682 results found.
... landed in North America several millennia ago. The basis for such speculation is an ancient Chinese work called the Shun-Hai Ching , which is reputed to be about 3500 years old. In it, the Chinese explorers mention encounters with several strange animals. One is easily recognized as the collared peccary, known only in the New World, thus establishing the reality of a transPacific contact. Now, here is the piece de resistance: "Here we met a creature as tall as three men and so great that the earth trembled as he walked. He had a voice as loud as thunder. He was red like fire. From his mouth he spat spears of pearl, and he had but one long arm. He was wont to take up men in his hand and dash their brains out against rocks." Could this creature be anything but a mammoth? Incidentally, the frozen Siberian mammoths are reported to be covered with reddish hair. (Eckhardt, C.F .; "Prehistoric Explorers of the West?" National Tombstone Epitaph , p.17, October 1988. Cr. H.J . Hanson) Comment. Ancient Chinese in America and the late survival of the mammoth - all in one article! This is rich grist for the anomaly mill. But can we believe any of it? Reference. The possible late survival of the mammoth assessed in BMD10 in our catalog: Biological Anomalies: Mammals II. This volume is described here . From Science Frontiers #62, MAR-APR 1989 . 1989-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 56: Mar-Apr 1988 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Do black holes exist?Can we believe our eyes? Dare anyone suggest that black holes do not lurk out in the cosmos sucking in stars and unwary spaceships? It's all true; an arti cle bearing the above title appeared in the January 1988 number of Sky and Telescope. Doubts do surface once in a while, despite all the TV documentaries, all the textbooks, and all the newspaper jottings, where black holes are described in the hushed tones used only with profound truths of nature. To set the stage, we quote a paragraph from said article: "There is, however, a serious problem with black holes, one that leaves some scientists skeptical about their existence. The overarching mystery lies hidden at a hole's center. Einstein's general theory of relativity predicts that we will find there an object more massive than a million Earths and yet smaller than an atom -- so small, in fact, that its density approches infinity. The idea of any physical quantity becoming infinite flies in the face of everything we know about how nature behaves. So there is good reason to be skeptical that such a nasty thing could happen anywhere at all." Among the observations that hint at the reality of black holes are the X-ray binaries. In a typical X-ray binary, prodigious, flickering fluxes of X-rays reveal the presence of an ultradense star and an orbiting companion ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 56: Mar-Apr 1988 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Edinburgh ufo a mirage?September 30, 1986. Edinburgh, Scotland. "Yvonne Westgarth looked out of a north-facing window of her house in south Edinburgh. She was amazed to see a white cylindrical object like a missile travelling westwards just above the roofs of houses opposite (as she thought). She called her husband who also saw the object. Their sketches of what they saw are shown in Fig. l. Although their descriptions differ slightly, they agree that the 'missile' had a black band around its centre. They watched the object for a period of between 0.5 min and 1.5 min (period uncertain). It was first seen almost due north and it disappeared in the west-northwest. No noise was heard." No one else reported seeing the object. A real missile was considered very unlikely. However, the object appeared in the direction of the glide path of the Edinburgh airport, where two aircraft had landed at about the time of the sighting. The witnesses were adamant that the UFO did not look at all like a plane; and that it was much higher in the sky than planes on normal glide paths, which were to be seen just above the horizon between the houses. S. Campbell, who investigated this event, suggests that the Westgarths saw an enlarged distorted mirage of a Boeing 757 landing at Edinburgh. The timing and direction were right ...
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... goes, the Princeton work is of the highest scientific quality. In the first category, subjects (called operators in the report) were asked to influence the pulses produced by a Random Event Generator (REG). The REG was actually an electronic noise source coupled with circuits that created random positive and negative pulses. The operator mentally tried to increase or decrease the number of counts, or generate baseline data for experiment control. After 33 different operators and over 250,000 trials, there appeared a small but statistically significant indication that the operators were actually able to influence the equipment. Also interesting is the fact that each operator had a private "signature"; that is, individual cumulative deviation graphs (like the one shown) had typical shapes for each operator. Related experiments were carried out with a Random Mechanical Cascade (RMC). In this device 9,000 3/4 -inch polystyrene spheres cascaded down through an array of 330 nylon pegs into 19 bins. According to chance a Gaussian distribution of spheres should be found in the bins. The operators were asked to mentally try and skew the distribution to the right or left, or construct a baseline, as with the REG. Once again, there was statistically significant evidence of a mental influence. Jahn's group also engaged in remoteviewing experiments, in which subjective factors were suppressed as far as possible. An excerpt from the report's Abstract summarizes this phase of the work nicely: "Quantitative analysis of a large data base of remote perception experiments reveals similar departures from chance expectation of the degree of ...
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... the Universe is just a random collection of particles with blind forces acting upon them. There is, then a deep mystery as to how a seemingly directionless assembly of passive entities conspire to produce the elaborate structure and complex organisation found in nature." The author of this introductory paragraph, P. Davies, asks, as we all do, "What is the origin of this creative power?" In groping for an answer, he presents first a common example of "blind" organization: the hexagonal convection cells in a pan of heated water. Using for a stepping stone the cooperative action of atoms in a laser, he leaps to the development of an embryo from a single strand of DNA! All such systems are "open"; that is, energy can flow in and out. They are also nonlinear, which means that chaotic, unpredictable action may occur. Davies implies that such action can be "creative," almost as if they possessed free will! His final example is that of the network with large numbers of interacting sites or nodes. With random inputs, large networks do exhibit self-organization. Network theory is now very popular in the field of artificial intelligence. (Remember the computer Hal in 2001?) Davies's conclusion: ". .. Neo-Darwinism, combined with the mathematical principles emerging from network theory and related topics, will, I am convinced, explain the 'miracle' of life satisfactorily." (Davies, Paul; "The Creative Cosmos," New Scientist, p. 41, December 17, ...
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... 't laugh, much of science is just as much of a belief system as religion!) are those who see a long human history at Calico. B. Bower writes: "Two periods of human occupation have been dated at Calico. From about 15,000 to 20,000 years ago the area was inhabited by what [R .D .] Simpson suggests was a huntinggathering people with more sophisticated tools, including stones flaked on both sides. In deeper layers estimated to be at least 200,000 years old are the simpler flakes of people, she says, who probably gathered plants and other foods." Much farther north, along the Yukon's Old Crow River, nearly 10,000 horse-and mammoth-bone artifacts have been picked up and dug out of the river banks. W.N . Irving, from the University of Toronto, claims that the last five seasons of archeological research have uncovered a 'bone industry' of extremely great age -- 100,000 years or more. (Bower, Bruce; "Flakes, Breaks, and the First Americans," Science News, 131:172, 1987.) Comment. It seems significant that French archeologists explored the Brazilian site and Canadians, the Old Crow site. American archeologists, with a few exceptions here and there, scoff at the whole business. Reference. The handbook Ancient Man goes into early American archeology in great depth. For ordering information, visit: here . Composite section of the Old Crow site. Notice the complexity of the stratigraphy. (Adapted ...
