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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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... 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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... 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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... of scent-laden urine. The world of kestrels -- eaters of voles -- is one of sight. Now, voles are hard to see in the grass far below a hunting kestrel, but evolution has come to the aid of the kestrels by giving them the capability to see in the ultra-violet portion of the spectrum. Can it be only coincidence that the urine trails of the voles happen to absorb ultra-violet light strongly? Kestrels can see these trails as dark streaks in the grass below and zero in on their prey. Finnish scientists, led by E. Korpimaki at the University of Turku, have demonstrated the above ultraviolet connection by somehow acquiring enough vole urine to lay out artificial trails in voleless areas. Sure enough, hunting kestrels were attracted to the experimental site and searched and searched the artificial vole highways -- volelessly. (Aldous, Peter; "Vole's Urine Is Their Downfall," New Scientist, p. 15, February 4, 1995. Gee, Henry; "In the Eye of the Kestrel," Nature, 373:387, 1995) Comment. Even as you read this, evolution is surely helping the voles by altering the ultraviolet signature of their urine! Sure, this is a bit facetious, but predator-prey relationships are always seesawing. We see this vividly in organisms with very short generation times, such as in antibiotic-resistant malaria. From Science Frontiers #99, MAY-JUN 1995 . 1995-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 52: Jul-Aug 1987 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Ship Enveloped By False Radar Echo August 1, 1985. Red Sea. Aboard the m.v . Botany Bay . "At 1800 a crescent-shaped trace of spurious echoes appeared about 15 n. miles ahead of the vessel. This gradually developed, in an encirculating manner, until, by 1845 the echoes had totally surrounded the vessel. (See sketch.) The effect looked like, or could be likened to a plan view of a black island with sandy beaches around its perimeter. The echoes were significant with strong contrast and could even have been mistaken for land on the radar. The effect could not be removed or diminished by changing range scales, motion modes, gain, tuning or perhaps most significantly, altering the pulse lengths. An identical effect was observed on the vessel's independent ARPA radar. The Master commented that although false echoes were invariably encountered in this region, he had not seen one such as this, which actually 'encapsulated' the vessel within the PPI of the radar. By 1935 the false echoes had dissipated into isolated batches splayed randomly across the screen." (Leslie, A.J .; "Radar Echoes," Marine Observer, 56:117, 1986.) Comment. In the Red Sea and Persian Gulf, similar false echoes are often associated with bioluminescent phenomenon. For details, see category GLW in our catalog: Lightning, Auroras. Ordering information here ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 52: Jul-Aug 1987 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The calico debate, plus a little editorializing Passions run higher in archeology than in most fields of scientific endeavor. Favored hypotheses mesmerize some, despite contradictory data and cogent arguments. In this respect, much science verges on religion. The foregoing "kernel of real truth" was occasioned by letters written to Science News in response to B. Bower's article on the probability of human artifacts -- as old as 100,000 years -- having been found at the Calico site in California. (See SF#51.) First, J.G . Duvall, III, attacked Bower's article, asserting that the human origin of the Calico "artifacts" had long ago been shown to be untenable. For a reference, he cited an article by himself and W.T . Venner in the Journal of Field Archaeology. Duvall's major point was that the Calico "tools" did not resemble proven Paleoindian tools. Responding to Duvall, G.F . Carter first pointed out that the Duvall-Venner paper was "almost instantly shown to be erroneous" by L.W . Patterson in the pages of the very same journal. As for the differences in artifacts, Carter asked why one should expect 12,000-year-old Paleoindian artifacts to look like 200,000-year-old artifacts from an entirely different culture. (Duvall, James G., III; " ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 51: May-Jun 1987 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Mite Pockets Of Lizards "Many lizards are infested by chig gers, the larvae of trombiculid mites, which feed on tissue fluid and cell debris. Surprisingly, lizards seem to go out of their way to attract the chiggers -- they have special mite pockets that provide a protected, warm and humid site. In many cases, the skin of the lizard also has smaller scales than normal and a good blood supply in the pocket, which enables the parasites to feed more readily." There does not seem to be any advantage to the lizards providing plush accommodations for the chiggers. The chiggers can wreak havoc on their hosts in the form of skin lesions, allergic reactions, secondary infections, and the transmission of diseases. Nevertheless, some 150 species in 5 distinct lizard families possess mite pockets, which are often located in different places in different lizard species. Apparently, the mite pockets evolved separately several times. But why? (Benton, Michael J.; "The Mite Pockets of Lizards," Nature, 325:391, 1987.) Comment. Why haven't the lizards evolved thicker skin or some sort of chemical defense instead of reducing their fitness with mite pockets? Or, are other factors operating? From Science Frontiers #51, MAY-JUN 1987 . 1987-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... -resolution detectors capable of monitoring large areas of the sky. Of course, the human eye is an excellent instrument for searching for optical bursters, but professional naked-eye astronomers are few and far between nowadays. It has fallen to amateur astronomers to pioneer this field, as first mentioned in SF#39, where we introduced those optical flashes seen in Perseus. At last, the professional astronomers are taking more interest in this class of bright, unexplained flashes in the night sky. Those amateur astronomers, with their "primitive" instrumentation, have actually had a paper published in the highly technical Astrophysical Journal. Their abstract follows: "Between 1984 July and 1985 July, 24 bright flashes were detected visually near the Aries-Perseus border by eight different observers at a total of 12 sites across Canada. One flash was photographed, and another was seen by two observers at different locations. Their duration was usually less than 1 s. The estimated positions of 20 of the events and another seen in 1983 were close enough in the sky to suggest a common celestial origin." The brightest of the flashes was of magnitude -1 and lasted about 0.25 second. (Katz, Bill, et al; "Optical Flashes in Perseus," Astrophysical Journal, 307: L33, 1986.) Comment. Hurray for Katz and the cooperating amateurs in the U.S . and Canada. One can wade through a 10foot pile of the Astrophysical Journal and not find another paper based on naked-eye astronomy. Does this mean that science is at last going to ...
