192 results found.
... 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 Mapping With A Song The songs of the humpback whale are complex and eerily melodic. Only the male humpbacks sing, and then only during the mating season. In contrast, the songs of blue whales are exceedingly dull. They consist of only five notes repeated in various combinations. Since both sexes sing most of the year, the songs of the blue whale probably have nothing to do with reproduction. Then, why do they sing? A clue to the purpose of the blue whales' songs is found in their precision timing. One note is sung every 128 seconds. Furthermore, these notes (sound pulses) carry for hundreds of kilometers. C. Clark, a Cornell scientist, believes these notes are really sonar pulses used for fixing a whale's location. Echoes returned from distant seamounts, continental shelves, and other undersea topography enable the whales to map their positions within the wide ocean basins as they wander far and wide. (Hecht, Jeff; "Rhythm of Blues Charts the Ocean Depths," New Scientist, p. 19, June 20, 1998.) Comment. Short -range sonar is widely used by bats, Oilbirds, Edible-nest Swifts, and, of course, dolphins. As far as we know, the blue whale is the only animal employing sonar for longrange mapping. However, some birds seem to use distant infrasound sources (ocean surf, wind flowing over mountain ranges ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 118: Jul-Aug 1998 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Day The Laws Of Physics Changed Well, maybe there weren't such things as "days" as we now know them back when the universe was very young. In fact, "time" then might have been different from "time" now. This sounds like so much physics-speak; but, seriously, during the birth pangs of the universe, there seems to have been what cosmologists call a "phase change," a mysterious moment when the laws of physics suddenly became more complex. You can reasonably ask: "How can supposedly immutable physical laws change?" The answer seems to be that anything can happen when something is being made from nothing! This apparent plasticity in the laws governing the cosmos is suggested by observations of how galaxies in the early universe were distributed. The standard theory for the origin of the universe predicts that clumps of galaxies of all sizes were created early on. This is not what a survey by S. Sarkar et al, at the University of Oxford, found. A split second after the Big Bang, galaxies were organized in structures about 300-million light years across. The standard model of particle physics cannot account for this preferred size. The theorists' recourse is a phase change, a point in time when the warp and woof of the universe changed; that is, change the rules until they fit. (Chown, Marcus; "In the ...
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... Recall SF#117 and how some terrestrial life forms do incorporate right-handed molecules in their structures, especially in cell membranes? The ubiquitous Eubacteria do this. In the Archaea, however, the same structural components of the cell membranes (glycerophosphates) are left-handed. A subtle difference, but one with deep implications. Some scientists maintain that it is impossible for two organisms relying upon mirror-image versions of the same molecule to have evolved from a common ancestor. Their genomes must be fundamentally different. Conclusion: the Archaea and Eubacteria must have evolved separately, and from different biological wellsprings -- that is, "creations." Such thinking is anathema. M. Kates, a Canadian evolutionary biologist, is skeptical. "Both the physics and chemistry of membranes are so complex that I would regard it as highly improbable that they could have auto-assembled twice." (Barnett, Adrian; "The Second Coming," New Scientist, p. 19, February 14, 1998.) Comment. Both opinions rely upon wild probability guesses, as do all opinions regarding the creation and evolution of life. From Science Frontiers #118, JUL-AUG 1998 . 1998-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Homage to an Itinerant Master," Science, 275:759, 1997.) Cross reference. The distribution of prime numbers is more than strange, see the plot in SF#42/332. What do prime numbers have to do with the real world? Are math and natural science really separate, unlinked disciplines? Pythagoras, 2,500 years ago, decided that: "All is number." He may be right. A strange connection seems to exist between prime numbers and quantum physics. On one side of the chasm that supposedly separates math from physics, we have the prime numbers and the Riemann zeta function, which provides information on how prime numbers are distributed among the other integers. On the "physics" side of the chasm, we have the behavior of complex atomic systems. The chasm seems bridged when one compares the energy levels of an excited heavy nucleus with the distribution of the zeros of the zeta function. Why should this correspondence exist? B. Cipra exclaimed: "Just why number theory and quantum chaos should be soul mates is a mystery for the gods to unveil." (Cipra, Barry; "Prime Formula Weds Number Theory and Quantum Physics," Science, 274:2104, 1996.) Comment. God, well known to be a geometer, evidently also dabbled in prime numbers! From Science Frontiers #111, MAY-JUN 1997 . 1997-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... along Route 80. A dark line squall was approaching from the west. Quinlan observed many horizontal strokes of lightning passing from cloud to cloud. These discharges seemed to make little noise -- no loud crashes of thunder, although sounds were somewhat muffled by his vehicle. These strokes moved so slowly that their progress across the sky could be easily tracked visually. Most remarkable were three discharges that began to his right, progressed across the sky in nearly a horizontal plane, and then looped back to near their starting points, thereby completing what appeared to be a circle. (Quinlan, David; private communication, May 2, 1997.) Comment. In our Catalog Lightning, Auroras, section GLL25, we offer three cases of "meandering" lightning in which the discharges follow long, complex, looping paths. However, none of these were circular. Also, in SF#89. there is an instance of "looped" lightning that rises from cloud tops toward the ionosphere and then loops back to the cloud tops. The Catalog volume just cited is described at here . From Science Frontiers #112, JUL-AUG 1997 . 1997-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 114: Nov-Dec 1997 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Standing stones in north carolina? About as anomalous as mounds can get Astronomy It can't be true because it violates our ideas! Biology Do woodcocks "grunt" for worms? Gene wars Complexity and mount improbable Geology Surface life (us!) only a "special case" The world's largest "playa-slider" furrow Geophysics Mekong mystery Lightning strikes jet and possibl spawns ball lightning Psychology Redefining science Physics A RECIPE FOR WEIGHTLESSNESS? Quantum mechanics is definitely spooky Cold fusion not so hot! Unclassified The bermuda triangle is still spooky ...