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... new eruption theory assuming the minor bodies of the Solar System to have formed in explosions of the massive ice envelopes saturated with electrolysis products on distant moon-like bodies of the type of Ganymede and Callisto." (Drobyshevski, E.M .; "Combustion as the Cause of Comet P/Halley's Activity," Earth, Moon, and Planets , 43:87, 1988. Cr. L. Ellenberger.) Drobyshevski's combustion theory assumes a "local" origin (within the solar system) for Halley. But measurements of the ratio of carbon-12 to carbon-13, made during the 1986 flyby, produced a ratio of 65:1 . This compares to 89:1 for solar system material. The 65:1 ratio, it turns out, is more typical of interstellar material. This datum seems to place Halley's birthplace somewhere outside the solar system. (Weiss, R.; "Carbon Ratio Shows Halley May be Alien," Science News, 135:214, 1989.) As if all this were not bad enough, calculations of the amount of matter expelled from Halley and incorporated in known meteor streams allow an estimate of Halley's residence time in the inner solar system. (One has, of course, Halley's present mass, but must estimate its original mass!) The conclusion is that Halley has spent only 23,000 years in its present orbit! (Maddox, John; "Halley's Comet Is Quite Young," Nature, 339:95, 1989. ...
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... Our geochemical data are consistent with these high silica glass bodies being impact melt products of two-thirds basalt and onethird local intertrappean sediment (chert). The tektite-like bodies of the impact craters Lonar, Zhamanshin, and Aouelloul are generally similar. Strong terrestrial geochemical signatures reflect the target rock REE patterns and the abundance ratios and demonstrate their terrestrial origin resulting from meteorite impact, as has been suggested by earlier workers." (Murali, A.V ., et al; "Tektite-Like Bodies at Lonar Crater, India: Implications for the Origin of Tektites," Journal of Geophysical Research, 92B:E729, 1987.) Comment. Obviously, the glassy droplets at the Lonar Crater strongly support a terrestrial origin for tektites. Proponents of a lunar origin can still point out, however, that some strewn fields cannot be associated with any known terrestrial crater. And why doesn't the very recent Lonar Crater have a strew field of tektites somewhere? Ditto for Zhamanshin and Aouelloul. There seems to be much more to learn here. From Science Frontiers #53, SEP-OCT 1987 . 1987-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... 1984 produced slow, wavelike changes in the local gravitational field at the surface, as measured by new superconducting gravity meters. The periods were 13-15 hours. (Ref. 2) Gravity and magnetism measurements from satellites show strong, coincident anomalies in the Indian Ocean (3 N 81 E). In fact the whole ocean surface is depressed in this region. To explain these overlapping anomalies, geophysicists suggest that a "valley" 5-10 kilometers deep exists at the coremantle boundary. (Ref. 3) References Ref. 1. Dziewonski, Adam M., and Woodhouse, John H.; "Global Images of the Earth's Interior," Science, 236:37, 1987. Ref. 2. Weisburd, Stefi; "The Inner Earth Is Coming Out," Science News, 131:222, 1987. Ref. 3. "Satellites See Valleys in the Earth's Core," New Scientist, p. 33, May 21, 1987. Comment. Reviewing Item 5 above, one wonders if the so-called "core spots" might attain such strengths that they locally reverse the terrestrial magnetic field at the surface. If so, geological scenarios relying on paleomagnetism (like continental drifting) would become suspect. From Science Frontiers #52, JUL-AUG 1987 . 1987-2000 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 Now, it's comet showers that did it The impact/extinction controvery still rages. A careful evaluation of paleontological evidence has persuaded catas trophists to think in terms of comet showers spread out over a few million years, rather than a single impact per extinction. This short abstract from a Nature article says it all: "If at least some mass extinctions are caused by impacts, why do they extend over intervals of one to three million years and have a partly stepwise character? The solution may be provided by multiple cometary impacts. Astronomical, geological and palaeontological evidence is consistent with a causal connection between comet showers, clusters of impact events and stepwise mass exi tinctions, but it is too early to tell how pervasive this relationship may be." (Hut, Piet, et al; "Comet Showers as a Cause of Mass Extinctions," Nature, 329:118, 1987.) Comment. In other words, the nature of astronomical catastrophism is still up in the air! But, bear in mind that a mere decade ago such a paper would have to look far for a jounal that would publish it. From Science Frontiers #54, NOV-DEC 1987 . 1987-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... is enhanced. The observation is something of a mixture of patterns, indicating that directed mutation appears to be occurring. 'This experiment suggests that populations of bacteria...have some way of producing (or selectively retaining) only the most appropriate mutations,' note Cairns and his colleagues." (Lewin, Roger; "A Heresy in Evolutionary Biology," Science, 241:1431, 1988.) Research with E. coli at other labs is producing similar heresy. Cairns does not doubt that some mutations arise spontaneously and randomly, but some bacteria have found a way to do a little better. (Hendricks, M.; "Experiments Challenge Genetic Theory," Science News, 134:166, 1988. Also: Cherfas, Jeremy; "Bacteria Take the Chance out of Evolution," New Scientist, p. 34, September 22, 1988.) Comment. This discovery seems at least as "impossible" as the "infinite dilution" experiments discussed elsewhere. Will Nature now dispatch a "hit squad" to Harvard? From Science Frontiers #60, NOV-DEC 1988 . 1988-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... 3.8 billion years old. This portion is densely cratered from a period pf heavy meteorite bombardment. It is also carved by many channels that are thought to have been cut in ancient times by flowing water, water which quickly escaped into space or combined chemically with Martian minerals. The present atmosphere of Mars, in consequence, contains little water vapor. But some of the Martian landscape, notably Alba Patera, raises questions about the above scenario. The anomalous characteristic of Alba Patera is its relative smoothness and scarcity of impact craters. This Martian real estate is believed to be 2 billion years younger than the rest of the planet. Even so, it, too, is marked by "fluvial" features that resemble stream beds. Question #1 . How did Alba Patera get smoothed out or "reworked"? In other words, what happened to the ancient craters that must have pocked its surface, as they do everywhere else? Question #2 . Where did the water come from to cut Alba Patera's stream beds if all of the Martian water disappeared 2 billion years earlier? One line of thought maintains that "fluvial" does not mean "pluvial," and that Martian water has come from below rather than as rain from the atmosphere. Both fluvial episodes, in this view, occurred when something caused the Martian crust to release huge quantities of stored water. Hydrothermal activity is mentioned as a possibility. (Eberhart, J.; "The Martian Atmosphere: Old Versus New," Science News, 135:21, 1989.) Comment. ...
