114 results found.
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 60: Nov-Dec 1988 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Ogam, Ogam, Everywhere Unbelievable Baalbek Astronomy Why Didn't Galileo Resolve Saturn's Rings? Asteroids That Turn Into Comets A New Face on Mars? Biology Anomalous Geographical Distribution of Diabetes Mellitus Purposeful Evolution? Lop-sided Evolution Update on the "infinite Dilution" Experiments Geology Mysterious Stone Rings Global Fire At the K-T Boundary Another "Cookie Cutter" Hole Collision/eruption/extinction/ Magnetic Reversal Geophysics Mystery Glow on the Sea Floor Airborne Observations of the Marfa Lights Spiral-circle Ground Patterns in Field Crops Icy Comets Evaporating? General How Genius Gets Nipped in the Bud ...
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... . 61: Jan-Feb 1989 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects A Truly Fortean House A host of Fortean forces descended upon a house in Orland Hills, Illinois, in 1988. "Once, a blue flame an inch in diameter shot out of a wall socket for more than 30 seconds, and the outlet still worked. That incident was witnessed by two police officers. Another time, a similar flame set a mattress afire while investigators were prowling outside. "In all, there were 26 separate incidents, all of them witnessed by either police or fire investigators... "' I was there one night when the room was filled with a white haze. I couldn't see my hand in front of my face,' Smith said. 'There was a strong sulfur smell and my eyes were burning. I took a sample (of the vapor) in a vacuum canister. We came up with nothing.' "Neither did engineers, chemists and geologists." Understandably, the occupants of this hexed house had moved out long ago with such goings-on. Teams of experts ruled out arson, natural gas, methane leaks, sewer gas, and electrical malfunctions. The house was finally bulldozed in October 1988. (Elsner, David; "Bulldozers Lay House to Rest," Chicago Tribune, October 16, 1988. Cr. K. Fabian. Also: Anonymous; "Strange Phenomena Force Bulldozing of House," Lorain (Ohio) Journal, October 16, 1988. Cr ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 67: Jan-Feb 1990 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Microorganisms complicate the k-t boundary Ancient bacteria, it appears, have tampered with the K-T (Cretaceous-Tertiary) boundary of some 65 million years ago. A key marker of this boundary is a thin "spike" of iridium that is found worldwide, and which was supposedly deposited by the asteroid impact that helped finish off the dinosaurs. For many scientists, the asteroid-impact scenario has become a "non-negotiable" brick in the Temple of Science. The problem they have faced is that the iridium layer is variable in thickness and concentration from site to site. Sometimes iridium can be detected well above and below the K-T boundary. This variability has tended to undermine the asteroid-impact theory. Recent experiments at Wheaton College by B.D . Dyer et al have demonstrated that bacteria in ground water can both concentrate and disperse iridium deposits. In other words, bacteria could smear out an iridium spike, perhaps partially erase it, or even move it to a deeper or shallower layer of sediment. (Monastersky, R.; "Microbes Complicate the K-T Mystery," Science News, 136: 341, 1989.) Comment. An obvious question now is how bacteria might have affected other chemicals, such as oxygen and carbon isotopes, widely used in stratigraphy. From Science Frontiers #67, JAN-FEB 1990 . 1990-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 68: Mar-Apr 1990 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Michigan's prehistoric garden beds Now it's greece! Astronomy Wanted: a bona fide black hole Quiet sun: violent earth Biology Ants like amps Two-faced indians trick tigers Recent survival of the elephant in the americas Game of life favors right-handers New life for martian life Magnetic bacteria in the soil and who knows where else? Periodical invasions of aliens Geology Impact delivery of early oceans Geophysics The english hums: radar or buried pipelines? Double image of cresent moon Crop circle craze continues Psychology Higher sight Dreams that do what they're told Physics Science waits for - almost begs for - refutation General Conformity strikes again ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 68: Mar-Apr 1990 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Now it's greece!The general consensus is that modern humans first emerged in Africa. This assertion was challenged in SF#66, where an origin in southeast Asia was championed. Now, it's Greece! "The immediate ancestors to the human family - the hominids - might have been living in Greece, rather than Afica, some 10 million years ago in the late Miocene, according to the French palaeontologist Luis de Bonis. "In September 1989, de Bonis and George Koufos of the University of Thessaloniki discovered the fossilized face of an ape-like creature, Ourano pithecus, at a site in the Valley of Rain, 40 kilometres northwest of Thessaloniki. Although the fossil has not yet reached the scientific press, de Bonis has publically described it as a possible precursor of the earliest known hominid species, Australopithecus afarensis , from Africa 3.5 million years ago." (Lewin, Roger; "Humans May Have Come from Greece, Not Africa," New Scientist, p. 35, January 27, 1990.) From Science Frontiers #68, MAR-APR 1990 . 1990-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 69: May-Jun 1990 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Krypton-cluster magic numbers Krypton atoms cluster together in stable clumps of 13, 55, 147, 309, 561,... atoms. Ordinarily, krypton, being a noble gas, does not enter into any combinations with other atoms - even other krypton atoms. However, P. Lethbridge and T. Stace, at the University of Sussex, have coaxed krypton atoms to cluster together in large, crystal-like clumps with icosohedral symmetry; that is each clump possesses 20 regular faces. The coaxing occurs when gaseous krypton trickles into a vacuum chamber through a hole only 200 micrometers in diameter. The expansion of the gas cools it so that when krypton atmos collide, relative velocities are low, and the weak Van de Waals forces between the atoms are sufficient to hold the clumps together. So far, clumps of 147 and 309 atoms have been detected with a mass spectrograph. One theory of atomic "pack ing" predicts clumps should have "magic numbers" of 13, 55, 147, 309, 561, 923 .. .. So far, the "magic" has been working! (Baggott, Jim; "Krypton Atoms Cling Together in 'Shells,'" New Scientist, p. 31, March 3, 1990.) Comment. One would anticipate that the smaller clumps of 13 and 55 atoms would be easier to assemble. From Science Frontiers #69, MAY-JUN 1990 ...
