549 results found.
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 10: Spring 1980 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Long-delayed radio echoes J. Hals first observed long-delayed radio echoes in 1927. During the following half-century, scientists have been studying this perplexing problem, but it has been the amateurs who have accumulated the bulk of the data. Over 100 reports exist where echoes of radio transmissions were received seconds later at the original transmitting station. Since light travels 186,000 miles per second, any simple radio-wave reflector would have to be well beyond the moon's orbit. A wide variety of natural phenomena (interplanetary matter) and even artificial devices (alien space probes) have been postulated to explain the long delays. Muldrew's article is first of all an excellent summary of the long and fascinating history of this effect. His bibliography is extensive and apparently nearly complete. Muldrew next examines the various ionospheric mechanisms that might cause long delays. The ionosphere is a complex structure with ducts in which radio signals can get trapped. Delays of a second or so might be due to such trapping but the longer delays require some other explanation. Muldrew favors a rather complex interaction between signals from separate transmitters that (theoretically at least) can create a long-lived electrostatic wave that travels in the ionosphere -- a sort of natural memory device. The coded signals could then be read out much later when the proper natural conditions developed. Delays of up to 40 seconds might be possible with this "ionospheric memory ...
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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 100-Mile-Long Wall in Africa A 100-mile-long wall? Well, sort of! Sungbo's Eredo, as it is called, is really an earthen embankment with an accompanying ditch. Whatever you call it, it does enclose an area 25 miles north-tosouth and 22 miles east-to-west. That's a lot of earth-moving, for at some spots the "wall" measures 70 feet from the bottom of the ditch to the top of the embankment. Today, this impressive structure is mostly concealed by the Nigerian jungle. A thousand years ago it enclosed a flourishing African kingdom. Sungbo's Eredo is hardly a military structure. Blow could a 100-mile-long embankment be defended with a reason-able number of warriors? Instead, it might have been a boundary marker or perhaps a "spiritual barrier." In fact, shrines are located along the wall where locals still leave offerings to protect themselves from outsiders. (Onishi, Norimitsu; "A Wall, a Moat, Behold! A Lost Yoruba Kingdom," New York Times International, September 26, 1999. Cr. R. Swanson) Comment. An interesting parallel to Sungbo''s Eredo is seen in Offa's Dyke, the largest ancient earthwork in Dritain. It is also an embankment-plus-ditch. Offa, the king of Saxon Mercia, had ...
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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 The Long Reach Of The Hawaiian Islands From aircraft and satellites, one can see strong contrasts in the roughness of the ocean surface in the lee of those idyllic islands with their volcanic peaks that poke over 10,000 feet into the Pacific airstreams. These long streaks on the ocean surface are called "wind wakes." The wind wake leeward the Hawaii is spectacular. These islands are swept by steady northeast trade winds. Mauna Kea (4201 meters), Mauna Loa (4201 meters), and other Hawaiian peaks penetrate high above trade inversion. Together they create a visible wind wake some 3,000 kilometers long to the west -- many time-greater than any other island wind wakes to be seen on the planet. The effects of these soaring peaks are more than visual. Their wind wake drives an eastward ocean current that, in turn, draws warm water away from the Asian coast 8,000 kilometers distant from Hawaii. Thus, a few island mountains affect the climate of a continent a fifth of the way around the globe! (Xie, Shang-Ping, et al; "Far-Reaching Effects of the Hawaiian Islands on the Pacific Ocean-Atmosphere System," Science, 292:2057, 2001.) Comment. The Hawaiian wind wake is not anomalous but it is surely interesting. From Science Frontiers #137, SEP-OCT 2001 . 2001 William R. Corliss Other Sites of ...
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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 Long-lived bubble in the atmosphere Artist's concept of the many luminous bubbles that floated among observers at Ringstead Bay. August 4, 1984. Winchester, England. H. Curtis gives us a firsthand account of another one of those strange bubble-like phenomena usually associated with electrical atmospheric disturbances. "In August 1984 I had just left work at 5.30 p.m . and was walking along an unfrequented side street as a short cut to get to my bus. The weather was cloudy and sultry, but there had been no reports of thunder in the area that day. I came to a junction in the pavement which led only to car-parking for buildings lying farther back when a bubble about the size of a tennis ball sailed out of this side-way, in a straight line, about the level with my shoulders, at a distance of some five or six feet. I stared at it in amazement, for where could a bubble have come from at such a place and time?" "I was further amazed that it did not disintegrate...While gazing at the bubble it seemed to me that there was a dark band round it, which I interpreted as being a reflection of the tarmac road, although subsequently when experimenting with childrens' bubble mixture I discovered that bubbles never reflect anything so discernible." "The bubble proceeded at its original speed, curving around ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 126: Nov-Dec 1999 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects It's All In The Seeing The August and September issues of Sky & Telescope contain articles that attempt to discredit long histories of observations of Transient Lunar Phenomena (TLPs) and the many, many anomalous coronas seen during total solar eclipses. Both classes of phenomena are written off as either observer misperceptions or idiosyncracies of the earth's atmosphere. Of course, such treatment of strange phenomena is not new, nor is it undesirable, for we do want to confront reality whatever it might be. However, the two "wipes" in Sky & Telescope do seem a bit arrogant, especially when famous scientists do not hesitate to employ ghostly ephemera to support theories favored by the establishment. Strange eclipses. Down the years, many fantastic solar coronas have been sketched during the few minutes of totality. Long coronal petals and errant streamers, often asymmetrically arrayed, are common in the Nineteenth Century astronony journals. Scientists have no problems with these. It is the highly geometrical coronas that are hard-to-account-for. The reported colored coronas, too, seem unlikely. Red, blue, and green hues are definitely frowned upon. Coronas should be brilliant white, perhaps yellowish. S.J . O'Meara, a contributing editor of S&T , thinks many of the older and wilder drawings of coronas can be pinned on observer enthusiasm and active imagination. Modern photographs of coronas provide a much more conservative ...
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... phenomenon that stimulated Beloff's articles was what he called the "decline effect." Parapsychology has ever been plagued by the appearances of seemingly robust psychic phenomena, such as Rhine's initial ESP experiments with Zener cards. These phenomena would excite parapsychologists for several years, even decades, and then fade away. Writing in a historical vein, Beloff put it this way: ". .. it soon transpired that a decline effect, for ESP no less than for PK, could persist across sessions and, ultimately, across an entire career. Nearly all the high-scorers eventually lost their ability. Even Pavel Stepanck, whose 10-year career as an ESP subject earned him a mention in the Guinness Book of Records , eventually ran out of steam. When, after a long break, he was retested recently by Dr Kappers in Amsterdam, he could produce only chance scores. I do not think it was loss of motivation or boredom in his case, as has sometimes been put forward as an explanation for the long-term decline effect, for it was Stepanek's great strength that he was constitutionally incapable of ever being bored! Nor can we take seriously Martin Gardner's attempt to explain how he might have relied throughout on trickery. If indeed he was a trickster, he should have steadily improved as he became more practiced. Whatever the explanation of these long-term declines, it must surely be something deep and pervasive." Further, it seems that while "strong" parapsychological phenomena declined rapidly, the "weak" parapsychological phenomena persisted ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 70: Jul-Aug 1990 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects A RELUCTANT, LONG-OVERDUE PARADIGM SHIFT How many times in SF have you read items about that 12,000-year barrier before which American archeologists would not permit serious consideration of human habitation in the Americas? Well, see SF#65, 59, and 57 for starters. In SF#55, written scarcely two years ago, establishment archeologist P.S . Martin wrote: "If humans lived in the New World more than 12,000 years ago, there'd be no secret about it." But, in late March, 1990, at a conference in Boulder, Colorado, D. Stanford lef off with: "It's time to acknowledge that we do have a pre-Clovis culture in the New World." (Pre-Clovis -before 12,000 years ago.) It's all true! A long-standing consensus has collapsed: the 12,000-year barrier, like the Berlin Wall, has disintegrated. The two most important demolition charges were the widely-accepted dates of 16,000 B.P . from the Meadowcroft Rockshelter, Pennsylvania, and 13,000 B.P . from the Monte Verde site in Chile. The Monte Verde date probably represents an American entry date of at least 20,000 years ago, if one accepts that the first Americans trekked all the way down from the Bering Strait to Chile. Will ...
