2 results found containing all search terms. 144 results found containing some search terms.
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 4: July 1978 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Stone Alignments in Subsaharan Africa Good-bye to the Bimini Wall and Road? Astronomy What Caused the Grooves on Phobos? A New Cosmic Heresy Biology The Four-eyed Fish Sees All A Sinuous Line of Sea Snakes Geology Echo Sounder Outlines Strange Patches Over Underwater Peaks Is the Earth A Giant Methane Reservoir? Geophysics Bioluminescence and Spurious Radar Echoes Curious Patches of Light on the Horizon Meteoric Night-glow Psychology Out-of-the-body Traveller Exerts No Influence Category X South of the Bermuda Triangle ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf004/index.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 9: Winter 1979 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Transcendental trivia?Both e (2 .7182...) and pi (3 .1416...) are transcendental numbers of great significance in mathematics and the scientific description of nature. Instead of being neat and orderly (as we devoutly hope nature will be), the decimal expansions of these two numbers are patternless, some say ugly. Faint hope arises at the 710,150th digit of pi where a satisfying string of seven consecutive 3s appears (. .. .353733333338...). More reassuring is the observation that (pi)4+ (pi)5 almost exactly equals e6 . We are sure that great truths lie hidden in these two numbers (despite their unattractive decimals) when we find that a 5x5 magic square (first row: 17, 24, 1, 8, 15) can be transformed by the alchemy of pi into an unmagic but very strange square. To do this, replace the 17 by the 17th digit of pi (this is 2); 24 by the 24th digit (this is 4); and so on. The rows and columns of the new square add up to the same numbers: columns; 17, 19, 25, 24, 23; rows; 24, 23, 25, 29, 17. (Yes, the order given is correct.) Gardner maintains that this astounding transformation is merely a coincidence, like all of the ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf009/sf009p14.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 10: Spring 1980 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology A Sun-and-spiral Clock Astronomy Io's Electrical Volcanos Double Hubble: Age in Trouble Biology Chinese Hunt Red-haired Bigfoot The Universal Urge to Join Up Why Birds Are Pretty Dynamic DNA Geology Cosmic Death Waves The Nuclear Threat: Bad Dates Geophysics Homing in on the Hum Ice-flake Fall Long-delayed Radio Echoes Luminous Ripples Move Through the Night Sky Psychology Bend Interferometers Not Spoons ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf010/index.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 111: May-Jun 1997 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Levitation And Levity!New Scientist's "Feedback" page, our favorite source for remarkable insights into cosmic phenomena, noted recently that the magazine Omni had announced the winner of its "Theories" contest. The winning entry was revolutionary, to say the least. In the words of the inventor: "When a cat is dropped, it always lands on its feet, and when toast is dropped, it always lands with the buttered side facing down. I propose to strap buttered toast to the back of a cat; the two will hover, spinning inches above the ground." There is a deep profundity in this arrangement. S. Voss recognized immediately that a perpetual motion machine had been proposed. He set out to find a flaw. Somehow, energy was being supplied to keep the cat-toast armature turning. Voss observed that any practical cat-toast motor would have to be suspended over a very expensive carpet, for the simple reason that the probability of the toast landing buttered-side down is well known to be proportional to the cost of the carpet. (Linoleum is very poor in this application.) Furthermore. to maintain the machine's efficiency, the rug would have to be frequently cleaned of falling cat hairs. Carpet cleaning is energy-intensive, and it is here that energy must be supplied, thereby nullifying the perpetual-motion claim! (Anonymous; New Scientist " ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf111/sf111p15.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 121: Jan-Feb 1999 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Problems of aboriginal art in australia A CONTINENT LOST IN THE PACIFIC OCEAN Astronomy Oklo: an unappreciated cosmic phenomenon Is life a transitor phenomenon? Biology Acupuncture 5,200 ears ago? Imprison willy! Is intelligence a deadly pathogen? How homeopath might work October 5, 1998: dark day for homing pigeons Starlings fall out of the sky Geology An arkansas tsunami deposit? Fused ancient garbage dumps Geophysics Tunguska afterglow Lake champlain's two seiches B-24 SIGHTS "CIRCLES OF LIGHT" Psychology Are pets psychic? ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf121/index.htm
... a remarkable theory of terrestrial catastrophism that seems to be supported by evidence that is equally remarkable. One of the authors of this theory (RBF) is identified as a nuclear scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley Nuclear Laboratory. The second author (WT) is a consultant. The authors' credentials seem so good that we must take a close look at their extraordinary claims concerning a natural phenomeon that they believe reset radiocarbon clocks in north-central North America and -- potentially -- elsewhere on the planet. We will be most interested in the reception accorded these claims by the scientific community. The claims. In the authors' words: Our research indicates that the entire Great Lakes region (and beyond) was subjected to particle bombardment and a catastrophic nuclear irradiation that produced secondary thermal neutrons from cosmic ray interactions. The neutrons produced unusually large quantities of 239Pu and substantially altered the natural uranium abundances (235U/238U) in artifacts and in other exposed materials including cherts, sediments, and the entire landscape. These neutrons necessarily transmuted residual nitrogen (14N) in the dated charcoals to radiocarbon, thus explaining anomalous dates. Some North American dates may in consequence be as much as 10,000 years too young. So, we are not dealing with a trivial phenomenon! Supporting evidence. Four main categories of supporting evidence are claimed and presented in varying degrees of detail. Anomalously young radiocarbon dates in north-central North America. Example: the Gainey site in Michigan. Physical evidence of particle bombardment. Example: chert artifacts with high densities of particle-entrance wounds. Anomalous uranium ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf135/sf135p01.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 17: Fall 1981 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Were the British Megaliths Built As Scientific Instruments? Astronomy Mysteries Around Uranus Saturn is Still Cooking Away Biology Was There Really A Big Bang? What Was, Is, and Shall Be Why Conserve Junk? Geology Submarine Canyons: A 50-year Perspective Shergottites and Nakhlites: Young and Mysterious Too Many Pages Missing Geophysics The Gravitational "constant" is Not! Bioluminescent Cartwheels and Whirlpools in the Arabian Sea Solar Cosmic Rays Stimulate Thunderstorms Psychology How NDEs Differ From OBEs ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf017/index.