223 results found.
... petroleum similar in some ways to commercial petroleum. Apparently organic matter in the vicinity of the vent is thermally converted into oil, or at least something that, like wine, matures into something useful. (Simoneit, Bernd R.T ., and Lonsdale, Peter F.; "Hydrothermal Petroleum in Mineralized Mounds at the Seabed of Guayman Basin," Nature, 295:198, 1982.) Comment. The recently discovered hydrothermal vents are only the external manifestations of what must be extensive chemical factories beneath the crust. The rich assemblages of thermosynthetic life (not photosynthetic life) around the vents makes one speculate about what might be transpiring chemically and biologically in the hot, fluid-saturated crevices and pores of the earth's crust. Carbon dating of petroleum sometimes yields absurdly young ages. Could it be that all the natural gas and petroleum we could ever need is now being manufactured for us subterraneanly ? The Gaia hypothesis would lead us to expect just such a process. After all, humankind requires abundant fuel if it is to carry earth life out into the reaches of space! From Science Frontiers #20, MAR-APR 1982 . 1982-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Frontiers ONLINE No. 11: Summer 1980 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Mysterious Swirl Patterns On The Moon In at least three lunar locations, enigmatic bright-and-dark swirl patterns drape craters and mare terrains. Ranging from 10 kilometers across to less than 50 meters, they may be ribbon-like, open-looped, or closed-looped. The swirls are sharply defined but do not appear to scour or otherwise disturb the terrains where they occur. Similar swirl patterns have been recognized on Mercury. Two intriguing characteristics of the lunar swirl patterns are: (1 ) They coincide with strong magnetic anomalies; and (2 ) They appear to be very young, being superimposed on top of essentially all lunar features of all ages. Schultz and Srnka suggest that recent cometary impacts created the patterns. (Schultz, Peter H., and Srnka, Leonard J.; "Cometary Collisions on the Moon and Mercury," Nature, 284:22, 1980.) Comment. The terrestrial implications are obvious: our earth must have been hit, too. Perhaps at the Tunguska site there are similar swirl patterns -- now obliterated by vegetation. Reference. Lunar swirl patterns are cataloged in Section ALE5 in The Moon and the Planets. To order, visit: here . From Science Frontiers #11, Summer 1980 . 1980-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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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 Was there really a big bang?Narlikar says, "Maybe not," and proceeds to tick off observational evidence against it. He begins, however, by pointing out the philosophical impasse encountered as Big Bang proponents look backward to time = 0 and earlier. Where did the matter/energy of the Big Bang come from? Was the venerable Law of Conservation of Mass/Energy violated? Big Bangers loftily dismiss such questions as "nonsense." Narlikar follows with some observational problems of the Big Bang: There seem to be objects in the universe that are older than the Big Bang age of the universe (9 -13 billion years); Quasar redshifts used to support the Big Bang theory may arise from the general expansion of the universe; The microwave background radiation of 3 K, which was gleefully embraced by Big Bangers as an echo of their version of creation, is actually of the same energy density as starlight, cosmic rays, etc., and need not have anything to do with the Big Bang; and The Big Bang Theory and General Relativity assume a constant G (the gravitational constant), but some recent lunar orbit measurements suggest that G is slowly decreasing! (Narlikar, Jayant; "Was There a Big Bang?" New Scientist, 91:19, 1981.) Comment. Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of the whole Big Bang business is the contempt with which theory supporters dismiss all objections. ...
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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 Hooray, another "dangerous" book!The May 22, 1981, issue of Science devotes three entire pages to a discussion of the issues raised in the book Genes, Minds, and Culture, written by Edward Wilson and Charles Lumsden. The subject of this book is "gene-culture coevolution," which infers that human culture is controlled not so much by "free will" as by rapidly changing human genes. The authors propose that as few as 1000 years are sufficient for important genetic shifts. Such shifts might, for example, impel humans to break out of the Middle Ages and bring on the Industrial Revolution. The most controversial facets of the theory are: (1 ) The tight genetic control over human culture with little room for free will; and (2 ) The rapid blossoming of many cultures as genes shift about. As one scientist remarked, this book is "dangerous." Others describe it as marvelous. The Science article deals not so much with the book as with the reactions to it -- and the reactions have been powerful, both pro and con. (Lewin, Roger; "Cultural Diversity Tied to Genetic Differences," Science, 212:908, 1981.) Comment. The impression one gets from the synopsis of the book is that humankind is diversifying rapidly into new cultural configurations not through human volition but because of those imperious "selfish genes" we all carry. From Science ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 12: Fall 1980 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Gravity down, mass up The variation of the gravitational constant, G, with time would not be considered seriously were it not for the surprising coincidence of two enormous dimensionless numbers: (1 ) The ratio of the electrical to gravitational force between the electron and the proton in a hydrogen atom; and (2 ) The ratio of the age of the universe and the atomic unit of time. If these two ratios are truly equal, then G must decrease with time. Beyond the unstable feeling one gets, there is nothing in physics or cosmology to discourage a belief in time-varying gravity. Indeed, some as-tronomical data weakly support the idea. It is geophysics, though, where one finds strong evidence. Measurements of the decreasing length of the day and the expansion of the earth give about the same value for a decreasing G -- after other contributing factors have been eliminated. An interesting consequence of all this is that astrophysical theory seems to require that a decreasing G be balanced by increasing mass. Experiments are now underway to detect the continual creation of mass in terrestrial objects. (Wesson, Paul S.; "Does Gravity Change with Time?" Physics Today, 33:32, July 1980.) From Science Frontiers #12, Fall 1980 . 1980-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 3: April 1978 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Immense Circular Terrestrial Structures Of Great Age J.M . Saul has analyzed many topographic and geological maps and discovered faint circular terrestrial patterns that have mostly not been described before. These circles measure between 7 and 700 kilometers in diameter and are nearly perfect geometrical figures. The rims of the circles are generally raised and characterized by fracturing and brecciation. These structures can be traced in many geological environments and rocks of all ages. They control to an extraordinary extent regional geology and ore mineralization. To date, some 1,170 circles have been discovered, of which more than half can be visually traced for 360 . Larger circles may exist; one with a diameter of about 2,200 kilometers seems to encircle the southern end of Africa. In the United States, the centers of the circles fall in a northwesterly trend in Arizona; northeasterly in the Appalachians. These circular structures may have been created about 4 billion years ago by intense meteorite bombardment similar to and perhaps identical with the bombardment that marked the surfaces of the moon and other inner planets. (Saul, John M.; "Circular Structures of Large Scale and Great Age on the Earth's Surface," Nature, 271:345, 1978.) Reference. Huge craters and other large circular structures are cataloged at ETC1 and ETC2 in Carolina Bays, Mima Mounds. To order this volume, visit: here . From Science Frontiers #3 , April 1978 . 1978 ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 2: January 1978 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Will radiohalos in coalified wood upset geological clocks?In some coalified wood, uranium-rich solutions have deposited radioactive particles that subsequently decay and create little rings (halos) that can be seen under high magnification. The ra-dii of the rings depend upon the energies of the particles emitted by the radioactive elements. Each type of radioactive decay has a specific half-life. Thus, the patterns of radiohalos help measure the age of coalified wood. A challenge to geology arises because the radiohalos in coalified wood from Jurassic and Triassic formations, supposedly millions of years old, suggest ages of only a few thousand years. (Connor, Steven J.; "Radiohalos in Coalified Wood: New Evidence for a Young Earth," Creation Research Society Quarterly, 14:101, 1977.) From Science Frontiers #2 , January 1978 . 1978-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... housing developments have all but obliterated thousands of the bays, leaving them visible only to trained eyes. "Still, it is estimated that no fewer than 300,000 such bays, ranging from a few feet across to almost two miles in diameter, dot the East Coast landscape from southern New Jersey to northeastern Florida. One source places the number at more than half a million." Map showing areas of abundant Carolina Bays and frequent meterorite finds. However, meteorites are rare in the areas of the bays. Floyd continues with a brief history of the Carolina Bay region and then reviews some of the theories of origin that have been proposed. Two now-discarded mechanisms of formation invoked: (1 ) immense schools of spawning fish; and (2 ) icebergs stranded as the Ice Ages waned. In presenting today's favorite theory, Floyd quotes from H. Savage's book The Mysterious Carolina Bays : "' These half-million shallow craters represent the visible scars of but a small fraction of the meteors that fell to earth...when a comet smashed into the atmosphere and exploded over the American Southeast,' Savage wrote. 'Countless thousands of its meteorites must have plunged into the sea beyond, leaving no trace; while other thousands fell into the floodplains of rivers and streams that soon erased their scars.'" (Floyd, E. Randall; "Comet May Have Created Carolina Bays," Birmingham News , May 16, 1992. Cr. E. Kimbrough.) Comment. Floyd neglected to mention that D. Johnson, a ...
