Science Frontiers
The Unusual & Unexplained

Strange Science * Bizarre Biophysics * Anomalous astronomy
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About Science Frontiers

Science Frontiers is the bimonthly newsletter providing digests of reports that describe scientific anomalies; that is, those observations and facts that challenge prevailing scientific paradigms. Over 2000 Science Frontiers digests have been published since 1976.

These 2,000+ digests represent only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. The Sourcebook Project, which publishes Science Frontiers, also publishes the Catalog of Anomalies, which delves far more deeply into anomalistics and now extends to sixteen volumes, and covers dozens of disciplines.

Over 14,000 volumes of science journals, including all issues of Nature and Science have been examined for reports on anomalies. In this context, the newsletter Science Frontiers is the appetizer and the Catalog of Anomalies is the main course.


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Compilations of back issues can be found in Science Frontiers: The Book, and original and more detailed reports in the The Sourcebook Project series of books.


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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 48: Nov-Dec 1986 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Rhythms in 5,927,978 french births The following is an English summary of a paper that appeared in a French scientific journal. "Is there any relationship between the times when babies are born and the synodic lunar cycle? There are published works that show that there is such a relationship. We have looked at 5,927,978 French births occurring between the months of January 1968 and the 31st December 1974. Using Fourier's spectral analysis we have been able to show that there are two different rhythms in birth frequencies: (1 ) A weekly rhythm characterized by the lowest number of births on a Sunday and the largest number on a Tuesday; (2 ) An annual rhythm with the maximum number of births in May and the minimum in September-October. "A statistical analysis of the distribution of births in the lunar month shows that more are born between the last quarter and the new moon, and fewer are born in the first quarter of the moon. The differences between the distribution observed during the lunar month and the theoretical distribution are statistically significant." (Guillion, P., et al; "Naissances, Fertilite, Rythmes et Cycle Lunaire," Journal de Gynecologie, Obstetrique et Biologic de la Reproduction, 15:265, 1986.) From Science Frontiers #48, NOV-DEC 1986 . 1986-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Vocally Mimic Only in Captivity BBT19 Vocal Mimicry of Hosts by Parasitic Species BBT20 Duetting BBT21 Chorusing BBT22 Large Vocal-Repertoire Sizes and High Speeds of Delivery BBT23 Female Singers BBT24 Whisper Songs and Subsongs BBT25 The Two-Voice Phenomenon BBT26 Some Curiosities of Avian Vocalizations BBT27 Incubator Nests BBT28 Woven and Sewn Nests BBT29 Nests Containing Protective Materials BBT30 Bowers BBT31 Nest Curiosities BBT32 Tool Use BBT33 Communication between Chick Embryos BBX AVIAN INTERFACE PHENOMENA BBX1 Unusual Attacks on Humans BBX2 Unusual Predators of Birds BBX3 Unusual Bird-Animal Psychological Interfaces BBX4 Curious Associations of Birds with Other Animals and Plants BC BIOCHEMISTRY Titles not yet posted BF FISH Titles not yet posted BG GENETICS Titles not yet posted BH HUMANS BHA EXTERNAL APPEARANCE AND MORPHOLOGY BHA1 Human Asymmetry BHA2 The Appearance of Beauty in the Human Lineage BHA3 General Physique Correlated with the Month of Birth BHA4 Human Body Badly Designed for Swimming BHA5 The Apparent Physical Degeneration of Humans BHA6 Human Physical Degeneration and Genius BHA7 Variability of External Appearance BHA8 Discordances in the Appearances of Identical Twins BHA9 Mirror-Image Twins BHA10 The Apparent Primitive Character of Some Features of the Human Body BHA11 Human and Orang-Utan Physiological Similarities BHA12 Significant Morphological Differences between Humans and the Great Apes BHA13 Sports, Monsters, Terata BHA14 Two Separate Populations of Pygmies BHA15 Birth Weight Varies with Month of Birth BHA16 Human Sexual Dimorphism BHA17 Sex-Ratio Variations BHA18 Gradations between Male and Female BHA19 The Sacral Spot BHA20 Pigmentation Peculiarity on Upper Arms BHA21 Spotted or Piebald People BHA22 Visible Radiation Emitted by the Human Body BHA23 Unidentified, Problematical Radiation Emitted by the Human Body BHA24 The Supposed Human Aura BHA25 Kirlian Photography of the Postulated Human Aura ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 25: Jan-Feb 1983 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Schizophrenia And Season Of Birth Several scientists have published data that suggest that schizophrenics are more likely to be born in the winter months. The data have been subjected to much criticism. In this paper, the authors were careful to avoid previous errors in data collecting and analysis. From the Abstract: "We studied the birth months of 3,556 schizophrenics at a Minnesota Veteran's Administration hospital before and after instituting corrections for year-to-year across-month variations in birthrates in our expected values and the age-prevalence bias toward the January-March seasonality effect described in some earlier studies. Finally, we reanalyzed our data on a subset of patients in whom the ageincidence effect should be minimal. Even after these corrections the results supported the contention that the winter birthrate for schizophrenics is excessive, at least in severe climates." (Watson, Charles G., et al; "Season of Birth and Schizophrenia: A Response to the Lewis and Griffin Critique," Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 91:120, 1982.) Comment. What could possibly cause this seasonal effect, assuming it withstands scrutiny? From Science Frontiers #25, JAN-FEB 1983 . 1983-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 89: Sep-Oct 1993 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Solar activity, your mother's birth year, and your longevity "According to two scientists who stumbled on a startling statistical association -- though not necessarily a causeeffect relationship -- your life span may depend on the number of sunspots that appeared in the year your mother was born. "They found that if the sun was at a maximum in its 11-year cycle (during which the number of sunspots rises and falls), children of mothers born at that time would die an average of two to three years sooner than if their mothers had been born during the sunspot minimum." Before dismissing this fascinating correlation as "nut science," consider that the study was conducted by two established scientists at Michigan State University, B. Rosenberg and D.A . Juckett. Their report was published in the March 1993 issue of the mainstream journal Radiation Research . Furthermore, in two English studies of longevity. the same periodicity was remarked. Although the population sample in the Michigan State work was small (7552), the phenomenon appears sufficiently robust to admit to the columns of Science Frontiers! (In truth we covet bizarreness as much as robustness!) But what possible causal link might connect one's longevity with one's mother's date of birth? Rosenberg and Juckett point to the fact that when a woman is born all of her eggs are already formed. Later, they will mature and ...