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... 13 and, in effect, be drained of carbon-14. They would appear to age rapidly. Such false aging has actually been induced in the laboratory with mice fed on brewer's yeast grown in natural gas. These mice, living in cages at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, California, were carbon-dated as being 13,000 years old, and were expected to attain a ripe old age of 35,000 in a few months. (All this was part of a cancer-research project.) Of course, most carbon-dating in archeology is not endangered by the primordial-carbon problem. But, as K. Turteltaub, "father" of the Lazarus mice, commented: "We've joked about sprinkling them [the mice] around archeological sites just to confuse everyone." (Weisman, Jonathan; "Of Lazarus Mice and Carbon-14," Tri-Valley Herald , July 12, 1993. Cr. R. Berg) From Science Frontiers #99, MAY-JUN 1995 . 1995-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Moon cannot help but note that the maria contain very few large craters. The more experienced observer will take note of several apparent anomalies. Six magnificent post-mare craters are almost fortuitously located immediately adjacent to mare regions, these being Langrenus, Theophilus, Cavelerius, Aristoteles, Aristarchus, and Copernicus" The author of these observations then buttresses them with a statistical analysis, which indicates a strong, nonrandom distribution of all of these fresh craters. Apparently, the volcano-meteorite controversy is not completely settled after all these years. (Kitt, Michael T,; "Anomalous Distribution of Large, Fresh Lunar Craters," Strolling Astronomer, 31:22, 1985.) Comment. Some of the fresh craters on the mare borders, such as Aristarchus and Copernicus, are well-known sites of lunar transient phenomena. Could they be analogous to the terrestrial volcanos constituting the "ring of fire" around the Pacific Basin? From Science Frontiers #43, JAN-FEB 1986 . 1986-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... challenge is "naturally" accompanied by useful responses to challenges that have not yet been posed to the life form in question. This prescience verges on the miraculous to the uninitiated, but mainstream biologists seem content to write the phenomenon off as merely good fortune -- like hitting two jackpots in a row on the same slot machine. A good example of preadaptation occurs when bacteria are cultured in the presence of an antibiotic. Within a few weeks, they have evolved a resistance to that particular antibiotic. This well-known phenomenon is easily explained by evolution. However, often the newly evolved (or "adapted") bacteria are also resistant to several other antibiotics that work by different mechanisms. All of the multiple gene changes needed for the several different defense mechanisms are controlled by a single site on the same chromosome. (Levy, Stuart B.; The Antibiotic Paradox , New York, 1992, p. 99. Cr. A. Mebane.) Comments. How can bacteria prepare defenses against antibiotics they have not been exposed to? Luck, prescience, or some unrecognized mechanism? In his Ever Since Darwin , S.J . Gould acknowledges that "preadaptation implies prescience although in actuality it means just the opposite! His explanation of "preadaptation is not easy to grasp. "In short, the principle of preadaptation simply asserts that a structure can change its function radically without altering its form as much. We can bridge the limbo of intermediate stages by arguing for a retention of old functions while new ones are developing." From Science Frontiers #124, JUL ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 42: Nov-Dec 1985 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Remarkable Distribution Of Hydrothermal Vent Animals Hydrothermal vents support a bizarre array of large clams, mussels, worms and other curious species. These biological communities are unique in that they are supported not by solar energy but rather the earth's thermal energy. What verges on the anomalous is the appearance in both Atlantic and Pacific Oceans of very similar vent communities, with similar or identical species. How did these continent-separated communities originate ? In the words of the author of the present article, "The cooccurrence of a clam, a mussel, and a vestimentiferan worm at widely separated sites in the Pacific and Atlantic represents either an unusual distribution from a single lineage or, even more remarkably, cases of parallel evolution. " (Grassle, J. Frederick; "Hydrothermal Vent Animals: Distribution and Biology, " Science, 229:713, 1985.) From Science Frontiers #42, NOV-DEC 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 40: Jul-Aug 1985 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Galapagos Younger Than Thought Marine stratigraphy, radioactive dating, and paleontology all point to the relatively recent emergence and biological colonization of the Galapagos. These islands are no older than 3-4 million years. The unique terrestrial life forms had to develop in less time than this. (Hickman, Carole S., and Lipps, Jere H.; "Geologic Youth of Galapagos Confirmed by Marine Stratigraphy and Paleontology," Science, 227:1578, 1985.) Comments. Several remarks seem appropriate here: (1 ) The varied fauna and flora of the Galapagos did not evolve independently; viz., the bills of the Darwin finches are tailored to specific food sources (plants). Many species changed rapidly and in concert. (2 ) A recent Science article (228: 1187, 1985) notes that inbred mice often evolve different morphological characteristics very quickly. This observation probably applies to the initial Galapagos populations, which must have been small and inbred. (3 ) Harking back to the item on the Guadeloupe skeleton, the Galapagos display similar strata of limestone, beach rock, etc. Until now, the limestones had been dated from the Miocene to the Pleistocene, but according to Hickman and Lipps they must be much younger than Miocene. The Guadeloupe dates may also be in error. Caveat emptor. From Science Frontiers #40, JUL-AUG 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Still Another Mystery Cloud April 9, 1984. Western Pacific. The crews of three airliners en route from Tokyo to Anchorage observed a gigantic mushroom cloud about 180 miles east of Japan. The cloud was moving rapidly up and away from a cloud layer at 14,000 feet. It eventually reached a maximum altitude of about 60,000 feet, at