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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 "ADAPTIVE" MUTATION Six years ago, J. Cairns performed experiments with bacteria that implied that said bacteria could "direct" their own mutations so that they could cope more speedily with sudden environmental trauma. (SF#64) In Cairns' experiments, bacteria unable to digest lactose were presented with an all-lactose diet. They quickly acquired the mutations needed to digest the only food available. They did not have to wait for random mutations to accidentally hit upon the correct genome changes. A firestorm spread across the scientific community, even though other researchers saw similar effects. It was traumatic! One of science's foundation stones was at risk. The current theory of biological evolution insists that all mutations are random. Cairns believed he had shown that his bacteria experienced only useful mutations. This claim was too awful to accept. In the July 21, 1994, issue of Science, two new papers appeared that, while not proving that only useful mutations occur in Cairns-type experiments, do indicate that something unusual is indeed happening. Basically, when bacteria are under stress (say, starving), a "distinctive" type of mutation occurs! Is "distinctive" a code word for "non-random"? The title of the commentary accompanying the two articles says it all. (Culotta, Elizabeth; "A Boost for 'Adaptive' Mutation," Science, 265:318, 1994. ...
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... Feb 1986 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects A RECENT TRANSFORMATION OF SIRIUS?Many Greek, Roman, and Babylonian sources definitely label Sirius as being a red star. Some dispute these old accounts because today Sirius is white with a bluish tinge, and is classified as a white dwarf. W. Schlosser and W. Bergmann have now found a "new," and apparently independent reference to Sirius' red color. It is in a manuscript of Lombardic origin, which contains the otherwise lost "De Cursu Stellarum" by Gregory of Tours (who lived about 538593 AD). This new source reiterates that Sirius was once a red star, leading Schlosser and Bergmann to speculate as follows: "Thus, Sirius B might well have changed from a red giant to the white dwarf as it appears today. However, the rapidity and smoothness of this transformation are quite unexpected, and its timescale is surprisingly short. Furthermore, no traces of catastrophic effects connected with such an event have ever been found. The only indication that something has happened is the somewhat higher metallicity of Sirius A, believed to have resulted from contamination by the giant's blown-off shell." (Schlosser, Wolfhard, and Bergmann, Werner; "An Early-Medieval Account on the Red Color of Sirius and Its Astrophysical Implications," Nature, 318:45, 1985.) References. See BHT5 in our catalog: Biological Anomalies: Humans I for the surmise that the ancients, especially those of the heroic age, were color ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 43: Jan-Feb 1986 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Underground Weather Most residents of central Oregon can tell you tales about winds blowing out of the ground, about roaring and whistling sounds emanating from their wells, and of mysterious holes in the winter snow on Mount Bachelor. Central Oregon is geologically young and plastered with lava flows and cinder cones. It is like a sponge, with many cubic miles of holes, air channels, and open fissures. The air in this rocky sponge is usually on the move in response to changes in atmospheric pressure. The earth absorbs air during barometric highs and expels it during lows. In some spots the expelled air is captured to cool homes during the summer. In the High Cascades, though, the underground winds pose hazards to skiers by creating blowholes in the snow. These blowholes are actually mildly anomalous because they blow out a gentle 40 F breeze regardless of the barometric pressure. Some of Oregon's blowing caves also "breath" without re gard to barometric pressure. Also, the water wells north of Fort Rock Basin often blow for days during periods of high barometric pressure -- times when they should be taking air in. (Chitwood, Larry; "Central Oregon's Underground World Filled with Wind That Roars, Whistles," The Oregonian, Octo ber 3l, 1985. Cr. R. Byrd) Comment. See category GHG2, in Earthquakes, Tides, Unidentified Sounds, for material on blowing wells, etc. ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 71: Sep-Oct 1990 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects WHAT'S ANOTHER DIPOLE OR TWO?" Planetary exploration by deep space probes in recent years has shown that the dipole moment of some mag netized planets has a surprisingly large inclination angle with respect to the rotation axis. It is argued that the inclined dipole thus obtained may not be physically realistic. Applying the method we have developed for the source surface magnetic field of the sun (a spherical surface of 2.5 solar radii), it is suggested that the main dipole of the earth and the magnetized planets is actually axial (the magnetic moment is parallel or antiparallel to the rotation axis), and that two or three smaller dipoles near the core surface are responsible for the apparent inclination of the main dipole." (Akasofu, S-I ., and Saito, T.; "Is the Earth"s Dipole Actually Inclined with Respect to Its Rotation Axis?" Eos, 71: 490, 1990.) Comment. In SF#70, we see that the magnetic field of Uranus is inclined a whopping 60 to its axis of rotation. Can a few, small additional dipoles distort the main field so much? And just what are these small dipoles anyway -- physically and electrically? From Science Frontiers #71, SEP-OCT 1990 . 1990-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 13: Winter 1981 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Proof of reincarnation?" The authors report a case of the reincarnation type with several unusual features. First, the subject began to have apparent memories of a previous life when she was in her thirties, a much older age than that of the usual subjects of cases of this type; second, the memories occurred only during periods of marked change in the subject's personality; and third, the new personality that emerged spoke a language (Bengali) that the subject could not speak or understand in her normal state. (She spoke Marathi and had some knowledge of Hindi, Sanskrit, and English.) A careful investigation of the subject's background and early life disclosed no opportunities for her to have learned to speak Bengali before the case developed. A final interpretation of this case cannot be made on the basis of present information and knowledge. The authors, however, believe that, as of now, the data of the case are best accounted for by supposing that the subject has had memories of the life of a Bengali woman who died about 1830. (Stevenson, Ian, and Pasricha, Satwant; "A Preliminary Report of an Unusual Case of the Reincarnation Type with Xenoglossy," American Society for Psychical Research, Journal, 74:331, 1980.) Comment. Most such cases of purported reincarnation quickly collapse under scrutiny, but this one seems a bit more substantial. From Science Frontiers #13, ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 98: Mar-Apr 1995 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Carbon-14 dating: under a cloud?An item in Science News about the earth's envelopment by a cloud of interstellar gas 2,000-8 .000 years ago impelled J.M . Rankin to inquire if this cloud could change the cosmic-ray flux enough to affect carbon-14 dating. The answer seems to be YES. Unfortunately, we do not yet know enough to make corrections for this gastroastronomical event. (Rankin, John M., and Frisch, Priscilla C.; "Carbon-14 Dating: Under a Cloud?" Science News, 147:51, 1995.) Cross reference. See item under ASTRONOMY in this issue for more on this cloud. From Science Frontiers #98, MAR-APR 1995 . 1995-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 13: Winter 1981 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Astronomy More Anomalous Redshifts Tidal Wave of Gammas Sweeps Solar System A Funny Thing Happened Along the Mean Free Path Remarkably Early Dates for Agriculture Biology New Definition for Humans Needed Fish Change Gender When Necessary The Propagation of Acquired Characteristics Terrestrial Life Older Than Expected The Human Compass The Alien Presence Geophysics Violent Undersea Weather Psychology Half A Brain Sometimes Better Than A Whole One Proof of Reincarnation? A Mentally Created Reality ...