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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 The Long Arms Of Venus And Jupiter Many times in the two or three "scientific" centuries now behind us, investigators have discovered, almost against their wills, that the moon and planets affect the earth. The moon's influence is understandable, but the planets are too far away for their gravitational fields to influence one terrestrial dust mote. Well, here is one more study showing that the planets (Venus and Jupiter, in this case) do affect the peak electron density in the earth's ionosphere. The effect is most noticeable when these planets are close to earth and dwindles as they swing around to the other side of the sun. The authors are at a loss to explain this effect in terms of gravitation, suggesting that perhaps Venus or Jupiter may instead affect solar activity, which in turn modifies the terrestrial ionosphere. (Harnischmacher, E., and Rawer, K.; "Lunar and Planetary Influences upon the Peak Electron Density of the Ionosphere," Journal of Atmospheric and Terrestrial Electricity, 43:643, 1981.) Comment. Actually, no one has shown how the planets can possibly influence the sun with known action-at-a -distance forces. Electrical forces are taboo. There are no other "recognized" forces. From Science Frontiers #18, NOV-DEC 1981 . 1981-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Kathy; "NASA Captures Image of Mysterious 'Jellyfish" Flash," Washington Post, September 24, 1993. Cr. S. Reyes. Shorter versions of the Post article also appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer, September 25, 1993. Cr. T. Shelton. Also: the Dallas Morning News, September 24, 1993. Cr. L. Anderson.) September 22-23, 1989. Southeastern North America. Anomalous flashes were detected above Hurricane Hugo by Minnesota-based SKYFLASH equipment. Hurricanes, of course, are accompanied by thunderstorm activity. Said apparatus consists of three photmetric telescopes using photomultiplier tubes with 19-inch parabolic mirrors. A variety of light pulses appearing in the night sky have been recorded during SKYFLASH surveys. The most puzzling types of flashes were the "long" events, which lasted about 20 milliseconds, with slow rises and falls. During the "long" flashes, no sferics (radio disturbances) are detected, whereas the more common shorter flashes are accompanied by sferics. However, during Hurricane Hugo, these mysterious "long" flashes occurred much more frequently than usual. The origin of the "long" flashes remains unknown. (Winckler, J.R ., et al; "Fast Low-Level Light Pulses from the Night Sky Observed with the SKYFLASH Program," Journal of Geophysical Research, 98:8775, 1993.) Comment. The "light rays," the "jellyfish," and the "long" flashes may be different aspects of the same phenomenon. In any case, some sort of unrecognized ...
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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 Problems Of Aboriginal Art In Australia In SF#117, we reproduced some Australian rock art featuring sylph-like, flowing human figures quite unlike today's aborigines. In our more recent library searches, we have come across an old article that provides additional examples of the socalled Bradshaw paintings -- more of those graceful human forms with long, billowing tresses. Very out-ofplace in today's Outback. The same article adds an even more puzzling human representation to the burgeoning file of mysterious Australian art. It is a carving found in a cave of northwestern Australia. Here is the text accompanying the sketch. "Another cave introduced a fresh problem. Fronting it, high up on the vertical face of a cliff, and unreachable without mechanical aid, had been carved out of the solid stone a human head in profile, which I show. It was 2 feet long and 16 inches across, and 1 -inch thick; and I leave my hearers to say whether it is not a striking and distinguished face. It is absolutely different from the heads of modern Aborigines. The worn edges of the cameo, where it joined the rock-surface, seemed to mark a long interval since it was carved; the difficulty of carving it where it stood must have been immense -- unless, indeed, the rock face had been near the ground at the time, and the ground had worn away since - ...
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... secret of beauty in form and shape. Our greatest painters, sculptors, and architects have employed the Golden Ratio intentionally or unknowingly. Realizing this august history of the Golden Ratio, it is surprising to learn that a test of 51 established artists and sculptors has cast doubt upon the whole business. The subjects were asked to take a pencil and divide line segments into two parts such that they formed the most pleasing proportion. The ratio of choice was a disappointing 1:2 rather than 0.618! (Macrosson, W.D .K ., and Stewart, P.E .; "The Inclination of Artists to Partition Line Sections in the Golden Ratio," Perceptual and Motor Skills , 84:707, 1997.) Why Barbie Is Beautiful. A study of a long series of hominid fossils reveals a progressive loss of some physical attributes and the acquisition of other characteristics. One wonders why evolution has been remodeling the human form in what often seem to be nonadaptive ways. A curious, superficially frivolous test may offer some insights, some of which may be profound. Drawings and photographs showing humans with various physical traits were prepared and shown to 495 subjects, who were asked to select the most attractive characteristics. In disfavor were: short shins, short legs, bowed legs, large and pointed canines, gums showing above the teeth, short thumbs, long palms, curved fingers, jutting jaws, short necks. These are all primitive features still seen in apes and monkeys. Favored were: tallness, long legs, slim waists, long necks, curved ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 92: Mar-Apr 1994 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Is immortality only a mutation away?Here follows the lead sentence of the abstract of a recent letter to Nature : "We have found that mutations in the gene daf-2 can cause fertile, active adult Caenorhabditis elegans hermaphrodites to live more than twice as long as wild type." (Kenyon, Cynthia, et al; "A C. elegans Mutant That Lives Twice as Long as Wild Type," Nature, 366:461, 1993.) Comment. C. elegans is a roundworm only about a millimeter long. Roughly a thousand cells make up its tiny body, and scientists have charted the birth and death of each cell from egg to adult. This roundworm's life is a mosaic of changing cells, as some die to make way for new cells with different agendas. Somehow this programmed sequence of cell death and birth can be slowed down by mutations and thus increase longevity. Wouldn't any mortal speculate that perhaps human longevity might, like that of C. elegans , be extended by modern gene manipulators? Sure, it's quite an extrapolation from roundworm to human, but our cells are programmed just like those of C. elegans . Change a gene here and there, and we might all live as long as Noah! From Science Frontiers #92, MAR-APR 1994 . 1994-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 53: Sep-Oct 1987 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects A Modest Example Of The Long Arm Of Synchronicity Carl Jung thought that synchronicity must be an acausal connecting principle. That synchronicity does occur is proven by the fact that, in the space of three days, the three communications mentioned above all crossed our desk: (1 ) the letter from D. Thomas; (2 ) the note by Mermin; and (3 ) the article in Science on Ramanujan. No, three MIBs were not involved in any way! From Science Frontiers #53, SEP-OCT 1987 . 1987-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 134: MAR-APR 2001 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Water Signposts, Ritual Paths The high, desloate, and sere plains of western South America are an ideal medium upon which to inscribe immense pictographs. Die-straight lines several miles long and a few yards wide were made centuries ago on Peru's Nazca Plain by simply removing off to the side the rocky veneer of the plain's surface. Less than an inch of rain falls each year there -- not enough to wash out of word of what was written 2,000 years ago. Actually, no words as such are inscribed, rather there are huge biomorphs (for example, a pelican 1,000 feet long) and geoglyphs (a trapezoid enclosing 160,000 square yards). Overlaying and mingling with these pictographs is an apparent hodgepodge of hundreds of straight lines, one of which is 9 miles long. It is a confusing canvas to say the least. This gigantic terrestrial easel covers 400 square miles. Upon it are drawn more than 1,000 biomorphs and geoglyphs, plus some 800 straight lines. It is one of the world's great archeological legacies from the deep past. Actually, at least two canvasses seem to be superimposed. The earliest canvas consists of the geoglyphs, which were incised beginning about 200 B.C . Peel away these, and we are left with the geometrical figures and straight lines. These seem to have been inscribed starting about 600 A.D . ...
