet livable and not to simply leave the most progeny, but rather the progeny that will best serve Gaia! (Lenton, Timothy M.; "Gaia and Natural Selection," Nature, 394:439, 1998.) Comments. The obvious implication is that all life forms, including humans, are parts of a planet-sized super-superorganism. This leads to the oft-stated and possibly true suspicion that, if a species endangers Gaia by creating ozone holes and undue global warming, the super-superorganism will take appropriate steps -- new diseases, for example. From Science Frontiers #120, NOV-DEC 1998 . 1998-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... of bygone days have repeatedly testified about the eerie, unexpected booms heard around the shores of Lake Seneca. It seems that the phenomenon is not restricted to this Finger Lake, for a letter from G. Kuchar describes a modern "bombardment" of "lake guns" heard at Lake Cayuga about 15 miles east of Lake Seneca. "In the early morning hours of August 8th, 1996 (maybe about 6:30 or 7:00 AM), I was awoken by what I thought were loud explosions of thunder. It was a very loud, abrupt sound, sort of like close-by thunderclaps except that they seemed somewhat distant and yet had no reverberations or rumblings. I went to the window which faced a large building across the way...The early morning appeared warm, humid, and overcast. The explosive "thunderclaps" happened again, a whole series of them, and they seemed to originate up in the air and to my right, but I could detect no flashes of light, and the blasts seemed to come at random points in the sky (which was not very visible to me because of the big building looming across the lawn). I couldn't figure out where the storm cloud was that was producing these blasts, since everything was uniformly overcast, and there was no darkness moving in or evident in my field of view. From the sound of the blasts, which were very impressive, powerful noises, I pictured in my mind's eye that huge cloud-to-ground bolts of lightning must be erupting somewhere ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 119: Sep-Oct 1998 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Some Green Flashes Are Yellow Rarely, green flashes are observed just as the tip of the setting sun disappears below the horizon. Most of these flashes have a perfectly good explanation. The earth's atmosphere acts like a prism and disperses the light of the sun into a spectrum, and the last portion of this spectrum that one usually sees is green. Conditions have to be just right, though. A flat horizon and a layer of warm air are important. But even when conditions seem perfect, the green flash does not always appear, and all one sees is the red tip of the sun sinking out of sight. Even if the patient observer is rewarded by a green flash, he may really have been deceived, for there are "false" green flashes. A. Young, San Diego State University, reported at a recent meeting of the American Astronomical Society on a peculiar type of optical illusion that can afflict observers of the setting sun. It seems that the intense red light of the sun near the horizon can bleach the red-sensitive receptors in the retina so that an intent observer becomes temporarily color blind to red. When this happens, the observer sees the yellow part of the dispersed solar spectrum as being green (yellow minus red = green). The true green flash may never have appeared at all. (Seife, Charles; "Don't Let Your Eyes Deceive You," ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 138: Nov-Dec 2001 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology When the Arctic was Warm A Down Side to Moundbuilding Astronomy The 8 Greatest Mysteries of Cosmology "Redshift is a Shaky Measuring Rod" Biology Remarkable Animal Talents and Capabilities Life as a Complex of "Dominant States" Britain More Hazardous than Ever Geology When the Antarctic was Warm Geophysics Drifting, Glowing Fog Hums Ho! Psychology Born to Enumerate Unconsciousness and its "Zombie Agents" Physics It's Time for A Bit of Generalization The Dynamics of Oleaginated Carbohydrate Parallelopipeds Mathematics Bent Magic ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 89: Sep-Oct 1993 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects RHYTHMIC SUBMARINE VOLCANOS AND EL NINOS An El Nino commences when a giant high pressure system centered near Easter Island weakens slightly and causes a shift in the circulation of Pacific Ocean currents. Weather patterns from North America to Australia lurch ponderously in sympathy. El Ninos occur every 4-7 years, suggesting some periodic phenomenon is waving a geophysical baton. The real cause of El Ninos is still obscure. However, the recent discovery of over 1,000 previously unmapped submarine volcanos rising from the seafloor in the eastern Pacific may lead to El Nino's source. The synchronous eruption of, say, 100 of these volcanos might warm the ocean around Easter Island a tad -- just enough to warm the atmosphere above a bit -- resulting in a shift of the high pressure area. The area of intense volcanic activity covers 55,000 square miles of sea floor where the Pacific and Nazca plates are separating. In addition to the active volcanos, many plumes of 800 F water gush from the sea floor in this area. The volcano-El Nino link is, therefore, not so