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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 Remote, extrasensory description of mineral samples "A series of remote viewing experiments were run with 12 participants who communicated through a computer conferencing network. These participants, who were located in various regions of the United States and Canada, used portable terminals in their homes and offices to provide typed descriptions of 10 mineral samples. These samples were divided into an open series and a double-blind series. A panel of five judges was asked to match the remote viewing descriptions against the mineral samples by a percentage scoring system. The correct target sample was identified in 8 out of 33 cases; this represents more than double the pure chance expectation. Two experienced users provided 20 transcripts for which the probability of achieving the observed distribution of the percentage score by chance was 0.04." (Vallee, Jacques,; "Remote Viewing and Computer Communications - An Experiment," Journal of Scientific Exploration , 2:13, 1988.) From Science Frontiers #61, JAN-FEB 1989 . 1989-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... 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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... New York City measles epidemics before mass vaccinations. Take a look at the graph of recorded cases. The expected peaks occur each winter, but there is a strong tendency toward alternate mild and severe years. Very nice mathematical models exist that purport to predict the progress of epidemics. They take into account such factors as the human contact rate, disease latency period, the existing immune population, etc. It is all very methodical, but it fails to account for the irregularities in actual data. Deterministic scientists claim that just by adding a little "noise" they could duplicate the observed curve. On the other hand, a very simple model that acknowledges the reality of chaos easily duplicates the measured data. Who is right? The determinists and chaosists (chaosians?) are now fighting it out. (Pool, Robert; "Is It Chaos, or Is It Just Noise?" Science, 243:25, 1989.) Comment. Much more of nature may be chaotic. Even evolution itself may be so. Are we merely a blip on a biological diversity curve, with a future that is unpredictable, regardless of what actions we take? Fortunately, lack of space prohibits the mention of Free Will! Reference.See BHH2 in our catalog Biological Anomalies: Humans II for more on the periodicity of epidemics. From Science Frontiers #62, MAR-APR 1989 . 1989-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 62: Mar-Apr 1989 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Researches In Reincarnation I. Stevenson, at the University of Virginia, has long studied claims of reincarnation. The method employed (and there are precious few alternatives) focuses on children who claim to have lived before and can provide verifiable details about their past lives. If the details check out, one can at least claim that reincarnation is a possible interpretation of the data. Usually, however, before a researcher can get to the scene of the phenomenon, the parents of the deceased have been found and the way has been left open for much exaggeration. In his present contribution, Stevenson reports three cases in Sri Lanka where the recollections of the supposedly reincarnated children have been written down in detail and the family of the deceased has not been located. Here is one of his cases: "The Case of Iranga . The child was born in a village of Sri Lanka near but not on the west coast, in 1981. When she was about 3 years old she spoke about a previous life at a place called Elpitiya. Among other details, Iranga mentioned that her father sold bananas, there had been two wells at her house, one well had been destroyed by rain, her mother came from a place called Matugama, she was a middle sister of her family, and the house where the family lived had red walls and a kitchen with a thatched roof. Her statements led to the identification of a family in ...
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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 Toads Fall To Squashy Fate On Route 66, near Gallup, New Mexico, June 1949. "Temperature 104 . Absolute blue sunny skies. No clouds anywhere to be seen, from one horizon to the other for 360 . "Out of nowhere, without warning, it poured extremely hard rain, hail, and toads. The hail balls were maybe the size of grapes to the size of peas. The toads were a medium brown in color and approximately the size of an adult's thumbnail. This whole incident lasted for less than 5 minutes, if my memory is correct. .. .. . "The highway and the desert sands seemed to be one and the same, and the whole area seemed to be alive and moving. By now, we were down to a very slow speed, and under closer observation we noticed that the area was littered with millions of hailstones and those toads hopping all over. "The storm stopped as fast as it started, and the toads disappeared just as fast. I'll never forget how slippery the road was as we drove over those toads, and the popping of their bodies under the tires of my automobile." (Schuler, Richard A.; personal communication, July 23, 1987.) Comment. The sudden onset of the violent storm and the huge numbers of toads are both difficult-to-account for. If a whirlwind picked up ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 55: Jan-Feb 1988 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Demystifying Those Australian Craters In SF#53, we reported some mysterious craters in Queensland, Australia. Were they excavated by ancient humans? Do they display ancient inscriptions? Australian readers were quick to supply additonal information. It turns out that several years ago, geologists did inspect the so-called "Mystery Craters." This appellation was actually applied by the owners of the land, who have made the craters into a tourist attraction. (This fact alone is enough to raise suspicion!) The geologist's report completely dispells any aura of mystery. Here follows their summary: "A geological investigation of the 'Mystery Craters" adjacent to Lines Road, South Kolan, indicates that these structures are sinkholes in a laterite profile. The sinkholes have been caused by the collapse of overlying strata into underground voids produced by tunnel erosion." (Robertson, A.D .; "Origin of the 'Mystery Craters' of South Kolan, Bundaberg Area," Queensland Government Mining Journal, p. 448, September 1979. Cr. R. Molnar.) Comment. No mention was made in the geologist's report of any inscriptions. From Science Frontiers #55, JAN-FEB 1988 . 1988-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... vast inland sea. In ancient China, conditions were much harsher. A modern-day equivalent would be the Great Salt Lake Basin of Utah. Water did exist in vast shallow lakes, but it was often alkaline and high in soda. The vegetation was scrubland with coniferous forests on the higher ground." (Anderson, Ian; "Chinese Unearth a Dinosaurs' Graveyard," New Scientist, p. 26, November 12, 1987.) Comment. To these Gobi observations should be added those above from northern Alaska, all of 70 north latitude, which suggest that dinosaurs also survived in a land where darkness reigned almost six months of the year. It seems that these great beasts could live almost anywhere. Why, then, do most scientists maintain that climatic changes wiped them out? From Science Frontiers #55, JAN-FEB 1988 . 