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 136: JUL-AUG 2001 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Mirror Matter May Matter Mirror Matter, if it exists, would be difficult to detect because it does not emit radiation to betray its presence. It interacts with Normal Matter (us and our instruments) only through its gravitational pull. The Mirror-Matter concept has been around since the 1950s because physicists needed (and still need) "something" that balances the universe -- which if you haven't noticed is asymmetrical. To illustrate this cosmic "deformity," note that Normal-Matter neutrinos always spin in the same direction, when half should spin one way and half the other way if the universe is symmetrical. However, the existence of Mirror-Matter neutrinos spinning the other way would redress things, making the universe "perfect" -- at least as far as human aesthetics are concerned. (Other entities might yearn for asymmetry, who knows?) Anyway, Mirror Matter is defined as being palpable and could also be that "missing mass" or "dark matter" that astronomers need to explain why spinning galaxies do not fly apart. Mirror Matter could also account for some mysterious terrestrial phenomena such as that unaccountable lack of a significant crater in Siberia, where the 1908 Tunguska blast leveled a huge forest but hardly disturbed the ground. Recently, Mirror Matter has been invoked to explain the ups and downs of terrestrial biodiversity. R. Foot and Z. Silagadze propose that the 26-millionyear periodicity ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf136/sf136p03.htm
... 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? ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf018/index.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 141: May-Jun 2002 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology An Ice-Age North Atlantic voyage? Somehow bananas slipped into West Africa 2,500 years ago Ancient messages on the Shroud of Turin Astronomy Europa's anomalous infrared spectrum Are the cosmic carriers of life comets or meteorites? Biology 'Modern' feathers on a non-avian dinosaur The intelligence of plants Unexplained weight-gain transient at the moment of death Geology Flank collapses: Generators of giant tsunamis Ragnarok: The Age of Fire and Gravel Geophysics Ball lightning gets some scientific respect Unknown species puts on spectacular light show Psychology Why music? Physics Falling in a quantized way Unclassified Where are those aliens? ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf141/index.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 142: Jul-Aug 2002 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology The impossible stones How bad was that nuclear catastrophe of 12,500 BP? Black-balling very earlier Americans Astronomy Our Big Bang lost in the cosmic cacophany The spookiness of it all Biology Passenger pigeons in New York Life is sweet Are human tears irreducibly complex? Geology Weird vibes from the Antarctic A shrinking dipole and migrating flux patches Wrong-way flood? Geophysics Bailey's prairie light The Kokomo hum Psychology The pressures of music Physics Inside some 'fundamental' particles What really lies beneath it all? ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf142/index.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 145: Jan-Feb 2003 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Viking-introduced biological diversity in North America Who first mapped the West Coast of South America Astronomy Venus: telescopic shape-shifter Do some comets just go "poof" Cosmological voyeurism Biology Eyes: Adaptable, multimasked, and untasked Sperm transporters Knee light not effective? Geology Tunguska Confusion Mining for cosmic coal Geophysics Giant Australian marine incursions Amomalous Geysers Psychology Mind over blood Physics Element 0 ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf145/index.htm
... Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Nazca Figures Duplicated Sensational literature makes much of the huge geometrical figures and outlines of animals etched into the high Peruvian tablelands. Most of these figures and lines are so large that one can fully appreciate them only from the air. This fact has led some writers to invoke ancient astronauts and even ancient Peruvian balloon technology. The fact of the matter is that archeological evidence is pretty convincing that the Nazca Indians constructed the lines about 500 A.D . But did they have extraterrestrial help or use some advanced technology? The author of the subject article, with the help of a few friends, answered these questions quite convincingly -- in the negative -- in the summer of 1982. Using sticks and string, they scaled up a small copy of the famous Nazca "condor" into a 440-foot replica of the real thing on a Kentucky landfill. The scaling up involved no high technology; in fact, even angular measurements were avoided. Instead of removing stones to make the lines, as the Nazcans did, lime was applied. The whole figure was laid out and limed in just a few man-hours. Then, from an aircraft at 1,000 feet, photos were taken. Lo and behold, a very convincing replica of the Nazca condor appeared on the prints. Still unanswered, though, is why anyone would want to make such huge drawings. (Nickell, Joe; "The Nazca Drawings Revisited: Creation of a Full-Sized Duplicate," Skeptical ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf028/sf028p02.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 30: Nov-Dec 1983 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology The Rock Lake Pyramids What Happened in 2345 B.c .? Astronomy Cosmic Rays Not Random Biology Cancer: the Price for Higher Life? The Problem of the Precocious Parr Hot Plants The Aortic Arch and Evolution A Weak Missing Link Geology The Arctic Womb Non-lethal Tektites Geophysics The Throbbing Earth Soil Temperatures Forecast Rainfall Patterns Giant Ice Block Falls in China Psychology Apathy and Cancer A Delusion of Doubles ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf030/index.htm