far-fetched. (Nash, Nathaniel C.; "Volcano Group in Pacific May Cause El Nino," Pittsburgh Post Gazette, February 14, 1993. Cr. E. Fegert) Comment. If submarine volcanos do cause the El Ninos, and the El Ninos are periodic, the submarine volcanism would have to be periodic, ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 8: Fall 1979 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Brontides Become Respectable The mystery of natural detonations (Barisal Guns, mistpouffers, etc.) was probed by several scientific groups following the recent episodes of off-shore booms. This paper by Gold and Soter, from Cornell, would have warmed the heart of Charles Fort, for he made much of natural detonation: or "brontides," as they are termed in the early literature. Gold and Soter review the long history of brontides, noting that brontide activity is often associated with earthquakes, but not always. Natural booming noises, they contend, may be due to eruptions of natural gas. This would square with the rare observations of earthquake lights. Interestingly enough, the recent off-shore detonations were occasionally accompanied by luminous phenomena. (Gold, Thomas, and Soter, Steven; (Brontides: Natural Explosive Noises," Science, 204:371, 1979.) Reference. Brontides and other "water guns" are collected in GSD1 in Earthquakes, Tides, Unidentified Sounds. Details on the Catalog volume here . From Science Frontiers #8 , Fall 1979 . 1979-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 23: Sep-Oct 1982 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Remarkable Engineering Design In Nature Two unusual examples of inspired design in nature have been described recently: (1 ) The swordfish possesses special tissues rich in mitochrondria and cytochrome-c that generate heat for the animal's eye and brain. Not only do these heating elements keep the swordfish eye and brain significantly warmer than the surrounding water but they also keep these organs warm and thus more effective during deep dives into the cold ocean depths. (Carey, Francis G.; "A Brain Heater in the Swordfish," Science, 216:1327, 1982.) (2 ) Plants, it seems, developed light pipes long before humans. Certain plant tissues (etiolated or dark-grown) act as multiple bundles of optical fibers and coherently transfer light over distances of at least 2 cm. Optical tests show that these natural light pipes are much more effective transmitters of light than media that simply scatter light. This unsuspected sophistication of Nature's design may require significant revisions in photobiology, which did not allow for such ingenuity. (Smith , Harry; "Light-Piping by Plant Tissues," Nature, 298:423, 1982.) Comment. Since some plants are known to emit light, we would not be surprised, the way things are going, to learn of natural plant lasers! From Science Frontiers #23, SEP-OCT 1982 . 1982-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 18: Nov-Dec 1981 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Life's origin within the earth?Biologists usually hark back to warm, sunlit swamps and tidal pools when contemplating the origin of life. Lately, Hoyle has proposed a cosmochemical origin (see OR DID IT DRIFT IN FROM WITHOUT? ). Few look within the earth. Yet, when Mt. St. Helens erupt-ed it essentially sterilized all lakes and ponds in the immediate area as far as known life forms were concerned, and then introduced previously unknown chemosynthetic bacteria. At least, this is one interpretation. Scientists at Oregon State University found the waters around the volcano to be teeming with these bacteria, up to a billion per drop. The bacteria resemble nothing in the local soil but do seem related to bacteria existing around Precambrian volcanos. (Anonymous; "Secrets of Life in a Volcano?" Boston Globe, July 14, 1981.) Comment. Were the new bacteria in the volcanic ejecta or had they just gone unnoticed in the soil? Could the hot rocks, geothermal brines, and restless magmas beneath our feet be the real cradle of terrestrial life, with photosynthesis-dependent surface species being relatively unimportant to the big picture? From Science Frontiers #18, NOV-DEC 1981 . 1981-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 6: February 1979 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Earth, the magic top The Journal of Physics is a most respectable British scientific publication, but in a recent issue we find an article that would warm the heart of Ignatius Donnelly, to say nothing of Hapgood, Brown, Velikovsky, and more recent catastrophists. Employing a wide span of data from complex top theory to ancient legend, Warlow suggests that the earth has undergone many violent catastrophes, some of them within the time of man. Flood legends, geomagnetic reversals, tektites, paleoclimatology, salinity crises, and other familiar standbys of the catastrophists force P. Warlow to examine the stability of the earth in the presence of astronomical collisions and near-collisions. He shows that the earth rotates slowly and that, even with the stabilizing equatorial bulge, our planet is rather sensitive to outside forces. It is, he says, like a tippe top or magic top; a 8,000-mile-diameter top that turns over repeatedly in response to external influences. Did not the ancient Egyptians write that the sun once rose in the west? Are there not massive faunal extinctions? Have not stray solar-system bodies left scars on all the inner planets? (Warlow, P.; "Geomagnetic Reversals," Journal of Physics,11:2107, 1978.) From Science Frontiers #6 , February 1979 . 