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... Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Two Hot Spots On Mercury Radio telescopes can give planetary astronomers a rough idea of the temperature existing several feet below the surface of a distant planet. Scrutinizing Mercury with their big electronic "ears," they have found two spots on the plamet where the temperatures are several hundred degrees higher than in the surrounding areas. Actually, these hot spots are easy to understand; because, to a Mercurian, the sun comes to a stop in the sky over one of these points and then moves backwards to the other point 180 away. As the sun tarries over these two spots, it heats them preferentially. The strange apparent motion of the sun is due to the 3:2 ratio between Mercury's period of revolution around the sun (88 days) and its axial spin period (59.6 days). What is surprising is that the energy detected radiating from the two hot spots is all reradiated solar energy; that is, there seems to be no contribution at all from Mercury's core! If no heat is leaking out of Mercury's core, the core itself is very likely solid. If it is solid, it cannot establish convection cells and thus generate a magnetic field through dynamo action. But back in 1975, the Mariner 10 spacecraft radioed back that Mercury actually does possess a magnetic field, and a surprisingly large one at that. (Wilford, John Noble; "Theory of Mercury's Hot Poles Is Shown to Be a Fact," New York Times, June 13, 1990. Cr. J. ...
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... 1986 Issue 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 ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 60: Nov-Dec 1988 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Why didn't galileo resolve saturn's rings?Several times in SF and our catalogs, we have intimated that Saturn's rings may be of recent vintage or perhaps have changed in historical times. In this vein, K. Fabian writes about an interesting inconsistency: "In the early 17th Century, Galileo discovered that the planet Mars goes through a minor gibbous phase. Even in its maximum gibbous phase, Mars is 88% illuminated. Quoting James Muirden in the Amateur Astronomer's Handbook, 'It is remarkable that Galileo was able to make out the phase with his tiny telescope.' "Even more amazing, in my opinion, is that Galileo, while he was able to resolve the slight phase of Mars, was unable to resolve the major ring around Saturn. Mars is a difficult object in a small telescope, while Saturn is easily resolved as a ringed planet in even a 40-mm spotting scope at 30X. Why did the rings of Saturn elude Galileo, while the more difficult Martian phases did not? Perhaps at the time of Galileo the rings of Saturn were much more difficult to observe than they are today." (Fabian, Karl; personal communication, September 9, 1988.) Reference. For more on the many anomalies of Saturn's rings, see ALR in the catalog: The Moon and the Pla nets. Description here . From Science Frontiers #60, ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 47: Sep-Oct 1986 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Chromosome Gap "Compared with the chromosomes of humans and other great apes, the pygmy chimpanzee's chromosomes are .. .the most specialized -- they have changed more over time than have the others. 'Surprisingly,' Stanyon and his colleagues conclude, 'the human karotype (chromosome complement) is the most conservative...It has more unchanged chromosomes." (Anonymous; "Chromosomes Show Apes 'More Evolved' Than Man," New Scientist, p. 24, July 17, 1986.) From Science Frontiers #47, SEP-OCT 1986 . 1986-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... our planet and allow geophysicists to, in effect, X-ray the earth. In addition to the hypothesized solid inner core, the fluid outer core, and the encapsulating solid mantle, there seems to be continentsized inhomogeneities in the vicinity of the mantle and the outer core. The anomalous seismic signals can be interpreted as huge blocks of different composition and/or temperature. T.H . Jordan, from MIT, ventures: ". .. that what they have mapped are 'continents' on the core-mantle boundary. 'What we've seen is something really incredible,' he says. According to Jordan, the anomalies are analogous to continents on the surface of the earth, because they can't be accounted for by temperature variations but must reflect some compositional change as well. These features 'represent the scum or slag that sits up on the outer core boundary, just as continents sit on the outer surface of the earth,' he says." Some have even speculated that these subterranean chunks of debris are pieces of surface continents that were subducted at the plate boundaries long ago. There are, after all, missing pieces in the continental drift jigsaw puzzle. There might even be substantial chunks of asteroids and comets down there waiting, like the Titanic, to be explored by scientific instruments. Can once-subducted continents and cosmic debris ever rise again? (Weisburd, Stefi; "Seismic Journey to the Center of the Earth," Science News, 130:10, 1986. Also: Kerr, Richard A.; "Continents ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 47: Sep-Oct 1986 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Magnetic Theory Of Dowsing The following two paragraphs were taken from a letter to Nature: "David Marks, in The Skeptical Inquirer, asserts that there are no theories to account for paranormal effects. This is not true for dowsing. Serious dowsing claims, such as those made by Soviet geologists, which are difficult to account for in terms of the reception of normal sensory cues, may be explained by postulating human sensitivity to small magnetic field gradient changes. The theory is supported by a series of tests involving 150 subjects. "The magnetic theory predicts that dowsers can achieve above-chance re sults only if the features they claim to detect are associated with magnetic gradients of at least one nanotesla per metre. This was not the case in Randi's recent experiments, so his chance results are therefore consistent with the magnetic theory, which merits further investigation." (Williamson, Tom; "Dowsing Explained," Nature, 320:569, 1985.) From Science Frontiers #47, SEP-OCT 1986 . 