1988-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 55: Jan-Feb 1988 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Powerful Concentric Waves We wish we could pass along more data on this phenomenon. The totality of our information resides in two sentences mentioning an observation by the crew of the Soviet spacecraft Mir: "The crew reported seeing an unexplained ocean phenomenon, 'powerful concentric waves going out in the midst of a serene sea.' The cosmonauts did not report where they saw the waves but said the circular features were many miles across." (Anonymous; "Soviets Demonstrate Flight Readiness with Firing of Heavy Lift Booster," Aviation Week, p. 20, March 16, 1987. Cr. G. Earley) From Science Frontiers #55, JAN-FEB 1988 . 1988-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 56: Mar-Apr 1988 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Wandering Molluscs "How could a mollusc which lived all its adult life cemented fast to the seabed in shallow water occur thousands of kilometers apart in the Arabian Gulf and the Caribbean? Almost identical forms of the extinct bivalve Torreites sanchezi have been found in rocks from the Caribbean and the Gulf. Peter Skelton of the Open University and Paul Wright of the University of Bristol suggest that the larval stage of the bivalve must have 'island hopped.'" The two researchers rule out convergent evolution and note that the two seas were never any closer together. They suppose that in Cretaceous times there was an equatorial current that swept the larval forms long distances. (Anonymous; "Wandering Molluscs," New Scientist, p. 33, October 15, 1987.) Comment. The same situation prevails for other species, such as some of the amphipods and the unique life forms dependent on seafloor vents. From Science Frontiers #56, MAR-APR 1988 . 1988-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 51: May-Jun 1987 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Mite Pockets Of Lizards "Many lizards are infested by chig gers, the larvae of trombiculid mites, which feed on tissue fluid and cell debris. Surprisingly, lizards seem to go out of their way to attract the chiggers -- they have special mite pockets that provide a protected, warm and humid site. In many cases, the skin of the lizard also has smaller scales than normal and a good blood supply in the pocket, which enables the parasites to feed more readily." There does not seem to be any advantage to the lizards providing plush accommodations for the chiggers. The chiggers can wreak havoc on their hosts in the form of skin lesions, allergic reactions, secondary infections, and the transmission of diseases. Nevertheless, some 150 species in 5 distinct lizard families possess mite pockets, which are often located in different places in different lizard species. Apparently, the mite pockets evolved separately several times. But why? (Benton, Michael J.; "The Mite Pockets of Lizards," Nature, 325:391, 1987.) Comment. Why haven't the lizards evolved thicker skin or some sort of chemical defense instead of reducing their fitness with mite pockets? Or, are other factors operating? From Science Frontiers #51, MAY-JUN 1987 . 1987-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... of New World Settlers," Science News, 133: 215, 1988.) A Review of the Paleoindian Debate . W. Bray recounts in Nature what happened at a meeting at the Smithsonian last September. Various controversial sites were discussed, such as Calico Hills (200,000 years claimed) and Toca de Esperanca, Brazil (3 ,000,000 years claimed). But, oddly enough, the Meadowcroft Rockshelter and Kansas River data were not mentioned. Chiefly, though, Bray was concerned with what did and what did not constitute generally acceptable proof in archeological dating. That this matter goes beyond idealized science is evident in Bray's quote of anthropologist E. Leach: "Justification in terms of scientific methodology is in part self-deception, for when the figures turn out wrong the true believer will always shuffle the figures; when contrary evidence shows up, he throws doubt upon the credentials of the investigator." (Bray, Warwick; "The Palaeoindian Debate," Nature, 332:107, 1988.) Monte Verde, Chile . We need quote here only the last two sentences of this paper's abstract: "We report here two carbon-14 dates from charcoal taken from cultural features associated with the older materials of about 33,000 yr BP. These findings provide additional evidence that people colonized the Americas much earlier than previously thought." (Dillehay, Tom D., and Collins, Michael B.; "Early Cultural Evidence from Monte Verde, Chile," Nature, 332:150, 1988.) Stratigraphy at ...
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... religion. The foregoing "kernel of real truth" was occasioned by letters written to Science News in response to B. Bower's article on the probability of human artifacts -- as old as 100,000 years -- having been found at the Calico site in California. (See SF#51.) First, J.G . Duvall, III, attacked Bower's article, asserting that the human origin of the Calico "artifacts" had long ago been shown to be untenable. For a reference, he cited an article by himself and W.T . Venner in the Journal of Field Archaeology. Duvall's major point was that the Calico "tools" did not resemble proven Paleoindian tools. Responding to Duvall, G.F . Carter first pointed out that the Duvall-Venner paper was "almost instantly shown to be erroneous" by L.W . Patterson in the pages of the very same journal. As for the differences in artifacts, Carter asked why one should expect 12,000-year-old Paleoindian artifacts to look like 200,000-year-old artifacts from an entirely different culture. (Duvall, James G., III; "Calico Revisited," Science News, 131:227, 1987. Carter, George F.; "Calico Defended," Science News, 131:339, 1987.) Comment. We don't really know whether or not the Calico "artifacts" were really made by humans 200,000 years ago. No one really does! One may opine or ...
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... , but he definitely saw "something." Earthbound observers still see and photograph Martian canals, despite the acknowledged fact that Martian orbiters and landers saw nothing resembling canals. R. Gordon now relates how on June 6, 1967, he and a friend, W.H . McHugh, were viewing Mars through an 8-inch f/9 reflecting telescope. The thick haze reduced atmospheric transparency, but the seeing was excellent. The infamous canals were there! "Two canals stretched clearly from Sabaeus Sinus and Meridiani Sinus to the northern deserts, where they faded. A most interesting canal was Deuteronilus-Protonilus -- originating in Niliacus Lacus which ran both east and west until I lost sight of it near the limb -- we counted at least six oases on this one, strung out like beads on a string." (Gordon, Rodger; "Martian Canals: Is Lowell Vindicated?" Sky and Telescope, 75:348, 1988.) Comment. Yes, some of the canals that Lowell and others drew are still there -- not physically perhaps -- but possibly as anomalies of perception and/or camera/telescope aberrations. Reference. The Martian "canal" story is covered in detail in AMO1 in our catalog The Moon and the Planets and handbook Mysterious Universe. To order these books, visit: here . A Mercator Projection of Mars drawn by Lowell, showing the major canals as he saw them. The black dots are oases (From: The Moon and the Planets). From Science Frontiers #57, MAY-JUN 1988 . ...