1979-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 9: Winter 1979 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Purple Blobs In Texas In early September 1979, the Associated Press carried a story about three purple blobs found in a yard in Frisco, Texas. One blob evaporated away, while the remaining two were preserved for analysis by NASA. The blobs were warm when found and had appeared during the height of a meteor shower. At first, NASA scientists did not rule out the possibility that the jelly-like goo might be extraterrestrial, but an AP dispatch the next day (not as widely printed) inferred that the blobs were merely industrial waste! (Anonymous; "NASA Scientists to Prob Mystery of 2 Purple Blobs Found in Texas," Baltimore Sun, September 8, 1979.) Comment. The blobs closely resemble gelatinous meteors or pwdre ser reported rarely down the centuries. One instance of pwdre ser was reported in 1978 from England in the Journal of Meteorology, U.K ., and there are doubtless more that are swept under the rug. We may be sure that NASA will have nothing further to do with something as outrageous as pwdre ser. Many pwdre ser observations are cataloged at GWF7 in Tornados, Dark Days, Anomalous Precipitation. This volume is described here . From Science Frontiers #9 , Winter 1979 . 1979-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 27: May-Jun 1983 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Great Balls Of Snakes Most garter snakes in the northern states spend the winter in communal dens below the frost line. Some dens host as many as 10,000 to 15,000 redlined garter snakes, which emerge en masse in the spring. Although garter snakes cannot survive freezing temperatures, they apparently do not congregate in such enormous numbers to keep warm, for sexually immature garter snakes commonly hibernate alone. Big concentrations of sexually mature garter snakes seem to be part of the reproduction strategy of the species. In the big aggregations, males usually outnumber females by 50-1 . As each female emerges in the spring, she is immediately mobbed by dozens of males. So-called "mating balls" of up to 100 males and a single female are formed. Naturalists commonly explain the wintering concentrations and mating balls as clever schemes evolved to maximize reproduction with minimum expenditure of energy. This article accepts this theme uncritically. (Lynch, Wayne; "Great Balls of Snakes," Natural History, 92:65, April 1983.) Comment. Evolutionists tend to "explain" facts in a circular fashion; that is, only the most efficient reproducers (or "fittest") survive, therefore those that survive must be the best reproducers. While the garter snake strategy has some advantages in terms of getting male and female together, things may have gone too far. For example, one communal den was flooded, ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 30: Nov-Dec 1983 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Soil Temperatures Forecast Rainfall Patterns Dig a hole about 40 inches deep, take the soil temperature at that depth, and you can predict future wet and dry periods months ahead of time. To illustrate, warm spring soils are usually followed by rainy summers; cold soils precede dry summers most of the time. At first, American scientists doubted this Chinese discovery, but their re-search soon proved that the correlation is even stronger in the United States. The best explanation so far is that soil temperatures affect atmospheric convection and modify weather patterns locally. (Anonymous; "Digging for a Forecast," Science Digest, 91:30, September 1983.) From Science Frontiers #30, NOV-DEC 1983 . 1983-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 24: Nov-Dec 1982 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Polyna Mystery "Polyna" is a Russian word meaning "an enclosed area of unfrozen water surrounded by ice." Polynas form for some unknown reason in the Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica. These transient ice-free "lakes" may cover 300,000 square kilometers, inferring a substantial influx of heat countering the frigid polar temperatures. Although small coastal polynas can be blown free of ice by strong Antarctic winds, the open-ocean polynas are much larger and do not seem to owe their origins to wind. One suggested explanation is that warm subsurface water rises suddenly to the surface, but it takes a lot of heat to keep hundreds of thousands of square kilometers ice-free. The most recent polyna opened up a region of the Weddell Sea for about three years (1973-1976). (Simon, C.; "Polynas Surrounded by Ice and Mystery," Science News, 122:183, 1982.) From Science Frontiers #24, NOV-DEC 1982 . 