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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 Long Before The Vikings And Polynesians Scene: Orogrande Cave, New Mexico. R. MacNeish, a respected archeologist from the Andover Foundation for Archeological Research, has charted a 30,00040,000-year-old paleonotological record of ancient camels, horses, tapirs, and other fauna found while excavating this cave. Intermixed with the animal bones are layers of charcoal (easily carbondated) and hints of human occupation. But don't we all know that humans did not arrive in the New World until 12,000 years ago? Nevertheless, there they are: (1 ) rude human tools; and (2 ) a possible human palm print. Mainstream archeologists are stonewalling again; there must be some mistake! (Appenzeller, Tim; " A High Five from the First New World Settlers?" Science, 255:920, 1992.) Scene: Inside Amerind cells. DNA analyses of the mitochondria present in the cells of North American Indian populations indicate that the Eskimo-Aleut and Nadene populations arrived about 7,500 years ago. The more geographically widespread Amerind population, however, seems to be descended from two separate influxes; the first about 30,000 years ago, the second about 10,000 years ago. D. Wallace, from Emory University, surmises that the sharply defined rise of the Clovis culture, conventionally dated from 12,000 years ago, may have resulted from the second Amerind ...
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... data, primarily from Van den Berg, place the event between the Kuriles and Sakhalin. The altitude of the center of the halo at the maximum observed size is estimated to have been greater than 200 miles, and the diameter of the halo is estimated to have been at least 380 miles. It seems unlikely that a groundbased explosion could produce this kind of effect. It is surprising to us that no official data have been provided by government agencies and that such a significant observation from a region of demonstrated military sensitivity was, and still remains, a mystery." (McKenna, Daniel L., and Walker, Daniel A.; "Mystery Cloud: Additional Observations," Science, 234:412, 1986.) Evidently the mystery cloud mentioned above is only one in a long series: "Large icy clouds, similar to plumes of gas that rise over volcanoes, have appeared over islands along the coast of the Soviet Union during the past several years, baffling experts, who cannot explain what they are or what causes them. "The clouds dissipate in a few hours vanishing as mysteriously as they appear. "Among the plumes are a series of massive clouds that during the past four years have periodically swelled over Novaya Zemlya, the Arctic island long used by the Soviets for nuclear weapons tests. "However, there appears to be no correlation between the clouds and known Soviet tests, which are usually detected by Western governments. Further, non-governmental scientists said the 200-mile-long plumes appear to be many times larger than the largest conceivable nuclear ...
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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 Impact craters: the party line revised and re-revised 100 years ago. Back in 1900, a geologist risked his reputation by suggesting that Arizona's Meteor Crater was an impact structure. It had to be volcanic or perhaps due to a steam explosion! 50 years ago. In 1950, a geologist risked his reputation by suggesting that large impact structures existed; that is, bigger than 10 kilometers in diameter. 0 years ago. Today, geologists converse blithely about 100-kilometer structures buried beneath the Yucatan and Chesapeake Bay. They are, however, exceedingly chary about long chains of impact structures. Those eight craters in a row. Geologists are questioning whether the eight structures stretching from Kentucky to Kansas (mentioned in SF#105) are all impactcaused. In a letter to Astronomy. A. Goldstein asserts that only three are impact craters; the other five are cryptoexplosion structures; that is, due to internal activity of some sort. However, Goldstein adds that there are actually three additional structures on this long line in Kentucky. (Goldstein, Alan; "Multiple Strike Stricken," Astronomy, 24:20, July 1996) Comment. Even if eight of the eleven structures on the line are cryptoexplosive in origin, one has to wonder why these are all lined up. A long line of weakness in the crust? Meanwhile, in Africa. 1994 radar images from the Space Shuttle have revealed a ...
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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 90-DAY SEA-LEVEL OSCILLATION AT WAKE ISLAND Most North Americans are familiar with rather powerful diurnal tides. The oceans, however, also move in ponderous cycles that beachcombers can never appreciate. Thanks to data from Geosat's precision altimeter, geophysicists can now discern some of these long-period moving patterns on the oceans' surfaces. "Energetic 90-day oscillations of sea levels have been intermittently observed at Wake Island in the western tropical Pacific during the past 2 decades. The oscillations tend to occur about 1.5 years after El NinoSouthern Oscillation events, to have amplitudes of 10-15 cm, and to persist for about 1 year. Sea-surface heights from the Geosat altimeter are used to establish that these signals take the form of Rossby waves and have an energy source near the Big Island of Hawaii, which lies 40 of longitude to the east. Sea-level and upper-layer currents from an eddy-resolving numerical model are examined and suggest that the energy source is eddies generated off the Big Island of Hawaii. These eddies appear to be associated with westward currents that intermittently impinge on the island." (Mitchum, Gary T.; "The Source of 90-Day Oscillations at Wake Island," Journal of Geophysical Research, 100:2459, 1995.) Comment. Such eddies would have to persist for long periods to survive the long trip to Wake Island some 2500 miles ...