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... ." By "deep" Gold means 100 kilometers and more. It is this combination of a deep reservoir of hydrocarbons and life forms (probably mostly bacteria) that can account for (among other things): The fact that all helium comes from oil and gas wells The fact that the composition of petroleum is not what one would expect from the decomposition of plants and animals. It is really a mixture of primordial hydrocarbons with some added biochemical by-products; that is, products of that "deep" biosphere. Since carbonaceous material is now known to be common in the solar system (comets, carbonaceous chondrites, etc.), it is likely that many other planets also possess deep stores of hydrocarbons. In these deep, warm, protected, energyrich "wombs," complex biospheres might readily evolve. In Gold's view, deep biospheres may be the rule and surface life the exception! Finally, Gold sees life as merely a natural process with no more meaning and purpose than accelerating the breaking of chemical bonds and thereby increasing entropy! "It has been said that nature abhors a vacuum, but nature doesn't care much for free energy either. All of biology is just a device for degrading energy from chemical sources, and on the surface from the great temperature differential between the hot sun and the cold of space. Perhaps biology is just a branch of thermodynamics, and there is no sudden beginning of life, but a gradual systematic development toward more efficient ways of degrading energy. .. .The chemical energy available inside a planetary body ...
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... insects and humans. All other mammals are said to be immune. Analysis of the venom yields the remarkable fact that it consists of 45 active compounds. One of these is specific to insect brain cells; another, to human nerve cells. (da Silva, Wilson; "Spider Gives Kiss of Death to Pests," New Scientist, p. 23, May 17, 1997.) Comment. Since humans are not on the funnel web's menu, it must be only a coincidence that its venom kills people so selectively. It would be nice to know if chimps, gorillas, and orangs really are immune. A related phenomenon is seen in the venoms of cone shells. These snails are much more dangerous to humans, particularly naive shell collectors. Their venoms are extraordinarily complex and contain hundreds, perhaps thousands, of toxins. Many of these are specific to potential prey. Once again, humans are not on the menu but are included anyway. (Concar, David; "Doctor Snail," New Scientist, p. 26, October 19, 1996.) Comment. Both cone shells and the funnel web spider seem to possess venom factories capable of concocting wide ranges of toxins, even though some are of no practical use. Whence this amazing versatility in sophisticated chemical synthesis; how did these extraordinary glandular factories evolve? From Science Frontiers #115, JAN-FEB 1998 . 1998-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... . Judging by the distance of the vessels close by -- which were being tracked by radar -- the extent of the rotating bands to the west could not be determined but they were estimated to be between and n. mile. The duration of the phenomenon was 4 minutes from entering to leaving the bioluminescence." (Lehepuu, K.; "Bioluminescence," Marine Observer, 52:76, 1982.) Comment. Bright marine bioluminescence is not uncommon in the Atlantic, particularly in warm waters, but it is very unusual to find geometrically organized displays. The light wheels seen in the Persian Gulf and South China Sea are more frequent and more highly structured. No one has ever come up with a good explanation of how simple marine organisms cooperate to produce such large, complex, rotating displays. From Science Frontiers #117, MAY-JUN 1998 . 1998-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... . These tiny, DNA-based biological logic circuits determine how genes are interpreted (each gene may be interpreted in several ways), and, in the end, how lifeforms develop from embryo to adult. (Yuh, Chiou-Hwa, et al; "Genomic CisRegulatory Logic: Experimental and Computational Analysis of a Sea Urchin Gene," Science, 279:1896, 1998. Also: Wray, Gregory A.; "Promoter Logic," Science, 279:1871, 1998.) Comment. Figuring out how your PC's hardware evolved is child's play compared to elucidating just how random mutation and natural selection evolved the thousands of different logic circuits switching on and off in your body as you read this. It's all due to entropy! The complexity of biological computers is seen in the logic circuits of a promoter for the gene Endo 16. (From: Science, 279:1871, 1998). Computer-carrying sea urchin. Sharp in more ways than one! From Science Frontiers #117, MAY-JUN 1998 . 1998-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... , the sun was much too bright to view directly. As the last segment of the sun dipped below the horizon, a blue 'horn' formed at each end of it, as shown in sketch (a ), and these then closed up to form a bright-blue arc, as shown in sketch (b ). " (Leslie, A.J .; "Blue Flash," Marine Observer, 66:115, 1996) Comment. The blue flash is a shorter-wavelength version of the green flash. The basic phenomenon is explained in terms of dispersion of the sun's spectrum by the atmosphere near the horizon. Even so, many enigmas remain about these low-sun phenomena. There have been observed: multiple flashes, flashes preceding sunset, complex flash structures, and the apparent psychological origin of some flashes. For details, see GEL1 in Rare Halos, Mirages. This book is described here . From Science Frontiers #108, NOV-DEC 1996 . 1996-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... If the very early universe looks pretty much the same as today's universe, the implication is that mass, the source of gravitational sculpting, is scarce. But this is at odds with the cosmic expansion rate which implies a much higher density of matter. (Appenzeller, Tim; "Ancient Galaxy Walls Go up; Will Theories Tumble Down?" Science, 276:36, 1997.) Comment. The existence of galaxy walls, like so many astronomical constructs, depends upon the assumption that the red shifts of galaxies are proportional to their recessional velocities and, additionally, their distances and ages. So much rides on this one assumption. The same situation prevails in biology, where everything is founded on the assumption that random mutations and natural selection can together generate any degree of complexity, sophistication, and innovation seen in nature. The history of science tells us that many paradigms have fallen because they depended upon faulty assumptions. From Science Frontiers #116, MAR-APR 1998 . 1998-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... 1908, a tremendous explosion deep in the Siberian taiga near the Tunguska river caused trees over an area of 40 km in diameter to be flattened in a radial pattern and produced a pressure wave in the atmosphere which circled the Earth." June 17-27, 1975. On the moon. ". .. an unusual meteoroid 'storm' was detected by the array of seismometers placed on the moon during the Apollo missions. The peak impact rate on the moon of 0.5 -to-50-kg objects was about 10 times the normal background during this interval. Such a high rate was not recorded at any other time during the 8-year operation of the Apollo passive seismic network." Hartung links all three events to the comet Encke and the closely related Taurid Complex of naturally occuring space debris. Some chunks in this wide stream of space debris are measured in kilometers and, if they hit the earth, would far outclass the infamous Siberian projectile of 1908. (Hartung, Jack B.; "Giordano Bruno, the 1975 Meteoroid Storm, Encke, and Other Taurid Complex Objects," Icarus, 104:280, 1993. Comment. Since we will not mail this issue of SF until the first week in July, you are safe for another year (? ) if you are reading this! From Science Frontiers #94, JUL-AUG 1994 . 1994-2000 William R. Corliss PRECAMBRIAN NUCLEAR REACTORS! Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 94: Jul-Aug 1994 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue ...