1982-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... When The Earth Shifted Gears No one really knows just how the terrestrial magnetic field is generated or why it has reversed its direction so frequently in past geological time. Per-haps there is a clue in the following correlation: "The Mesozoic-Cenozoic histories of reversals in the earth's magnetic field and of periods of widespread anoxia in the ocean basins show a remarkable correlation; periods of black-shale deposition (' anoxic events') occur during lengthy periods without magnetic reversals (' quiet periods'). My assembly of published work indicates a remote connection between quiet periods and anoxic events and suggests its form: Magnetic quiet periods coincide with fast seafloor spreading. During these periods, buoyant spreading ridges displace seawater into broad shelves, thus decreasing earth's albedo and causing global warming. Temperature gradients, and thus density gradients, from pole to equator decrease in surface waters, and the deep ocean currents of oxygenated polar waters wane. Oxygen minimum zones intensify and widen; anoxic conditions throughout entire basins are indicated by black shales deposited in the deep sea. These relations thus suggest that the earth's interior processes and its climates are related and their status recorded by both magnetic polarity and anoxic event chronologies of the earth." (Force, Eric R.; "A Relation among Geomagnetic Reversals, Seafloor Spreading Rate, Paleoclimate, and Black Shales," Eos, 65:18, 1984.) Comment. But what stopped and restarted the magnetic reversals and other concurrent processes? Strangely enough, the quiet, anoxic periods do not seem to coincide with biological ...
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... Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Arctic Womb "Magnetostratigraphic correlation of Eureka Sound Formation in the Canadian High Arctic reveals profound difference between the time of appearance of fossil land plants and vertebrates in the Arctic and in mid-northern latitudes. Latest Cretaceous plant fossils in the Arctic predate mid-latitude occurrences by as much as 18 million years, while typical Eocene vertebrate fossils appear some 2 to 4 million years early." (Hickey, Leo J., et al; "Arctic Terrestrial Biota: Paleomagnetic Evidence of Age Disparity with Mid-Northern Latitudes During the Late Cretaceous and Early Tertiary," Science, 221:1153, 1983.) Comment. The anomaly here is in the vision of the high Arctic lands basking in the warm sun busily evolving new life forms well in advance of their appearance in lands closer to the Equator. What happened to the earth's axial tilt. These fecund polar territories should have been engulfed in darkness almost half of the year -- hardly an environment for precocious plant evolution. Further, trees found buried in the Arc-tic muck could never have grown where found due to the long polar darkness. From Science Frontiers #30, NOV-DEC 1983 . 1983-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... naturally hot. However, in the early spring skunk cabbages are and so are some philodendrons during their flowering periods. In fact, some philo-dendrons burn fat to generate their heat, just like animals. Metabolism based on fats allows some philodendrons to reach temperatures of 124 F. In terms of their rates of metabolism, they rival those of the humming birds. Further-more, philodendrons can regulate their chemical fires, whereas skunk cabbages, which burn only starch, consume all their stored energy like a rocket in one snow-melting crescendo. Why do plants generate heat? Apparently to attract pollinating insects. The hot skunk cabbage poking through the snow is the only food in sight for early spring insects, while the philodendrons may attract pollinating insects who like to bask or mate in warm places. (Blakeslee, Sandra; New York Times, August 9, 1983, p. C4. Cr. P. Gunkel) Comment. Are plants really "lower" forms of life? From Science Frontiers #30, NOV-DEC 1983 . 1983-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 27: May-Jun 1983 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Current Anomalous El Nino Bad spring weather? It's the El Nino. El Nino is the name given the annual movement of warm water southward along the western coast of South America. Every few years (range 2-10 years, average about 3 years) this current penetrates much farther south, devastating the fishing industry. Usually the catastrophic El Ninos begin in the eastern Pacific and work westward. The current El Nino is out of phase somehow, beginning in the western Pacific and moving east. (The current extreme drought in Australia is part of this phenomenon.) The more powerful El Ninos are usually associated with severe winters in North America; the opposite is true this time. Obviously, something is amiss with the current El Nino. (Philander, S.G .H .; "El Nino Southern Oscillation Phenomena," Nature, 302:295, 1983.) Reference. Anomalous El Ninos are cataloged at GHT4 in Earthquakes, Tides. This book is described here . From Science Frontiers #27, MAY-JUN 1983 . 