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... Project Sourcebook Subjects Cichlids Punctuate Equilibrium In those pesky cichlid fish of African lakes we may be seeing punctuated evolution during an actual punctuation. Responding to the article in SF#108 on the Lake Victoria cichlids, A. Mebane called our attention to Lake Malawi. While the Lake Victoria cichlids seem to have evolved a profusion of species in a space of about 12,500 years, those cichlids in Lake Malawi may have done the same in only a century or two. T. Goldschmidt advances this evenmore-abbreviated time scale in his book Darwin's Dreampond . In it, he discusses how the water level of Lake Malawi fell more than 120 meters during the 1800s -- an exceptionally dry period in Africa. Today, the Lake is again high and once more host to isolated rocky islands, each with its own unique complement of cichlid fish; each island has species found nowhere else in the lake. Where did all these species come from, considering that their little islands were bone dry just a century ago? Goldschmidt writes: "Cichlids that inhabited these exposed rocks would have suffocated, unless they had already left for wetter climes. Yet today, species that do not exist anywhere else can be found near almost every rocky island. From an orthodox point of view, the most plausible explanation for this is quite surprising: many color forms as well as biological species developed over a period of less than two hundred years." This is certainly explosive speciation -- real biological punctuation! But, perhaps as water levels fell, the original cichlids found refuges in surviving pools ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 120: Nov-Dec 1998 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Pigeon-snaring Mounds Of Tonga In North America, the industrious Mound-builders excavated untold millions of basketfuls of soil which they piled up in impressive mounds. Flat-topped Monk's Mound at Cahokia, Illinois, rivals the Great Pyramid in volume. A casual observer of this huge earthen structure could only conclude that such immense labor was undertaken for some social imperative, such as worship or sacrifice. Perhaps this was the case in North America, but deep in the South Pacific, just east of Fiji, on the islands of Tonga, native peoples scraped large mounds of earth for what seems to be a frivolous purpose: pigeon-snaring ! But bear in mind that carnivory on these romantic Pacific islands was difficult because large game animals were nonexistent. Captured enemies helped solve the protein problem, but pigeons were much more common, and some species were good-sized and delicious. So much so that eventually only island royalty was allowed to catch and eat them. Pigeon poachers were whipped or executed (and maybe eaten?) In fact, pigeon snaring became a royal sport. To this end, starting at least a thousand years ago, the king's loyal subjects grubbed up the thin island soil and piled it up into high mounds. Tonga's pigeon-snaring mounds did not compete with Monk's Mound sizewise, being at most 115 feet in diameter and perhaps 15 feet high. But ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 119: Sep-Oct 1998 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Anthropology Unbound When careful dating at the Monte Verde site in Chile finally smashed the Bering Strait paradigm (SF#112), it was if science had been unchained. Ideas and data that have long been suppressed in fear of professional retribution are now appearing. At the February 1998 annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Philadelphia, anthropological heresies ran rampant. T. Dillehay, who directed the Monte Verde work, declared that there were 15-20 other South American sites older than 11,500 years. Monte Verde itself may have been founded 33,000 years ago. D. Stanford, Smithsonian curator of archeology, opined that there were probably several waves of prehistoric immigration into the Americas across the Arctic, the Pacific Ocean (! ), and possibly even the Atlantic (! !) . [This is heresy no longer.] Supporting early Atlantic crossings are several dozen artifacts found in the eastern U.S . that closely resemble some found in France and Iberia. Stanford said, "We don't know yet what that means." Studies of DNA diversity among New World Indian populations find such large differences that at least 30,000 years would have been needed for these differences to develop. (Assuming, of course, a relatively homogeneous group of initial colonists.) Linguist, J. Nichols, from Berkeley, sees a similar diversity in the languages of ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 115: Jan-Feb 1998 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The hilina slump a.k .a . "the big crack"Huge chunks of the Hawaiian Islands have been sliding into the Pacific Ocean for hundreds of thousands of years. (SF#101) Geologists classify these slides as either "slumps" or "debris avalanches." Slumps move just a few inches a year but are prone to bigger, jerky adjustments. Debris avalanches are fast cascades of rocks and soil. In Hawaii, both varieties of movement can involve massive blocks of real estate. In the huge Nu'uanu debris slide, stone blocks 6 miles across tumbled 30 miles out to sea. Both slumps and debris slides may create colossal tsunamis. (Tsunamis are miscalled "tidal waves," but they have nothing to do with tides and do not behave like tides or wind-driven waves.) When large pieces of the Hawaiian Islands slip into the ocean, the entire Pacific Rim is smashed by the resulting tsunamis. In New South Wales, Australia, there is geological evidence that part of this coast was scoured by a Hawaiigenerated tsunami 100,000 years ago. The postulated wave started out about 375-meters ( -mile) high in Hawaii. By the time is reached Australia, it was about 40 meters high. (SF#85) Worse waves may be on tap. A 4,760 cubic mile chunk of the Big Island (Hawaii) is breaking away at the rate ...
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... Frontiers ONLINE No. 121: Jan-Feb 1999 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects A Continent Lost In The Pacific Ocean Our title is also the English title of a book published recently in Japan. The subtitle quoted below implies that we are not discussing the supposed lost continent of Mu. "Riddle of the Submarine Ruins in the Ryukyu Islands" Rather, the underwater site is that introduced in SF#118 and located southwest of Okinawa. It is hardly the size of a continent. The book's author is Masaaki Kimura, and he has filled his book with stunning underwater photographs and diagrams of this "lost continent." Unfortunately, except for a Contents page, which is in English, the rest of the book ... in Japanese. We'll have to settle for the Contents page, which is rather revealing. Human Beings under the Sea The Submarine Ruins Discovered Were the Ryukyu Islands a Continent? Discovery of a Civilization Lost in the Sea An Ancient Civilization in Southernmost Japan A Continent Lost in the Pacific Ocean Submersion of the Land and Tectonics of the Earth Hypotheses for the Land Lost in the Pacific Ocean A Utopia Sunk in the Pacific Ocean Pretty inflammatory stuff, so much so that we must be wary indeed! One of the drawings in our photocopy is good enough to reproduce here. The immediate impression, as with many of the underwater photographs, is that surely this structure is artificial. But we must remember that Nature has her playful moods and has deposited simulacra everywhere, perhaps even on Mars, ...