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... interplanetary dust. Let us commence with long-winged U2s cruising at 20 kilometers altitude or more. Collectors coated with silicone oil are deployed. To them stick tiny bits of interplanetary and interstellar debris that have been caught by earth's gravity and are slowly drifting downward in the atmospshere. Some of these micron-sized particles come from asteroid collisions; others from the disintegration of comets. This rain of cosmic matter is not negligible; the earth harvests about 40,000 tons annually from the fertile fields of outer space. "Fertile?" Yes, outer space is a vast biochemical retort. D. Brownlee, R. Walker, and others: ". .. suggest that interplanetary dust has probably carried organic matter to Earth since the early aeons of the solar system. The complexity of the organic molecules found on these particles has fueled the imaginations of many who ponder the role extraterrestrial matter may have played in the prebiological evolution of organic material on the primordial Earth." Beyond these conjectures, several other things about interplanetary dust particles bother scientists: "' What is surprising,' Walker notes, 'and still not understood, is the fact that the organic molecules we see in the dust particles are different from those previously seen in meteorites.' Another enigma is the observation of striking isotopic anomalies -- large enrichments of deuterium relative to hydrogen, as much as ten times greater than one sees in terrestrial samples -- in the particles in which Zare's group observed the organic molecules." Yes, the original dust of life may have been extraterrestrial. ...
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... 94: Jul-Aug 1994 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Cancer: a precambrian legacy?Throughout much of Precambrian time until the onset of the Cambrian period some 540 million years ago, single-cell organisms dominated the planet. The goal of each individual cell was to prosper and proliferate. Competition with other cells, including those of the same species, was intense. Altruism did not exist. The most successful species were those that were tough and aggressive. Nevertheless, as the Cambrian began, some single cells suppressed their mutual antagonisms and formed partnerships. Thus were born the first metazoans -- the multicellular species. The road was now open to the evolution of what we term "higher" life forms. But before really complex organisms could evolve, the selfish, aggressive characteristics inherited from the ancestral single-cell species had to be tamed. Unfortunately, some of the controls that evolved -- and which we have inherited -- do not always work. Conversely, they sometimes work too well. J.M . Saul has described how the appearance of cancer in complex multicellular organisms may be the consequence of the failure of biochemical controls evolved to curb cell aggression: "Such failure may be seen as reversion to ancestral cellular behavior, or as failure of a cell with a monocellular heritage to perform metazoan tasks for which it was not originally designed. In such instances, the resultant types of wild and indiscriminate proliferation and variation would resemble pathologies classified as 'cancer.'" Furthermore, Saul speculates, overcontrol ...
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... Jul-Aug 1994 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Our genes aren't us!Almost without exception, biology textbooks, scientific papers, popular articles, and TV documentaries convey the impression that an organism's genes completely specify the living animal or plant. In most people's minds, the strands of DNA are analogous to computer codes that control the manufacture and disposition of proteins. Perhaps our current fascination with computers has fostered this narrow view of heredity. Do our genes really contain all the information necessary for constructing human bodies? In the April 1994 issue of Discover, J. Cohen and I. Stewart endeavor to set us straight. The arguments against the "genes-are-everything" paradigm are long and complex, but Cohen and Stewart also provide some simple, possibly simplistic observations supporting a much broader view of genetics. Mammalian DNA contains fewer bases than amphibian DNA, even though mammals are considered more complex and "advanced." The implication is that "DNA-as-a -message" must be a flawed metaphor. Wings have been invented at least four times by divergent classes (pterosaurs, insects, birds, bats); and it is very unlikely that there is a common DNA sequence that specifies how to manufacture a wing. The connections between the nerve cells comprising the human brain represent much more information than can possibly be encoded in human DNA. A caterpillar has the same DNA as the butterfly it eventually becomes. Ergo, something more than DNA must be involved. [ ...