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... ECH5 Thermal Plumes Correlated with Other Geophysical Activity EQ SEISMIC PROBING OF INNER EARTH EQA LOCALIZED STRUCTURES IN THE CORE AND MANTLE EQA1 Stratification of Basement Rocks EQA2 Deep Continental Roots EQA3 Deep Penetration of Subducted Slabs EQA4 Lateral Inhomogeneities in the Lower Mantle EQA5 Mysterious Structures at the 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 ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 32: Mar-Apr 1984 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Incredible Phosphorescent Display On The China Sea 1720. Four rotating light wheels. Actually the spokes extended to the horizon from all around the four hubs. April 29, 1982. China Sea. The m.v . Siam encountered -- or perhaps caused -- a most baffling display of marine phosphorescence lasting some 2.5 hours. The complete report is 6 pages long, with 8 diagrams, so only the highlights can be reported here. As is often the case, this display began with parallel phosphorescent bands (2 sets) rushing toward the ship at about 40 mph. They were 50-100 cm above the sea surface. The bands then changed into two rotating wheels; then a third wheel formed. All three rotated counterclockwise, with their hubs 300, 300, and 150 meters from the ship. The spokes stretched to the horizon. The display ceased for about 20 minutes and recommenced with four systems of onrushing parallel bands, which soon metamorphosed into four rotating wheels. Radar, visible light (from an Aldis lamp), and engine revolution appeared to have no effect on the spectacle. Next, evenly distributed, circular, flashing patches of brilliant blue-white light appeared all around the ship out to a distance of about 150 meters. This system of patches flashed away simultaneously the wheel display. The patches varied from 15-60 cm in diameter, and flashed 114 times per minute. When an ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 57: May-Jun 1988 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Who built these chambers?New England's many stone chambers have long piqued the curiosities of archeologists and laymen alike. The archeologists are adamant that all of these structures were constructed by Colonial farmers. However, some of these chambers seem unlikely potato cellars! J. Egan has provided architectural details on 14 impressive stone chambers located in southern New England. Of these, two seem hardly the work of practical farmers. The first is the Pearson Chamber, at Upton, Massachusetts. It is 10 feet high and 11 feet wide inside -- pretty large for vegetable storage. The second is the Hunt's Brook "souterrain," Montville, Connecticut. It is 38 feet long and only about 3 feet high for most of its length, and ends in a 5-feet-high chamber. We cannot visualize farmers crawling this distance for potatoes! In fact, this structure does resemble the megalithic "souterrains" of Europe. (Egan, Jim; NEARA Journal, 22:6 , Summer/Fall 1987. NEARA = New England Antiquities Research Association.) Plan view of Hunt's Brook "souterrain", almost 38 feet long. The dotted lines represent capstones. Adapted from the NEARA Journal. From Science Frontiers #57, MAY-JUN 1988 . 1988-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Sourcebook Subjects Caves As Musical Instruments In past issues of SF, we have reported how some ancient rock art was intentionally painted on rock faces so that echos, as from a handclap, would not only be unusually loud but have some relation to the painting, as in the clatter of hooves. (SF#86) In a similar vein, some manmade chambers, such as New Grange (3 ,500 B.C .) were configured to enhance the subjective effects of ritual chanting. (SF#102) A fascinating article in Pour la Science , has described how ancient paintings in some of Europe's famous decorated caves were placed where sound resonated. To illustrate, examine the accompanying illustration of the north wall of the Jeannel Gallery of Portel Cave, in Arlege. The long, looping dotted line indicates the amplitude of resonating sound at a frequency of 95 Hertz, as the long gallery behaves like a giant wind instrument. The peak occurs smack in the center of the decorated area. At the peak, in the dotted circle, there is a rocky projection in the shape of a (hard-to-see) feline head. On the opposite wall (not shown), the same peak coincides with an ocher circle that dominates a meter-long decorated panel. (Dauvois, Michael, et al; "Son et Musique au Paleolithique," Pour la Science , p. 52, no. 253, November 1998. Cr. C. Mauge.) Comment. Modern humans are also cognizant of acoustical effects, as in the design of ...
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... Anomalous Diverging Rays at Sunset and Sunrise GEL3 Color Phenomena and the Earth's Shadow on the Sky GEL4 Abnormal Refraction Phenomena with Astronomical Objects... GEL5 Anomalous Aspects of the Krakatoa Sunsets GEL6 The Alpine Glow... GEL7 Spectral Dispersion near the Sea's Surface GEL8 Low-Sun Landscape Fluorescence GEL9 Low-Sun Spectral Bows GEL10 Low-Sun Shadow Bands GEL11 The Second Purple Light GEL12 Moving Patches of Light on the Horizon Jumping Stars Post-Twilight Infrared Brightening of the Sky Extraordinary Sunsets GEM THE MAGIC OF MIRAGES GEM1 Fata Morganas GEM2 Telescopic Mirages GEM3 Lateral Mirages GEM4 Multiple Mirages GEM5 Mirages Sensitive to the Observer's Position GEM6 The Novaya Zemlya Effect GEM7 Illusions of a Flat Earth GEM8 Dynamic Mirages GEM9 Mirror or Reflection Mirages Double Moons Mock Mirages GER RADIO AND RADAR ANOMALIES GER1 Long-Delayed Radio Echos GER2 The Moon's Effect on Radio Propagation GER3 Thunderstorm Modification of Radio Propagation GER4 Stable Patterns of Electromagnetic Radiation GER5 Unidentified Radio Signals... GER6 The Humming Earth GER7 Polar Radio Blackouts GER8 Around-th e-World Transmission of High-Frequency Signals GER9 Periodic Fading of Satellite Radio Transmissions GER10 Sudden Disappearance of High Frequency Radio Transmissions GER11 Correlation of Radio Propagation Quality with Planetary Positions GER12 Earthquake-Induced Ionospheric Disturbances GER13 Easier Radio Transmission in One Direction than Its Reverse GER14 Radar Dot Angels GER15 Radar Ring and Line Angels GER16 Radar Ghosts Mexico's Zone of Silence Infrared Angels Extremely-Low-Frequency (ELF) Phenomena Effect of Low-Pressure Areas upon Shortwave Propagation Unidentified Atmospheric Radio Bursts Detected by Satellites GES SHADOW PHENOMENA GES1 Eclipse Shadow Bands GES2 Moving Shadow ...