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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 Circles Of Contention No, this is not about crop circles, although these are easily as controversial -- at least among anthropologists. The story broke last September (1996), in Sydney, Australia, and has been simmering ever since. We have let the story cook for a while, hoping to get some confirmation of the dates involved. This will have to come later. These "circles of contention" are engraved on tall boulders (about 2 meters high on average) arranged in arcs hundreds of meters long at a site the aborigines call Jinmium. Jinmium is located near the western boundary of Australia's Northern Territory. The circles are obviously the work of humans. There are thousands of these etchings all told. Dimensions: 2-3 centimeters across and about half as deep. No one doubts that the Jinmium site is ancient. Judging from the sediments that cover the lowest circles, these engravings are about 60,000 years old. If this date survives scrutiny, the Jinmium carvings will be the oldest human art on the planet -- twice as old as anything found in Europe. No wonder the circles have created a stir. Actually, though, a larger issue is at stake. In the sediments around the engraved boulders, anthropologists have discovered what seem to be even-more-ancient signs of human activity: stone tools stratigraphically dated at 116,000 and 176,000 years. The ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 115: Jan-Feb 1998 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Woodhenges Before Pyramids The ancient inhabitants of Britain were constructing massive structures before Cheops, builder of the Great Pyramid, was even born! One of these structures is 5,000 years old. It is located at Stanton Drew, in southwestern England. But tourists at the site see only the Great Circle of standing stones, which is impressive enough but only the tip of the iceberg, so to speak. What is more spectacular is "seen" only by sensitive magnetometers. These instruments detect faint, ghostly remains of the magnetotactic bacteria that consumed the giant oak pillars that graced this site five millennia ago. The soil inside the Great Circle reveals that there were once 400-500 oak pillars on the site. These massive cylinders were probably a meter in diameter, 8 meters (26 feet) high, and weighed 5 tons each. The rings of pillars occupied an area about the size of a football field (100 meters in diameter). The Stanton Drew woodhenge was probably too large to have been roofed, but the oak columns might have been carved or decorated. Why would anyone cut, haul, and array hundreds of massive oak pillars in nine concentric circles? Obviously, the ancient Britons used this oaken temple to seek help from supernatural powers! Well, that's what the archeologists say, but who really knows? (Hawkes, Nigel; "Woodhenge Find Rivals Stone Circles," London Times, November ...
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... Lunar Landslide Lights Moonwatchers have reported light flashes, strange red glows, and mist-like patches emanating from certain lunar locales, particularly the huge craters Alphonso and Picard. Hundreds of such observations have accumulated since the Middle Ages. Modern more-systematic scrutiny indeed confirms that the moon is not such a dead place after all. (See ALF in The Moon and the Planets for much more on this fascinating subject.) Moonquakes, gaseous emissions, and even volcanic activity have been the favorite explanations of these TLPs (Transient Lunar Phenomena), but these are only surmises. The many close-up photos of the lunar surface taken in 1994 by the lunar satellite Clementine gave B. Buratti, K. Herkenhoff, and T. McConnochie the opportunity to search for geological common denominators connecting the sites where TLPs have been most frequent. The suspicious sites are characterized by bluish spectra that usually indicate unusually fresh deposits of lunar debris. Furthermore, these areas are usually found along the inside edges of large craters. Buratti et al opine that these are the sites of recent landslides that have cascaded off the crater edges. The dust and volatile gases released by these events might account for the observed luminous phenomena. (Cowen, Ron; "Explaining a Lunar Mystery," Science News, 150:314, 1996.) Reference. To order the book The Moon and the Planets (mentioned above), visit here . The lunar crater Gassendi on April 30 and May 1, 1966. The shaded areas mark the red glow observed on those dates by astronomers. From Science Frontiers # ...
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... Bohr Institute in Copenhagen compared it to the Kap York meteor that fell south of Thule, Greenland, in prehistoric times. Pieces of this iron meteorite aggregating 50 tons have been collected. (Sawyer, Kathy; "Fireball a Mystery till Thaw," Charlotte Observer, December 22, 1997. Cr. G. Fawcett via L. Farish.) Three additional large iron meteorites found on Disco Island, Greenland, in 1870. Weights: 20, 10 and 5 tons. Disco Island is about 600 miles south-east of Kap York. From Science Frontiers #116, MAR-APR 1998 . 1998-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 108: Nov-Dec 1996 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Deflating a paradigm: brazil's pedra furada The paradigm. The New World was peopled from Asia by migration across the Bering Land Bridge about 12,000 years ago, or perhaps a wee earlier. The Pedra Furada site has been dated at 50,000 BP by N. Guidon and her team of archeologists. This challenge to the dominant paradigm is powerful and unambiguous. Picking up the gauntlet, several more-conservative archeologists visited the Brazilian site and penned a blistering critique in Antiquity. (Ref. 1) Their major contention was that the 500+ supposedly human-made stone "artifacts" collected by Guidon's team are actually "geofacts"; that is, they were chipped and flaked naturally as rocks fell one upon the other from nearby cliffs. We discussed this problem in some detail in SF#105. Several other reservations about the Pedra Furada work are also offered in Ref. 1. The reaction of Guidon et al to the Antiquity paper was thunderous to say the least. It revealed the depth of the chasm separating archeologists on the date of human occupation of the New World as well as internecine politics in archeology. (Ref. 2) Guidon et al flung two serious charges at the authors of the first Antiquity paper: (1 ) They had their facts all wrong; and (2 ) Their objectivity was distorted by their loyalty to the aforestated paradigm. Not withholding any punches, ...
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... Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects A Bright Flying Object And Another Enigmatic Crater The curious event described in the following abstract is eerily like the fireball and suspicious "crater" mentioned in SF#110. In that incident, which occurred November 22, 1996, near the HondurasGuatemala border, there was also a detonation. "On the early morning of 1994 January 18, a very bright luminous object crossed the sky of Santiago de Compostela, Spain. From visual sightings, it is concluded that the object wasn't a meteoric fireball (bolide). A surface "crater" in Cando (close to Santiago) with dimensions 29 x 13 m and 1.5 m deep was later discovered within 1 km of the projected "impact" point of the luminous object. At this site, in addition to the topsoil, full-grown pine trees greater than 20 m high were thrown downhill over a nearby road, leaving the downslope edge of the "crater" untouched and with a steep interior wall (this would not be the case if a regular landslide were responsible for the transport). Standing trees below the "crater" showed embedded soil and plant residues up to heights greater than 3 m. No strange materials (meteorites or artifacts) were recovered in or close to the "crater"; all materials belonged to the site and were not shocked; thus an impact is very improbable. "A possible explanation capable of reconciling all of the observations is presented. It hypothesizes an eruption of earth gases to create the crater, with the rising gas plume then ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 112: Jul-Aug 1997 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects We've Known It All Along!An archeologist really risks his or her reputation if he or she suggests that the Americas were peopled before 12,000 years ago. At least that's the way it was until early 1997, when a select "jury" of a dozen skeptical archeologists visited the Monte Verde site in southern Chile. There, T. Dillehay, made his case for a culture that preceded North America's Clovis culture by at least 1,000 years. Monte Verde artifacts go back at least to 12,500 years before the present. The Monte Verde tour, backed by two very detailed reports, convinced some of the most obstinate skeptics. The "jury" was "in," and the Clovis culture was "out," at least as being the first New World culture. Naturally, some still-skeptical archeologists bristled at the suggestion that a "jury" could decide for them. [But isn't that the way science always works?] Regardless, the once formidable 12,000year barrier now seems to have been officially breached. The Monte Verde dates imply either: The Bering land bridge, thousands of miles to the north, was crossed a few millennia before 12,500 BP, or The Monte Verde people arrived by some other route, perhaps by ship! (Wilford, John Noble; "Human Presence in Americas Is Pushed Back a Millennium, ...