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... pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Wagnerian Sands Of The Desert "The sun was sinking in the west African afternoon when we plunged into a wild Land Rover ride across the dunes. Within moments we lost all sense of direction, regaining it only momentarily when we caught a glimpse of the sea, as we sped along the notorious Skeleton Coast of Namibia. When we finally stopped, it was at the top of a crescent-shaped behemoth. On the inside of the curve, the dune was a good 200 feet high and as close to vertical as a sand dune gets. "We gathered timidly at the edge of the precipice. But our guide, seemingly bent on suicide, sat down at the crest and started to slide down the dune face, the seat of his pants sending a small cascade of sand slithering to the bottom. Instantly, the entire dune began to pulsate, groaning and grumbling, as if armies of Frank Herbert's sand-worms from Dune were chewing their way to the surface. In a moment, all of us were laughing and scooting down the dune, the unearthly roar echoing in the natural amphitheater." What a delightful introduction to one of Nature's light-hearted anomalies! Such booming dunes and roaring sands may be found in thirty-or-so localities all over the world, mostly in desert envi-ronments. Most of the booming dunes are composed of quartz sands, the main exception being the Barking Sands on Kauai, Hawaii, which are calcium carbonate. Despite over ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 86: Mar-Apr 1993 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects A Curious Sighting September 29, 1991. Winchester, Eng land. A wet day, but the rain had stopped and the wind velocity dropped. The 'subject' is a B. Brumpton. His actual words are in single quotes, as told to B. Hayes: "A high easterly breeze was blowing along New Road which runs eastwest and is about 400 yards long. The subject was 30 yards from the western end facing east. He first noticed the 'object' at approximately 150 yards, at which his reaction was that he was 'seeing things'. The object 'filled the highway', so this suggests a width of eight metres or so. It was 'on the ground' and 'round-topped', suggesting to me a hemisphere. The 'object' was a 'mass of mist' and 'looked very wet'. It seemed to 'roll' toward the subject at a speed that he estimated at 30 m.p .h . However, his estimate of halfa-minute for travelling 150 yards gives a speed of 20 m.p .h . Let us not forget that time is difficult to estimate after an event. "The object emitted a noise 'like very heavy rain pounding on the road', except that it was not raining at the time, and the subject became concerned about 'getting soaked'. Also, the 'mist' ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 91: Jan-Feb 1994 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Dna undermines key paradigms Did captive christians and moslems build this mayan pyramid? A LARGE CELTIC PYRAMID IN GERMANY? Astronomy Two-faced planets and moons Pairs of ghostly spots sweep across jupiter Biology Some people are brighter than others Crayfish communication Pizzaspermia! The earth's biosphere, 'tis no thin veneer Geology Do earthquakes raise mima mounds? Geophysics Remarkable hailstones Lightning stalled aircraft Post-lightning glows Fiber fall ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 100: Jul-Aug 1995 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Microbes threaten radiocarbon dating Astronomy Has jupiter flashed before? A POT POURRI OF MARTIAN CUSIOSITIES (AND WE DON'T MEAN "FACES" AND "PYRAMIDS") Biology Anomalous larvae and the burning of heretics When humans were an endangered species Straight from the horse's ear The watchmaker is not blind after all! Geology Weird icicles Giant sea-bed pockmarks Geophysics Anomalous phenomena associated with the 1908 tunguska event How can the moon affect the earth's temperature? Kobe quake jostles the geo- magnetic field Superhail Physics When different universes rub together Another starchy anomaly Unclassified Unidentified object ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 106: Jul-Aug 1996 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Oklahoma's ornate flints: "eccentric" or fraudulent? Stonehenge in the 1990s: a mainstream view Astronomy A SAGA OF SOOT: PART I A SAGA OF SOOT: PART II A SAGA OF SOOT: PART III Biology It's a mole-rat, jim, but not as we know it Facing up to divebombers Fiddling up worms Ichthometers measure pollution A BOON TO THE LUMBER INDUSTRY? Geology Mud springs regurgitate ancient fossils Impact craters: the party line revised and re-revised Geophysics Looking up into a tornado funnel Multiple phosphorescent wheels Psychology Does the human brain compute, or does it do more? Slamming the door on parapschology -- again ...
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... This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Triangular Holes In Boulders Recently, someone who wishes to remain anonymous, inspired after reading our Ancient Man, wrote us about a curious discovery of his. He had found some triangular holes in a granite boulder near Raleigh, NC. We have mentioned similar triangular holes before (SF#69/ 20), noting that hundreds of such holes had been recorded in boulders from Minnesota and the Dakotas to the eastern seaboard. We can now add to this dossier a photograph supplemented by this individual's testimony. "Soon after Hurricane Fran struck Raleigh in September 1996, I was walking one of my customary routes along a local creek when my attention was arrested by a -ton granite boulder in the creek bed. The boulder had 3 holes drilled in its face, about 6 inches apart, and all in a straight line. (See photo.) I had not noticed this boulder before, so I'm fairly confident it was uncovered by the storm's 10-inch deluge of rain. Because the three holes seemed too close together to be blasting holes, I took a closer look at them and was surprised to see that they had "trianguloid" cross sections rather than round ones. By "trianguloid" I mean the cross section was thus: Casts of the holes were made by using modeling clay. The expanded bases of the casts suggest that a shallow pit was pecked out of the granite before drilling began, and the constricted tips show that the first 3/4 inch of the drill bit was of a smaller ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 56: Mar-Apr 1988 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Edinburgh ufo a mirage?September 30, 1986. Edinburgh, Scotland. "Yvonne Westgarth looked out of a north-facing window of her house in south Edinburgh. She was amazed to see a white cylindrical object like a missile travelling westwards just above the roofs of houses opposite (as she thought). She called her husband who also saw the object. Their sketches of what they saw are shown in Fig. l. Although their descriptions differ slightly, they agree that the 'missile' had a black band around its centre. They watched the object for a period of between 0.5 min and 1.5 min (period uncertain). It was first seen almost due north and it disappeared in the west-northwest. No noise was heard." No one else reported seeing the object. A real missile was considered very unlikely. However, the object appeared in the direction of the glide path of the Edinburgh airport, where two aircraft had landed at about the time of the sighting. The witnesses were adamant that the UFO did not look at all like a plane; and that it was much higher in the sky than planes on normal glide paths, which were to be seen just above the horizon between the houses. S. Campbell, who investigated this event, suggests that the Westgarths saw an enlarged distorted mirage of a Boeing 757 landing at Edinburgh. The timing and direction were right ...