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... In A New Comet Astronomers in Australia have confirmed that organic matter exists in Comet Wilson, which is on what is believed to be its first and only visit to our Solar System. "It is the first time that organic matter has been found on a comet new to the Solar System. The astronomers, who observed the comet from the AngloAustralian Telescope at Siding Spring Observatory in New South Wales, say that this finding lends weight to the theory that comets brought to Earth the carbon-based chemicals from which life evolved." (Anonymous; "Astronomers Spot Carbon in a New Comet," New Scientist, p. 23, May 28, 1987.) Reference. Organic compounds in meteorites are cataloged under AYE2 in our catalog: The Sun and Solar System Debris. To find out more about this book, visit: here . From Science Frontiers #52, JUL-AUG 1987 . 1987-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... ; but it also shows that a web of mineralized bacteria is also an intergral part of the stalactite's structure. Laboratory simulations have shown that microorganisms take an active role in the process of mineralization. (Dupont, George; "Et Si les Stalactites Etaient Vivantes?" Science et Vie , p. 86, August 1987. Cr. C. Mauge.) Besides being a surprising adjustment of our ideas about stalactite growth, the recognition that microorganisms may play an active role in the subterranean world stimulates two new questions: (1 ) Can we believe any longer that stalactite size is a measure of age, as is often claimed? (2 ) Is the immense network of known caves (some as long as 500 kilometers) the consequence only of chemical actions? It turns out that the earth beneath our feet is not so solid after all. Some 40,000 caves are known in the United States alone. There are thought to be ten times that number that have no surface openings and therefore escape spelunking census takers. And besides caves big enough for humans to crawl into, there exists an immensely greater continuum of cracks, crevices, channels, and pores which circulate air, water, and chemicals in solution. This "crevicular structure" may be continuous for thousands of miles, possibly around the world. Furthermore, it is filled with life forms of great variety, usually blind, and usually related to creatures of the light. A recent article in American Scientist focuses on the evolution of the larger forms of subterranean life, especially the amphipods. Interestingly ...
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... of legs remained. Webb's right arm was also intact. She had been incinerated on the floor with her arm outflung from her torso, hence its survival. "As in the case of Thomas, furniture in Webb's room, which had commenced to burn, stopped burning due to the lack of oxygen. Yet again a complete human torso was reduced to ash in an atmosphere too devoid of oxygen to support the continued combustion of readily combustible materials." Heymer considers this last fact very strange. Further, he claims that in these cases the usual pattern of human burning was reversed. Normally, the extremities are consumed, leaving a charred but recognizable torso. Here, only the extremities remain and the torso is gone! (Heymer, John; "A Burnt-Out Case?" New Scientist, p. 68, May 19, 1988.) Reference. Many additional examples of SHC can be found in BHC7 in our catalog: Biological Anomalies: Humans II. A description of this book is located here . From Science Frontiers #58, JUL-AUG 1988 . 1988-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... the book" on the century-old Martian canals. Percival Lowell and all the other able astronomers who also saw the canal networks were obviously deluded. Wouldn't you know it, those canals haven't gone away! Consider this testimony of I. Dyer: "As staff photographer and observer at Lowell Observatory during the 1960-61 apparition of Mars, I spent several nights scrutinizing the planet's surface through the 24-inch Clark refractor. At instants of steady seeing I saw, and attempted to photograph, an apparent network of fine lines. Unfortunately, I was unable to duplicate clearly what I saw. Still, several of the more visually distinct 'canals' can be traced on my original prints. each is a composite of the finest four to eight images out of 49. Such prints suppress grain, remove artifacts and enhance detail." The canals thus photographed match some of lowell's well, although some of his detail is lacking. (Dyer, Ivan; "Martian Canals," Sky and Telescope, 73:605, 1987.) Comment. Let's open that "book" on the canals. Even better, let's never close books prematurely on any phenomena. Reference. More on the history of the canals and modern observations of them may be found in AMO1 in our catalog: The Moon and the Planets. To order, visit: here . From Science Frontiers #53, SEP-OCT 1987 . 1987-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 59: Sep-Oct 1988 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Did an asteroid impact trigger the ice ages?Asteroids and comets are being blamed these days for more and more of our planet's catastrophism -- biological, meteorological, and geological. What a turnabout in scientific thinking in just a decade. F.T . Kyte et al have now provided additional details on meteoritic debris they first described in 1981. On the floor of the southeast Pacific, about 1400 kilometers west of Cape Horn, about 5 kilometers down, they found high concentrations of iridium in Upper Pliocene sediments about 2.3 million years old. Since the proposed projectile hit in very deep water, no crater was dug out. What did survive is called an "impact melt." This is debris rich in noble metals, such as iridium, and contains particles typical of a low-metal mesosiderite. Some 600 kilometers of the ocean floor received this debris. Kyte and his associates estimate the size of the impacting object at at least 0.5 kilometers in diameter. No biological extinctions are correlated with the 2.3 -million-year date, but there appears to have been a major deterioration of climate at about this time. There was a shift in the marine oxygen isotope records and, more obvious, the creation of the huge loess (sandy) deposits in China. What the impact may have done is to vaporize enough water into the atmosphere to increase the earth's albedo, ...
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... which Buck summarizes some of the incredible synchronies. "More than three centuries later Porter observed a very different behavior in far southwestern Indiana in which, from the ends of a long row of tall riverbank trees, synchronized flashes '. .. began moving toward each other, met at the middle, crossed and traveled to the ends, as when two pebbles are dropped simultaneously into the ends of a long narrow tank of water...' "In 1961 Adamson described a still different type of display, the first from Africa: 'It is then too that one sees the great belt of light, some ten feet wide, formed by thousands upon thousands of fireflies whose green phosphorescence bridges the shoulder-high grass. The fluorescent band composed of these tiny organisms lights up and goes out with a precision that is perfectly synchronized, and one is left wondering what means of communication they possess which enables them to coordinate their shining as though controlled by a mechanical device.' A generation later, a flurry of full- dress bioluminescence expeditions had obtained photometric, cinematographic and electrophysiological measurements from congregational displays in Thailand, New Britain, New Guinea and Malaysia, confirming the reality of mass synchrony and uncovering a variety of types. Contemporaneously, Otto and Smiley photographed group wave synchrony of flying fireflies in central Texas, Ohba recorded two frequencies of synchrony in a Japanese species and Cicero described spectacular and enigmatic bouts of chain-flashing, tightening into synchronized strings, by fireflies on the ground in, of all places, the Arizona desert. Thus, work of the past 20 years has ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 53: Sep-Oct 1987 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Another Tale Of Ogopogo Another report of Lake Okanagan's monster, palindromically named Ogopogo, has surfaced. A Canadian woman, Mrs. B. Clark, actually bumped into Ogopogo while swimming in the British Columbia lake in July of 1974. "Mrs. Clark's report states: 'I did not see it (the animal) first. I felt it. I was swimming towards a raft/ diving platform located about a quarter of a mile offshore, when something big and heavy bumped my legs. At this point, I was about 3 feet from the raft, and I made a mad dash for it and got out of the water. It was then that I saw it.' The report goes on to describe the observation: 'When I first saw it, it was about 15-20 feet away. I could see a hump or coil which was 8 feet long and 4 feet above the water moving in a forward motion. It was traveling north, away from me. It did not seem to be in much of a rush, and it swam very slowly. The water was very clear, and 5 to 10 feet behind the hump, about 5 to 8 feet below the surface, I could see its tail. The tail was forked and horizontal like a whale's , and it was 4 to 6 feet wide. As the hump submerged, the tail came to ...
