134 results found.
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 40: Jul-Aug 1985 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Fruitfulness of math not an intimation of a transcendent mind!W.G . Pollard's article "Rumors of Transcendence in Physics," (SF#37) produced an interesting response in the American Journal of Physics by Jan Portnow. Portnow worries about Pollard's assertion that the "remarkable" tendency of mathematics to mirror physical reality betokens the existence of something beyond our ken: i.e ., transcendence. He puts it this way: "All we can ever know about the world is what our mind lets us know -- our perception and awareness of external reality are limited by our mind. We can never know more than the mind can assimilate and process, nor can we discuss any aspect of the world for which there is no language. The fact that our mathematical laws of nature explain the world is no miracle -- it can't be otherwise. The laws of nature describe the world we know and that world is a reflection of our thinking and our language -- of our mind." He goes on to maintain that the fruitfulness of math for physics hints more at the limitations of the human mind than the existence of a transcendent mind! (Portnow, Jay; "Letter to the Editor," American Journal of Physics, 53:299, 1985.) Comment. Apparently we'll be forever boxed in by the limitations of mathematics -- to say nothing ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 35: Sep-Oct 1984 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Mind Before Life For some years S.W . Fox, at the Institute for Molecular and Cellular Evolution, University of Miami, has been experimenting with possible precursors of life. So-called "microspheres" are hot items in Coral Gables these days. Fox and his colleagues make microspheres by preparing a heated stew of various amino acids. These amino acids form long polymer chains spontaneously. Then, when water is added and the mixture reheated (or processed in some other way), the polymers organize themselves, again spontaneously, into spheres a few microns in diameter. Each sphere consists of a two-layer membrane with residual material trapped inside. Although thicker, the microsphere membrane is very similar to the lipid bi-layer enclosing normal living cells. The relatively stable microspheres could, in theory, have formed sheltered environments for the evolution of the more complicated parts of living cells. The microspheres absorb sunlight and, with the addition of this energy, display some of the electrical characteristics of biological neurons, like those in the brain. The implication is that some components of "mind" may have existed in the very earliest life forms. (Peterson, Ivars; "Microsphere Excitement," Science News, 125:408, 1984.) Comment. Two comments here: First, the word "spontaneous" is customarily employed when describing how atoms unite to form molecules and molecules combine into polymers, which then gather ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 34: Jul-Aug 1984 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The mind's control of bodily processes T.X . Barber has reviewed the role of the mind in the control of many physiological processes in a chapter appearing in a new book. The chapter is 58 pages long, with 176 references, making it a major contribution to the subject. To give the reader the flavor of this paper, two paragraphs are now reproduced: "The data presented in this chapter should, once and for all, topple the dualistic dichotomy between mind and body which has strongly dominated Western thought since Descartes. The meanings or ideas imbedded in words which are spoken by one person and deeply accepted by another can be communicated to the cells of the body (and to chemicals within the cells); the cells then can change their activities in order to conform to the meanings or ideas which have been transmitted to them. The believed-in (suggested) idea of being stimulated by a poison ivy-type plant, transmitted to a person who is normally hypersensitive to this type of plant, can affect specific cells (probably in the immunological and vascular systems) so that they produce the same type of dermatitis which results when the person actually is stimulated by a poison ivy-type plant. Similarly, individuals who are viewed as allergic to pollen or house dust may not manifest the allergic reaction when they believe (falsely) that they have not been exposed to the allergic substance. .. ...
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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 Some Highly Focussed Minds Here is a modern study of calculating prodigies, idiot savants, or, as Rimland prefers, "autistic savants." Calculating prodigies are rarely idiots; that is, with IQs below 30: rather they are almost always autistic, displaying gross disturbances in communication, and/or motor behavior. Rimland and his colleagues have studied 5,400 autistic children and found 10% of them to have extraordinary abilities. We hear most often about those prodigies who can multiply large numbers in their heads instantaneously or give us calendar information far in the past or future without the blink of an eye. But autistic savants are also prodigal in the fields of art, music, and mechanics. No one knows how they per-form their feats, although psychologists speculate that their minds are intensely focussed on their special skills to the exclusion of most everything else. A few "normal" people, such as Gauss and Ampere, have matched the capabilities of the autistic savants, but the rest of us have our minds spread too thinly. We are in the majority, so the autistic savants usually end up in institutions while we plod along outside. (Rimland, Bernard; "Inside the Mind of the Autistic Savant," Psychology Today, August 1978.) Comment. We may speculate that the capabilities of the autistic savants are inherent in all of us, awaiting only some key. From Science Frontiers #6 , February ...
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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 The Untapped Human Mind In 1994, J. Wilding and E. Valentine, both at the University of London, provided the British Journal of Psychology with two studies of people claiming to have exceptional memories. In their second paper (Ref. 2), they detailed the mental workings of TM, a 25-year-old male, and an accomplished user of mnemonics. TM astounds audiences with his seemingly impossible memory feats. These feats, however, are no mystery to TM, and he has carefully explained how it is all mnemonics and nothing paranormal. But there remains the clear implication is that the normal human mind is underestimated and underused. TM's "performances" involve six demonstrations, two of which we now elaborate upon. Demonstration 2. TM asks audiences for birthdates and very quickly gives the day of birth. He has explained this "gift" thusly: "The day of birth calculations were originally carried out through use of a system of numerical codes for years and months which were combined and subjected to certain calculations. However, with practice many shortcuts and mnemonics have been developed and now TM often knows instantly that certain dates imply certain days, like learning the multiplication table. Every year and month has a code from 0 to 6 and TM has learned the codes (by the method explained below) for all years from 1900 to 2000. For any given date the method is to add the ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 48: Nov-Dec 1986 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The mind's "scope"Never underestimate the power of the mind. Take "bad breath," for example: "An example is the case of B.O ., white, married, mother of three children (ages 9, 6, and 4), operating room nurse. Her chief complaint was severe bad breath of several years duration. In the past, she had consulted dentists, an E.N .T . surgeon, and a family practice physician who had prescribed two series of antibiotics, then a powerful mouthwash that had denuded the epithellium of her tongue, resulting in severe pain and diet restriction. It took 16 weeks for the tongue to heal. B.O . came to me in January of 1983, when she felt the symptom had worsened." H.P . Golan, who treated B.O . (sic), employed hypnotic techniques in which the patient was first shown the power of her own mind over her body. B.O . responded well, and was soon able to produce temperature changes in her hand and glove anesthesia. "It was explained to her that her physical symptom was an expression of emotional problems caused by stress. The feeling of her hand temperature change and the view of her hand anesthetized had made her realize physiological control was possible over one part of her body. It was explained to her that stress often causes excess acid ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 19: Jan-Feb 1982 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Mind Marshals White Blood Cells If a hypnotist suggests to a receptive subject that his white blood cells are attacking cancer cells in his body, the population of white blood cells ranging through the subject's body will increase. Such "visualization" research is being conducted by Howard R. Hall at Penn State. The results seem to demonstrate the direct influence of hypnotic suggestion on the body's immune system. (Anonymous; "Hypnotism May Help Antibody Production," Baltimore Sun, October 19, 1981.) Comment. Since hypnotic suggestion is known to affect warts, body temperature, etc., its enhancement of the white blood cell population is merely one more example of the power of the mind over the body. The real mystery is just how the brain's electrical signals are converted into specific biological activity. From Science Frontiers #19, JAN-FEB 1982 . 