Science Frontiers
The Unusual & Unexplained

Strange Science * Bizarre Biophysics * Anomalous astronomy
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About Science Frontiers

Science Frontiers is the bimonthly newsletter providing digests of reports that describe scientific anomalies; that is, those observations and facts that challenge prevailing scientific paradigms. Over 2000 Science Frontiers digests have been published since 1976.

These 2,000+ digests represent only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. The Sourcebook Project, which publishes Science Frontiers, also publishes the Catalog of Anomalies, which delves far more deeply into anomalistics and now extends to sixteen volumes, and covers dozens of disciplines.

Over 14,000 volumes of science journals, including all issues of Nature and Science have been examined for reports on anomalies. In this context, the newsletter Science Frontiers is the appetizer and the Catalog of Anomalies is the main course.


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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 36: Nov-Dec 1984 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Zeta not a higgs: too bad!It should have been a Higgs particle but it wasn't -- at least not quite. So they called it a "zeta." About eight times the mass of a proton, the zeta particle was created when electrons and positrons collided at about 10 Gev (gigavolts of energy), where it appeared among the decay products of the upsilon particle. Physicists needed a Higgs particle to bolster the latest theory of particles. Unfortunately, the zeta's properties don't quite match those predicted for the Higgs particle. There are similarities, but at the moment the zeta is definitely ... . It turns out that there is a similar anomalous particle produced by the decay of psi particles, so the zeta is not alone. (Thomsen, Dietrick E.; "Zeta Particle: Physicists' New Mystery," Science News, 126:84, 1984.) Comment. It is easy to become jaded by all the confusing particles flying around physics labs these days. But we must appreciate that physicists absolutely must find that Higgs particle. Theory says that if the Higgs doesn't exist, all other particles will have either zero or infinite masses, neither of which makes much sense. Such is the power of theoretical expectations. From Science Frontiers #36, NOV-DEC 1984 . 1984-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... 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 Of iron whiskers and particles that increase mass with age!Two pillars of the Big Bang hypothesis are: (1 ) Redshifts of galaxies support the notion of an expanding universe; and (2 ) The background microwave radiation can be interpreted as the dying embers of the Big Bang itself. Proponents of the Big Bang feel secure atop these pillars. But should they? A few Big-Bang skeptics, who have survived considerable establishment pressure, see growing cracks in those pillars. J. Narlikar identified two such cracks and, best of all, offered exciting remedies: (1 ) The redshift relationship, which works well with galaxies, falls apart when applied to quasars (see graphs); and (2 ) The background microwave radiation is much too smooth to come from the lumpy universe we observe. Narlikar opines as follows: Plot of red shift versus galaxy faintness supports the proposition that red shift is proportional to distance The same plot for quasars produces a scatter of points, suggesting that here red shifts have nothing to do with distance. "Given these problems, it is not a sound strategy to put all of our cosmic eggs in one big-bang basket. Rather, we should explore other possibilities. Thirty years ago, there was a more open debate on alternative theories, which made valuable contributions to our undersanding of cosmology. For a healthy growth of the subject, the big bang hypothesis needs competition from other ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 40: Jul-Aug 1985 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Messengers of a "new physics"In a "garage" off the road tunnel running deep under Mont Blanc sits a huge particle detector called Nusex. A second, complementary experiment resides 600 meters below the surface in a Minnesota mine. Both experiments are tuned to measure charged particles of very high energy, especially muons, which penetrate their high rocky ceilings with ease. These two arrays of buried detectors have both picked up fluxes of muons coming from the direction of Cygnus X-3 Now Cygnus X-3 is already classed as a remarkable object because it spews out pulses of X-rays and gamma-rays. It turns out that the muon fluxes arrive in phase with the pulses of gamma-rays and X-rays, and are thus definitely linked to Cygnus X-3 . The problem here is that muons are electrically charged particles that would assuredly be thrown far off course by intergalactic magnetic fields if they originated at Cygnus X-3 . The muons, therefore, must be created by electrically neutral particles arriving at the earth's atmosphere from Cygnus X-3 . Neutrons can be ruled out because they would decay in transit. X-ray photons and neutrinos have also been ruled out. The only alternative left seems to be some unknown neutral particle generated at Cygnus X-3 . Cygnus X-3may be a huge particle accelerator which "may operate in a realm of physics inaccessible on Earth, ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 100: Jul-Aug 1995 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects When Different Universes Rub Together Over the past few years, more than one theorist has proposed that our universe coexists with at least one, perhaps many, other universes. Said universes are constituted of particles possessing properties so different from own own that we cannot normally discern the reality of these other "existences." In other words, astronomers cannot visually see the stars of these "shadow universes, nor do our detectors of electricity and magnetism acknowledge them. Normally, the subatomic "shadow" particles do not interact with our own particles either. Then, why even bother to contemplate shadow universes? Well, physicists say that none of their laws prohibits the existence of these other universes, and that's reason enough to search for a "looking-glass" entrance of some sort. Just suppose that the particles of one of these shadow universes do possess mass (or whatever shadow physicists call it). Some speculate that this shadow mass could be the "missing mass" that cosmologists have been looking for and can't find. Cosmologists need something palpable out there to explain the puzzling dynamics of galaxies and other phenomena. Some physicists in our universe have conceived of a situation where our universe may "rub together" with a shadow universe. [Honestly!] During such less-than-cataclysmic encounters, some of the electric charge on our-world particles could be "scraped off" and transferred to shadow ...