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... F . McHone located four likely structures in Laos from Landsat images. However, visits to these areas found no evidence of an impact. (Ref. 2) So, this mystery persists. How were the Muong Nong tektites formed? Muong Nong tektites are unusually large (up to 24 kilograms), layered tektites. They are found in an area 1,000 kilometers in extent from Hainan Island to southern Indochina. Their large sizes imply that they are probably close to the missing crater mentioned above. Still unresolved is whether they were originally puddles of molten rock near the elusive crater or local ejecta analogous to volcanic bombs. (Ref. 1) Is the "age paradox" finally resolved? Some Australian geologists have stratigraphically dated the Australasian tektites as being just a few thousand rather than ... the Australasian strewn field are definitely 770,000 years old. (Ref. 3) References Ref. 1. Taylor, S.R .; "Tektites: Some Unresvolved Problems," Meteoritics and Planetary Science , 32:4 , 1997. Ref. 2. Schnetzler, C.C . and McHone, J.F .; "Source of Australasian Tektites: Investigating Possible Impact Sites in Laos," Meteoritics and Plane tary Science , 31:73, 1996. Ref. 3. Fudali, R.; "The Stratigraphic Age of Australites Revisited," Meteoritics, 28:114, 1993. Comment. Still puzzling is why so many Australasian tektites show up in recent sediments. One theory is that humans valued these glassy objects and did some anthropomorphic strewing. Dumbbell ...
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... organic molecules. Now, M.H . Engel and S.A . Macko have refined the analytical techniques and apparently avoided any taint of contamination. Their conclusion: the Murchison amino acids still lean to the left. From all this arise several intriguing possibilities: Life on earth started split evenly between left- and right-handed amino acids, but was nudged to the left by the influx of organic-laden meteorites like the Murchison. Terrestrial life actually originated elsewhere in the universe where much matter is left-handed, including life, if it exists there. In other words, our philosophical expectation of symmetry in the universe-as-a -whole is incorrect. The universe on the average is evenly split between left- and right-handed molecules, but there are "islands" or "pockets" which are left- or right-handed. Earth life is one of these "islands." Given the chance, amino acids and other organic molecules would exist evenly split, but physical phenomena, such as circularly polarized light, tip the scales -- to the left, in the case of terrestrial life. But that would mean that some physical phenomena are not symmetrical! (Engel, M.H ., and Macko, S.A .; "Isotopic Evidence for Extraterrestrial Nonracemic Amino Acids in the Murchison Meteorite," Nature, 389:265, 1997. Also: Chyba, Christopher F.; "A Left-Handed Solar System," Nature, 389:234, 1997.) Comment. The references above state that terrestrial ...
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... . Of the twenty-seven figures, ten are birds, three are whales, and two are seaweed plants. Theodolite measurements revealed a non-random distribution of the directions of lines attached to look-alike figures. The second test showed a physical relationship of present-day Andean plant and animal figures imagined as silhouettes in dark spots along the Milky Way to figure-lines pointing to the rising and/or setting of the same Andean figure 2000 years ago. In the third test, all other lines extending to the desert horizon from a figure center keyed into dark spots and bright stars along the Milky Way at the same Local Sidereal Time in the same year. Finally, the directions of the long axis of each quadrangle related to the same sky in the same year at each site. Linking these findings with what is known about the Nazca culture, an agricultural-ceremonial model is presented describing how this site may have been used." (Pitluga, Phyllis Burton; The Explorer, 12:1 , Summer 1996. The Explorer is a newsletter published by the Society for Scientific Exploration. Address: P.O . Box 5848, Stanford, CA 94309-5848.) Comment. Probably the best-known terrestrial Zodiac is that alleged to be composed of natural and artificial land forms in the vicinity of Glastonbury, England. See also SF#104 for the "Pit Zodiacs" said to be arrayed in the environs of Muggenberg, Netherlands. From Science Frontiers #110, MAR-APR 1997 . 1997-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 115: Jan-Feb 1998 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Addenda And Emenda Circles of contention (SF#110). As pre-dicted, the well-publicized dates of 116,000 and 176,000 years BP for artifacts found at the Jinmium site in Australia's Northern Territory are being subjected to extreme scrutiny. Thermoluminescence (TL) dating was used in estimating these dates, but TL-dating is in its infancy and full of pitfalls. Geochronologist R. Roberts has looked at the Jinmium data and ventures that the artifacts may be only 10,000 years old. However, he approves of TL dates of 50,000-60,000 years for two rock shelters elsewhere in the Northern Territory. (Gibbons, Ann; "Doubts over Spectacular Dates," Science, 278:219, 1997.) Triangular holes in boulders (SF#113). These puzzling holes may actually be left behind when tourmaline crystals are weathered out of the boulders. (Saul, J.M .; personal communication. November 1, 1997.) Standing stones in North Carolina? SF#114). Grandfather Mountain (5964 feet) is surpassed in height by over a dozen other peaks east of the Mississippi: Mount Washington (6288 feet); Clingmans Dome (6642 feet); etc. Oh well, at least some people are reading this newsletter carefully! (Rice, Charles M.; personal communication, November 1997.) About as anomalous ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 117: May-June 1998 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Hard Facts At Cahokia Monk's Mound, the largest mound at the Cahokia Mounds State Historical Site, in Illinois, is not what it seems. Superficially, it is a terraced earthen mound 100 feet high and more than three football fields long. What we now see of the mound was apparently constructed between 900 and 1200 AD. The prevailing dogma has long been that the Indians who built Cahokia worked only with earth, never with stone. Indeed, suitable stone is scarce in the area. On January 24, 1998, while drilling to construct a water drainage system at Monk's Mound, workers hit stone -- at least 32 feet of it -- perhaps a region of cobbles or slabs of rock. This region of stone, of undetermined geometry, is located 40 feet below one of the terrace surfaces, but still well above the base of the mound. The stones could well be an artificial structure of some sort. The discovery challenges the current thinking about the culture that built Cahokia. Only further research will reveal the extent and configuration of the stony region and where the stones may have come from. An editorial in the March 14, 