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... change or the fall of acid rain brought on by the impact of an asteroid. We always look for external forces, whereas the real cause of "crises" in the history of life may be intrinsic to life itself. With a tip of the hat to the Gaia hypothesis, let us think of life-as-a -whole as a most complex, interlinked system. What might be the dynamics of such a megasystem? From the mathematical point of view, many of the processes involved, as life copes with the environment, are doubtless nonlinear, which means that chaotic conditions may sometimes prevail. In fact, the graphs presented below could have been taken right out of a book on chaotic systems. Life's extinctions and explosions might have no connection to asteroids, Ice Ages, or global volcanism. If something as simple as a spherical pendulum can lapse into chaotic motion, life-as-a -whole should show occasional wild behavior, too. Take our planet's weather as another example. Idealists once thought that given enough observations and computer power, weather could be predicted. But, alas, our atmosphere has also turned out to be a chaotic system, and long-term predictions are next to impossible. So, too, with life and its development. Those extinction-explosion plots may be just the paleontological expressions of a chaotic system. From Science Frontiers #59, SEP-OCT 1988 . 1988-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... long by 56 feet wide. The stones are separated into two groups as shown. Since the site is near a highly populated area, it has seen some disturbance, and some stones have been moved. There is no historical record of the site's construction; the stones may have been there for centuries. Neither has there been any archeological investigation or site dating. Obviously, much more research must be done before we can get a clear idea as to who the builders were. Despite its close resemblance to European standing-stone complexes, the Lowell cluster could be a recent construction -- an intentional replica of European sites. Note that it is called Druid Hill! Other possible builders might have been American Indians (who are known to have built some stone structures), Iron Age Scandinavians, or Bronze Age wanderers from Europe. (Whittall, James P., II; "A Cluster of Standing Stones on Druid Hill, Lowell, Massachusetts," ESRS Bulletin, 11:19, no. 1, 1984. ESRS = Early Sites Research Society.) Reference. For more on megalithic sites around the world consult our Handbook: Ancient Man. It is described here . Disposition of standing stones at Druid Hill, Lowell, Massachusetts From Science Frontiers #40, JUL-AUG 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 141: May-Jun 2002 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology An Ice-Age North Atlantic voyage? Somehow bananas slipped into West Africa 2,500 years ago Ancient messages on the Shroud of Turin Astronomy Europa's anomalous infrared spectrum Are the cosmic carriers of life comets or meteorites? Biology 'Modern' feathers on a non-avian dinosaur The intelligence of plants Unexplained weight-gain transient at the moment of death Geology Flank collapses: Generators of giant tsunamis Ragnarok: The Age of Fire and Gravel Geophysics Ball lightning gets some scientific respect Unknown species puts on spectacular light show Psychology Why music? Physics Falling in a quantized way Unclassified Where are those aliens? ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 146: Mar-Apr 2003 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Equator Correction Did the Ainu Reach Mexico? An Iron-Age Spread Coon Cats Continued Astronomy The Alien Planets The Bottom Two-Thirds of a Cosmological Iceberg Biology The Outer Ocean of Life The Shape-Shifting Icon Biology's "Dark Matter" Did ID (Intelligent Design) have Dimensional Limits? Geology The KTB Bombardment D'Émeraudes en Forme de Coquillages Geophysics The Possible Detection of two Quark Nuggets Piercing the Earth The Naga Fireballs Nach Sturm Regnete es Fische auf die Felder Unclassified The best UFO Cases ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 143: Sep-Oct 2002 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Ancient stone road leads to mountain laced with jade The Planet of the Apes: It's archaeology Ice-age faces on cave floors Astronomy From amusing little volcanoes to giant red devils Strange and Stranger astronomy Biology Dark Life A plague on theories Too close to be so far People who are not entirely themselves Geology Three inner-Earth heresies Geophysics Train, whistle, slowdown, bloop A bad assumption may obscure dark matter Psychology Contagious, collective laughter Physics Wordless memeories Chemistry Mechanical chemistry ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 118: Jul-Aug 1998 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Glitches In The Terrestrial Conveyor Belt According to plate tectonics, the earth's continents are being transported -- very slowly -- on a subterranean conveyor belt of sorts. Although plate tectonics, nee continental drift, was ridiculed 50 years ago, it has been very successful in accounting for many geological phenomena. The theory is rarely challenged these days, but there are anomalies out there. "According to the simple plate-tectonic theory, the age of oceanic lithosphere is zero at a spreading oceanic ridge and increases with distance from the ridge. Thus the lithosphere of the central Atlantic, which current palaeogeographical reconstructions assure us began to open no earlier than 120 million years ago, has zero age at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and, supposedly an age of about 120 million years close to the land masses of Africa and South America at the appropriate latitude. Yet, Bonatti and others (Nature, v. 380, p. 518, 1996) have now recovered samples of 140-million-year-old pelagic limestones not even from the edges of the Atlantic but right in the middle of the ocean, close to the ridge. How can this be possible?" The only explanation (? ) seems to be that this errant chunk of crust got "trapped" in the middle of the Atlantic -- like a misdirected suitcase on an airport conveyor belt. (Anonymous; "Old Rocks near the MidAtlantic Ridge ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 118: Jul-Aug 1998 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Astounding Undersea Structure Near Okinawa "A structure thought to be the world's oldest building, nearly twice the age of the great pyramids of Egypt, has been discovered. The rectangular stone ziggurat under the sea off the coast of Japan could be the first evidence of a previously unknown Stone Age civilization, say archeologists." Wow! Is this true? This so-called "structure" is 600 feet long and 90 feet high. Said to be about 10,000 years old, it obviously predates the edifices of the ancient Egyptians and Babylonians. The "structure" is now under about 75 feet of ocean near a small island named Yonaguni southwest of Okinawa. During the Ice Ages, it would have been exposed, just like the Bering Land Bridge to the north. Of course, the crucial question is: Is it really artificial? R. Schoch, the Boston University geologist who vouches that the Sphinx is also about 10,000 years old (SF#79), described the "structure" as a series of huge steps about 1 meter high. Schoch is impressed by the regularity of the steps, but does not discount a natural origin. A photo taken by divers does reveal a remarkably regular, stepped surface, but nature can be very methodical on occasion. Adding to the artificiality of the "structure" is the claim that a "road" encloses it. (Barot, Trushar; ...