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... groups of small numbers of sheep. When grazing undisturbed, sheep tend to fan out from a given point, sometimes following a dominant group leader. Progress is usually uncoordinated and ragged. In general, patterns presented by sheep en masse are seen to be haphazard, indeed, generally random in nature. If follows that any suggestion of flocks of sheep forming geometric patterns would appear to be highly improbable, since this would call for group coordination only to be found in such as wolves and wild-dogs. In view of this it would appear that certain exceptional observations made on Sunday 21 August 1988 would be worthy of recording. "Out on an afternoon drive M. Belcher parked his car near the trigonometric survey point on Baildon Moor, near Leeds, in Yorkshire, at approximately 1430 GMT facing northeast. His wife suddenly exclaimed: 'Look at that circle of sheep in that field!' That was Sheep Circle 1 on the plan where 'a hundred or so sheep were in a circular formation, each sheep being more or less equidistant from the next. At the north end of the field some 20 or 30 cows were standing, grazing and chewing cud in the usual haphazard manner. The circular formation of these sheep was so unusual that I thought I was looking at bales of hay set out in the field by the farmer. Indeed, a stoneage stone circle might have been appropriate on this occasion. I looked around from north-west to north-east, and then espied a similar sheep circle (2 ) on a plateau opposite...In the ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 7: June 1979 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Seeing Double And Even Triple On Jupiter Sometimes the shadows cast by Jupiter's satellites on the face of the planet during transit are doubled or, more rarely, tripled. This article draws attention to several recent observations of this most perplexing phenomenon. W.E . Fox points out that these multiple shadows are really not all that uncommon. He does not try to explain them. (Fox, W.E .; "Jupiter: Double and Triple Satellite Phenomena," British Astronomical Association, Journal, 88:360, 1978.) Reference. Our Catalog, The Moon and the Planets, records several observations of double shadows in Section AJX. For a description of this book, visit: here . From Science Frontiers #7 , June 1979 . 1979-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... regularity of the steps, but does not discount a natural origin. A photo taken by divers does reveal a remarkably regular, stepped surface, but nature can be very methodical on occasion. Adding to the artificiality of the "structure" is the claim that a "road" encloses it. (Barot, Trushar; "Divers Find World's Oldest Building," London Times, April 26, 1998. Cr. A.C .A . Silk & D. Phelps) Comments. If this submerged "structure" is really man-made, it would make Hapgood's Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings more plausible. Other nicely regular "structures," very likely natural, are: the Giant's Causeway, the Bimini Road, the Kaimanawa Wall, the Face on Mars, etc. Called a "monument" by some zealous explorers, this Okinawan undersea structure does exhibit many suspicious regularities. Nevertheless, nature is often a geometer, and this could be a natural geological formation. (Adapted from the London Times). From Science Frontiers #118, JUL-AUG 1998 . 1998-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... of New York State's Finger Lakes.) The locals and Indians of bygone days have repeatedly testified about the eerie, unexpected booms heard around the shores of Lake Seneca. It seems that the phenomenon is not restricted to this Finger Lake, for a letter from G. Kuchar describes a modern "bombardment" of "lake guns" heard at Lake Cayuga about 15 miles east of Lake Seneca. "In the early morning hours of August 8th, 1996 (maybe about 6:30 or 7:00 AM), I was awoken by what I thought were loud explosions of thunder. It was a very loud, abrupt sound, sort of like close-by thunderclaps except that they seemed somewhat distant and yet had no reverberations or rumblings. I went to the window which faced a large building across the way...The early morning appeared warm, humid, and overcast. The explosive "thunderclaps" happened again, a whole series of them, and they seemed to originate up in the air and to my right, but I could detect no flashes of light, and the blasts seemed to come at random points in the sky (which was not very visible to me because of the big building looming across the lawn). I couldn't figure out where the storm cloud was that was producing these blasts, since everything was uniformly overcast, and there was no darkness moving in or evident in my field of view. From the sound of the blasts, which were very impressive, powerful noises, I pictured in my mind's eye ...
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... Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Booming Dunes "On two occasions it happened on a still night, suddenly -- a vibrant booming so loud I had to shout to be heard by my companion. Soon other sources, set going by the disturbance, joined their music to the first, with so close a note that a slow beat was clearly recognized. This weird chorus went on for more than five minutes continuously before silence returned and the ground ceased to tremble." P.K . Haff opens his review of booming sands with the above quote from R.A . Bagnold. One would think that since booming sand is not uncommon and scientists can pick it up and take it back to their laboratories, we know all about why it booms so unexpectedly when set in motion down a dune face. Haff relates his own experiments and ties them into the rather large body of previous work on the subject. The factors of dampness, grain size, cleanliness, grain shape and smoothness, etc., have all been examined. But Haff concludes: "In spite of these experiments and the work of other researchers, it is still not known how booming dunes work." (Haff, P.K .; "Booming Dunes," American Scientist, 74:376, 1986.) Reference. Booming dunes are cataloged along with "muscial sands" in ESP14 in the catalog volume: Anomalies in Geology. For ordering information, visit: here . From Science Frontiers #47, SEP-OCT 1986 . 1986-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... universe, in which there is no room for religious or other non-material elements. This is not correct. On the contrary, the clarifica-tion of the nature of space and time in this theoretical development removes the obstacles that have hitherto prevented science from conceding the existence of anything outside the boundaries of the physical realm. "In conventional science, space and time constitute a framework, or setting, within which the entire universe is contained. On the basis of this viewpoint, everything that exists, in a real sense, exists in space and in time. Scientists believe that the whole of this real universe is now within their field of observation, and they see no indication of anything non-physical. It follows that anyone who accepts the findings of conventional science at their face value cannot accept the claims of religion, or any other non-material system of thought. This is the origin of the long-standing antagonism between science and religion, a conflict which most scientists find it necessary to evade by keeping their religious beliefs separate from their scientific beliefs. "In the Reciprocal System, on the other hand, space and time are contents of the universe, rather than a container in which the universe exists. On this basis, the 'universe' of space and time, the physical universe, to which conventional science is restricted, is only one portion of existence as a whole, the real 'universe' (a word which means the total of all that exists). This leaves the door wide open for the existence of entities and phenomena ...