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... The only one we observe is the one offering just the right combination of properties for evolving life and, especially, humankind. If this or that physical constant had been a tad different, humans would not have evolved. Even though humans obviously did evolve, it was all purposeless -- just the way atoms and molecules happened to combine. This outlook fits right in with Darwinism, for almost all Darwinists also see evolution as purposeless. It was blind chance that gave us the capabilities to build aircraft and tunnel into opposite sides of a mountain and meet in the middle. Moliner is highly skeptical that such amazing, "cooperative, adaptive" talents could have come about in an unbiased, purposeless universe. Suppose, he asks, vipers were philosophically minded. They might look at their marvelously complex fangs with the canals inside, a nearby poison gland, a poison storage reservoir with special ducts leading to the fangs, a fang-erection mechanism, a set of muscles to squeeze the poison reservoir, and a nervous system to control the whole system, and conclude that there must be an Ophidian Principle at work in the universe for vipers to end up with all these neatly interconnected biological components! Using the foregoing musings for a launch pad, Moliner assails Darwinism head on, employing the "what-good-is half-a -wing" and "complexity" arguments: "It is easy to visualise how random mutations followed by natural selection could lead to the right curvature of the fangs for better grasping of prey. But what would have been the selective advantage of the ...
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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 The urge to replicate: part ii In an earlier issue (SF#46), we related how the morphology of the megabats (the "flying foxes") displays primate overtones. The very idea that bats of any kind could be closely related to humans and apes was quickly dismissed by most zoologists. Flying mammals -- the bats -- evolved only once according to mainstream theory; later the Order Chiroptera (" hand-wings") split into the small, mainly insect-eating microbats and the large, fruit-eating megabats. It was all pretty obvious; how could such complex, specialized animals have evolved twice? But in Science Frontiers, there is ever the "however": "Arnd Schreiber, Doris Erker and Klausdieter Bauer of the University of Heidelberg have looked at the proteins in the blood serum of megabats and primates and found enough in common to suggest a close taxonomic relationship between the two groups. (Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 51:359)" An explanation might be that the similarities between the microbats and megabats represent adaptations to similar environmental niches rather than a common ancestry. (Timson, John; "Did Bats Evolve Twice in History?" New Scientist, p. 16, June 4, 1994.) Comment. Does the black box labelled EVOLUTION contain a special subprogram for converting hands into membaneous wings whenever it seems profitable to do so? Or are we ...
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... Frontiers ONLINE No. 98: Mar-Apr 1995 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Crop-circle litmus test?Crop-circle articles that appear in scientific journals, when they appear at all, are usually of the debunking variety. But here follows the abstract from a recent paper printed in a European journal. It presents data that could lead to a technique for separating "real" crop circles from hoaxes! "Crop formations consist of geometrically organized regions ranging from 2 to 80 m diameter, in which the plants (primarily grain crops) are flattened in a horizontal position. Plants from crop formations display anatomical alterations which cannot be accounted for by assuming the formations are hoaxes. Near the soil surface the curved stems often form complex swirls with 'vortex' type patterns. In the present paper, evidence is presented which indicates that structural and cellular alterations take place in plants exposed within the confines of the 'circle' type formations, differences which were determined to be statistically significant when compared with control plants taken outside the formation. These transformations were manifested at the macroscopic level as abnormal nodal swelling, gross malformations during embryogenesis, and charred epidermal tissue. Significant changes in seed germination and development were found, and at the microscopic level differences were observed in cell wall pit structures. Affected plants also have characteristics suggesting the involvement of transient high temperatures." (Levengood, W.C .; "Anatomical Anomalies in Crop Formation Plants," Physiologia Plantarum, 92:356, 1994. Cr. N. Talbott ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 97: Jan-Feb 1995 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Whence the 200,000 logs of chaco canyon?Previously (SF#46), we introduced you to one of the many mysteries of New Mexico's Chaco Canyon; namely, the unknown source of the huge numbers of logs required to roof the many structures in this fantastic complex. (Pueblo Bonito alone contains some 600 rooms!) As many as 200,000 pine and fir trees had to be cut down and transported as much as 50 miles, for no sizable trees grow near Chaco Canyon today. There is no consensus as to where all these trees were felled. S. Durand, an archeologist from Eastern New Mexico University, Portales, has developed a technique for identifying the sources of logs. He tries to match trace elements in the Chaco Canyon logs with those in living trees in today's forests. The different bedrocks underlying the various forests supply different quantities of such trace elements as barium and manganese. Preliminary results suggest that the early building period in Chaco Canyon, circa 900 AD, employed trees from many different sites. During the peak building period a century later, all logs used carried the same concentrations of trace elements and, therefore, probably came from the same forest. Durand's next step is to locate this forest and figure out how the builders of Chaco Canyon, the Anasazi, managed to tote the logs, some weighing 600 pounds, 50 miles or more. ( ...
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... these and other reasons, the Chatata wall now seems more of a geological curiosity rather than an archeological anomaly. Nevertheless, at least two nagging questions remain: Why were there regularly placed stones on the surface over the wall? Early investigators also reported seeing inscriptions of animals, the swastika, the serpent symbol, and other recognized Indian symbology. Whatever happened to these inscriptions? (Wirth, Diane E.; "An Ancient Wall at Chatata, Bradley County, Tennessee, Ancient American, 1:20, September/ October 1994. Also: Rawson, A.L .; "The Ancient Inscription at Chatata, Tennessee," American Antiquarian, 14: 221, 1892. Reproduced in our handbook: Ancient Man. To order see here .) Comment. An incredible variety of complex markings occur on rock surfaces. Often human origins have been proclaimed only to yield to natural explanations. See ESX6 in Neglected Geological Anomalies. Ording information at the above WWW address. From Science Frontiers #97, JAN-FEB 1995 . 1995-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... 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. 101: Sep-Oct 1995 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Dragon fish see red Most fish that make a living in deep, dark ocean waters have eyes that are most sensitive to the blue part of the sun's rays (470-490 nanometers). These are the rays that penetrate to the greatest depths in the sea. This adaptation to blue light means that deepsea fish have evolved visual pigments different from those of surface fish and land animals. Visual pigments are complex chemical compounds, and one must suppose that many, many random mutations took place before deepsea fish were able to manufacture visual pigments different from their relatives living near the surface. (Or did deepsea fish come first?) But there is more to this story. Many dwellers in the black abysses generate their own light. They sport bioluminescent organs so they can be seen by others of their own species and, in addition, illuminate prey for easier capture. In another remarkable example of evolutionary convergence, these bioluminescent organs emit light spectrally matching the eye sensitivity of deepsea fish! So far, though, this story is not any more amazing that many others woven into evolution's fabric. But suppose that a deviant species of deepsea fish upset this cosy status quo by evolving visual pigment and bioluminescent organs operating in a part of the electromagnetic spectrum that other deepsea fish could not perceive. It would be as if this species had radar but the others did not! Well, three genera of dragon fish do ...