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... 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 ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 35: Sep-Oct 1984 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Blooms in the desert?Particle physicists have recently observed anomalous events in data from the proton-antiproton collider at the European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN). These unexpected events occur when a proton hits an antiproton head-on at very high energies. Highly collimated jets of charged particles shoot out in one direction, while an unrecognized "something" takes off in the opposite direction. The reactions take place at energies just beyond the masses of the newly discovered W and Z particles. Till now, this energy region has been dubbed a "desert" because, according to the so-called Grand Unification Theory of particle interactions, nothing is supposed to happen there. But there is something there after all; and whatever it is, it does not seem to be remotely like any known or predicted particle. (Waldrop, M. Mitchell; "Blooms in the Desert?" Science, 224:589, 1984.) From Science Frontiers #35, SEP-OCT 1984 . 1984-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 95: Sep-Oct 1994 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects This was the big one, but where did it come from?October 15, 1991. American Southwest. Photomultipliers in the Fly's Eye telescopes 100 kilometers southwest of Salt Lake City recorded the havoc wrought in the upper atmosphere by the most energetic cosmic-ray particle ever measured. When this tiny subatomic particle slammed into air molecules, the ensuing debris caused the surrounding atmosphere to fluoresce. The amount of light produced indicated that this cosmic ray had an energy of 3 x 1020 electron volts -- that's equivalent to the energy of a bowling ball dropped from waist level. Now that's a lot of energy for a subatomic particle! Because cosmic rays normally lose energy as they collide with photons in their cosmic wanderings, astrophysicists believe that "the big one" had to have a recent, nearby origin in order to still be so energetic. But no one has any idea where it could have come from or how it might have acquired so much energy. Somewhere out there in nearby space there may be a natural particle accelerator orders of magnitude more powerful than our biggest earthbound atom smashers. (Anonymous; "The Deepening Mystery of Cosmic-Ray Origins," Sky and Telescope, 87:12, May 1994.) Comment. Actually, the source of "the big one" need not have been nearby and recent. All anomalists will recognize that this is an assumption based upon the particle ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 37: Jan-Feb 1985 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Squarks and photinos at cern?At the CERN lab, in Geneva, physicists shoot protons and antiprotons at each other so that they collide head-on. The colliding particles usually fragment one another and in the process release a variety of subatomic debris and energy. Large arrays of detectors surrounding the collision site record the particles as they streak away. Usually the escaping particles can be easily identified; but in 1983 nine strange events were recorded, and more have occurred in 1984. Something both invisible and inexplicable carried off large amounts of energy during these "strange" events. Physicist Carlos Rubbia, of CERN and Harvard, said: "There is no sensible way to explain the missing energy by known particles." Some theorists believe that these anomalous events will be explained only by invoking what is termed "supersymmetry" theory. Supersymmetry predicts that twice as many particles as those known today must exist. Already, physicists are rushing to name the new, though unverified particles. The symmetric partner of the "quarks" will be the "squarks"; the "photon" will be paired with the "photino"; there will be the "selectron" for the "electron"; and so on. (Thomsen, D.E .; "Strange Happenings at CERN," Science News, 126:292, 1984.) From Science Frontiers #37, JAN-FEB 1985 . 1985-2000 William R ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 26: Mar-Apr 1983 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Maybe there's one stable particle!The new Grand Unified Theories (GUTs) of physics predict that the proton decays radioactively -- contrary to what you may have been taught in physics class. Several experiments in deep mines and tunnels seem to have registered proton decays. Is nothing stable anymore? There is hope. A huge cubical detector, 21 meters on a side, is now operating 2000 feet under Lake Erie in a salt mine. The water-filled cube is monitored by 2048 photomultipler tubes, and is serviced by divers! After 80 days of operation, no events resembling proton decays have been detected, whereas many would have been expected if the other reports were true. The GUTs may be in trouble; and there may be something stable in the universe that we can count on! (Thomsen, D.E .; "Decay-Resistant Protons in Ohio," Science News, 123:85, 1983.) Comment. See SF#14 for some of the strange particles detected in the Kolar Gold Fields, in India, where some of the supposed proton decays were reported. From Science Frontiers #26, MAR-APR 1983 . 1983-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 114: Nov-Dec 1997 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Quantum mechanics is definitely spooky "I cannot seriously believe in [the quantum theory] because it cannot be reconciled with the idea that physics should represent a reality in time and space, free from spooky actions at a distance." (Ref. 1) So Einstein wrote Max Born in March 1947. Well, even Einstein could have been wrong! "It's getting even spookier out there. Particles can be strangely connected over at least ten kilometres, according to results from physicists in Geneva. Using pairs of "entangled" photons, Nicolas Gisin and his colleagues from the University of Geneva have shown that the measurement of one particle will instantaneously determine the state of the other." (Ref. 2) This particular spooky aspect of quantum mechanics was demonstrated 15 years ago over a distance of just a few meters. Many physicists had expected (probably "hoped") that this "mysterious link" between separated particles would weaken with distance. But this quantum-mechanics effect does not conform to "common-sense" expectations! Now it seems that one particle of an "entangled pair" knows instantaneously what its mate is doing, possibly even if it is located on the other side of the universe. More quantum-mechanics spookiness is seen in "tunneling" phenomena, such as that mentioned in AR#3 , where a Mozart symphony zipped through a barrier at 4.7 times the speed of ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 41: Sep-Oct 1985 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Restless Gold Thanks to the development of high-resolution electron microscopes and video recorders, we can now watch the bizarre behavior of tiny solid particles, which, it turns out, are not so solid after all. Ultrafine particles of gold about 18 Angstrom units across, containing only about 500 atoms, are not statis aggregations. The shapes of the particles are always changing. The gold atoms move cooperatively to shift kaleidoscope-like into various crystal structures. They have, in fact, been dubbed 'quasi-solids.' A large gold particle may even ingest smaller gold particles. The phenomena have no explanations as yet. (Anonymous; "Japanese Gold in Atomic Motion," Nature, 315:628, 1985.) From Science Frontiers #41, SEP-OCT 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 14: Winter 1981 Supplement Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects There's more than gold in the kolar mines When physicists installed nuclear-particle detectors deep in a mine in the Kolar Gold Fields in India, they hoped to measure particles created by highly penetrating neutrinos arriving from cosmic sources. They found instead immense showers of nuclear particles coming, not from above as expected, but from the sides and even below! These huge showers of 1,000 or more assorted particles are called "anomalous cascades." Neutrinos are the only known particles capable of penetrating the entire earth to create upwardly directed showers, but ordinary neutrinos do not seem to have enough energy to give birth to the anomalous cascades. (Anonymous; "Particle Shower Sprays Upward," Science News, 118:246, 1980.) Comment. Are there sources of unrecognized radiation deep within the earth? From Science Frontiers #14, Winter 1981 . 