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... ONLINE No. 32: Mar-Apr 1984 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects A Mysterious Object Winnipeg, Manitoba. "On January 14, 1983, I observed a perfectly round black orb crossing the sun. It started at 17h 54m 23s Universal Time and ended at 17h 54m 26s Universal Time and lasted three seconds. On a projected solar disk with a diameter of 18 centimetres, the object had a diameter of one-half centimeter." (Lohvinenko, Todd; "A Mysterious Object," Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, National Newsletter, 77:L19, 1983.) Comment. This object traveled too fast to be an intramercurial planet; too slowly for a meteor. Path taken by the black spot cross the face of sun. From Science Frontiers #32, MAR-APR 1984 . 1984-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... 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 Twice," Weather, 39:76, 1984.) Reference. Many more examples of ball lightning may be found in Chapter GLB in our catalog: Lightning, Auroras. For ordering information, visit: here . From Science Frontiers #41, SEP-OCT 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... that prevail. Although viability on the present-day Martian surface is problematical, Earth-to-Mars transfers of life were feasible during an earlier 'wet' phase of the planet, prior to 3.5 Ga ago. The Martian atmosphere was also denser at that epoch, with several bars of CO2 , thus serving to decelerate meteorites, as on the present-day Earth. Since the reverse transfer can occur in a similar manner, early life evolution of the two planets may well have been linked." (Wallis, Max K., and Wickramasinghe, N.C .; "Role of Major Terrestrial Cratering Events in Dispersing Life in the Solar System," Earth and Planetary Science Letters , 130:69, 1995) Comment. Now we know why the "face on Mars" looks so human!! From Science Frontiers #99, MAY-JUN 1995 . 1995-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Cold Fusion Update Over the past six months, we have collected a couple dozen articles on cold fusion. Most authors now dismiss cold fusion as a false trail that leads nowhere interesting, certainly not to small, cheap fusion powerplants. It is time, they say, to stop wasting money and move on. Yet, a small band of researchers insists that "something is going on," something worth persuing just to see what it is. After all, almost 100 laboratories have reported anomalous phenomena; that is, anomalous neutrons, charged particles, heat production, or helium. Can all of these results be in error? Those who would answer "yes" point to more than 100 laboratories with negative results. In the face of all these claims, counterclaims, and contradictions, to say nothing of mean-spirited academic sniping, one must conclude cold fusion is down but not totally out. Good con and pro articles appeared in a recent issue of New Scientist. (Close, Frank; "Cold Fusion I: The Discovery That Never Was," and Bockris, John; "Cold Fusion II: The Story Continues," New Scientist, pp. 46 and 50, January 19, 1991.) From Science Frontiers #74, MAR-APR 1991 . 1991-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 61: Jan-Feb 1989 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Terrestrial maria?Those dark patches that constitute the face of the man-in-the-moon are really huge outpourings of lava. Once considered real seas, they are called "maria." Maria like those on the moon also exist on the earth. This is a surprise because terrestrial maria were never mentioned in my college geology courses. But, in those days, the one-mile-wide Meteor Crater, in Arizona, was the largest accepted consequence of celestial bombardment. Deccan basalt flows (also called the Deccan traps) in Western India, shown before the formation of the Carlsberg Ridge and teh splitting off of the the Seychelles. D. Alt and colleagues, at the University of Montana, have identified four large basalt plateaus that might be terrestrial maria: "Notable examples of large lava plateaus that resemble lunar maria include, among others, the Deccan Plateau of India, the Columbia Plateau of western North America, the Parana Plateau of South America, and the Tungusska Basin of Siberia. All consist mostly of basalt lava flows; those on continents include minor quantities of rhyolite, and variable amounts of sediment. All seem to have appeared suddenly, within plates. No consistent context of plate interactions explains them. We suggest that large lava plateaus are indeed terrestrial maria." Alt et al go on to show that these lava plateaus seem to have initiated continental rifts and hotspot tracks where none existed before. ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 104: Mar-Apr 1996 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Magnetic Mountain To find the "magnetic mountain," you must venture out into the Gulf of California about 15 miles east of the Baja Peninsula. Out there, beneath the boat, you can find a basaltic mountain named Espiritu Santo. Next, you don your face mask and descend toward the submerged peak. At about 70 feet, you will likely find yourself surrounded by scores, possibly hundreds, of scalloped hammerheads, some as long as 13 feet. They will ignore you and the teeming fish as they slowly wheel passively around the submerged mountain. Why do these big sharks congregate in this spot? Marine biologists have been asking this for years. (SF#20) A.P . Klimley and his colleagues decided to find the answer. First, by direct observation, they determined that the sharks' main purpose was not pro-creation, although some mating did occur. Mainly, the hammerheads just idled away the daylight hours. At dusk, they disappeared. Klimley et al next implanted some sharks with transmitters and followed them at night. This was their feeding time, they swam 10-15 miles to deep waters where they gorged on squid. At daybreak, they were back drifting around Espiritu Santo. Apparently, the mountain was just a place to rest. But how did the hammerheads find their way back so unerringly? Furthermore, by tracking the tagged fish, the researchers found the sharks often ...
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... sac; and the animal often browses on leaves and shoots. It does not, however, chew a cud. The Indonesian babirusa, a pig-like animal with curious tusks and an unusual digestive system (for a pig). Taxonomists are a bit puzzled over the babirusa. They aren't sure whether its closest relatives are modern pigs, peccaries, or hippos. The babirusa's "tusks" pose more questions about its evolution: "The creature's oddest characteristic is the two impressive pairs of curving tusks grown by the males. One pair are simply extended lower canines, but the second are actually upper canines, the sockets of which have rotated, resulting in tusks that grow through the top of the muzzle and emerge from the middle of the animals's face. The effect is bizarre and startling. The males fight with their dagger-like lower canines and probably deflect opponents' blows with the upper set, thus protecting their eyes. Indonesians say the tusks are similar to deer antlers, giving the babirusa its name, which means 'pig deer.'" (Rice, Ellen K.; "The Babirusa: A Most Unusual Southeast Asian Pig," Animal Kingdom, 91:46, March/April 1988.) Comment. Turning a pair of teeth 180 in the upper jaw is a fascinating evolutionary accomplishment. It is difficultto-explain on the basis of random mutations, especially in view of the fact that many pigs, with lower tusks only, get along quite well. Reference. For more on the peculiarities of the ...