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... reasons for asserting that it was really built by Europeans around 700 AD -- long before the Norse set foot on North America. The dry masonry chamber at Upton, Massachusetts. (Adapted from ESRS Bulletin, 1:12, 1973) The sophisticated corbelling of the structure closely follows that seen in Irish and Iberic chambers, such as New Grange. The long passageway is aligned with the summer solstice sunset, also a feature of some ancient European structures, but hardly of any concern to a New England farmer. The Upton chamber seems to be associated with linear arrays of stones and stone cairns on nearby Pratt Hill. These alignments have obvious astronomical significance. In fact, based upon changes in the setting positions of several stars (due to precession), Mavor and Dix believe the whole complex dates back to 700-750 AD. They conclude: "Of all the enigmatic structures that we have seen in America, the Upton chamber stands out as one that could have been built under the influence of Irish monks in the 8th century." (Mavor, James W., Jr., and Dix, Byron E.; "Earth, Stones. and Sky: Universality and Continuity in American Cosmology," NEARA Journal, 29:91, 1995. NEARA = New England Antiquities Research Association) From Science Frontiers #103, JAN-FEB 1996 . 1996-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... recently in Science. We now extract one nugget from each of these two sources. From Nature's review. Humans are more primitive than microorganisms in the sense that we still retain cumbersome introns (nonsense DNA) in our genes, while lowly microorganisms have been able to eliminate them. From Science. No one seems to have a clue about where RNA came from. C. de Duve ventured that: ". .. the emergence of RNA depended on robust chemical reactions -- it is wrong to imagine that some fantastic single accidental event supported the development of the RNA World." In connection with the generally accepted idea that the evolution of RNA must have taken hundreds of millions of years: ". .. de Duve suggested that, on the contrary, for such a complex chemical process to succeed it must have been relatively fast in order to avoid decay and loss of information." (Brenner, Sydney; "The Ancient Molecule," Nature, 367:228, 1994. O'Neill, Luke, et al; "What Are We? Where Did We Come From? Where Are We Going? Science, 263:181, 1994.) Comment. O.K . There's the RNA World, then came ours. Will another kind of "world" succeed ours? Has it already? From Science Frontiers #92, MAR-APR 1994 . 1994-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 82: Jul-Aug 1992 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology A CONNECTICUT SOUTERRAIN? Did the ancient egyptians sail up the mississippi Perhaps they even reached oklahoma! Astronomy The phobos mystery object Warm, wet, fertile mars Big-bang brouhaha Biology The humongous organism contest! For some, sex = death Efficacy of homeopathy Even today natural selection is molding human populations Can you guess where this quotation comes from? Geology Did a half million meteors fall on the carolinas Geophysics An unusually complex marine light Fluid injection causes luminous phenomena Crop circle found inside a fenced compound in japan Chemistry and Physics Japanese claim generates new heat Does nature compute? ...
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... college roommates and I routinely created life every week in our refrigerator. My theory is that around 4.5 billion years ago, the earth was bombarded by intergalactic pizzas. These then provided the ideal breeding ground in which early organisms could thrive and later evolve." (Greene, Mark D.; "How Life Began," Time, 142:8 , November 1, 1993.) Comment. Charles Fort would certainly have chuckled over the near-simultaneous mentions of intergalactic pizzas in two diverse publications. A second report underscores the mystery presented by the unexpected diversity of life in the deep-sea ooze. J.D . Gage and R.M . May ponder in Nature : "Why there should be such exuberant biological diversity in an environment apparently lacking in the habitat complexity of, say, tropical rain forest -- whose species richness it might rival -- remains an enigma." In fact, the enigma becomes more profound when one finds there exists a "depth effect" paralleling the terrestrial "altitude effect." "This phenomenon is associated with an increase in species richness with depth, and is essentially like the pattern of increasing numbers of plant and animal species as one moves down from mountain tops to sea level." This "depth effect" is just the opposite of what one would expect as one descends into the ever blacker, ever colder, higher-ambient-pressure environment. The cause(s ) of this increasing biological diversity eludes us. (Gage, John D., and May, Robert M.; "A ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 52: Jul-Aug 1987 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Costa rica's neglected stone spheres The calico debate, plus a little editorializing Astronomy Small icy comets and cosmic gaia Carbon in a new comet Meteorites also transport organic payloads Supernova confusion and mysteries "COMPACT STRUCTURES": WHAT NEXT? Biology Nose news Checklist of apparently unknown animals New vertebrate depth record Aggressive mimicry Parasites control snail behavior Geology Do large meteors/comets come in cycles? Complexities of the inner earth Geophysics Concentrated source of lightning in cloud More carolina waterguns More moodus sounds Inside a texas tornado Ship enveloped by false radar echo Psychology Dowsing skeptics converted Do dreams reflect a biological state? ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 51: May-Jun 1987 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology When were the americas peopled? How many migrations were there? Astronomy Supernova problems Were titius and bode right? A LARGER SUN DURING THE MAUNDER MINIMUM Biology First yeti photos? Giant fish reported in china The mite pockets of lizards Evolution through mergers Geology Forests frozen in time A QUESTIONABLE 200-MILLION-YEAR HIATUS Geophysics Shake no quake REMARKABLE PHOTOGRAPH OF THE MARFA LIGHT ANTARCTIC OZONE HOLE HAS COMPLEX STRUCTURE Psychology Glossolalia: possible origins RARE BUT THERE: HYPNOTIC ENHANCEMENT OF EIDETIC IMAGERY ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 42: Nov-Dec 1985 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Immense Complex of Structures Found in Peru Great Pyramid Entrance Tunnel Not Astronomically Aligned More Pyramid Caveats Astronomy A Large Quasar Inhomogeneity in the Sky Double-star System Defies Relativity Peace and Sunspots The Missing Sunspot Peak A Different Way of Looking At the Solar System Origin of the Moon Debated Biology Ri = Dugong; Doggone! Can Spores Survive in Interstellar Space? Fungus Manufactures Phony Blueberry Flowers Music in the Ear Guiding Cell Migration Remarkable Distribution of Hydrothermal Vent Animals Trees May Not Converse After All! Geology Feathers Fly Over Fossil 'Fraud' Sand Dunes 3 Kilometers Down The Night of the Polar Dinosaur Geophysics The Sausalito Hum Mysterious Hums: the Sequel Psychology Left-handers Have Larger Interbrain Connections Geomagnetic Activity and Paranormal Experiences Taking Food From Thought Logic & Mathematics The Fabric of Prime Number Distribution Chemistry & Physics Speculations From Gold ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 18: Nov-Dec 1981 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology The Senegambian Megalithic Monument Complex A Celtic Frontier Site in Colorado? Astronomy A Bump in the Cosmic Background Phoebe Not Locked to Saturn Biology Descent of Man -- or Ascent of Ape? Life's Origin Within the Earth? Or Did it Drift in From Without? Geology The Burgess Shale Puzzle Iridium-rich Layers and Catastrophism Geophysics The Long Arms of Venus and Jupiter Giant Thunderstorm Clusters Offshore Booms Are Still with Us Psychology Dreams More Real Than Reality Warts on Demand? ...
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... Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects How The Genome's Message Can Be Altered Our genomes (complements of genes) can no longer be called sets of instructions like those in a computer program. Demonstrating the veracity of this statement are the following three quotations. Increasingly, a picture of interactivity and multifunctionality among genes is emerging that precludes such a simple one-to-one mapping. Furthermore, the genome can exhibit considerable flexibility to adapt when the expression of a particular gene fails, and the interpretation of a mutant phenotype [life form] is also less trivial than it may seen. "Not only are behavioural phenotypes very sensitive to non-genetic influences," writes [R .] Greenspan, "but also the highly interconnected network of the nervous system sets up an additional layer of complexity between the gene and the realization of the phenotype." (Ref. 1) Many genes code for multiple variants of the same protein. And many proteins are modified by adding sugar molecules, which play a big role in determining where proteins go and what they do. What's more, different proteins can join together to carry out completely new functions. (Ref. 2) A group of French biologists, led by Francois Jacob and Jacques Monod showed that the gene's boundaries are fuzzier than had been thought and that genes are not restricted to chromosomes. Recently, biologists have found genes within genes, overlapping genes, and DNA sequences that specify one protein when read "forward" and another when read "in reverse." Muddling things further, the instructions encoded ...
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... Frontiers Online Science Frontiers: The Book Sourcebook Project B BIOLOGY Catalog of Anomalies (Biology Subjects)Within each of these fields, catalog sections that are already in print are given alphanumerical labels. For example, BHB1 = B (Biology)+ H (Humans)+ B (Behavior)+ 1 (first anomaly in Chapter BHB). Some anomalies and curiosities that are listed below have not yet been cataloged and published in catalog format. These do not have the alphanumerical labels. BA ARTHROPODS Titles not yet posted BB BIRDS BBA EXTERNAL APPEARANCE AND MORPHOLOGY BBA1 Avian Asymmetries BBA2 Female Hawks Larger Than Males BBA3 Skewed Sex Ratios of Offspring BBA4 Vividly Colored and Highly Patterned Avian Plumages and Ornaments BBA5 Plumage Polymorphism BBA6 Females with Male Plumage BBA7 Molting before Hatching BBA8 Unusual Diversification and Conservation in Plumage BBA9 Complexity and Sophistication of Feathers BBA10 Complexity and Sophistication of Feather Color-and-Pattern-Generation Mechanisms BBA11 Unusual Plumage-Color Changes BBA12 Feather Curiosities BBA13 Neoteny in Feathers BBA14 Tooth Substitutes in Modern Birds BBA15 Birds Lacking Egg Teeth BBA16 Extreme Sexual Dimorphism in Bills BBA17 Bill Polymorphisms BBA18 Avian Bills: Unusual Adaptations BBA19 Wing Claws BBA20 Wing Spurs BBA21 The Alula or Bastard Wing BBA22 Some Curiosities of Avian Feet BBA23 Inherited Callosities BBA24 Unusual Pouches on Birds BBA25 Luminous Birds BBA26 Odoriferous Birds BBA27 Egg Complexity and Sophistication BBA28 Bird Eggs: Color, Pattern and Size Curiosities BBA29 Egg Mimicry BBA30 Mimicry of Other Species and the Environment BBA31 Remarkable Convergences of Appearance and Habits BBA32 Frightmolt BBA33 The Hollow in the Back of the Young Common Cuckoo BBB AVIAN BEHAVIOR BBB1 Avian Intelligence BBB2 Complexity and Sophistication of Avian Mental Processes ...