1986-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 47: Sep-Oct 1986 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Another Luminous Aerial Bubble September 1943. On a ship in the South Atlantic enroute from South Africa to Brazil. "During the voyage, a multicolored object about the size of a basketball appeared and the ship changed course to parallel the course of the object. The object was in view for about 20 minutes, moved slowly across the water at a height of 5 feet, and finally disappeared. It looked like a glass ball and appeared to have a membrane enclosing it. Its motion was from the NW to SE and it was seen sometime between 3:00 and 5:00 in the afternoon sometime in September 1943. The color was at times orange and yellow, sometimes green, blue, and red. The sky was overcast and the object was on the starboard side of the ship as it moved towards the NW. The ship's crew, consisting of about 20 men, saw the event and concluded that it might be a 'fireball.'" Original observation by Charles L. Reifenhler. (Seal, James; personal communication, June 25, 1986.) Comment. For more accounts of Lumi-nouw Aerial Bubbles, see category GLD7 in Lightning, Auroras, Nocturnal Lights. This catalog is described here . August 17, 1876. Numerous, luminous, multicolored, bubble-like spheres observed at Ringstead Bay, England. Thousands of the iridescent spheres engulfed observers. This account (Catlog # ...
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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. 76: Jul-Aug 1991 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Atlantic's waves getting bigger "According to a study by the Institute of Oceanographic Sciences, waves in the northeastern Atlantic are getting bigger. The average wave height in the 1960s was about 7 feet. Now the average is 9-10 feet." (Anonymous; Coming Changes , 13:7 , MayJune 1991.) Comment. This is a very large increase (about 30%) for this geophysical variable. Have surface winds increased that much in such a short period? From Science Frontiers #76, JUL-AUG 1991 . 1991-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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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 The field is falling, the field is falling NASA's Magnetic Field Satellite has confirmed a trend that goes as far back as Gauss in 1830; namely, that the terrestrial magnetic field is decreasing in strength. At the rate measured by the satellite, the Earth's field will hit zero in about 1200 years. Of course, NASA's scientists warn that the observed decrease may only be a temporary fluctuation. The geological record seems to register a long history of magnetic field reversals, with great biological changes coinciding with the field flips. (Nonymous; "Magsat Down: Magnetic Field Declining," Science News, 117:407, 1980.) Comment. Some field reversals have been within the time of man; 12,000 years ago and less. What happens to life forms dependent upon the earth's field for navigation during a reversal? Can they evolve new navigation methods in only a few thousand years? From Science Frontiers #12, Fall 1980 . 1980-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 60: Nov-Dec 1988 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Purposeful evolution?One seemingly unassailable dogma of evolutionary biology insists that natural selection involves, first, the continuous, random, environment-independent generation of genetic mutations; and, second, the subsequent fixation of those mutations that are favored by prevailing conditions. In other works, the genetic mutations cannot be influenced by external events and conditions. But in recent experiments with bacteria (E . coli), J. Cairns et al, at the Harvard School of Public Health, find they actually do produce mutations in direct response to changes in their environment. The adjective "purposeful" has even been applied to the action of these bacteria! Can anything be more heretical? "One of the experiments involves taking colonies of E. coli that are incapable of metabolizing lactose and exposing them to the sugar. If the lactose-utilizing mutants simply arise spontaneously in the population and are then favored by prevailing conditions, then this would lead to one pattern of new colony growth. A distinctly different pattern is produced if, under the new conditions, the rate of production of lactose-utilizing mutants is enhanced. The observation is something of a mixture of patterns, indicating that directed mutation appears to be occurring. 'This experiment suggests that populations of bacteria...have some way of producing (or selectively retaining) only the most appropriate mutations,' note Cairns and his colleagues." (Lewin, Roger; "A Heresy ...