1981-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... galactic center, just as planet velocities do in the solar system. They don't , so some gravitational force from some unseen mass must counterbalancing centrifugal force (mark that this is presumptious! The "force" need not be gravity.) Observations suggesting that galaxies formed when the universe was less than a billion years old. The gravitational pull of the visible mass is inadequate to cause this clumping so quickly in the history of the universe. Many candidates have been proposed to play the dark-matter role. One of the more popular possibilities is that vast sea of neutrinos pervading the cosmos -- if they really do display just a hint of mass. Two other candidates now on the table are so bizarre that we marvel at the ingenuity of the theorists. One involves exceedingly large particles, the other unbelievably tiny clumps of particles. At the "giant" end of the size spectrum are galaxy-size particles weighing only 10-24 as much as an electron, which is itself by no means large. It would be hard to experimentally distinguish such ethereal particles from a hard vacuum. A Princeton team, led by W. Hu, asserts that such particles would coalesce into giant globs of "fuzzy", cold, dark matter. Now if only Hu et al would tell us how to detect them! (Pease, Roland: "Globs in Space" New Scientist, p. 5, August 26, 2000.) So-called "Q -balls" are also candidates for dark matter. Theorists claim that Q-balls were created during the ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 76: Jul-Aug 1991 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects New Insights As To The Structure Of Matter Possible "nuclear-molecular" forms of magnesium-24 and carbon-12. Inside the atom. Physicists have long visualized the atomic nucleus as being a shell-like arrangement of its constituent protons and neutrons. Tantalizing experiments suggest other wise. Magnes ium-24, for example, may under some circumstances exist as two carbon-12 nuclei in tight orbit, as in the illustra tion. Even more startling is the "sausage" form of magnesium-24, in which six helium-4 nuclei (alpha particles) are lined up in a row. This "hyperdeformed" state has not yet been detected in the lab, but it demonstrates new thinking among the physicists. (Kenward, Michael; "Are Atoms Composed of Molecules?" New Scientist, p. 21, April 6, 1991.) Comment. Evidently we do not know everything about nuclear physics. Beyond the molecule. We are used to seeing atoms and molecules arranging themselves into mathematically regular crystals. Now it appears that particles consisting of thousands of atoms also spontaneously organize themselves. A.S . Edelstein et al find that molybdenum particles assemble themselves in cubes with two prominent edge lengths: 4.8 and 17.5 nanometers. The larger cubes show up in micrographs as 3x3x3 groupings of the smaller cubes. The smaller cubes each contain about 7000 atoms. (Edelstein, A.S ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 6: February 1979 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Humps Of Particles In The Gulf Stream Peculiar humps or hills of particulate material, thousands of feet long and hundreds high, have been observed in the Florida Current with ultrasensitive, 20-kilohertz sonar. The humps extend from the bottom of the oceanic mixed layer to near the surface. Sediment and plankton probably make up the humps, but the actual constitution and cause of the concentrations are unknown. Conceivably, currents could concentrate the particulate matter; so could some sort of coordinated, collective biological activity. (Proni, John R., et al; "Vertical Particulate Spires or Walls within the Florida Current and near the Antilles Current," Nature, 276:360, 1978.) From Science Frontiers #6 , February 1979 . 1979-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 41: Sep-Oct 1985 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects All Things Appear To Those Who Accelerate We have said some nasty things about WIMPS (Weakly Interacting Massive Particles). But perhaps the existence of WIMPS is only a matter of one's private trajectory in the cosmos! Recently, theorists fiddling with the possible consequences of quantum mechanics came up with some shockers: 1. An accelerating observer can detect particles that a stationary observer will swear do not exist; 2. An accelerating reflecting surface (theoretically) creates a flux of particles that stream away from its surface; and 3. An accelerating mirror can carry away negative energy! After cogitating on such discoveries, Paul Davies wondered, "Might it even be that the apparently solid matter of the Universe around us is only the consequence of our particular motion?" Par-ticles of matter, in this theoretical scheme, would be only chimeras of our individual motions. (Davies, Paul; "Do Particles Really Exist?" New Scientist, p. 40, May 2, 1985.) Comment. Omar Khayyam practically predicted this curious state of affairs when he wrote: "We are no other than a moving row/Of magic shadow-shapes that come and go." From Science Frontiers #41, SEP-OCT 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 39: May-Jun 1985 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Anomalous Anomalons Anomalons are fragments of atomic nuclei that interact with other nuclei more readily than expected. They seem to represent a previously unknown and highly reactive state of nuclear matter. Not all physicists can find them experimentally; and far from all believe they exist. Until now, only large nuclear fragments have been found to be anomalons. But some Indian physicists working in the USSR have bombarded carbon-12 nuclei with carbon-12 nuclei and found anomalously active alpha particles in the debris from the collisions. Not all of the alphas were anomalous, which makes the situation all the more mysterious. Just what makes a law-abiding alpha particle (a combination of two protons and two neutrons) into a highly reactive anomalon? (Anonymous; "More Anomalous Nuclear Fragments," Science News, 127:105, 1985.) Comment. This is the first case of very small anomalons. There does not seem to be much one could do to something as simple as an alpha particle to make it more reactive. From Science Frontiers #39, MAY-JUN 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 54: Nov-Dec 1987 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Through A Peephole Tantalizingly The flood of data that comes out of the type of physics experiment in which two subatomic particles collide at high energy is often so copious that physicists need some time to notice and interpret some of the strange new things that appear. This is especially true if the strange new things are of a sort that nobody was looking for. "Thus, some anomalous events that occurred at the PETRA colliding beam apparatus of the German Electron Synchrotron Laboratory (DESY) in Hamburg back in 1984 are now being interpreted as what Harald Fritzsch of DESY calls 'a peephole' into a possible new domain of physics..." What happened in 1984 was that one detector saw unexplainable particles -- that is, unexplainable in the context of cur rent theories. But since so other detectors in operation saw the event, the data were forgotten. But later, five more such events were seen on a different detector. (Anonymous; "Through a Peephole Tantalizingly," Science News, 132:219, 1987.) Comment. Just when we were getting used to fractionally charged quarks and particles of different "colors," this has to happen! From Science Frontiers #54, NOV-DEC 1987 . 1987-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 41: Sep-Oct 1985 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Wimps in the sun?For over two decades now, physicists have been measuring the neutrino flux emitted by the sun -- and despite all attempts this flux is much too low. It just doesn't jibe with what theorists say should be happening in the thermonuclear powerhouse in the sun's interior. J. Faulkner and R. Gilliland have conceived a solution to this dilemma. They postulate a large population of WIMPS (Weakly Interactive Massive Particles) orbiting the sun's core, but still well beneath the sun's visible surface. The WIMPS help convey heat out of the core, thereby cooling it to temperatures significantly less than those predicted by the astrophysicists. A cooler core emits fewer neutrinos, bringing theory into line with reality. And just what are these WIMPS? One suggestion is that they are photinos, a particle suggested (but not proved) by recent experiments at CERN (SF#37) (Thomsen, D.E .; "Weak Sun Blamed on WIMPS," Science News, 128:23, 1985.) Comment. WIMPS represent just the kind of particle that Dewey Larson railed against in his book: The Universe of Motion. He maintains that astronomers have to engage in such ridiculous theoretical gymnastics and invention only because they have picked the wrong energy-generating mechanism for stars and refuse to give it up! Larson's theory, on the other hand, solves this ...
