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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 40: Jul-Aug 1985 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Messengers of a "new physics"In a "garage" off the road tunnel running deep under Mont Blanc sits a huge particle detector called Nusex. A second, complementary experiment resides 600 meters below the surface in a Minnesota mine. Both experiments are tuned to measure charged particles of very high energy, especially muons, which penetrate their high rocky ceilings with ease. These two arrays of buried detectors have both picked up fluxes of muons coming from the direction of Cygnus X-3 Now Cygnus X-3 is already classed as a remarkable object because it spews out pulses of X-rays and gamma-rays. It turns out that the muon fluxes arrive in phase with the pulses of gamma-rays and X-rays, and are thus definitely linked to Cygnus X-3 . The problem here is that muons are electrically charged particles that would assuredly be thrown far off course by intergalactic magnetic fields if they originated at Cygnus X-3 . The muons, therefore, must be created by electrically neutral particles arriving at the earth's atmosphere from Cygnus X-3 . Neutrons can be ruled out because they would decay in transit. X-ray photons and neutrinos have also been ruled out. The only alternative left seems to be some unknown neutral particle generated at Cygnus X-3 . Cygnus X-3may be a huge particle accelerator which "may operate in a realm of physics inaccessible on Earth, ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 40: Jul-Aug 1985 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Double Nuclei At Darmstadt At the GSI Darmstadt (West Germany) heavy ion facility, particle physicists have been firing heavy nuclei at each other. Some very suggestive evidence has turned up that giant nuclei are being formed with atomic weights and numbers approximately double those of the colliding nuclei. The words "giant nuclear molecule" and "giant di-nuclear system" are being bandied about. Two nuclei of uranium-238 might, for example, unite for 10-19 second in a supernucleus. As the author of this article says, "What is going on?" (Silver, Joshua; "Giant Nucleus at Darmstadt?" Nature, 315:276, 1985.) From Science Frontiers #40, JUL-AUG 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 41: Sep-Oct 1985 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology The Australian Pyramids The Inka Road System California Skeletons Not So Old After All Astronomy Galaxy Redshifts Come in Clumps Wimps in the Sun? Biology An Animal That Photosynthesizes The Deceitful She-males Scrapie Transmitted by Prions Latest Episode: Loch Ness Evolution's Motor Runs Fast and Quietly Genetic Garrulousness Death and Social Class Geology Anatomy of A Magnetic Field Reversal Did the Australites Fall Recently? Geophysics Green Sky Flashes Ball Lightning Strikes Twice! Chemistry & Physics All Things Appear to Those Who Accelerate A Possible Crack in the Wall of the Temple of Relativity Restless Gold Unclassified Blinded by the Night ...
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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 The Inka Road System An important new archeological book bears the above title (and an alternate spelling of "Inca"). As one reviewer puts it: "The Imperial Inka road system must rank alongside the Great Wall of China and the Egyptian Pyramids as one of the greatest achievements of any ancient civilization. Yet despite this, relatively little is known about the nature, extent and functioning of this vast communications network." Some impressive statistics: The Inka Road System runs for more than 23,000 kilometers through Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Chile, and Argentina. Generally, the roads were 11-25 meters wide. They were greatly superior to anything built in Europe at that time. One reviewer notes that many of the so-called Inka highways had a non-Inkan origin -- and then leaves us hanging. What pre-Inkan civilization built such roads? (Saunders, Nick; "Monumental Roads," New Scientist, p. 31, June 8, 1985. Also: Lyon, Patricia J.; "Imperial Connection?" Science, 228:1420, 1985.) From Science Frontiers #41, SEP-OCT 1985 . 1985-2000 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 The Australian Pyramids "Standing in the bushland some distance from the town of Gympie in southern Queensland, is a crudelybuilt, 40-metre-tall terraced stone pyramidal structure which, I believe, will one day help to alter the history of Australia -- to prove that, 3,000 years ago, joint Egyptian and Phoenician mineral-seeking expeditions established mining colonies here." Thus runs the lead paragraph of an article in a popular Australian publication. This purported pyramid boasts 18 recognizable terraces. The bottom 14 terraces are built from rather small stones; but the top four consist of slabs weighing up to 2 tons. Trees as old as 600 years poke up through the stones, attesting to a pre-European origin. Another much larger pyramid inhabits dense scrubland near Sydney. The claim that these admittedly crude structures are Egyptian is based upon the discovery of artifacts in the area with Egyptian and Phoenician characteristics; i.e ., a stone idol resembling a squatting ape, an onxy scarab beetle, and cave paintings with Egyptian symbols. Aborigine legends also tell of "culture heros" arriving at Gympie in large ships shaped like birds. (Gilroy, Rex; "Pyramids of Australia," Australasian Post, August 30, 1984. Cr. A. Jones.) Comments. Professional archeologists are very wary of anything R. Gilroy claims. Further, our Australian readers warn that Australian newspapers are not always as ...