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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 The earth's ring The most profound climatic event of the Tertiary was the terminal Eocene event 34 million years ago. The sudden change in the abundance of forest plants suggests that the winters became much more severe while the summers remained about the same. At about the same time, the radiolaria were devastated by some sort of disaster. This was also the time when the North American tektite strewn field was deposited -- a field that stretches halfway around the world. John O'Keefe hypothesizes that some of the tektites and microtektites that rained down during this period missed the earth and went into orbit around it, forming an opaque Saturn-like ring. This ring might have lasted a million years or more; and its shadow could have caused the extrasevere winters postulated from botanical data. (O 'Keefe, John A.; "The Terminal Eocene Event; Formation of a Ring System around the Earth," Nature, 285:309, 1980.) Comment. Many who have previously speculated about terrestrial ring systems, such as I.N . Vail, were called pseudoscientists! Reference. The North American tektites are the subject of Section ESM3 in our Neglected Geological Anomalies. Ordering information here . Earth's ring shadow From Science Frontiers #12, Fall 1980 . 1980-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 49: Jan-Feb 1987 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Recent explosion on sirius?Speaking of transient events, such as the optical bursters (above), the apparent recent color change of Sirius is now receiving theoretical attention. (See SF#43.) Sirius seems to have been a bright red star in medieval times, whereas now it shines with bluish-white light. The latest theory is that Sirius B recently experienced a thermonuclear runaway event. (Bruhweiler, Frederick C., et al; "The Historical Record for Sirius: Evidence for a White-Dwarf Thermonuclear Runaway?" Nature, 324:235, 1986.) Comment. Such an event should have been visible from earth, but we know of no such observation on record. From Science Frontiers #49, JAN-FEB 1987 . 1987-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 8: Fall 1979 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Coral Carbon Ratios Confound Chronometry By measuring the carbon-14/carbon-12 ratios in the annual growth bands of coral, scientists hope to spot natural and man-made changes in global chemistry. For example, the large-scale use of fossil fuels should depress the ratio by adding carbon-12 in undue quanti ties. The advent of the nuclear age boosts the ratio through the addition of carbon-14 to the environment. Predictably, the carbon ratio rises dramatical ly after 1950 (the bomb tests, etc.). Before this date, however, anomalies crop up: Coral-ring and tree-ring data differ substantaially when they should not; Coral-ring carbon ratios from relatively close locales, such as Bermuda (solid line) and the Florida Keys (dashed line), also differ significantly. Item 1 might be due to non-atmospheric carbon upwelling in deep-ocean water; but this would not explain the Bermuda and Florida discrepancies. (Anonymous; "Carbon-14 Variations in Coral," Open Earth, No. 3 p. 30, 1979 Comment. These discrepancies are particularly relevant to the carbon-14 dating of seashells, which often produces wildly incorrect ages. From Science Frontiers #8 , Fall 1979 . 1979-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 73: Jan-Feb 1991 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects America b.c . and even earlier The thought that the Atlantic might have been a thoroughfare long before Columbus and the Vikings has been ridiculed by most archeologists for decades. New England megaliths and B. Fell's translations of purported Celtic ogham inscriptions have met only with derision in the professional literature. But times are changing -- at least we hope so. The Red Paint People. Public TV recently aired a program on North America's Red Paint People, so-called because they added brilliant red iron oxide to their graves. It also seems they knew how to sail the deep ocean, as G.F . Carter now relates. "Decades ago, Gutorn Gjessing pointed out that the identical [Red Paint] culture was found in Norway. No one paid much attention to that, but more recent carbon-14 dating has shown that the identical cultures had identical dates, and people began to pay more attention. It is now admitted that this is a high latitude culture that obviously sailed the stormy north Atlantic and stretched from northwest Europe over to America. It seemingly extends from along the Atlantic coast of Europe to America and in America from the high latitudes of Labrador down into New York state. "The dates are mind-boggling: 7,000 years ago both in Europe and America. That is 2,000 years earlier than the Great Pyramids of Egypt. It is at least 4 ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 7: June 1979 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Unwanted Noise On The Terrestrial Tape Recorder The hypothesis of continental drift and sea-floor spreading depends heavily upon the strip-like magnetic anomalies that parallel the active ocean ridges. Molten material pushing out along these ridges spreads out, solidifies, and is magnetized by the prevailing terrestrial magnetic field. Thus, the spreading sea floor becomes a "tape Recorder" preserving the record of changing terrestrial polarity over the past several hundred million years. As one drills into this thin conveyor-belt/tape-recorder, one would expect to encounter only rocks of one polarity. Not so! Some of the holes drilled by the Deep Sea Drilling Project have passed through several polarity zones. To illustrate, core 395A from the mid-Atlantic ridge is magnetized normally for the upper 170 meters, reversely for the next 310 meters, and normally again for 40 meters. Is the tape-recorder idea therefore incorrect? Some scientists argue that it is and that the whole modern edifice of plate tectonics is suspect. (Anonymous; "Testing Vine-Matthews," Open Earth, p. 28, April 1979.) From Science Frontiers #7 , June 1979 . 1979-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 5: November 1978 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects 70TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE TUNGUSKA EVENT Rich reviews the facts known about the fall and detonation of the famous 1908 "meteor." That this was no ordinary meteor is born out by several curious data: Tree-rings in the area show an enormous acceleration of growth since 1908; Inhabitants of this remote region stated that the reindeer suffered from mysterious scabs in 1908; There is a slight but definite increase in the radioactivity of the surviving trees; and Testimony indicates that the me-teor changed direction twice before impact. The various theories of what really happened, from black hole to nuclear explosion, are listed without comment. (Rich, Vera; "The 70-Year-Old Mystery of Siberia's Big Bang." Nature, 274:207, 1978.) From Science Frontiers #5 , November 1978 . 1978-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 7: June 1979 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Where did chief joseph get a cuniform tablet?Among the effects of Chief Joseph, the famed leader of the Nez Perce Indians, was a clay tablet bearing a cuneiform inscription. The tablet transmits no startling message, being merely a receipt for one lamb changing hands. But where did a Northwest Indian chief get a 3,000year-old tablet? The tablet first came to light around 1878, long before cuneiform tablets became common on the artifacts market. Still, it could have been a gift from some missionary or tourist -- or even planted as a hoax. (Park, Edwards; "Where Did Chief Joseph Get a Cuneiform Tablet?" Smithsonian Magazine, 9:36, February 1979.) Reference. For other enigmatic New World tablets and inscriptions, read our Handbook: Ancient Man, which is described at: here . From Science Frontiers #7 , June 1979 . 