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... , this is all printed in the American Journal of Physics!!) After all, concludes McCaughan, with respect to witnesses, ". .. so much in life depends on such evidence, even the credibility of phys icists themselves." (Orear, Jay; "Religion vs. Science," American Journal of Physics, 60:394, 1992. McCaughan, J.B .T .; "Scientific Faith," American Journal of Physics, 60:969, 1992.) The death of death. Isn't it curious that in the same bimonthly harvest of anomalies that yielded the preceding two items we should also find some fascinating evidence for reincarnation? "Almost nothing is known about why birthmarks occur in particular locations of the skin. The causes of most birth defects are also unknown. About 35% of children who claim to remember previous lives have birthmarks and/or birth defects that they (or adult informants) attribute to wounds on a person whose life the child remembers. The cases of 309 such children have been investigated. The birthmarks were usually areas of hairless, puckered skin; some were hypopigmented macules; others were hyperpigmented nevi. The birth defects were nearly always of rare types. In cases in which a deceased person was identified, the details of whose life unmistakenly matched the child's statements, a close correspondence was nearly always found between the birthmarks and/or birth defects on the child and the wounds on the deceased person. In 40 of the 46 cases in which a medical document (usually a postmortem report) ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 74: Mar-Apr 1991 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects When Identical Twins Are Not Identical Past studies of identical twins separated at birth have documented remarkable similarities between them, despite the fact that they were reared under radically different circumstances. Their physical appearances, habits, vocations, health histories, and other factors are often eerily the same. For example, two female identical twins, who had never seen each other, each wore eight rings! The upshot of such investigations is that most of a person's characteristics are genetic in origin; that is, Nature dominates nurture. But what about identical twins who are remarkably different? They can, for instance, differ appreciably in size, intellect, and behavior. In such cases, does nurture dominate nature? No! Identical twins may diverge even in the womb, where one may receive more oxygen and nutrients than the other. One also may be assailed in by viruses, bacteria, or drugs, while the other escapes. Even more drastic is the possi bility that one twin may pick up an extra chromosome soon after the original egg has split. Also, mutations may doom one twin to Down's syndrome or some other genetic affliction, while the other is unscathed. Identical twins may even be of different sex! Of course, such twins are genetically different, but they are still monozygotic (from the same egg). Blood tests will show them to be identical. It used to be thought that the small ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 92: Mar-Apr 1994 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Is immortality only a mutation away?Here follows the lead sentence of the abstract of a recent letter to Nature : "We have found that mutations in the gene daf-2 can cause fertile, active adult Caenorhabditis elegans hermaphrodites to live more than twice as long as wild type." (Kenyon, Cynthia, et al; "A C. elegans Mutant That Lives Twice as Long as Wild Type," Nature, 366:461, 1993.) Comment. C. elegans is a roundworm only about a millimeter long. Roughly a thousand cells make up its tiny body, and scientists have charted the birth and death of each cell from egg to adult. This roundworm's life is a mosaic of changing cells, as some die to make way for new cells with different agendas. Somehow this programmed sequence of cell death and birth can be slowed down by mutations and thus increase longevity. Wouldn't any mortal speculate that perhaps human longevity might, like that of C. elegans , be extended by modern gene manipulators? Sure, it's quite an extrapolation from roundworm to human, but our cells are programmed just like those of C. elegans . Change a gene here and there, and we might all live as long as Noah! From Science Frontiers #92, MAR-APR 1994 . 1994-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... J. Wilding and E. Valentine, both at the University of London, provided the British Journal of Psychology with two studies of people claiming to have exceptional memories. In their second paper (Ref. 2), they detailed the mental workings of TM, a 25-year-old male, and an accomplished user of mnemonics. TM astounds audiences with his seemingly impossible memory feats. These feats, however, are no mystery to TM, and he has carefully explained how it is all mnemonics and nothing paranormal. But there remains the clear implication is that the normal human mind is underestimated and underused. TM's "performances" involve six demonstrations, two of which we now elaborate upon. Demonstration 2. TM asks audiences for birthdates and very quickly gives the day of birth. He has explained this "gift" thusly: "The day of birth calculations were originally carried out through use of a system of numerical codes for years and months which were combined and subjected to certain calculations. However, with practice many shortcuts and mnemonics have been developed and now TM often knows instantly that certain dates imply certain days, like learning