1982-2000 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 Cinema Of The Mind Many curious mental states occur during sleep, most of which we cannot begin to explain. Horne homes in on REM sleep (Rapid Eye Movements sleep), during which: (1 ) Both heart and respiration rates become irregular; (2 ) The flow of blood to the brain increases 50% over relaxed waking levels; (3 ) Body temperature regulation becomes impaired; and (4 ) Blood flow to the kidneys and urine production drop markedly. REM sleep is thought to be "primitive" from an evolutionary standpoint because body temperature control is "reptilian." Horne also discusses REM and normal sleep in the context of nightmares, sleeptalking, sleepwalking, night terrors, narcolepsy, and sleep paralysis. (Horne, Jim; "The Cinema of the Mind," New Scientist, 95:627, 1982.) Comment. All in all, sleep is a complex phenomenon. We know we need it, but why? A really efficient organism would run 24 hours a day -- like a computer. From Science Frontiers #24, NOV-DEC 1982 . 1982-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 50: Mar-Apr 1987 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Mind-bending the velocity vectors of marine algae From the referenced paper's abstract: "A consciousness experiment in which the Doppler shift of He/Ne laser light was used to describe changes in the velocity and vector of a marine alga, Dunaliella, was reported by Pleass and Dey in 1985. Because the subject of the consciousness experiment is living, we expect strings of baseline velocity and vector data which are, at some level, inextricably time-variant. This complicates the statistical procedures which must be used to analyze the data. "This paper examines the variation in baseline data strings, and describes two alternative statistical procedures which have been used to determine the probability of consciousness effects. Two levels of control are applied, allowing global comparison of frequency distributions of experimental scores with similar distributions derived artificially from baseline data. In both cases the null hypothesis is that there is no psi effect. The data quite strongly suggest the rejection of the null hypothesis, although the distributions of run scores contain several values beyond 3 sigma and are nonnormal. This limits the definition of probabilities." (Pleass, C.M ., and Dey, N. Dean; "Finding the Rabbit in the Bush: Statistical Analysis of Consciousness Research Data from the Motile Alga Dunaliella," The Explorer, 3:6 , no. 2, 1986. The Explorer is a publication of the Society for Scientific Exploration.) Comment. ...
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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 Fake Needles but Real Knives The effect of a patient's mind in medical procedures can be as powerful as drugs and real surgery. This is the well known placebo effect. But how can doctors differentiate between the healing power of the mind and that of chemicals and scalpels? The logical thing to do is to fake the procedure with one group of patients and compare results with a second group that got the "real thing." Of course, ethical problems come to the fore because doctors are supposed to cure people and not to pretend to. The ethical dimension is accentuated when real knives are employed and real blood flows. Our first item is not invasive but interesting nonetheless. Placebo acupuncture. Many physicians scoff at acupuncture. Placebo experiments could prove its efficacy. To this end, special placebo needles have been invented. Like the fake daggers used on the stage, the points are blunt and retractable. The acupuncture patient feels a pinprick and thinks he or she sees the needle penetrating the skin, but it's all fakery. At the University of Heidelberg, 52 people with rotator cuff tendinitis were split into two groups; 25 were punctured with real needles, the rest just thought they were. In this experiment, the first group showed much greater improvement than those treated with the fake needles. Real acupuncture was more powerful than the placebo effect. Now if we can only figure out how real acupuncture works! ...
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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 The mind's rhythm Observations of individuals undergoing hypnosis suggest that intervals of particular susceptibility come along about every 90 minutes. Expert hypnotherapists are cognizant of this psychophysical cycle and often wait for it to appear. By closely watching the subject's swallowing, eye-blinking, respiration, etc., the hynotizer can take advantage of these periods of heightened susceptibility. (Rossi, Ernest L.; "Hypnosis and Ultradian Cycles: A New State(s ) Theory of Hypnosis?" American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 25:21, 1982.) Comment. The reason for this 90-minute rhythm and the control system behind it are obscure. From Science Frontiers #26, MAR-APR 1983 . 1983-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 65: Sep-Oct 1989 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Pi in the mind!" Srinivasan Mahadevan, a graduate student from India at Kansas State University in Manhattan, is trying to become the fourth person to remember the first 100,000 digits to pi, the theoretically infinite computation that measures the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. He has already memorized the first 35,000 digits of pi. "Only three cases of such ability to remember have been documented in 200 years. One of these people became insane when he became unable to forget anything and his reasoning processes drowned in a flood of facts." (Anonymous; "Student's Memory Wins Bets," San Mateo Times, June 2, 1989. Cr. J. Covey) From Science Frontiers #65, SEP-OCT 1989 . 1989-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Mammals II: 1995: Biological Anomalies: Mammals I 1994: Science Frontiers, The Book 1994: Biological Anomalies: Humans III 1993: Biological Anomalies: Humans II 1992: Biological Anomalies: Humans I 1991: Inner Earth: A Search for Anomalies (Geological) 1990: Neglected Geological Anomalies 1989: Anomalies in Geology: Physical, Chemical, Biological 1988: Carolina Bays, Mima Mounds, Submarine Canyons (Geological) 1987: Stars, Galaxies, Cosmos 1986: The Sun and Solar System Debris 1985: The Moon and the Planets 1984: Rare Halos, Mirages, Anomalous Rainbows (Geophysics) 1983: Earthquakes, Tides, Unidentified Sounds (Geophysics) 1983: Tornados, Dark days, Anomalous Precipitation (Geophysics) 1982: Lightning, Auroras, Nocturnal Lights (Geophysics) 1982: Unfathomed Mind 1981: Incredible life (Biology) 1980: Unknown Earth (Geological) 1979: Mysterious Universe (Astronomy) 1978: Ancient Man (Archeology) 1977: Handbook of Unusual Natural Phenonema Sourcebook Series 1978: Strange Planet E2 1977: Strange Universe A1 1976: Strange Artifact M2 1976: Strange Minds P1 1976: Strange Life B1 1975: Strange Planet E1 1975: Strange Universe A1 1974: Strange Artifact M1 1974: Strange Phenomena G2 1974: Strange Phenomena G1 Home Page The Sourcebook Project (Catalog of Anomalies)Oct 2021 Sorry, all publications are now out of print To acquire copies, it is recommended that you visit addall.com (and search for author = William Corliss) The Sourcebooks, Handbooks and Catalogs are compiled from 40,000 articles from the scientific literature, the ...
