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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 58: Jul-Aug 1988 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Mystery At Novaya Zemlya F.C . Parmenter-Holt opined above that the long plume-like clouds detected over Soviet territory were merely orographic clouds; that is, a consequence of the terrain below. Some facts presented by W.O Roberts, in the latest issue of The Explorer, hardly square with that interpretation. For example, the March 12, 1982 plume seen over Novaya Zemlya was 109 miles long and at an altitude of about 6 miles. Its position did not con form to the wind direction at that altitude. Other plumes over Novaya Zemlya have been aligned with the wind, but they too have been at great altitudes. Says Roberts: "Taken together the data suggest irregular emissions from a single point source near the north end of the Island as the cause of the myster ious episodes." Just what is being vented, if anything, remains unknown. No active volcanos are in this area, neither are there copious sources of natural gas. There have been no seismic or radioactive signs of nuclear tests. (Roberts, Walter Orr; "Mystery at Novaya Zemlya," The Explorer, 4:6 , April 1988.) From Science Frontiers #58, JUL-AUG 1988 . 1988-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 98: Mar-Apr 1995 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Ancient egyptians in the new world? Carbon-14 dating: under a cloud? Translating the grand traverse stone Astronomy The earth has recently been swallowed by a cloud of inter-stellar gas Arp banished, but not redshift anomalies A YAGI WATCHES A SOLAR ECLIPSE Biology Emf fertilizer? Vampire fish -- [x -rated item] Some shaky observations Blindsight also occurs in monkeys Geology A UNIFIED THEORY OF GEOPHYSICS Six immense armadas of icebergs invaded the north atlantic Geophysics An unknown atmospheric light phenomenon Crop-circle litmus test? Earthquake ripples in the ionosphere Psychology Madness and creativity How to test for lucid dreaming Physics Can we explore hyperspace? Unclassified Nobel gossip! ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 66: Nov-Dec 1989 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Globular Clusters Upset Theory Of Galaxy Formation A spherical cloud of globular clusters surrounds the Milky Way galaxy. Each cluster is itself a spherical groups of stars. Through the telescope, globular clusters are beautiful spherical aggregations of bright stars that seem to get ever denser toward the cluster's center. Globular clusters harbor many anomalies (AOB4 and AOB17 in Stars, Galaxies, Cosmos); here, we mention two involving spatial distribution and age. Many spiral galaxies, like our own Milky Way, spin ponderously in the center of a spherical cloud of scores, even hundreds, of globular clusters (see sketch). Not only do the globular clusters surrounding us display a different spatial distribution (spherical rather than flat-spiral), but their individual ages undercut galaxy theory. All of the Milky Way's globular clusters were supposed to have been formed when our galaxy was created. Yet, the ages of these clusters vary by as much as 5 billion years. (Dayton, Leigh; "Globular Clusters Upset Theory of Galaxy," New Scientist, p. 34, May 13, 1989.) Comment. We cannot resist mentioning still another cluster anomaly: The globular clusters do not participate in the galaxy's general rotation. Where did these oddballs come from? Reference. The catalog volume: Stars, Galaxies, Cosmos, mentioned above, is described here . From Science Frontiers #66, NOV-DEC 1989 ...
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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 Unidentified Object April 9, 1983. North Atlantic Ocean. From the n.v . Dorsetshire. "At 2304 GMT, Mr. Haney pointed out a bright white object in the sky. It was bearing approximately 360 (T ) at an elevation of about 40 . It was moving rapidly southwards across the sky, leaving a bright trail behind it, like an afterglow. Also trailing astern of the object was a light trail of sparks (possibly large solid particles). The object disappeared behind clouds, bearing about 170 (T ) at an elevation of approximately 35 , and lighting the edges of the clouds. The time taken for the passage was around 20 seconds. It was obviously a very large object, judging from its apparent size as seen from sea level. The impression given was that of an object within the atmosphere, easily showing around a one-penny piece held at arm's length." (Edwards, R.A .F .; "Unidentified Flying Object," Marine Observer, 54:82, 1984) Comment. This seems to be a description of a large fireball, but the direction of flight (north-south) is unusual and the time of passage (20 seconds) extremely long for a meteor. Large, very sluggish fireball trailing sparks over the North Atlantic. From Science Frontiers #38, MAR-APR 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 48: Nov-Dec 1986 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Freak Wave Off Spain 1960s. At sea off Spain. ". .. the wind was north-by-west, force 6-7 and the ship was spraying and occasionally shipping water. The weather was not troubling our ship to any extent. The sky was partly cloudy with a full moon in the west. At 0520 hours the moon was blotted out and all turned dark. I looked to port to see what type of cloud could obscure the moon so thoroughly, and was amazed -- horrified, rather, to discover it was no cloud, but an immense wave approaching on our port beam. It stretched far north and south, had no crest, nor white streaks, and as it neared at quite a speed, I could see its front was nearly vertical. I yelled to the lookout man to come into the wheelhouse as he was on the starboard side of the bridge and could not see the wave. "As near as I could judge, about 80 to 100 yards away the wave started to break, and in another few seconds reached our ship and struck us fair abeam with three distinct separate shocks, sweeping our ship for her full length. Fortunately, the vessel rolled away just before the impact and this I am sure saved us from even more serious damage." "The wave was higher than our foremost track -- 85 ft above the water. As this wave approached ...
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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. 106: Jul-Aug 1996 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Looking Up Into A Tornado Funnel January 21, 1992. Near Cripple Creek, Colorado. Shortly after 2 PM, while fishing at Skagway Reservoir, D. Mc Gown spotted an ominous cloud formation developing in the west. A horizontal, black cloud rolled toward him. Suddenly, it lifted to reveal a huge, twisting funnel advancing directly at him. He threw himself to the ground, but got a good look up into the interior of the funnel. "The outside of the tornado was spinning so fast my eye couldn't follow it, but the inside was rotating almost lazily. I could see a thousand feet up inside it. Tiny fingers of lightning lined the hollow tube." Passing over him, the funnel bounced across the lake, ripped up some trees, and was gone. (McGown, Dennis; "Letters," Time, 147: 8, June 10, 1996) Comment. The "tiny fingers of lightning" are of great interest to anomalists, because most meteorologists deny that electricity plays any part in tornado activity. Of course, there is often plenty of ordinary lightning in the accompanying storms. An observation very similar to McGown's occurred in Kansas, in 1928. (GLD10-X2 in Lightning, Auroras. For information on this book, visit here .) Today, American meteorological journals are mostly filled with articles on the computermodelling of weather systems, satellite-imaging ...