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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 An Arkansas Tsunami Deposit?Yes, Arkansas is hundreds of kilometers from any ocean. Could a tsunami ever reach Little Rock, or even 120 kilometers northeast of Little Rock where, atop a 76-meter (250-foot) hill are perched giant blocks of sandstone. These blocks range up to 7.6 meters (25 feet) in size and weigh many tons. No native rocks in the area match them. The Ice Age glaciers never reached Arkansas, so they can't be glacial erratics. Where did they come from? One clue is the presence of glauconite in the sandstone. Glauconite is common in marine rocks, so suspicion points toward the Gulf of Mexico. Geologist G. Patterson, University of Memphis, thinks that the huge chunks of sandstone came from coastal Louisiana and were carried some 650 kilometers (400 miles) inland by the giant tsunami raised by the asteroid or comet that smashed into the Yucatan to close out the Cretaceous. That, of course, was when the dinosaurs were forced into oblivion. But could the tsunami really have transported such huge rocks 650 kilometers? (Falk, Dan; "Washed Up," New Scientist, p. 26, November 7, 1998.) Comments. Tsunami debris from the end-Cretaceous impact has been found along the Gulf Coast and on some Caribbean islands. In northeastern Mexico, geologists have found a debris layer 3-meters thick that ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 116: Mar-Apr 1998 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Global cooling has begun!G. Bond of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and his colleagues have been tracking the movements of past ice sheets using the trails of rocky debris they leave behind on the ocean floor. A type of igneous rock called "gabbro" is indicative of the passage of past ice sheets. For example, 100,000 years ago, when the last ice age began, the amount of gabbro in ocean-floor sediments jumped from 2% to 8%. Despite all today's furor over global warming, Bond et al are finding in current ocean sediments the same gabbro precursors. Conclusion: a new ice age is in the making. (Anonymous; "Big Freeze," New Scientist, p. 21, December 20/27, 1997.) From Science Frontiers #116, MAR-APR 1998 . 1998-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 117: May-June 1998 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Two Catastrophe Scenarios We present below two reconstructions of major terrestrial catastrophes. Both are based on sound geological research: deep-sea cores, seismic profiles, and the like; but the reconstructions of the events are on the speculative side, particularly in matters of the magnitudes of the effects. Both events also purport to explain long-standing puzzles. Scenario #1 . The Bosporus silt plug blows. During the last Ice Age, sea levels dropped hundreds of feet exposing the continental shelves. The planet's great rivers cascaded over the edges in great waterfalls. The rocky sill at Gibraltar kept the Atlantic waters out of the Mediterranean, and this sea began to dry up. Farther to the east, the Black Sea was now cut off from the Mediterranean's salty water by the silt-choked Bosporus, that narrow strait separating Asia Minor from Europe. In consequence, the Black Sea became a vast fresh-water lake fed by Europe's rivers to the north. The Ice Age eventually waned, and the oceans and Mediterranean began to rise. About 7,000 years ago, the hydraulic pressure on the Bosporus silt plug became too great and it popped. Salty Mediterranean water poured into lowlands around the Black Sea. Scientists estimate that 50 cubic kilometers of water surged through the Bosporus each -- 200 Niagaras in one colossal waterfall. Falling some 150 meters, the thunder of falling water might have been heard ...
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... 1) Many lines of evidence suggest that the missing crater is in Indochina. C.C . Schnetzler and J.F . McHone located four likely structures in Laos from Landsat images. However, visits to these areas found no evidence of an impact. (Ref. 2) So, this mystery persists. How were the Muong Nong tektites formed? Muong Nong tektites are unusually large (up to 24 kilograms), layered tektites. They are found in an area 1,000 kilometers in extent from Hainan Island to southern Indochina. Their large sizes imply that they are probably close to the missing crater mentioned above. Still unresolved is whether they were originally puddles of molten rock near the elusive crater or local ejecta analogous to volcanic bombs. (Ref. 1) Is the "age paradox" finally resolved? Some Australian geologists have stratigraphically dated the Australasian tektites as being just a few thousand rather than 770,000 years old. (SF#8 ) The 770,000-year figure is derived from the presence of Australasian microtekites at the Brunhes-Matuyama magnetic reversal and is, therefore, a "magnetostratigraphic" date. Recent excavations by now seem to confirm R. Fudali's assessment that all tektites and microtektites in the Australasian strewn field are definitely 770,000 years old. (Ref. 3) References Ref. 1. Taylor, S.R .; "Tektites: Some Unresvolved Problems," Meteoritics and Planetary Science , 32:4 , 1997. Ref. 2. Schnetzler, C.C . and McHone, J.F ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 109: Jan-Feb 1997 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Lunar Landslide Lights Moonwatchers have reported light flashes, strange red glows, and mist-like patches emanating from certain lunar locales, particularly the huge craters Alphonso and Picard. Hundreds of such observations have accumulated since the Middle Ages. Modern more-systematic scrutiny indeed confirms that the moon is not such a dead place after all. (See ALF in The Moon and the Planets for much more on this fascinating subject.) Moonquakes, gaseous emissions, and even volcanic activity have been the favorite explanations of these TLPs (Transient Lunar Phenomena), but these are only surmises. The many close-up photos of the lunar surface taken in 1994 by the lunar satellite Clementine gave B. Buratti, K. Herkenhoff, and T. McConnochie the opportunity to search for geological common denominators connecting the sites where TLPs have been most frequent. The suspicious sites are characterized by bluish spectra that usually indicate unusually fresh deposits of lunar debris. Furthermore, these areas are usually found along the inside edges of large craters. Buratti et al opine that these are the sites of recent landslides that have cascaded off the crater edges. The dust and volatile gases released by these events might account for the observed luminous phenomena. (Cowen, Ron; "Explaining a Lunar Mystery," Science News, 150:314, 1996.) Reference. To order the book The Moon and the Planets (mentioned above), visit here . The lunar ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 109: Jan-Feb 1997 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Kennewick man: a 9300-year-old caucasian skeleton in north america?The town of Kennewick, Washington, has lent its name to this ferociously controversial skeleton. It all began when the local sheriff asked anthropologist J. Chatters to take a