the multiplication table. Every year and month has a code from 0 to 6 and TM has learned the codes (by the method explained below) for all years from 1900 to 2000. For any given date the method is to add the codes for the month and the year and divide the total by 7; the remainder gives the day of the week. For example, 27 October 1964 gives 27+ 1 (the code ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 133: JAN-FEB 2001 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Couvade Chemistry Medical history records numerous instances where the husband of a pregnant woman exhibits some of the symptoms of pregnancy, such as morning sickness. This sympathetic reaction is called the "couvade." This phenomenon can be partially explained biochemically, but psychosomatic factors are obviously involved. Researchers find that a father-to-be's estrogen (female hormone) levels rise markedly -- even exceeding that of his wife -- as the time-of-delivery approaches. Interestingly, the father's testosterone levels are also elevated prior to birth but fall immediately afterward. As the wife's day-of-delivery approaches, the levels of prolactin, which plays a key role in breast-feeding, increase in both husband and wife. (Rubin, Rita; "Dads Get 'Nurturing' Hormones after Birth," Chicago Sun-Times, June 20, 2000. Cr. J. Cieciel) Comment. Male lactation, which is rare in humans, is probably associated with this increased production of prolactin. Male lactation is also known in other mammals, such as fruit bats. (See SF#93) The mind is driving all of these chemical changes in the father-to-be. The question is HOW? And, maybe WHY? From Science Frontiers #133, JAN-FEB 2001 . 2001 William R. Corliss Other Sites of Interest SIS . Catastrophism, archaeoastronomy, ancient history ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 55: Jan-Feb 1988 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Scientific Basis Of Astrology At a recent meeting of the Society for Scientific Exploration, S. Ertel, a German scientist, reported on his inquiry into the so-called "Mars Effect," discovered by Michel Gauquelin. Here are two excerpts from his Summary : "Since 1955 Gauquelin claims to have discovered planetary effects on human births: After rise of a planet and after its crossing of the meridian, birth frequencies of eminent men may either increase beyond or decrease below chance level. .. .. . "In order to find out how clean Gauquelin's database is, the author travelled to Gauquelin's Paris laboratory and checked the files, including data which had been separated from publication, especially athletes' data. Using all obtainable data, Gauquelin's strongest hypothesis was tested, that planetary effects are more pronounced the greater the person's professional success. This claim was objectified with the help of citation frequencies, a sensitive procedure Gauquelin himself had not yet used. The total of 2089 athletes was subjected to this procedure. The results clearly supported Gauquelin's eminence claim." (Ertel, Suitbert; "An Assessment of the Mars Effect," The Explorer, 4:8 , October 1987.) Comment. Is all this simply astrology with scientific trappings? It certainly sounds likt it is! Debunking groups, such as CSICOP, have spent considerable effort trying to disprove the Mars Effect ...
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... Emotions (Not Folie a Deux or Mass Hysteria) Dream Telepathy Remote Viewing Telepathy Affected by Magnetic Fields Role of Quantum Mechanics in Telepathy Ganzfield Experiments Animal Telepathy Telepathy under Hypnosis Atavistic Nature of Telepathy Geomagnetic Enhancement of Telepathy Psychic Odor/Taste PI INFORMATION PROCESSING PIB INPUT/OUTPUT ANOMALIES Word Blindness Dyslexia Autism Typing Skills Tip-of-the-Tongue Phenomenon Mirror Script Braille and the Brain Optical Illusions Generation of Random Numbers Cocktail-party effect Stuttering Difficulty of Learning English Brain Modularity Attentional Blink Revelation Intuition PIC ANOMALOUS INFORMATION PROCESSING Mathematical Savants Calendar Calculators Musical Prodigies Mechanical Savants Subconscious Time-Reckoning Mental Processing during Sleep Chess Prodigies Accelerated Mental Processes Mnemonists PIG MYSTERIES OF GENIUS AND CREATIVITY Early Appearance of Genius Genius and Mental Illness Origin of "Strokes of Genius" Periodicity in Creativity Humor and Creativity Genius and Season of Birth Aesthetics and Creativity Dream Creativity PII EIDETIC AND AFTER IMAGES Eidetic Imagery Vivid Afterimages Eidetic Imagery and Retardation Eidetic Imagery and Hallucinations Recovery of Eidetic Imagery through Hypnosis PIK CONSCIOUSNESS Consciousness and Hypnosis Nature of Consciousness Free Will Consciousness and Quantum Mechanics [BHT22] PIM ANOMALIES OF MEMORY Capacity of the Human Brain Emotional Enhancement of Memory Learning and Memory under Anesthesia Hypnosis and Memory Pseudomemory Hypnotic Misrecall Mnemonics Photographic Memory Prenatal Mental Life Inherited Memories False-Memory Syndrome Memory-Processing Bottlenecks Memory Regression [PHP] Cryptonesia PIP ODDITIES OF PERCEPTION Synesthesia Optical Illusions [PIB] PL HALLUCINATIONS AND ILLUSIONS PLD NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCES Near-Death Experiences NDEs in Non-Threatening Situations Involuntary Memories during Illness and Injury PLF HYPNAGOGIC AND HYPNOPOMPIC ILLUSIONS Hypnagogic Illusions Hypnopompic Illusions PLG HALLUCINATIONS, APPARITIONS, ILLUSIONS Migraine Hallucinations Epileptic Hallucinations Drug-Induced Hallucinations ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 133: JAN-FEB 2001 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Statistical Astrology No matter how severely scientists demonize astrologers, statistics keep piling up suggesting that season-of-birth can influence human traits and talents. When one relects upon this matter, a rational, cause-and-effect chain is not far out on the lunatic fringe. After all, a pregnant woman's body responds to varying temperatures, changing amounts of sunlight, seasonal foods, and varying physical activity during the year. Such effects can be felt in utero, too. Many of the multitudinous studies looking into the season-of-birth correlations are very specialized and employ small samples. For example, English professional soccer players in the 1991-1992 season were twice as likely to have been born September through November. Mental traits are also influenced by season-ofbirth. More medical students are born April through June than can be explained by chance. Best of all (for us) is the following correlation: Perhaps the most unusual seasonal effect is found amongst scientists who support revolutionary theories. It seems that academics who were quick to support controversial theories such as relativity and evolution tended to he born between October and April. (Thomas, Jens; "Like a Virgo," New Scientist, p. 56, December 25, 1999.) Comment. So, there is a season for iconoclasts and anomalists! However, we (the editorial "we") bucked the trend. Could we have ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 105: May-Jun 1996 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Mixed-up people Mother-child chimeras. Investigators have discovered cells carrying male DNA among a mother's blood cells 27 years after the birth a male child. Evidently, descendents of fetal cells escape during pregnancy and persist in the mother for years after birth. The mother thus becomes a blend of herself and her child (or, possibly, children) - a kind of chimera. The question is: Why doesn't the mother's immune system destroy these foreign cells? Some scientists speculate that these escaped and still-surviving cells may help explain why women are more susceptible than men to autoimmune diseases. (Travis, J.; "Kids: Getting under Mom's Skin for Decades," Science News, 149:85, 1996) Fatherless blood. In Britain, a male child has been found with normal skin, with each cell carrying the expected X and Y chromosomes, but "his" blood is all female. Its cells contain the mother's two X chromosomes with no paternal contribution. What happened? One theory is that the mother's unfertilized egg spontaneously divided. Then, fertilization occurred, but it was only partial. The sperm got to just one of the two or more cells derived from the egg. The embryo continued to develop but it was part all-mother and part mother-father! "Partial parthenogenesis" seems to be the proper term here ...
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... Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Venus Has Uncertain Pedigree The five instrumented Pioneer probes that plunged into the thick Venusian atmosphere in late 1978 discovered unexpectedly large quantities of the isotope argon-36. The significance of argon-36 is that it is supposed to be primordial argon; that is, an argon isotope formed when the solar system was born. Since argon-36 is radioactive, most of the original supply of this isotope should have disintegrated and disappeared over the 4-billion-year history of the solar system. Indeed, the atmospheres of earth and Mars have much, much smaller quantities of argon-36 than Venus. Venus, therefore, may have had an origin different from that of earth and Mars -- either a much more recent birth (such that the argon-36 has not all disintegrated), or an altogether different kind of origin in which more argon-36 was created than was the case for earth and Mars. (Anonymous; "Venus Probes Solar System Birth," New Scientist, 80:916, 1978.) From Science Frontiers #6 , February 1979 . 1979-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... affects an organism's evolution, be it a human or an insect. In fact, it was Dawkins himself who first proposed the term "meme" for the cultural counterpart of the gene. A meme, in other words, is an "element" of culture that can be passed along to progeny by imitation and/or cultural pressures. In reductionist thinking, environmental challenges are met by gene mutations plus natural selection. In meme theory, the same challenges are confronted by cultural changes (meme "mutation") plus natural selection. The meme approach is holistic rather than reductionist and is appealing because it allows us some control over our destiny. There are several phenomena in which some scientists profess to see memes overpowering the genes: Generations of female infanticide have led to more male births than female births. In dairy-farming societies, 90% of the population has the enzyme lactase that allows individuals to digest cows' milk. In other societies, 80% become ill when drinking cows' milk. A variety of cultural pressures have raised the percentage of lefthanders in North America to 12% compared with just 2% a century ago. In Taiwan, where cultural pressures are quite different, only 1% of the populace is left-handed. In the end, of course, neither genes nor memes are in total control. Both genes and societies can be selfish! (Spinney, Laura; "The Unselfish Gene," New Scientist, p. 28, October 25, 1997.) Comment. Surely, genes and memes are not all there is ...