... 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 What makes a calculating prodigy?The above title is also that of a new book by Steven Smith. Naturally, the book is full of anecdotes about the phenomenal accomplishments of calculating prodigies, both unlettered children and such famous scientists and mathematicians as Euler, Gauss, and A.C . Aitken. The latter ". .. had the uncanny power of mentally computing, to a long string of decimals, the values of e and e163 When asked (by his children) to multiply 987...1 by 123...9 , he remarked afterwards: 'I saw in a flash that 987...1 multiplied by 81 equals 80 000 000 001, and so I multiplied 123...9 by this, a simple matter, and divided the answer by 81.'" But what, asks Smith, led Aitken to 81? To this question, which is the heart of the mystery, he commendably admits he has no reply. And the same deep mystery confronts us even after all has been said about the sur, as distinct from the underlying, structure of the processing. At the unlettered end of the spectrum of mental calculators, the ". .. ignorant vagabond, Henri Mondeux, who at the age of 14 years, before the French Academy of Sciences, was able promptly to state two squares differing by 133." Of course, some mental feats of calculation ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf032/sf032p20.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 33: May-Jun 1984 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects A Real Death Star As reported in SF#31, the geological record seems to show that widespread biological extinctions have occurred about every 26 million years. Coupled with this is Walter Alvarez's recent observation that terrestrial impact craters 10kilometer-diameter and up have been blasted out episodically -- every 28.4 million years on the average. This figure is close enough to 26 million years to impel some astronomers to search for a periodic source of cosmic projectiles. R.A . Muller and M. Davis, at Berkeley, think they have found one. They postulate that the solar system is really a double-star system. Our sun's companion star has only about 0.1 solar mass and is so faintly luminous that we have not found it visually. It does, however, now cruise along its orbit some 2.4 light years away. But it will be back! In fact, it returns every 26 million years to jostle the Oord Cloud of comets that hovers on the fringe of the solar system. This nudging periodically sends a large shower of comets careening around the inner solar system. The earth intercepts one or more of these projectiles each visit and -- bang -- we have new craters and another biological catastrophe. (Anonymous; "A Star Named George," Scientific American, 250:66, April 1984.) Comment, Ho hum! Still another cometary impact scenario ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf033/sf033p04.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 34: Jul-Aug 1984 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Ancient Wisconsin Astronomers The Guadeloupe Skeleton Revisited Pouring A Pyramid A Demurrer From the Epigraphic Society Ancient Old-world Lamps Turn Up in New England Astronomy Does String Hold the Universe Together? The Big Bang As An Illusion A Gathering of Quasars Biology Our Aquatic Phase! Dna even more promiscuous A Note on Perfect Pitch Sunspots and Disease Are Parasites Really the Masters? Geology The Carbon Problem Behind Magnetic Flip-flops Geophysics Aggressive Ball Lightning Low-level Aurora? The Marfa Lights Psychology The Mind's Control of Bodily Processes Hostage Hallucinations Techno-jinx Unclassified Strange Object in the Sky ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf034/index.htm
... down animals Stephen Jay Gould's recent essay, "The Flamingo's Smile," like all his writing, is thought-provoking. The essay goes far beyond the happy flamingo. It is about unusual adaptations in nature, as illustrated by three inverted or partially inverted creatures. The flamingo is a filter-feeder that strains food out of the water with its bill while its head is upside-down. The flaming's bill and tongue are (and must be ) radically different from those of other birds to succeed in this strange behavior. One type of jellyfish, rather than swimming around with its pulsating bell on top, plunks itself upside-down on the bottom and uses its bell as a suction cup to anchor itself. It then shoots poisonous darts attached to strings of mucous at passing targets and reels them in. Some African catfish graze on algae on the undersides of water plants. They swim upside down all the time and display a reversed color scheme, being black on the bottom and light on top. Gould employs these three examples to argue that changes in animal behavior must have preceded the many changes in form, function, color, etc. that make upside down living profitable. In other words, the proto-flamingos tried feeding with their heads upside down; and it didn't work too well. But "nature" responded with a series of random biological changes, some of which were just what was needed for efficient upside down feeding. In this way, we end up with admirably adapted, inverted flamingos, jellyfish, ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf039/sf039p08.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 46: Jul-Aug 1986 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Tree-toting Extraordinaire Early Chinese Contacts with Australia? Astronomy Cosmic Currents Salt Structures on Venus? Halley's Comet Infected by Bacteria? Solar Neutrino Update Biology Spontaneous Human Combustion The Music of the Genes Are Fruit Bats Primates? Tigers in Western Australia? Geology Archaeopteryx and Forgery: Another Viewpoint More Paluxy Impressions Blackened, Broken Stones of the Middle East Which Came First? Geophysics The Moon and Avalanches Curious Luminous Display Over the Pacific Ocean Psychology When to Believe and When Not To Geomagnetic Stimulation of Poltergeist Activity ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf046/index.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 53: Sep-Oct 1987 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Has the second law been repealed?" From the largest to the smallest scales, the universe is evolving. Matter, in the form of galaxies, is undergoing a colossal expansion. Gas, condensed into stars, is radiating thermonuclear energy out across an infall of matter, drawn by gravity. The simplest of chemical reactions and the most complex of biological activities are occurring on the surface of the earth in a state far from equilibrium; they are heated by the sun and cooled by the vacuum of space. This pervasive cosmic imbalance is the driving force in producing an environment conducive to the formation of structure and complexity." This sweeping statement seems to apply to the entire universe. The Second Law of Thermodynamics, however, insists that, on the average, for the entire universe, the above paragraph cannot be true. The article introduced by this unqualified assertion about the evolution of the universe is really about self-organizing chemical reactions. We classify it under biology because the authors imply that some biological phenomena are self-organizing. The famous Belousov-Zhabotinskii reaction is used as the prime example of chemical self-organization. First, one takes a shallow dish filled with a solution of bromate ions in a highly acidic medium. Here's what happens: "A dish, thinly spread with a lightly colored liquid, sits quietly for a moment after its preparation. The liquid is then suddenly swept by a spontaneous ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf053/sf053b07.htm