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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 California Skeletons Not So Old After All About a decade ago, considerable controversy erupted when some obviously old human skeletons were dated at 37,000, 44,000, and even 70,000 BP by a new dating technique called Aspartic Acid Racemization (AAR). Conventional radioactive dating had put all of these skeletons at well under 10,000 BP, well within bounds of the Bering Strait migration hypothesis. The early AAR dates were thus at odds with current archeological thinking and, in addition, very encouraging to those who believed that humans occupied North America long before 10,000 BP. J.L . Bada, a proponent of AAR dating, now states that the controversial AAR dates were based on calibration skeletons which had been erroneously dated by radioactive methods. It seems that AAR dating requires an accurately dated reference skeleton. With the reference skeleton dates now known to be incorrect, Bada had to recalibrate his AAR dating scheme. The reference skeletons were therefore redated using a more accurate radioactive technique. All of the incredibly ancient skeletons have now been redated by AAR methods using the revised reference skeletons. The 37,000 BP date now becomes a reasonable 5,100 2000 BP figure. The AAR dating crisis seems to be over. All anomalies have been expunged. (Bada, Jeffrey L.; "Aspartic Acid Racemization Ages of California Paleoindian Skeletons," American Antiquity, 50:645, 1985.) From ...
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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 Galaxy Redshifts Come In Clumps "Red shifts in the light from distant galaxies seem to favor certain values, at intervals corresponding to a spacing of 72 kilometres per second, if the red shifts are interpreted as indicating the recession velocities of the galaxies. According to the latest evidence, this provides a yardstick against which we can measure the absolute motion of the Sun through space. This rather startling indication that the red shifts of galaxies are quantised, rather like the atomic spectral lines by which the red shifts themselves are measured, has a pedigree that goes back more than 10 years. Since 1972, W.G . Tifft, of the University of Arizona, has been producing evidence for the red shift quantisation from analyses of various catalogues of galaxy red shifts and, as his collection of data has mounted, the idea, unpalatable though it seemed at first, has become steadily more respectable. It has not taken the astronomical world by storm, and even Tifft has no definite idea why the red shifts should be grouped like this. But it is no longer possible to dismiss the evidence out of hand." Actually, Tifft has speculated that galaxy redshifts might represent an intrinsic property of galaxies, which takes on quantized values, like the energy states of an atom! (Gribbin, John; "Galaxy Red Shifts Come in Clumps," New Scientist, p. 20, June 20, 1985.) Comment. We ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 124: Jul-Aug 1999 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Unusual Corposants May 8, 1998. North Atlantic Ocean. Aboard the m.v . Flinders out of Philadelphia bound for Pennington. The vessel had just passed through a weather front that produced frequent, violent sheet lightning. Green St. Elmo's fire was glowing on the aerials. "At about 2310 it was also noted that the lever extending about 18 cm over the ship's starboard bridge wing to position a deck light was also radiating light. This light was a pale violet glow extending in 'spokes' of 10 cm in length from the round end of the lever which was about 3 cm in diameter. "There were six individual and uniform spokes shot through with brighter purple and white bolts resembling lightning. Over the noise of the wind a sharp crackling and hissing sound could be heard coming from the phenomenon. "The seaman was called to have a look at the light, he attempted to touch it but the light receded as his finger approached within 3 cm of it. The effect died away at about 2340 as soon as rain started to fall." (Smedley, R.; "Corposants," Marine Observer, 69:55, 1999.) Comments. The corposant's six-fold symmetry is like that of snowflakes. Strange as it may sound, they may be a connection. First, recall what J. Maddox once wrote about snowflakes in Nature. "But ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 41: Sep-Oct 1985 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Wimps in the sun?For over two decades now, physicists have been measuring the neutrino flux emitted by the sun -- and despite all attempts this flux is much too low. It just doesn't jibe with what theorists say should be happening in the thermonuclear powerhouse in the sun's interior. J. Faulkner and R. Gilliland have conceived a solution to this dilemma. They postulate a large population of WIMPS (Weakly Interactive Massive Particles) orbiting the sun's core, but still well beneath the sun's visible surface. The WIMPS help convey heat out of the core, thereby cooling it to temperatures significantly less than those predicted by the astrophysicists. A cooler core emits fewer neutrinos, bringing theory into line with reality. And just what are these WIMPS? One suggestion is that they are photinos, a particle suggested (but not proved) by recent experiments at CERN (SF#37) (Thomsen, D.E .; "Weak Sun Blamed on WIMPS," Science News, 128:23, 1985.) Comment. WIMPS represent just the kind of particle that Dewey Larson railed against in his book: The Universe of Motion. He maintains that astronomers have to engage in such ridiculous theoretical gymnastics and invention only because they have picked the wrong energy-generating mechanism for stars and refuse to give it up! Larson's theory, on the other hand, solves this ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 124: Jul-Aug 1999 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Measuring Spirituality!" The connection between matter and spirit has been debated for millennia. The central mystery is that certain material objects (human beings) contrive to be conscious and to possess a spiritual dimension. This implies that matter itself has some rudimentary spiritual character." From this opening paragraph, D. Jones advances his thesis by assuming that the spiritual world occupies the same space as the material world. The two "worlds," though are usually only very weakly coupled. However, during the 12-billionyear history of the universe they have had ample time to come into thermodynamic equilibrium. In other words the average temperatures of the material and spiritual worlds are equal; i.e ., 3 K, the same as the microwave background. It is, of course, this low average temperature of the spiritual world that accounts for the chill felt when a spiritual entity (ghost) enters a room and is coupled to the material world. Continuing on this tack, Jones now plans to measure whether holy relics and other material objects with high spiritual value cool faster than non-spiritual objects. He also hopes to work with biological materials, specifically the human brain, which is the seat of consciousness and spiritual thought. Human brains, particularly those of holy men, should be tightly coupled to the cold spiritual world. These human brains should cool much faster than, say, a sirloin steak. Speculating even further ...