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... pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Solar Model Confirmed, But Standard Model Crippled A persistent astronomical anomaly (well-covered in SF#112 and earlier) has apparently been satisfactorily disposed of. Even staunch anomalists will have to close the book on the solar-neutrinodeficit problem. No deficit really exists because the neutrinos emitted by the sun change while in flight from a type that is easy to detect to a type that is difficult to register experimentally. The total number of neutrinos reaching the earth is what it should be according to theory but we have not been able to detect them all. This neutrino schizophrenia has now been confirmed, and our theory about how the sun works is safe. But the erasure of the solar-neutrinodeficit problem tells the particle physicists that neutrinos do indeed change type, which implies that they possess mass. But anomalies are sometimes contagious. The Standard Model of particle physics, so successful in many respects, is now ailing. It asserts that neutrinos cannot change types and do not possess mass. (Seife, Charles; "Polymorphous Particles Solve Solar Mystery," Science, 292:2227, 2001. Weiss, P.; " Physics Bedrock Cracks, Sun Shines In," Science News, 159:388, 2001.) Comment. Without question, we have here an experimental triumph, but the undermining of that pillar of physics, the Standard Model, is a high price to pay. We have closed one book, but Nature has replaced it with another that is more fundamental and wide open ...
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... Subjects A Nuclear Catastrophe In Paleoindian Times?Introduction. We introduce here 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: ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 43: Jan-Feb 1986 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Exploring The Suberranean World Of Life Examining fluid inclusions in hydrothermal quartz crystals obtained from a drill hole in Yellowstone National Park, K.E . Bargar and his colleagues from the U.S . Geological Survey noted many rodlike and threadlike particles that closely resembled bacteria. Although these partiles move, as if alive, they are only in Brownian motion. But even in death, they tell us that life forms can prosper deep underground at very high pressures and temperatures. The crystals that ultimately grew around the fluid particles came from fractures in Pleistocene rhyolite hundreds of feet below the surface. The authors concluded: "Thermophilic microorganisms may hold the key to an understanding of several biological and geochemical processes, including the origin of life. The discovery of possible microorganisms in these fluid inclusions from the Yellowstone volcanic area enlarges the range of potential environments over which subsequent investigations should be conducted." (Barger, Keith E., et al; "Particles in Fluid Inclusions from Yellowstone National Park -- Bacteria?" Geology, 13:483, 1985.) Comment. It is appropriate to note that similar "organized elements" have been noticed in meteorites for over a century. From Science Frontiers #43, JAN-FEB 1986 . 1986-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 106: Jul-Aug 1996 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects A SAGA OF SOOT: PART II Shortly after Hyakutake's X-rays were announced, a fourth theory of origin was put forth by acknowledged heretics C. Wickramasinghe and F. Hoyle. Comet Hyakutake, they said, was not emitting X-rays itself. Instead, solar X-rays were mirrored in earth's direction by a cloud of very tiny carbon-containing particles released by the comet. Electrons in these nanometer-sized particles acted as if they were free electrons, and these are excellent scatterers of X-rays. Anyone familiar with the writings of Hoyle and Wickramasinghe can guess what these nanometer-sized particles might be: viruses, of course! Said Wickramasinghe: "It all fits in the the idea that there are real viruses in comets and that comets are the agents by which life is brought to planets." (Chown, Marcus; "Do X-ray Comets Shed Carbon?" New Scientist, p. 19, May 11, 1996) From Science Frontiers #106, JUL-AUG 1996 . 1996-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 105: May-Jun 1996 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Is matter infinitely divisible?Just over a year ago, particle physicists at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) announced that they had at last found the top quark, the final particle needed to flesh out the so-called Standard Model of subatomic physics. Then, all seemed serene in the world of quarks and gluons. Quarks, you see, are held to be the smallest building blocks of matter and now they had all been found and cataloged. The collection was complete. But a storm cloud has now appeared on the event horizon, casting a shadow on the solidity of the quarks themselves. Are they really fundamental; that is, indivisible? Fermilab scientists now wonder, for when they crash protons into antiprotons head-on at very high energies, the resulting debris clouds display an anomaly. Some of the supposedly indestructable quarks seem to have fragmented, too. The collision energies seem high enough penetrate the integument of the quarks if they are divisible. There may be other explanations of the deviation from theory, but right now quarks seem a bit more fragile than they did just a few months ago. (Wilczek, Frank; "A Crack in the Standard Model?" Nature, 380:19, 1996. Also: Walker, Gabrielle; "The Secret Heart of a Quark," New Scientist, p. 17, February 17, 1996) Comment. If quarks can be split, perhaps ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 123: May-Jun 1999 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Storm-Swept Cosmos Snug and comfy beneath our insulating atmosphere and magnetosphere, we muse glibly about voyages to the stars and wonder whether extraterrestrials may already have established galactic civilizations. What we often ignore is the fact that forces and energies almost beyond our comprehension course through the cosmos. Even the Starship Enterprise could not really survive out there. Three cautionary tidits will illustrate the hazards as well as our ignorance of them. "What could possibly accelerate a single subatomic particle to such a high speed, 99.99999999999999999999 percent that of light, that it would smash into the earth's atmosphere with the energy of a hard-hit tennis ball? If you don't have a clue you're not alone. These particles are ultra-high-energy cosmic rays, which are billions of times more energetic than the run-of-the-mill cosmic rays that continuously bombard earth's atmosphere." (Anonymous; "Space Streakers," Astronomy, 27:34, March 1999.) "The most powerful explosion ever ever observed -- a deep space eruption detected in January -- released in just seconds a burst of energy equal to billions of years of light from thousands of suns. Researchers say in studies to be published today that the explosion, called a gamma-ray burst, occurred 9 billion light years from earth. What caused the explosion is a mystery." (Anonymous ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 44: Mar-Apr 1986 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Of Dust Clouds And Ice Ages Ice cores from the polar ice at Camp Century, in Greenland, have been analyzed for the presence of cosmic dust. "It is concluded that on five occasions during the interval 20,000-14,000 years BP, cosmic dust mass concentrations in the solar system rose by one and two orders of magnitude above present day levels. Moreover if the particles found in these ice core samples are indicative of the particle size distribution which prevailed in the interplanetary medium at that time, then it may be concluded that the space number density of submicron sized particles must have uncreased by a factor of 105 or more. During these times the light transmission properties of the solar system would have been significantly altered resulting in major adverse effects to the earth's climate. Thus it is quite possible that these dust congestion episodes were responsible for the abrupt climatic variations which occurred toward the end of the last Ice Age." Whence these interplanetary dust clouds? The author of this article ruled out terrestrial volcanism (an insufficient source of iridium) and encounters with asteroids and cometary tails (too infrequent to account for the long periods of high dust levels). Rather, the dust source may have been the same event that