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... as follows: "This article has presented a few examples of the many correlations between modern physics and psychic descriptions of sub-atomic particles published over seventy years ago. Scientists and laypersons alike may find it difficult to believe that Besant and Leadbeater could in some way unknown to science describe the structure of objects at least as small as atomic nuclei, which are about one ten-thousand-billionth of an inch in size. But they cannot in all sincerity dismiss the Theosophists' claims as fraudulent for the obvious reason that they finished their investigations many years before pertinent scientific knowledge and ideas about the structure of sub-atomic particles and the composition of atomic nuclei became available to make fraud possible in principle. "Nor can critics plausibly reject their claim to possess micro-psi powers at its face value and interpret, alternatively, their observations as precognitive visions of future ideas and discoveries of physics. If they had been merely looking into the future, they might reasonably, have been expected to describe atoms or atomic nuclei or both, not more exotic objects formed from two nuclei. The Rutherford-Bohr model of the atom was formulated after they had finished most of their work on MPAs. Yet none of its features can be found in their publications (this, indeed, is the main problem that Occult Chemistry presented to scientists for seventy two years). How can one, therefore, account for the remarkable research of these two people except by admitting that they did, truly, observe the microscopic world by means of ESP?" (Phillips, Stephen; "ESP of ...
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... on the surface of Eros instead of being intermixed with other rocky debris? Speculation is that the large boulders were coaxed to the surface preferentially over the eons by seismic vibrations -- said vibrations being caused by multitudinous impacts. This type of jostling action also explains why Brazil nuts greet you when you open a well-travelled can of mixed nuts! Ponds and beaches. The fine debris coating Eros may also have responded to the same vibrations, but in different ways. It sort of "flowed" downhill to form curious flat features resembling ponds. Between the ponds and rough terrain, the fine debris has also built up transition zones that look like beaches. Cormell's J. Veverka isn't betting on any of the proposed theories as yet. He declared: We're facing processes we're not familiar with. I truly don't know what's going on. (Kerr, Richard A.; "Strange Doings on a NEAR-Struck Asteroid," Science, 291: 1467, 2001.) Comment. It is interesting to observe how vibrations may emulate the action of water in creating sandy topography. As a terrestrial case in point, the famed Mima Mounds in Washington state may have been created not by flowing water or pocket gophers but by earthquake vibrations. (SF#91 and SF#108) From Science Frontiers #135, MAY-JUN 2001 . 2001 William R. Corliss Other Sites of Interest SIS . Catastrophism, archaeoastronomy, ancient history, mythology and astronomy. Lobster . The journal of intelligence and political conspiracy ( ...
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... to a crystallographer, these crystals are the equivalent to ESP in psychology. All the rules of crystallography insist that icosahedral crystals should not exist. One scientist reacted in this way: "All my training has been with the assumption that crystals are periodic. Now, almost everything has to be reexamined." Actually, the icosahedral crystals are "quasi-periodic"; that is, they are completely regular only over small distances. Nevertheless, there are hints that these materials that should not exist have remarkable structural and electronic properties. (Peterson, Ivars; "The Fivefold Way for Crystals," Science News, 127:188, 1985.) Two-dimensionsal quasiperiodic geometry (Penrose tiling) with five-fold symmetry formerly thought to be impossible in nature. The tricontahedron with 30 faces is the basis of three-dimensional quasiperiodic structures with five-fold symmetry. From Science Frontiers #39, MAY-JUN 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... that "spooky" prediction of quantum mechanics that the mere act of observing subatomic particles affects them. (See: "A Watched Atom Is an Inhibited Atom" in SF#67.) Sheldrake proposes extending the "observer effect" to biology. In effect, he suggests replacing the state of an atom with the state of the neurological connections within the human brain. All this technical jargon breaks down to a simple question: Can a person tell if he or she is being stared at? Before you leap ahead to the next item, which we assure you is not as highly charged with controversy, consider that Sheldrake has conducted thousands of tests that do seem to show the reality of the observer effect in biology. Sheldrake separates starer from staree by a glass window. The staree faces away from starer and is blindfolded. Prompted by a random-number generator, the starer stares or does not stare. The staree responds positively if he feels the starer's eyes locked on to the back of his head. The starees are right more than 50% of the time. In fact, some starees are particularly sensitive to stares and respond correctly up to 90% of the time. Interestingly, even the best performers cannot tell when they are not being stared at! That's reasonable, if there is no signal, why should there be a response? Those scientists who have reviewed Sheldrake's data agree that some sort of observer effect seems to be present. Just what is the "signal" linking starer and staree? What kind of "force ...
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... included. This criterion insured that the anomalous dates were off by one or more geological periods. To enhance his case, Woodmorappe excluded data for such troublesome minerals as K-feldspar, which have unreliable records. The surviving discordances will certainly disturb anyone who has long accepted radioactive dating as the near-final word in geochronology. The lengthy text accompanying the table delves into the geological problems posed by the tabulated anomalies, primarily the severe distortions implied in the supposedly well-established geological time scale. Many attempts have been made to explain away these discrepancies, usually by asserting that the system must have been "open"; that is, contamination and/or removal of materials occurred. But a far more serious situation exists: the reluctance of researchers to publish radiometric dates that fly in the face of expectations. Data selection and rejection are epidemic. Some authors admit tossing out wild points; others say nothing. (Woodmorappe, John; "Radiometric Geochronology Reappraised," Creation Research Society Quarterly, 16:102, 1979.) From Science Frontiers #10, Spring 1980 . 1980-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... 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 ...