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... Hallucinations Auditory Hallucinations Imaginary Companions (" Philip" Phenomenon) Nightmares Auras Hostage Hallucinations Geomagnetism and Hallucinations Hallucinations in Life-Threatening Situations Lilliputian Hallucinations Hypnotism and Color Blindness Illusions of Levitation [PSP] Seance Illusions [PSM, PBA] Indian Rope Trick and Related Magic Tricks Sex-Change Hallucination Ghosts Alien Abductions [X ] Psychic Surgery Missing Time Hallucination Duplication in Time Men-in-Black Black helicopters [X ] Pyramid Power PLD OUT-OF-THE-BODY EXPERIENCES Out-of-the-Body Experiences (OBEs) OBEs under Morbid Conditions PLS HALLUCINATIONS STIMULATED BY MECHANICAL DEVICES Visual Hallucinations Stimulated by Crystal Balls and Similar Devices Auditory Hallucinations Stimulated by Tape Recorders and Similar Devices Odd Perceptions Optical Illusions [PIB] PP PSYCHIC BIOLOGY PPA ALLERGY AND ASTHMA Allergies Asthma PPB BODILY PARAMETERS AFFECTED BY THE MIND Temperature Odor Heart Rate Physical Performance Reflexes Alpha-Rhythm Visual Perception Color Blindness Deafness Fatigue Sleep Physical Size (Breast Size) Luminosity Auras [PLG] PPC CANCER AND THE MIND Cancer Onset Cancer Remission PPD DEATH Willed Death Suicide Twin Effect Birthday Phenomenon PPE PREGNANCY False Pregnancy Couvade Labor Onset Birth Defects PPG GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS (PSYCHOLOGICAL "FORCES) Hypnotism Faith and Prayer Healing Charms, Snakestones, Elixirs Imaging and Visualization Touch Therapy (Laying-on-of-Hands Placebos Stress and Depression Will Power Media Suggestion Yoga Meditation Voodoo, Curses, Hexes Belief Systems (Christian Science) Prophecy Homeopathy Acupuncture Mental Exaltation Unknown (" Miracle" Cures) Dreams Telepathy PPI IMMUNE SYSTEM Immune System PPM MIGRAINE Migraine PPP PAIN Pain Relief Phantom-Limb Phenomena Sympathetic Pain Fire-Walking PPS SKIN DISEASES AND PHENOMENA Stigmata ...
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... of continuous, intensive experimentation, that clearly establish the existence, scale and primary correlates of certain anomalous influences of human consciousness on a variety of physical systems and processes. In our Microelectronic Random Binary Generators experiment, 95 selected human operators attempted to shift the output distribution means to either higher or lower values than the chance mean, in accordance with their prerecorded intentions. In 3 850 000 experimental sequences of 200 binary samples, the overall results were that means in high intensity runs exceeded means in low intensity runs by 4.38 sigma. (The probability of chance occurrence of this outcome is less than 6 x 10-6 .) Jahn also reviewed the results of other types of psi experiments which also produced positive results. Replying to Jahn, Anderson admitted that he indeed had Jahn in mind when he wrote his original article. "What my piece actually said was within my competence as a theorist, which is to make logical connections, and the logical point I made is that physics as it is practiced, and specifically precise mensuration, is not compatible with Jahn's claims; one must choose one or the other, not both, as he also emphasizes. If the 'observer effect' as he calls it -- or 'magic' as one might equally well characterize it -- is correct, precise measurement is not possible. His ideas are as incompatible with the intellectual basis of physics as 'creation science' is with that of cosmology and biology. It is for this reason that I feel measurements such as Jahn does must be tested with more rigor ...
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... head was forced painfully to one side, and her right arm was contracted and paralyzed. The best thing she could do, said her doctor, was to go home and make arrangements for the future of her young son and daughter." Instead Anna learned how to "image." She conceived the tumor to be a dragon on her back and her white blood cells as knights attacking the dragon with swords. A year later, the tumor had shrunk. Later, it disappeared complete-ly. Can "imaging" work? Obviously, this is a very controversial question. Admittedly, little real scientific research has been done on imaging per se -- it is a bit too radical a concept. But a few scientists are beginning to chart the chemistry and information flow in the mind-body relationship. For example, the death of a spouse has long been associated with the increased mortality of the surviving spouse. Clinical studies of bereaved spouses reveal fewer circulating lymphocytes, which help the body fight disease, and significantly higher levels of cortisol, a substance that suppresses the immune system's response to disease. Although it is very early in the game, there are verifiable correlations between state-of-mind and body chemistry. Further, other researchers have found that there are sympathetic nerve terminals in such organs as the spleen and lymph nodes, both of which play important parts in defending the body. Imaging just might send the right signals through these terminals, while depression might tend to shut the defense system down. (Hammer, Signe; "The Mind as ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 16: Summer 1981 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Belief Systems And Health Can one's mind-set affect one's immunity to disease? Lenard explores (in popular style) the roles of mental attitude, visualization techniques, and placebos in fighting and preventing cancer and other ailments. Placebos are nothing new. Most doctors admit they sometimes work for some people. Why, they don't know. Placebo action seems closely allied to a person's mental attitude. Many doctors will also allow that a positive attitude helps a lot in fighting illness and that depression aggravates it. Visualization techniques, though, are hotly debated. Will cancer cells be destroyed, or at least stop growing, if the patient visualized them as weak things that are vulnerable to the body's killer cells? Proponents of visualization recom-mend that a cancer patient visualize his killer cells as protecting knights in armor that swoop down and skewer the enemy cancer cells. In a visualization session, one focuses one's mind on such images and, in essence, wills his body to fight back. There is some evidence that visualization helps. (Lenard, Lane; "Visions That Vanquish Cancer," Science Digest, 89:59, March 1981.) Comment. The crucial scientific question in all the above methods is: How does a belief system mobilize biological systems? From Science Frontiers #16, Summer 1981 . 1981-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... the first letter, A.A . Berezin bravely proclaimed that science needs more rather than less research in parapsychology, citing specifically the work of H. Schmidt and R. Jahn. Further, he maintains that the major science journals should be open to high quality research in parapsychology. He wrote: "One cannot exorcise unorthodox claims by repeating mantras that they are 'pseudoscience.'" A second letter from S. Malin begins by noting that physics has undergone two major paradigm shifts during its history: (1 ) Aristotelian to Newtonian physics; and (2 ) Newtonian to contemporary physics. Additional shifts are likely, and the next one might well involve the relation of consciousness to the physical world. In support of his intuition, he quoted from E. Schroedinger's 1958 book Mind and Matter on the "principle of objectivation." "By this I mean what is also frequently called the 'hypothesis of the real world' around us. I maintain that it amounts to a certain simplification which we adopt in order to master the infinitely intricate problem of nature. Without being aware of it and without being rigorously systematic about it, we exclude the Subject of Cognizance from the domain of nature that we endeavor to understand. We step with our own person back into the part of an onlooker who does not belong to the world, which by this very procedure becomes an objective world. [Our] science... is based on objectivation, whereby it has cut itself off from an adequate understanding of the Subject of Cognizance, of the mind. But I ...