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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 Infrared Atmospheric Waves When the night sky is photographed in the infrared portion of the spectrum, luminous wave-like structures appear in the upper atmosphere. The wave crests are about 50 kilometers apart; lengthwise, they stretch up to 1.000 kilometers; altitude, about 85 kilometers. As many as ten waves may be seen at the same time. Morphologically, these waves resemble noctilucent clouds, which are sun-illumined, high-altitude clouds. The infrared waves, however, appear when the sun is well below the horizon. Since these waves are seen only at low angles over the horizon, some geophysicists propose they are the result of a geometric effect produced by viewing a rippled layer of weakly emitting gases in the upper atmosphere. When one looks at this rippled layer just above the horizon, one sees alternating thick and thin sections due to the perspective. The thick portions will appear brighter than the thin sections. As for the origin of this postulated rippled layer; no one is sure. Gravity waves may be involved. (Herse, M.; "Waves in the OH Emissive Layer," Science, 225:172, 1984.) Comment. As described in our Catalog Lightning, Auroras, Nocturnal Lights. luminous atmospheric waves are, on rare occasions, visible to the naked eye. It is possible that the bandedsky phenomenon is related to the infrared waves. For more information on the book just ...
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... thinking of asteroids -- no one foresaw impact havoc in his day. But, his use of the word "whimper" can be attached to another, much slower astronomical agent of planetary death: cosmic dust and gas. Here's the current situation: "For the most part of the past five million years, the Solar System has been moving through a rather empty region of interstellar space between the spiral arms of the Milky Way. But a few thousand years ago, it entered a diffuse shell of material expanding outward from an active star-forming region called the Scorpius-Centaurus Association. Such 'super-bubble' shells of gas and dust result from the formation of massive stars, or the explosion of those stars as they become supernovas, and contain gas and dust clouds of varying densities." The density of matter in this solarsystem-engulfing shell could well shroud our planetary system with dust and gas a million times more dense than that we now encounter. If this happens, the sun's rays would slowly dim and life forms dependent on photosynthesis would expire. P. Frisk, a University of Chicago astronomer, forecasts a "bumpy ride" for earth dwellers during the next 50,000 years; but we think Eliot's "whimper" is more expressive of what might happen. (Jayawardhana, Ray; "Earth Menaced by Superbubble," New Scientist, p. 15, June 22, 1996) Comments. A possible precursor of things to come was the enigmatic "Siberian Darkness" of September 18, 1938. (See ...
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... -Coupled Device] camera photos like the one taken by Donald Parker with a 12.5 -inch reflector and shown on the cover of the Strolling Astronomer earlier this year. It clearly showed a pentagonal pattern of canals surrounding Elysium. It is almost certain that these were not a 'picture defect'!" (Ref. 1) Searching for explanations, J. Gallagher has discovered that many of the prominent canals drawn by Lowell, Schiaparelli, et al, actually closely follow contour lines drawn on USGS maps of Mars from Viking data. It is quite possible, then, that the "canals" are really only elevational differences in Martian topography. (Ref. 2) Global Cooling. The Hubble Space Telescope recently photographed Mars when the planet was nearly totally shrouded by high cirrus clouds. Mars is now cloudier than it has been for years. The reason for this is that the planet's average temperature has fallen by almost 20 C. What little water vapor exists in the atmosphere freezes out into cirrus clouds. Why has Mars cooled so drastically? Because the huge dust storms of the Viking years have mysteriously abated. Now, we have to explain why dust storms no longer envelope the planet! (Ref. 3) References Ref. 1. Louderback, Daniel; Letter, Strolling Astronomer , 37:131, 1994. Ref. 2. Gordon, Rodger; Letter, Strolling Astronomer , 37:89, 1993. Ref. 3. Kerr, Richard A.; "Hubble Glimpses a Hazy Day on Mars," Science, 267:1912 ...
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... places quite fascinating", Science Books. Contents also included in Remarkable Luminous Phenomena in Nature 248 pages, photocopied edition, $16.95, 74 illustrations, 5 indexes, 1982. 1070 references, LC 82-99902, ISBN 915554-09-7 , 7x10-in format. Hardcover edition, $24.95: out of stock Tornados, Dark days, Anomalous Precipitation: A catalog of Geophysical Anomalies Sorry: Out of Print. No longer available. Here is our "weather' Catalog. As everyone knows, our atmosphere is full of tricks, chunks of ice fall from the sky, tornado funnels glow at night. The TV weathermen rarely mention these "idiosyncrasies". [Picture caption: Conical hailstones with fluted sides] Typical subjects covered: Polar-aligned cloud rows * Ice fogs (the Pogonip) * Conical hail * Gelatinous meteors * Point rainfall * Unusual incendiary phenomena * Solar activity and thunderstorms * Tornados and their association with electricity * Multiwalled waterspouts * Explosive onset of whirlwinds * Dry fogs and dust fogs * Effect of the moon on rainfall * Ozone in hurricanes * Ice falls (hydrometeors) Comments from reviews: ". .. can be recommended to every one who realizes that not everything in science has been properly explained", Weather 202 pages, hardcover, $16.95, 40 Illustrations, 5 indexes, 1983. 745 references, LC 82-63156, ISBN 915554-10-0 , 7x10 format. Earthquakes, Tides, Unidentified Sounds: A Catalog of Geophysical Anomalies Sorry: Out of Print. No longer available ...