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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. 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 ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 37: Jan-Feb 1985 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects What does it all mean?W.G . Pollard, a distinguished physicist, has written a very philosophical, almost mystical article on the nature of the cosmos. Let us begin with his abstract: "There are several hints in physics of a domain of external reality transcendent to three-dimensional space and time. This paper calls attention to several of these intimations of a real world beyond the natural order. Examples are the complex state functions in configuration space of quantum mechanics, the singularity at the birth of the universe, the anthropic principle, the role of chance in evolution, and the unaccountable fruit fulness of mathematics for physics. None of these examples touch on the existence or activity of God, but they do suggest that external reality may be much richer than the natural world which it is the task of physics to describe." Pollard then elaborates: Example 1. Quantum mechanics, a mathematical formulation of reality, has been extraordinarily successful in describing and predicting many things in the microscopic world. Pollard notes that quantum mechanics contains no hint of God per se and possesses no numinous quality, but its great complexity and multidimensionality provide evidence for "the reality of the transcendent order in which the natural universe is embedded." Example 2. The singularity at the beginning of the universe. Science is at a loss to explain creation and what happened before. (Pollard assumes that creation occurred like most scientists.) ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 69: May-Jun 1990 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects New species emerging?" A San Diego science writer named Anne Cardoza is sending out flyers asking anyone who has given birth to a child by an extraterrestrial to submit a 3,000-word, first-person account. "She's compiling a book on breeding between humans and inhabitants of UFOs. She won't pay for the stories but she promises confidentiality." (Anonymous; "Talk about Mixed Marriages!" San Diego Tribune, January ?, 1990. Cr. D. Clements via L. Farish.) From Science Frontiers #69, MAY-JUN 1990 . 1990-2000 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 The Day The Laws Of Physics Changed Well, maybe there weren't such things as "days" as we now know them back when the universe was very young. In fact, "time" then might have been different from "time" now. This sounds like so much physics-speak; but, seriously, during the birth pangs of the universe, there seems to have been what cosmologists call a "phase change," a mysterious moment when the laws of physics suddenly became more complex. You can reasonably ask: "How can supposedly immutable physical laws change?" The answer seems to be that anything can happen when something is being made from nothing! This apparent plasticity in the laws governing the cosmos is suggested by observations of how galaxies in the early universe were distributed. The standard theory for the origin of the universe predicts that clumps of galaxies of all sizes were created early on. This is not what a survey by S. Sarkar et al, at the University of Oxford, found. A split second after the Big Bang, galaxies were organized in structures about 300-million light years across. The standard model of particle physics cannot account for this preferred size. The theorists' recourse is a phase change, a point in time when the warp and woof of the universe changed; that is, change the rules until they fit. (Chown, Marcus; "In the ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 11: Summer 1980 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Orphans Of The Wild West North of San Francisco, all along the Oregon and Washington coasts, the geologically oriented traveller will discover many huge boulders, mostly 10-20 m across, but some 100 m in size. Their constitution varies, but many are coarse-grained basalts that appear to have spent much of their lives at least 30-40 km underground. These boulders are "erratics" in the sense that no one has found surface outcrops that might have given them birth. So, where did they come from? But origin is only part of the problem. The presumable non-glacial erratics occur in a geologically confused area that seems to be upsidedown time-wise according to the few fossils that have been found. One theory is that the erratics were long ago carried to great depths by the conveyor-belt layers that slide eastward and downward under the U.S . Pacific Coast. Later, geological pressures squeezed the rock containing the erratics back to the surface like toothpaste. In the last phase, the matrix rock was eroded away leaving the erratics orphans. (Wood, Robert Muir; "Orphans of the Wild West," New Scientist, 85:466, 1980.) Comment. Note that this complex scenario is dictated by the dogmas of continental drift and the geological time scale. From Science Frontiers #11, Summer 1980 . 1980-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... will try to find out. Distribution in 18 Mars sectors for sports champions (top) and ordinary people (below). Solid lines are observed numbers; dotted lines, expected numbers. The two peaks in the graph occur at the rise and upper culmination of Mars. We have M. Gauquelin to thank for discovering the Mars Effect. Gauquelin began his research with checking out the claims of conventional astrology. He "found no truth whatever behind certain major tenets of the horoscope, including the alleged influence of the signs of the zodiac, the reality of the astrological 'aspects,' the reported role of the 'houses,' or the prediction of future events." That's the good news, now here's the bad. During his work, he recorded the birth dates of thousands of French men and women who were especially successful in various endeavors, especially sports. These data, easily veri-fied, do seem to demonstrate that the Mars effect truly exists! G. Abell, who was a reknowned astronomer, did not categorically reject Gauquelin's claims. But he was not happy with them: "To be honest, I am highly skeptical of Gauquelin's findings and his hypothesis. The main reason is that I cannot imagine a mechanism whereby the effect can be produced. However, I do not know that the effect is not there; my skepticism cannot be considered closed-mindedness, any more than a gullible acceptance of astrology should be regarded as openmindedness. If the planetary effects suggested by Gauquelin are real, then his discovery ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 25: Jan-Feb 1983 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology A Far-wandering Lost Tribe? Manifestations of Earth Energy At Megalithic Sites? Astronomy More on "the Massive Solar Companion" Lageos Falls Too Fast Biology Learning by Injection Promiscuous DNA Why Don't We All Have Cancer? Review of the Tektite Problem The Andes Ice Islands Geology Three "proofs" of A Young Earth Geophysics Gas Hydrates and the Bermuda Triangle Psychology Schizophrenia and Season of Birth Chemistry & Physics Anomalons Are Lazy Or Fat ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 135: MAY-JUN 2001 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Fall Babies Live Longer Not by much, just a few months longer, but enough to look for a reason. In Austria, babies born October-December live about 0.6 year longer than those who first see the world April-June. The same effect emerges in Denmark, but the fall advantage is only 0.3 year. Don't bother looking for an astrological explanation. The longevity enhancement may just be the consequence of more fruits and vegetables being available to pregnant women in the months preceding birth. (Anonymous; "Study: Babies Born in Fall Live Longer," Scranton Tribune, February 27, 2001. Cr. M. Piechota.) From Science Frontiers #135, MAY-JUN 2001 . 2001 William R. Corliss Other Sites of Interest SIS . Catastrophism, archaeoastronomy, ancient history, mythology and astronomy. Lobster . The journal of intelligence and political conspiracy (CIA, FBI, JFK, MI5, NSA, etc) Homeworking.com . Free resource for people thinking about working at home. ABC dating and personals . For people looking for relationships. Place your ad free. ...