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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 The Enigma Of Multiple Personality The multiple personalities of individuals afflicted with this disorder are sharply defined. Each personality has its (his or her) distinctive handwriting, artistic talents, foreign language capabilities, and other aspects of behavior -- all in the same body. Such mental and behavioral facets of multiple personality are well-recognized, even if not understood. What is even stranger and more anomalous about multiple personality is the remarkable mind-body relationship manifested. Consider, for example, the case of Timmy: "When Timmy drinks orange juice he has no problem. But Timmy is just one of close to a dozen personalities who alternate control over a patient with multiple personality disorder. And if those other personalities drink orange juice, the result is a case of hives. "The hives will occur even if Timmy drinks orange juice and another personality appears while the juice is still being digested. What's more, if Timmy comes back while the allergic reaction is present, the itching of the hives will cease immediately, and the water-filled blisters will begin to subside." How does one explain such phenomena? We cannot obviously, at least not yet. What the phenomenon of multiple personality does do is offer us a "window" for observing that mysterious interface between one's thoughts and bodily functions. Perhaps, if we can heal the mind, we can also heal the body. (Where have ...
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... : a mainstream view In a recent number of Nature, C. Ruggles reviewed the present status of Stonehenge as mainstream archeologists now see this world-famous monument. oThe construction of Stonehenge began a bit earlier than previously thought: 2950 50 BC. But beneath the present parking area are post holes dated 4,000 years earlier! They are apparently not related to the Stonehenge we know. oThe idea that Stonehenge's bluestones, which originated in the Preseli Mountains of southwest Wales, 200 kilometers distant, were carried to Salisbury Plain by glaciers has been emphatically disproved by geologists. These 4-ton stones were transported by people! This great effort required precocious social organization, communication, and some kind of psychological impetus. oThe sarsens -- those even bigger stones that define Stonehenge in our mind's view -- evoke the same sorts of questions as this issue's eccentric flints: Why? and How? Ruggles writes: "Why it was important to bring stones from so far away is an open question, as is the issue of how people achieved the almost unimaginable feat of hauling the sarsens, weighing 25 tonnes or more, over 30 km from the Marlborough Downs in the north." oNew studies of the other ancient monuments in the vicinity of Stonehenge have revealed that they were not placed at random. Many are visible from Stonehenge. Stonehenge is at the center of a number of "nested bowls." [? ] Further, barrows of the Early Bronze Age were placed in lines along the horizon ridges visible from Stonehenge. There was obvious regional planning ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 83: Sep-Oct 1992 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Is the paranormal only a set of subjective experiences?Anomalists usually interpret paranormal phenomena as indications that our knowledge of the human mind and how it interacts with other minds and the socalled material world is sadly deficient. But some psychiatrists see paranormal phenomena as merely symptoms of mental disturbance and nothing esoteric at all. Such a view is supported by studies employing interviews with members of society at large. In a revealing but demystifying study of 502 residents of Winnipeg, C.A . Ross and S. Joshi found: (1 ) That so-called paranormal experiences are very common indeed, with 65.7 % of the interviewees reporting having had them. The most common were deja vu (54.6 %) , precognitive dreams (17.8 %) , and mental telepathy (15.6 %) . Many reported experiencing more than one of the 13 different types of paranormal phenomena included in the survey. But do survey statistics prove that such paranormal phenomena are truly objective? The real nature of paranormal experiences, according to Ross and Joshi, lies in the close ties these paranormal phenomena have with dissociative phenomena (i .e ., automatic writing), hypnotic phenomena, and childhood traumas. They theorize: "A model is proposed in which paranormal experiences are conceptualized as an aspect of normal dissociation. Like dissociation in general, paranormal experiences can be triggered by trauma, especially childhood physical or sexual abuse. ...
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... Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects When To Believe And When Not To Bizarre effects in quantum mechanics. Recently, three "delayed choice" experiments have been consummated in physics labs. In such experiments, the result depends upon what the observer tries to measure; viz., light as particulate-in-nature or light as wave-like-in-nature. The funny thing is that it doesn't matter when the experimenter decides what to measure; he can do this months before the experiment or even afterwards! The effect of the choice is the same -- before or after. Now that is weird! But everyone believes it because a theory for it exists. (Thomsen, Dietrick E.; "Changing Your Mind in a Hurry," Science News, 129:137, 1986.) Bizarre effects in psychokinesis. Recently, several laboratories have been trying to determine if the human mind can affect random physical events, such as radioactive decay. "Surprisingly, the PK effect appears quite independent of physical variables, such as the distance or the complexity of the random generator. The subjects succeed by aiming at the result, regardless of the intermediate steps required to reach this result. Such a goal-oriented, even non-casual feature of PK has been emphasized by PK experiments with pre-recorded, random events. In these experiments, random events were first pre-recorded, and later played back to a PK subject who tried to enforce a certain outcome. These experiments gave positive results ...