which time its maximum diameter was about 200 miles. No fireball or flash was seen by anyone. A nuclear explosion, possibly on a submarine was suspected. One pilot issued a Mayday alert and ordered his crew to don oxygen masks. However, when an F-4 Phantom dispatched from Japan arrived at the scene, it detected no abnormal levels of radioactivity. Wake Island hydrophones, to the southeast, detected some submarine volcanic activity far south of the cloud, but no detonations in the area the cloud was spotted. The distance of the volcanic disturbances and the prevailing winds ruled out volcanic sources of smoke. In the absence of any hydrophonic evidence, the authors concluded that the mysterious cloud came either from a man-made atmospheric explosion (a huge one!) or some as yet unknown natural phenomenon. (Walker, Daniel A., et al; "Kaitoku Seamount and the Mystery Cloud of 9 April 1984," Science, 227:607, 1985.) From Science Frontiers #38, MAR-APR 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... and it may be found even deeper now that we've taken off the blinders. (Littler, Mark M., et al; "Deepest Known Planet Life Discovered on an Uncharted Seamount," Science, 227:57, 1985.) The second discovery came at 10,000 feet in the Gulf of Mexico. There, scientists in the submersible Alvin found a well-developed community of large clams, crabs, mussels, and tube worms, which closely resembles those around the Pacific hydrothermal vents. These life colonies do not use sunlight at all, nor do they depend on other life forms based on solar energy. They employ chemosynthesis, and the hydrogen sulfide and other substances in the vented waters replace sunlight. Although there are no obvious vents at the Gulf of Mexico site, the waters there contain plenty of hydrogen sulfide, indicating seepage from somewhere. The life forms are all new to science, although they resemble those in the Pacific. (Anonymous; "Worms without Vents," Oceans, 17:50, September/October 1984.) Comment. Question: how do non-mobile life forms travel the great distances from one vent or seepage locale to another? It seems as if we are just beginning to appreciate life's colonizing capabilities. Who knows what life forms subsist in the hot geothermal fluids circulating deep in the earth's crust? From Science Frontiers #38, MAR-APR 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... a dimming of the Sun and Moon are produced. Very dense and widespread dry fogs occur, on the average, once every few centuries. The sizes and intensities of some of the largest of them before the modern scientific era have been estimated by several indirect methods. The densest and most persistent dry fog on record was observed in Europe and the Middle East during AD 536 and 537. Despite the earliness of the date, there is sufficient detailed information to estimate the optical depth and mass of this remarkable stratospheric dust cloud. The importance of this cloud resides in the fact that its mass and its climatic consequences appear to exceed those of any other volcanic cloud observed during the past three millenia. Although the volcano responsible remains a mystery, a tropical location (perhaps the volcano Rabaul on the island of New Britain, Papua, New Guinea) can be tentatively inferred." (Stothers, R.B .; "Mystery Cloud of AD 536," Nature, 307:344, 1984.) Comment. Some of the "dry fogs" were accompanied by luminous nights, as in 1821 and 1831. See GWD4 in Tornados, Dark Days, Anomalous Precipitation. This Catalog volume is described here . From Science Frontiers #33, MAY-JUN 1984 . 1984-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 32: Mar-Apr 1984 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Grand Canyon Shamed Again Exploration and mapping of submarine canyons cut into the continental shelves of Alaska and Siberia emphasize once again the colossal scale of these crustal gashes: "Erosion of some of the largest known submarine canyons has removed more than 20,000 km3 of former subduction margin between the Aleutian Islands and Cape Navarin, U.S .S .R . The canyons are incised as deeply as 2,400 m into Tertiary sedimentary and igneous rocks that make up the margin and attendant deep sedimentary basins along the outer Bering shelf. Cutting of the seven major canyons probably occurred during low stands of sea level when the Bering shelf was exposed to a depth of about -135 m, which allowed the ancestral Anadyr, Yukon, and Kuskokwim Rivers to carry large volumes of sediment to the outer shelf. Although their positions appear to be structurally influenced, the canyons apparently were cut by combinations of massive slumping and sliding of sediment deposited near the shelf edge and of scouring action of the resulting turbidity currents that carried debris to the abyssal sea floor, where deep-sea fans have formed." (Carlson, Paul R., and Karl, Herman A.; "Ancient and Modern Processes in Gigantic Submarine Canyons, Bering Sea," Eos, 64:1052, 1983.) Comment. The authors believe that submarine slumping and turbidity currents were sufficient to have eroded these huge canyons. Other geologists doubt this. The other ...
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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 Lazzarini eats humble pi (posthumously)If you are on a desert island and have forgotten the value of pi and need it desperately, you can find it experimentally. One amusing though tedious method would require throwing a short, straight twig onto parallel lines drawn in the beach sand. You will be able to compute pi from: pi = 2lN/dH, where l = the length of the twig, which must be less than d, separation of the parallel lines. N = the number of throws. H = the number of times the twig crosses one of the lines. One famous performance of this experiment was by M. Lazzarini in 1901. He reported that in 3408 throws he got 1808 intersections, leading to: pi = 3.1415929 Actually, the final digit should be a 6. Thus, Lazzarini measured pi to a few parts in 10 million. Recently, L. Badger, Weber State University, concluded that Lazzarini probably never actually performed his experiment. His results were just too good -- too fortuitous! If the number of hits had been 1807 or 1809, pi would have been wrong by 1 part in 2,000. As it turns out, a Chinese mathematician of the 5th Century pointed out that 355/113 = 3.1415929. It is very suspicious that Lazzarini's 3408 = 355 x 16, and 1808 = 113 x 16. Badger thinks that Lazzarini ...