... : May-Jun 1988 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects A NEARBY RING OF COMETS?Some 589 long-period comets are known. They ply orbits around the sun that may take millions of years to complete. Astronomers are generally agreed that these bodies originate in a very distant (100,000 A.U .* ) halo of cometary material surrounding the entire solar system. J. Oort proposed this cloud, and it is named after him. Of course, we anomalists become wary when scientists "generally agree" on a hypothetical entity that no one can see. The Oort Cloud of comets, like the unseeable black holes, are given substance only by the effects they have on other solar-system denizens and seeable cosmic objects. But there may be another cloud of comets that we can view directly. It is called the Kuiper Cloud (after G. Kui per). It is concentrated in the plane of the ecliptic just beyond the orbit of Neptune. Like the Oort Cloud, the Kuiper Cloud has not been seen yet, but we just might be able to with today's equipment! Its existence is hypothesized from the parameters of a different group of comets -- the so-called "short-period" comets, as exemplified by 76-year Halley's Comet. About 120 short-period comets have been discerned so far; and our computers now tell us that they cannot have originated in the Oort Cloud. Something closer and concentrated on the ecliptic is required. Thus ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf057/sf057a04.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 58: Jul-Aug 1988 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Maize in ancient india Lanzarote: un noveau bimini? Astronomy Is the earth seeding the rest of the solar system? One of the most astonishing discoveries of modern science! A COSMIC CAUSE FOR THE OZONE HOLE? Chaotic dynamics in the solar system Biology Do right-handers live longer? John heymer still doesn't believe the stock shc explanations! Bacteria Preternaturally rapid development of photosynthesis? Geology Gentry's tiny mystery-- unsupported by geology Earlier pages in earth's history revealed Geophysics From forteanism to science Mystery at novaya zemlya Ball lightning or mirage of venus? Psychology Mystery of the idiot savant General Has the speed of light decayed? Anomalistics at the aaas meeting ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf058/index.htm
... 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 Successful Predictions Mean Little In Science Many maverick scientists make the pages of Science Frontiers because they are the ones who deviate from the mainstream. They pursue those Anomalies that the Sourcebook Project filters from the great river of scientific literature. But enough fluvial allusions! The maverick here is, again, H. Alfven. We first met Alfven in SF#59,where we commented on his paper "Memoirs of a Dissident Scientist." Alfven is still a dissident, a scientist who has the temerity to claim that cosmic rays have a local rather than galactic origin. Even more heretical is his assertion that electromagnetic forces have shaped the universe rather than the Big Bang! The subject of this entry is not so much Alfven's conflicts with accepted scientific views, but rather whether correct scientific predictions really influence the scientific community's acceptance of theories. This, after all, is what science is all about. It turns out that Alfven has made many correct scientific predictions. (He even shared a Nobel Prize in 1970.) But, as S.G . Brush has related in a detailed article in Eos, being correct is not the same as being accepted. "According to some scientists and philosophers of science, a theory is or should be judged by its ability to make successful predictions. This paper examines a case from the history of recent science - the research of Hannes Alfven and his colleagues on space plasma ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf070/sf070g19.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 75: May-Jun 1991 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Dinosaurs Of Winter And The Polar Forests It seems appropriate after suggesting above that the dinosaurs might have been frozen to death in a cosmic winter to remind the reader that some of the dinosaurs were pretty tough animals. Many dinosaur fossils have been dug up in Alaska, northern Canada, Siberia, New Zealand, and Antarctica. Not only were some dinosaurs cold-resistant but, seeing many were herbivorous, they were also able to migrate to more temperate climes as the long days of the polar summers waned. The point here is that the dinosaurs as a clan were very adaptable and should have survived severe environmental stress. (Vickers-Rich Patricia, and Rich, Thomas H.; "The Dinosaurs of Winter," Natural History, 100:33, April 1991.) That the polar regions were once covered by lush forests has been underscored by recent discoveries in both polar regions. Stumps of huge trees 45 million years old dot the now-bleak landscape of Axel Heiberg Island far north of the Arctic Circle. In Antarctica, heaps of 3- million-year-old fossil leaves have been found within 400 kilometers of the South Pole. (Francis, Jane E.; "Arctic Eden," Natural History, 100:57, January 1991. Also: Peterson, Christian; "Leafing through Antarctica's Balmy Past," New Scientist, p. 20, February 9, 1991.) ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf075/sf075g10.htm
... Science (August 30). While Time implies that all crop circles are hoaxes, the Science article states that the "really bizarre" circles are hoaxes and that the simpler circles may have acceptable meteorological explanations. Unfortunately, the ridiculing tone of the Time article will probably set back the budding scientific interest in crop circles reported in Science. The real losers, as we shall see below, are those crop-circle experts who assert that they can always detect hoaxes. Essence of the Time article. Two cropcircle hoaxers have confessed. D. Chorley and D. Bower have admitted that they have made as many as 25-30 fake crop circles per year, since 1978, including some of the bizarre ones. All they needed was a 4-foot wooden plank, a ball of string, and a baseball cap with a wire mounted on it for sighting purposes. It was all too easy! And, they assure us, other hoaxers were active in fields at night, too. This is indeed damaging evidence to crop-circle enthusiasts. Time concluded that the admissions of Chorley and Bower have "brought to an end one of the most popular mysteries Britain -- and the world -- has witnessed in years." (Constable, Anne; "It Happens in the Best of Circles," Time, 138:59, September 23, 1991.) Essence of the Science article. The Science piece was written before the Time expose, but it presents several points supporting the existence of a genuine natural phenomenon beneath all the obvious hoaxing. T. Meaden ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf078/sf078g15.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 80: Mar-Apr 1992 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Possible Chain Of Meteorite Scars In Argentina A string of linear depressions characterizes the Rio Cuarto crater field In the January 16, 1992, issue of Nature, P.H . Schultz and R.E . Lianza describe a curious chain of grooves incised in the Argentine pampas near Rio Cuarto. "During routine flights two years ago .. ., one of us (R .E .L .) noticed an anomalous alignment of oblong rimmed depressions (4 km x 1 km) on the otherwise featureless farmland of the Pampas of Argentina. We argue here, from sample analysis and by analogy with laboratory experiments, that these structures resulted from lowangle impact and ricochet of a chondritic body originally 150-300 m in diameter." There are ten gouges in all, strung out along 50 kilometers. The scars are young, perhaps only a few thousand years old, well within the time of human habitation. Schultz and Lianza also found pieces of meteoritic rock and glassy fragments of impact melt. (Schultz, Peter H., and Lianza, Ruben E.; "Recent Grazing Impacts on the Earth Recorded in the Rio Cuarto Crater Field, Argentina," Nature, 355:234, 1992. Also: Monastersky, R.; "Meteorite Hopscotched across Argentina," Science News, 141:55, 1992.) Comments. Note the similarities to the much more numerous Carolina Bays. See ETB1 in our catalog ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf080/sf080g11.