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... Frontiers The Book Contents Science Frontiers is an indexed compilation of the first 86 issues of our Science Frontiers newsletter . Chapter 1. Archeology: Ancient Engineering Works * Small Artifacts * Epigraphy and Art * Bones and Footprints * Diffusion and Culture. Chapter 2. Astronomy: Planets and Moons * Solar System Debris * Stars * Galaxies and Quasars * Cosmology. Chapter 3. Biology: Humans .* Other Mammals * Birds * Reptiles and Amphibians * Fish * Arthropods * Invertebrates * Plants and Fungi * Microorganisms * Genetics * Origin of Life * Evolution. Chapter 4. Geology: Topography * Geological Anomalies * Stratigraphy * Inner Earth. Chapter 5. Geophysics: Luminous Phenomena* Weather Phenomena * Hydrological Phenomena * Earthquakes * Anomalous Sounds * Atmospheric Optics. Chapter 6. Psychology: Dissociation Phenomena * Hallucinations * Mind - Body Phenomena * Hidden Knowledge * Reincarnation * Information Processing * Psychokinesis. Chapter 7. Chemistry, Physics, Math, Esoterica: Chemistry * Physics * Mathematics. Comments from reviews: "This fun-to-read book may lead some to new scientific solutions through questioning the phenomena presented", Science Books and Films Publishing details: 356 pages, paperback, $18.95, 417 illus., subject index, 1994. 1500+ references, LC 93-92800 ISBN 0-915554-28-3 , 8.5 x 11. Order From:The Sourcebook Project P.O . Box 107 Glen Arm, MD 21057 USA Tel: + 1 (410) 668 6047. Ordering information Prices are in U.S . dollars. Canadian dollars and pounds ...
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... , snowflakes supposedly require a solid seed or nucleus around which ice can crystallize -- or so scientists have assumed for many years. It was long believed that airborne dust, perhaps augmented by extraterrestrial micrometeoroids, served as the necessary nuclei. But cloud studies prove that there are about a thousand times more ice crystals than dust nuclei. Now, some are convinced that bacteria blown off plants and flung into the air by ocean waves are the true nuclei of atmospheric ice crystals. Remember this the next time you tast a handful of snow! (Carey, John; "Crystallizing the Truth," National Wildlife, 23:43, December/ January 1985.) Comment. The possibility that the fall of snow and all other forms of precipitation is largely dependent upon bacter-ia brings to mind the Gaia Hypothesis; that is, all life forms work in unison to further the goals of life. The second item is from Nature and is naturally more technical. After reviewing the great difficulties scientists are having in mathematically describing the growth of even the simplest crystal, the author homes in on one of the fascinating puzzles of snowflake growth: "The aggregation of particles into a growing surface will be determined exclusively by local properties, among which surface tension and the opportunities for energetically advantageous migration will be impor tant. But the symmetry of a whole crystal, represented by the exquisite six-fold symmetry of the standard snowflake, must be the consequence of some cooperative phenomenon involving the growing crystal as a whole. What can that be? What can tell one growing face of a crystal ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 113: Sep-Oct 1997 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The View From Within A hypnotized individual can sometimes be coaxed to hallucinate his or her body image as seen by the unconscious mind. The hallucinated body image may be radically different from that conceived by the conscious mind. In cases of mental illness, the hallucinated unconscious body image may not even be a human figure but rather a bird, a fish, or an inanimate object or geometric figure. The nature of the unconscious body image seems to depend upon the nature of the emotional pathology and may even be useful in diagnosis and treatment. (Freytag, Fredericka; "The Hallucinated Unconscious Body Image," American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 7:209, 1965.) From Science Frontiers #113, SEP-OCT 1997 . 1997-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... beings of all societies in all periods of history believe that their ideas on the nature of the real world are the most secure, and that their ideas on religion, ethics and justice are the most enlightened. Like us, they think that final knowledge is at last within reach. Like us, they pity the people in earlier ages for not knowing the true facts. Unfailingly, human beings pity their ancestors for being so ignorant and forget that their descendants will pity them for the same reason." E. Harrison, who penned the above, sees knowledge as perpetually uncertain and always changing. Scientists will always be surprised, he says, and scientific laws are never final. He concludes: "I feel liberated by this philosophy. I find comfort in the thought that the creative mind fashions the world in which we live. For it means that the mind and reality are more profound than we normally suppose." (Harrison, Edward; "The Uncertainty of Knowledge," New Scientist, p. 78, September 24, 1987.) From Science Frontiers #54, NOV-DEC 1987 . 1987-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... , it is clearly more than a stroke of luck that mathematics describes so much of reality so accurately. And here is the spooky part of the whole business. In formulating their web of logic, mathematicians make many more or less "artistic" decisions that are colored by reality and their expectations of reality. To illustrate, "symmetry" is a human passion that reality may disdain. In other words, because mathematicians are prejudiced by their experience in the real world and are an integral part of that world, it is not surprising that their artistic renditions mirror reality to some extent. (Little, John; "The Uncertain Craft of Mathematics," New Scientist, 88:626, 1980.) Comment. It might also be that mathematics predicts unknown realities because of the human mind's subconscious knowledge or appreciation of them -- a sort of innate appreciation of that portion of the universe still unknown to the conscious mind. From Science Frontiers #14, Winter 1981 . 1981-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Professor G.W . Brown, University of London, of life-events that affect the health of outwardly normal people. Typical life-events are the death of a spouse, imprisonment, personal bankruptcy, etc. Everyone seems to recognize -- if only through anecdotes -- that mental states affect health, but how this brain-body link is maintained is hard to pin down. D. Maclean and S. Reichlin (Psychoneuroimmunology, 12: 475, 1981.) have reviewd some of the possible connections. One potential link is through the interaction of the hypothalamus on the pituitary. The pituitary is a source of materials that influence the immune system. Maddox lists several specific candidates, and then observes: "The more radical psychoimmunologists talk as if there is no state of mind which is not faithfully reflected by a state of the immune system." So far, not too radical! But then Maddox comes to an article by J.E . Blalock, University of Texas (Journal of Immunology, 132:1067, 1984.) bearing the title, "The Immune System as a Sensory Organ." Blalock argues that the interaction between the central nervous system and immune system must be reciprocal. By this he means that the immune system's response to infection, through the secretions of disease-fighting lymphocytes, gets back to the central nervous system and produces physiological and even behavioral changes in the infected animal. Applicable studies of animals have been reported recently. For example, rats under stress are found to have less easily stimulated immune systems. ( ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 76: Jul-Aug 1991 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Cold fusion: new experiments and theories Cold-fusion research continues in many labs, particularly outside the US, where minds seem more open. At a recent meeting in the Soviet Union, 45 coldfusion papers revealed intense foreign activity. The Soviets are spending 15 million rubles for further research. In Japan, a Japanese-American team has even set up an experiment a half-mile underground to cut out stray radiation. (R2) However, the US is doing something despite the ridicule from the popular and scientific media. B.F . Bush and J.J . Lagowski of the University of Texas in Austin and M.H . Miles and G.S . Ostrom of the Naval Weapons Center in China Lake, Calif., say the helium levels they measured correlate roughly with the amount of heat generated in the fusion reaction. .. .. . Those who believe in cold fusion are quite excited. "It's a world-turning experiment, a lollapalooza," says John O'M . Bockris, a physical chemist who has researched cold fusion at Texas A&M University in College Station. (R1) According to Dr. Mallove of M.I .T ., another provocative set of experiments are those at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico where Dr. Howard Menlove has repeatedly detected bursts of neutrons, subatomic particles that are a fusion byproduct. (R2) ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 50: Mar-Apr 1987 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Feathered Flights Of Fancy Some more salvos have been fired in an endlessly fascinating controversy (at least it is that to us). First, F. Hoyle and C. Wickramasinghe, hardly strangers to these columns, have published Archaeopteryx, The Primordial Bird: A Case of Fossil Forgery. The book elaborates their theory that the Archaeopteryx fossils, much ballyhooed as "proofs" of evolution, are outright forgeries. Second, T. Kemp, a zoologist on the staff of the University Museum, has returned the fire with a mean-minded review. He states that Hoyle and Wickramasinghe "exhibit a staggering ignorance about the nature of fossils and fossilization processes." Kemp concludes his review with an admission that the possibility of forgery should indeed be investigated. "But it should be done by those who actually understand fossils, fossilization and fossil preparation, not by a couple of people who exhibit nothing more than a gargantuan conceit that they are clever enough to solve other people's problems for them when they do not even begin to recognize the nature and complexity of the problems." (Kemp, Tom; "Feather Flights of Fancy," Nature, 324:185, 1986.) Finally, Hoyle and Wickramasinghe reply in a letter to Nature that L.M . Spetner and his colleagues in Israel have analyzed samples of the Archaeopteryx fossil with a scanning electron microscope and X-ray spectroscopy. Results: the rock ...