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... 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 a surprisingly strong current of sea water through the tube, and the salp becomes jet-propelled. Thus, we have a mobile monster, but no ship-swallowing leviathan. (Griffin, D.J .G ., and Yaldwyn, J.C .; "Giant Colonies of Pelagic Tunicates..," Nature, 226:464, 1970) Slime molds. Moving down life's ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 117: May-June 1998 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Hard Facts At Cahokia Monk's Mound, the largest mound at the Cahokia Mounds State Historical Site, in Illinois, is not what it seems. Superficially, it is a terraced earthen mound 100 feet high and more than three football fields long. What we now see of the mound was apparently constructed between 900 and 1200 AD. The prevailing dogma has long been that the Indians who built Cahokia worked only with earth, never with stone. Indeed, suitable stone is scarce in the area. On January 24, 1998, while drilling to construct a water drainage system at Monk's Mound, workers hit stone -- at least 32 feet of it -- perhaps a region of cobbles or slabs of rock. This region of stone, of undetermined geometry, is located 40 feet below one of the terrace surfaces, but still well above the base of the mound. The stones could well be an artificial structure of some sort. The discovery challenges the current thinking about the culture that built Cahokia. Only further research will reveal the extent and configuration of the stony region and where the stones may have come from. An editorial in the March 14, 1998, St. Louis Post-Dispatch put the Cahokia discovery in the larger context: New World archeology is in flux. Humans occupied the Americas long before 12,000 BP, and some of them may have been Caucasian (e .g ., ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 26: Mar-Apr 1983 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Everyone A Memory Prodigy Our handbook Unfathomed Mind presents many cases of exceptional memory. Without question, some people can reproduce incredible blocks of words and numbers as well as drawings, music, etc. The question is: Is such exceptional memory the consequence of an exceptional brain or just long training? Those who hold the first position believe an anomaly exists because: (1 ) The difference between normal memory and exceptional memory is so large; and (2 ) People with exceptional memory seem to employ different mental processes in transferring information into long-term memory, notably visual techniques like 'photographic' memory. The authors of this article present several cases where subjects with normal memory have been trained to where they perform nearly as well as memory experts. The key seems to be the use of mnemonic devices and other methods of imposing some sort of order or meaning on the information involved. To illustrate, a chess master can usually recall the positions of all the pieces on a chessboard after a quick glance. But if the chessmen are arranged randomly and meaninglessly, his memory is reduced to near-normal. The gist is that long prac-tice and the application of mnemonic devices can vastly improve anyone's memory and, in consequence, memory prodigies are not really so anomalous. (Ericsson, K. Anders, and Chase, William G.; "Exceptional Memory," American Scientist, 70:607, 1982 ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 96: Nov-Dec 1994 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Satellite Spies Strange Stripes ERS-1 , Europe's remote-sensing satellite, snapped some pictures of Australia's Nullarbor Plain that have geologists scratching their heads. The Nullarbor Plain, which has long been billed as a vast, featureless desert, is crossed by five long, parallel lines, 15 kilometers wide and 600 kilometers long. These huge stripes would seem to be too big to miss, but ground-based surveys see nothing obvious. Even more curious, infrared sensors on a US weather satellite also see the five stripes. As the Nullarbor Plain cools off at night, the stripes are found to be about 2 C cooler than the surrounding terrain. Could they be fault lines? Geologists have not found any in the area. (Anderson, Ian; "Satellite Spies Strange Stripes in the Desert," New Scientist, p. 10, September 3, 1994.) Comment. Are these stripes akin to the man-made Nazca lines etched upon Peru's high desert? Not likely; they are too big. Instead, we wonder whether they might be associated with the Nullarbor Plain's massive lode of meteorites. (SF#80) From Science Frontiers #96, NOV-DEC 1994 . 1994-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... some sort. But what kind of catastrophes occur on desolate, riverless deserts? Wind is always blowing sand about and dunes creep along in deserts, but healthy animals easily avoid burial. Of course, there are rare, sudden downpours even on the Gobi. But one would expect this rain to be quickly absorbed by the sand. Intrigued by the evidence of unexpected catastrophism in the Gobi, scientists from the American Museum of Natural History first took a look at Nebraska's strange Sand Hills. These Sand Hills stretch for thousands of square miles, reach heights of 400 feet, and are believed to be of aeolian origin during the Pleistocene. (See ETM7 in Carolina Bays ) Being a modern analog of the ancient Gobi, the Nebraska Sand Hills might provide some insights as to what happened long ago in the Gobi. An important clue occurs during the summer, when heavy thunderstorms sometimes trigger avalanches of wet sand called "debris flows". These sandslides may be 900 feet long, 50 feet wide, and 4 feet deep. Although they have occasionally partly buried ranch buildings, they are too slow and small to endangerlivestock and wild animals. But what if they were much larger and faster? Back on the Gobi, geologists remarked that the rich fossil deposits were found in structureless sandstone; i.e ., there was none of the cross-bedding seen in sandstones elsewhere in the region. Furthermore, fossils were extremely rare in the cross-bedded sandstones, which were built up over long periods of time. It looked as if the structureless, fossiliferous sandstones were sandslides ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 13: Winter 1981 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Violent Undersea Weather Long lines of frothing, turbulent water and transitory packets of large waves occasionally sweep across an otherwise placid sea. Usually dismissed as "rips," satellite photos reveal that these disturbances may be 125 miles long. Often several can be seen criss-crossing an ocean simultaneously from different directions. Some have a 12.5 -hour period. linking them to lunar tidal action. The surface manifestations, like the tip of the iceberg, only hint at what transpires beneath the surface. The long corridors of disturbance, moving at about 5 mph, mark where "internal waves" intersect the surface. Down be-low, submarines and other objects may suddenly rise or fall as much as 600 feet. Internal waves may in fact have caused several submarine disasters. How are internal waves created? Tid-al waters may spill over an undersea sill or ledge, creating a travelling disturbance. Some oceanographers liken the internal waves to the lee waves formed parallel to large mountain ranges. Manifestly, there is much to learn about undersea weather. (Anonymous; "Underwater Waves Held a Possible Clue to Disappearances of U.S . Submarines," Baltimore Sun, October 5, 1980.) Reference. We collect observations of periodic bands of waves under GHW2 in our Catalog: Earthquakes, Tides. To order, visit: here . From Science Frontiers #13, Winter 1981 . 1981-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... collected many of these in his 1965 classic In the Wake of the Sea-Serpents. P.H . LeBlond, a professor at the University of British Columbia, is extending Heuvelman's work, concentrating on the thousand miles of Pacific Coast between Alaska and Oregon. Since 1812, there have been 53 sightings of sea serpents or other unidentified animals along this narrow strip of ocean. Some of these are very impressive. Take this one for example: "In January 1984 a mechanical engineer named J.N . Thompson from Bellingham, Washington, was fishing for Chinook salmon from his kayak on the Spanish Banks about three-quarters of a mile off Vancouver, British Columbia, when an animal surface between 100 and 200 feet away. It appeared to be about 18-20 feet long and about two feet wide, with a 'whitish-tan throat and lower front' body. It had stubby horns like those of a giraffe, large (' twelve to fifteen inches long') floppy ears, and a 'somewhat pointed black snout.' The creature appeared to Thompson to be 'uniquely streamlined for aquatic life,' and to swim 'very efficiently and primarily by up and down rather than sideways wriggling motion...'" LeBlond and biologist J. Sibert have analyzed all of the 53 sightings in a 68page report entitled "Observations of Large Unidentified Marine Mammals in British Columbia and Adjacent Waters," published by the University of British Columbia's Institute of Oceanography. Of the 53 sightings, 23 "could not definately or even speculatively be accounted ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 114: Nov-Dec 1997 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The world's largest "playa-slider" furrow Most studies of playa sliders (" moving rocks") have been conducted at Racetrack Playa, near Death Valley, California. There one finds good-sized rocks at the ends of long tracks they have made when some force has propelled them across the flat playa surface. What has moved these rocks, some of which weigh 700 pounds? The current consensus holds that wind is the motive force, but that it is inadequate to move the rocks directly. Instead, the wind acts upon sheets of ice in which the rocks are frozen. As these sheets of ice are moved across the playa, the keels of the frozen-in rocks leave those curious trails that have intrigued Forteans for many decades. (SF#109) Playa sliders have also been found at Magdalenasmeer Playa in South Africa, and in Nevada and Tunisia. In a recent issue of Geology Today, C.C . Reeves, Jr., Texas Tech University, adds to the list a playa at Double Lakes, Texas. Of special interest at Double Lakes is not the rocks and other debris blown across the playa but a discarded hotwater tank. It, too, is a playa slider. It first left a trail a few hundred meters long when it was frozen in an ice sheet spigot down, with the spigot furrow quite obvious. The ice sheet then melted, and the tank ...