1983-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 44: Mar-Apr 1986 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Tunnelling Towards Life In Outer Space Most books on biology begin the history of life in those apochryphal warm ponds of primordial soup. Leave comfortable earth for a moment and consider the immense, cold clouds of gas and dust swirling between the stars and galaxies. At near-absolute-zero, sunless and waterless, these clouds hardly seem the womb of life. Yet, there may be found the atoms necessary to life -- H, C, O, N, etc -- and in profusion. Collisions of cosmic rays can promote the synthesis of fairly large molecules. We have already detected molecules as complex as formaldehyde in the interstellar medium. But surely the immensely more complicated molecules of biology cannot be synthesized near absolute zero. This may not be true either because at extremely low temperatures the quantum mechanical phenomenon of "tunnelling" becomes important. To achieve molecular synthesis, repulsive barriers must be overcome. The warm temperatures in that terrestrial pond can provide the extra kinetic energy to climb over these barriers. In cold molecular clouds we must look elsewhere. The laws of quantum mechanics state that there is always a very low probability that atoms and molecules can tunnel through repulsive barriers -- no need to climb over them via thermal effects. "Specifically, entire atoms can tunnel through barriers represented by the repulsive forces of other atoms and form complex molecules even though the atoms do not have the energy required by classical chemistry to overcome ...
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... and tradition. The authors of this article stess the pitfalls of using data handed down verbally from generation to generation. With these caveats, they reproduce an Indian tradition originally set down by Judge James Swan back in 1888: "' A long time ago,' said my informant, 'but not at a very remote period, the water of the Pacific flowed through what is now the swamp and prairie between Waatch village and Neeah Bay, making an island of Cape Flattery. The water suddenly receded leaving Neeah Bay perfectly dry. It was four days reaching the lowest ebb, and then rose again without any waves or breakers, till it had submerged the Cape, and in fact the whole country, excepting the tops of the mountains at Clyoquot. The water on its rise became very warm, and as it came up to the houses, those who had canoes put their effects into them, and floated off with the current, which set very strongly to the north.'" The authors of the present article wonder if the above could be an account of a massive tsunami! They admit that the 4-day recession is inconsistent with tsunami action and that the warm water is hard-to-explain. The height reached by the inundation -- some 400 meters -- is also incredible. (Heaton, Thomas H., and Snavely, Parke D., Jr.; "Possible Tsunami along the Northwestern Coast of the United States Inferred from Indian Traditions," Seismological Society of America, Bulletin, 75:1455, 1985.) From Science Frontiers ...
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... endowed planet into space safely, particularly if the impacting object glanced off into space pulling ejecta after it. The terminal phase, the capture of spores from a passing molecular cloud by the solar system and then the earth, would be nonlethal if the spores were somehow coated with a thin veneer of ultraviolet absorbing material. In sum, the experiments place limits on panspermia, but do not rule it out by any means. (Weber, Peter, and Greenberg, J. Mayo; "Can Spores Survive in Interstellar Space?" Nature, 316:403, 1985.) Comment. Weber and Greenberg do not discuss the possible existence of dense, low-temperature regions in molecular clouds where conditions might be conducive to the development of large molecules. Does life have to have the proverbial warm, sunlit pond to develop? From Science Frontiers #42, NOV-DEC 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Voyager photos reveal that these rings are composed of unknown dark material quite unlike that in the high-albedo (bright) rings of Saturn. References. (Kerr, Richard A.; "A Comet's Heart May Be Big But Black," Science, 229:372, 1985. Also: Emsley, John; "Amino Acids from Outer Space," New Scientist, p. 30, December 19/26, 1985. Also: Anonymous; "Fine Particles Viewed in Uranus' Rings Leave Scientists 'Happily Bewildered'." Baltimore Sun, January 28, 1986.) Comment. How and where is star sludge manufactured? Again we have to venture that the venerable "primordial soup" in which life mysteriously assembled itself is located in outer space rather than in warm, sunlit earthly ponds. It also seems strange that all these extraterrestrial amino acids just seem to "fall together," with little urging, in seemingly hostile environments. More on this in the item that follows. From Science Frontiers #44, MAR-APR 1986 . 1986-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 55: Jan-Feb 1988 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Wheels of light: sea of fire It has always been perplexing that scientists have made no concerted effort to find the cause of the many forms of the geometrical luminescent displays seen in the Persian Gulf, the Indian Ocean, and other warm waters. True, a few individual researchers have looked at literature and done some theorizing; but no expeditions have been launched that we know of. Here is a well-verified, richly complex, eerily beautiful, natural phenomenon that is almost completely neglected by science. Happily, P. Huyghe has now brought the problem to the fore in a comprehensive article in Oceans, He reviews several types of luminescent displays and some of the theories-of-origin that have been proposed. We have space here for only one of the observations he records. P. Newton was the Chief Officer on the M.V . Mahsuri, which was passing through the Gulf of Oman bound for Australia. It was a dark, moonless night in May. "Then it happened. What first caught Newton's attention was a pale green glow on the horizon just ahead of the ship, but he said nothing to the cadet standing watch with him. Moments later, parallel bands of bluegreen light began to sweep silently over the water toward the ship from the southeast. Still, Newton said not a word, but he felt as if he should duck. Each light band was about 10 to ...