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... . Accompanying it was a roar like that of a military jet. The phenomenon occurred a total of four times; the second of which is the most interesting. "A second illumination was observed twenty seconds later, but this time it reappeared away from the tree so a clear view was possible. The illumination was in the form of a narrow column and of the classic gentle 'S ' tornado shape in the 'roping out' stage; it was silvery in colour towards the top and golden-orange lower down. Additionally, Mr. Smith saw the illumination move from the sky towards the ground, but at a speed slower than lightning. The sound of rushing wind was heard again, while this illumination lasted five to six seconds. Mr. Smith also noted a very low cloud base with a second layer of cloud only slightly higher." (Reynolds, David J.; "Nocturnal Tornado Illuminated by an Electrical Discharge at Farnham, Surrey, 10 January 1994," Journal of Meteorology, UK, 20:381, 1995.) Comment. Although ordinary lightning accompanies many tornados, glowing columns suggestive of other types of electrical discharge are not part of prevailing tornado theory. Nevertheless, observations of glowing discharges within the funnel - making it look like a neon light - have been observed and even photographed. See above sketch taken from GLD10 in our catalog: Lightning, Auroras. For a description of this book, visit: here . Very rarely the funnel of a nocturnal tornado will glow like a neon light. From Science Frontiers #105, MAY- ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 90: Nov-Dec 1993 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Depths Of Ignorance Oceanographers have been heard to complain that science knows more about the surface of Mars than it does about the topography of the deep ocean floors. Marine biologists, however, have even more reason to feel slighted. To illustrate, the usual picture painted of the abyssal terrain beyond the continental shelves and slopes is one a a frigid biological desert -- endless plains of sterile muck, broken once in a while by oasis-like deepsea vents, where weird tube worms thrive amidst clouds of chemosynthetic bacteria. This is a highly misleading portrayal. The situation, in fact, recalls what happened when biologists first released clouds of insecticides in rain forest canopies, thus precipitating a deluge of uncataloged insects into collecting nets waiting below. Now, instead of a mere million species of insects worldwide, entomologists are thinking perhaps 10 million or more. Will the same diversity prevail in the deepsea muck? C.L . Van Dover believes so: "Away from the vents, in the great ocean plains, life is much less dramatic and often scaled down to minute proportions -- threadlike worms, tiny snails, delicate, transparent clams. Yet, the diversity of animals in the cold abyssal muds, it now appears, may rival the celebrated biodiversity of the tropical rain forests." We now know virtually nothing about this fauna, how it survives, and how it evolved. Millions of undescribed species may be awaiting discovery by ...
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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 Ghostly White Disk And Light Beam In Sky June 22, 1976. 2113 GMT, position 24 N, 09'W . Officers aboard the s.s . Osaka Bay observed a pale orange glow coming from a cumulus bank to the west. At 2115, a ghostly white disk appeared above the cloud bank and began expanding. Ten minutes later, the disk had grown to the point where the lower edge touched the horizon and the upper edge reached an elevation of 24 30'. As the disk sank below the horizon a searchlight-like beam emerged from the clouds. The disk disappeared completely by 2140, but the light beam remained another five minutes. (Moore, R.; "Unidentified Phenomenon," Marine Observer, 47:66, 1977.) Comment. Some distant rocket launchings have created similar phenomena. From Science Frontiers #2 , January 1978 . 1978-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... the modern-day Technocrats, we will launch nucleararmed rockets that will nudge such cosmic threats into harmless trajectories. These Pollyannas are presumptious. They assume that asteroids are hard, cohesive objects that will be shoved aside by a few megatons of explosive energy. There are two things wrong with this idea, and these reveal how radically our ideas about the nature of asteroids have changed in just 10 years. First, most astronomers will now agree that asteroids are orbiting rubble piles rather than monolithic objects. For example, the near-earth asteroid Mathilde, 53 kilometers in diameter, has a density of only 1.3 grams/cubic centimeter. Its porosity must be greater than 50%. It is not a hard, coherent object. Instead of a bullet, it is more like a cloud of shotgun pellets. It would be hard to divert all this debris with a nuclear blast. To make matters worse, asteroids like Mathilde are stickier than a cloud of buckshot. This fact is deduced from photos of asteroids showing many to be marked by huge craters. (Mathilde has one 33 kilometers wide.) K.R . Housen et al, using laboratory tests and scaling data, argue that asteroid craters were not blasted out by collision. (Mathilde is not "shattered" as one would expect given such a huge crater.) Rather, the craters are "dents" instead of holes! Cosmic rubble piles are like sponges. Collisions with other rubble piles result in compression of the target surface and accretion of the smaller object. In effect, asteroids are energy absorbers ...
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... .v . B.P . Adventure , Panama to Chiba. "At 0235 UTC the phenomenon shown in the sketch was first seen about 15 above the horizon, bearing 265 . It was initially thought to be a downward pointing spotlight from an aircraft: it was bright (nearly white), conical in shape and about 1 high. During further observation the shape slowly enlarged, becoming more bell-shaped with a darker elliptical patch at the bottom. As it increased in size, the shape faded away and moved slowly towards the horizon in a slightly southerly direction before disappearing just above the horizon at 0254, bearing 260 . "The maximum height reached by the shape was about 5 and throughout the observation stars could be seen through it while at one point it was nearly obscured by cloud of which there was 1 okta. The only other bright object nearby was Venus, being slightly higher and to the south, bearing 248 , elevation about 20 . Visibility was excellent as about 10 minutes after the observation a ship was spotted bearing 280 at a distance of 16 n.mile. The observers felt that the shape was too regular to be a cloud and had no real idea of its origins." (Peacock, K.E .; "Unidentified Light," Marine Observer, 64:17, 1994.) From Science Frontiers #92, MAR-APR 1994 . 