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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 The deceitful she-males "In many diverse taxa, males of the same species often exhibit multiple mating strategies. One well-documented alternative male reproductive pattern is 'female mimicry,' whereby males assume a female-like morphology or mimic female behavior patterns. In some species males mimic both female morphology and behavior. We report here female mimicry in a reptile, the red-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 ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 125: Sep-Oct 1999 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology The power of a paradigm Pre-columbiana Astronomy Ice-covered lake on mars? Leonid luminosity puzzle Biology Trannies of the tiny Snail-trail tale Dr. internet Geology Fossil meteorites The ups and downs of plate tectonics Geophysics Two down-falls Two non-falls Psychology Our untapped talents Sorrat Physics 10 YEARS OF COLD FUSION Unclassified More nominative determinism ...
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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 Latest episode: loch ness The continuing saga of the purportedly retouched photo of the flipper of the Loch Ness monster chalked up another episode in the Summer issue of the Skeptical Inquirer. First, there is a response by Robert Rines to the debunking article by Razdan and Kielar in the preceding Winter issue, in which the charge is made that retouching had taken place. This is followed by a reply by Razdan and Kielar. To top it all off, there is a nasty letter printed later on about the Academy of Applied Science, of which Rines is a member. With all the charges and countercharges, it is impossible to tell whether or not the flipper photograph was "subjectively" enhanced or not. (Rines, Robert; "Loch Ness Reanalysis: Rines Responds," Skeptical Inquirer, 9:382, 1985. Razdan, Rikki. Also: Kielar, Alan; "Loch Ness Reanalysis: Authors Reply," Skeptical Inquirer, 9:387, 1985.) Comment. The whole business is now as murky as Loch Ness itself. The use of obfuscation and character assassination is common in the anomaly business. From Science Frontiers #41, SEP-OCT 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 125: Sep-Oct 1999 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Ice-Covered Lake On Mars?The Mars Global Surveyor snapped an intriguing photo while orbiting over latitude 24.65 , longitude 207.10 . It looks like a lake! There even seem to be reflections of the surrounding terrain. But, as T. Van Flandern comments, this glassy-looking area cannot be liquid water because the vapor pressure is too low on Mars -- water would quickly evaporate away. Ice, however, is a strong possibility. (Van Flandern, Tom; "' Lake' on Mars?" Meta Research Bulletin, 8:30, 1999. For details, go to: http://www.cbjd.net/orbit/mars/steadlake.html) Comments. The reference did not specify the Martian hemisphere, but it was probably the northern, where there are extensive lowlands. In fact, if water once did flow on Mars, 75% of it would have drained into these lowlands. (Anonymous; "Mars in 3-D ," Science News, 156:11, 1999.) Back in 1976, the Viking Orbiter sent back pictures of so-called "searchlight areas" in the northern hemisphere. The speculation then was that these glassy, seemingly transparent features might be thin layers of ice. (AME5 in The Moon and the Planets) Possible ice-covered lake on Mars (Reproduction of a negative). From Science Frontiers ...