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... Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Costa rica's neglected stone spheres Books and articles on Stonehenge, the Easter Island statues, and the Egyptian pyramids are legion. Granted that these structures are important and intriguing, we still ask why Costa Rica's meticulously wrought stone spheres are languishing in the wings of science. They epitomize exquisite workmanship. Such geometric perfection rendered in granite is remarkable-- -for any ancient culture. Lastly, the stones' purpose completely escapes us. Why strew such masterpieces of stoneworking around and even buried under the dark jungle floors? M.T . Shoemaker also wonders about these things in a nice recapitulation of the stone-sphere mystery. His compilation of facts and figures only impels us to learn more about the spheres and what their shapers had in mind. The spheres are found on the Diquis River delta, near the Pacific coast of southern Costa Rica. Stone-sphere sizes range from an inch to 8 feet in diameter. At least 186 spheres have been recorded in the literature. Surely many more were destroyed and other remain undiscovered. No local source exists for the granite; and no stone-working tools have been found near the spheres. "The best spheres are perhaps the finest examples of precision stonecarving in the ancient world." The maximum circumference error in a 6-foot, 7-inch diametre sphere in only 0.5 inch, or 0.2 %. The spheres are often grouped, but no general system or alignment mode seems to exist. "One very disturbing mystery emerges in examining the Diquis ...
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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 Complexities Of The Inner Earth So many new and startling facts about the inner earth are emerging from current magnetic, seismic, and gravitic researth that a little list is in order. Bear in mind when going down the list that most of these features would have been considered absurd only a decade or two ago. The earth's solid inner core, which "floats" inside the liquid core, is not spherical. Rather, it is anisotropic with its axis of symmetry aligned with the earth's axis of rotation. (Ref. 1 below) "The CMB (core-mantle boundary) is the most dramatic discontinuity in the earth's internal structure in terms of the physical and chemical properties as well as the time scale of the processes that take place on either side of it. Its shape, if different from that predicted by the hydrostatic equilibrium theory, may contain information important to our understanding of geodynamic processes in the mantle or the geomagnetic field generated in the outer core." (Ref. 1, and also item #7 below) The earth's magnetic field possesses four lobes which remain fixed relative to the earth's surface, as demonstrated by 300 years of data. These lobes do not drift westward like the general field. (Ref. 2) "Core-spot pairs" of magnetic intensity seem to move westward and poleward. In the southern hemisphere, they originate under ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 65: Sep-Oct 1989 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology The samurai and the ainu Breaking the 12,000-bp barrier Astronomy Sweeping anomalies under the rug Fossil from mars? Biology The wood turtle stomp Why the hammer head? Initial bipedalism! Microorganisms at great depths Geology Fossil ufos Chemical surprises at the k-t boundary Geophysics Unusual sounds preceding lightning Books about the crop circles Psychology Pi in the mind! Calendar calculating by "idiot savants" General How fares cold fusion? How fares benveniste? ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 15: Spring 1981 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Hidden Stonehenge The configuration of standing stones at Stonehenge has been etched in everyone's mind by thousands of photographs and drawings down the centuries. There is also a "hidden" Stonehenge: traces of earlier configurations, hints of trials and errors, and just plain enigmas. The hidden or cryptic Stonehenge is found mostly by accident when some chance digging reveals a previously unrecorded hole, ditch, or buried artifact. To illustrate, in May and June of 1979, a 24-meter trench was excavated along the path of a proposed telephone cable. The diggers found a completely unexpected, backfilled pit showing the impression of the standing stone that had once occupied it. Now called Stone 97, this feature was "erased" thousands of years ago for some unknown reason. Several such fortuitous finds hint that the Stonehenge we now see is like one of those paintings painted over an earlier painting. Apparently, we are just beginning to comprehend the history of this remarkable site. (Pitts, M.W .; "Stones, Pits and Stonehenge," Nature, 290:16, 1981.) From Science Frontiers #15, Spring 1981 . 1981-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 66: Nov-Dec 1989 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Was burt stitched up?Sir Cyril Burt was, until a few years ago, the Grand Old Man of British Psychology. But then a scandal erupted. Burt was charged with manufacturing data and even faking the existence of research assistants. A devastating biography by L. Hearnshaw seemed to ruin Burt's reputation for good. With all the attendant publicity, the label "scientific fraud" stuck in everyone's mind. But, hold on, another book, one with a completely different conclusion, has hit the bookstores. This book, The Burt Affair , is by R.B . Joynson. Joynson demonstrates in great detail that Hernshaw's biography is seriously deficient in places. If Joynson is correct, Hearnshaw and Burt's other enemies are guilty of selective reporting. The case for fraud was fraud itself! (Blinkhorn, Steve; "Was Burt Stitched Up?" Nature, 340:439, 1989.) From Science Frontiers #66, NOV-DEC 1989 . 1989-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 19: Jan-Feb 1982 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology A Prehistoric TVA? The Diffusion of Science in Prehistoric Times Astronomy The Rims of Galaxies Spin Too Fast Problems At the Rim of the Solar System Magic Numbers in Helium-atom Clusters Biology Species Stability is A Real Problem Geology African Fossil Sequences Support Punctuated Evolution Stratum Shuffling At Plate Boundaries Fatal Flaw in Pole-flipping Theory Geophysics Why So Little Lightning At Sea? Psychology Mind Marshals White Blood Cells Anomalous EEG Discharges Magical Communication in the Subatomic World ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 68: Mar-Apr 1990 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects New Life For Martian Life After the negative (some say "ambiguous") results from the Viking spacecraft life-detection experiments in 1976, astronomers and biologists have proclaimed that Mars is sterile. This pronouncement may have been premature. A meteorite discovered in Antarctica in 1979 may change a few minds on this matter. This particular meteorite is one of the handful thought to have been blasted off into space by an oblique impact of an asteroid on the surface of Mars. Somehow, statistics were kind to these tiny Martian orphans, for they found their ways to the Antarctic snows. But what is really exciting is the recent discovery that chemical analysis of one of these purported Martian meteorites revealed a high concentration of organic material deep within. The implication is that Martian life existed, perhaps still does exist, beneath the Martian surface, where the Viking Lander's scoop could not get at it. (Anonymous; "Life under Mars?" Sky and Telescope, 78:461, 1989.) Comment. In other words, Mars like the earth, may harbor an unappreciated fauna in crevicular structure beneath the environmentally rigorous surface. See also: SF#67. From Science Frontiers #68, MAR-APR 1990 . 