1994-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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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 The Morning Glory The Morning Glory is a spectacular roll cloud that frequently sweeps in low over Australia's Gulf of Carpenteria, often around sunrise in clear, calm weather. The cloud is only 100-200 m thick but very long and straight, extending from one horizon to the other. (One pilot followed if for 120 km without finding its end.) Sometimes as low as 50 m, the Morning Glory brings squall-like winds but rarely more than a fine mist. Double Morning Glories are not uncommon. Sev-en were once reported. Oriented NNW to SSE in the main, they advance east-towest low and fast (30-50 mph). Convincing explanations are wanting. One meteorologist has proposed that the Morning Glory is a "propagating undular hydraulic jump." (Neal, A.B ., et al; "The Morning Glory," Weather, 32:176, 1977.) From Science Frontiers #2 , January 1978 . 1978-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... they find that the meteorites' ages do not spread evenly through time. Instead, the ages seem to cluster at 7 and 30 million years." Astronomers have hitherto been content to attribute these clumped ages to collisions among the meteorites' parent bodies - the asteroids - which ply periodic orbits. However, S. Perlmutter and R.A . Muller, at Berkeley, point to the apparent 26- to 30-million-year periodicities of three terrestrial phenomena: Biological extinctions in the fossil record, Magnetic field reversals, and Terrestrial-crater ages. Could there be a connection between the clumped meteorite ages and these terrestrial phenomena? Perlmutter and Muller propose that all of these phenomena are the consequence of periodic storms of comets that invade the inner solar system from the direction of the Oort Cloud of comets that purportedly hovers at the fringe of the solar system. These comets not only devastate the earth but also collide with the asteroids, knocking off those bits and pieces we call meteorites. (Anonymous; "Do Meteorite Ages Tell of Comet Storms?" Astronomy, 17:12, January 1989.) Comment. Unanswered above is the question of why comet storms should be periodic. One hypothesis is that Nemesis, the so-called Death Star, a dark companion of our sun, lurks out there, periodically nudging the Oort Cloud of comets, causing it to release some of its comets. From Science Frontiers #62, MAR-APR 1989 . 1989-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 78: Nov-Dec 1991 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Meteoroid impacts: the other side of the story Astronomers have long puzzled over the origin of localized magnetic anomalies on the moon. These magnetic concentrations (called "magcons") are located precisely on the opposite side of the moon from the larger lunar basins. How could an impact on the moon magnetize the antipodal region? The impact of a large silicate meteoroid at speeds of 10 kilometers/second would not only blast out a big crater but it would also create a huge cloud of hot, partially ionized gas. This hot gas or plasma will conduct electricity and interact with lunar magnetic fields. As the plasma cloud spreads away from the impact site, it acts like a bulldozer, compressing the lunar magnetic fields ahead of it, as it envelopes the whole moon and rushes towards the antipodal point. It drives the compressed mag netic field into the surface, permanently magnetizing the rocks at the antipodal point. Voila! Magcons. (Hood, L.L ., and Huang, Z.; "Formation of Magnetic Anomalies Antipodal to Lunar Impact Basins: Two-Dimensional Model Calculations," Journal of Geophysical Research, 96:9837, 1991.) Comment. The earth also sports scars from the impacts of large meteoroids. Are there magnetic anomalies opposite these craters? Even more interesting to check out would be the holes blasted in the earth's biosphere by the converging masses of hot gases at the an tipodal points ...
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... , reproduction, etc. But perhaps they are missing something by thinking too small. In this vein, M.G . Bjomerud has opined: ". .. there is no reason to expect that super-organisms would meet criteria based on observations of individual organisms. Isn't it time to consider the possibility that the boundary between life and non-life may be diffuse, non-stationary over time, and dependent on scale?" (Bjomerud, M.G .; "Live Universes," Nature, 385:109, 1997.) Comments. The concept of oscillating universes that mutate to better adapt themselves -- a sort of cosmic Darwinism -- can be found in SF#81/106. F. Hoyle's science fiction tale The Black Cloud speculated about humanity's encounter with an immense, sentient, intelligent molecular cloud! From Science Frontiers #111, MAY-JUN 1997 . 1997-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 113: Sep-Oct 1997 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects A VANISHED PLANET?Almost every week, it seems, a new Texas-sized object is discovered in the outer solar system. In the inner solar system, however, some astronomers are finding "holes" where planets seem to have been ejected by unknown forces. D. Christodoulou, Louisiana State University, found one such "hole" serendipitously. He was studying how the sun and the planets might have condensed from the (hypothesized) cloud of primordial gas and dust. Factoring in gravity, rotation, and magnetic fields, he found the cloud condensing in concentric rings at just the right locations for protoMercury, proto-Venus, and proto-earth. The fourth ring, however, did not correspond to any existing planet, and the position of proto-Mars was off the mark. But the asteroids and outer planets fell rather neatly into place. The implication of these calculations is that some turmoil in the early inner solar system cast out one planet and dislocated Mars. (Hecht, Jeff; "Did Extra Planet Vanish into Outer Space?" New Scientist, p. 18, June 14, 1997.) Comment. These are sour notes in the "music of the spheres," but don't be overly concerned; these are just calculations based upon many assumptions. Calculated positions of rings of condensed dust and gas compared to actual planet locations. From Science Frontiers #113, SEP-OCT ...
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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 large-scale structure of electrical storms Ground-based observers see only a few of the anvil-shaped clouds comprising a big electrical storm. The entire storm may stretch for hundreds of kilometers -- and it is not a simple structure. The latest surprise is that all large electrical storms are bipolar; that is, the rare positive lightning strokes are concentrated at the northeast end of the storm complex, while the negative strokes are everywhere else along a northeast-southwest line. This bipolar structure persists for several hours, and it has been found in all North American storms analyzed so far. This insight into the structure of large electrical storms was provided by magnetic lightning detectors that have now been installed over nearly 75% of the United States. The positive lightning strokes are of longer duration and more liable to start fires than the common negative strokes. But why are they concentrated at one end of the storm complex? R. Orville ventures that in a big mesoscale electrical storm, the prevailing winds blow the positively charged upper portions of the clouds to the northeast, thus establishing bipolarity. (Orville, Richard E., et al; "Bipole Patterns Revealed by Lightning Locations in Mesoscale Storm Systems," Geophysical Research Letters, 15:129, 1988. Also: Anonymous; "New Lightning Theory Strikes," Eos, 69:57, 1988.) Reference. Large thunderstorm complexes are cataloged in GWH3 in ...