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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 Checking Out Those Australian Pyramids Several Australian readers have been kind enough to send this item about the Australian pyramids reported in SF#41, especially the one at Gympie, Queensland. The article's author, T. Wheeler, personally checked out the Gympie pyramid, the other supposedly ancient artifacts found in the area, and the testimonies of authorities and old-timers in the Gympie area. His results: "What are we left with? The facts are (probably) that the Gympie 'Golden' pyramid is actually an ordinary hill terraced by early Italian immigrants for viniculture that has been disfigured by erosion and the removal of stone from the retaining walls for use elsewhere; the stone wall around Gympie's Surface Hill Uniting Church is exactly what the Rev Mr Geddes says it is -- a wall made from irregular, freshly quarried stone. The 'Gympie Ape/Iron Man' statue was carved by a Chinese gold prospector and later abandoned. The sun symbol and snakes were carved quite recently. The prickly pear was introduced to Australia by early settlers journeying via South America. As for all the supporting statements by the various authorities, all but a few unimportant ones fade away as one after another proves to be a misquote, a falsification or an outright fabrication." (Wheeler, Tony; "In Quest of Australia's Lost Pyramids," Omega Science Digest, p. 22, November/December ...
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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 Life Seeks Out Energy Sources Wherever They May Be Life is opportunistic; it siphons off energy wherever it can find it. That life utilizes solar energy we all know. And, of course, humans have tapped the atom for energy. In just the past few years, remarkable colonies of life forms have been discovered congregated around deep-sea hydrothermal vents where sunlight is essentially nonexistent. Still more recently, similar life forms have been found clustered around oil seeps in the Gulf of Mexico. As at the hydro-thermal vents, the clams, worms, crabs, and other organisms depend mainly upon the ability of bacteria to chemosynthesize -- the primary energy source being hydrogen sulfide in the vented water. (Paull, C.K ., et al; "Stable Isotope Evidence for Chemosynthesis in an Abyssal Seep Community," Nature, 317:709, 1985; Also: Weisburd, S.; "Clams and Worms Fueled by Gas?" Science News, 128:231, 1985.) Comment. Since the earth's crust seems honeycombed with fissures and rivers of life-sustaining fluids, subterranean life may be as common as the abyssal chemosynthetic life at the vents and seeps. This versatility of life signals us that we should look for life wherever there is energy of any kind. From Science Frontiers #43, JAN-FEB 1986 . 1986-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... water. The moon, however, was not in evidence. At 1700 GMT, rapid flashes of light were observed sweeping across the sea directly ahead of the vessel, giving the initial impression of a sudden increase of wind speed causing excessive spray. By 1715 GMT, the vessel was totally surrounded by completely random movements of light as far as the eye could see. The onset of this phenomenon was so rapid, not to say eerie, that the Master was called to the bridge to witness the event. For the next 15 minutes the sea was at a height of activity, displaying several systems of the most unusual bioluminescence. The most significant of these were what appeared to be Phosphorescent Wheels, which, although they did not seem to rotate, originated from a central hub and spread out rings in rapid succession, forming concentric circles. This was pointed out by many of those who observed them as being similar to the instance of a stone being dropped into a quiet pond and causing waves to spread out. In this case each wave crest was a band of fantastic light. Each wheel would last for a couple of minutes, continually flashing out bands of light as though a transmitter was located at its centre. Wheels could be observed in all directions. At the same time systems of moving parallel bands could be observed, again travelling in totally random directions with respect to each other and passing off into the distance, only to be followed by another set." The complexity of the display was so great that it confused the eye. Of particular interest was the fact ...