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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 Spooky Stats In Maryland Easton, Maryland. Justin Kyle Russum was born at 6:53 PM on October 31, 1988 - Halloween. Nothing particularly spooky about that. "What's so amazing about a Halloween baby? Consider that both the Russums [parents] were born on Hallo ween (1954 and 1963, respectively). Then consider that the physician who delivered the child - a doctor who had just come on duty a few hours earlier - was also born on October 3l." (Jensen, Peter; "Birth of Halloween Baby Offers Some Spooky Stats," Baltimore Sun, November 4, 1988.) From Science Frontiers #61, JAN-FEB 1989 . 1989-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Iridium Layer The high concentration of iridium between the Cretaceous and Tertiary eras (about 65 million years ago) is widely interpreted as indicating a worldwide catastrophe caused by the impact of a comet or meteor. The increase of iridium concentration over normal levels is much higher in northern latitudes, suggesting that the impact point is in this region. But no impact scar of the proper size and age exists. However, if one looks for scabs rather than scars, one finds that Iceland is formed entirely of volcanic rocks younger than the Cretaceous. To Fred Whipple of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, these facts dovetail nicely. Iceland was form ed by magma welling up from a 100-km hole in the sea floor blasted out by a 10-km meteor. (Anonymous; "The Blow That Gave Birth to Iceland?" New Scientist, 89:740, 1981.) From Science Frontiers #15, Spring 1981 . 1981-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... to insure that the experiment was unbiased and to make sure that astrology was given every reasonable chance to succeed. It failed. Despite the fact that we worked with some of the best astrologers in the country, recommended by the advising astrologers for their expertise in astrology and their ability to use CPI (California Personality Inventory), despite the fact that every reasonable suggestion made by the advising astrologers was worked into the experiment, despite the fact that the astrologers approved the design and predicted 50 per cent as the 'minimum' effect they would expect to see, astrology failed to perform at a level better than chance. Tested using double-blind methods, the astrologers' predictions proved to be wrong. Their predicted connection between the positions of the planets and other astronomical objects at the time of birth and the personalities of test subjects did not exist. The experiment clearly refutes the astrological hypothesis." (Carlson, Shawn; "A Double-Blind Test of Astrology," Nature, 318:419, 1985.) Next, if overkill is required, the Skeptical Inquirer, matches the Nature article with one on the effect of the moon on human behavior. The authors (two psychologists and an astronomer) conclude: "This article outlines the results of a meta-analysis of 37 studies and several more recent studies that examined lunar variables and mental behavior. Our review supports the view that there is no causal relationship between lunar phenomena and human behavior. We also speculate on why belief in such relationships is prevalent in our society. A lack of understanding of physics, psychological ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 48: Nov-Dec 1986 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology The Kensington Stone: A Mystery Not Solved Some Newly Discovered Archeological Anomalies From North America Astronomy Is There Life on Mars After All? The Mars-antarctica Connection Life As A Cosmic Phenomenon The Deflationary Universe An 11-minute Binary Biology Rhythms in 5,927,978 French Births Geophysiology The Cosmic Chemistry of Life Archaeopteryx A Dead End? Geology Geocorrosion? Water, Water: How Far Down? Oil, Oil: Everywhere, Every Age Geophysics Purple, Furry, Spiked Bubble Phosphorescent Bars and Wheels Freak Wave Off Spain Psychology The Mind's "scope" Braille and the Brain ...