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... Subjects Spider Swordplay Ventral view of D. raptor . The claws are on the tips of the bottom two pairs of legs. Greatly enlarged photos reveal them to be wicked-looking fang-like structures. D. raptor, a Hawaiian spider, has lost its ability to spin webs and therewith capture prey. This unusual spider, however, has evolved: ". .. one of the most remarkable morphological features ever found in spiders (immense elongations of the tarsal claws)." These claws, just visible on the two lowermost pairs of legs in the sketch, are employed to skewer passing insects in flight: "The spider is strictly nocturnal, spending most of the activity-period hanging upside down from silk threads. Small insects are snagged directly from the air using a single long claw. For larger insects the spider uses both long claws on legs I, or sometimes all the long claws." (Gillespie, Rosemary G.; "Impaled Prey," Nature, 355:212, 1992.) Comment. Nature has produced many remarkable creatures. They become anomalous only if they cannot be explained as the products of small, random, cumulative mutations. From Science Frontiers #80, MAR-APR 1992 . 1992-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 129: MAY-JUN 2000 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Hidden 'Gardens'Some of the world's strangest "gardens" appear as green dots on the simmering deserts of the island of Bahrain in the Persian Gulf. These green dots are not your usual oases. Rather, they are springs that once fed long chain-well systems that carried water to villages at their lower ends. Called "qanats," these multimile subterranean structures were invented about 750 B.C . for trans-porting water efficiently in the dry desert climes of the Middle East. Cross section of a typical Iranian qanat. Unlike the exposed spring of the Bahrainian qanat, the water source here is at the bottom of a deep well. (From: Ancient Infrastructure) In our recent catalog, Ancient Infra-structure , we describe the qanats of Iran. (See figure.) Some of these shaft-tunnel structures run for miles and re-present a prodigious amount of labor. How prodigious? In Iran alone there are about 37,500 qanats with an aggregate length of some 100,000 miles! Qanats rank right up there with the Inca roads and the Great Wall of China as wonders of the ancient world. After reading our catalog section on Iranian qanats, E. von Fange informs us that the qanats of Bahrain pose a set of different problems. The Bahrainian qanats are easy to follow across the desert because the access shafts protrude a few feet above the sand. ...
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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 Giant sea-bed pockmarks [The following long, initially dull (? ) discussion leads unerringly to the Bermuda Triangle via a Fortean phenomenon!] Unrecognized until just a few years ago (SF#100*), sea-bed pockmarks are remarkable geological features. They occur worldwide on the floors of all of the oceans and even some lakes. They are found in shallow waters and at depths of thousands of meters. In diameter, these roughly conical depressions may span 350 meters or more and be up to 35 meters deep. No trivial phenomenon, some pockmark fields exceed 1,000 km2. Like the curious abyssal ridges (SF#97), sea-bed pockmarks are rarely discussed despite their great geological and economic importance. Recent issues of Geology contain three fascinating papers relating to giant sea-bed pockmarks. In Ref. 1, J.T . Kelley et al describe a pockmark field in Belfast Bay, Maine. Here, the density of the pockmarks reaches 160 per km2, and they are apparently the largest pockmarks yet discovered. The Belfast Bay field is "fresh" and "active" in the sense that the pockmarks are sharply defined and methane bubbles still stream up from buried organic matter. Natural-gas plume rising from the sea-floor off the Carolina coast. Another pockmark field is the subject of P.R . Vogt et al (Ref. 2). It occupies a ...
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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 Meteoric "dust bunnies"All around the world, watching through the long nights, is a band of dedicated meteor observers -- mainly amateur astroomers. Collectively, they record many meteor showers and fireballs; all quite respectable astronomical objects. But sometimes fuzzy, rapidly moving luminosities appear, as in the following paragraph written by J.S . Gallagher: "Diffuse luminous objects moving at angular velocities similar to those of meteors were observed during over 200 hours of meteor watching in 1991. They fell in three broad categories: arcs, patches, and 'meteors' similar in appearance to comet comas. Though I at first dismissed the possibility of their being related to meteors, I reconsidered this relation after eliminating other possible causes such as reflections from aircraft lights and tricks of vision. Their meteor-like behavior suggested that perhaps these events might be caused by clouds of exceedingly small meteoroids, visible only because of their numbers and compact grouping. Because such a formation would be unlikely to be maintained long in space, it appeared necessary that the particles involved must have maintained some weak physical contact until just prior to becoming visible. Perhaps some type of 'cosmic dust bunny,' disrupted by air resistance, might be the cause of these events." These moving patches of light also resemble the "auroral meteors" cataloged under GLA3 in Lightning, Auroras, Nocturnal Lights. Physically, they might be related to the small, icy ...
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... in unexpected places * The great ruins at Tiahuanaco * Zimbabwe and Dhlo-dhlo * Huge spheres in Costa Rica * The Great Wall of Peru * Ancient batteries and lenses * Mysterious walls everywhere * Pacific megalithicsites * European stone circles and forts * [Picture caption: Scottish carved stones from circa 1000 B.C . Comments from reviews ". .. a useful reference in undergraduate, public, and high school libraries", Booklist. 792 pages, hardcover, $23.95, 240 illustrations, index. 1978 references. LC 77-99243, ISBN 915554-03-8 , 6x9forrnat. Ancient Infrastructure: Remarkable Roads, Mines, Walls, Mounds, Stone Circles Sorry, Out of print Ancient people raised standing stones on all continents save Antarctica. The dug canals 50 miles long and erected even longer walls. Gleaned from hundreds of volumes of Science, Nature, Antiquity and other science journals, this massive collection of archeological puzzles will keep researchers digging for decades. Costa Rica's enigmatic stones spheres Peru's Intervalley Canal Iraq's 100,000 miles of subterranean tunnels (the qanats) Nova Scotia's "Money Pit" Egypt's canal to the Red Sea North America's Calendar sites Medicine Wheels and woodhenges Sculpted hills and mountains Chaco Canyon's curious roads The puzzling East Bay walls Lake Superior's copper mines Stone arrays and meanders Florida's shell keys Poverty Point and Watson Brake Malta's strange "cart ruts" View Cart Buy online via PayPal with MC/Visa/Amex 412 pages, softcover, $21 ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 17: Fall 1981 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Saturn Is Still Cooking Away Observations from the earth and the Pioneeer spacecraft have long puzzled astronomers because they indicate that Saturn is radiating much more internal heat than it should. This anomaly leads to the outrageous possibility that Saturn is actually very young and has not cooled off as much as we would expect from theory. The infrared detector on the recent Voyager-1 flyby seems to show that the atmosphere of Saturn possesses only about half as much helium as theory would have. The surmise is that the missing helium is still residing in the planet. This might account for some of the abnormal heat generation. (Anonymous; "Puzzling over Saturn's Internal Heat," Eos, 62:538, 1981.) Comment. Thus, the excess-heat anomaly may be replaced by the missing-helium anomaly. Curiously, some ancient myths refer to Saturn as the "sun of night." Could Saturn have been much brighter not too long ago? From Science Frontiers #17, Fall 1981 . 1981-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Archaeopteryx a dead end?" Just as the 150-million-year-old Archaeopteryx fossil is being reinstated as the earliest known bird after considerable controversy, along come two crowsize skeletons that are not only 75 million years older than Archaeopteryx but also more birdlike, according to the paleontologists who discovered them. The Washington, D.C .- based National Geographic Society, which funded the work, announced this week that Sankar Chatterjee and his colleagues at Texas Tech University in Lubbock found the 225-million-year-old fossils near Post, Tex." (Weisburd, S.; "Oldest Bird and Longest Dinosaur," Science News, 130:103, 1986.) Chatterjee has named the new fossil Protoavis. "Protoavis seems certain to reopen the long-running controversy on the evolution of birds. In particular whether the common ancestor of birds and dinosaurs was itself a dinosaur. Protoavis, from the late Triassic, appears at the time of the earliest dinosaurs, and if the identification is upheld it seems likely that it will be used to argue against the view of John Ostrom of Yale University that birds are descended from the dinosaurs. It also tends to confirm what many paleontologists have long suspected, that Archaeopteryx is not on the direct line to modern birds. It is in some ways more reptilian than Protoavis, and the period between the late Jurassic Archaeopteryx and the world-wide radiation of birds in the Cretaceous has to some seemed suspiciously brief." (Anonymous; "Fossil Bird Shakes Evolutionary Hypotheses," Nature, 322: ...