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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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... No. 50: Mar-Apr 1987 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Whales And Seafloor Pits Typical sizes, shapes, and disposition of whale-excavated pits in the Bering Sea. The focus of a 1987 paper in Scientific American, by C.H . Nelson and K.R . Johnson, is the northeastern Bering Sea, where sensitive side-scanning sonar has sketched large numbers of pits and furrows in the shallow sands. The pits range from 1-10 meters in length, 0.5 -7 meters in width, and 0.1 -0 .4 meters in depth. No known geological processes seem responsible. Farther east, in Nor-ton Sound, methane eruptions from buried organic matter do blow out circular craters; but the elongated pits investigated by Nelson and Johnson are gouged in sand considered too permeable for gas-crater formation. Rather surprisingly, the gray whale has become suspect as a pit excavator. They feed in the area of the pits; and the pits, before enlargement by currents, are just the size of the whales' mouths. The whales apparently dredge up sediment and, with their baleen, strain out amphipods (shrimp-like crustaceans) from the sand. The coexisting narrow furrows turn out to be the work of walruses digging for clams. (Nelson, C. Hans, and Johnson, Kirk R.; "Whales and Walruses as Tillers of the Sea Floor," Scientific American, 256:112, February 1987.) Comment. The whale ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 42: Nov-Dec 1985 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Fabric Of Prime Number Distribution Mathematicians and many non-mathematicians have soft spots in their hearts for numbers that cannot be subdivided; that is, the prime numbers. No one has ever been able to figure out any foolproof system to their occurrence or how to generate them all by formula. Some primes, such as 11 and 13, 17 and 19, etc., come in pairs; but most don't . And some formulas are particularly good at generating primes, but they all fail somewhere. One such formula was discovered by Leonhard Euler, the great mathematician: n2+ n+ 41 This formula works for n = 0, 1, 2,...39; but fails at n = 40. An interesting consequence of Euler's formula can be made apparent when all numbers from 41 to 440 are written in a square spiral, like so: All of the numbers on the diagonal indicated are Euler formula primes, even when the spiral is expanded to 20 x 20. However, when the 20 x 20 spiral is examined closely, many of the other primes -- those not generated by Euler's formula -- also tend to line up on diagonals. This is a most intriguing characteristic, one which goes far beyond the 20 x 20 array mentioned above. The computer-generated display shown below lays out a huge square spiral, with each prime a bright dot. ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 50: Mar-Apr 1987 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Melanic Moth Myth "The peppered moth remains one of the best examples of evolution in action. But as in so many other cases, the real story is turning out to be more complicated than the biologists first thought." Several details don't match the moth propaganda. For example, all the photos show the moths resting out in the open on tree trunks, whereas they actually rest inconspicuously under branches and where branches join the tree trunk. (Cherfas, Jeremy; "Exploding the Myth of the Melanic Moth," New Scientist, p. 25, December 25, 1986.) Comment. Since no new species of moth have arisen (merely population shifts between dark and light phases), why do evolutionists make so much out of this? From Science Frontiers #50, MAR-APR 1987 . 1987-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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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 Underground Weather Most residents of central Oregon can tell you tales about winds blowing out of the ground, about roaring and whistling sounds emanating from their wells, and of mysterious holes in the winter snow on Mount Bachelor. Central Oregon is geologically young and plastered with lava flows and cinder cones. It is like a sponge, with many cubic miles of holes, air channels, and open fissures. The air in this rocky sponge is usually on the move in response to changes in atmospheric pressure. The earth absorbs air during barometric highs and expels it during lows. In some spots the expelled air is captured to cool homes during the summer. In the High Cascades, though, the underground winds pose hazards to skiers by creating blowholes in the snow. These blowholes are actually mildly anomalous because they blow out a gentle 40 F breeze regardless of the barometric pressure. Some of Oregon's blowing caves also "breath" without re gard to barometric pressure. Also, the water wells north of Fort Rock Basin often blow for days during periods of high barometric pressure -- times when they should be taking air in. (Chitwood, Larry; "Central Oregon's Underground World Filled with Wind That Roars, Whistles," The Oregonian, Octo ber 3l, 1985. Cr. R. Byrd) Comment. See category GHG2, in Earthquakes, Tides, Unidentified Sounds, for material on blowing wells, etc. ...
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... toes' have appeared, similar to nearby dinosaur tracks. These toes, typically, are coloration phenomena only, with no impressions, in most cases. Frequently the 'mud pushup' surrounding the original elongated track is crossed by this red coloration. The shape of the entire track, including both impression and coloration, is unlike any known dinosaur print." J. Moore, the author of this article and a creationist, suggests that creationists no longer use the Paluxy tracks as evidence that humans and dinosaurs once coexisted. But he adds that several mysteries still exist, two of which are: (1 ) Why is erosion improving the quality of the tracks instead of the reverse? (2 ) Why aren't those tracks exposed earlier also acquiring the stain marks? Moore also points out that the reddish stains could have easily been added artificially!! (Morris, John D.; "The Paluxy River Mystery," ICR Impact Series no. 151, January 1986. ICR = Institute for Creation Research.) Comment. Fraud is certainly implied by the suggestion of artificiality. Would the enemies of creationism go out at night with a brush to destroy a key datum supporting creationism? Of course we don't know. But the whole business bears a fascinating resemblance to the case of Paul Kammerer, who in the 1920s reported lab data supporting the inheritance of acquired characteristics. Evolutionists were aghast and attacked Kammerer vigorously. Then one scientist discovered that some of Kammerer's specimens had been deliberatel tampered with. Kammerer eventually committed suicide. However, A. Koestler, ...
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... dawn skies. Among these were Ben and Jeannette Killingsworth. As they observed the Space Shuttle streak across the sky, "they both heartd an unmistakable 'swishing noise' as it passed south of their rural Galveston County home. The sonic boom came several minutes later -- but the swishing sound occurred simultaneously with the visual apparition....Ben graphically described the sounds as 'like a skier coming down a slope,' but with a rapid fluctuation in loudness, 'about two or three hertz.' Jeannette compared the faint sound to the noise made by a fast boat as it slaps across waves on a choppy lake. 'But there was no motor noise,' she added, 'just a sound like repeated puffs of air through your mouth.'" Oberg points out that the mysterious Space Shuttle sounds are basically the same as the anomalous swishes and whizzes attributed by some to meteors. So far, few scientists have accepted meteor sounds as real, preferring to label them "psychological." But now that the Space Shuttles are known to generate similar anomalous sounds, perhaps scientists will install instruments along their well-known reentry paths and find out what is really happening. (Oberg, Jim; "Shuttle 'Sounds' May Provide Answer to Old Puzzle," Houstonian, January 1985, p. 4. A McDonnell Douglas publication. Cr. J. Oberg) Comment. One possible explanation of anomalous meteor sounds is that a few individuals detect electromagnetic signals as sounds; i.e ., they are "electrophonic" sounds. The history of ...
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... "In the early 1970s, Lynn Margulis and I introduced the Gaia hypothesis. It postulated the earth to be a self-regulating system comprising the biota and their environment, with the capacity to maintain the climate and the chemical composition at a steady state favorable for life." L. Margulis is an author of Micro-Cosmos and a champion of evolution-via-endosymbiosis; that is, diverse organisms uniting to create new species. Going back to Lovelock's review, there is little that is anomalous on a small scale. Of course, on a large-scale, the data supporting the concept of life-as-a -whole manipulating the atmosphere, oceans, etc., to perpetuate and perhaps improve itself are highly anomalous, because the Gaia hypothesis is far out of the scientific mainstream. (Lovelock, James E.; "Geophysiology," American Meteorological Society, Bulletin, 67:392, 1986.) Comment. Our secret purpose here is to use the Lovelock article as an excuse to out-Gaia Gaia! Lovelock's article plus those preceding on Martian life, cosmic life, "geocorrosion," etc., made us wonder if Gaia as a closed terrestrial system (see diagram), is not too limited. If Hoyle and Wickramasinghe are correct, the diagram should have a box labelled "outer space," with an inwardly directed arrow carrying life-forms (Hoyle's space viruses and bacteria), meteorites, icy comets, etc. Likewise, the earth can contribute life-forms to the cosmos via ...