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... past 4,000 years. Gnomons are vertical markers that cast shadows from which the local latitudes can be computed. (All one needs are the measurements of the shadow lengths on the longest and shortest days of the year.) The earth's tilt or obliquity-of-the-ecliptic may also be calculated from gnomon data -- and therein lies the anomaly. The tilt of the earth's axis is supposed to vary cyclically between 22 and 24.5 over a period of some 40,000 years due to the pulls of the moon, the sun, and the planets on the earth's equatorial bulge... Tilt angles computed from ancient gnomon observations deviate markedly from the theoretical curve. The alignment of the ancient Egyptian temple at Karnak and other oriented sites extend the deviation toward the date 2345 B.C . Either the ancient observations were systematically in error all over the world or the earth's tilt angle changed in historical times. (Bowden, M.; "The Recent Change in the Tilt of the Earth's Axis," Pamphlet No. 236, July 1983. Creation Science Movement.) Comment. One would think that such startling data, compiled by a recognized astronomer, would be the subject of in-tense study in archeoastronomical circles; instead, it is an English creationst tract that discusses the subject. Earth's tilt vs millenia from theory and ancient alignments. (Stockwell's formula) From Science Frontiers #30, NOV-DEC 1983 . 1983-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... carvings in Indian temples depict maize, which originated in the New World. A similar situation prevails for the sunflower and a many-seeded New World fruit called "annonas." Sunflowers and maize are also prodigious seed producers, suggesting that these three plants were valued as fertility symbols and may not have been consumed as food. The pre-Columbian Pacific was a twoway conduit for plants and even a few animals. For example, the Old World contributed black-boned chickens, cotton, and coconuts to the New World. As for China, Johannessen has gathered evidence for early Chinadestined Pacific crossings of maize, sunflowers, a squash, chili peppers, sweet potatoes, the yambean, and grain amaranths. Most startling, though, has been the discovery of New World peanuts at two Neolithic sites in eastern China. The associated dates are astounding: 2,400 BC and 4,400 BC. Who was sailing the wide Pacific while the Egyptian pyramids and Stonehenge were under construction? Supporting the fossil peanuts is a written Chinese record of 300 AD describing a plant that buries its flowers in the soil and makes seeds that rattle when dry. Peanuts are very unusual that they flower above ground and then burrow into the ground to form nuts -- a characteristic one must see to believe and a story hard to fabricate. (Johannessen, Carl L.; "American Crop Plants in Asia before A.D . 1500," Pre Columbiana , 1:9 , 1998.) From Science Frontiers #125, SEP-OCT 1999 . 1999-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 24: Nov-Dec 1982 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Early Chinese Voyages To Australia Dr. Alan Thorne, at the Australian National University, after studying early human fossils from both Australia and China, concludes that there was a significant movement of people from the Chinese coast to North Australia at least 10,000 years ago. He hypothesizes that the Chinese built sea-going rafts of bamboo and explored Indonesia as well as the Australian coast. (Anonymous; "Chinese 'First to Australia'," Melbounre Sun, August 14, 1982. Cr. G.D . Thompson.) Comment. The China-to-Australia trip is simplified by island-hopping, but the existence of an early Chinese sea-faring capability has later significance for the Americas, too. From Science Frontiers #24, NOV-DEC 1982 . 1982-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... plate tectonics should no longer be accepted for publication! Happily, at least one publication is still open to heretics. In a 1997 number of New Concepts in Global Tectonics , we find S. Keshav, at Bombay's Indian Institute of Technology, asserting that plate tectonics is a "myth that has paralyzed our thinking." And he gives some reasons for his view: Plate tectonics incorporates many physically impossible processes, such as sediment subduction; i.e ., soft sediments should be scraped off plates as they dive beneath the continents. Plate tectonics does not completely explain the ophiolites (rocks resembling bits of ocean crust that are sometimes found in embarrassing places (far inland). Plate tectonics has difficulty accounting for some mountain belts; i.e ., those far from collisional sites, like Tibet's Kunlun mountains. Finally, Keshav observes: "On the continents this theory assumes mysterious character as many of the features go unexplained (as exemplified by inability to find a trace of the Asthenosphere/Moho) and truly depicts an act of escapism." (Keshav, Shantanu; "A Myth Called Plate Tectonics," New Concepts in Global Tectonics , p. 23, no. 3, June 1997.) Comment. Keshav's objections may be a bit technical, but they reveal cracks in the foundation of a major paradigm. From Science Frontiers #125, SEP-OCT 1999 . 1999-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... More On Those Chinese Anchors In California Waters In SF#14, the discovery of Chinese-type anchors off the California coast was described, as it had been reported in the Anthropological Journal of Canada. The anchors, according to that report suggested a Chinese presence in America centuries ago. This is not a respectable notion among most archeologists, as we see in a strong rebuttal by F.J . Frost in Archaeology that begins by raising the"horrrible" spectres of Heyerdahl and von Dainiken. [Should these names be used to scare archeologists?] First of all, the rebuttal's author, F.J . Frost, sinks the Land of Fu Sang legend by relating how Gustaaf Schlegel showed in 1892 that the ancient Chinese mapmakers knew perfectly well that Fusan was actually an island just off the northeast Asian coast. Next, Frost tells how a recent attempt to duplicate the voyage from China to America in a Chinese junk riding the Kuroshio Current was a dismal failure. If so, then, how about those stone anchors found in shallow waters off Palos Verdes, California? They are legitimate Chinese anchors all right, but they are modern, having been lost by local California fishermen of Chinese extraction. History tells how Chinese immigrants quickly applied the techniques of their native land to the California Coast. Finally, Frost does identify some genuine unsolved mysteries off Palos Verdes. It seems that some of the stones found underwater are most curious indeed. Near where the stone anchors were found are two grooved columnar stones over a meter long with drilled holes. There is also a ...