created the recently discovered dust ring between Mars and Jupiter, which is believed to be only a few tens of thousands of years old. The nature of the "event" is not ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 40: Jul-Aug 1985 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Most Profound Discovery Of Science This is what one scientist calls Bell's Theorem. Certainly not all scientists would agree with such an absolute declaration. Since Bell's Theorem lurks in the fog-shrouded country of quantum mechanics, most biologists probably haven't even heard of it. In any event, they would probably think the discovery of the genetic code more profound. Why all the fuss over Bell's Theo-rem? In the laboratory, Bell's Theorem is associated with an admittedly spooky effect: the measurements made on one particle affect the measurements made on a second, far-removed particle. In theory, the second particle could be on the other side of the galaxy, with absolutely no physical connection between the two -- unless you admit to spooky action-at-a -distance forces. (Some over-ly zealous think-tankers have even contemplated applying this effect to long distance, untappable, unjammable communications with submarines!) The article (referenced below) in which this apparent magic is discussed also dwells on another profundity associated with quantum mechanics: does that which is not observed exist? Einstein felt intuitively that it did; and one of his remarks on the subject led to this article's title. Unfortunately for Einstein, all recent laboratory experiments demonstrate that spooky actionat-a -distance forces do exist and that Einstein's intuition was incorrect. (Mermin ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 19: Jan-Feb 1982 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Magical Communication In The Subatomic World How do physically separated subatomic particles (and devices based on them) communicate with one another? Somehow one subatomic particle knows what a distant compatriot is doing and reacts accordingly. Physical experiments have confirmed this seemingly impossible situation. No fields, wires, or any other sort of communication line connects the two particles; yet they behave as though there were. Quantum mechanics has an explanation of sorts but it still leaves the situation with an aura of mystery. (Mermin, N.D .; "Bringing Home the Atomic World: Quantum Mysteries for Anybody," American Journal of Physics, 49:940, 1981.) Comment. This digest is greatly oversimplified, and readers are encouraged to read the whole article. It is an important type of physical experiment because some have suggested it may help explain ESP, assuming ESP exists. From Science Frontiers #19, JAN-FEB 1982 . 1982-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... and flora), and there is considerable evidence that the bullet was a cosmic projectile of some sort. The absence of a smoking gun (a sufficiently large terrestrial crater with an age of 65 million years) has allowed volcanists to deny the cosmic catastrophists a complete victory. However, the recent identification of tektite-like glasses at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary (KTB) on Haiti is leading geological detectives closer and closer to the missing crater. Elsewhere in the world, the KTB is characterized by an iridium anomaly and a thin layer of "impact clay" consisting of tiny bits of shocked minerals. At Beloc, on Haiti, though, geologists find a 55-centimeter-thick layer of glassy debris. Approximately 25% of this stra tum consists of 1-6 -millimeter particles of tektite-like glass. Most of the glass particles are spherical, but a few have the splash-forms and dumbbell shapes of bona fide tektites. The thickness of the Haitian deposit and the large sizes of the particles suggest that the smoking gun must be nearby. Ironically, the Haiti stratum was originally classified as of volcanic origin; and we must add that we are presenting here only the conclusions of the asteroid school. But where oh where is this crater? The Manson crater in Iowa (now buried) is of the right age but too small. The best candidate so far is buried in northern Yucatan. The Chicxulub crater is discernible on gravity- and magneticanomaly maps and is probably of the right age. Only drilling will confirm the guilt of the suspect. Even ...
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... 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 Marine Snow The marine analog of the high-altitude U2 used to collect interplanetary dust is the scuba diver armed with small jars and syringes. In these, marine biologists, such as A. Alldredge, collect the tiny bits of debris drifting downwards from the ocean's upper layers. This is the "marine snow." Its constituents are mainly: ". .. the tiny leftovers of animals, plants, and non-living matter in the ocean's sun-suffused upper zones. Among these particles are chains of single-celled plants called diatoms, shreds of zooplankters' mucous food traps, soot, fecal pellets, dust motes, radioactive fallout, sand grains, pollen, and pollutants. Microorganisms also live inside and on top of these odd-shaped flakes." Marine snow is everywhere in the ocean. Sometimes, it reaches blizzard proportions, and divers cannot see beyond a few feet. Measured in millimeters, the marine snowflakes are much larger than the average interplanetary dust particles (but of course interplanetary dust itself is also a constituent of marine snow). The bigger marine snowflakes -- over 0.5 mm -- are a major food source for deep-sea denizens waiting below for this manna from the watery heaven. The reason for mentioning marine snow in Science Frontiers is that biologists like Alldredge are really pio-neering new territory, where new anomalies must surely dwell. "' ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 108: Nov-Dec 1996 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Life Forms In Meteorites?Few could have escaped the recent gushy press coverage of NASA's announcement that an Antarctic meteorite, possibly of Martian origin, seems to have carried vestiges of life forms from that planet to ours. No need to recapitulate all that hype. What we do add is the observation that this same sort of excitement has swept through the scientific community at least twice before. Back in 1961, B. Nagy et al discovered tiny particles resembling fossil algae in carbonaceous chondrites. They called these particles "organized elements." Ultimately, these curious particles were explained as natural crystals and terrestrial contaminants. (Ref 1.) Much earlier, in 1881, Hahn, an eminent German geologist, asserted that he had examined thin sections cut from chondrites and found fossils of sponges, corals, and crinoids. In fact, the extraterrestrial coral that Hahn found even received the scientific name Hahnia meteoritica ! In the end, though, Hahn's meteoric life forms met the same fate as the "organized elements" of Nagy et al. (Ref. 2) Ref. 1. Urey, Harold C.; "Biological Materials in Meteorites: A Review," Science, 151:157, 1966. Ref. 2. Bingham, Francis; "The Discovery of Organic Remains in Meteoritic Stones," Popular Science Monthly , 20:83, 1881. Both references can be found in our Handbook Mysterious ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 38: Mar-Apr 1985 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Young Interplanetary Dust Here follows an abstract of an article that appeared in Science: "Nuclear tracks have been identified in interplanetary dust particles (IDP's ) collected from the stratosphere. The presence of tracks unambiguously confirms the extraterrestrial nature of IDP's , and the high track densities (1010 to 1011 per square centimeter) suggest an exposure age of approximately 104 years within the inner solar system." (Bradley, J.P ., et al; "Discovery of Nuclear Tracks in Interplanetary Dust," Science, 226:1432, 1984.) Comment. Where does this young dust come from? The Poynting-Robertson drag is supposed to sweep the inner solar system clear of dust fairly quickly. If comets supply a steady stream of dust, the particles should display a wide range of exposure ages. Apparent path of star SAO 186001 behind Neptune. The star's light was reduced at the black circle. From Science Frontiers #38, MAR-APR 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 57: May-Jun 1988 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Eels Strike Back Credit cards and bank cards are commonly kept in holders made from eelskin. So what! Who likes eels anyway? Well, there may be more to eelskin than meets the eye. Thousands of bank cards, when taken out of their eelskin holders, have failed to work in bank machines. The electronic coding on the cards has somehow been erased or scrambled. Perhaps, says one theory, the eelskins have bits of magnetite in their skins for navigational purposes. (Some other animals have such magnetic particles in their bodies to help orient them.) But could these tiny particles be powerful enough to erase card information? Another theory is that magnetic clamps on purses and handbags are the culprits. (Anonymous; "Credit Cards Fall Prey to Primitive Fish," New Scientist, p. 30, March 3, 1988.) Banking-business bane. From Science Frontiers #57, MAY-JUN 1988 . 