look at a partially buried skeleton found on the shore of the Columbia River. (Ref. 1) "From head to toe, the bones were largely intact. The skeleton was that of a man, middle-aged at death, with Caucasian features, judging by skull measurements. Imbedded in the pelvis was a spearhead made of rock." Chatters initially thought he had merely a "pioneer" who had met an untimely death in the Wild West! "The real stunner came last month [June 1996], after bone samples were sent to the University of California at Riverside for radiocarbon dating. The conclusion: the skeleton of the 'pioneer' is 9,300 years old." (Ref. 2) Actually, the skeleton may well be that of a "pioneer" but one who came from the direction of the setting sun instead of the rising sun. Of course, it is perfectly all right for Asians to have crossed the Bering Strait into North America over 9,000 years ago, but a Caucasian raises scientific and emotional problems. "If Kennewick Man were actually Caucasian, it would be a startling discovery. So far, all of ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 118: Jul-Aug 1998 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects More Bones That Don't Belong More anomalous than Kennewick Man (that 9,300-year-old skeleton from Washington with Caucasian features (SF#109), is a skull from Brazil dubbed Luzia. Luzia was a female, aged 20-25, who lived near Belo Horizonte in southeastern Brazil. Luzia's skull and other artifacts came from a campsite carbon-dated by labs in Brazil and France as being about 11,500 years old. This makes Luzia the oldest skeleton ever found in the Americas -- assuming this whole story hangs together. The 11,500-year date is impressive enough, but anthropologist W. Neves, University of Sao Paulo, asserts that Luzia's skull and teeth are not Mongoloid but really characteristic of the South Sea islanders. Such observations agree with the studies of skeletal material by J. Powell, University of New Mexico. Powell has concluded that the oldest settlers of the New World probably did not trek across the Bering Land Bridge from Asia but came from elsewhere. (Borden, Keefe; "Skull Find Redefines American Ancestry," Austin American Statesman , May 24, 1998. (Cr. D. Phelps) From Science Frontiers #118, JUL-AUG 1998 . 1998-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 118: Jul-Aug 1998 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Biological Miscellany Sisterly synchrony. In Utah, three of E. Carey's four daughters gave birth on the same day, March 11, 1998, at 7:18 AM, 3:25 PM, and 8:58 PM. The daughters are aged 28, 27, and 24 -- no twin phenomena here. Odds against this synchrony were said to be 50 million to 1. (Anonymous; "3 Sisters Deliver 3 Babies -- All on Same Day," San Francisco Chronicle, March 14, 1998. Cr.J . Covey.) Oliver is all chimp. That aberrant chimp, Oliver, thought by some to be a humanchimpanzee hybrid (SF#110), is 100% chimpanzee say geneticists at the University of Texas. Even so, Oliver always walks erect and can mix drinks! (Holden, Constance; "Oliver no 'Humanzee'," Science, 280:207, 1998.) Phase changes. He was not frightened by a ghost or abducted by aliens, but the hair of a healthy, 45-year-old French farmer turned from black to pure white in less that 14 days. For six months the embarrassed man endured, but then over a period of four months, his hair grew back to full black. (Nelson, Douglas; "Aaaaaargh," New Scientist, p. 93, April 11, 1998.) Mummified llamas yield ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 111: May-Jun 1997 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Circaseptennial Rhythm In Ear Growth J. Verhulst and P. Onghena have carefully measured the ears of a sample of British men aged from 30 to 83 years. Every seven years, they discovered, the rate of ear growth peaked. In this finding, Verhulst and Onghena supported the contention of the Ancient Greeks that there is a seven-year rhythm in human development. (Anonymous; "Rhythmic Ear Growth...," Science News, 151:26, 1997. If you are skeptical about this item, the source cited is: British Medical Journal, December 21/28, 1996.) Cross reference. We have already re-corded rhythmic growth spurts in child-ren in SF#85 and SF#86. A related phenomenon, extremely rapid growth, is cataloged under BHF27 in our Catalog: Humans II . Information on this volume is posted at here . From Science Frontiers #111, MAY-JUN 1997 . 1997-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 112: Jul-Aug 1997 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Japanese Mini-Pyramids In a recent issue of the Ancient Ameri can, Editor F. Joseph presented an intriguing photograph of a precisely sculpted pyramid crouching incongruously amid the thick trees and bushes of Mount Kasagi, in north-central Japan. Being only 7 feet high and 14 feet along its base, this edifice hardly challenges the classical pyramids of Egypt and Mesoamerica. It is, though, skillfully crafted from solid granite -- almost a work of art. Age, sculptors, and purpose seem to be unknown. Japanese call it a "trigonon." It is not alone, for four more can be found strung along a ridge of Mount Kasagi about 100 meters apart. (Joseph, Frank; "Ancient Wonders of Japan," Ancient American, no. 17, p. 27, 1997.) Comment. We have not stumbled across reference to these "trigonons" before. Hopefully, some of our Japanese readers will enlighten us further. Reference. See our Handbook Ancient Man for much more on pyramids, stone circles, and other ancient structures. This book is described here . From Science Frontiers #112, JUL-AUG 1997 . 1997-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Can the Big-Bang paradigm be that shaky? Like Evolution and Relativity, the Big Bang is usually paraded as a proven, undeniable fact. It isn't . Static-universe models fit the data better than expanding-universe models. The microwave "background" makes more sense as the limiting temperature of space heated by starlight than as the remnant of a fireball. Element-abundance predictions using the Big Bang require too many adjustable parameters to make them work. The universe has too much largescale structure (interspersed "walls" and voids) to form in a time as short as 10-20 billion years. The average luminosity of quasars must decrease in just the right way so that their mean apparent brightness is the same at all redshifts, which is exceedingly unlikely. The ages of globular clusters appear older than the universe. The local streaming motions of galaxies are too high for a finite universe that is supposed to be everywhere uniform. Invisible dark matter of an unknown but non-baryonic nature must be the dominant ingredient of the entire universe. The most distant galaxies in the Hubble Deep Field show insufficient evidence of evolution, with some of them apparently having higher redshifts (z = 6-7 ) than the faintest quasars. If the open universe we see today is extrapolated back near the beginning, the ratio of the actual density of matter in the universe to the critical density must differ from unity by just one part in 1059. Any larger deviation would result in a universe already collapsed on itself or already dissipated. (Van Flandern, Tom; " ...