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... Stone Circles MSH9 The Megalithic Yard; A Megalithic Standard of Length? MSH10 Geometrical Sophistication of Stone Circles MSH11 Occult Influences on the Design of Stonehenge MSH12 Physical Phenomena Associated with Stone Circles MSH13 Psychical Phenomena Concentration at Stone Circles MSH14 Integration of Stone Circles and the Environment MSH15 Large-Scale Organization of Stone Circles MSH16 Stone Circles Outside Britain and Ireland MSH17 Stone Circles as Eclipse Predictors MSH18 Stonehenge's Remarkable Rectangle MSH19 Did the French Build Stonehenge? MSH20 Geometrical and Geographical Anomalies of Stone Rectangles MSH21 Calendar Sites MSH22 Medicine Wheels: An Old World Connection? MSH23 Woodhenges MSI ANCIENT FURNACES, SMELTERS, HEARTHS MSI1 Ohio's Furnace-like Structures MSI2 Giant Neolithic Cooking Hearths in Britain and Ireland MSI3 Evidence for Anomalously Early Iron-Smelting in Subsaharan Africa MSI4 Innovative Iron-Smelting Technology in Africa MSK ANCIENT COMPLEXES Nan Madol Zimbabwe Mystery Hill Regional Siting MSM SHELL MOUNDS, CAIRNS, EARTHEN MOUNDS MSM1 Giant Shell Mounds MSM2 The Shell Keys of Florida MSM3 Curious Cairns and Rock Piles MSM4 Cairn Lines MSM5 Notable Earthen Mounds: A Survey MSM6 Lines and Arrays of Earthen Mounds MSM7 Enigmatic Mound Complexes MSO CARVED ROCKS, SPHERES, COLUMNS MSO1 Boulders with Triangular Holes MSO2 Large, Precisely-Crafted Stone Spheres MSO3 Carved Columns in an Ocean Trench MSO4 Curious Arrays and Groupings of Stone or Wooden Columns MSO5 The Latte Stones of the Marianas MSO6 The Ancient Iron Pillar at Delhi MSO7 The Cement-Like Cylinders of New Caledonia MSO8 Unusual Gnomons MSO9 Stone Chairs MSO10 Curious Distribution of Large Stone Jars MSO11 Enigmatic Configured Rocks MSO12 The Haamonga Stones; A Trilithon on Tonga MSO13 Tiahuanaco's Gateway of the Sun: Incredible Stonework ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 122: Mar-Apr 1999 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Mosier Mounds In past issues (SF#38 and SF#115) we introduced the still-mysterious East Bay walls that stretch for some 50 miles along the foothills bordering San Francisco Bay. The strange, meandering stone lines of the Panamint Valley near Death Valley appeared in AR#3 . In fact, the western states are festooned with curious stone structures. Now we add the Mosier Mounds to this file. On the south bank of the Columbia, near Mosier, Oregon, archeologists have mapped a 30-acre complex of rock walls, cairns, pits, and troughs -- a vertiable maze of lithic structures. (See map.) The most impressive features are alignments of stacked rocks that hug the contours of the slopes. Although their configuration suggests a battlement, the stone formations weave so sinuously that they cannot be defensive in nature. Some anthropologists suggest that these various lithic structures were used for burials, vision quests, and even the physical conditioning of the young men who were given the job of piling up all the stones! No precise dates are available, but the Mosier Mounds probably predate European contact. (Connolly, Thomas J., et al; "Mapping the Mosier Mounds: The Significance of Rock Feature Complexes on the Southern Columbia Plateau," Journal of Archaeo logical Science, 24:289, 1997.) Maps of the main concentrations of Mosier Mounds. The heavier lines represent the ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 124: Jul-Aug 1999 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The 21-micron mystery The following phenomenon is rather technical and is observable only to those astronomers lucky enough to have an infrared spectrometer aboard a satellite. These privileged scientists "see" strange infrared shrouds centered at 21 microns draped around certain red giant stars. The feature of these infrared shrouds that makes the phenomenon worthy of our attention in SF is the width of the spectrum. It is so wide that it cannot be produced by single atoms or molecules. The shrouds must consist of complex molecules, possibly even solids. The infrared glows are so strong that the elements involved must be common in the universe, in all likelihood carbon and hydrogen. Speculators have fingered polymers, ball-shaped fullerenes, and "nanodiamonds"; i.e ., very tiny diamonds! The debate has scientists repairing to their laboratories where they are trying to find some substance with a spectrum that matches that of the mystery shrouds. (Hellemans, Alexander; "Labs Hold the Key to the 21-Micron Mystery," Science, 284:1113, 1999.) Comment. Are not biological materials rich in carbon and hydrogen? This reminds us of F. Hoyle's books: Lifecloud and Diseases from Space , wherein outer space is characterized as teeming with prebiotic molecules, bacteria, and even-more-bizarre life forms. From Science Frontiers #124, JUL-AUG 1999 . 1999-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... . Water and air, too, bring more combatants into the fray. Our resident bacteria continually fend off the invaders or accommodate them. Some are pathogenic and must be killed; others are useful in many ways, as in digestion. Who's really in charge in our bodies: the 90 trillion bacteria or the 10 trillion cells we call our own? Probably, neither! (Hamilton, Garry; "Insider Trading," New Scientist, p. 42, June 26, 1999.) Comment. We hear a lot about "selfish" genes and "selfish" DNA, and that we humans exist only to further the goals of DNA -- whatever they might be. But are not all these living bacteria and nonliving viruses also "selfish" at different levels of complexity? Humans may be at the top of the food chain, but are we really in charge? From Science Frontiers #125, SEP-OCT 1999 . 