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... the day was in progress with curtains of rain and flickers of lightning, a few kilometres away to the north-west. The storm was moving towards us and the squally wind had already begun. I was again watching the weather from my office, which is on the fifth floor, when I was suddenly distracted by the appearance of a very bright, circular flash of blue-purple light (perhaps one metre or less in diameter), which persisted for about two seconds and then silently 'popped out,' leaving behind a puff of smoke, which then drifted away. The flash of circu lar light occurred about 500 m away from me: it was about 30 m above the ground, close to, and partly behind, a tall factory chimney. There was definitely no cloud-to-earth lightning over that area at that time, but the edge of the cumulonimbus cloud, giving the storm a few kilometres away, was directly overhead." (Kirvar, Erol; "Thunderstorm and Possible Ball Lightning in Ankara, June 1988," Weather, 44:136, 1989.) Reference. The various forms of ball lightning are cataloged in chapter GLB in our catalog: Lightning, Auroras. For more information on this book, go to: here . From Science Frontiers #67, JAN-FEB 1990 . 1990-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... have to rethink the origins of the earth's oceans, terrestrial life, and the formation of the solar system. No wonder the icy-comet hypothesis is strongly challenged! Three of the more interesting points made by this group of papers are as follows: Our moon could not escape the icy-comet bombardment. Roughly 1,000 craters 50 meters in diameter and splashes of debris 150 meters in diameter must occur each. There is no evidence that the moon is thus afflicted. Comets also carry the noble gases argon, krypton, and xenon. These gases should accumulate in the atmosphere as the comets disintegrate. The amounts of these gases actually measured are 10,000 times less than those the postulated bombardment would produce. The icy comets should break up near the earth and produce clouds of ice crystals. Sunlight reflected from such 30-ton clouds would be brighter than Venus and easily visible before they disperse. Such objects are rarely seen, implying that small icy comets do not exist in the numbers claimed. Preceding this series of five papers is one by Frank and Sigwarth in which they describe their detection of atomic oxygen trails near earth. These they attribute to small icy comets. (Various; "Looking for Small Comets -- None Found," Geophysical Research Letters, 24:2429 ++, 1997.) From Science Frontiers #118, JUL-AUG 1998 . 1998-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... oozing from the noses and mouths; the bodies were rigid; first-degree chemical burns were present. Also, animals and plants along the shore had been killed. On August 17, the lake turned reddish brown, indicating that it had been stirred up somehow. Although Lake Monoun is in a volcanic crater, chemical analysis of the water found little of the sulphur and halogens normally associated with volcanic action. However, the analysis did find a tremendously high level of bicarbonate ions, which form from the dissociation of carbon dioxide. One theory is that an earthquake disturbed the carbonate-rich deep water of the lake, which as it rose to the surface and lower pressures, released huge volumes of carbon dioxide -- something like opening a soda bottle. The resulting wave of water and cloud of gas caused the deaths and devastation. If there had been some nitric acid in the cloud, the burns could be accounted for. (Weisburd, S.; "The 'Killer Lake' of Cameroon," Science News, 128:356, 1985.) Comment. The article states that this event is unique, but in our Catalogs similar phenomena are reported. For example, Lake Bosumtwi, Ghana, "explodes" at irregular intervals, changing color, killing fish, and releasing gases (GSD2-X17). We also have the sudden whitening of the Dead Sea (GHC4). Both of these phenomena are to be found in the Catalog Earthquakes, Tides, Unidentified Sounds. To order, visit: here . From Science Frontiers #45, MAY- ...
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... from below while still over the Truk atoll. One light was on the right and the other was seen on the left of the B-24. The light on the left side turned back after one and one half hours. The one on the right remained with the bomber until the B-24 was only 10 miles from Guam. From the time that the B-24 left the atoll, the light never left its position on the right side. It was reported by the crew members as sometimes ahead, sometimes behind, and sometimes longside the B-24 and always about 1200 to 1500 yds distant. .. .. . "The light followed the B-24 in dives from 11,000 to 3,000 feet, through sharp course changes and even brief cloud cover always keeping its same relative position and distance. At one time, the pilot turned into the light and he definitely reports no closure occurring. During the night high cirrus clouds masked the moonlight and no part of the object was observed except the light. At daybreak, the light changed to a steady white glow and a possible wing shape with a silver glow was noted by some members of the crew." (Anonymous; "B -24 Sights 'Circles of Light'," U.F .O Historical Review , p. 8, no. 2, September 1998. Cr. B. Greenwood) From Science Frontiers #121, JAN-FEB 1999 . 1999-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... known that snow avalanches act like pistons and push blasts of air at hurricane speeds ahead of the deluge of snow. An unusual rock fall at Yosemite created a similar air blast with severe consequences. July 10, 1996. Yosemite National Park, California. We reported this remarkable event in SF#111 for its far-flung seismic waves, which jostled seismographs at Berkeley and Reno over 200 kilometers distant. Actually, there were two rock falls 14 seconds apart. The "rocks" fell from a 665-meter cliff at Happy Isles in the eastern part of Yosemite Valley. No pebbles these; with volumes of 23,000 and 38,000 cubic meters. Although the impact area of the rock falls was not particularly large, the falls generated an air blast and an abrasive sandy cloud that devastated a larger area downslope of the impact sites toward the Happy Isles Nature Center. Immediately downslope of the impacts, the air blast had velocities exceeding 110 m/s [about 245 mph] and toppled or snapped about 1000 trees. Even at distances of 0.5 km from impact, wind velociies snapped or toppled large trees, causing one fatality and several serious injuries beyond the Happy Isles Nature Center. A dense sandy cloud trailed the air blast and abraded fallen trunks and trees left standing. (Wieczorek, Gerald F. et al; "Unusual July 10, 1996, Rock Fall at Happy Isles, Yosemite National Park," Geological Society of America, Bulletin, 112:75, 2000.) From Science Frontiers #139, Jan-Feb 2002 . 2001 ...
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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 Fractals, fractals everywhere Anyone who follows the popular scientific literature knows that fractals are now "in." Commonly employed to "explain" patterns in nature, fractals are, from a simplistic viewpoint, mathematical ways to predict the development of a growing structure, be it a crystalline mass, a plant, or the universe-as-a -whole. Yes, the universe-as-a -whole, the clouds of stars and clusters of galaxies, may be mimicked by cellular automata (i .e ., fractals). Imagine the universe as a cubical lattice, and start in one corner, adding one layer of cubes after another. Galaxy distribution could be simulated by using a rule telling us which of the added cubical cells had galaxies in them and which did not. "The rule actually used supposes that the question whether each point in a newly added layer will (or will not) be occupied by a galaxy is mostly determined by the occupancy of the five nearest neighbors in the previous layer, but for good measure, there is a random variable to introduce an element of white noise to the system. To make the process a little more interesting, the determination whether a new site is occupied depends on whether a number characteristic of that site, and calculated by simple arithmetic from the corresponding number for the five nearest neighbors in the preceeding layer, exceeds an arbitrarily chosen number." Comparing this ...