1988-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 3: April 1978 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Cosmic Rays May Trigger Lightning Flashes Science has long claimed to have the explanation of lightning discharges well under control. But the discharge paths followed by lightning strokes often seem unnecessarily tortuous when more direct routes are readily available. The mechanism by which large reservoirs of unlike charges are built up is also obscure. Cosmic rays have now been pro-posed as both a source of charged particles and a provider of low-resistance ionized conduits for lightning to follow. Primary cosmic rays carry considerable energy, most of which appears near the earth's surface in the form of cascades of secondary particles that create complex ionized tracks as they penetrate the dense lower atmosphere. Lightning bolts would tend to follow these precursors along their crooked trails. (Anonymous; "Do Cosmic Rays Trigger Lightning Discharges?" New Scientist, 77:88, 1978.) Comment. Thunderstorm frequency has often been linked to solar activity, and cosmic rays could provide the connection. Could meteorites or "thunderbolts" do likewise? From Science Frontiers #3 , April 1978 . 1978-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 30: Nov-Dec 1983 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Cosmic Rays Not Random Conventional wisdom maintains that the cosmic rays intercepted by the earth are randomly distributed in space and time because of the smoothing action of the galactic magnetic field. But a cosmic-ray telescope buried beneath 600 meters of rock has recently detected bursts of cosmic rays emanating from specific directions. The two major sources are in the direction of the galactic north pole and the constellation Cygnus. Since the galactic magnetic field seems sufficient to randomize all charged particles during their long flights through space, pristine cosmic rays may not be charged particles at all. (Hecht, Jeff, and Torrey, Lee; "Scientists Find Sources of Cosmic Rays," New Scientist, 99:764, 1983.) Reference. The many anomalies of cosmic radiation are cataloged it: Stars, Galaxies, Cosmos. Details on this book at: here . From Science Frontiers #30, NOV-DEC 1983 . 1983-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 135: MAY-JUN 2001 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects 0.999999999999999999999999c Well, that's how many 9s are used in the article before us. That's how close to the speed of light (" c ") that the so-called "high-energy cosmic rays" are travelling when they smash into the earth's upper atmosphere. More impressive is the fact that these speedy microscopic subatomic particles pack a macroscopic wallop. Would you believe a proton with the energy of a 120-mileper-hour fast ball? These super cosmic rays are so energetic that our galaxy's magnetic field hardly influences their trajectories at all. Astronomers really cannot tell where they come from. Even more disconcerting, the energies of these cosmic cannonballs surpass by many orders of magnitude anything terrestrial scientists can crank up in their most powerful atom smashers. Somewhere out there, perhaps between in the vast voids between the galaxies, lurks the mother of all particle accelerators. (Semenluk, Ivan; "Showered in Mystery," Astronomy, 29:43, January 2001.) Comment. Of course, those cosmic voids are not really empty! See next item. 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 (CIA, FBI, JFK, MI5, NSA, etc) Homeworking.com . ...
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... : To form a nucleus of the univer sal brotherhood of humanity, without distinction of race, creed, sex, caste, or color. To encourage the study of comparative religion, philosophy, and science. To investigate the unexplained laws of nature and the powers latent in man. (From: Encyclopedia Americana) Just before the turn of the century, two leaders of the Theosophical movement, Annie Besant and C.W . Leadbeater, decided to collaborate on Goal 3 and investigate the micro-structure of matter. They eschewed the physics laboratory, preferring instead ESP. S. Phillips has now summarized their discoveries in a compact little paper. He concludes 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 ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 129: MAY-JUN 2000 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Interplanetary Doldrums A special session of the 1999 Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union was convened to discuss an extraordinary event: "The day of the solar wind almost disappeared." That was May 11, 1999. The doldrums lasted over 27 hours. Actually, the velocities of the particles constituting the solar wind did not slacken much: 360 kilometers/second, down just 10% from the norm. The wind's density, though dropped from 10 to 0.2 particles/cubic centimeter. Nothing untoward happened on the earth's surface. In space, the earth's magnetosphere expanded when the pressure of the solar wind diminished and more X-rays were emitted from the polar atmosphere, but these effects did not surprise anyone. The big question is: What happened on the sun that stopped its exhalations? No one seems to have an answer. (Lazarus, Alan J.; "The Day the Solar Wind Almost Disappeared," Science, 287: 2172, 2000.) From Science Frontiers #129, MAY-JUNE 2000 . 2000 William R. Corliss Other Sites of Interest SIS . Catastrophism, archaeoastronomy, ancient history, mythology and astronomy. Lobster . The journal of intelligence and political conspiracy (CIA, FBI, JFK, MI5, NSA, etc) Homeworking.com . Free resource for people thinking about working at home. ABC dating and personals . For people looking for relationships ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 9: Winter 1979 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects A Chilly Martian Night Viking Lander 2 photographed frost on Mars in September 1977 during the Martian winter. A planet-wide dust storm had just subsided, and the theory evolved that both water and carbon-dioxide ice had frozen on dust particles in the atmosphere. Such particles were heavy enough to fall and give the scene around Viking a snow-like coating. However, frost was again photographed in 1979 (one Martian winter later) without the benefit of a dust storm. So, Mars theorists are in a quandary -- no dust, then no frost theory is reasonable. (Anonymous; "Viking, Three Years Later," Eos, 60:635, 1979.) Comment. Evidently, frost cannot form directly on the Martian surface as it does on earth due to the very low vapor pressure of water on the planet. From Science Frontiers #9 , Winter 1979 . 1979-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 14: Winter 1981 Supplement Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Radial spokes in saturn's rings Among all the recently discovered complexities of Saturn's rings, the dark spokes are perhaps the most challenging to astronomers. These dark areas seem to rotate with the rings and are likely regions nearly devoid of the particles that constitute the rings. The "normal" annular gaps between the rings can be explained in part as due to the gravitational influences of Saturn's moons. The dark spokes, however, do not succumb so easily. There are no obvious gravitational nuances that can sweep particles selectively from radially aligned areas. (Anonymous; "Voyager Discovers Spokes in Saturn's Rings," New Scientist, 88: 276, 1980.) Comment. Any theory accounting for radial gaps may also explain the "knots" of brightness occasionally seen through the telescope down the years. Incidentally, a few observers in the past have also claimed to have seen radial gaps in the rings, so the dark spokes are not exactly new. Reference. Spoke phenomena of Saturn's rings are cataloged at ARL5 in The Moon and the Planets. A description of this book is located here . From Science Frontiers #14, Winter 1981 . 