1998, St. Louis Post-Dispatch put the Cahokia discovery in the larger context: New World archeology is in flux. Humans occupied the Americas long before 12,000 BP, and some of them may have been Caucasian (e .g ., ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 118: Jul-Aug 1998 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Astounding Undersea Structure Near Okinawa "A structure thought to be the world's oldest building, nearly twice the age of the great pyramids of Egypt, has been discovered. The rectangular stone ziggurat under the sea off the coast of Japan could be the first evidence of a previously unknown Stone Age civilization, say archeologists." Wow! Is this true? This so-called "structure" is 600 feet long and 90 feet high. Said to be about 10,000 years old, it obviously predates the edifices of the ancient Egyptians and Babylonians. The "structure" is now under about 75 feet of ocean near a small island named Yonaguni southwest of Okinawa. During the Ice Ages, it would have been exposed, just like the Bering Land Bridge to the north. Of course, the crucial question is: Is it really artificial? R. Schoch, the Boston University geologist who vouches that the Sphinx is also about 10,000 years old (SF#79), described the "structure" as a series of huge steps about 1 meter high. Schoch is impressed by the regularity of the steps, but does not discount a natural origin. A photo taken by divers does reveal a remarkably regular, stepped surface, but nature can be very methodical on occasion. Adding to the artificiality of the "structure" is the claim that a "road" encloses it. (Barot, Trushar; ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 118: Jul-Aug 1998 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Paradigm Assaults From Way Down Under A lengthy article in an Auckland newspaper demonstrates that archeological revisionism is alive and well in New Zealand. We select just three of the more controversy-provoking topics. G. Cook, assisted by a few likeminded compatriots, has been exploring the Waipoua Forest in Northland. Here, he claims, is a treasure trove of pre-Maori stone structures. In a 242-hectare area, he has found 16 sites encompassing nearly 2,000 enigmatic stone structures. Interestingly, the New Zealand government has made a three-year survey of the area and has embargoed release of their report until 2063! (Official coverups are also found in archeology.) B. Brailsford, of Kaimanawa Wall fame (SF#107), now asserts that the Maoris were preceded by the Waitaha -- a claim echoed by others. But Brailsford goes a step further by stating that the Waitaha really comprised three disparate groups of people: (a ) the Moriori, who were of giant stature and superb gardeners; (b ) the Urukehu, a fair-skinned group known also as Starwalkers for their knowledge of the heavens; and (c ) the Kiritea or Stone People from Asia. Finally, stated sans reference, is the fact that in 1996 rock carvings 14,000 years old were found along a 49-kilometer stretch of the Amazon. (Paterson, Kimberly; "Pushing History Back beyond ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 120: Nov-Dec 1998 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Pyramid stones not "cementitious"In SF#119, we followed the item on artificial basalt with a comment about J. Davidovits' claim that the stone blocks of the Giza pyramids are actually made from a limey cement and poured on-site. No long-distance hauling and lifting into place required! We have since found (serendipitously) an authoritative refutation of Davidovits' claim. K.D . Ingram et al analyzed stone samples from the Giza pyramids using scanning electron microscopy, electron diffraction by X-rays, powder X-ray diffraction, inductive coupled plasmography, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, and other techniques. Their conclusion: ". .. the pyramids are made of limestone and are not cementitious in nature." (Ingram, Kevin D., et al; "The Pyramids -- Cement or Stone?" Journal of Archaeo logical Science, 20:681, 1993.) From Science Frontiers #120, NOV-DEC 1998 . 1998-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 109: Jan-Feb 1997 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Greenwich Late Time When J. Brink recently visited the Old Greenwich Observatory, in England, he saw a flag hanging on the building giving the longitude of the site, which by definition is 0 0' 0". The flag also announced that: "The Next Millennium Starts Here." Why is this in error? Answer below. (Brink, Johan; "Greenwich Late Time," New Scientist, p. 59, October 19, 1996) LONGITUDE FAUX PAS The next millennium (the year 2001 or 2000, depending upon your mind-set) really begins where all days begin: at the International Date Line, longitude 180 . From Science Frontiers #109, JAN-FEB 1997 . 1997-2000 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 http://www.aros.net/angio/pistuff/piquery At this Web site you can enter your Social Security Number (or telephone number, etc.) and discover if it appears among the first 1.25 million digits of pi. Perhaps when God was designing the Universe and was contemplating what the value of pi should be, he put your number somewhere in this transcendental number! (Anonymous; New Scientist, p. 64, January 4, 1997.) Comment. Of course, pi has as many digits as you care to compute (at least we think it does!) If your number is not among the first 1.25 million digits, it will certainly appear somewhere later. It's just that you are not first in line! From Science Frontiers #110, MAR-APR 1997 . 1997-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 111: May-Jun 1997 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Ancient Entertainments Neanderthal musicmakers, The Neanderthals have long been portrayed as insensitive and brutish. But when the remains of flowers were found at Shanidar, a Neanderthal grave site in Iraq, archeologists mellowed a bit in their assessments. Now, there is evidence that those supposed lowbrows were also musicians. In 1996, in a Slovenian cave, researchers discovered a flute crafted from the thigh bone of a cave bear. Stone tools of Neanderthal manufacture were found nearby. The flute is dated between 43,000 and 82,000 years old and is the oldest-known, deliberately manufactured musical instrument ever found. (Folger, Tim, and Menon, Shanti; "Strong Bones, and Thus Dim-Witted? Or Much Like Us?" Discover, 18:32, January 1997.) Really stale chewing gum! The journal Nature recently printed the photograph of a tooth-marked wad of chewing gum said to be 6,500 years old. This particular wad came from a Swedish bog, but similar wads have been found all over Northern Europe. Not having access to South American chicle, ancient confectioners made the gum from birch bark. Birch bark was also the source of the tar primitive humans used for gluing and waterproofing. E. Aveling, University of Bradford, has concocted a fresh batch of birchbark gum for a taste test. (No one volunteered to try the "old" stuff!) She reported that ...