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... better chess-playing computers are actually designed to behave unpredictably when confronted by several moves of roughly equal promise. This feature makes it more interesting for human players. Everit also sets us straight in the matter of computer determinacy. "However, contrary to your basic assumption, most computers (even a home PC) can be forced to behave truly unpredictably. This cannot be done using the random-number generators supplied with the software, as these depend upon some mathematical formula and so are determined in advance, even if they appear to show no pattern. But if the machine has an internal clock readable by the programmer, he can determine the machine's choice depending upon the time required for some complex calculation, which will vary according to such factors as minute voltage variations and the aging of the machine's components. For example, the CDC 3600, on which I learned to program in 1975, had an accessible microsecond clock, and my program to calculate the first five perfect numbers* required about 15 minutes of run time; the last few digits of the exact number of microseconds required to run this program each time varied quite unpredictably. In other words, it was a random number, except perhaps from the standpoint of philosophical determinism, which claims that every event in the entire universe has been determined from the beginning." (Everit, Richard G.; personal communication, November 2, 1996) *A perfect number is equal to the sum of its divisors. The first two are 6 and 28; the others being difficult to find with just ...
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... are thought to be looking far back into time as well as space, youthful galaxies are not only expected but demanded by the Big-Bang/expanding universe theory. Unfortunately for theory, these telescopes have also identified a handful of apparently very old galaxies cavorting amidst the youthful ones! "The problem, if conventional cosmological models are correct, is that galaxies that old and that far away simply should not be there. The observation tightens the thumbscrews on the Einstein-de Sitter cosmological model, and offers evidence that at least some galaxies formed at very early epochs, within a billion years after the Big Bang." (Kennicutt, Robert C., Jr.; "An Old Galaxy in a Young Universe," Nature, 381:555, 1996) Comment. A similar age discrepancy has been claimed for some galaxies that seem to harbor stars older than the universe itself! (SF#97) Reference. The subject of galaxy distribution is covered in Chapter AWO in the Catalog: Stars, Galaxies, Cosmos. For a description of the book, visit here . From Science Frontiers #107, SEP-OCT 1996 . 1996-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... used by Meltzer et al, remarking: "The artefact in their figures 9 & 10 has five successive parallel flakescars on the same edge. By the authors' hypothesis, it will have suffered the first when it fell; thereafter, four other pebbles fell on top of it, one beside the other, regularly, causing flake-scars with equal technical characteristics." Sounds unlikely, doesn't it -- even if 50,000 years are allowed. And there are over 500 such "serial accidents." Ref. 1. Meltzer, D.J ., et al; "On a Pleistocene Human Occupation at Pedra Furada, Brazil," Antiquity, 68:695, 1994. Ref. 2. Guidon, N., et al; "Nature and Age of the Deposits in Pedra Furada, Brazil: Reply to Meltzer, Adovasio & Dillehay," Antiquity, 70:408, 1996. Comment. Continuing our SF#105 analogy between geofacts and biological organisms -- both supposedly products of random processes and subsequent selection -- we ask how long it would take for enough random mutations to accumulate, in the proper order (as with the geofact flake scars) to evolve a new species, with the help of natural selection (corresponding to Guidon et al sorting out their flaked stones)? Millions of years? But perhaps that much time was not available. See under BIOLOGY the two items on the rapidly evolving ciclid fishes of Lake Victoria and "intelligent" genomes. Crude stone tools like this are certain signs of human presence - ...
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... . 109: Jan-Feb 1997 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Rogue wave smashes the queen elizabeth ii September 11, 1995. North Atlantic. Aboard the Queen Elizabeth II enroute from Cherbourg to New York. During this crossing of the Atlantic, the Queen Elizabeth II had to change course to avoid Hurricane Luis. Despite this precaution, the vessel encountered seas of 18 meters with occasional higher crests. At 0400 the Grand Lounge windows, 22 meters above the water, stove in. But this was only a precursor. "At 0410 the rogue wave was sighted right ahead, looming out of the darkness from 220 , it looked as though the ship was heading straight for the white cliffs of Dover. The wave seemed to take ages to arrive but it was probably less than a minute before it broke with tremendous force over the bow. An incredible shudder went through the ship, followed a few minutes later by two smaller shudders. There seemed to be two waves in succession as the ship fell into the 'hole' behind the first one. The second wave of 28-29 m (period 13 seconds), whilst breaking, crashed over the foredeck, carrying away the forward whistle mast. .. .. . "Captain Warwick admits that sometimes it can be difficult to gauge the height of a wave, but in this case the crest was more or less level with the line of sight for those on the bridge, about 29 m above the surface; additionally, the officers on the bridge confirmed ...
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... form so early? Why hasn't the force of gravity modified the basic structure of the cosmos over the billions of years that followed the Big Bang? The astronomical quandry is this: If the very early universe looks pretty much the same as today's universe, the implication is that mass, the source of gravitational sculpting, is scarce. But this is at odds with the cosmic expansion rate which implies a much higher density of matter. (Appenzeller, Tim; "Ancient Galaxy Walls Go up; Will Theories Tumble Down?" Science, 276:36, 1997.) Comment. The existence of galaxy walls, like so many astronomical constructs, depends upon the assumption that the red shifts of galaxies are proportional to their recessional velocities and, additionally, their distances and ages. So much rides on this one assumption. The same situation prevails in biology, where everything is founded on the assumption that random mutations and natural selection can together generate any degree of complexity, sophistication, and innovation seen in nature. The history of science tells us that many paradigms have fallen because they depended upon faulty assumptions. From Science Frontiers #116, MAR-APR 1998 . 1998-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... . This suffering was not due to the vengeance of an indignant God but rather like the pain one might suffer as a result of...defying the law of gravity. It was to be an inevitable educational cleansing of the earth... "At the end of this general period of transition, mankind was to be "born anew" with a new sense of his [or her] place in the universe." Surveying his collection of like testimony, Ring generalized: "Surprising commonalities in these visions predicted a rising tide of natural, economic, and political crises culminating around 1988. Unless human beings turned toward God, took better care of the planet and each other, an apocalyptic cleansing would occur, possibly including a nuclear war, followed by the long promised New Age." 1988 has passed and we are still here. Is there objective evidence that humans mended their ways and averted the promised "cleansing? A.S . Alschuler, the author of this provocative paper thinks so, and he produces four graphs to prove his point. Each addresses a concern transmitted via people who experienced NDEs: (1 ) production of chlorofluorocarbons; (2 ) nuclear arsenal levels; (3 ) weapons exports; and (4 ) the number of peacekeeping missions. (We reproduce only two of Alschuler's graphs.) All four graphs show global "sea changes" commencing about 1988! In other words, collective humanity did reform enough to avert disaster! But how were these atypical human actions initiated and organized? Alschuler suggests "collective psychokinesis." ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 101: Sep-Oct 1995 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Polar-bear bones confound ice-age proponents Given the unquestioning fealty accorded the Ice Ages, it is not especially odd that the information reported below has not received wider circulation. In 1991, construction workers at Tysfjord, Norway, 125 miles north of the Arctic Circle, accidentally dug up polarbear bones that were later radiometrically dated as at least 42,000 years old, probably 60,000. R. Lie, a zoologist at the University of Bergen, and other scientists subsequently found the bones of two more polar bears in the area. These were dated as about 20,000 years old. An associated wolf's jaw was pegged at 32,000 years. The problem is that Norway and many other northern circumpolar lands are believed to have been buried under a thick ice cap during the Ice Ages. In particular, northern Norway is thought to have been solidly encased in ice from 80,000 to 10,000 years ago. Polar bears could not have made a living there during this period. Clearly, something is wrong somewhere. (Anonymous; "Polar Bear Bones Cast Doubt on Ice Age Beliefs," Colorado Springs Gazette , August 23, 1993. An Associated Press dispatch. Cr. S. Parker. A COUDI item. COUDI = Collectors of Unusual DataInternational) An associated conundrum. Some authorities have stated that polar bears evolved recentlyonly 10,000 years ago! Polar bear evolution is discussed ...