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 83: Sep-Oct 1992 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Distressing near-death experiences (ndes)Noting that most NDEs are touted as involving "profound feelings of peace, joy, and cosmic unity," B. Greyson and N.E . Bush have collected much contrary testimony, which they organized into three categories: "( 1 ) Phenomenology similar to peaceful near-death experiences but interpreted as unpleasant, (2 ) A sense of nonexistence or eternal void, or, (3 ) Graphic hellish landscapes and entities." One of these testimonies, from Category 3, is worth reproducing here. The percipient was a woodworker with little interest in religion, although he was married to a "religious fanatic." He had been saving for a vacation for years, but just before they were about to leave, he was arrested for drunk driving and heavily fined, losing his license and vacation savings. Distraught, he tried to hang himself. He testified: "From the roof of the utility shed in my backyard I jumped to the ground. Luckily for me I had forgot the broken lawn chair that lay near the shed. My feet hit the chair and broke my fall, or my neck would have been broken. I hung in the rope and strangled. I was outside my physical body. I saw my body hanging in the rope; it looked awful. I was terrified, could see and hear, but it was different -- hard to explain ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf083/sf083p15.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 84: Nov-Dec 1992 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Orbiting Mountains Below Two years ago a Russian scientist suggested that tiny black holes orbiting within the earth might trigger volcanic activity. Now, he has extended the idea to earthquakes. "A .R . Trofimenko of the Minsk Department of the Astronomical-Geodesical Society of the USSR believes that all cosmic bodies, including the Sun and the Earth, are riddled with "mini" black holes left over from the big bang. Though much smaller than atoms. such black holes would each contain as much mass as a mountain, up to about 2 x 1020 grams. "Trofimenko originally suggested that energy radiated by these mini black holes could make hot spots that produce volcanic outbursts. Now he has investigated the way in which such objects, by orbiting about the Earth's core, would distort the gravitational field at the surface of our planet." Each time a mini black hole passes beneath a spot on the surface, there would be a "gravitoimpulse" too short to be detected by current instrumentation but sufficient to trigger earthquakes. (Anonymous; "Baby Black Holes Blamed for Earthquakes," New Scientist, p. 18, September 19. 1992.) From Science Frontiers #84, NOV-DEC 1992 . 1992-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf084/sf084g09.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 86: Mar-Apr 1993 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology The acoustics of rock art Where did agriculture really begin? Astronomy Meteoric "dust bunnies" Cosmic snowballs and magnetic asteroids Biology Must we die? the medfly's answer How a fly hears what a cricket hears Once more science fiction predicts the future! Rethinking aids Geology Geysers as detectors of distant earthquakes Precariously balanced rocks as earthquake detectors Geophysics An electrical virtuoso The milky sea a.k .a . "white water" A CURIOUS SIGHTING Cloud plumes natural but still a bit anomalous Logic and Mathematics Math's mystery All roads lead to 123 Psychology Hypnosis and skin temperature Hypnosis and basketball Physics Solar radiation and mental illness ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf086/index.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 87: May-Jun 1993 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology The 50,000-year-old americans of pedra furada The zuni enigma The american discovery of europe! Astronomy The earth: a doubly charmed planet Cosmic soot and organic asteroids Biology Fossil feathers fly Is caddy a mammal? The uniqueness of human adolescence Animals attack human technological infrastructure Late survival of mammoths Geology Whence the earth's pulse? Giant impact-wave deposit along u.s . east coast Geophysics The vent glow and "blind" shrimp Amazons in the sky The bottle-green icebergs of antarctica Psychology Alien abuctions: were they, are they real? Calculating prodigies, gnats, and smart weapons ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf087/index.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 92: Mar-Apr 1994 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Did humans evolve in siberia? Tractors of the gods? Astronomy Jovian lightning or cosmic short circuit? Target earth Biology Flies fly into frogmouth's mouth Is immortality only a mutation away? The world before our world Geology Back to siberia: the biggest flood? Diamonds are an anomalist's best friend Unidentified light Geophysics Crop circles not hoaxes: a correction Expanding luminescent rings Chilean astronomer reports unidentified atmospheric phenomena Chemistry and Physics High temperature suppresses radioactive decay Chaos at the amusement park ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf092/index.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 93: May-Jun 1994 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects From Dust Unto Dust This Biblical assertion may be right on the mark, but in a sense that is slightly different from what is usually meant. The "first" dust may not have been terrestrial dust but 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 ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf093/sf093a04.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 96: Nov-Dec 1994 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology That little "roman" head from precolumbian mexico The "kites" or "keyhole" structures of the middle east Astronomy On the sun, south is almost everywhere The moon: still partly molten? Lunar crater chains Biology Too identical! Why do flying fish have such colorful wings? "ADAPTIVE" MUTATION Electric snakes Geology Satellite spies strange stripes Two really deep oceans Geophysics The 536 ad dust-veil event Underwater thumps Remarkable straw fall Unusual lunar halo Psychology Psi phenomena and geomagnetism Physics Cold fission? Mathematics Lazzarini eats humble pi (posthumously) Unclassified A CURIOUS STRING OF COINCIDENCES Close encounters with unknown missiles ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf096/index.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 98: Mar-Apr 1995 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Carbon-14 dating: under a cloud?An item in Science News about the earth's envelopment by a cloud of interstellar gas 2,000-8 .000 years ago impelled J.M . Rankin to inquire if this cloud could change the cosmic-ray flux enough to affect carbon-14 dating. The answer seems to be YES. Unfortunately, we do not yet know enough to make corrections for this gastroastronomical event. (Rankin, John M., and Frisch, Priscilla C.; "Carbon-14 Dating: Under a Cloud?" Science News, 147:51, 1995.) Cross reference. See item under ASTRONOMY in this issue for more on this cloud. From Science Frontiers #98, MAR-APR 1995 . 1995-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf098/sf098a02.htm