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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 Death And Social Class A 10-year study of 17,530 London civil servants showed a strong relation between mortality rate and employment grade -- the higher the grade level, the lower the mortality rate. The mortality rate for unskilled laborers was three times that of high-level administrators. Part of the disparity is doubtless due to differences in weight-to-height ratio, cigarette consumption, and amount of leisure-time exercise, which are also strongly correlated with mortality rate. But such personal habits tell only part of the story. Coronary heart disease, which accounted for 43% of all the deaths, was much more prevalent among the lower employment grades, even among monsmokers. Childhood nutrition and other "early life factors" also play roles. Nevertheless, a factor-of-three is a whopping difference in mortality rate. (Anonymous; "Death, Be Not Proud," Scientific American, 253:68, July 1985.) Comment. There are so many contributing factors here that we cannot be sure if a biological anomaly exists. From Science Frontiers #41, SEP-OCT 1985 . 1985-2000 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 Did the australites fall recently?Many thousands of australites, tektites strewn over Australia and Tasmania, have been found over the years; but, except for five, all were discovered loose on the surface or in unconsolidated sediments. Even the five australites found in rocks were in grit, sandstone, and other rocks that were hard to date and could have been recently lithified. Although the "official" date for the australite fall is 700,000 BP, the authors of this article, and presumably other Australian geologists, find "it difficult to believe that australites fell as long as 700,000 years ago." (Cleverly, W.H ., and Kirsch, Steve; Meteoritics, 19:91, 1984.) Comment. A few geologists even venture that this catastrophic event may have occurred just a few thousand years ago, and may be reflected in myth and legend. Reference. The "tektite age paradox" is covered more thoroughly in ESM3 in our catalog: Neglected Geological Anomalies. To order, visit: here . From Science Frontiers #41, SEP-OCT 1985 . 1985-2000 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 Anatomy Of A Magnetic Field Reversal "A highly detailed record of both the direction and intensity of the Earth's magnetic field as it reverses has been obtained from a Miocene volcanic sequence. The transitional field is low in intensity and is typically non-axisymmetric. Geomagnetic impulses corresponding to astonishingly high rates of change of the field sometimes occur, suggesting that liquid velocity within the Earth's core increases during geomagnetic reversals." The time period required for the field to reverse was about 4500 years, as measured at Steens Mountain, Oregon. There were three periods of very rapid change (impulses), which hint at radical changes in the core. The average magnetic field at the earth's surface decreased to 20% of normal during the reversal. (Prevot, Michel, et al; "How the Geomagnetic Field Vector Reverses Polarity," Nature, 316:230, 1985.) Comment. The illustration reveals that the reversal was far from a clean 180 flip; there was much meandering. Just what was happening in the core during the reversal is a mystery. When the magnetic field dropped to low levels, flux of cosmic rays and other radiation at the earth's surface probably increased drastically. Terrestrial life might have been adversely affected. The Steene Mountains directional record. The numbers refer to the samples used from the volcanic sequence, in order of increasing age. Dotted lines represent field directions in the ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 125: Sep-Oct 1999 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Tyrannies Of The Tiny Because we cannot see them with the naked eye, we tend to forget that the earth's atmosphere, its oceans, and the solid crust to unknown-but-great depths are colonized in profusion by minute biological entities -- mainly bacteria and viruses. Only when we get the flu or infected finger do these entities impinge upon our consciousness. Below we will learn that there are many more of them than you think. Do viruses control the oceans? You may avoid the beaches after you learn that one teaspoon of seawater typically contains 10-100 million viruses and onetenth that many bacteria. Obviously, most are harmless to humans. However, the viruses do infect the bacteria and phytoplankton, destroying them, and thereby releasing their nutrients. By doing this, they keep the oceans' biological engines running. Further, the viruses act as genetic engineers as they transfer DNA from one individual to another. The oceans may be viewed as vast test tubes in which biodiversity is maintained by teeming, invasive viruses. (Suttle, Curtis A.; "Do Viruses Control the Oceans?" Natural History, 108:48, February 1999.) We are only 10% human! The average human body contains 100 trillion cells, but only 1 in 10 of these cells is your own. The remaining 90% are bacteria. These alien organisms coat your skin and pave your inner passageways from mouth ...