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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 The Age Of Fire And Gravel Back in 1883, I. Donnelly wrote his seminal Ragnarok , to which he attached as a subtitle: The Age of Fire and Gravel . He hypothesized that all those sheets of unconsolidated rocky debris strewn across the planet--called the "drift" -- were the consequence of impacts of comets. But in Donnelly's day, all geologists were uniformitarians and wedded to glacial theory. Donnelly's "age of fire and gravel" was really a succession of Ice Ages. Quite a difference in mechanism! Glacial theory, however, has difficulty in explaining apparent glaciations during periods when the earth was supposed to be very warm. Nor does it account easily for glacial-like debris in equatorial regions. With the current ascendancy of "impact geology," some brave geologists are reinterpreting supposed glacial deposits in terms of sheets of ballistic ejecta from the impacts of comets and/or asteroids. Modern estimates of terrestrial cratering suggest that 10% of our planet's surface could be covered by 10+ meters of ejecta, and 2% by 200+ meters. Now that's a lot of ejecta! (Rampino, Michael R.; "Tillites, Diamictites, and Ballistic Ejecta of Large Impacts," Journal of Geology, 102:439, 1994.) Comment. The Ice Ages won't be melted completely away by such reinterpretations. Nor will I. Donnelly ...
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... Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Ancient Modern Life And Carbon Dating Pursuant to the possible effect of the earth's recent envelopment by a molecular cloud on the accuracy of carbon dating (SF#98), we now look at the potential distortion caused by the ingestion of primordial carbon (carbon-13) by plants and animals. Primordial carbon may come from limestone or natural gas welling up from the earth's interior. Modern life forms that metabolize primordial rather than atmospheric carbon dioxide, with its cosmic-ray produced carbon-14, will appear extremely old when carbon-dated. For example, M. Grachev et al carbon-dated flatworms and a sponge collected from a bacterial mat near a thermal vent 420-meters deep in Lake Baikal. The apparent ages of these living organisms ranged from 6860 to 10,200 years. (Grachev, M., et al; "Extant Fauna of Ancient Carbon," Nature, 374:123, 1995) Even animals eating these apparently ancient life forms may take up their carbon-13 and, in effect, be drained of carbon-14. They would appear to age rapidly. Such false aging has actually been induced in the laboratory with mice fed on brewer's yeast grown in natural gas. These mice, living in cages at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, California, were carbon-dated as being 13,000 years old, and were expected to attain a ripe old age of 35,000 in a few months. (All this was part of a cancer-research ...
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... proved" that the shroud could not be older than 700 years. The skeptics may have been too quick to celebrate, because the samples that were sent to the radiocarbon lab may not have been wholly cloth. The reality of our biosphere is that virtually everything is permeated with microbes and their products. S.J . Mattingly and L.A . Garza-Valdes, of the University of Texas at San Antonio, have been studying "biogenic varnishes" for years. These plastic-like coatings are produced by bacteria and fungi. Sure enough, microscopic examination of a few linen fibers from the Shroud of Turin show that they, too, are coated with such varnishes. These biogenic varnishes may introduce carbon that has been recently fixed from the atmosphere and thus make the sample's age appear younger than it really is. (Travis, John; "Microbes Muddle Shroud of Turin's Age," Science News, 147:346, 1995.) Comment. More than the Shroud is at stake here. Bacteria contaminate just about everything, including wood and bone from archeological sites. Bacteria may, therefore, "rejuvenate" samples sent in for radiocarbon dating. The importance of this phenomenon is still unclear. Cross reference. Radiocarbon-dated samples may also appear erroneously "aged" by the uptake of primordial carbon (C13) present in the earth's crust. See SF#99. From Science Frontiers #100, JUL-AUG 1995 . 1995-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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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 How can some stars be older than the universe itself?The answer is, of course, if the astronomers' clocks keep bad time. On one hand, stellar age theory assures us that stars in the globular clusters that pervade the universe were born about 15 billion years ago. On the other hand, new measurements of the distance to the Virgo cluster of galaxies are equally adamant that these objects are much closer than thought -- so close that, assuming the standard Big Bang model and the resultant expanding universe, the age of the universe may be as small as 8 billion years! In other words, the universe is younger than some of the stars in it; an obvious and painful dilemma for astronomy. How will this conflict between the two dominant astronomical paradigms play out? Many are betting that the Big Bang theory will require a major over-haul. Or more, as suggested in the next item. (Jacoby, George H.; "The Universe in Crisis," Nature, 371:741, 1994. Travis, John; "Hubble War Moves to High Ground," Science, 266:539, 1994.) Comment. A clever resolution of the above age problem would be for the ancient globular cluster stars to be left-overs or interlopers from an older universe. The globular clusters are anomalous in several other ways. See: Stars, Galaxies, Cosmos. Ordering information here ...
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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 2,000,000,000 BC: THE EPOCH OF QUASARS Quasars are remarkable astronomical objects. Discovered only 30 years ago, they are the most luminous entities in the universe. Supposedly powered by a black hole, each quasar emits hundreds of times more energy than all the billions of stars in the Milky Way. Just how a quasar works is surmise. What we now know from two surveys by two different groups of astronomers is that most quasars have redshifts between 2 and 3. In the theoretical framework of the expanding universe, redshifts are proportional to recessional velocity, distance from the observer, and age. From the redshifts, it seems that the quasar epoch spanned the period 1.9 -3 .0 billion years, based on an age of 15 billion years for the universe. Assuming the accuracy of this scenario, cosmologists now have to explain why quasars were born and flourished in such a narrow time slot. Did something fundamental change in the universe between 1.9 and 3.0 billion years ago? (Kaiser, Jocelyn; "Epoch of Quasars," Science, 269:637, 1995. Wilford, John Noble; "New Survey of Sky Finds Most Quasars are Equally Ancient," New York Times, August 8, 1995, Cr. J. Covey) Comments. Anomalists cannot fail to remark that the above discussion hinges upon four concepts: black holes, an expanding universe, ...