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... Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Apathy And Cancer Doctors have frequently observed that the "will to survive" is important in controlling the progression of serious diseases. Most of the evidence linking the patient's mood with recovery from illness is anecdotal -- little wonder since mood is hard-to-measure. Some statistical evidence has recently been accumulated by S.M . Levy and R. Herber-man of the National Cancer Institute; but the situation still seems complex at best. From a study of 75 women with breast cancer, there appears to be a significant and involved relationship between age, the body's immune function, and a psychological factor called "fatigue." One clear-cut finding was that young patients facing radiation therapy and also reporting high levels of psychological fatigue were the only patients in the surveyed group showing diminished activity by the body's natural killer cells. These killer cells com-prise an important part of the defense against cancer. This biological consequence of apathy is confirmed by an-other study showing that cancer patients with "psychological distress" had better chances of recovery than those who had no "fight." (Herbert, W.; "Giving It Up -- At the Cellular Level," Science News, 124:148, 1983.) Comment. Assuming such mind-body correlations are real, how is mental attitude (supposedly some pattern of nerve signals in the brain) converted into greater or lesser populations of natural killer cells? From Science Frontiers # ...
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... greater volume of rock 300 meters thick adjacent to the present north and south rims. The immensity of the volume of sediment removed is not the real issue. The first problem emerges downstream from Red Butte at Pierce Ferry. There we find 200 meters of Hualapai limestone, which has been dated at 8.7 million years from a thin layer of volcanic ash within the limestone. When this limestone was laid down, the geology is emphatic that no large, sediment-carrying river was in the vicinity. Most geologists agree that the lower end of the Grand Canyon was not active around this time. No one knows where the Col-orado River was flowing at this period. Some say southwest from Peach Springs; others point to a northwest route into Utah. All the likely alternate routes face serious geological obstacles such as lava barriers. What does seem certain is that the stock explanation of the formation of the Grand Canyon is incorrect. It was not steadily ground out, cutting everdeeper as the whole region was slowly elevated. Actually, geologists believe that the region stopped rising over 50 million years ago. Where, then, did the sediments from a 450-kilometer canyon and the wide areas surrounding its rims go? The present exit of the Colorado near Pierce Ferry was blocked until fairly recently while the Hualapai limestone was being deposited; and other routes don't look too promising. (Rice, R.J .; "The Canyon Conundrum," Geographical Magazine, 55:288, 1983.) Comment. Moral: beware of facile explanations. The data presented ...
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... etc. Some of the pebbles do indeed resemble humanmade artifacts. (See accompanying sketch.) Most, though, require some imagination. The import of these artifacts, if that is what they really are, comes home when one learns that they come from deposits that are millions of years old! If any of these pebbles are really human-made, anthropology will be stood on its head. Since the present report is the 20th in a series, one can assume that the contributors to Archaeologische Berich ten have amassed incredibly large collections of ancient stones and pebbles that "look like" artifacts. Comment. Similar purported artifacts have been found at the controversial Calico Hills site, California, in Pleistocene deposits that may be 100,000 years old. And don't forget that "Face on Mars"! From Science Frontiers #77, SEP-OCT 1991 . 1991-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... into account leap years and calendar changes. She never attended school or had any formal mathematical training! (Young, Luther; "Numbers Whiz Takes Delight in Beating Computers;" Baltimore Sun, January 21, 1988, p. A1.) Comment. Such prodigies have appeared regularly down recorded history. What is the meaning of the phenomenon? Why does evolution produce talents that far exceed the "need" of the species? Is there a "need" that we are not aware of? It could be that prodigies are precursors of new evolutionary developments, which will leave poor homo sapi ens in the intellectual dust. Surely, science fiction has a story about a secret society of transcendent geniuses living under some mountain or even on some planet! Maybe that's how "the face on Mars" got there! From Science Frontiers #56, MAR-APR 1988 . 1988-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... 000; it doesn't matter. Anthropologist D. Meltzer writes: "Of course, no matter how rare the chances, given sufficient time and raw material - Pedra Furada had plenty of both - nature can magnify even the slimmest odds to the point where geofacts occur in detectable frequencies." In this argument, you see how our title "Darwinism in Archeology" came to be. Random events (rock falls or mutations) plus a sorting mechanism (human selection or natural selection) can produce geofacts or new species. This sort of explanatory mechanism can, in principle, explain just about anything! (Meltzer, David; "Stones of Contention," New Scientist, p. 31, June 24, 1995.) R. Dennell and L. Hurcombe, two archeologists faced with the geofact problem at their Pakistan dig, tried to solve it experimentally. They deliberately dropped quartzite rocks from heights onto hard surfaces. They concluded: "While conceding that had we conducted the experiment with a thousand, ten thousand, or a hundred thousand stones, a few might have fractures, we would nevertheless maintain that the chances of any showing multiple, multi-directional flaking and all with bulbs of percussion are as remote as the proverbial monkey typing Shakespeare." (Dennell, Robin, and Hurcombe, Linda; "Comment on Pedra Furada." Antiquity, 69:604, 1995.) From Science Frontiers #105, MAY-JUN 1996 . 1996-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 77: Sep-Oct 1991 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Eclipse shadow-band anomalies Shadow bands moving across the face of a house during the total eclipse of December 22, 1870. J.L . Codona, in a long article in Sky and Telescope, described eclipse shadow bands in these words: "There mysterious gray ripples are sometimes seen flitting over the ground within a minute or two of to tality. The bands are initially faint and jumbled; but as totality approaches, they become more organized, their spacing decreases to a few centimeters, and their visibility improves. After totality ends the bands can reappear and become progressively fainter and more disorganized until they disappear. "Shadow bands seem to move perpendicularly to their length, but this is only an illusion. It stems from a lack of features that allow the eye to track motion along the length of the bands." Codona explains the shadow bands as basically a twinkling effect involving the thin solar crescent just before and after totality. The twinkling is created by turbulence only tens or hundreds of feet above the ground. The eclipse shadow bands, like so many other "well-explained" phenomena, display idiosyncracies that do not dovetail well with theory. Codona mentions two of these: (1 ) Bands of different colors, travelling at different speeds, are sometimes seen superimposed on each other; and (2 ) Bands of giant size have been observed. (Codona, Johana L.; "The Enigma of Shadow ...