1979-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 5: November 1978 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Sunspots And Flu The last six sunspot peaks have coincided with flu pandemics. During the sunspot maxima of 1947, 1957, and 1968, the influenza-A virus underwent anti genic shifts that allowed the virus to bypass the immunity built up in the populace. In 1937, a pandemic occurred but no genetic change was detected, although one might have gone unnoticed. The deadly worldwide 1918-1919 epidemic transpired just after the 1917 sunspot peak and before the discovery of the flu virus. The sunspot maximum of 1928 may have signaled a major shift from the virus causing the 1918-1919 pandemic to the type now afflicting us. (Hope-Simpson, R.E .; "Sunspots and Flu: A Correlation," Nature, 275:86, 1978.) Reference. The curious phenomena of epidemics are cataloged at BHH6 and BHH7 in Biological Anomalies: Humans II. This Catalog is described here . From Science Frontiers #5 , November 1978 . 1978-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 110: Mar-Apr 1997 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Unidentified Light November 20, 1995. North Atlantic. Aboard the m.v . Uruguay Express enroute Santos to Bilboa. "At 0230 UTC a very bright light was noted on the port side about 50 from the bow, it lasted for about 5 seconds and then disappeared. "Knowing of no bright star in that position, the observers checked the area with binoculars and saw two small lights which were as bright as a star of very small magnitude, travelling at a very fast rate and at a steady distance from each other. No navigation lights were seen. One light then disappeared and the other changed course upwards before disappearing about 3 seconds later, neither object left a trail." The sky was cloudless and visibility was good. The vessel was about 200 miles south of the Cape Verde Islands. (Chiappara, H.; "Unidentified Light," Marine Observer, 66:186, 1996.) Comment. Another maddening, elusive, UFO-like sighting, of which there are many from similarly reliable sources. One wonders what caused the initial "very bright light." Reference. Many similar mysterious lights are cataloged under GLM2 in Lightning, Auroras. Book description here . From Science Frontiers #110, MAR-APR 1997 . 1997-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 4: July 1978 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Echo Sounder Outlines Strange Patches Over Underwater Peaks February 11, 1977, on the s.s . Remuera, in the South Pacific. (00 24'S , 88 06' W). The echo sounder clearly showed an undulating sea floor with sharp peaks, some 600 fathoms below the ship. The peaks were recorded distincly but above several faint, elongated, flamelike patches were noted. These patches were interpreted as changes in water density due, perhaps, to volcanic or hydrothermal activity. (Howard, K.E .; "Soundings in a Volcanic Area," Marine Observer, 48:20, 1978.) From Science Frontiers #4 , July 1978 . 1978-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 61: Jan-Feb 1989 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Celestial Crucible "Catastrophic extinctions caused by impacts would change the rules governing who is most fit, who becomes extinct, and who survives. 'If much of the patterning of life's history is not set by Darwin's slow biotic mechanisms, then I think Darwin is in trouble. Is catastrophic mass extinction a major agent of patterning?' If so, 'impacts are a quirky aspect' of the process." Who is speaking within the single quotes above? S.J . Gould, a proponent of the punctuated equilibrium view of the evolutionary scenario. He added: "' The history of life is enormously more quirky than we imagined.'" In fact, the geological record shows so many quirk-inducing impacts that there is little room left for slow, plodding, uniformitarian evolution of the earth itself, life-in-general, and humanity. Mammals, for example, may not have survived the postulated (but now assumed factual) Cretaceous-Tertiary impact event simply because they were small in size - not smarter. (Kerr, Richard A.; "Huge Impact is Favored K-T Boundary Killer," Science, 242:865, 1988.) Comment. It now seems that Cassius was wrong about the stars when he was lining up Brutus to help assassinate Julius Caesar. And the "celestial" situ ation gets even worse below. From Science Frontiers #61, ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 114: Nov-Dec 1997 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects About As Anomalous As Mounds Can Get The title refers to a circle of 11 earthen mounds located new Monroe, Louisiana; the Watson Break site. Local residents have known about the mounds for years, but archeologists weren't attracted to them until clear-cutting of the trees in the 1970s made the size and novelty of Watson Break all too obvious. Just how anomalous is Watson Break? Archeologist V. Steponaitis, from the University of North Carolina, opined: "It's rare that archaeologists ever find something that so totally changes our picture of what happened in the past, as is true for this case." On what does Steponaitis base such a powerful statement? Watson Break is dated at 5,0005,400 BP (Before Present), some three millennia before the well-known Moundbuilders started piling up earthen structures from the Mississippi Valley to New York State. In other words, the site is anomalously early. Indications are that Watson Break was built by hunter-gatherers, but no one really knows much about them; there's an aura of mystery here. Watson Break consists of 11 mounds -- some as high as a two-story house -- connected by a peculiar circular ridge 280 meters in diameter. The back-breaking labor required to collect and pile up all this dirt is incompatible with the life style of mobile bands of hunter-gatherers. The purpose of the ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 115: Jan-Feb 1998 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Woodhenges before pyramids The berkeley walls extended Addenda and emenda Astronomy Why did life take a left turn? Biology Genes vs. memes A STRANGELY SELECTIVE SPIDER Acoustical mirrors on plants Stroke changes accent Nuclear families Geology The hilina slump a.k .a . "the big crack" Tektite mysteries Geophysics A SUBMARINE ORGAN? Frog fall A SKY-SPANNING AURORAL ARCH Psychology More sheldrake heresy Physics Splitting the electron's charge Unclassified Evolvable hardware ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 4: July 1978 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Stone Alignments In Subsaharan Africa Megalithic sites are found everywhere; many were apparently used for calendar reckoning. Although numerous megalithic circles and other arrangements are known in Africa, particularly Ethiopia, astronomy does not seem to have been a primary objective of African sites. Now, however, a stone alignment in northwestern Kenya called Namoratunga has been found with unmistakable astronomical overtones. At Namoratunga, 19 large basalt pillars are arranged in rows forming a suggestive pattern. Since the site is dated at approximately 300 B.C ., archeologists have taken sightings on seven prominent stars as they would have appeared during this period. (The azimuths of some of these stars had changed by as much as 12 in 2,200 years.) The stars chosen are those employed by Eastern Cushites, the present inhabitants of the region, in calculating their rather sophisticated calendar. Pairs and frequently triads of these pillars line up very accurately (to less than 1 ) with the seven key stars. The people occupying this part of Kenya about 300 B.C ., therefore, probably possessed detailed astronomical information. (Lynch, B.M ., and Robbins, L.H .; "Namoratunga: The First Archaeoastronomical Evidence in Sub-Saharan Africa," Science, 200:766, 1978.) Comment. This astronomical sophistication is consistent with the celestial knowledge of the Dogon tribe mentioned in the controversial book: The Sirius Mystery. For more on African ...