1981-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 63: May-Jun 1989 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Comets And Life A comet impact: Cross-sectional view 0.637s after impact of a comet into a 3km-deep ocean (light dots) underlain by basaltic crust (darker grid) in the smoothed particle hydrodynamic model of Thomas et al. Small vertical ticks are 1 km apart, small horizontal ticks 1.25 km apart. The comet in this figure has a radius of 1 kilometer and an impact velocity of 15 km/s and is shown by dark dots in the ocean. The initial spherical comet has become flattened, and parts of it have separated from the main body. The back side of the comet and most of the separated particles are much lower in temperature than the impacting side, and in an impact of a smaller comet (which would look much the same), organic material at the rear of the comet would survive intact. Figure provided by Paul Thomas. "New simulations suggest that large amounts of the organic molecules needed to form the first life on Earth could have been brought by comets that bombarded the planet early in its history. The models show that comets of moderate size would have slowed down enough during entry into the Earth's atmosphere for their organic component to survive the impact intact. .. .. . "The idea that comets supplied the Earth with the organic material needed to create life has been around for more than 20 years, but as often as some ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 25: Jan-Feb 1983 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Three "proofs" of a young earth Responding to letters published in the June 1982 issue of Physics Today that insisted (some, very emotionally) that no evidence exists for a very young earth, Robert V. Gentry summarized three kinds of evidence that certainly seem to undermine current dating schemes. Halos produced by the alpha particles emitted by Po218 are found in granite rocks in many areas. Yet, the half-life of Po218 is only 3 minutes. Since the Po218 has no identifiable pre-cursors in the rock, ". .. how did the surrounding rocks crystalize rapidly enough so that there were crystals available ready to be imprinted with radiohalos by alpha-particles from Po218 ? This would imply almost instantaneous cooling and crystallization of these granitic minerals -- and we know of no mechanism that will remove heat so rapidly; the rocks are supposed to have cooled over millennia, if not tens of millennia." In coalified wood dated as older than 200 million years, the ratio between U238 and Pb206 should be low. It is actually very high. "Thus ages of the entire stratigraphic column may contain epochs less than 0.001% the duration of those now accepted and found in the literature." Diffusion calculations insist that Pb in zircon crystals found in deep granite cores at 313 C should diffuse out of the crystals at the rate of 1% in 300,000 years. No loss of Pb can ...
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... 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 Life-creation from a different perspective The preceding discussion of life's origin at hydrothermal vents was penned by an oceanographer. Astronomers, it seems, prefer different scenarios. C. Chyba and C. Sagan, in a major review article in Nature, see a two-fold problem: (1 ) identifying the source of the raw materials; and (2 ) identifying the source(s ) of energy required for the synthesis of complex organic chemicals. First, they point to the steady drizzle of tiny, organic-rich particles drifting down to earth from cometary debris. These particles, which even carry spacesynthesized amino acids down to the earth's surface, seem likely chemical precursors of life. However, the atmosphere is also a potential source of prebiotic chemicals -- providing energy sources are available. Chyba and Sagan suggest as sources: lightning, ultraviolet radiation, and the shock energy derived from meteorite/asteroid/comet impacts. Together these energy sources, especially ultraviolet light, might synthesize thousands of tons of complex organic compounds each year. (Chyba, Christopher, and Sagan, Carl; "Endogenous Production, Exogenous Delivery and Impact-Shock Synthesis of Organic Molecules: An Inventory for the Origins of Life," Nature, 355:125, 1992. Also: Henbest, Nigel; "Organic Molecules from Space Rained Down on Early Earth," New Scientist, 2. 27, January 25, ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 2: January 1978 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Will radiohalos in coalified wood upset geological clocks?In some coalified wood, uranium-rich solutions have deposited radioactive particles that subsequently decay and create little rings (halos) that can be seen under high magnification. The ra-dii of the rings depend upon the energies of the particles emitted by the radioactive elements. Each type of radioactive decay has a specific half-life. Thus, the patterns of radiohalos help measure the age of coalified wood. A challenge to geology arises because the radiohalos in coalified wood from Jurassic and Triassic formations, supposedly millions of years old, suggest ages of only a few thousand years. (Connor, Steven J.; "Radiohalos in Coalified Wood: New Evidence for a Young Earth," Creation Research Society Quarterly, 14:101, 1977.) From Science Frontiers #2 , January 1978 . 1978-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... relatively stable microspheres could, in theory, have formed sheltered environments for the evolution of the more complicated parts of living cells. The microspheres absorb sunlight and, with the addition of this energy, display some of the electrical characteristics of biological neurons, like those in the brain. The implication is that some components of "mind" may have existed in the very earliest life forms. (Peterson, Ivars; "Microsphere Excitement," Science News, 125:408, 1984.) Comment. Two comments here: First, the word "spontaneous" is customarily employed when describing how atoms unite to form molecules and molecules combine into polymers, which then gather into microspheres. The word "spontaneous" seems to imply chance is operating rather than design. Actually, atoms and even subatomic particles must have innate properties which force them to combine into larger structures the way they do. Philosophically, one can ask whether the lowliest subatomic particles are "coded" to combine into molecules, microspheres, and living creatures. In other words, the design of life could be inherent in quarks. Second, if nonliving microspheres possess some of the properties of neurons, it is possible that natural, nonliving minds can form spontaneously -- a sort of "natural" artificial intelligence! Mind, then, could preced life, which is manifestly more complex than computers. The science-fiction possibilities are endless here. From Science Frontiers #35, SEP-OCT 1984 . 1984-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... expected increasing chaos required by theory. Although the surveys are incomplete, astronomers are discomfited by this early lumpiness. Their theories say that there was not enough time for galaxies to organize themselves into sheets, shells, and skeins. If further "deep" probings of the cosmos confirm this redshift clustering, we may need a new evolutionary scenario. Good bye Big Bang and expanding universe! (Vogel, Gretchen; "Goodness, Gracious, Great Walls Afar," Science, 274:343, 1996. Vergano, D.; "New Evidence of Cosmic Architecture," Science News, 150:239, 1996) In a related news item, Mexican scientists have proposed that most of the matter in the universe (that elusive "dark" matter) may exist in the form of particles they dub "dilatons." Dilatons might also explain the formation of the aforesaid galactic shells. "The Mexican researchers have explored a situation in which G [the gravitational constant], instead of becoming fixed after gravity separated from the other forces [after the Big Bang], has continued to oscillate by a few per cent. They have found that the mass of dilatons required to allow G to vary in this way could account for all the Universe's dark matter." A consequence of an oscillating G would be a varying rate of expansion for the universe -- a sort of ebb and flow of the whole cosmos. One can then visualize galaxies gradually clustering together into shells much as sand particles drift into ripples under the influence of waves along a beach. (Parsons ...