1999-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Sourcebook Subjects El Nino -- Bueno?Despite our recent experience, El Ninos have not been all bad. All around the Pacific Basin, scientists have been collecting evidence that, between 12,000 and 5,000 years ago, El Nino was virtually nonexistent and that its reappearance coincided with great cultural changes. To illustrate, coral records from the western Pacific and sediments in the Great Lakes indicate that El Nino was going strong before 12,000 BP, but then there was an unexplained, 7,000-year lull. This lull is also seen clearly in sediments in Laguna Pallcacocha, a lake in the Andes of southern Ecuador, so is El Nino's sudden resurgence around 5,000 BP. This resurgence and the associated worldwide climatic turmoil also marks the emergence of complex societies all over the planet. The Egyptians built pyramids, the Peruvians constructed temple mounds, civilizations rose and collapsed in the Middle East, and settled agrarian societies developed in many locations. Although not all cultures responded well to the climate changes, El Nino seems to have sparked the rise of modern civilizations. We are assuming that this was good! (Kerr, Richard A.; "El Nino Grew Strong As Cultures Were Born," Science, 283:467, 1999. Sandweiss, Daniel H., et al; "Transitions in the Mid-Holocene," Science, 283:499, 1999.) Comment. Wasn't that period of Global Warming between 12,000 and 5,000 BP the Golden Age when Atlantis throve, when Antarctica was ice ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 127: Jan-Feb 2000 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Great Hopewell Road Ancient peoples had a thing about processional roads; that is, roads used for rituals rather than commerce or simply getting from one place to another. In Britain, for example, there are the grand processional avenues at Avebury and the longer, wider Icknield Way. In South America, the famed Inca roads were preceded by thoroughfares 100feet wide that had no obvious practical purpose. The hundreds of miles of unnecessarily straight roads leading to Chaco Canyon in New Mexico seem to have been primarily for pilgrims making ritual treks to the great ceremonial complex in the canyon. Did the Indians east of the Rockies construct special roads for ritual processions? We do know of the Mohawk Trail, the Virginia Warriors Trail, and other utilitarian roads through the wilderness. And before the settlers plowed them up, there were travel-worn trails six feet deep in the earth of Iowa. Now, we learn that, indeed, the Hopewell Culture may have built a long road mainly for ritual processions. It is called the Great Hopewell Road, and it is thought to connect the Hopewell centers at Newark and Chillicothe -- a distance of 60 miles through the heart of Ohio. In 1862, the first 6 miles of this controversial road, marked by parallel earthen banks, were surveyed by two brothers, C. and J. Salisbury. They noted that the road extended much farther in the direction of Chillicothe. B. Lepper ...
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... eyes of their opponents. These intense bursts of light are often enough to burst blood vessels in the eyes of the target fish -- sometimes even stunning it. Pairs of Amazonian angel fish have been observed flitting about in "light-fights" as they attempt to zap each other and avoid optical counterattacks. (Anonymous; Creation/Ex Nihilo , 21:7 , March-May 1999. Attributed to Sydney Morning Herald , October 13, 1998.) Comments. The use of light as an offensive weapon is reminiscent of those dolphins that stun their prey with powerful pulses of sound. Creation/Ex Nihilo is an Australian Creationist publication. It is easy to see why creationists focus on these lightfighting fish. Their weapons required the coevolution of flat sides, silvery scales, and the complex instinctive behavior needed for orienting their bodies relative to both the sun and their opponents. From Science Frontiers #123, MAY-JUN 1999 . 1999-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... 7 inches long in the average adult male. One end of the human pipe is the mouth; the other is at the so-called "vocal folds" deep in the throat (larynx). To control their "instrument" throat-singers move their tongues back and forth to change the standing waves in the vocal tract. The source of raw sound is the vocal folds. It is the vocal tract that shapes the raw sound into musical tones. Biofeedback is also involved as the throatsingers tweak the rate and manner in which the vocal folds open and close. (Levin, Theodore C., and Edgerton, Michael E.; "The Throat Singers of Tuva," Scientific American, 281:80, September 1999.) Comments. The human throat is obviously a complex musical instrument, but what survival value does this remarkable instrument have? Did evolution overshoot its mark? Incidentally, many birds can produce simultaneously two tones that are not harmonically related. However, these birds have a special doublebarreled organ called the syrinx. So, the avian "two-voice" phenomenon is not as unexpected as it is in humans. But, waxing skeptical, as usual, we ask why some birds would need a twovoice capability when ducks, herons, and many other birds survive very well with rather crude vocalizations. From Science Frontiers #127, JAN-FEB 2000 . 1997 William R. Corliss ...
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... the future and far back into prehistory. The most formidible arithmetic problems are child's play to it. Some researchers maintain that it is our consciousness that prevents us from realizing the full potential of this spongy sack of neurons. Consciousness, you see, is a necessary filter that permits only useful, practical information to flash before us as we attempt to deal with the real world. Of what survival value is calendar-calculating in today's world when we have our PCs? Or even yesterday's threat-filled world? (Future worlds? Who knows?) The consciousness filter is only partially effective in autistic savants. It is a bit porous in normal childhood, when streaks of genius sometimes seep through. Some normal children possess the power to reproduce in great detail complex scenes seen only briefly. (This is "eidetic imagery.") Such talents ebb away with age as adult life thickens the consciousness filter. Yet, cracks may persist in a few adults with photographic memories and musical genius. The consciousness filter can be eroded by intense training. In fact, calendar-calculating and eidetic imagery can be cultivated to recover, in effect, those suppressed childhood talents! (Carter, Rita; "Tune in, Turn off," New Scientist, p. 30, October 9, 1999. Sutton, Jon; "You Can Do It," New Scientist, p. 15, November 6, 1999.) Comments. Our brains seem to possess much more power than required in today's world, and yesterday's , ...
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