1990-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 81: May-Jun 1992 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Latte Stones When one thinks of megaliths, Stonehenge, Carnac, and the other classic sites of Europe come to mind. In actuality, megalithic ruins of sorts are to be found almost everywhere. In Oceania, for example, we have the Latte Stones found decorating many of the Mariana Islands in Micronesia: "Looking a bit like immense bird-baths, the Latte are shaped like truncated pyramids (halenges) capped with enormous hemispherical stones (tasas). They range in height from 5 to 20 feet with circumferences of up to 18 feet and weights that have been estimated at up to 30 tons. The columns are found throughout the Marianas, usually in double rows of up to six stones." Are the Latte Stones burial monuments or, as some are convinced, merely supports for the dwellings important personages in ancient Micronesia? But why would anyone build a house 20 feet above the ground? Even the Micronesians scoff at the idea. Instead they attribute the Latte Stones to the taotaomona, the spirits of the "before-time" people! The Latte Stones are so old that even when Magellan discovered the Marianas in 1521, no one remembered what they had been used for. (Davis, Esther Payne; "The Strange Latte Stones of Guam," World Explorer , 1:23, Spring/Summer 1992.) Reference. Scientific opinions concerning the Latte stones can be found in our handbook: Ancient ...
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... long con sidered immortal, may after all decay. The consequences of proton decay are even more dismal than the dire predictions of thermodynamics: "Perhaps the most disturbing piece of speculation to come out of theoretical physics recently is the prediction that the whole universe is in decay. Not only do living things die, species go extinct, and stars burn out, but the apparently immutable protons in the nucleus of every atom are slowly dissolving. Eventually -- in more than a quadrillion years -- nothing will be left of the universe but a dead mist of electrons, photons, and neutrinos." (Flam, Faye; "Could Protons Be Mortal after All?" Science, 257:1862, 1992.) The death of memory. With increasing entropy and decaying protons on their minds, it comes as no surprise that physicists likewise believe that when one dies, that's it . An afterlife is impossible. How do physicists conclude this? In a letter to the American Journal of Physics, J. Orear proffered an interesting sort of "proof": "One such proof: human memory is stored in the circuitry of the brain and after death this circuitry completely decomposes." But not all physicists were satisfied with this simplistic view. In a follow-on letter, J.B .T . McCaughan asked how Orear knew that memory is limited to the brain's neuron circuitry. Perhaps there is something that the reductionists are missing. McCaughan then states that Orear's assertion would be negated if people really did return from the dead. He ...
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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 Hypnosis And Skin Temperature The mind can affect the body in many ways. One of the most bizarre is the use of hypnosis to raise skin temperature on selected parts of the body. A recently published example of this phenomenon was observed by P. Hajek et al, at the Institute of Physiology in Prague: "Eight patients with atopic eczema and six healthy subjects were given hypnotic suggestion to feel pain in the upper part of the back and in one case on the palm. An average local increase in skin temperature of 0.6 C (detected by thermovision) occurred under this condition. For some patients, cutaneous pain threshold was increased before the experiment by means of repetitive hypnotic suggestion of analgesia. These subjects reported feeling no pain subjectively, but the local change in skin temperature was equal in both cases. The results suggest a central mechanism induced by measuring changes in pain threshold in the skin, which changes are independent of local changes in blood flow." (Hajek, P., et al; "Increase in Cutaneous Temperature Induced by Hypnotic Suggestion of Pain," Perceptual and Motor Skills, 74:737, 1992.) From Science Frontiers #86, MAR-APR 1993 . 1993-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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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 California's maze stones Humans have been carving and drawing mazes and building labyrinths from prehistoric times. Primitive peoples laboriously carved cup-and-ring designs; newspapers today print puzzle mazes in the Sunday editions. There is something fascinating, even mystical, about mazes. They are "signs that snare men's minds." We will never know why the Indians of southern California lavished so much labor etching mazes on hard rock surfaces, D.F . McCarthy, a University of California archeologist, has been studying these California maze stones for over 20 years. He has found over 50 of them so far. Some are over 3,000 years old, he thinks. Most are carved on rocks and boulders. They are just like our modern Sunday-paper mazes, with rectangular passageways, some blind, but always with a devious route leading to the center. Could they symbolize human life, full of potentially wrong turns, but with a Way to enlightenment? (Hillinger, Charles; "Ancient Carvings of Indians Remain Enigma to Expert," Richmond News Leader , November 11, 1991. Cr. H.C . Nottebart.) From Science Frontiers #89, SEP-OCT 1993 . 1993-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 26: Mar-Apr 1983 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology A Mysterious Copy of the Grave Creek Stone Archeology in Britain: Straying From the Party Line Astronomy Gyroscopic Galaxies Antarctic Meteorite May Have Been Blasted Off the Moon Biology Lizardless Thrashing Tails Nature's Ballistic Missile Prescient Evolution Geology Do the Continents Really Drift? Punching A Hole in the Asteroid Hypothesis Geophysics Slithering Patch of Light Earthquake and Subterranean Fire Psychology Everyone A Memory Prodigy The Mind's Rhythm Chemistry & Physics Maybe There's One Stable Particle! ...