... ," etc. One is the three-dimensionality of the "face." Another is the "fractal" test, which is useful in distinguishing between artificiality and naturalness. The "face" readily passes four of the eight tests. A fifth test (bilateral symmetry) cannot be decided until we get more pictures. But failure looms on the last three tests (location, orientation, cultural purpose), unless Mars is sent back to the time when it was a satellite of the as-yet-unexploded planet. Then -- a couple billion years ago -- the "face" would have been smack on the equator of Mars-to-be, gazing downward perpetually upon the doomed planet. The "face" thus had a cultural purpose, a sort of cosmic "Big Brother." Carrying these thoughts to their logical conclusion, the inhabitants of the planet had colonized their "moon" and built those controversial "structures." (Van Flandern, Tom; "New Evidence of Artificiality at Cydonia on Mars," Meta Research Bulletin, 6:1 , 1997. Journal address: P.O . Box 15186, Chevy Chase, MD 20815.) Comment. We cannot resist adding two more thoughts to all this speculation: If life on Mars really did (does) exist, it probably really originated on the supposed exploded planet! Could the explosion of this planet have seeded the earth with life, say, at the time of the unexplained Archean Explosion? (See under BIOLOGY.) Reference. The asymmetry of the surface of ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 14 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf113/sf113p03.htm
... Diffuse luminous objects moving at angular velocities similar to those of meteors were observed during over 200 hours of meteor watching in 1991. They fell in three broad categories: arcs, patches, and 'meteors' similar in appearance to comet comas. Though I at first dismissed the possibility of their being related to meteors, I reconsidered this relation after eliminating other possible causes such as reflections from aircraft lights and tricks of vision. Their meteor-like behavior suggested that perhaps these events might be caused by clouds of exceedingly small meteoroids, visible only because of their numbers and compact grouping. Because such a formation would be unlikely to be maintained long in space, it appeared necessary that the particles involved must have maintained some weak physical contact until just prior to becoming visible. Perhaps some type of 'cosmic dust bunny,' disrupted by air resistance, might be the cause of these events." These moving patches of light also resemble the "auroral meteors" cataloged under GLA3 in Lightning, Auroras, Nocturnal Lights. Physically, they might be related to the small, icy comets postulated by L.A . Frank to account for the transient "holes" seen in satellite ultraviolet images of the earth. (See SF#60 and #72 for more.) (Gallagher, John S.; "Diffuse Luminous Objects Having Angular Velocities Similar to Meteors," Strolling Astronomer , 36:115, 1992. Cr. P. Huyghe) References. The above phenomenon is cataloged in AYO8 under "Nebulous Meteors" in our book: The Sun and Solar System Debris. Ordering ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 14 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf086/sf086a03.htm
... 3 ) The mechanic trauma leads to basalt flooding; (4 ) Great biological extinctions occur in consequence; and (5 ) The terrestrial magnetic field reverses in step. Now, if scientists could show that all of these phenomena occur at the same frequency and are roughly in phase, it would constitute one of science's most important syntheses. The stratigraphic record and the estimated ages of meteor craters certainly hint at such synchrony. Recently, two more papers have appeared which support the above scenario. First, M.R . Rampino and R.B . Stothers show that during the past 250 million years, eleven episodes of basalt flooding have occurred with an average cycle time of 32 million years. Second, J. Negi maintains that the earth's magnetic record boasts a similar string of disturbances, with an average period of 33 million years. (Anonymous; "Regular Reversals in Earth's Magnetic Field A Fluke?" New Scientist, p. 32, August 25, 1988.) From Science Frontiers #60, NOV-DEC 1988 . 1988-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 14 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf060/sf060p13.htm
... radical departure." (Eperon, I.C ., et al; "Distinctive Sequence of Human Mitochondrial Ribosomal RNA Genes," Nature, 286:460, 1980.) Comment. The inferences above may be far-reaching. Mitochondria are vital components in the cells of the so-called higher organisms. Apparently possessing their own genetic material, they are suspected of being descendants of an cient bacteria that invaded and took up residence in cells. If human mitochondria are radically different, could changes in mitochondria be the source of the purported wide gap between humans and other animals? Did the mitochondria change (" evolve") in existing ancient mammals, converting them suddenly into humans? Or did a new "species" of mitochondria infect terrestrial cells, perhaps coming to earth on cosmic debris, as Fred Hoyle has suggested? From Science Frontiers #13, Winter 1981 . 1981-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 14 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf013/sf013p10.htm