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... daily sunspot numbers correlated with dates of flu pandemics First, we have their graph covering the past 70 years which speaks for itself. You can add the 1990 flu outbreak to the curve yourself! To strengthen the correlation Hoyle and Wickramasinghe tabulate flu and sunspot data back to 1761. They find that flu pandemics and sunspot maxima have kept in step for the last 17 cycles. Key to the Hoyle-Wickramasinghe argument is their contention that simple life forms (viruses, bacteria, etc.) not only exist in outer space but likely evolved there. If so, how do they ride in to afflict us on the peaks of the solar cycle? Here's how, in their words: "In conclusion, we note that electrical fields associated with intense solar winds can rapidly drive charged particles of the size of viruses down through the exposed upper atmosphere into the shelter of the lower atmosphere, the charging of such particles being due to the photoelectric effect. This could define one possible causal link between influenza pandemics and solar activity." (Hoyle, F., and Wickramasinghe, N. C.; "Sunspots and Influenza," Nature, 343: 304, 1990.) Reference. Periodic epidemics are cataloged in BHH3 in: Biological Anomalies: Humans II. To order, visit: here . From Science Frontiers #68, MAR-APR 1990 . 1990-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... 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 Hunt For The Magnetoreceptor When magnetite particles were found in organisms from bacteria to bats, it was assumed that here was the long sought magnetoreceptor which animals used for magnetic navigation. But so far, biologists do not have the slightest notion how such magnetite particles can be turned into a "magnetic sense," which sends the brain information on the direction of the geomagnetic field or, perhaps, draws a magnetic map of sorts. A completely different sort of magnetreceptor is now under investigation, one that humans may also unknowingly possess. It utilizes special photoreceptors that employ an electron-spin resonance process which is modulated by the geomagnetic field. Some of our very sensitive magnetometers use similar phenomena. The biological version of such a receptor would be connected to the brain, as the eye is, and send signals as to the direction of the earth's magnetic field. Sounds interesting, but is there any basis for thinking such a sophisticated gadget could have evolved? It seems that some experiments with newts by J.B . Phillips and S.C . Borland support the idea. The newts were first trained to orient themselves in a certain direction with respect to the geomagnetic field. "When tested under one of four artificial field alignments (magnetic north at geographic north, east, south or west), the newts kept their training directions constant relative to the magnetic rather than the geographic system of reference, but they selected ...
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... of fundamental algorithms by which all sensory transduction is translated into an intrinsic, brain-specific code. Direct stimulation of these codes within the human temporal or limbic cortices by applied electromagnetic patterns may require energy levels which are within the range of both geomagnetic activity and contemporary communication networks. A process which is coupled to the narrow band of brain temperature could allow all normal human brains to be affected by a subharmonic whose frequency range at about 10 Hz would only vary by 0.1 Hz." (Ref. 1) Second, Jahn sees a remarkably similar information channel, but of a cryptic nature, connecting humans to the environment in PEAR's psychokinesis and remoteviewing experiments. In describing his model of this information channel, Jahn writes: "Like physical light (energy) and elementary particles (mass), consciousness (information) enjoys a wave/ particle duality that allows it to circumvent and penetrate barriers and to resonate with other consciousnesses and with appropriate aspects of the environment. Thereby it can both acquire and insert information, both objective and subjective, from and to its resonant partners." (Ref. 2) The immense body of empirical data amassed by Jahn's PEAR laboratory certainly suggests the existence of an allpervading information-transfer medium that is independent of space and time. Persinger relies upon a different corpus of research: neurological experiments as well as scores of his own studies of the effects of the geomagnetic environment upon human perception and consciousness. Both Jahn and Persinger write of information flow. The ideas of brain matrices and resonances are not too dissimilar. Persinger ...
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... that every cubic centimeter of the topsoil beneath our feet seethes with thousands of microorganisms. It is less well known that life's domain extends down much further. The hard rocks and strata of earth's crust -- seemingly sterile and inert -- are continuously being transformed by bacteria and other life forms. In fact, it was easy to find three examples of such processes from the literature collected from the past two months. Although the discoveries reported below may seem dull to anomalists ued to more exciting fare, it may well be that life from "inner space" has been and will be more important to humankind than life from "outer space," as implied in third item! Bacteria and placer gold. "Lacelike networks of micrometresize filiform gold associated with Alaskan placer gold particles are interpreted as low-temperature pseudomorphs of a Pedomicrobium -like budding bacterium. Submicron reproductive structures (hyphae) and other morphological features similar to those of Pedomicrobium occur as three-dimensional facsimiles in highpurity gold in and on placer gold particles from Lillian Creek, Alaska." In short, bacteria help create placer gold deposits. The author believes that bacterioform gold is widespread. (Watterson, John R.; "Preliminary Evidence for the Involvement of Budding Bacteria in the Origin of Alaskan Placer Gold," Geology , 20:315, 1992.) Microorganisms and iron deposits. At least 500 million years ago, filamentous bacteria and/or fungi were already playing vital roles in the deposition of iron from hydrothermal fluids. Abundant microbial filaments indicative of biological activity are found in the Cambrian ...
Terms matched: 1  -  Score: 25  -  15 May 2017  -  URL: /sf085/sf085g10.htm
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