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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 It's according to hoyle and wickramasinghe The June 17, 1994 issue of Science did not ignore it. In fact, this conservative journal devoted almost an entire page to a paper presented by Yi-Jehng Kuan and Yanti Miao at the recent Minneapolis meeting of the American Astronomical Society. Students of L. Snyder, at the University of Illinois, Kuan and Miao reported that the amino acid glycine had been detected in a molecular cloud named Sagittarius B2. Glycine has only ten atoms and is the smallest of the 20 amino acids vital to life-as-we-know-it. The Science article supposed that this discovery of extraterrestrial glycine might reignite speculation that earth life might not be unique after all. (Travis, John; "Hints of First Amino Acid outside Solar System," Science, 264:1669, 1994.) Structure of the amino acid glycine What Science did not mention but New Scientist did is that F. Hoyle and C. Wickramasinghe have long predicted that the molecules of life, as well as life itself, would be found in outer space. Now, after much ridicule, they are being vindicated. "It's been a long hard struggle," said Hoyle. Wickramasinghe remarked that the discovery was "no surprise at all." "He believes it is only a matter of time before other amino acids, together with nucleotide bases, the components of nucleic acids that ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 58: Jul-Aug 1988 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects A COSMIC CAUSE FOR THE OZONE HOLE?Wouldn't you know it? Now they are blaming the polar ozone holes on Frank's icy comets -- or something very much like them! M. Dubin and I. Eberstein, two NASA scientists think that small icy comets can account for the seasonal ozone hole and the mysterious polar strato spheric clouds that form during the winter. They propose that ozone molecules bond to tiny ice particles in the winter and, when spring arrives, solar ultra-violet radiation converts water (ice) plus ozone into oxygen and hydroxyl ions. (Anonymous; "A Cosmic Cause for the Ozone Hole?" Sky and Telescope, 75:465, 1988.) From Science Frontiers #58, JUL-AUG 1988 . 1988-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 17: Fall 1981 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Mysteries Around Uranus August 15, 1980. European Southern Observatory, La Silla, Chile. Using the 3.6 -meter reflector and a photoelectric detector, astronomers recorded the occultation of a star by Uranus. The currently recognized rings of Uranus were duly noted as they dimmed the star's light, but so did seven other "objects." Observers at Las Campanas and Cerro Tololo, who were also monitoring the occultations, did see the seven extra occultations of the star. Clouds and faulty equipment have been ruled out. No one knows what caused the anomalies, (Anonymous; "More Mysteries of Uranus' Rings," Solar System Today, 3:56, 1981.) From Science Frontiers #17, Fall 1981 . 1981-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 64: Jul-Aug 1989 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Halley: a young, combusting, alien interloper Can this be the comet Halley of the textbooks? Comets are supposed to be as old as the solar system itself (4 .6 billion years), born of solar-system stuff when a gaseous cloud condensed. Above all, comets do not "burn" or combust! The vision of a "burning" comet was advanced by recent observations that the velocity and temperature of the gases escaping from Halley are higher than one would expect from the sublimation of ices under solar radiation. Also, the concentration of expelled material in large, hypersonic jets carrying large quantities of fine dust further undermine the sublimation model. E.M . Drobyshevski has concluded "The new observations, together with some earlier data still poorly understood (e .g ., the appearance in the coma of large amounts of C3 ) can be accounted for by assuming the cometary ices to contain, apart from the hydrocarbons, nitrogen-containing compounds, etc., also of free oxygen (about 15 wt. %) . Under these conditions, burning should occur in the products of sublimation under deficiency of oxidizer accompanied by the production of 'soot,' 'smoke,' etc. The burning should propagate under the surface crust and localize at a few sites. "The presence of oxygen in cometary ices follows from a new eruption theory assuming the minor bodies of the Solar System to have formed ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 20: Mar-Apr 1982 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology A Recently Discovered "book" of Petroglyphs Astronomy A Big Void in Space Or A Defective Yardstick? Something Hot Beneath Small Saturn-satellite Surfaces A Couple Venusian Curiosities Biology Heads Or Tails? A Tale of Two Ecosystems -- or Maybe Many More Missing Links: the Big Ones Still Elude Us Puzzling Group Behavior of Sharks Geology Gravity Anomaly Ripples Centered in Canada Subterranean Petroleum Factories? Geophysics A Most Peculiar Cloud Arch Whirling Crescents Move with Ship Psychology The Mystery of Spontaneous Visions ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 29: Sep-Oct 1993 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Sedimentary rocks on venus?The Soviet spacecraft Veneras-13 and 14 took photos of the hot surface of Venus from their landing spots beneath the planet's thick cloud cover. The rocky debris surrounding the spacecraft shows, to nearly everyone's surprise, strong evidence of sedimentary, layered structure. The rock formations display ripple marks, thin layering, differential erosion, and even hints of cross-bedding. The vision of ancient seas on Venus leaps to the mind, but according to the Russian scientists, it is far more likely that the sediments were created by winds, episodic volcanism, or repeated meteor strikes. (Florensky, C.P ., et al; "Venera 13 and Venera 14: Sedimentary Rocks on Venus?" Science, 221:57, 1983.) Reference, Venus harbors many anomalies. See our Catalog: The Moon and the Planets. This book is described here . Two pictures of the surface of Venus taken by the Russian space probe Venera 14. From Science Frontiers #29, SEP-OCT 1983 . 1983-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 101: Sep-Oct 1995 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Ironclad proof of the moon's origin? Did earth and moon "coaccrete" at the same time? That is, did two clouds of debris simultaneously collect and coalesce into two rough spheres, which then began orbiting about a common center of gravity? Or, perhaps the earth and moon were once a single mass that ultimately fissioned due to the gravitational tugging of a passing massive object. If either of these scenarios were correct, earth and moon would have similar bulk compositions. This, however, does not seem to be the case. The abundance and distribution of iron on the moon's surface, as measured by the lunar probe Clementine , indicates that the moon is richer than the earth in refractory (high meltingpoint) compounds. The moon, therefore, almost certainly originated elsewhere, contrary to what most astronomers have longbelieved. Given the constraints of celestial mechanics, the most likely hypothesis postulates a colossal impact involving protoearth and the interloping protomoon. After considerable havoc, the two battered spheres settled down into their present configuration. Thus expire the two most popular theories of the moon's origin. (Lucey, Paul G., et al; "Abundance and Distribution of Iron on the Moon," Science, 268:1150, 1995) From Science Frontiers #101 Sep-Oct 1995 . 