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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 Shake No Quake January 30, 1987. Much of southern California was beset by a shaking phenomenon that stimulated scores of tele phone calls to newspapers, universities, and government facilities. The shaken areas included Long Beach, Pasadena, the San Gabriel Valley, Buena Park, San Pedro, Fullerton, and Newport Beach. Caltech's Seismological Laboratory, at Pasadena, insisted that no seismic activity had been detected. The FAA rulled out sonic booms; the Navy said its ships were not engaged in target practice, and the National Weather Service exonerated weather phenomena. No one seems to know what happened. (Tessel, Harry; "Southland Rattled, But This Mysterious Shake Is No Quake," Long Beach Press-Telegram , January 31, 1987. Cr. L. Farish) From Science Frontiers #51, MAY-JUN 1987 . 1987-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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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 Forests Frozen In Time Axel Heiberg Island in the Canadian Arctic is only 700 miles south of the present North Pole. Little grows there today, but there is on these icy shores the remnant of a forest that flourished 45 million years ago, according to conventional geological dating of the strata. A University of Saskatchewan scientist, J. Bassinger, has been studying the 15-20 layers of stumps, some with diameters of 3 feet, and logs up to 30 feet long. Even rather blackish leaves survive in the soil. This once lush forest boasted trees like dawn redwoods and water firs; being analogous to Florida's Cypress Swamp in the Everglades. So excellent is the preservation of the forest that its wood cuts as if it were recent lumber and burns readily. (Howse, John; "Forestry Frozen in Time," Maclean's Magazine, p. 55, September 8, 1986. Cr. B. Ickes) Comment. Question 1: Even if the earth was warmer 45 million years ago, could a tropical-type forest survive the nearly six months of total darkness at Axel Heiberg Island? Question 2: Can wood be preserved so well for so long? In the postulated warmer climate, there must have been many chemical and biological agents to promote rotting. Also relevant is the discovery, reported below, that wood that floats and burns with ease has been found in Antarctica. This Antarctic ...
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... Two possible explanations exist for these inverted strata: (1 ) The dating of the rocks is incorrect; or (2 ) Geological forces somehow slid the older rocks over the top of the younger rocks. Few mainstream scientists give any thought to the first possibility because it implies that evolution did not proceed as presently envisioned. (Rocks are often dated by their fossil contents.) So, geologists are left with the problems of sliding great masses of rock over rough surfaces for great distances. Sketch of the forces acting upon a thrust block being pushed by a wedge-shaped driver Low-angle thrust faulting is not a trivial geological process. To illustrate, the Lewis Overthrust in Montana and adjacent Canada involves the shoving of a block of old strata hundreds of feet thick, hundreds of miles long, over younger rock for a distance of possibly 50 miles. In contemplating such overthrusts, one immediately comes face to face with the Mechanical Paradox. Brief-ly, given the coefficient of friction between the layers of rock, the weight of the thrust block, and the mechanical strength of the rock being pushed, it can be shown that pushing the thrust block at the rear edge will crush it long before it begins to slide. For nearly a century, geologists have been trying to resolve this Mechanical Paradox. Three potential solutions have been proposed: (1 ) Lubricate the sliding surfaces with water under high pressure (the pore-pressure approach); (2 ) Allow the thrust block to slide, not as a unit, but in small discrete areas at different times ( ...
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... Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Unbelievable Baalbek The city of Baalbek, called Heliopolis by the ancient Greeks, lies some 50 miles northeast of Beirut. Here are ruins of the greatest temple the Romans ever tried to construct. However, we must focus not on mundane Roman temples but upon a great assemblage of precisely cut and fitted stones, called the Temple today, which the Romans found ready-made for them when they arrived at Baalbek. It was upon this Temple, or stone foundation, that the Romans reared their Temple of Jupiter. No one knows the purpose of the much older Temple underneath the Roman work. J. Theisen has reviewed the basic facts known about the Temple's construction -- and they are impressive, perhaps even anomalous. Being 2,500 feet long on each side, the Temple is one of the largest stone structures in the world. Some 26 feet above the structure's base are found three of the largest stones ever employed by man. Each of these stones measures 10 feet thick, 13 feet high, and is over 60 feet long. Knowing the density of limestone permits weight estimates of over 1.2 million pounds. Some people with impressive engineering skills cut, dressed, and moved these immense stone blocks from a quarry 3/4 of a mile away. A walk to this quarry introduces the observer to the Monolith, an even larger block of limestone: 13 feet, 5 inches; 15 feet, 6 inches; and 69 feet, 11 inches. The Monolith weighs in at over 2,000, ...
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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 Rhythms In Rhythm "We are currently living in the last quarter-century of the fifth 500-year cycle, which began with the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century. All the harmonies we hear today were developed in this last cycle." So begins the final section of a recent reprinting of W.D . Allen's sweeping 1951 overview of the human fascination with music. But what's this about a 500-year cycle in music? It turns out that not only is there a 500-year pulse in musical creativity, but nested within the long swings are 100-year subcycles! Allen's article, as it appeared originally in the Journal of Human Ecology (1 :1 , 1951), ran 41 pages. We can hit only a few high notes here. And, since we are concerned mainly with anomalies, we shall concentrate on this unexpected periodicity in musical creativity. Allen describes how musical theorists have proposed both supernatural and evolutionary explanations for this periodicity, which commenced some 2,500 years ago with the Ancient Greeks. He is not convinced by either class of explanations. Instead, Allen has been beguiled by the long-period tones of environmental cycles: "Now we have knowledge of a constantly operating cyclic factor in our cosmos, scientifically based on a mass of inductive evidence that goes beyond recorded history into the tree-ring records from centuries B.C . For ...