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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. 116: Mar-Apr 1998 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Miles Of Mush The earth's tectonic plates are usually drawn as neatly fitting puzzle pieces. This idealistic picture is changing because several lines of evidence suggest that some plates are separated by miles of geological "mush." J-Y . Royer and R.G . Gordon came to this conclusion after careful inspection of the huge Indo-Australian plate. First, they noticed that many powerful earthquakes originated in the center of this plate. Usually, quakes are confined to the edges of plates where they crunch against neighboring plates. Second, a line of folds 3,000 feet high runs down the center of the plate, as if is being squeezed like an accordion. But they could not identify any geological accordionist. Finally, working backwards in time using paleomagnetic data, they reconstructed plate configurations 11 million years ago. The Indo-Australian plate did not match up with its neighbors of that time period. Royer and Gordon concluded that the Indo-Australian plate really consists of three smaller plates. Even more surprising was their discovery that in between the boundaries of the three new plates there is a tectonic morass perhaps a thousand miles wide in places -- the "miles of mush" of our title. Plate tectonics (nee "continental drift"), once a revolutionary idea in geology and geophysics, seems poised for another upheaval. (Anonymous; "Gaps in the Theory," Earth , 7:11 ...
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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 Evolution Of Cyberlife The evolvable hardware described in SF#115 is only one several efforts underway aimed at modeling life and evolution. Network Tierra. Here we have a network of 150 computers linked worldwide by the Internet. One objective is the exploration of structures and patterns of information that drive evolutionary processes. A key element is an artificial lifeform that begins as a "seed organism" (modeled as information, of course) that wanders at will among the different environments presented by the computers in the network. So far, these digital organisms are surviving and changing. (Blakeslee, Sandra; "Cyberlife Critters Evolving in Computer Network," Austin American-Statesman , November 30, 1997. Cr. D. Phelps. Minad Project. Begun in 1953, the Minad Project is pure futurism; that is, the prediction of where the computer revolution is taking us. The Minad Project envisioned three evolutionary stages: Wiring the world (already accomplished as today's Internet); The transformation of the network into a high-speed creative mechanism (the Technosphere); and The emergence of global hyperintelligence (the Autosphere). The Minad Project is now forecasting what this all means for non-silicon-based life in the 21st. Century. (Baker, Lance; "They're Taking Over," New Scientist, p.55, December 6, 1997.) From Science Frontiers #116, MAR- ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 118: Jul-Aug 1998 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Archeological revisionism Astounding undersea structure near okinawa More bones that don't belong The mysterious terras pretas Paradigm assaults from way down under Astronomy The "stealth" region of mars The day the laws of phsics changed Biology Lunacy in trees Two creations of life? Biological miscellany Geology The song of the earth Glitches in the terrestrial conveor belt Geophysics Unidentified light Phosphorescent rings and wheels Broadside against small icy comets Psychology Measuring beauty Monogrammic determinism Tactile ventriloquism ...
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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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... :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 superior wool. The wool found on a group of mummified llamas that had been sacrificed and buried some 1,000 years ago in Peru had hair far finer than cashmere and far superior to that of modern llamas. The ancient Peruvians apparently knew how to breed their animals to accentuate certain features. Their secret was lost ...
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... Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Gaia as a super-superorganism The Gaia hypothesis states that the earth's environment is maintained suitable for life by life itself. Our climate, atmospheric oxygen level, ocean composition, and similar vital conditions are kept livable by life's waste products, such as the oxygen emissions of plants. That something like Gaia is required is seen in the extreme disequilibrium of the earth's atmosphere compared to the near-equilibrium of the atmospheres of apparently lifeless Venus and Mars. For example, our atmosphere's 21% oxygen, a highly reactive gas, is many orders of magnitude higher than one would expect on a lifeless planet. Furthermore, life-friendly conditions have been maintained for billions of years despite large changes in the sun's output and the traumas of asteroid impacts. T.M . Lenton, writing in Nature, asks a salient question: How has planetary self-regulation (Gaia) been established and maintained by evolution and natural selection which operate on the level of individuals? In other words, evolution tells us that organisms should evolve so as to leave the most progeny not so as to regulate the atmosphere. Lenton answers that there must be feedback loops from the planetary environment that steer the evolution of individuals in the "proper" direction. Lenton goes on to explore some of these many feedback mechanisms; one obscure loop involves the production of dimethyl sulfide by marine phytoplankton. Truly, it is a tangled bank! All of the feedback loops imply that the evolution of life ...