1995-2000 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 A Weak Missing Link Evolutionists have always pointed to the Archaeopteryx as a most convincing missing link between the reptiles and birds. The modern study of some really excellent fossil specimens of Archaeopteryx have clouded this issue. The feathers of Archaeopteryx, as preserved in fine limestone, are found to be asymmetrical as required for efficient flight. (Flightless birds have symmetric feathers) The skull is more birdlike than previously thought. In fact, some aspects of Archaeopteryx are like those in "advanced" birds; others are "primitive" There are now three strongly held views among scientists: Archaeopteryx is related to: (1 ) crocodiles; (2 ) theropod dinosaurs; and (3 ) thecodontians (other reptiles). (Benton, Michael J.; "No Consensus on Archaeopteryx," Nature, 305:99, 1983.) From Science Frontiers #30, NOV-DEC 1983 . 1983-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Sourcebook Subjects Another Milky Sea January 25, 1995. Indian Ocean. Aboard the s.s . Lima , Juaymah to Rotterdam. Third officer, S.M .F . Masud, and others of the ship's company observed another instance of one of the sea's great unex plained phenomena. "At 1800 UTC on a clear moonless night while 150 n.mile east of the Somalian coast a whitish glow was observed on the horizon and, after 15 minutes of steaming, the ship was completely surrounded by a sea of milky-white colour with a fairly uniform luminescence. The bioluminescence appeared to cover the entire sea area, from horizon to horizon but above the surface, and it appeared as though the ship was sailing over a field of snow or gliding over the clouds. "There was no damping effect on capillary waves or reduction of visibility at all and there was no mist at deck level although at a distance it seemed as if there was either lowlying mist or the upwelling of the luminescence itself. The bow waves and the wake appeared blackish in colour and thick black patches of oil were passing by. Later, the Aldis lamp revealed that the 'oil patches' were actually light-green kelp, amazingly black against the white water." A water sample contained many singlecelled microorganisms, but they displayed no luminescence. After 6 hours, the luminescence disappeared. Commenting on this report, P.J . Herring, of the Southhampton Oceanography Centre, said that milky seas are most often associated with the Southwest Monsoon. This one was was rare ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 31: Jan-Feb 1984 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects There are cold anomalies "out there"As data from the IRAS (Infrared Astronomy Satellite) pile up (at 700 million bits per day), astronomers are seeing a new universe -- one consisting of cold gas, dust, and debris that emit little or no visible light. Here are just four of the new enigmas revealed: (1 ) Infrared "cirrus clouds." A network of faint wisps of cold matter that cover the whole sky. (2 ) Galactic matter of an unknown nature. This material has been observed only on one of the 100-micrometer IRAS scans. (3 ) A ring of solid particles around the star Vega. (4 ) "Blank fields." IRAS scans have found infrared sources where no visible object exist. (Waldrop, M. Mitchell, and Kerr, Richard A.; "IRAS Science Briefing," Science, 222:916, 1983.) From Science Frontiers #31, JAN-FEB 1984 . 1984-2000 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. 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 III "For the first time, researchers have found complex organic molecules on the Earth that came from outside the Solar System. American scientists say tiny sooty grains extracted from meteorites contain polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from interstellar dust clouds." This article continues with an acknowledgement that F. Hoyle did predict way back in the 1950s that some of earth's organic matter came from outer space. And that he was roundly scoffed at. Next, more evidence is presented suggesting that the universe is full of the basic ingredients of life: Recently, the spectrum of the amino acid glycine was detected near the center of our galaxy. (Hecht, Jeff; "Stardust Brought Down to Earth," New Scientist, p. 17, March 23, 1996) Cross reference. IN SF#101, we related how PAHs were found in meteorite ALH84001, which was picked up in the Antarctic, and which is believed to have originated on Mars. From Science Frontiers #106, JUL-AUG 1996 . 1996-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 33: May-Jun 1984 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology The Inca's Use of Bismuth An Ordovician Hammer? The Azilian Pebbles Astronomy A Real Death Star The Moon's Moonlets Comet Puffs A Smoke Ring Bad Spin Split Biology The Failure of Two-dimensional Life Rubberneckia Killer Fungi Cast Sticky Nets Prisoners of the Boundary Layer California Sea Serpent Flap Mokele-mbembe Geology Horsing Around with Evolution Mima Mounds in the Kenya Highlands A Russian Paluxy Geophysics Experiments on Brown Mountain Light Flashes Overhead Mystery Cloud of AD 536 Wormy Ball Lightning Crab Fall At Brighton Psychology Imaging Cancer Away Chemistry & Physics High G-values in Mines Falling Masses Swerve South ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 86: Mar-Apr 1993 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology The acoustics of rock art Where did agriculture really begin? Astronomy Meteoric "dust bunnies" Cosmic snowballs and magnetic asteroids Biology Must we die? the medfly's answer How a fly hears what a cricket hears Once more science fiction predicts the future! Rethinking aids Geology Geysers as detectors of distant earthquakes Precariously balanced rocks as earthquake detectors Geophysics An electrical virtuoso The milky sea a.k .a . "white water" A CURIOUS SIGHTING Cloud plumes natural but still a bit anomalous Logic and Mathematics Math's mystery All roads lead to 123 Psychology Hypnosis and skin temperature Hypnosis and basketball Physics Solar radiation and mental illness ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 33: May-Jun 1984 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Crab Fall At Brighton June 5, 1983. Brighton, England. A large spider crab dropped out of a storm cloud in front of Julian Cowan. The crab measured 25 centimeters across and had a 7-8 centimeter shell. It was dead and lacked two legs and one claw. The fall was followed almost immediately by wind-driven hailstones. (Meaden, G.T .; "The Remarkable 'Fall' of a Crab at Brighton, 5 June 1983," Journal of Meteorology, U.K ., 9:56, 1984.) Reference. A broad spectrum of falling animals is described at GWF10-14 in our Catalog: Tornados, Dark Days. Information on this book is located here . From Science Frontiers #33, MAY-JUN 1984 . 1984-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 110: Mar-Apr 1997 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Circles of contention A NAZCA ZODIAC? Cracks in the kaimanawa-wall story? Astronomy The crstalline universe Martian life: act ii Biology Nannobacteria: life on a different scale Is oliver a "humanzee"? Cichlids punctuate equilibrium Sparrows at play Geology Did a methane burp down twa800? A METEOR IMPACT OR EARTH SLUMP? Geophysics Unusual circulating cloud object Unidentified light Psychology "PLANETARY VISIONS" DURING NDEs Mathenatics http://www.aros.net/angio/pistuff/piquer Alphamagic squares ...