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... the ocean. Sometimes, it reaches blizzard proportions, and divers cannot see beyond a few feet. Measured in millimeters, the marine snowflakes are much larger than the average interplanetary dust particles (but of course interplanetary dust itself is also a constituent of marine snow). The bigger marine snowflakes -- over 0.5 mm -- are a major food source for deep-sea denizens waiting below for this manna from the watery heaven. The reason for mentioning marine snow in Science Frontiers is that biologists like Alldredge are really pio-neering new territory, where new anomalies must surely dwell. "' We've essentially discovered a whole new class of particles in the ocean that no one knew was there," she exults. .. .. . "' They're islands, really, where the metabolic activities of algae, bacteria, and protozoans produce unique chemical environments,' says Alldredge." To illustrate, the carbon content of bacteria on marine snow is 10,000 times higher than that of bacteria found away from the snow. Why? (Cox, Vic; "It's No Snow Job," Sea Frontiers , 40:42, March/April 1994.) From Science Frontiers #93, MAY-JUN 1994 . 1994-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... postulates that, during the Ice Ages, a huge ice dam upstream held back a lake 3,000 feet deep, containing 200 cubic miles of water. When the ice dam suddenly ruptured, all life and land downstream was devastated. (Folger, Tim; "The Biggest Flood," Discover, 15:36, January 1994.) Comment. The breaking of Pleistocene ice dams also carved up parts of North America. There was the famous Cincinnati ice dam and, of course, the Spokane Flood that gouged out the Channelled Scablands of the Pacific Northwest, when Lake Missoula catastrophically emptied into the Pacific. See ETM5 in our catalog: Carolina Bays, Mima Mounds. It is described here . But other thoughts intrude: Were the heaps of mammoth carcasses, the Siberian "ivory islands," and those anomalous stone tools mentioned earlier under Archeology the consequences similar Siberian floods? From Science Frontiers #92, MAR-APR 1994 . 1994-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... like, open-looped, or closed-looped. The swirls are sharply defined but do not appear to scour or otherwise disturb the terrains where they occur. Similar swirl patterns have been recognized on Mercury. Two intriguing characteristics of the lunar swirl patterns are: (1 ) They coincide with strong magnetic anomalies; and (2 ) They appear to be very young, being superimposed on top of essentially all lunar features of all ages. Schultz and Srnka suggest that recent cometary impacts created the patterns. (Schultz, Peter H., and Srnka, Leonard J.; "Cometary Collisions on the Moon and Mercury," Nature, 284:22, 1980.) Comment. The terrestrial implications are obvious: our earth must have been hit, too. Perhaps at the Tunguska site there are similar swirl patterns -- now obliterated by vegetation. Reference. Lunar swirl patterns are cataloged in Section ALE5 in The Moon and the Planets. To order, visit: here . From Science Frontiers #11, Summer 1980 . 1980-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 126: Nov-Dec 1999 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects It's All In The Believing Returning to the subject of solar eclipses, it seems that in the past eclipse phenomena have been employed to promote an appealing theory even when the observations were of poor quality. Scientists have been known to "spin" data like politicians! A classic case of scientific "spin" occurred in connection with the total solar eclipse of 1919. British astronomer A. Eddington had mounted expeditions to Sobral, Brazil, and the island of Principe off the west coast of Africa. He had telescopes set up at these two locations to measure the bending of starlight by the sun, as predicted by Einstein's Theory of Relativity. In 1919, Relativity was not yet the cornerstone in the Temple of Science that it is today. Eddington "believed" in Relativity and wished to make it more acceptable. Eclipse photos showing the shifting of star images by the gravitational influence of the eclipsed sun might do the job. On the day of the eclipse, Principe was bedevilled by clouds, and only 2 photographic plates were deemed marginally acceptable. At Sobral, 18 poor plates and 8 better plates were obtained. The problem was that the 18 poor plates yielded a deflection of starlight much smaller than predicted by Relativity, while the 8 better plates produced a much higher value. By adding the 2 plates from Principe to the mix, Eddington managed to come up with a number close to that required by the ...
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... in iridium, which is diagnostic of an extraterrestrial impact -- meteorite or comet. The iridium leads to the heart of the LDG problem: Where did this immense amount of widely dispersed glass shards come from? Was it really created during the searing, sand-melting impact of a cosmic projectile? This is how today's catastrophists would have it? At least three "minor" problems bedevil the accepted impact theory. The surface of the Great Sand Sea shows no sign of a giant crater. Neither do microwave probes deep into the sand by satellite radar. LDG seems too pure to be derived from a messy cosmic collision. Known impact craters, such as that at Wabar in Saudi Arabia, are littered with bits of iron and other meteorite debris. Not so at the LDG sites. LDG is concentrated in two areas. One is oval-shaped; the other is a circular ring 6 kilometers wide and 21 kilometers in diameter. The ring's wide center is devoid of LDG. Could there have been a "soft" projectile impact; that is the detonation of a meteorite, perhaps 30 meters in diameter, 10 kilometers or so above the Great Sand Sea? The searing blast of hot air might have melted the sand beneath. Such a craterless impact is thought to have occurred in the 1908 Tunguska Event in Siberia. Another theory has a meteorite glancing off the desert surface leaving a glassy crust and a shallow crater that was soon filled in. But there are two known areas of LDG. Were there two cosmic projectiles in tandem? As of 1999 ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 6: February 1979 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Inscribed Stone From Tennessee Necropolis The pictured stone was found during the early 1890s in an extensive cemetery near Nashville. The stone's back was hollowed out like a cupstone, while its front was inscribed with symbols. Barry Fell considers the symbols Libyan, pre100 A.D . style. He translates them thus: "The colonists pledge to redeem." (Whittall, James P., II; "An Inscribed Libyan Token from a Necropolis in Tennessee," Early Sites Research Society, Bulletin, 6:37, 1978.) Reference. Several controversial New World inscriptions may be found in Ancient Man. This Handbook is described here . Inscribed stone found near Nashville From Science Frontiers #6 , February 1979 . 