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... radius of 6.1 kilometers. Located at the inner edge of the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, Gaspra is believed to be composed mainly of olivine, pyroxene, and nickel-iron. Shape model of Gaspra showing the locations of the grooves. On October 29, 1991, the Galileo spacecraft swept past 951 Gaspra at a distance of 1600 kilometers, snapping photographs as it went. J. Veverka et al report below on what the photos showed: "We report the discovery of grooves in Galileo high-resolution images of Gaspra. These features, previously seen only on Mars' satellite Phobos, are most likely related to severe impacts. Grooves on Gaspra occur as linear and pitted depressions, typically 100-200 m wide, 0.8 to 2.5 km long, and 10-20 m deep. Most occur in two major groups, one of which trends approximately parallel to the asteroid's long axis, but is offset by some 15 , the other is approximately perpendicular to this trend. The first of these directions falls along a family of planes which parallel three extensive flat facets identified by Thomas et al. The occurrence of grooves on Gaspra is consistent with other indications (irregular shape, cratering record) that this asteroid has evolved through a violent collisional history." (Veverka, J., et al; "Discovery of Grooves on Gaspra," Icarus, 107:72, 1994.) Comment. The pits along Gaspra's cracks, as on Phobos, suggest the violent expulsion of gases. Where could these gases ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 94: Jul-Aug 1994 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Incorruptibility Of The Ganges The Ganges is 2525 kilometers long. Along its course, 27 major towns dump 902 million liters of sewage into it each day. Added to this are all those human bodies consigned to this holy river, called the Ganga by the Indians. Despite this heavy burden of pollutants, the Ganges has for millennia been regarded as incorruptible. How can this be? Several foreigners have recorded the effects of this river's "magical" cleansing properties: Ganges water does not putrefy, even after long periods of storage. River water begins to putrefy when lack of oxygen promotes the growth of anaerobic bacteria, which produce the tell-tale smell of stale water. British physician, C.E . Nelson, observed that Ganga water taken from the Hooghly -- one of its dirtiest mouths -- by ships returning to England remained fresh throughout the voyage. In 1896, the British physician E. Hanbury Hankin reported in the French journal Annales de l'Institut Pasteur that cholera microbes died within three hours in Ganga water, but continued to thrive in distilled water even after 48 hours. A French scientist, Monsieur Herelle, was amazed to find "that only a few feet below the bodies of persons floating in the Ganga who had died of dysentery and cholera, where one would expect millions of germs, there were no germs at all. More recently, D.S . Bhargava, an Indian ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 103: Jan-Feb 1996 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Did irish monks build this new england chamber circa 700 ad?Curious stone chambers dot the New England countryside. Are they all potato cellars built by farmers? Most archeologists insist that they are. But some seem too sophisticated for such a mundane application. One of these problematic chambers is built into a hillside at Upton, Massachusetts. J.W . Mavor, Jr., and B.E . Dix carefully measured and studied this chamber over a period of years. They give three reasons for asserting that it was really built by Europeans around 700 AD -- long before the Norse set foot on North America. The dry masonry chamber at Upton, Massachusetts. (Adapted from ESRS Bulletin, 1:12, 1973) The sophisticated corbelling of the structure closely follows that seen in Irish and Iberic chambers, such as New Grange. The long passageway is aligned with the summer solstice sunset, also a feature of some ancient European structures, but hardly of any concern to a New England farmer. The Upton chamber seems to be associated with linear arrays of stones and stone cairns on nearby Pratt Hill. These alignments have obvious astronomical significance. In fact, based upon changes in the setting positions of several stars (due to precession), Mavor and Dix believe the whole complex dates back to 700-750 AD. They conclude: "Of all the enigmatic structures that we have seen in America, the Upton chamber ...
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... Jan-Feb 1998 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Berkeley Walls Extended For almost two decades, R. Swanson has been searching out the enigmatic stone walls that festoon the Berkeley Hills and beyond, far, it now seems. We first mentioned these walls and provided a photograph back in 1985. (SF#39) Since then, Swanson's labors have received a modicum of public notoriety but hardly a flicker of academic interest. One reason for professional disinterest seems to be that grant money for exploring old walls is nonexistent! To bring new readers of SF up to speed on these perplexing California walls, we quote two paragraphs from a recent article by Swanson. "On the crest of the Berkeley hills there is a long line of large rocks, some are three feet in length, they may weigh a half ton. A century ago they ran for miles on these dry, wind-swept crests then down in a line to what is now the botanical gardens." .. .. . "In the past twelve years, I have visited over forty miles of these stone structures. To call them walls is something of a misnomer. Some do go in a straight line, others twist like a demented snake up a steep hillside, others come in a spiral two hundred feet wide and circle into a boulder with a six-inch knob carved on the top of it. Some are massive, over six feet tall and run for miles." In the same article, Swanson relates how ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 59: Sep-Oct 1988 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects ALL ROADS LEAD TO CHACO CANYON Just last year, L. L'Amour came out with his novel The Haunted Mesa. It's all about the Anasazi, a remarkable people of the ancient Southwest, circa 900-1200 AD, who, as far as we can tell, disappeared rather suddenly. L'Amour has the Anasazi returning to a parallel world through a space warp in a kiva window. Archeologists have not yet found this remarkable kiva, so we must be content with the things they left behind, but these are impressive enough. A long article in Scientific American introduces us to the accomplishments of the Anasazi. We will concentrate here on their road system, but cannot let a few general statistics go by unnoticed. Of the nine Great Houses of the Anasazi in Chaco Canyon, in northwestern New Mexico, Pueblo Bonito is the best studied. It covers three acres and once rose to at least five stories, with some 650 rooms. Constructed of tightly fitting sandstone blocks, each Great House required tens of millions of cut sandstone slabs. For floors, the Anasazi carried logs from forests 80 kilometers away. The Chaco Canyon Great Houses required about 215,000 trees -- quite a problem in transportation. Strangely enough, the Great Houses seem to have been used only occasionally. In fact, Chaco Canyon was too poor agriculturally to support a large, permanent community. If this is so, what ...
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... Dec 1999 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects A Parade Of Early Visitors To America Early Europeans. D. Kelley, a Calgary archeologist, claims that rock carvings in Petroglyph Provincial Park were etched by European explorers circa 800 BC rather than by Native Americans. One petroglyph, for example, depicts a Viking-like ship almost identical to those carved on a rock near Boslund, Sweden. There are also abstract symbols like those used by Northern Europeans in the same time frame. (Anonymous; "Did Vikings Pay Early Visit?" Baltimore Sun, August 13, 1999.) Comment. Kelley's observations certainly bolster B. Fell's claims in his book America B.C . that Europeans made landfall in North America long before Columbus set sail. Early Chinese. Perhaps Chinese adventurers beat the Europeans to the New World. At a symposium in Anyang, China, M. Xu Hui (Texas Christian University) presented 56 matching sets of characters found in both the Americas and China. "They so closely resemble the 3,000-year-old Shang Dynasty characters for the sun, sky, rain, water, crops, trees, and astronomy that if they had not been found in America, Chinese experts would have classified them automatically as pre-221 B.C . Chinese script." (Rennie, David; "Carvings Link Chinese with American Indians," Chicago SunTimes , August 31, 1999. Cr. J. Cieciel.) Early Australians. A new BBC documentary entitled Ancient ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 33: May-Jun 1984 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Rubberneckia The long-standing belief that unlimited rotary motion is impossible in animals has been shattered. It was, after all, a very reasonable assumption, because necks and other appendages turn only so far before bones and muscles begin to snap. Well, it seems that inside ter-mite guts there resides a single-celled animal with a head that rotates constant-ly 30 times a minute. Since none of its membranes shear during rotation, we must infer that membranes are basically fluid structures rather than solids as supposed. The animal, called Rubberneckia, has a shaft running the full length of its body plus a motor of undetermined character. To make Rubberneckia even more bizarre, thousands of tiny, rod-like bacteria occupy long grooves on the cell's surface. Like galley slaves, the bacteria row with their flagella to keep Rubberneckia moving -- a curious symbiotic relationship. (Cooke, Robert; "A Tale to Make Your Head Spin,: Boston Globe, March 20, 1984, p. 1. Cr. P. Gunkel) From Science Frontiers #33, MAY-JUN 1984 . 1984-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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