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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 Ball lightning strikes twice!Summer 1977. Haymarket, Virginia. A severe storm was threatening. Mrs. Patricia Townsend was standing in front of her kitchen counter talking on the telephone. "Several things happened at the same time and the whole incident probably lasted no more than a few seconds at the most. While I was on the phone, I heard a tremendous crack, something like the report of a high-powered rifle or the sound of a bat hitting a baseball. At the same time the outside of my house, meaning the outdoors, lit up brilliantly. A split second later or perhaps at the same time, I heard a loud swooshing or hissing noise and the phone seemed to come alive in my hand. Then my whole kitchen lit up like a floodlight. Lightning or electricity or whatever it was seemed to flow rapidly from the open kitchen door across the expanse of the far end of my kitchen at ceiling level as shown by the jagged line in my drawing. I'm not sure where the red ball came from but I have depicted it as coming from the jagged lightning on my ceiling. Anyhow, almost at the same time as the lightning zoomed across my kitchen and the phone started vibrating in my hand, a large red ball (with yellow and white somewhere) appeared in front of me and hit me on the chest with the force of a large man hitting me with his ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 125: Sep-Oct 1999 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Snail-Trail Tale Homing pigeons home for sure. Many mammals, possibly even humans, also possess a homing instinct. But snails? Taxonomically lowly molluscs? But read this letter to the London Times. "For ten days I have tried to banish a large snail which threatens soon-toemerge seedlings. Each day the snail gets lobbed into long grass of a nearby paddock and each night it quits the paddock, crosses a concrete driveway and returns to lurk under its favourite rock. There is no question of mistaken identity because its shell was marked with white paint after the first return trip." (Roberts, M.I .L .; "Snail Tale," London Times, May 21, 1999. Cr. A.C .A . Silk.) References. Human homing capabilities (BHT18 in Humans I); other mammals (BMT2 in Mammals I); birds (BBT5 in Birds). Snail heading home! From Science Frontiers #125, SEP-OCT 1999 . 1999-2000 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 A Possible Crack In The Wall Of The Temple Of Relativity "Stefan Marinov is a remarkable iconoclast who is convinced that Einstein's special theory of relativity is mistaken." Marinov apparently has been expelled from Russia because of his scientific and political opinions. So infuriated is he by the reluctance of mainstream scientific journals, such as Nature, to print his anti-relativity papers that he has threatened to immolate himself outside the British embassy in Vienna. Happily, he didn't strike the match, because it may be that he has something. Marinov claims that he has demonstrated experimentally that the velocity of light is not the same in all directions in all reference frames, as Einstein insisted. He says he can even detect the motion of the earth through absolute space and time, contrary to most Michelson-Morley-type experiments. Based upon some recent theoretical analysis, the journal Nature has bent a bit and now calls for repetitions of Marinov's experiments. (Maddox, John; "Stefan Marinov Wins Some Friends," Nature, 316:209, 1985.) Comment. Recently, three books highly critical of relativity have been published: (1 ) Turner, Dean, and Hazelett, Richard, eds.; The Einstein Myth and the Ives Papers; (2 ) Santilla, Ruggero Maria; Il Grande Grido: Ethical Probe on Einstein's Followers in the U.S .A .; ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 41: Sep-Oct 1985 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Restless Gold Thanks to the development of high-resolution electron microscopes and video recorders, we can now watch the bizarre behavior of tiny solid particles, which, it turns out, are not so solid after all. Ultrafine particles of gold about 18 Angstrom units across, containing only about 500 atoms, are not statis aggregations. The shapes of the particles are always changing. The gold atoms move cooperatively to shift kaleidoscope-like into various crystal structures. They have, in fact, been dubbed 'quasi-solids.' A large gold particle may even ingest smaller gold particles. The phenomena have no explanations as yet. (Anonymous; "Japanese Gold in Atomic Motion," Nature, 315:628, 1985.) From Science Frontiers #41, SEP-OCT 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 42: Nov-Dec 1985 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Immense Complex Of Structures Found In Peru The well-known explorer, Gene Savoy, has discovered a "lost" city some 120 square miles in area in the jungle-covered mountains of Peru. This citadel, called Gran Vilaya, is located about 400 miles northeast of Lima on a 9,000-foot mountain ridge. Savoy said: ". .. the city's buildings ran along the ridge for at least 25 miles. He said the expedition calculated that there were 10,350 stone structures in the defensive network along the ridge and 13,000 other stone buildings in three major city layouts. The stone structures, some measuring 140 feet in length, were built atop terraces that go up the mountain slopes like stairs, he said. He described them as 'complex units of circular buildings with doorways, windows, and niched walls.' The walls, he said, 'soar up as high as a 15-story building." The city was built by the Chachapoyas Indians about 1,000 years ago. The Chacahpoyas empire is dated at 800-1480 AD. The Incas, who finally conquered them, told Spanish explorers that the Chachapoyas were tall, fair-skinned people! (Anonymous; "Ruined City Found in Jungle in Peru," New York Times, July 7, 1985. Cr. M. Hall via L. Farish.) From Science Frontiers #42, ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 42: Nov-Dec 1985 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Immense Complex of Structures Found in Peru Great Pyramid Entrance Tunnel Not Astronomically Aligned More Pyramid Caveats Astronomy A Large Quasar Inhomogeneity in the Sky Double-star System Defies Relativity Peace and Sunspots The Missing Sunspot Peak A Different Way of Looking At the Solar System Origin of the Moon Debated Biology Ri = Dugong; Doggone! Can Spores Survive in Interstellar Space? Fungus Manufactures Phony Blueberry Flowers Music in the Ear Guiding Cell Migration Remarkable Distribution of Hydrothermal Vent Animals Trees May Not Converse After All! Geology Feathers Fly Over Fossil 'Fraud' Sand Dunes 3 Kilometers Down The Night of the Polar Dinosaur Geophysics The Sausalito Hum Mysterious Hums: the Sequel Psychology Left-handers Have Larger Interbrain Connections Geomagnetic Activity and Paranormal Experiences Taking Food From Thought Logic & Mathematics The Fabric of Prime Number Distribution Chemistry & Physics Speculations From Gold ...