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... findings suggest that lefthandedness may be associated with reduced longevity. For instance, Porac and Coren reported that 13 per cent of 20-year-olds are lefthanded but only 5 per cent of those in their fifties and virtually nobody of 80 or above. We believe that this absence of left-handers from the oldest age groups reflects higher biological and environmental risk." To investigate this asymmetry further, D.F . Halpern and S. Coren repaired to The Baseball Encyclopedia , where longevity and handedness are duly recorded for many players. Here again, they found that, although mortality is about the same up to age 33, thereafter about 2% more right-handers than lefthanders survive at each age. Halpern and Coren suggest a few possible causes: (1 ) prenatal and perinatal birth stressors are more probable in left-handers; (2 ) the immune systems of lefthanders may be reduced by ge netic effects and intra-uterine hormones; and (3 ) left-handers may suffer more accidents in a world designed for righthanders! (Halpern, Diane F., and Coren, Stanley; "Do Right-Handers Live Longer?" Nature, 333:213, 1988.) Reference. A variety of handedness phenomena are cataloged in BHB20-23 in Biological Anomalies: Humans I. To order this book, visit: here . From Science Frontiers #58, JUL-AUG 1988 . 1988-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 14: Winter 1981 Supplement Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects There's more than gold in the kolar mines When physicists installed nuclear-particle detectors deep in a mine in the Kolar Gold Fields in India, they hoped to measure particles created by highly penetrating neutrinos arriving from cosmic sources. They found instead immense showers of nuclear particles coming, not from above as expected, but from the sides and even below! These huge showers of 1,000 or more assorted particles are called "anomalous cascades." Neutrinos are the only known particles capable of penetrating the entire earth to create upwardly directed showers, but ordinary neutrinos do not seem to have enough energy to give birth to the anomalous cascades. (Anonymous; "Particle Shower Sprays Upward," Science News, 118:246, 1980.) Comment. Are there sources of unrecognized radiation deep within the earth? From Science Frontiers #14, Winter 1981 . 1981-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... one of the small protoplanets that are thought to have swirled around the inner solar system shortly after its formation. Computations on a supercomputer revealed to these three researchers that, if the protoplanet had hit Mercury at between 20 and 30 kilometers/second, then its dense iron core would have survived pretty much intact. A lower velocity would not have stripped off the lighter outer layers; anything higher would have blasted the whole planet into smithereens. Calculations of this type also suggest that if a protoplanet the size of Mars had hit protoearth, it likewise would have stripped off its light silicate mantle. After this material that had been torn off gravitationally sphericized itself in orbit around the earth, it became--you guessed it - our moon. (Stewart, Glen R.; "A Violent Birth for Mercury," Nature, 335:496, 1988. Also: Anonymous; "Mercury Stripped by Blow from Meteorite," New Scientist, November 5, 1988.) Comment. It seems that our early solar system was somewhat Velikovskian in character, with many celestial missiles flying about. But that was long ago - or was it? Reference. Mercury's idosyncracies are cataloged in Chapter AH in our catalog: The Moon and the Planets . For information about this book, visit: here . From Science Frontiers #61, JAN-FEB 1989 . 1989-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... sketched above, the lanugo or natal hair persists beyond the womb. Drawing from Incredible Life. Culp then shows why the recapitulation claim failed in five stages in the development of the human embryo. A rich lode of anomalies exists here: cells migrate purposefully, mysterious struc-tures grow and then disappear; it is a kaleidoscope of changing structures and processes. Take, for example, the "hair stage": "The embryo is covered with very fine hair at about the seventh month of development of the embryo. The evolutionist claims that this is evidence that men came from hairy mammals like the apes. However, these hairs are unlike the hair found on apes, as they are very small in diam eter and always soft and unpigmented. This hair disappears from the body soon after birth. It is called lanugo and is quite unlike the permanent hair that grows on the human body and head..." To the anomalist, the battle between the evolutionists and creationists is secondary to the anomalies that keep cropping up without satisfactory explanations from either side. Here, we ask the purpose of the lanugo. Does it have to have a purpose? Just being there suggests purpose. Why does it disappear? (Culp, G. Richard; "Embryology - Overlooked Facts You Should Know," Creation Research Society Quarterly, 25:100, 1988.) From Science Frontiers #62, MAR-APR 1989 . 1989-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... more than 100 years. These individuals are self-taught and do not follow procedures at all similar to the usual, published, algorithms. An investigation of one individual revealed that he retained considerable information about the structure of days in particular months, probably as visual images. His skill closely depended on the extent and form of his knowledge of calendars, and his errors were often a consequence of lack of knowledge about a particular time period. Mentally retarded individuals who perform calendar date feats are often socially withdrawn and devote considerable periods of time to calendar dates. The most capable calendar-date calculators are usually individuals who have a strong interest in calendars as such." Although some calendar calculators may use visual imagery - perhaps something like eidetic imagery - at least one calendar calculator was blind from birth. Example. "One of the few serious attempts that have been made to understand the mental operations underlying calendar skills is described by William Horwitz and others. They examined the abilities of a pair of mentally retarded identical male twins, both of whom performed calendar-calculating feats. During the twins' early childhood, despite severe family difficulties caused partly by the father's alcoholism, the parents, whose efforts to teach numerical and reading abilities to their sons were largely unsuccessful, were impressed by seeing one of the boys looking at a perpetual calendar in an almanac. Subsequently the parents encouraged the boys to acquire calendar skills. The feats of one twin were especially remarkable: he was reported to have had a range of at least 6000 years - beyond the range of any conventional or ...