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... : Craters, Cosmos, and Chronicles: A New Theory of the Earth . Shaw's ideas have recently been reviewed in Science News and our item is based on that article. Shaw contends that cosmic projectiles -- asteroids and comets -- have controlled almost all features of the earth's evolution. For example: Impacts have determined the positions of the continents. They have controlled the geomagnetic field. They have created volcanoes and massive basalt flows. They have caused mass extinctions. Of course, for two centuries, other catastrophists have proposed similar dire consequences of giant impacts. But Shaw does introduce three ideas that are worth recording here. Large impact craters occur in swaths. Although this has been suggested before, Shaw has mapped out several swaths where large craters of about the same age are located. His "K -T swath" includes the Chicxulub crater (Yucatan), the Manson crater (Iowa), the Avak crater (Alaska), and three more in Russia -- all of which were gouged out about the time of the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K -T ) boundary. Shaw has plotted several other swaths of different ages. The application of chaos theory to solar system debris. Shaw hypothesizes that nonlinear gravitational effects channel asteroids and comets into the inner solar system in intermittent bursts. The bursts are then captured by the earth and other inner planets, with some of these objects grouped in like orbits. Gravitational feedback occurs from earth to orbiting debris. Shaw believes that the uneven distribution of mass inside the earth -- due probably to the impact ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 97: Jan-Feb 1995 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology The "inscribed wall" at chatata, tennessee Whence the 200,000 logs of chaco canyon? Astronomy How can some stars be older than the universe itself? Did the universe have a beginning? Solar-system puzzles Biology Fruit dupe Possible survival of giant sloths in south america The early (and persistent) insect catches the bird! Geology The earth's most common topographical feature: abyssal hills The 627-foot water slide between australia and india The age of fire and gravel Geophysics Football-sized snowflakes A LINE IN THE SEA Rubber duckies chase nike shoes across pacific Psychology A MAJOR STUDY OF DOWSING Mentally influencing the structure of water Does the past influence the future? ...
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... An individual possessing perfect pitch can identify any musical note without comparing it to a reference note. It is said to be a uniquely human talent. (But how can we know?) Language, too, is thought to be be a gift accorded only to humans. Is there a biological connection between these "unique" capabilities? Since language is primarily a left-brain function, it is logical to see if the secret of perfect pitch resides in that half of the brain, too. This is just what a group of researchers headed by G. Schlaug did with the help of magnetic resonance imaging. They compared the planum temporale regions in the brains of 30 musicians (11 with perfect pitch, 19 without) and 30 non-musicians -- all matched for sex and age. The left planum temporale region was larger than the right for both musicians and non-musicians, but in the musicians the asymmetry was twice as great. Furthermore, the musicians blessed with perfect pitch were the most asymmetric of all in this respect. (Schlaug, Gottfried, et al; "In Vivo Evidence of Structural Brain Asymmetry in Musicians," Science, 267: 699, 1995. Nowak, Rachel; "Brain Center Linked to Perfect Pitch," Science, 267:616, 1995) Comment. Perfect pitch is nice to have, but why should it have evolved at all seeing it has little survival value? What good is perfect pitch -- or any kind of musical talent -- in tracking animals or grubbing for tubers? Women vs. men. ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 101: Sep-Oct 1995 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology FROM THE SUNSWEPT LAGOON Astronomy THE METAL-FROSTED MOUNTAINS OF VENUS! ALH 84001: A MESSAGE FROM MARS OR PERHAPS SOME OTHER PLANET IRONCLAD PROOF OF THE MOON'S ORIGIN? Biology THE ALGORITHMIC BEAUTY OF SEASHELLS MORE HEAR EARS DRAGON FISH SEE RED MALE DOLPHIN KILLS MAN Geology POLAR-BEAR BONES CONFOUND ICE-AGE PROPONENTS A TRIPLE ANOMALY IN A DIAMOND THE GIANT LANDSLIDES OF HAWAII "ALMOST INCONCEIVABLE" CHANGES IN THE GEOMAGNETIC FIELD CHINA'S BERMUDA TRIANGLE Geophysics DEATH WAVES AND SEEBARS STRANGE PHENOMENON DETECTED BY RADARS AND SATELLITES AN ASTONISHING MEDLEY OF BIO LUMINESCENT DISPLAYS Unclassified THE GREAT EXODUS ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 96: Nov-Dec 1994 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The "kites" or "keyhole" structures of the middle east Thousands of walled structures decorate the deserts and plains of the Middle East. Most are V-shaped terminating in a cul de sac studded with large rock piles. (See illustration.) Most of the wall arms are 300-3 ,000 meters long. They are constructed of basalt rocks from ancient lava flows. Artifacts found nearby suggest ages of at least 7,000 years. Younger, but very similar, structures have been found in Central Asia. A. Betts of the University of Sydney has been exploring these walls and attempting to discern their purpose. The best explanation seems to be that the ancient inhabitants of the region drove herds of wild animals into the wide mouths of the kites and then slaughtered them when they were trapped at the corral-like ends. The worst explanation is that extraterrestrials built them for some unknown purpose! (Anderson, Ian; "Prehistoric Prey Met Death through a Keyhole," New Scientist, p. 15, September 24, 1994.) Comment. Some kite walls extend 30 kilometers (18 miles) and represent a considerable investment of labor. See also: Field, Henry; "Early Man in North Arabia," Natural History, 29:32, 1929. Of course, aliens could have herded ancient humans into the kites. Remember the classic sci-fi story: "To Serve Man ...
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... , has brought catastrophes almost into modern times. The tree rings show that in the mid 530s -- just about the time civilisation on Earth suffered a sharp setback -- there was a sudden decline in the rate of tree growth which lasted about 15 years. Clearly, something dramatic had happened. "There are two possibilities: a huge volcanic eruption or a collision between the Earth and a solid object: an asteroid or comet. Ice-cores drilled from Greenland show no evidence of large-scale volcanic activity at that time, so Professor Baillie and others now believe a cosmic impact is more likely. The result would have been to throw up a huge veil of dust and debris, cooling the Earth and producing widespread crop failures." (Anonymous; "Raining Death and Dark Ages," London Times, July 27, 1994. Cr. A. Rothovius) In the scientific literature, Baillie has elaborated on the cosmic-projectile theme, adding that the dust veil could also have been created when the solar system passed through a cloud of cosmic dust. (Baillie, M.G .L .; "Dendrochronology Raises Questions about the Nature of the AD 536 Dust-Veil Event," The Holocene , 4:212, 1994. Cr. L. Ellenberger) Comment. The scientific literature hints of dust-veil events in more recent times: (1 ) the white-sky phenomenon of 1912; and (2 ) the "dry fog" of 1783. See details in GWC1 and GWD4 in Tornados, Dark Days, etc. Ordering ...