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... sided garter snake (Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis). This form of mimicry is unique in that it is expressed as a physiological feminization. Courting male red-sided garter snakes detect a female-specific pheromone and normally avoid courting other males. However, a small proportion of males release a pheromone that attracts other males, as though they were females. In the field, mating aggregations of 5-17 males were observed formed around these individual attractive males, which we have termed 'she-males.' In competitive mating trials, she-males mated with females significantly more often than did normal males, demonstrating not only reproductive competence but also a possible selective advantage to males with this female-like pheromone." In the competitive mating trials, the she-males were successful in 29 out of 42 trials. The normal males won out in only 13! The authors ask the question: Why aren't all males she-males given such an advantage? (Mason, Robert T., and Crews, David; "Female Mimicry in Garter Snakes," Nature, 316:59, 1985.) Comment. Among the fishes, bluegills and salmon (and probably many others) have female-appearing males competing with normal males. 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 Pk parties: real or surreal?A PK (psychokinesis) party gets into full swing when 15 or more people gather and start bending steel bars, softening metal, and popping soy beans open through PK. Here follows a description of the prototype PK party: "Twenty-one people gathered at the author's home on Monday evening, January 19, 1981. All were friends of the author and came from varied backgrounds. After introductions and general discussion, everyone was relaxed and comfortable. The author's grandparents' silverplated silverware was passed out and everyone had either a fork or spoon. Severin stood in the middle of the room with everyone seated in a circle and gave the following instructions: 'Get a point of concentration in your head.' 'Make it very intense and focussed.' 'Grab it and bring it down through your neck, down through your shoulder, down through your arm, through your hand, and put it into the silverware at the point you intend to bend it.' 'Command it to bend.' 'Release the command and let it happen.' "He then instructed the group to use their fingers to test for warmth coming out of the silverware or to feel the metal surface become sticky. Everyone felt pretty silly, sitting there holding the silverware, until the head of a fork being held by a boy (age 14) bent over all by ...
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... The effect is shown in the first sketch. As is usual on an 'all aft' ship, you become 'deaf' to the constant background noises, but I gradually became aware that the pulses of light seemed to match those of the main engine's throb, that is, about two per second. The radar (3 -cm radar, running on the 24 n. mile range), and the echo-sounder (indicating a water-depth of about 35 fathoms), were switched off in turn to see if any change was discernible, but there was not. "However, at about this time, the ship passed a localized revolving system, distance off appeared to be about 150 m. My impression was that of a catherine wheel revolving and casting out waves in an angular motion, as shown in the second sketch. How many spokes it had I'm not sure owing to the speed of the pulsations, but I think that there were at least three. If viewed from above, the system rotated in a clockwise direction wheeling itself along the ship's track. No central hub was visible, just a dark area devoid of activity. One or two systems were visible farther out to starboard." (Lakeman, J.D .; "Bioluminescence," Marine Observer, 56:68, 1986.) Reference. Chapter GLW in our catalog volume: Lightning, Auroras covers a wide variety of anomalous marine light displays. See: here . From Science Frontiers #48, NOV-DEC 1986 . 1986- ...
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... would appear to us just like a galaxy composed of ordinary matter. The only clues revealing substantial pockets of antimatter would be the annihilation radiation produced where matter and antimatter regions rubbed against one another. The two types of matter always annihilate one another in bursts of very distinctive radiation. Well, there seems to be at least one region of antimatter near the center of our galaxy. The HEOS3 satellite and ballon-borne instruments have pinpointed a source of 511 kev gamma rays that can come only from a spot where electrons and positrons are mutually annihilating each other. (The positrons are antimat-ter analogs of electrons.) This region of mutual destruction is about 1013 kilometers across. Is it a pocket of antimatter left over after the Big Bang that a sea of surrounding matter is finally wiping out, or is it newly created antimatter in the vicinity of a black hole? No one knows. The mystery has deepened with the discovery that the intensity of the annihilation radiation varies with time. Something strange is going on out there. (Anonymous; "Galactic Positronium Mystery Deepens," Science News, 130:40, 1986.) From Science Frontiers #47, SEP-OCT 1986 . 1986-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... . Having heard that spouts had hurricane force winds in-side, whirlpools at their bases that could suck a ship under, and a solid wall of water being sucked up into the clouds, Caldwell threw caution to the winds and headed directly for the spout. "Pagan was swallowed by a cold wet fog and whirring wind. The decks tilted. A volley of spray swept across the decks. The rigging howled. Suddenly it was dark as night. My hair whipped my eyes, I breathed wet air, and the hard cold wind wet me through. Pagan's gunwales were under and she pitched into the choppy seaway. There was no solid trunk of water being sucked from the sea; no hurricane winds to blow down sails and masts; and no whirlpool to gulp me out of sight. Instead, I sailed into a high dark column from 75 to 100 feet wide, inside of which was a damp circular wind of 30 knots, if it was that strong. As suddenly as I had entered the waterspout I rode out into bright free air. The high dark wall of singing wind ran away. For me another mystery of the sea was solved." (Caldwell, John; "On Sailing through a Waterspout," Journal of Meteorology, U.K ., 11:236, 1986.) Reference. Several unusual types of waterspouts are described in GWT in the catalog: Tornados, Dark Days. Ordering information at: here . From Science Frontiers #49, JAN-FEB 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 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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... and Ollantaytambo (spellings vary). How could the Incas have quarried, dressed, transported, and lifted such huge stones? As usual with such remarkable ancient structures, the overzealous have proposed antigravity devices, stone-softening agents, and similar wild notions. In truth, as J. Protzen relates in the subject article, Inca stonemasonry was surprisingly unsophisticated and yet efficient, although some mysteries remain. Protzen has spent many months in Inca country experimenting with different methods of shaping and fitting the same kinds of stones used by the Incas. He found that quarrying and dressing the stones were not problems at all using the stone hammers found in abundance in the area. Even the precision-fitting of stones was a relatively simple matter. The concave depressions into which new stones were fit were pounded out by trial and error until a snug fit was achieved. Protzen's first-hand experience is impressive and convincing. Certainly he required no radical solutions. The problems that Protzen was not able to solve to his satisfaction involved the transportation and handling of the large stones. The fitting process necessitated the repeated lowering and raising of the stone being fitted, with trial-and-error pounding in between. He does not know just how 100-ton stones were manipulated during this stage. To transport the stones from the quarries, some as far as 35 kilometers distant, the Incas built special access roads and ramps. Many of the stones were dragged over gravel-covered roads, as evidenced by their polished surfaces. The largest stone at Ollantaytambo weighs about 140,000 kilograms. ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf044/sf044p01.htm