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... mysterious computation" tells us that he is a reductionist. The implication is that everything mental can be reduced to manipulating those 1s and 0s. In reality, Kasparov's brain may have been innovating, working out new strategies, discerning Big Blue's weaknesses. These "higherlevel" functions are needed when the problem (chess) is too complex for a computer to evaluate all possible moves. (A computer can always win or draw at checkers -- a simpler game.) Of course, we do not know how "higher-level" functions are "mechanized" -- perhaps they are not, and there is "something else" going on in the human brain. Another interesting fact, incidental to the Kasparov match, is that Big Blue. Blue, when faced with identical chess boards, will sometimes make different moves! Maybe even Big Blue's behavior is not always reducible to 1s and 0s. (Horgan, John; "Plotting the Next Move." Scientific American, 274:16, May 1996) From Science Frontiers #106, JUL-AUG 1996 . 1996-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... the January 1988 number of Sky and Telescope. Doubts do surface once in a while, despite all the TV documentaries, all the textbooks, and all the newspaper jottings, where black holes are described in the hushed tones used only with profound truths of nature. To set the stage, we quote a paragraph from said article: "There is, however, a serious problem with black holes, one that leaves some scientists skeptical about their existence. The overarching mystery lies hidden at a hole's center. Einstein's general theory of relativity predicts that we will find there an object more massive than a million Earths and yet smaller than an atom -- so small, in fact, that its density approches infinity. The idea of any physical quantity becoming infinite flies in the face of everything we know about how nature behaves. So there is good reason to be skeptical that such a nasty thing could happen anywhere at all." Among the observations that hint at the reality of black holes are the X-ray binaries. In a typical X-ray binary, prodigious, flickering fluxes of X-rays reveal the presence of an ultradense star and an orbiting companion. The rapid orbital motion of the companion star tells us that the central X-ray star has a mass of more than three suns. General Relativity assures us that such a star can only collapse further to form a black hole. Therefore, black holes must exist. J. McClintock, the author of this article, does not buy this reasoning. General Relativity, he says, has ...
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... is intended as an occasional vehicle for scientific papers that fail to win the full-throated approval of the referees to whom they have been sent, but which are nevertheless judged to be of sufficient importance to command the attention of readers..." Certainly, this is a commendable development. But not surprisingly, the first paper is an at-tack on the Big Bang. Most of the authors of this first article are familiar to readers of Science Frontiers: H. Arp (Not all redshifts are measures of receding velocity.); G. Burbidge (Quasars are not as far away as they seem.); and F. Hoyle (The multidisciplinary iconoclast who helped de velop the Steady State theory of the universe.) None of these scientists has recanted, even in face of not-so-subtle pressures to conform. The first paper in Hypothesis. Arp et al summarize in two sentences: "We discuss evidence to show that the generally accepted view of the Big Bang model for the origin of the Universe is unsatisfactory. We suggest an alternative model that satisfies the constraints better." Most of the paper sets out observational evidence for the authors' main themes, as stated parenthetically above following their names. Space is also devoted to the contention that the vaunted "proofs" of the Big Bang are really not. Since these themes have appeared repeatedly in Science Frontiers, we will bypass details here. The paper concludes with suggestions for an alternative to the Big Bang, which is based upon multiple creation events -- thousands of them, each on ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 67: Jan-Feb 1990 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Psychotherapy May Delay Cancer Deaths In previous entries, we have reported that imaging, positive thinking, and other psychological stratagems seemed to have some effect on the progress of cancer in humans. Such positive results have generally been pooh-poohed by the medical establishment. In fact, the results recently reported by Stanford psychiatrist D. Spiegel were obtained during an attempt to show that psycho therapy had no effect whatsoever on cancer. Thirteen years ago, Spiegel participated in a short-term program in which group therapy was given to 86 patients with advanced breast cancer. The goal was simply to make the patients feel better and "face their mortality." The result was that the patients became less anxious, less fearful, and more positive. They even learned to reduce their pain through self-hypnosis. That was the end of the program. Recently, Spiegel, fed up with claims that positive thinking could help control cancer, tracked down the patients who had received psychotherapy earlier. He expected to find no difference between their fates and those of a control group that had not received psychotherapy. Not so! Those in the control group had lived an average of 19 more months, compared to an average 37 months for those getting the psychotherapy. Spiegel said, "I just couldn't believe it." "What I am flat out certain of is that something about being in groups helped these women live longer. But what ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 67: Jan-Feb 1990 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Explaining lunar flashes with life-savers Two recent items in the literature suggest ways in which flashes of light can be generated on the face of the moon. The first enlists the "Life-Saver effect (or "sugar-cube effect"). When Life Savers, sugar cubes, or rocks are fractured, light may flash from their broken surfaces. R.R . Zito, from Lockheed, thinks these flashes occur when energetic electrons are emitted from freshly fractured surfaces. Lunar rocks cracking under stress might very well produce flashes visible from earth. Zito also states that newly fractured rocks emit a curious burst of radio waves in the frequency range of 900-5 ,000 Hertz. (Eberhart, J.; "Does the Moon Spark Like a Life-Saver?" Science News, 136: 375, 1989.) The second explanation of lunar flashes blames them on earth satellites passing in front of the moon. Satellite surfaces can flash like a car's windshield in sunlight, thus simulating a lunar flash. It was just this mechanism that was used to explain the mysterious "flasher" in the constellation Perseus. (SF#53) The May 23, 1985, lunar flash, reported in SF#64, may have been a reflection from a large military weather satellite that was transiting the moon at the time of the flash, say R.R . Rast and P. Maley. ...