1979-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... No. 3: April 1978 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Stone Circles In Saudi Arabia Enigmatic circular stone formations reminiscent of those in Europe are found on remote hilltops and valleys throughout Saudi Arabia. The rings are 5 to 100 meters in diameter and are surrounded by stone walls a foot or two tall. Some of the rings have "tails" that stretch out for hundreds of meters. From the air, the patterns have a striking resemblance to designs etched in Peru's Nazca plateau. Little is known about the circles and virtually nothing about their purpose. (Anonymous; "Saudis Seek Experts to Solve a Desert Mystery," Kayhan International, p. 7, January 1, 1978.) Reference. Additional African megalithic sites are described in Ancient Man. This Handbook is described here . From Science Frontiers #3 , April 1978 . 1978-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... 1: September 1977 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Ancient Iberian Jars Recovered Off Maine Coast While skindiving in the Bay of Castine in 1971, Norman Bakeman discovered two peculiar ceramic storage jars in 12 meters of water. These jars were recovered and have since been compared to Portugese "anforetas" used during the Roman period for the storage of wine, oil, honey, etc. A similar anforeta as also been recovered in Jonesboro, Maine. The clay paste and grit of the Maine jars closely resemble those used in Iberia almost 2,000 years ago. The possibility that these containers might be Spanish olive jars circa 1800 is also discussed. (Whittall, James P., II; "Anforetas Recovered in Maine," Early Sites Research Society, Bulletin, 5:1 , 1977.) Reference. These anforetas and other anomalous artifacts are cataloged in our Handbook: Ancient Man. Book details here . From Science Frontiers #1 , September 1977 . 1977-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 91: Jan-Feb 1994 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Lightning Stalled Aircraft After reading the case of lightning stalling an automobile in SF#90, J.S . Denn submitted the following account taken from a NASA publication. July 9, 1945. Enroute from Maine to the Santa Marie Islands. As related by First Officer N.A . Pierson: "We had just taken off from Presque Isle, Maine, and had been in cruise power for 50 minutes, when a large thunderhead cumulus was observed directly on course. Lightning could be seen around the edges and inside the thunderhead. All cockpit lights were on and the instrument spotlight was full on, with the door open. I had just finished setting the power and fuel flows for each engine. As the ship approached the thunder-head, there was a noticeable drop in horsepower and the airplane lost from 180 mph airspeed to 168 mph, and continued to lose airspeed due to power loss as we approached the thunderhead...A few seconds before the lightning bolt hit the airplane all four engines were silent and the propellers were windmilling. Simultaneous with the flash of lightning, the engines surged with the original power...The Captain and I discussed the reason for all four engines cutting simultaneously prior to the lightning flash and could not explain it, except for the possibility of a magnetic potential around the cumulus affecting the primary or secondary circuits of all eight magnetos at the same time." (Fisher, ...
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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. 106: Jul-Aug 1996 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Oklahoma's ornate flints: "eccentric" or fraudulent?Some Mayan eccentric flints were of extremely complex and delicate design. The first of the accompanying illustrations shows some of the ornate flints dug up in Delaware County, Oklahoma, in 1921 by M. Tussinger. The second picture is of a genuine Mayan "eccentric" flint from Quirigua, Guatemala. These exquisite examples of flint knapping evoke two questions: (1 ) Why bother turning out these highly labor-intensive objects by the thousands? (2 ) What are typically Mayan artifacts doing so far north in Oklahoma? Many of the flints, whether from Mayan sites or Oklahoma, are incredibly complex. Some are up to 20 inches in length. Countless hours must have been invested in delicately chipping away at flint blanks. Apparently, ornate flints were an art form of great importance to the Maya. They are found in large numbers in the burials of important personages. Archeologists too often explain puzzling artifacts by saying they had "ritual value." But, this answer may be correct here. Mayan eccentric flints are probably the equivalents of Christian stained-glass windows and elaborately illuminated manuscripts. The less "practical" they are, the higher their ritual value! Purpose aside, did Mayan influence and trade really reach far north into Oklahoma? Many archeologists doubted this at first. They claimed that Tussinger knapped the Oklahoma flints himself and sold them during the Depression for ...
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... it its detailed interpretations." From James' lengthy paper, we select just two anomalies that he has identified in the Atlantic where North America and Europe are supposedly drifting apart. First, repeated direct measurements of the drifting seem to be a wash; that is, there is no drift to speak of. The expansion of the Atlantic basin seems to be only 5-13 mm/year (just 20% of the predicted rate), and this is partially offset by apparent contractions within the North American land mass! Second, St. Peter & Paul Rocks, on the Equator just west of the Atlantic Ridge, are supposed to be riding west on the spreading sea floor. Being close to the ridge, they should be 15-30 million years old. (The closer islands are to the Ridge, the younger they should be, if they are truly riding on a sea-floor conveyor belt.) But radiometric dating of the rocks making up these islets insists that they are 100800 million years old. (James, Peter; "A Synthesis of Major Objections to Mobile Plate Tectonics," New Concepts in Global Tectonics , no. 2, p. 6, March 1997.) From Science Frontiers #127, JAN-FEB 2000 . 1997 William R. Corliss ...