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... Jul-Aug 1992 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects EVEN TODAY NATURAL SELECTION IS MOLDING HUMAN POPULATIONS Nauru is a remote Pacific atoll with a population of 5,000 Micronesians. Formerly, the Nauruans led energetic lives -- fishing, subsistence farming -- and they were slim and healthy. Then came colonization and phosphate mining; with these came wealth, imported caloriepacked food, sedentary lives, obesity, and, unhappily for this tropical paradise, diabetes. The incidence of diabetes mellitus shot up to 60%, an astounding statistic by world standards. On one of the wealthiest of the Pacific islands, the inhabitants have the shortest life spans! The same scenario is being played out in other parts of the world where life styles have changed drastically; for example, some Polynesians, American Indians, and Australian aborigines are similarly afflicted. Furthermore, an epi-demic of diabetes mellitus is anticipated as the "benefits" of civilization are brought to India and China. Two questions must be answered: (1 ) Why is the incidence of diabetes mellitus only 8% among American junkfood-eating couch potatoes? Probable answer: natural selection has already modified the American genotype by eliminating those who are supersensitive to diabetes mellitus under conditions of rich diets and sedentary lives. (2 ) Why are modern populations still living under Spartan conditions so sensitive to diabetes in the first place? Possible answer: the so-called "thrifty genotype" hypothesis. In this view, the genotype that is sensitive to diabetes also confers survival advantages in ...
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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 Lake Champlain's Two Seiches The main body of Lake Champlain is 117 kilometers long, with an average breadth of 6.3 kilometers, and average depth of 29 meters. Although its shoreline in complex, there is a deep channel about 2 kilometers wide with steep sides running lengthwise along the lake floor. When wind blows across the lake's surface, wind-drag pushes surface water downwind. When the wind stops or changes direction, the piled-up water is freed, and standing waves are set up as the water sloshes back and forth in the lake basin. These waves are called "seiches." Lakes usually have characteristic periods of oscillation. For Lake Champlain, it is 4 hours, with amplitudes measured only in centimeters on the surface of the water. What makes Lake Champlain of more than usual interest is the presence of a second seiche, an internal phenomenon not visible on the surface. In the summer, Lake Champlain is stratified with a thermocline separating a layer of warm surface water from much colder deep water. You can only "see" the thermocline if you lower a thermometer into the water. This thermocline also exhibits seiches, but they are startlingly different from those on the surface. In Lake Champlain, the period of the internal seiche is 4 days rather than 4 hours. The amplitudes fall between 20 and 40 meters instead of being in the centimeter range. Just a few meters ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 80: Mar-Apr 1992 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects When The Chips Are Down M.A . Persinger, an indefatigable investigator of terrestrial correlations, has identified another: "The hypothesis that sudden commencements of global geomagnetic activity (' sudden impulses') could induce anomalous changes in onboard computers and facilitate commercial aircrashes was investigated. During the years 1988 and 1989 the mean daily occurrence of a commercial disaster somewhere in the world increased from 0.06 to 0.12 within 24 hr. of a sudden commencement. When numbers of sudden commencements per month were correlated with eight major categories of catastrophes (including air disasters) only aircrashes, primarily occurring during maximum computer-dependent flight conditions, were significantly correlated (. 54) with numbers of sudden commencements but not with the average monthly geomagnetic (aa) activity." (Persinger, M.A .; "Geophysical Variables and Behavior: LXVI. Geomagnetic Storm Sudden Commencements and Commercial Aircrashes" Perceptual and Motor Skills , 72:476, 1991.) From Science Frontiers #80, MAR-APR 1992 . 1992-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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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 Episode Of Steep Geomagnetic Inclination K.L . Verosub has reported very steep geomagnetic inclinations in 120,000- year-old sediments in California. The mean inclination in these deposits ranged from 62 to 66 . Because this episode lasted several thousand years, Verosub believes that it opens to question the interpretation of other paleomagnetic data, where it is assumed that samples represent enough time for the geomagnetic field to have averaged out to a geocentric axial dipole. (Verosub, Kenneth L.; "An Episode of Steep Geomagnetic Inclination 120,000 Years Ago," Science, 221:359, 1983.) Comment. The gist of this rather technical article is that all the scenarios of crustal plate motion may have to be modified substantially. From Science Frontiers #29, SEP-OCT 1983 . 1983-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 74: Mar-Apr 1991 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology A GOLDEN CALENDAR FOR USE AT STONEHENGE? DID THE PHARAOHS CHEAT WITH CONCRETE? Astronomy An unexplained event Gaia on mars? SOLAR ECLIPSE AFFECTS A PENDULUM -- AGAIN! Biology Eel oddities Echidna eccentricities Searching for monster sharks WHEN IDENTICAL TWINS ARE NOT IDENTICAL Geology 'TERMITE BANDS' IN SOUTH AFRICA THE MECHANICAL PARADOX IN THRUST FAULTING Geophysics NEWTONIAN GRAVITY MAY HAVE BROKEN DOWN IN GREENLAND 50-POUND 'ICE BOMB' FALLS IN WEST VIRGINIA EARTHQUAKE LIGHTS OBSERVED IN CANADA Psychology Predictive psi Maths & Logic Pi surprise Physics Repent! the phase change is coming! Cold fusion update ...