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... it is not a striking and distinguished face. It is absolutely different from the heads of modern Aborigines. The worn edges of the cameo, where it joined the rock-surface, seemed to mark a long interval since it was carved; the difficulty of carving it where it stood must have been immense -- unless, indeed, the rock face had been near the ground at the time, and the ground had worn away since -- which, again, would probably imply antiquity. "What a problem this Caucasian face presents! Is it that of some stranger from Europe long ago -- perhaps before the Portugese or Spanish visitors of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries? In all probability European ships traversed the Pacific before the days of Balboa; for Greek columns are found in an island of the South Seas; and the prevalence of small-pox among the Australians when we first settled there is said -- with what truth I must leave pathologists to decide -- to postulate previous residence of Europeans amongst them." (Thornton, S.; "Problems of Aboriginal Art in Australia," Victoria Institute, Journal of the Transactions, 30:205, 1897.) From Science Frontiers #121, JAN-FEB 1999 . 1999-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... 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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... of In Situ Methane Quantities in a Large Gas-Hydrate Reservoir," Nature, 385:426, 1997. Also: MacDonald, Ian R.; "Bottom Line for Hydrocarbons," Nature, 385:389, 1997.) Comment. Methane is well-known as a "greenhouse gas." If really large "burps" were released, climatic changes would probably ensue. Unfortunately, gashydrates are rather unstable. What would happen if a large asteroid slammed into the Blake Ridge? Huge quantities of methane would disgorge into the earth's atmosphere. The climate changes might be disastrous for fauna (like the dinosaurs!) and flora. The heavily shaded area of the Blake Ridge (area = 26,000 km2) contains gas-hydrates and free gas. Drill sites 995 and 997 are also indicated. From Science Frontiers #111, MAY-JUN 1997 . 1997-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... One clue is the presence of glauconite in the sandstone. Glauconite is common in marine rocks, so suspicion points toward the Gulf of Mexico. Geologist G. Patterson, University of Memphis, thinks that the huge chunks of sandstone came from coastal Louisiana and were carried some 650 kilometers (400 miles) inland by the giant tsunami raised by the asteroid or comet that smashed into the Yucatan to close out the Cretaceous. That, of course, was when the dinosaurs were forced into oblivion. But could the tsunami really have transported such huge rocks 650 kilometers? (Falk, Dan; "Washed Up," New Scientist, p. 26, November 7, 1998.) Comments. Tsunami debris from the end-Cretaceous impact has been found along the Gulf Coast and on some Caribbean islands. In northeastern Mexico, geologists have found a debris layer 3-meters thick that is also of the right age. This layer contains tektites, glass spheres, plant material, and an iridium anomaly. (SF#85) However, these debris deposits can hardly compare to the far-inland Arkansas sandstone chunks. From Science Frontiers #121, JAN-FEB 1999 . 1999-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Slabs of this artificial rock -- flat and smooth on one side from the molds -- are abundant. In fact, some 100 cubic meters of the material have been found. (Stone, E.C ., et al; "From Shifting Silt to Solid Stone: The Manufacture of Synthetic Basalt in Ancient Mesopotamia," Science, 280:2091, 1998. Also: Bower, B.; "Ancient Mesopotamians Made Rock from Silt," Science News, 153:407, 1998.) Comments. In the light of the Mesopotamian's success in making artificial stone, perhaps we should reconsider Davidovits' claim that the ancient Egyptians cast some of the blocks they used to build the pyramids. In other words, they, too, made artificial stone at the sites of the pyramids. (SF#34 and SF#54) We can't resist remarking that the first-author's name jibes with the subject at hand. A variety of "nominative determinism"? From Science Frontiers #119, SEP-OCT 1998 . 1998-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... This is not a hoax! Melanoma sniffing. In 1989, the Lancet , a respected British medical journal, published an article relating how a female dog, half border collie, half doberman, sniffed out a spot of melanoma on a woman. In fact, the dog ignored all of the other moles on the woman and even tried to bite off the melanoma. Melanoma is the most dreaded form of skin cancer, so this bizarre report stimulated A. Cognetta, an American dermotologist, to try an experiment. First, another dog, named George, was trained to find tubes containing melanoma samples, which he did correctly 99% of the time. Next, a human with active melanoma was enlisted. Several bandages were placed on the subject's body including one over the melanoma site. Once again, George was almost 100% accurate in his diagnosis. Subsequently, George successfully identified malignancies on other patients. (Walker, Kenneth; "George the Dog Helps Take a Bite out of Skin Cancer," Chicago Sun-Times , September 6, 1998. Cr. J. Cieciel.) Seizure sniffing. An English woman subject to epileptic seizures never goes anywhere without her dog Rupert. Rupert has a nose for the odor that precedes epileptic seizures in humans. He barks about 40 minutes before the actual seizure, giving the woman a chance to get to a safe place. Of course, Rupert barks at other things, too, but his seizure bark is noticeably different. (Walker, Kenneth; "Mutt Gives Epileptic Advance Warning on Seizures," Chicago ...
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... area observed a red-andyellow fireball moving east-to-west. The bolide's passing was marked by a loud detonation. From this information, one would bet heavily that this was simply a routine meteor detonation caused by the heat generated during entry into the atmosphere. The next morning, however, people discovered a landslide covering several acres on the slopes of Cerro Negro, a mountain 14 kilometers from San Luis. Did the meteor slam into the mountain overnight? So far, investigators have not been able to decide whether the landslide is just gravity-slumping on the slope or a disturbance created by the night's meteor. One observer believes he can see traces of a crater some 50 meters wide. Experts from the U.S . and Canada plan to examine the site in detail. (Anonymous; "A Hit in Honduras?" Sky and Telescope, 93:12, March 1997.) From Science Frontiers #110, MAR-APR 1997 . 1997-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... 1997.) Once we learn how to measure neutrinos really well, we can start looking for intelligent signals impressed upon them by advanced extraterrestrial civilizations. W. Simmons and colleagues at the University of Hawaii at Manoa point out that neutrinos are much better than electromagnetic waves for galaxy-wide communication. They are not blocked by dust nor are they smeared out by ionized gas. Any civilization clever enough to colonize the entire galaxy would want to send out neutrino signals if only to keep clocks in far-flung star systems synchronized. Simmons et al calculate that a neutrino detector containing a cubic kilometer of seawater could probably detect neutrino signals from artificial sources located within 3,000 light years of earth. A detector that might be able to do this is being installed in the ocean off the Hawaiian Islands. Naturally, it has an acronym: DUMAND = Deep Underwater Muon and Neutrino Detector. (Chown, Marcus; "Do ETs Phone Home with Neutrinos?" New Scientist, p. 19, December 3, 1994.) Reference. The problem of the missing solar neutrinos is discussed at length in Section ASF3 in our Catalog The Sun and Solar System Debris. For ordering information, visit here . From Science Frontiers #112, JUL-AUG 1997 . 1997-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Subjects More Bones That Don't Belong More anomalous than Kennewick Man (that 9,300-year-old skeleton from Washington with Caucasian features (SF#109), is a skull from Brazil dubbed Luzia. Luzia was a female, aged 20-25, who lived near Belo Horizonte in southeastern Brazil. Luzia's skull and other artifacts came from a campsite carbon-dated by labs in Brazil and France as being about 11,500 years old. This makes Luzia the oldest skeleton ever found in the Americas -- assuming this whole story hangs together. The 11,500-year date is impressive enough, but anthropologist W. Neves, University of Sao Paulo, asserts that Luzia's skull and teeth are not Mongoloid but really characteristic of the South Sea islanders. Such observations agree with the studies of skeletal material by J. Powell, University of New Mexico. Powell has concluded that the oldest settlers of the New World probably did not trek across the Bering Land Bridge from Asia but came from elsewhere. (Borden, Keefe; "Skull Find Redefines American Ancestry," Austin American Statesman , May 24, 1998. (Cr. D. Phelps) From Science Frontiers #118, JUL-AUG 1998 . 1998-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... 335, 1996. Ref. 2. Perlman, David; "Origin of Animals -- 1.2 Billion Years Ago," San Francisco Chronicle, October 25, 1996. Cr. J. Covey. Ref. 3. Wray, Gregory A., et al; "Molecular Evidence for Deep Precambrian Divergences among Metazoan Phyla," Science, 274:568, 1996. Homology vs. DNA. Until the molecular biologists recently arrived on the scene, evolutionary family trees were based upon similarities in appearance; that is, homology. Animals that look alike must be closely related. But molecular biologists have discovered that some animals that seem identical to the eye differ significantly in their DNA complements. Thus, the Pacific skinks may undermine homology. Inhabiting many, far-separated Pacific islands, these small lizards all look pretty much alike externally. For many years, biologists assumed that they all belonged to the same species. Recently, scalpels in hand, they found that the skink innards differed enough to define two species: Emioa cyanura and Emioa impar . Next, the molecular biologists got into the act. They discovered that the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) of the Guam and Kosrae skinks differed by an amazing 6%, even though both skinks were E. cyanura . Even worse, the Vanuatu skink ( E. impar ) differed from all other E. impar skinks around the Pacific by an astounding 13%. Yet, to the eye, they all looked alike. So much for homology -- unless there is something basically wrong with molecular biology. Biologists now ...