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... in Meteoritic Amino Acids," Science, 275:951, 1997. Also: Peterson, I.; "Left-Handed Excess in Meteorite Molecules," Science News, 151:118, 1997. Note that left-handed amino acids in the Murchison meteorite were also reported in the early 1980s: Kerr, Richard A.; "Odd Amino Acids in a Meteorite," Science, 216:972, 1982.) Comments. This discovery of a tilted universe means that we cannot confirm Martian life with spacecraft instruments that test for an excess of left-handed amino acids. Human philosophers, from the ancient Greeks to the present, like to think the universe is in balance, that equality reigns, yin and yang, and similar presumptions. But, let's face it: our particular universe is lopsided. Of course, our universe may be balanced by another one far away, where everything, including its intelligent life forms, are made from right-handed amino acids -- chemically speaking, a mirror image of our universe. Balance could thus be preserved at that scale. From Science Frontiers #111, MAY-JUN 1997 . 1997-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... , Maine, reports the discovery of some truly remarkable stone artifacts in eastern Washington County, Maine. These artifacts were extracted from a small cist, or tomb, constructed of slabs of slate laid over a hollow space between a ledge and a row of stones. As the following description attests, these artifacts are anomalous to Maine (and perhaps anywhere in the States.) "Elliott has three stone artifacts that he says came to light when he tilted two or three of the slabs covering one end of the tomb, which lies east-to-west. The grave items consist of a smooth rectangular green stone resembling a whetstone but bearing four letters or symbols; a four-inch pendant that is a flat stone oval bearing on one side and eye and on the other side a face of the sun with four rays, a crescent above, and six or seven letters in an undetermined script below; and a 15- inch ceremonial slate spear point showing on one side a bearded, trousered man in a hat or helmet with one arm severed and one foot missing, and on the other side a bear-like animal with two spears sticking out of him. In front of the bear are marks resembling the Roman numerals for eight, with the V tipped to one side." Members of NEARA (New England Antiquities Research Association) have visited the site; and professional archeologists have been invited to inspect the finds. (Wiggins, John R.; "Archaeological Riddle," Ellsworth American , August 3, 1989. Cr. J. Covey.) Comment ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 117: May-June 1998 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Hard facts at cahokia Aliens, mystery races, or aborigines? Astronomy The flat face of mars The accelerating universe Biology The unread biotic message Terrestrial life is ambidextrous Kinky sex among the invertebrates Light makes bright Geology Two catastrophe scenarios Geophysics Flash auroras Foo fighters recalled Rare north atlantic light wheel Psychology Ability to detect covert observation Experimental induction of the "sensed presence" Chemistry & Physics More disorder here produces order there Logic & Math The evolution of computers ...
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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 "stealth" region of mars Now that the Mars Global Surveyor has convinced almost everyone that the famous "face" on this planet is really only an eroded mesa, we can attend to some other Martian curiosities. One of these is the so-called "stealth" region. For some 2,000 kilometers along the Martian equator west of Arsia Mons and Pavonis Mons stretches an area that is invisible to terrestrial radar. Of course, we can see this region; but, when a 3centimeter radar is pointed at it, no detectable echoes are returned. Thus, the term "stealth," as in the F-117 Stealth aircraft, Are the clever Martians trying to conceal something from prying earthlings, using, say, a "cloaking" device a la Star Trek? Of course not. Loose, unconsolidated sediments are poor reflectors of radar waves. Examination of Viking-Orbiter photos tell geologists that the "stealth" region is almost certainly thickly strewn with volcanic ash, which would absorb the radar waves very well. (Edgett, Kennth S., et al; "Geologic Context of the Mars Radar "Stealth" Region in Southwestern Tharsis," Journal of Geophysical Research, 102:21,545, 1997.) From Science Frontiers #118, JUL-AUG 1998 . 1998-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... very same journal. As for the differences in artifacts, Carter asked why one should expect 12,000-year-old Paleoindian artifacts to look like 200,000-year-old artifacts from an entirely different culture. (Duvall, James G., III; "Calico Revisited," Science News, 131:227, 1987. Carter, George F.; "Calico Defended," Science News, 131:339, 1987.) Comment. We don't really know whether or not the Calico "artifacts" were really made by humans 200,000 years ago. No one really does! One may opine or theorize, and that's it. The really annoying aspect of the Calico business is the tendency of scientists to make absolute statements in the face of contradictory evidence. This desire for certainty extends to all of science. Reviewers of our books often remark that such-and-such an anomaly was explained long ago, despite the many references to contradictory facts and well-founded minority opinions. So anxious are some scientists to stifle dissent that one geologist recently asserted that continental drift was now so well-proven that no more contradictory data should be published! From Science Frontiers #52, JUL-AUG 1987 . 1987-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... galaxies in which they occur. Presently, GRBs occur in each galaxy about once every 100 million years, but theory suggests that they were much more frequent in the past. As a consequence, by the time intelligent life evolves anywhere and figures out how to build spaceships, they are zapped by a GRB. Perhaps some do begin exploration of their galaxy, but they don't get very far. (Matthews, Robert; "Sorry, We'll Be Late," New Scientist, p. 16, January 23, 1999.) Comment. Any reader of science fiction can come up with other explanations: (1 ) ETs have been here but find nothing of interest and leave; (2 ) ETs were here and helped build Atlantis, the Great Pyramid, the Face on Mars, etc.; (3 ) ETs are here now but avoid human contact; and (4 ) ETs are here now but look so much like us that we cannot tell the difference! You are free to make up your own explanations! Yes, we live in a favored galaxy, because life on earth has not been GRBsterilized for at least 3 billion years -- 30 times the average period between GRBs. Are we simply lucky? From Science Frontiers #122, MAR-APR 1999 . 1999-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... bizarre, and amusing. The first two anecdotes involve amputees experiencing the phantom-limb phenomenon. The accepted explanation of this phenomenon is that the irritated stump of an amputee sends nerve messages that deceive the brain into signaling that the limb is there after all. Ramachandran, a neurologist, has shown that this theory is incorrect. Instead, he asserts, when the area of the brain assigned to the lost limb no longer receives sensory input from the area, it begins to react to sensory input arriving at adjoining areas in the brain. In other words, the idle area "overhears" nearby signals that are being processed and acts upon them in error. This view explains why by simply stroking a man who had lost an arm, Ramachandran discovered two virtual hands in the man's face and shoulder. A touch on the man's cheek brought the response, "You're touching my thumb." The second anecdote is explained by the fact that the area in the sensory cortex assigned to the genitals is located next to that for the feet. Genital stimulation of people who have lost a foot triggers sensations in the phantom leg. One man had orgasms in his phantom leg as well as his genitals! Lastly, there are those people who cannot recognize that they are paralyzed, say, on their left sides. Even when they obviously fail to pick up things with their left arms and cannot tie their shoes, they are emphatic that they are not paralyzed. Strangely and inexplicably, squirting water in the left ear brings them back to reality, but only ...
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