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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 Expanding ball of light (ebl) phenomenon X8. June 22, 1976. North Atlantic. "At 2113 GMT a pale orange glow was seen to be coming from behind a bank of towering cumulus to the west. At 2115 a ghostly white disc (see sketches) was observed at an approximate altitude of 10-degrees and bearing 290-degrees. The glow from behind the cloud persisted." The glowing region developed as indicated in the figure. Stars could be seen throught the disc at all times. By 2140 the disc had disappeared. In the latest number of the Journal of Scientific Exploration, R.F . Haines presents a summary table of 15 cases of a luminous phenomenon he has dubbed the Expanding Ball of Light or EBL. EBLs are very large, sometimes occupying much of the sky. They seem to occur everywhere, though rarely. Haines elaborates: "According to several pilot witnesses, the center of the EBL is at relatively high altitude while it is forming. Its color is evenly whitish or yellowish and becomes increasingly transparent to background stars as it expands. As it enlarges it appears to maintain a sharply defined edge. At some point it fades completely from sight. The rate of boundary interface expansion is impossible to determine without knowing its distance from the observer. It is also of interest to note that most EBL events have taken place after dark. If EBL phenomena are associated with an advanced ...
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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 Two Snowflake Anomalies Rarely is there anything in the scientific literature suggesting that anything about snowflakes could possibly be mysterious. Surprisingly, two articles on snowflake anomalies have appeared recently. To form at all above -40 F, snowflakes supposedly require a solid seed or nucleus around which ice can crystallize -- or so scientists have assumed for many years. It was long believed that airborne dust, perhaps augmented by extraterrestrial micrometeoroids, served as the necessary nuclei. But cloud studies prove that there are about a thousand times more ice crystals than dust nuclei. Now, some are convinced that bacteria blown off plants and flung into the air by ocean waves are the true nuclei of atmospheric ice crystals. Remember this the next time you tast a handful of snow! (Carey, John; "Crystallizing the Truth," National Wildlife, 23:43, December/ January 1985.) Comment. The possibility that the fall of snow and all other forms of precipitation is largely dependent upon bacter-ia brings to mind the Gaia Hypothesis; that is, all life forms work in unison to further the goals of life. The second item is from Nature and is naturally more technical. After reviewing the great difficulties scientists are having in mathematically describing the growth of even the simplest crystal, the author homes in on one of the fascinating puzzles of snowflake growth: "The aggregation of particles into a growing surface will be determined exclusively by local ...
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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 Green Sky Flashes March 25, 1984. Indian Ocean. "Two successive 'green flashes' were observed. The first, at 2100 Ship's Time or 1530 GMT, was a bright green and bore 240 at an altitude of 75 ; it moved vertically downwards to an altitude of approximately 20 over a period lasting about 3 seconds. The second flash was observed at 2250 Ship's Time. It was green/white and was first observed at an altitude of 40 , bearing approximately 340 .It moved diagonally across the sky before disappearing behind low cloud at an altitude of 30 , bearing 310 . This time the duration was 1-2 seconds. In both cases the ship's radars were turned on but nothing was observed other than rain showers between 4 and 12 n. mile from the ship, mainly forward of the beam. Both flashes were of about the same brightness as that of lightning, the first being brighter than the second. In both cases it was difficult to judge the distance. The phenomenon was thought to have possibly been some form of lightning as its appearance was unlike that of any flare and in both cases the distance from the ship did not appear great enough to be compatible with a meteor or other object entering the earth's atmosphere." (Aston, A.; "' Green Flashes'"; Marine Observer, 55:30, 1985.) Comment. ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 44: Mar-Apr 1986 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology How the Incas Worked Stone Checking Out Those Australian Pyramids Astronomy Neptune's Partial Rings Space Spume Star Sludge Tunnelling Towards Life in Outer Space Biology Evolving on Half A Wing (And A Prayer?) Signals in the Night The Moon, the Stars, and Human Behavior Geology Squirrels As Measures of Geological Time Northwest Indian Tradition of A Large-scale Sea Inundation Of Dust Clouds and Ice Ages Geophysics Atmospheric Footprints of Icy Meteors Unusual Double Sun Unclassified Unidentified Flashing Object ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 47: Sep-Oct 1986 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Oceans from outer space?Back in SF#44, we related how L.A . Frank, at the University of Iowa, had detected dark spots on satellite images of the earth's dayglow. Frank thought that the spots might be due to clouds of water vapor released as small, icy comets hit the atmosphere. P. Huyghe has recently written more about Frank's discovery, his theory, and its reception by the scientific community. "These comets are not occasional visitors, he [Frank] says, like the one that comes by every 76 years and -- lucky for us -- never actually drops in. No, these are very small, cometlike objects that enter our atmosphere at a rate of 20 per minute, he says. These comets, which he believes must contain about 100 tons of water apiece, vaporize on impact with the atmosphere and fall as rain or snow. Now that may seem like one sizeable cold shower, but on a yearly basis he says it's actually only a tiny fraction of the annual preciptation. Then again, over a span of 4.5 billion years, which is about how old the earth is, that's enough water, he says -- trumpets blaring -- to create the oceans." Naturally, such a theory is very disturbing because it runs counter to the widely accepted idea that the oceans were created by the ...
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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 Lightning Strikes Jet And Possibly Spawns Ball Lightning June 17, 1996. Tewkesbury, England. On this day, two remarkable observations were made a few seconds apart. Even so, one cannot be certain that the first caused the second. For the first observation, there were two witnesses. Both saw lightning strike a low-flying USAF jet. Mrs. E. Shobli wrote the following account: "Two forks of lightning came from the clouds in front of the plane, converged on it and gripped it. The tail end of the plane became illuminated -- vapours came from its end and formed into a bright, dense mass. I thought I was witnessing damage to the plane. The light continued to separate from the plane, downwards like a flare. It appeared as yellow, lit-up gases. These seemed to take shape, becoming brighter and denser, and then move downwards in the same direction as the plane (south). About two seconds after disappearing behind the roof there was an ear-splitting explosion. To my relief the plane reappeared unscathed." At the time of the lightning strikes, the jet was passing over a factory, where a fork-lift driver saw a dazzling blue-white ball bounce along the factory roof and enter the building. Many workers inside were treated to an amazing pyrotechnic display as the ball made its way through the building. "It entered the factory ...
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