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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 More Pyramid Caveats Australian readers were quick to respond to the item on pyramids Down Under in SF#41. Considerable doubt appears to exist as to the reality of the "pyramids." One correspondent asked if photos are available. The Australasian Post did publish a picture of an unimpressive, vegetation-obscured rock terrace. But until we can find out more: Beware of Australian "pyramids." From Science Frontiers #42, NOV-DEC 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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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 Great pyramid entrance tunnel not astronomically aligned Early in the Nineteenth Century, astronomer John Herschel speculated that the ancient Egyptians had constructed the Great Pyramid so that the downwardly slanting entrance would be aligned precisely with the pole star, Thuban (Alpha Draconis), when the star was at its lowest culmination. Over 70 years ago Percival Lowell ran through the calculations and found that Thuban was not near the tunnel's line of sight when the pyramid was constructed (about 2800 BC). No one seems to have listened to Lowell, even though he was quite correct. Most books on the Great Pyramid still insist on the fancied pole star alignment. If the entrance tunnel wasn't pointing at the pole star, what other esoteric reason did the pyramid builders have for the 26 .523 angle? (It seems that everyone expects all dimensions of the Great Pyramid to have special significance.) R.L . Walker, of the Naval Observatory, has come to the rescue. He observes that the tangent of 26 .523 is almost exactly (actually 0.4991). Although there may be some occult significance to , this fraction also signals to us that 26 .523 is also the angle created when two cubical blocks are laid horizontally for every one installed vertically, as in the sketch. It seems that 26 .523 is simply the natural consequence of the internal pyramid construction process. (Anonymous; "End of ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 125: Sep-Oct 1999 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Fossil Meteorites Over a century ago, astronomer H.W .M . Olbers (of Olbers Paradox fame) remarked that meteorites are extremely rare in the fossil record. While meteorites are found in profusion in some specially favored surface deposits (Antarctica and Australia's Nullarbor Plain), there are very few records of any being found in the immense volumes of coal, gold ores, and other geological materials that have been mined down the centuries. Of course, many meteorites escaped the notice of miners who were looking for something else. Nevertheless, few have been reported from strata more than a few thousand years old. (See ESI8 in Neglected Geo logical Anomalies.) It is therefore surprising that a veritable lode of fossil meteorites has been found in a limestone quarry at Kinnekulle, in southern Sweden. "During the sawing of a few thousand cubic meters of Ordovician limestone into 2-3 cm thick slices, 25 fossil meteorites have been found. All meteorites, except, four, have been found in a 60 cm thick bed called the Archaeologist. This bed represents a few hundred thousand years and contains several hard ground surfaces...Many of the Archaeologist meteorites are prominently angular in shape whereas others are round. This seems difficult to reconcile with an atmospheric breakup of a single large meteorite." B. Schmitz and M. Tassinari, the authors of this paper, suggest that this rare concentration of fossil meteorites ...
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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 Double-star system defies relativity We all know that chapter from the Bible of Science that tells how Einstein's General Theory of Relativity triumphed over Newtonian celestial mechanics by accounting for the residual advance of Mercury's perihelion. The General Theory should also account for the precessions of double-star orbits, but a serious anomaly has been found. The double star DI Herculis has a Newtonian precession rate of 1.93 degrees per century, with another 2.34 added by relativistic effects. With more than 3,000 well-observed orbits of this star system on the books, astronomers come up with only 0.64 degree per century, instead of the 4.27 predicted by theory. Something is obviously awry; and all searches for errors and other influences on the orbit have been negative. (Anonymous; "Double-Star System Defies Relativity," New Scientist, p. 23, August 29, 1985.) Comment. As a matter of record, Newtonian mechanics can account for Mercury's perihelion advance if the sun is actually an oblate spheroid instead of the mathematically perfect sphere usually assumed. Also, the gravitational theory of J. Moffat seems to explain the motions of both Mercury and DI Herculis. From Science Frontiers #42, NOV-DEC 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 125: Sep-Oct 1999 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Two Down-Falls "Falls" are a Fortean staple, particularly showers of fish and frogs. But the sky produces other exotic materials, such and blocks of ice and (ugh!) raw sewage. July 26, 1998. Rue, Switzerland. "On Sunday July 26, 1998, at around 9h 45m Central European DaylightSaving Time (7h 45m UT), a Rue farming couple were in front of their house when they heard a whistling sound "like a big rocket on August 1" (Swiss national holiday). They just had time to see a block of ice the size of a "football" pass in front of their field of vision and crash into the tarred path near to their farm. The block broke up into thousands of pieces and the witness recuperated [sic] the largest which was "the size of a skittle." The ice was "very hard" and "snow-colored." "The witness estimated the weight of the ice block at 7-8 kg and the piece he was able to recuperate at 6-7 kg. Unfortunately, he did not think of conserving the block in the freezer, and let it melt near his house after having shown it to his neighbor, who had also heard the noise." Swiss aviation officials claimed they could not identify any aircraft that might have been responsible "because of incertitude over the time of the incident" ...