... drawing. I'm not sure where the red ball came from but I have depicted it as coming from the jagged lightning on my ceiling. Anyhow, almost at the same time as the lightning zoomed across my kitchen and the phone started vibrating in my hand, a large red ball (with yellow and white somewhere) appeared in front of me and hit me on the chest with the force of a large man hitting me with his fist. I fell to the floor and I believe the phone was still in my hand. I'm still not sure if I was knocked unconscious or not. I couldn't swear I was and couldn't swear I wasn't . The ball hit me with the accompanying sounds of smacking and crackling, kind of like a string of firecrackers being set off." The telephone was dead and Mrs. Townsend suffered chest pains for several days. The ball seemed to be made of a soft burlap-type surface with a fuzzy texture. June 21, 1978. Same place, same kitchen. Same person. Thunderstorm out-side. Again a fireball entered the kitchen. It was about a foot across with jagged yellow and white edges. It hit Mrs. Townsend in the face, with the sensation being like a slap with an open hand. The ball possessed a surface like that of a textured fabric as before. The witness collapsed and when recovering found herself with slurred speech and neck pains. She soon regained full faculties and health. (Bailey, B.H .; "Ball Lightning Strikes ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 14 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf041/sf041p16.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 15: Spring 1981 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Distant galaxies look like those close-by Apropos the preceding item that the Expanding Universe Theory may be flawed, astronomers have discovered that supposedly distant galaxies look pretty much like those in our immediate neighborhood. Specifically, galaxies 10 billion light years away differ little spectrally speaking from those only a billion light years away. The point is that the distant galaxies should appear 9 billion years younger because their light took that long getting here. They look the same, and that fact could imply: (1 ) Galaxies mature rapidly and do not change much after a billion years; (2 ) Our cosmic time scale is all wrong; (3 ) There was no Big Bang and galaxies may have widely varying ages; or (4 ) None of the above. (Anonymous; "Most Distant Galaxies: Surprisingly Mature," Science News, 119:148, 1981.) Reference. Distant galaxies are anomalously blue. See AWF1 in our Catalog: Satrs, Galaxies, Cosmos. For ordering information, visit: here . From Science Frontiers #15, Spring 1981 . 1981-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 14 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf015/sf015p05.htm
... Sky Finds Most Quasars are Equally Ancient," New York Times, August 8, 1995, Cr. J. Covey) Comments. Anomalists cannot fail to remark that the above discussion hinges upon four concepts: black holes, an expanding universe, redshifts as measures of velocity, and the Big Bang. Each of these ideas is plagued by discordant observations. The "epoch of quasars" is, therefore, a fabric woven from controversial threads. Two thoughts important enough to mention: (1 ) The idea of a quasar epoch is consistent with the quantization of red shifts mentioned by Tifft (SF#50/ 95); (2 ) Our personal speculation that a quasar epoch might involve a change in the fundamental properties of time, matter, and space -- something like a cosmic phase change (See SF#74/329.*) Apparently, something was basically different in the universe 1.9 -3 .0 billion years ago when quasars reigned. Curiously, there seems to have been something fundamentally different here on earth about 570 million years ago -- the time of the Cambrian explosion, when essentially all the basic body plans (the phyla) of life originated. (SF#85/187) If the universe is much younger than 15 billion years, as some astronomers insist, we might be able to correlate the two epochs when things were really different! *SF#85/187 = Science Frontiers #85 and p. 187 in Science Frontiers (the book). To order the latter, see: here . From Science ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 14 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf102/sf102a04.htm
... rods of the protein "tubulin." Somehow , when cells are about to divide, they synthesize these microtubules, which then seem to organize themselves into orderly arrays (the bipolar spindles). Then, the microtubules sort out and separate the two sets of chromosomes required for the two new cells. So, far, our description conforms to what biologists have known and accepted for decades; but there is something more mysterious going on. In 1996, researchers discovered that they can actually substitute DNAcovered beads for the chromosomes, and the microtubules will still go through the motions of sorting and separating the chromosome-less strands. Actually, the microtubules will perform their act even without the DNA-covered beads. In a sense, the bipolar spindle is a puppetmaster, and the microtubules are the strings. The puppet show can go on without the puppets (chromosomes). (Hyams, Jeremy; "Look Ma, No Chromosomes," Nature, 382:397, 1996. Also: Heald, Rebecca, et al; "Self-Organization of Microtubules into Bipolar Spindles around Artificial Chromosomes...," Nature, 382:420, 1996. Travis, John; "Mitotic Mischief," Science News, 150:14, 1996.) Comments. Obviously, neither the chromosomes, the genes, nor the DNA are the master of the show. They are merely passive players in cell division. It is fair, therefore, to ask how these microtubules originate and operate. Whence the information and instructions (" program") required to put on the show ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 14 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf111/sf111p06.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 23: Sep-Oct 1982 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Ancient Mud Structures in Colorado Astronomy At Poverty Point Astronomy The Cosmic Whirl Where Are the Primordial Stars? Biology Chessie Captured on Videotape Short-circuiting Heredity Remarkable Engineering Design in Nature Geology Facing Up to the Gaps The Cretaceous-tertiary Extinction Bolide Geophysics Zoom Lens in the Atmosphere Psychology High Technology Experiments in Parapsychology ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 14 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf023/index.htm
... , says T. Gold, an iconoclastic Cornell physicist, life began in rocky fissures deep down in the earth's crust. The idea is not as unlikely as it sounds. Look at the most primitive life forms we know, the archaebacteria. They like heat, need neither air nor sunlight, and prosper on sulfur compounds for sustenance. Such bacteria are today found in boreholes as deep as 500 meters, in thermal springs, and around deepsea vents. Gold surmises that these archaebacteria migrated to the surface long ago, where they evolved into higher forms of life. "Gold argues, moreover, that the earth's interior would have provided a much more hospitable environment for proto-life four billion years ago than the surface would have, ravaged as it was by asteroids and cosmic radiation. And if life emerged within the earth, then why not within other planets? 'Deep, chemically supplied life,' Gold says, 'may be very common in the universe.'" (Horgan, John; "It Came from Within," Scientific American, 267:20, September 1992.) From Science Frontiers #84, NOV-DEC 1992 . 1992-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 14 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf084/sf084b05.htm