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... meteorites that almost certainly came from the moon and Mars. And near St. Gallen, Switzerland, there was discovered a 22-centimeter block of Malm limestone that was apparently ejected from the Ries impact crater, almost 200 kilometers away, about 15 million years ago. We know all of these rocks are impact debris because they contain shatter cones indicating a violent origin. Not only did these bits of debris confound expectations, but their shatter cones implied shock-wave pressures far too low to achieve lunar and Martian escape velocities, or even the velocity necessary to propel that chunk of Malm limestone 200 kilometers. Something was wrong somewhere. It has turned out that shock-wave theory had been misapplied. It is not the pressure that is important in ejecting bits of debris from around the impact site, but rather it is the pressure gradient. Anomaly extirpated! (Melosh, H.J .; "Blasting Rocks Off Planets," Nature, 363:498, 1993.) Moral. A.C . Clarke was right again: When a respected scientist says something cannot happen, it probably will! From Science Frontiers #89, SEP-OCT 1993 . 1993-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Subjects Un Oggetto Misterioso April 22, 1966. Genova and Novi di Modena, Italy. We have just learned of this "mysterious object." Translation provided by P. Cortesi. "Near the star Alfa Hydrae (see illustration) appeared a perfect bright sphere, about 5 apparent diameter; it became largest in a few seconds, then it grew thinner and appeared like a line. In 45 minutes, its brilliance diminished progressively, and it disappeared at the western horizon. "From astronomical observations by some amateur astronomers were calculated the following data: The object's altitude was between 600 and 650 kilometers above the earth's surface; at its biggest dimension, the object was 95 kilometers wide; it was over the Mediterranean Sea, in a place between Algiers and the Balearic Islands. "No astronomer was able to explain the phenomenon, and the university astronomical review Coelum denominated it 'un oggetto misterioso' (a mysterious object)." (Anonymous; Coelum , 34:36, May-June 1966. Cr. P. Cortesi.) From Science Frontiers #88, JUL-AUG 1993 . 1993-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 78: Nov-Dec 1991 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Meteoroid impacts: the other side of the story Astronomers have long puzzled over the origin of localized magnetic anomalies on the moon. These magnetic concentrations (called "magcons") are located precisely on the opposite side of the moon from the larger lunar basins. How could an impact on the moon magnetize the antipodal region? The impact of a large silicate meteoroid at speeds of 10 kilometers/second would not only blast out a big crater but it would also create a huge cloud of hot, partially ionized gas. This hot gas or plasma will conduct electricity and interact with lunar magnetic fields. As the plasma cloud spreads away from the impact site, it acts like a bulldozer, compressing the lunar magnetic fields ahead of it, as it envelopes the whole moon and rushes towards the antipodal point. It drives the compressed mag netic field into the surface, permanently magnetizing the rocks at the antipodal point. Voila! Magcons. (Hood, L.L ., and Huang, Z.; "Formation of Magnetic Anomalies Antipodal to Lunar Impact Basins: Two-Dimensional Model Calculations," Journal of Geophysical Research, 96:9837, 1991.) Comment. The earth also sports scars from the impacts of large meteoroids. Are there magnetic anomalies opposite these craters? Even more interesting to check out would be the holes blasted in the earth's biosphere by the converging masses of hot gases at the an tipodal points. ...
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... picked out of gravel pits and similar accumulations of rocky debris that look like human heads, ape heads, primitive tools, etc. Some of the pebbles do indeed resemble humanmade artifacts. (See accompanying sketch.) Most, though, require some imagination. The import of these artifacts, if that is what they really are, comes home when one learns that they come from deposits that are millions of years old! If any of these pebbles are really human-made, anthropology will be stood on its head. Since the present report is the 20th in a series, one can assume that the contributors to Archaeologische Berich ten have amassed incredibly large collections of ancient stones and pebbles that "look like" artifacts. Comment. Similar purported artifacts have been found at the controversial Calico Hills site, California, in Pleistocene deposits that may be 100,000 years old. And don't forget that "Face on Mars"! From Science Frontiers #77, SEP-OCT 1991 . 1991-2000 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. 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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... , shifted into neutral and slowly rolls backward up Spook Hill. "' Eerie, weird, and definitely strange," she says, finally easing to a stop near the top of the rise. "Hers is the same amazed reaction expressed by most tourists who discover this piney pitstop of the paranormal, 50 miles south of Orlando. On a typical Saturday, up to 30 cars an hour line up at the top of the hill for their turn to drive down to the white line and drift back up." Not only cars roll up the hill. Farmers had to stop planting oranges in the area because visitors pulled them off the trees so they could watch them roll uphill. Skateboarders and cyclists also feel the pull of gravity in the wrong direction. Scientists who deign to investigate sites like Spook Hill usually end up by claiming them to be merely optical illusions. "If it's an optical illusion at work here, it's an odd one; a reporter applying a carpenter's level at about the hill's halfway point finds a slope up in the direction the cars are rolling. Joggers report they expend more energy running that way too. 'Spook Hill is most definitely a hill,' says Paulette Bond, a geologist at the Florida Department of Natural Resources." (Johnson, Robert; "Just Who, or What, Makes Cars Roll Up a Slope in Florida?" Wall Street Journal, October 25, 1990. Cr. J. Covey) From Science Frontiers #73, JAN-FEB 1991 . 1991-2000 ...
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... of the abstract dealing with field experiments in several countries. "This report presents new insights into an unconventional option of locating water reserves which relies on water dowsing. The effectiveness of the method is still highly disputed. Now, however, extensive field studies -- in line with provable and reliable historic account -- have shown that a few carefully selected dowsers are certainly able to detect faults, fissures and fractures with relative alacrity and surprising accuracy in areas with, say, crystalline or limestone bedrock. A series of Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Technische Zusam menarbeit (GTZ) projects involving this technique were carried out in dry zones with unexpectedly high rates of success. In particular, it was possible to locate a large number of relatively small underground aquifers in thinly populated areas and to drill wells at the sites where water is needed; the yields were low but sufficient for hand-pump operation throughout the year. Finding or locating a sufficient number of relatively small fracture zones using conventional techniques would have required a far greater work input." A second part of the study involved controlled experiments in which dowsers tried to detect concealed targets such as pipes. (Betz, HansDieter; "Unconventional Water Detection: Field Test of the Dowsing Technique in Dry Zones," Journal of Scientific Exploration, 9:1 and 9;159, 1995. Journal address: ERL 306, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305) As one might expect (and should want), dowsing skeptics reacted swiftly to the German work. As for the field studies mentioned in the above quotation, R. Hyman, ...