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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 Missing Sunspot Peak The following is also an abstract from the publication Cycles. "An analysis of the mean annual sunspot numbers is made with particular emphasis on cycles have periodicities near 21 years. The results are compared not only with the original sunspot data but also with long-term geomagnetic and economic data. It is concluded that the '11-year' solar cycle periodicity increased during the 19th century, during which time there were only 8 peaks when 9 might have been expected. Doubt is cast on the reality of a 22-year sunspot cycle during the past three centuries, and the likelihood is shown that the reliable 21.2 -year sunspot cycle is also the Hale magnetic cycle and that several of its harmonics are present in the economic data." (Robbins, Roger W.; "The Case of the Missing Sunspot Peak," Cycles, 36:53, 1985.) From Science Frontiers #42, NOV-DEC 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 125: Sep-Oct 1999 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Sorrat SORRAT = Society for Research in Rapport and Telekinesis. Science Frontiers would be remiss if it did not at least mention the work of SORRAT. SORRAT was founded by J.G . Neihardt in 1961. Sittings similar to seances were held at Neihardt's home in Columbia, Missouri. The familiar table movements and other gross physical phenomena occurred. Another sort of psi experiment involved placing objects in a securely locked box. After a time, these objects were inspected and were found to be altered in some way! No wonder SORRAT experiments have been the subject of much derision and claims of fraud. Even the professional parapsychologists seem embarrassed. But are there limits to psi phenomena? If telekinesis exists, as claimed in the PEAR experiments at Princeton (SF#114), why not phenomena inside locked boxes? Or, perhaps, inside sealed letters consigned to the post? In a recent issue of the Journal of Scientific Exploration, I. Grattan-Guinness recounted his involvement in a the SORRAT letter-writing experiments. Grattan-Guinness wrote questions on plain sheets of paper, sealed them carefully in envelopes, writing across the seams, and applying sticky tape. These envelopes were self-addressed, postage applied, and sent in a larger envelope to SORRAT in Missouri. There, they were placed in a secure "isolation room." Three to five weeks later, the envelopes came back to Grattan-Guinness in ...
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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 Origin Of The Moon Debated In October of 1984, the Conference on the Origin of the Moon convenved in Kona, HI. The clear favorite among the four contending hypotheses was the earth-impact scenario, which may be stated as follows: "Near the end of the Earth's accretion, after its core had formed and while the growing planet was still molten, an object at least the size of Mars smashed into it at an oblique angle. The cataclysm put large quantities of vaporized or partially vaporized impactor and Earth into orbit. The primitive Moon formed from that material." Conferees turned thumbs down on the theory that the moon was captured by the earth. Still not ruled out are the double-planet hypothesis (earth and moon accreted in their present configuration) and the fission-from-earth theory. (Taylor, G. Jeffrey; "Lunar Origin Meeting Favors Impact Theory," Geotimes, 30:16, April 1985.) Reference. See SF#37 for more details on all four theories mentioned above. From Science Frontiers #42, NOV-DEC 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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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 Ri = dugong; doggone!The ri has been reputed to be a mermaid-like mammal frequenting the shores of New Ireland, Papua New Guinea. (SF#31) Some cryptozoologists have insisted that the ri is not a new species but probably just a commonplace dugong. The skeptics are right. A February 1985 expedition took underwater photos of the animal that some natives call the ri, and it was definitely a dugong. (Anonymous; "New Expedition Identified Ri As Dugong," ISC Newsletter, 4:1 , Spring 1985.) From Science Frontiers #42, NOV-DEC 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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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 Can spores survive in interstellar space?There is good evidence that life appeared on earth just 200-400 million years after the crust had cooled (assuming conventional methods of measuring age). Two hundred million years seems a bit on the short side for the spontaneous generation of life, although no one really knows just how long this process should take (forever?). The apparent rapidity of the onset of terrestrial life has led to a reexamination of the old panspermia hypothesis, in which spores, bacteria, or even nonliving "templates" of life descended on the lifeless but fertile earth from interstellar space. P. Weber and J.M . Greenberg have now tested spores (actually Bacillus subtilis) under temperature and ultraviolet radiation levels expected in interstellar space. They found that 90% of the spores under test would be killed in times on the order of hundreds of years -- far too short for panspermia to work at interstellar distances. However, if the spores are transported in dark, molecular clouds, which are not uncommon between the stars, survival times of tens or hundreds of million years are indicated by the experiments. Under such conditions, the interstellar transportation of life is possible. But perhaps the injection and capture phases of panspermia might be lethal to spores. Weber and Greenberg think not -- under certain conditions. The collision of a large comet or meteorite could inject spores from a life-endowed planet ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 125: Sep-Oct 1999 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects More Nominative Determinism Following in the trail of Feedback's page in the New Scientist, we herewith offer two more cases of nominative determinism or ND. This phenomenon, as readers of SF are well aware, occurs when a person's last name is related to his or her occupation. A solid example of ND is seen in the name of the Director of U.S . Programs for the Rodale Institute. The Institute, it turns out, is studying carbon and nitrogen balances in organically managed cropping systems. Nitrates originating in such agriculture contaminate the ground water and often end up in drinking water. The EPA has determined that nitrates in drinking water can be harmful; thus this study. Who directs the study? Dr. Laurie Drinkwater! (Anonymous; "Organics Reduce Groundwater Pollution," Acres U.S .A . , p. 11, May 1999. Cr. L. Cortner.) And to whom does the journal Marine Observer turn when expert opinion is required on marine phenomena, including fish identification? Dr. Peter Herring! From Science Frontiers #125, SEP-OCT 1999 . 