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... 's stone walls. In a similar venture, R.G . Jahn et al have taken sound generators and meters into the chambers of six ancient structures and measured their acoustical properties. The sites selected were: Wayland's Smithy, Chun Quoit, and Cairn Euny, all in the U.K .; Newgrange, and Cairns L and I, Carbane West, all in Ireland. All of these sites date back to about 3,500 BC. The chambers were all bounded by roughly hewn stones, but they had very different configurations. Newgrange was cruciform (see sketch); others were rectangular, beehive, and petalshaped. Quoting the abstract from the Princeton report, here is what the acoustical surveys found: "Rudimentary acoustical measurements performed inside six diverse Neolithic and Iron Age structures revealed that each sustained a strong resonance at a frequency between 95 and 120 Hz (wavelength about 3m). Despite major differences in chamber shapes and sizes, the resonant modal patterns all featured strong antinodes at the outer walls, with appropriately configured nodes and antinodes interspersed toward the central source. In some cases, internal and exterior rock drawings resembled these acoustical patterns. Since the resonant frequencies are well within the adult male voice range, one may speculate that some forms of human chanting, enhanced by the cavity resonance, were invoked for ritual purpose." In a few cases, it appeared that some of the standing stones had beeen intentionally positioned to enhance the chamber's acoustical properties. (Jahn, Robert G., et al; "Acoustical Resonances of Assorted Ancient Structures ...
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... For example, 27 October 1964 gives 27+ 1 (the code for October)+ 3 (the code for 1964) = 31. Dividing by 7 gives a remainder of 3 which is the third day of the week, Tuesday." (Ref. 2) Note the connection between TM's feats and those of those idiot savants adept at calendar-calculating. Demonstration 3. TM quickly gives the telephone number of any of the 15,000 hotels listed in a large directory. "The telephone have been learned through a mnemonic system for encoding numbers as a series of two-digit pairs. Each pair has a learned associate (e .g . 00 is a bicycle, 57 is tomato sauce, 39 is Hitler, 41 is mum, his mother's age when he started this system). For larger numbers these associates are combined into wholes which are usually highly imageable (a bottle of tomato sauce riding a bicycle) and attached to some other associate to the hotel name." (Ref. 2) TM's mnemonics seem weird, but they work; and they probably could work for anyone -- for we barely tax our mental powers in modern life. But would our latent mental capabilities been of use to ancient man, or is this still another case of "evolutionary overshoot", as we harped on so heavily under BIOLOGY in this issue? References 1. Wilding, John, and Valentine, Elizabeth; "Memory Champions," British Journal of Psychology, 85:231, 1994. 2. Wilding, John ...
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... mutations. Human DNA from Tokyo and London is more alike than that from two lowland gorillas occupying the same forest in West Africa. Harvard anthropologist M. Ruvolo has commented: "It is a mystery that none of us can explain." The clear implication is that humans recently squeezed through a population bottleneck, during which many accumulated mutations were wiped out. In a sense, the human race began anew during the last 400,000 years. Unfortunately, DNA analysis cannot say where the very grim reaper came from. (Gibbons, Ann; "The Mystery of Humanity's Missing Mutations," Science, 267:35, 1995.) Comment. The hand that wiped the slate clean, or nearly so, might have been a meteor impact, a pandemic, the Ice Ages, a flood, volcanism, etc. Whatever it was, it seems to have largely spared Africa. The chimps and gorillas there apparently did not pass through the bottleneck. Even more interesting is the observation that the DNA of Subsaharan Africans does shows more variability and therefore seems older than that from humans elsewhere on the planet. (See BMG9 in our catalog volume: Biological Anomalies: Humans III.) Or perhaps Subsaharan DNA only seems older because it was not forced through that bottleneck. There are implications here for the African Eve theory. From Science Frontiers #100, JUL-AUG 1995 . 1995-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... -Apr 1994 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Back to siberia: the biggest flood?14,000 BP. Deep in the Altai Mountains of southern Siberia. About this date, a wall of water 1,500 feet high surged down the Chuja River valley at 90 miles per hour. How does one deduce such a hydrological cataclysm? A. Rudoy, a geologist at Tomsky State Pedagogical Institute, points to giant gravel bars along the Chuja River valley. These are not the inch-sized ripples we seen on the floors of today's rivers; these are giants measuring tens of yards from crest to crest. Only a catastrophic flood could have piled up these ridges of debris. Rudoy postulates that, during the Ice Ages, a huge ice dam upstream held back a lake 3,000 feet deep, containing 200 cubic miles of water. When the ice dam suddenly ruptured, all life and land downstream was devastated. (Folger, Tim; "The Biggest Flood," Discover, 15:36, January 1994.) Comment. The breaking of Pleistocene ice dams also carved up parts of North America. There was the famous Cincinnati ice dam and, of course, the Spokane Flood that gouged out the Channelled Scablands of the Pacific Northwest, when Lake Missoula catastrophically emptied into the Pacific. See ETM5 in our catalog: Carolina Bays, Mima Mounds. It is described here . But other thoughts intrude: Were the heaps of mammoth carcasses, the Siberian "ivory islands," and those anomalous ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 13 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf092/sf092g08.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 89: Sep-Oct 1993 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology A ROBOT'S MYSTERIOUS DISCOVERY California's maze stones Astronomy An age paradox In the dark about dark matter Biology Why do electric fish swim backwards? Electric fish not backward in data processing Homo erectus never existed! Solar activity, your mother's birth year, and your longevity Smoldering corpse Geology RHYTHMIC SUBMARINE VOLCANOS Blasting rocks off planets Geophysics Looping lightning Crop circles: a middle ground Psychology The birthday: lifeline or deadline? Ganzfeld experiments: do they prove telepathy exists? General Transcendental messages in transcendental numbers ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf089/index.htm
... " Stetter et al favor the theory that these hyperthermophiles were injected into the reservoirs through: (1 ) drilling and secondary-recovery operations; and/ or (2 ) natural penetration via faults and seeps. They pointedly distance themselves from the idea, championed by T. Gold, that subterranean bacteria are actually permanent ancient residents of a deep subterranean biosphere. (Stetter, K.O ., et al; "Hyperthermophilic Archaea Are Thriving in Deep North Sea and Alaskan Oil Reservoirs," Nature, 365:743, 1993.) On the other hand, in their comments on the above paper, J. Parkes and J. Maxwell do not shy away from the theory that these denizens of hot, deep oil reservoirs are really indigenous life forms deposited with sediments in distant geological ages, surviving still and even evolving and conquering the infernal regions. They say: "The results presented do, however, provide firm evidence for the presence of a subterranean biosphere in oil reservoirs; moreover they are consistent with demonstrations of the existence of other deep biospheres in aquifers and marine sediments, which together indicate that the biosphere is not just a thin veneer on the geosphere." (Parkes, John, and Maxwell, James; "Some Like It Hot," Nature, 365:694, 1993.) From Science Frontiers #91, JAN-FEB 1994 . 1994-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 14 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf091/sf091b11.htm