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... abyssal mud We know the Creator made at least one species from dust, but ocean-floor mud has turned out to have more biodiversity. Twenty years ago, biologists put the number of species at about 1 million. Then, they started shaking and gassing rain-forest canopies. The rain of new insect species that fell to the ground made them revise the estimate to 30 million. The latest, long-unappreciated reservoir of undescribed species is mud -- oceanic mud. In particular, we know that the mud in the Rockall Trench off the western coast of Scotland teems with untold species of diminutive nematodes. Of course, nematodes are not as pretty as birds and fish, but they are nevertheless bona fide species of life. Examination of the Rockall mud and that from other seabed sites has convinced the nematode counters that there may be as many as 100 million nematode species on our planet. When other classes of life are added, the figure rises to at least 130 million. (Pearce, Fred; "Rockall Mud Richer than Rainforest," New Scientist, p. 8, September 16, 1995.) Comments. Lifeless molecules can apparently unite to form an almost infinite array of life forms! The next reservoir of unexplored biodiversity may be the crevicular realm -- all those fluid-filled crevices and channels that extend miles down into the earth's crust. They are full of bacteria and other unrecognized microscopic life forms. As for extraterrestrial habitats, who can even guess? From Science Frontiers #102 Nov-Dec 1995 . 1995-2000 William R ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 70: Jul-Aug 1990 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Wandering Albatrosses Really Wander Tracks of three Wandering albatrosses in the southern Indian Ocean. Six male wandering albatrosses nesting on Crozet Island, between South Africa and Antarctica, were fitted with tiny (180-gram) transmitters and tracked by satellite. Their flights were amazing: "Tracks of wandering albatrosses in the southwestern Indian Ocean showed that they covered between 3,600 and 15,000 km in a single foraging trip during an incubation shift. They flew at speeds of up to 80 km per h and over distances of up to 900 km per day. They remained active at night, particularly on moonlit nights..." (Jouventin, Pierre, and Weimerskirch, Henri; "Satellite Tracking of Wandering Albatrosses,; Nature, 343:746, 1990.) From Science Frontiers #70, JUL-AUG 1990 . 1990-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... items consist of a smooth rectangular green stone resembling a whetstone but bearing four letters or symbols; a four-inch pendant that is a flat stone oval bearing on one side and eye and on the other side a face of the sun with four rays, a crescent above, and six or seven letters in an undetermined script below; and a 15- inch ceremonial slate spear point showing on one side a bearded, trousered man in a hat or helmet with one arm severed and one foot missing, and on the other side a bear-like animal with two spears sticking out of him. In front of the bear are marks resembling the Roman numerals for eight, with the V tipped to one side." Members of NEARA (New England Antiquities Research Association) have visited the site; and professional archeologists have been invited to inspect the finds. (Wiggins, John R.; "Archaeological Riddle," Ellsworth American , August 3, 1989. Cr. J. Covey.) Comment. Obviously, we have here either a hoax or an important anomaly. Time will tell. Maine amulet with unusal symbols. On the other side is an eye of God -- an Old World motif. From Science Frontiers #67, JAN-FEB 1990 . 1990-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... 1970 issue of Skin Diver , as presented in Ancient Man. The author of this article, F. Joseph, states that beneath the surface of Rock Lake lie at least ten structures. Two of these have been mapped and photographed by skin divers and sonar. Structure #1 , which has been dubbed the Limnatis Pyramid, has a base width of 60 feet, a length of about 100 feet, and a height of 18 feet, although only about 10 feet protrude from the silt and mud. It is a truncated pyramid, built largely out of round, black stones. On the truncated top, the stones are squarish. The remains of a plaster coating can be discerned. The Rock Lake structures are made more believable by the presence, 3 miles away, of the Indian site of Aztalan. There, there are two truncated, earthen pyramids, partially surrounded by a tall stockade, which was originally plastered. Aztalan seems to have been occupied as late as the Fourteenth Century. (Joseph, Francis; "Found: The Lost Pyramids of Rock Lake," Fate , 42:88, October 1989.) Reference. In our handbook Ancient Man, there is still another article on the Rock Lake pyramids from a 1970 number of the Skin Diver . Details on this handbook here . From Science Frontiers #66, NOV-DEC 1989 . 1989-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Of The Idiot Savant To describe the enigmas of the idiot savant, we can do no better than quote the first two paragraphs of a review article by D.A . Treffert: "At the 1964 annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association, a discussant concluded, 'The importance, then, of the Idiot-Savant lies in our inability to explain him; he stands as a landmark of our own ignorance and the phenomenon of the Idiot-Savant exists as a challenge to our capabilities.' In the years that have followed, the inability to explain the idiot savant has not lessened, and the challenge to our capabilities remains undiminished. However, no model of brain function, particularly memory, will be complete until it can account for this rare but spectacular condition, with its islands of mental ability in a sea of mental handicap and disability. "Through the past century, since Down's description of this disorder, the several hundred idiot savants reported in the world literature have shown remarkable similarities within an exceedingly narrow range of abilities, given the many possible skills in the human repertoire. Why do so many idiot savants have the obscure skill of calendar calculating? Why does the triad of retardation, blindness, and musical genius appear with such regularity among them? Why is there a 6:1 male-to-female ratio in this disorder? What accounts for the more common occurrence of the idiot savant among patients with infantile autism than among those with other developmental disabilities?" Other questions that can be framed based on the rest of the paper are: ...
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... S.J . Mattingly and L.A . Garza-Valdes, of the University of Texas at San Antonio, have been studying "biogenic varnishes" for years. These plastic-like coatings are produced by bacteria and fungi. Sure enough, microscopic examination of a few linen fibers from the Shroud of Turin show that they, too, are coated with such varnishes. These biogenic varnishes may introduce carbon that has been recently fixed from the atmosphere and thus make the sample's age appear younger than it really is. (Travis, John; "Microbes Muddle Shroud of Turin's Age," Science News, 147:346, 1995.) Comment. More than the Shroud is at stake here. Bacteria contaminate just about everything, including wood and bone from archeological sites. Bacteria may, therefore, "rejuvenate" samples sent in for radiocarbon dating. The importance of this phenomenon is still unclear. Cross reference. Radiocarbon-dated samples may also appear erroneously "aged" by the uptake of primordial carbon (C13) present in the earth's crust. See SF#99. From Science Frontiers #100, JUL-AUG 1995 . 1995-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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