... events, such as nuclear detonations. They often ignore extraterrestrial projectiles. Why aren't earthbound observers aware of all these atmospheric explosions? Because most are infrared events; few emit enough visible light to attract the attention of ground-based observers. However, two of these "secret" meteoric events might explain some Fortean phenomena recorded over the last two centuries. April 15, 1978. Over Indonesia. A military satellite watched a colossal daylight fireball that, for one second only, would have rivaled the sun to anyone watching from the ground below and alert to such phenomena. The TNT yield was estimated at 5 kilotons. August 3, 1963. Between South Africa and Antarctica. A huge airburst equivalent to a 500 kilotons was picked up by a worldwide network of acoustic detectors. The cosmic interloper this time was believed to have been a small asteroid about 20 meters in diameter. (Beatty, J. Kelly; "' Secret' Impacts Revealed," Sky and Telescope, 87:26, February 1994. Cr. P. Huyghe. Also: Broad, William J.; "Meteoroids Hit Atmosphere in Atomic-Size Blasts," New York Times, January 25, 1994. Cr. J. Covey) Comment. The Indonesian event mentioned above may be associated with the many recorded instances of transient brightenings of the entire sky (GLA14 in Lightning, Auroras, Noctural Lights ). The 1963 acoustic event might be related to the many mysterious booms or detonations heard down the decades, long before jet planes offended our ear-drums (GSD1 in Earthquakes, ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 14 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf092/sf092a04.htm
... into a backyard fence. David H. Menke, directory of the Copernican Observatory and Planetarium, said the ice was probably 6 feet long, 8 inches thick and moving at about 200 mph. 'It's unusual in the fact that it fell from the sky,' said Craig Robinson, curator at the planetarium. 'That does not happen often.' A 13year-old boy was in his backyard Monday with a friend when the ice came 'whirling' from the sky and smashed into the fence about 10 feet away from them." The remainder of the article gives the opinions of some scientists who were contacted about the fall. The director of the observatory thought the ice probably fell off the wing of an aircraft. The director of the American Meteor Society suggested a cosmic origin, providing the ice were pure. An astronomy professor assured everyone that it couldn't be cometary, because the sun would melt particles of ice in outer space. Instead, he opted for strong thunderstorm winds picking the ice up from "somewhere" and dropping it on Hartford! (Anonymous; "1 ,500-Pound Ice Chunk Falls from Sky," Manchester (NH) Union Leader, June 27, 1985. Cr. B. Greenwood via L. Farish) Reference. Anomalous ice falls are cataloged in GWF1 in our catalog: Tornados, Dark Days. For ordering information, visit: here . From Science Frontiers #43, JAN-FEB 1986 . 1986-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 14 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf043/sf043p17.htm
... 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 "AN UNPRECEDENTED AND BIZARRE OBJECT"So said C. Burrows, codiscoverer of this new cosmic conundrum. The instigator of all the astronomical head scratching is our old friend Supernova 1987A, the subject of several past SF items. This time, the anomalies are associated with three bright rings now gracing 1987A's environs. The thin, dense, elliptical inner ring, the first to be noted, has always been a puzzle. Its diameter suggests that it was probably created about 30,000 years before 1987A blew up. But what is it? Its existence is hard to explain, as N. Panagia has confirmed: "The presence of a dense, thin, ring surrounding a massive star at the end of its evolution is not easy to account for." In other words, this ring is foreign to mainstream astronomical theory. Now, with the help of the Hubble Space Telescope, two additional faint rings near 1987A have been detected. One seems to be the mirror image of the other. The bizarre part is that they are not centered on 1987A at all, like the ring mentioned above. One of the new rings seems to be in front of 1987A, the other in back -- but this is a subjective call. Speculation is rampant, and all three rings are enigmatic. Is 1987A blowing out rings of matter front and back? (Panagia, Nino; "Origins Revealed in Demise, ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 14 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf095/sf095a04.htm
... 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? ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 14 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf052/index.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 82: Jul-Aug 1992 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Big-bang brouhaha Unless you have been in a coma the past couple months, you have heard that the Big Bang has now been elevated from a theory to a fact. The reason for the media hullabaloo was the announcement that minute fluctuations had been detected in the cosmic microwave background. The media hype was notably chauvinistic. Some Big-Bang proponents declared that discovery was the greatest scientific advance of the century, completely ignoring the genetic code, continental drift, nuclear fission, and so on and so on. More sober scientists rejected such extravagant claims. They pointed out that independent confirmation of the fluctuations was yet to come and that, after all, the fluctuations were very small (only some 30 millionths of a K). And which of the many variations of Big Bang was going to be enthroned? Even Nature advised extreme caution, quoting H. Bondi in this regard: ". .. the data in cosmology are so likely to be wrong that I propose to ignore them." (Anonymous; "Big Bang Brouhaha," Nature, 356:731, 1992.) Comment. It is ironical that before astronomers found large-scale inhomogeneities in the cosmos (galactic clusters and superclusters, the Great Wall, etc.), the Big Bangers claimed that the very smoothness of the microwave background proved the reality of the Big Bang. The Big Bang, it seems, is one of those " ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 14 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf082/sf082a06.htm
... Cosmos and a champion of evolution-via-endosymbiosis; that is, diverse organisms uniting to create new species. Going back to Lovelock's review, there is little that is anomalous on a small scale. Of course, on a large-scale, the data supporting the concept of life-as-a -whole manipulating the atmosphere, oceans, etc., to perpetuate and perhaps improve itself are highly anomalous, because the Gaia hypothesis is far out of the scientific mainstream. (Lovelock, James E.; "Geophysiology," American Meteorological Society, Bulletin, 67:392, 1986.) Comment. Our secret purpose here is to use the Lovelock article as an excuse to out-Gaia Gaia! Lovelock's article plus those preceding on Martian life, cosmic life, "geocorrosion," etc., made us wonder if Gaia as a closed terrestrial system (see diagram), is not too limited. If Hoyle and Wickramasinghe are correct, the diagram should have a box labelled "outer space," with an inwardly directed arrow carrying life-forms (Hoyle's space viruses and bacteria), meteorites, icy comets, etc. Likewise, the earth can contribute life-forms to the cosmos via impact and volcanic ejecta. Where does geocorrosion fit in? Life-as-a -whole could control terrestrial magnetic field reversals geochemically. This sounds more and more like science fiction, but life-as-a -whole must "want" to evolve to make itself more adaptable and capable of controlling and exploring the cosmos ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 14 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf048/sf048p09.htm