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... for 5.5 million years. Air does leak in through tiny cracks, and water partially fills the cave. What is most remarkable in this sunless, sealed ecosystem is its biodiversity: 48 animal species, including 33 brand-new species. The roster includes isopods, a millipede, a centipede, a water scorpion, and a leech. Of course, bacteria and fungi thrive there, too. In contrast to unsealed caves, where insects, bats, and other sources of food filter in from the surface, life in the Romanian cave seems to derive entirely from hydrogen sulfide present in the cave's rocks. This compound is consumed by microorganisms, which are then grazed by cave occupants higher up the food chain. A NASA scientist has called Movile cave a "Mars analog site." And indeed it might be, for Mars has plenty of rocks and subsurface water. (Skinrud, E.; "Romanian Cave Contains Novel Ecosystem," Science News, 149: 405, 1996) Comments. Fluid-filled cracks and pores extend miles down below the earth's surface. It would be surprising if novel ecosystems do not exist there, too. The ice-sealed Antarctic lakes (see next item under GEOLOGY) may also surprise biologists. As for outer space -- a realm pulsing with energies of many kinds -- we can imagine that matter has assumed many unfamiliar forms, some of which we might call "life." From Science Frontiers #107, SEP-OCT 1996 . 1996-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 113: Sep-Oct 1997 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Where do all good deleted data go?It takes just a touch of a button to consign once-valued words and figures to virtual oblivion. If you think this is cruel and heartless, a Buddhist monk in Japan has established a virtual Information Temple. S. Ishiko, the chief priest, will take applications to have memorial services performed for not only deleted data (whether intentional or not) but also "lost" data. He also offers spiritual counseling at his Internet site: http://www.thezen.or.jp (Anonymous; "Feedback," New Scientist, p. 104, June 7, 1997.) From Science Frontiers #113, SEP-OCT 1997 . 1997-2000 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 Mysterious Terras Pretas Most of the lush jungles of tropical South America grow on a very thin layer of soil that is continuously regenerated by decaying vegetation. Deforest the jungle and the agricultural potential is about that of a your nearest Interstate highway. But the so-called "terras pretas" are curious exceptions. Spotted along Brazil's Aripuana River are small areas of deep, black earth that are from 7 to 17 feet deep. These are the "terras pretas" or "black earths." Scientists believe that these fabulously productive "islands" in the sea of otherwise poor soil were developed by native peoples about 10,000 years ago. No one knows how these ancient farmers made the terras pretas. The slash-and-burn farming of the present inhabitants is primitive in comparison. (Anonymous; "Fertile Soil of Ancient Tribes Poses Puzzle," Columbus Dispatch , January 11, 1998. (Cr. J. Fry via COUD-I ) From Science Frontiers #118, JUL-AUG 1998 . 1998-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 99: May-Jun 1995 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects 90-DAY SEA-LEVEL OSCILLATION AT WAKE ISLAND Most North Americans are familiar with rather powerful diurnal tides. The oceans, however, also move in ponderous cycles that beachcombers can never appreciate. Thanks to data from Geosat's precision altimeter, geophysicists can now discern some of these long-period moving patterns on the oceans' surfaces. "Energetic 90-day oscillations of sea levels have been intermittently observed at Wake Island in the western tropical Pacific during the past 2 decades. The oscillations tend to occur about 1.5 years after El NinoSouthern Oscillation events, to have amplitudes of 10-15 cm, and to persist for about 1 year. Sea-surface heights from the Geosat altimeter are used to establish that these signals take the form of Rossby waves and have an energy source near the Big Island of Hawaii, which lies 40 of longitude to the east. Sea-level and upper-layer currents from an eddy-resolving numerical model are examined and suggest that the energy source is eddies generated off the Big Island of Hawaii. These eddies appear to be associated with westward currents that intermittently impinge on the island." (Mitchum, Gary T.; "The Source of 90-Day Oscillations at Wake Island," Journal of Geophysical Research, 100:2459, 1995.) Comment. Such eddies would have to persist for long periods to survive the long trip to Wake Island some 2500 miles ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 102: Nov-Dec 1995 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Ancient acoustical engineering In SF#86/43*, we reviewed R. Waller's acoustical measurements at ancient rock-art sites in Europe, North America, and Australia. Waller claimed that some rock art was intentionally placed where echos from the walls are not only exceptionally loud but are also qualitatively related to the art's subject matter, such as running hoofed animals. The Newgrange chamber, with acoustical nodes and antinodes. Antinode occur at the chamber's stone walls. In a similar venture, R.G . Jahn et al have taken sound generators and meters into the chambers of six ancient structures and measured their acoustical properties. The sites selected were: Wayland's Smithy, Chun Quoit, and Cairn Euny, all in the U.K .; Newgrange, and Cairns L and I, Carbane West, all in Ireland. All of these sites date back to about 3,500 BC. The chambers were all bounded by roughly hewn stones, but they had very different configurations. Newgrange was cruciform (see sketch); others were rectangular, beehive, and petalshaped. Quoting the abstract from the Princeton report, here is what the acoustical surveys found: "Rudimentary acoustical measurements performed inside six diverse Neolithic and Iron Age structures revealed that each sustained a strong resonance at a frequency between 95 and 120 Hz (wavelength about 3m). Despite major differences in chamber shapes and sizes, the ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 102: Nov-Dec 1995 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Remnants of tunguska When something exploded over Siberia on June 30, 1908, flattening more than 2,100 square kilometers of forest, it left no crater of consequence and no obvious pieces of itself. Scientists have claimed all along that it was a comet or asteroid that detonated in the atmosphere. A few less conservative people ventured that it was an alien spaceship that blew up! G. Longo and colleagues, Universita di Bologna, have apparently found a way to determine the true nature of this invading object. They examined the resin in the conifers surrounding the site of the blast to see if any particulate debris had been trapped in the sticky goo -- much as ancient insects have been preserved in amber. "Longo and associates used a scanning electron microscope to examine 7,163 particles recovered from the site and from two control sites. They found anomalously high abundances of elements such as iron, calcium, aluminum, copper, gold, zinc, and oxygen in the Tunguska-site samples, strongly peaking around 1908." Their conclusion: The impactor was a stony meteorite of normal density. (Anonymous; "Remnants of Tunguska," Astronomy, 23:26, October 1995.) From Science Frontiers #102 Nov-Dec 1995 . 