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... the collectors did was to fire projectiles with ropes over the high branches and then haul up canisters of a knockdown gas. Insects rained down -- a cloudburst of new species -- neatly collected on sheets spread out below. Such techniques led to the 30-million figure. As Wilson put it, "The pool of diversity is a challenge to basic science and a vast reservoir of genetic information." (Wilson, Edward O.; "The Biological Diversity Crisis," BioScience, 35:700, 1985.) Comment. Are there other "hot spots of diversity" waiting to be discovered? Probably, but they will be under our feet, in the deepest waters -- places we do not frequent or suspect. We do know of an ancient mudbank that gave birth to multitudes of new and fantastic creatures. See below. From Science Frontiers #43, JAN-FEB 1986 . 1986-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... to help integrate the activities of the right and left brains which, for reasons unknown, seem to specialize in different kinds of mental operations. Studies of the corpus callosum reveal that it is about 11% larger in left-handers than in right-handers. In terms of interconnecting nerve fibers this comes to 25,000,000 more for the left-handers. Just what sort of information flows along these myriad pathways is not known, although we do know that left-handers have greater bihemispheric representation of cognitive functions; i.e ., the brain functions are not so specialized in each half of the brain. But why should left-handers and right-handers be different at all? Are they born with unequal corpus callosa? Or are these nerve highways equal are birth and atrophy in right-handers ? (Witelson, Sandra F.; "The Brain Connection: The Corpus Callosum is Larger in Left-Handers, " Science, 229:665, 1985. ) From Science Frontiers #42, NOV-DEC 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... . Strier, of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, is that some monkeys regulate their fertility by the judicious consumption of certain plants. Going even farther, K. Glander, Duke University, suggests that howler monkeys control the sex of their offspring through their diets. Glander divides howler monkey females into three groups. In the first are the high-ranking females that predominantly produce male offspring. This 'male-offspring' strategy favors these females because the males they produce tend to become dominant adults that will pass on more of the females' genes than would female offspring, who are limited in the number of infants they can engender in comparison to the males. Similar optimization strategies, according to Glander, induce middleranking females to produce mainly female progeny, and low-ranking females to birth almost all males. These howler monkeys seem to control the sex of their offspring pharmologically by selecting certain plants to eat. These plants, in turn, control the electrical conditions in the females' reproductive tracts to either attract or repel sperm carrying the male Y-chromosomes, which are thought to carry different electrical charges than the X-carrying sperm! (Lewin, Roger; "What Monkeys Chew to Choose Their Children's Sex," New Scientist, p. 15, February 22, 1992. Also: Gibbons, Ann; "Plants of the Apes," Science, 255:921, 1992.) Comments. It will take much more research to validate these startling assertions. We also have to ask how these instincts (or conscious, calculated strategies?) ...
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... as hemorrhagic ulceration of the gastric mucosa, anemia, and parasite infestation." In short, they seem programmed to die after mating, like the male octopus. And one wonders why evolution has wrought this mass die-off. In their studies of marsupial mice, C.R . Dickman and R.W . Braithwaite have extended the phenomenon to two new genera: Dasyurus and Parantechinus . They have also found that the phenomenon is a bit more complex. First, in P . apicalis, the male die-off occurs in some populations and not others. In D. hallucatus , the die-off may occur in the same population in some years and not others. Furthermore, the females of this species may on occasion all die off, too -- but after giving birth, of course. (Dickman, C.R ., and Braithwaite, R.W .; "Postmating Mortality of Males in the Dasyurid Marsupials, Dasyurus and Parantechinus ," Journal of Mammalogy , 73:143, 1992.) Reference. The mass die-off after reproduction or "semelparity" is covered in more depth in BMF25 in our catalog: Biological Anomalies: Mammals II. For ordering information, visit: here . From Science Frontiers #82, JUL-AUG 1992 . 1992-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... The prevalent conception of the brain compares it to a hardwired computer in which all the wires and components are all permanently soldered together. An equivalent situation would prevail in the brain if all sensory pathways and cells had fixed duties and memories to handle. If the portion of the brain dedicated to speech were damaged, as in a stroke, it could never repair itself. This dogma is now being challenged. A pertinent line of brain research is now underway at the Coleman Laboratory of the University of California in San Francisco, where Michael Merzenich and his associates are studying the brains of monkeys. "Merzenich's findings challenge a prevailing notion that most sensory pathways in the nervous system are 'fixed' or 'hardwired' by the maturation of anatomic connections, either just before or soon after birth. They also address the puzzling question of what forces may be at work when stroke victims partly recover. Do 'redundant copies' of skills exist outside the damaged regions, or is physical damage within the brain repaired over time? Or can old skills be newly established in different, undamaged brain regions." Apparently the brain should really be compared with a reprogrammable computer. Perhaps the brain even stores duplicates of critical "programs"; i.e ., skills. Merzenich's findings go even farther. He finds that the parts of the brain associated with certain skills or data processing move and change shape spontaneously. The brain, it seems, continually reorganizes itself. Fading fast is the idea that each data point is recorded in a specific cell or neuron interconnection. ( ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 35: Sep-Oct 1984 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Caenorhabditis Elegans The creature with this formidable name is only about a millimeter long and develops from egg to adult in about 3.5 days, at which time it possesses about 1,000 somatic cells. C. elegans is a roundworm, but a famous one. Its growth has been followed on a cell-bycell basis from egg to adult. The history of each cell is known from birth to death. The fact that C.elegans is nicely transparent helps the cell-watcher. Here are some of the interesting things to be seen as cells proliferate, live, and die. First, C. elegans is bilaterally symmetrical, but the pattern of cell generation on the right differs from that on the left. Nevertheless, the creature ends up symmetrical, making one wonder where the directions for symmetry come from. Some cells are transients, dying when their jobs are done. A few doomed cells are generated only because they produce sister cells that are needed in the final animal. Such a programmed loss of cells may be a method of modifying an organism during evolution. John Sulston, one of the researchers, says, "Within the lineage you can see the fossil of its past." (Marx, Jean L.; "Caenorhabditis Elegans: Getting to Know You," Science, 225:40, 1984.) Comment. Sulston's statement reminds one of "Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny," ...
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