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... "? By "cosmic Gaia" we mean the cosmic version of the conventional Gaia concept; i.e ., earth-as-an-organism. The answer is that small icy comets can in principle transport throughout all of space: Immense quantities of water needed for life-as-we-know-it. The carbonaceous material basic to that same kind of life. (See SF#48.) The seeds of life, a la Hoyle and Wickramasinghe. Energy, as discussed above by Frank et al. Observe that Frank et al are saying that the kinetic energy in the flux of small comets is sufficient to raise a planet's temperature as well as supply water. In this light, exobiologists need not confine their search for extraterrestrial life to planets surrounding warm suns. Somewhere, far from stars, there may be places where comets may raise atmospheric temperatures to where life can prosper! Sunlight, of course, is not needed absolutely, as demonstrated by the profusion of life around deep-sea vents. From Science Frontiers #52, JUL-AUG 1987 . 1987-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 52: Jul-Aug 1987 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects New Vertebrate Depth Record S. Eckert, of the University of Georgia, has reported that a leatherback turtle fitted with a recording device dove to 1200 meters. This exceeds the previous record for air-breathing vertebrates (sperm whales). Leatherbacks also hold other records, being the largest of living turtles (over 600 kilograms) and the most widely distributed reptile in the world. They are also capable of maintaining their body temperatures sub stantially above the ambient water temperature, although no one has as yet claimed that they are warm-blooded. (Mrosovsky, N.; "Leatherback Turtle Off Scale," Nature, 327:286, 1987.) From Science Frontiers #52, JUL-AUG 1987 . 1987-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 55: Jan-Feb 1988 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Do we really understand the dinosaurs?Until very recently, the standard dinosaur scene in the books and magazines showed huge, ungainly beasts shuffling around in lush swamps. Things are changing. Dinosaurs are now becoming more lively and talented; they may even have been warm-blooded! A recent paleontological expedition to the Gobi Desert by some Canadians will change the dinosaur stereotype even more. The Gobi dinosaur-bone sites are incredibly rich -- comparable with those in Alberta. What is most impressive, however, is the environment the Gobi dinosaurs lived in. "The dinosaurs of China and Mongolia did not live in the same type of lush, well-watered environment that existed in North America during the Mesozoic era, when dinosaurs dominated the globe. The dinosaurs of Alberta flourished on a great swampy coastal plain on the edge of a vast inland sea. In ancient China, conditions were much harsher. A modern-day equivalent would be the Great Salt Lake Basin of Utah. Water did exist in vast shallow lakes, but it was often alkaline and high in soda. The vegetation was scrubland with coniferous forests on the higher ground." (Anderson, Ian; "Chinese Unearth a Dinosaurs' Graveyard," New Scientist, p. 26, November 12, 1987.) Comment. To these Gobi observations should be added those above from northern Alaska, all of 70 north latitude, which suggest that dinosaurs also survived ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 51: May-Jun 1987 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Mite Pockets Of Lizards "Many lizards are infested by chig gers, the larvae of trombiculid mites, which feed on tissue fluid and cell debris. Surprisingly, lizards seem to go out of their way to attract the chiggers -- they have special mite pockets that provide a protected, warm and humid site. In many cases, the skin of the lizard also has smaller scales than normal and a good blood supply in the pocket, which enables the parasites to feed more readily." There does not seem to be any advantage to the lizards providing plush accommodations for the chiggers. The chiggers can wreak havoc on their hosts in the form of skin lesions, allergic reactions, secondary infections, and the transmission of diseases. Nevertheless, some 150 species in 5 distinct lizard families possess mite pockets, which are often located in different places in different lizard species. Apparently, the mite pockets evolved separately several times. But why? (Benton, Michael J.; "The Mite Pockets of Lizards," Nature, 325:391, 1987.) Comment. Why haven't the lizards evolved thicker skin or some sort of chemical defense instead of reducing their fitness with mite pockets? Or, are other factors operating? From Science Frontiers #51, MAY-JUN 1987 . 1987-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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