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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 Punching A Hole In The Asteroid Hypothesis Scientists have long searched for a cause for the profound geological and biological changes that apparently occurred between the Cretaceous and Tertiary periods. When an iridium-rich layer was found in several areas at this important boundary, many claimed it as proof of an asteroid impact or some other catastrophism that would nicely explain the massive worldwide changes that occurred. With this preamble in mind, consider the following abstract from an article in Science: "Analyses of the clay mineralogy of samples from the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary layer at four localities show that the boundary clay is neither mineralogically exotic nor distinct from locally derived clays above and below the boundary. The significant ejecta component in the clay that is predicted by the asteroid impact scenario was not detected." (Rampino, Michael R., and Reynolds, Robert C.; "Clay Mineralogy of the Cretaceous-Tertiary Boundary Clay," Science, 219:1983.) From Science Frontiers #26, MAR-APR 1983 . 1983-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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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. 89: Sep-Oct 1993 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Looping Lightning March 17, 1992. Delta Flight 1083 en route from Pittsburgh to Atlanta. At approximately 8:30 PM, this flight was thought to be flying safely high above thundercloud tops, which were situated at 20,000-22,000 feet. The pilot, W.F . Blanchard describes what he observed: "Then, from one of these clouds, a lightning bolt appeared that changed my mind instantly. This bolt came from the top of the buildup closest to our line of flight and formed an enormous loop in the sky. It started at the top of the cloud and went well above our altitude (to at least 40,00045,000 ft.) and then circled back down into the cloud. My impression is that it joined back into itself at the top of the cloud, but it may have returned to another of the peaks in the same cloud." (Grynkewich, N.E ., Jr.; "Lightning Loop," Weather, 47:493, 1992.) Comment. There have been numerous recent reports of upwardly directed "rocket" lightning, but none in which the lightning returned back to the same cloud. Grynkewich may have seen some bizarre form of intercloud lightning. Reference. Unusual and anomalous forms of lightning are cataloged in section GLL in our catalog: Lighting, Auroras . Details here . From Science Frontiers #89, SEP-OCT ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 29: Sep-Oct 1993 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Sedimentary rocks on venus?The Soviet spacecraft Veneras-13 and 14 took photos of the hot surface of Venus from their landing spots beneath the planet's thick cloud cover. The rocky debris surrounding the spacecraft shows, to nearly everyone's surprise, strong evidence of sedimentary, layered structure. The rock formations display ripple marks, thin layering, differential erosion, and even hints of cross-bedding. The vision of ancient seas on Venus leaps to the mind, but according to the Russian scientists, it is far more likely that the sediments were created by winds, episodic volcanism, or repeated meteor strikes. (Florensky, C.P ., et al; "Venera 13 and Venera 14: Sedimentary Rocks on Venus?" Science, 221:57, 1983.) Reference, Venus harbors many anomalies. See our Catalog: The Moon and the Planets. This book is described here . Two pictures of the surface of Venus taken by the Russian space probe Venera 14. From Science Frontiers #29, SEP-OCT 1983 . 1983-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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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 Our genes aren't us!Almost without exception, biology textbooks, scientific papers, popular articles, and TV documentaries convey the impression that an organism's genes completely specify the living animal or plant. In most people's minds, the strands of DNA are analogous to computer codes that control the manufacture and disposition of proteins. Perhaps our current fascination with computers has fostered this narrow view of heredity. Do our genes really contain all the information necessary for constructing human bodies? In the April 1994 issue of Discover, J. Cohen and I. Stewart endeavor to set us straight. The arguments against the "genes-are-everything" paradigm are long and complex, but Cohen and Stewart also provide some simple, possibly simplistic observations supporting a much broader view of genetics. Mammalian DNA contains fewer bases than amphibian DNA, even though mammals are considered more complex and "advanced." The implication is that "DNA-as-a -message" must be a flawed metaphor. Wings have been invented at least four times by divergent classes (pterosaurs, insects, birds, bats); and it is very unlikely that there is a common DNA sequence that specifies how to manufacture a wing. The connections between the nerve cells comprising the human brain represent much more information than can possibly be encoded in human DNA. A caterpillar has the same DNA as the butterfly it eventually becomes. Ergo, something ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 97: Jan-Feb 1995 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Football-sized snowflakes "Now accepted as fact in the weather records was the report that the Siberian town of Bratsk in the winter of 1971 got snowflakes as big as footballs." (Anonymous; San Francisco Chronicle, September 25, 1994. Cr. J. Covey) Comment. Many such reports crop up in the weather journals. See GWP2 in our catalog: Tornados, Dark Days, Anomalous Precipiation. (Description here .. Bear in mind that these "giant" snowflakes are really aggregations of thousands of normal-size flakes. From Science Frontiers #97, JAN-FEB 1995 . 1995-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 99: May-Jun 1995 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology The inscribed bricks of comalcalco Ancient modern life and carbon dating Traces of the southern flotilla Astronomy Where have all the black holes gone? Ltps and ets Biology Curious brain asymmetries Did darwin get it all right? When scents make no sense Biological precursors of the 1995 kobe earthquake Geology Ballistic panspermia Geophysics Warning cars rolling uphill ahead 90-DAY SEA-LEVEL OSCILLATION AT WAKE ISLAND Luminous precursors of the 1995 kobe earthquake Psychology The untapped human mind Physics Why does spaghetti break into three pieces instead of two? ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf099/index.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 108: Nov-Dec 1996 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects An Innovative Computer In SF#106, we chronicled the chess match between IBM's Big Blue computer and human champion G.K . Kasparov. Incidental to the match itself was the fact that Big Blue sometimes made different moves when confronted with identical chessboards! With these denials of cyberdeterminism in mind, consider the following anecdote. About 40 years ago, D. Herschbach witnessed the first test of an early chess-playing program written by the renowned S. Ulam for the MANIAC I computer. "In this test, the MANIAC I computer played both sides of the board. After a rather bizarre game, Black made a move that checkmated White. Only then did Ulam realize that the program did not say what to do when mated; it just required that a move be made to escape check. While Ulam and his colleagues debated what might happen, the computer whirred on for about ten minutes. Finally it punched out White's move (on paper tape, then the mode). The uncanny solution: a spurious pawn appeared and began to march down the board to become a new queen." (Herschbach, Dudley; "Computer Milestones," Discover, 17:12, October 1996) Comment. If vacuum-tube-equipped MANIAC I was so resourceful and innovative, what might a modern supercomputer "think" up? Remember HAL of 2001: A Space Odyssey and treat your own computer ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf108/sf108p12.htm