1995-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 99: May-Jun 1995 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Inscribed Bricks Of Comalcalco Comalcalco is a Mayan site in Tabasco, southeastern Mexico. It is unusual as Mayan sites go because its 375 structures, including a large stepped pyramid, incorporate millions of fired bricks. Many of said bricks, when separated from their mortar, display various symbols as well as their makers' fingerprints. N. Steede collected a "small" sample of these bricks (4612 bricks weighing in at 21 tons) and photographed the inscriptions that decorated some 1,500 of them. Many bear what are interpreted as "masons' signs". These turn out to be virtually identical to those found on Roman bricks in the Old World. Conclusion: "The illustrated bricks of Comalcalco are pieces to a grand puzzle, whose completed, final image may reveal a Roman Christian presence in the Americas a thousand years before the arrival of Columbus." (Ref. 1) Some typical mason's signs found on Roman bricks (left) and Comalcalco bricks (right). Many additional similarities are found between mason's signs from Comalcalco and those from Roman, Minoan, and ancient Greek sites. See Ref. 2. References 1. Steede. Neil; "The Bricks of Comalcalco," Ancient American, 1:8 , September/October 1994. 2. Fell, Barry; "The Comalcalco Bricks: Part 1, the Roman Phase," Occasional Papers, Epigraphic Society , 19 ...
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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 Emf fertilizer?In 1986, the U.S . Navy began operating a 90-kilometer-long radio antenna stretching pole-to-pole through a Michigan forest. Broadcasting at only 76 hertz, this long antenna can communicate effectively with submerged submarines. Although the antenna produces electromagnetic fields about the same as those from a large household appliance, some of the trees adjacent to the antenna have enjoyed an unexpected spurt in growth, according to D. Reed and G. Mroz of the Michigan Technological University. "The researchers have been gathering data on the growth of trees since 1985, making measurements at two sites, one near the antenna and the other 50 kilometers away. The results seem to suggest that the electromagnetic field has a subtle influence on the forest. They found that two species of trees, northern red oak and paper birch, do not seem to be influenced by the antenna at all. But red pines near the antenna grew taller than red pines at the distant site, while aspen and red maple grew thicker than their counterparts further off." (Kiernan, Vincent; "Forest Grows Tall on Radio Waves," New Scientist, p. 5, January 14, 1995) Trees are not the only plants affected. Algae in the upper Ford River, where the field is only 10% as strong as that near the antenna, increased chlorophyll production sharply after the antenna started operation. The cause ...
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... weather changes and, especially, earthquakes. A famous example of the latter seichedriving force occurred on March 27, 1964, when the Great Alaskan Earthquake sent seismic waves rippling around the globe. Fourteen minutes after this quake, the tremors reached the U.S . Gulf coast and triggered numerous seiches in bays, harbors, canals, bayous, etc. Some crest-to-trough waterlevel oscillations reached 2 meters in amplitude. Startling though these seiches were to Gulf fishermen, most seiches are wellexplained. Bodies of water that are mostly enclosed have natural frequencies of oscillation or "sloshing," just as do coffee cups and bathtubs. The Alaskan quake just operated on a larger scale than a bump to your coffee cup! Short-period oscillations in the tidal record from Puerto Princesa, Palawan Island, Philippines. These are coastal seiches, but hardly "death waves"! So far, so good. But there are exists an interesting -- and sometimes dangerous -- class of related events that affects open coastal waters. The Irish call them "death waves." In the Baltic, they are "seebars;" in the Azores, "lavadiads." Whatever their name, they are large, tsunamilike waves that suddenly enter coastal waters and which cannot be assigned to any known triggering force. The frequency of occurrence of these "coastal seiches" may be a clue to their source. For example, off the Puerto Rican island of Magueyes, coastal seiches are most common about 7 days after new and full moons, suggesting a tidal influence. Oceanographers G.S ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 101: Sep-Oct 1995 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The giant landslides of hawaii The island of Hawaii. The offshore stipled areas show the major submarine landslides. Application of the distance scale proves their immense areal extents. Depth contours are in kilometers! The heavy dashed line marks the axis of the Hawaiian Deep. Most landslides are not anomalous, but some of those that occurred on the flanks of the Hawaiian Islands are so immense that anomalists should at least take note of them. J. Moore et al have been mapping and sampling huge blocks of rock that slid off the sides of Mauna Loa in the socalled South Kona landslide. These blocks of lava and basalt are truly giants. One was measured at 10 kilometers in length, 300 meters in thickness. Some of these colossal chunks of rock slid 80 kilometers (50 miles) out to sea during the late Pleistocene. Imagine the tsunami (tidal wave) this landslide must have generated! (Moore, James G., et al; "Giant Blocks in the South Kona Landslide, Hawaii," Geology, 23:125, 1995.) Comment. The South Kona landslide, or one like it, and the resulting tsunami might account for the curious distribution of sand dunes along the coast of New South Wales, Australia. See Science Frontiers #85. From Science Frontiers #101 Sep-Oct 1995 . 1995-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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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 That little "roman" head from precolumbian mexico The miniature clay head illustrated below was discovered in 1933 in a burial offering in the archeological zone of Tecaxic-Calixtlahuaja, Mexico. The burial has been dated as from the 12th-13th centuries AD. The features of this little head can hardly be described as typical of Precolumbian Mexicans. In fact, it is often termed a "Roman" head. But is it really? And how did it get into a Pre-columbian burial site? Theory #1 . Some Mexican archeologists insist it is a post-Columbian artifact that somehow "filtered" down into a Pre-columbian site. Given that the head was retrieved from beneath three floors of stone and Indian cement, this theory seems questionable. Theory #2 . The head is truly of Roman origin and was transported to Precolum-bian Mexico from Southeast Asia by Chinese or Hindu voyagers. Theory 3. The author of the present article, R.H . Hristov, favors a Viking origin. The cap on the head and even the physiognomy have Norse overtones. The chronology is right, too, for the Vikings were exploring North America's east coast in the 11th century. Did they venture as far south as Mexico? Hristov points out: "It is well known that in this area very significant political-cultural perturbations occurred among the autochthonous civilizations between the 10th and 13th centuries AD. These ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 103: Jan-Feb 1996 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects A Remarkable Mayan Suspension Bridge We tend to think Mayan engineering only in terms of those impressive pyramids at Tikal, Copan, and many other sites, but they were accomplished builders of roads and bridges, too. "Scientists working at the Mayan ceremonial center of Yaxchilan, Mexico, have discovered the remains of a sophisticated 600-foot-long suspension bridge built in the seventh century A.D . The bridge, which spanned the Usumacinta River, had massive concrete piers, a rope-cable suspension system anchored to stone mechanisms, towers, and a bed of hard wooden planks. It probably stood for 500 years above water 40 to 150 feet deep, with a steady current of 5 to 7 m.p .h ., which increases to 10 to 15 m.p .h . at flood stage. Civil engineer and archeologist Jame O'Kon says the bridge was the world's longest until 1377, when a larger one was built in Italy." (Anonymous; "Mayan Suspension Bridge," INFO Journal, no. 73, p. 44, Summer 1995. Source cited: Washington Times, February 26, 1995. INFO = International Fortean Organization) Comment. One wonders why such a talented society collapsed so suddenly! From Science Frontiers #103, JAN-FEB 1996 . 1996-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 99: May-Jun 1995 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology The inscribed bricks of comalcalco Ancient modern life and carbon dating Traces of the southern flotilla Astronomy Where have all the black holes gone? Ltps and ets Biology Curious brain asymmetries Did darwin get it all right? When scents make no sense Biological precursors of the 1995 kobe earthquake Geology Ballistic panspermia Geophysics Warning cars rolling uphill ahead 90-DAY SEA-LEVEL OSCILLATION AT WAKE ISLAND Luminous precursors of the 1995 kobe earthquake Psychology The untapped human mind Physics Why does spaghetti break into three pieces instead of two? ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 95: Sep-Oct 1994 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Blondes In Ancient China Authorities on ancient Chinese civilization have usually considered it to have been completely isolated from European influences for millennia -- a homegrown culture characterized by unique cultural and technological innovations. This classical picture of ancient China will have to be modified after the recent unearthing of mummified Caucasians up to 4,000 years old in China's northwestern province of Xinjiang. These dried corpses have the long noses, deep-set eyes, and long skulls typical of Caucasians. Some even have blonde hair! Some 113 such corpses have already been excavated at Qizilchoqa, one of four sites discovered so far. It is clear that we are dealing with permanent settlements and not merely a few lost Europeans. "Besides the riddle of their identity, there is also the question of what these fair-haired people were doing in a remote desert oasis. Probably never wealthy enough to own chariots, they nevertheless had wagons and well-tailored clothes. Were they mere goat and sheep farmers? Or did they profit from or even control prehistoric trade along the route that later became the Silk Road? If so, they probably helped spread the first wheels and certain metal-working skills into China." V. Mair, a professor of Chinese at the University of Pennsylvania, has been spearheading the research on these mummies for the U.S . He asserts that, contrary to the general belief, there was a substantial two- ...
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... felt this warmth come over me and all of a sudden I knew where the moon was. But you couldn't see the moon it was so black, and then I directed the canoe with all this total confidence at a time when I had already convinced myself prior to the voyage that I would have no confidence in knowing where to go. And I turned the canoe to this particular direction, got things lined up, felt very, very comfortable in this cold, wet, rough environment and then there was a break in the clouds and the moon was there." (Finney, Ben; "A Role for Magnetoreception in Human Navigation," Current Anthropology, 36:500, 1995.) Ancient Pacific navigators making the voyage from Hawaii to Tahiti (in the Society Islands) dreaded crossing the doldrums near the Equator. Hawaii (not shown) is north of Tahiti at about 20 N. SPCZ=South Pacific Convergence Zone. Map from Irwin G.,; The Prehistoric Exploration and Colonisation of the Pacific. (Available from the Sourcebook Project). Reference. Human directional and "magnetic" senses are covered in: Biological Anomalies: Humans I. See description of this book here . From Science Frontiers #101 Sep-Oct 1995 . 1995-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... to theorize on why he almost always ended up with three pieces each time he attempted to break a piece in two. Fortunately for science, O. and R. Nickalls have come up with an answer. "We can only assume that Feynman was not really trying, since when we investigated this profound and fundamental problem in our own kitchen laboratory, not only did we quickly establish the underlying mechanism, but we even went on to formulate the following general rule for linear spaghetti structures:- If a spaghetti stick is uniformly bent until it fractures and ejects a third piece, then the third piece is always ejected outwards from the convex side. "When the spaghetti fractures for the first time, the two remaining pieces then spring outwards, and providing there is a sufficiently weak potential fracture site on the opposite side a second fracture occurs, resulting in a third piece being ejected away from the initially convex side." (Nickalls, Oliver and Richard; "Linear Spaghetti," New Scientist, p. 52, 1995) Comment. We have omitted the mathematical analysis of this complex phenomenon because it involves tensor analysis! From Science Frontiers #99, MAY-JUN 1995 . 1995-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 103: Jan-Feb 1996 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects But what about the hawaiian volcanic chain?The classical, oft-repeated explanation for the formation of the Hawaiian chain of volcanic islands and submerged sea-mounts -- thousands of kilometers long -- is that the surface lithographic plate has been sliding over a fixed mantle plume. The heat brought to the surface via this plume has created the volcanic chain as the surface plate has drifted over it during the past 73-or-so million years. Obviously, this model is starkly contradicted by the fossil plume under South America (described above) that seems to have been firmly attached to the South American plate for 120 million years. No differential motion there! Now, from a different line of evidence, P.D . Ihinger is challenging the well-entrenched "Hawaiian-volcanic-chain" theory. For example, the Hawaiian volcanoes do not line up exactly. There are dozens of short, overlapping segments rather than a continuous trace across the Pacific basin. On the map, you will also see a sharp dog-leg in the trace. Further, the volcanoes Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea, only 40 kilometers apart, disgorge lavas that are distinctly different. Something is not right! Ihinger postulates a strong mantle current flowing ponderously under the Hawaiian chain, dissecting the rising plume of hot rock into small "plumelets". These discrete blobs of hot rock are dispersed by the current of semi-solid rock ...
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