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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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... M. Reingold) First: An Anecdote. Some 30 years ago, D. Berliner, at the University of Utah, was studying human skin. To acquire raw material, he scraped skin cells from the insides of casts discarded by skiiers who had had broken bones. From this debris, Berliner extracted numerous chemical compounds. As far as anyone could tell, these substances were odorless, so he stored them in open flasks. However, Berliner noticed that when people were working in the lab with the flasks, they were more friendly and relaxed than normal. He could not divine the reason until some months later when he decided to cover the flasks of skin-derived substances. Curiously, the lab workers soon reverted to their usual grumpy selves! What could account for this strange behavior change? Knowing that animals often communicated with one another employing chemicals called pheromones, Berliner suspected that the flasks had been releasing odorless human pheromones. Sure enough, analysis of the skin-derived materials proved him correct. Next: A Look Up the Nose. Biologists have long realized that animal noses actually contain two sensory channels. The first is the familiar olfactory system, which humans also possess. The second channel is the vomeronasal system. In animals, each system has its own separate organs, nerves, and bumps in the brain. The function of the vomeronasal system is pheromone detection. It was widely believed that humans had long ago discarded this sensory system along evolution's trail. But a closer look at the human nose by B. Jafek and D. Moran, affiliated with ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 127: Jan-Feb 2000 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Black Auroras July 23/24, 1998. Gulf of St, Lawrence. Aboard the m.v . Appleby , Port Cartier to Immingham. "The aurora borealis was sighted at 0330 UTC. There was a band measuring 35 long in azimuth, with deepblue almost black vertical bands lying between the altitudes of 15 and 25 . The colour changed to brilliant blue at 0335, lasting for about 15 minutes before cloud began to obscure it." What were the "almost black" vertical bands embedded in the main band? Aurora expert R. Livesey replied as follows. "There is a phenomenon called the 'black aurora' which consists of small regions of very low luminosity embedded in brighter auroral light; the 'black' rays reported from the Appleby could have been a phenomenon of this type." (Wilson, J.L .; "Aurora Borealis," Marine Observer, 69:112, 1999.) Black auroras may actually be more than just the contrast effect suggested by Livesey. Low-light TV systems detect clockwise vorticity in the black bands, and the bands seem to be associated with upward electron beams. In other words, black auroras are apparently a distinct phenomeon in their own right and not just nonluminous parts of the visible aurora. (Stenbaek-Nielsen, H.C ., et al; "Why Do Auroras Look the Way They Do?" Eos, 80:193 ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 22: Jul-Aug 1982 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Dark Secret Behind Jupiter When Jupiter's satellite Io ducks into Jupiter's shadow, something mysterious happens. Some of the time, but not always, Io emerges from the shadow about 10% brighter than when it entered. In 10-20 minutes, its brightness decays to normal levels. One suspicion is that SO2 in Io's atmosphere condenses on the planet's surface when it is in the cold shadow, thus coating some dark areas with a bright sulfurous 'frost.' However, a recent measure of Io's post-eclipse brightness detected no brightness change whatsoever. Apparently we have a real but rather unreliable phenomenon. (Morrison, Nancy D., and Morrison, David; "Io; Post-Eclipse Brightening Still Mysterious," Mercury, 11:27, 1982.) Reference. Io's post-eclipse brightening is cataloged at AJX6 in The Moon and the Planets. To order this book, visit: here . From Science Frontiers #22, JUL-AUG 1982 . 1982-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Nuclear bombs will not save the earth!Not too long ago, geologists adamantly denied that there were any large meteor craters pockmarking our planet. Now, they find 100-kilometer craters on a regular basis. And scientists are casting worried looks at those near-earth asteroids, knowing that one day one will be on a collision course. Not to worry, say the modern-day Technocrats, we will launch nucleararmed rockets that will nudge such cosmic threats into harmless trajectories. These Pollyannas are presumptious. They assume that asteroids are hard, cohesive objects that will be shoved aside by a few megatons of explosive energy. There are two things wrong with this idea, and these reveal how radically our ideas about the nature of asteroids have changed in just 10 years. First, most astronomers will now agree that asteroids are orbiting rubble piles rather than monolithic objects. For example, the near-earth asteroid Mathilde, 53 kilometers in diameter, has a density of only 1.3 grams/cubic centimeter. Its porosity must be greater than 50%. It is not a hard, coherent object. Instead of a bullet, it is more like a cloud of shotgun pellets. It would be hard to divert all this debris with a nuclear blast. To make matters worse, asteroids like Mathilde are stickier than a cloud of buckshot. This fact is deduced from photos of asteroids showing many to be marked by huge craters. (Mathilde has one 33 kilometers wide.) K.R . Housen et al, using ...
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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 Burps of Death Not only did the poor dinosaurs have to contend with an asteroid impact and a lurch of the poles, but also with the possible ignition of voluminous methane burps. 65-million years ago. This was the time of the well-publicized, but still hypothetical, asteroid impact. It is said to have wreaked havoc on our wounded planet and, especially, the dinosaurs. Volcanos spewed out vast lava fields and filled the air with greenhouse gases and dust. It was a bad time for many life forms. Actually, It may have been far worse than generally advertised. In addition to the volcanic activity and climate change, the shock of the asteroid impact could have been sufficient to destabilize the immense amounts of methane hydrate that have long been locked up, frozen and dormant, in oceanic sediments all over the world. According to this scenario, once the shock of the asteroid impact released the methane from its icy prison, it rose to the surface of the oceans in a world-wide burp. Methane, unfortunately for the dinosaurs and many other life forms, is highly flammable. Lightning could have ignited it almost immediately if it was concentrated enough. A colossal firestorm might have then enveloped the entire planet. The whole atmosphere could have been afire. This, according to B. Hurdle and colleagues at the Naval Research Laboratory, who speculate that the dinosaur hegemony may ended suddenly in flames rather than ...
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