1999-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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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 Fungus Manufactures Phony Blueberry Flowers Mummy-berry disease is a fungus that preys on blueberries. It propagates itself by turning blueberry leaves into whitish, bell-like structures resembling true blueberry flowers. Bees deceived by this ruse land on the fake blossoms, pause for a moment to sip a sugary fluid (fortuitously) exuding from lesions on the leaves, accidentally pick up some fungus spores, and then fly off to true blueberry blossoms. The transferred spores infect other blueberry plants, causing them to produce white mummy-berries rather than blueberries. When spring comes round, the fungus-filled mummy-berries release the fungus to the leaves, and the cycle continues. (Anonymous; "A Fungus That Courts with Phony Flowers," Science 85, 6:10, September 1985.) Comment. The explanations usually served up for such remarkable adaptations are: (1 ) It is the product of chance and natural selection; and (2 ) The Creator made things this way. Are there not other possibilities? Perhaps the fungus somehow stole the blueprints for the flower from the blueberry's genome; i.e ., genetic endowment. After all, viruses are always subverting cell machinery. From Science Frontiers #42, NOV-DEC 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 125: Sep-Oct 1999 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects 10 YEARS OF COLD FUSION It was on March 23, 1989 that M. Fleischmann and S. Pons announced their "cold fusion" results. After an initial surge of publicity followed by disbelief and ridicule, cold fusion research was effectively banned from mainstream science publications. (SF#114, SF#112, and earlier). While cold fusion may not be politically correct these days, a cadre of off-mainstream researchers is pursuing the idea under such names as Low-Energy Nuclear Reactions (LENR) and Chemically Assisted Nuclear Reactions (CANR) Could LENR and CANR (nee CF) be both scientifically correct and politically incorrect? A survey of cold fusion research over the past decade by E.F . Mallove appears in a recent issue of Infinite Energy . If you read only mainstream journals, you may be surprised to learn that several thousand technical papers have been written on the subject. Mallove has abstracted a "select 34" of these that support the reality of LENR and CANR. Many of the 34 appeared in Infinite Energy and Fusion Technology . The Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry and Physics Letters A have also carried some of these "select" papers. Finally, Mallove provides references to papers that undermine the credibility of those studies at Caltech, Harwell, and MIT that were used to derail cold fusion as a serious scientific enterprise. (Mallove, Eugene F.; "Key Experiments That Substantiate Cold Fusion ...
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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 Guiding cell migration "Cell movement has always been thought to be independent of the extracellular matrix which encourages and guides movement; the cells were thought to move along the pathways under their own power, rather as a train moves along a railway track. New research by Stuart Newman, Dorothy Frenz and James Thomsack, of the New York Medical College, now suggests that the extracellular matrix itself may help to propel cells along." (Experiment details omitted here.) "No one knows whether this matrix-driven movement actually occurs in living organisms. But potentially, it could achieve the high-speed movement of cells depending on the size and characteristics of the cells. Considering that many of the events of development occur remarkably rapidly, this is an attractive possibility for cell migration. " (" More Clues to Cell Movement, " New Scientist, p. 30, September 5, ]985. ) (This phenomenon is not trivial, for it implies that non-living substances (the extracellular matrix) are not necessarily passive but might even be cooperative, if such an adjective can be applied to the non-living. WRC ) From Science Frontiers #42, NOV-DEC 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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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 Trees may not converse after all!Back in SF#27, we reported how some evidence suggested that trees might communicate with one another in connection with insect attacks. S. V. Fowler and J.H . Lawton contest this conclusion, and they have experimental evidence to back them up. Working with birch trees, they defoliated saplings 5% and 2s% and looked for signs of intertree communication. They found none. As for previous claims for this phenomenon, Fowler and Lawton believe that one study was statistically flawed, and the other due to an infectious disease transmitted between caterpillars rather then talking trees. (Fowler, Simon V., and Lawton, John H.; "Rapidly Induced Defense and Talking Trees: The Devil's Advocate Position, " American Naturalist, 126:181, 1985.) From Science Frontiers #42, NOV-DEC 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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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 Feathers fly over fossil 'fraud' How many plays on words do you count in the following paragraph? "Britain's own scientific knight-errant, Sir Fred Hoyle, has fallen fowl of the palaeontologists. He has flocked together with those who think that the best-ever missing link, the reptile-bird Archaeopteryx, is a convenient fake. Creationists are understandably in high feather about it all. But now, it looks as though they may be left with egg on their faces. ' We first reported on the Archaeopteryx Affair in SF#39. In the present article by Ted Nield, the evolutionists seem to be responding to Hoyle's claim with ridicule and innuendo. Referring to the claim of fossil forgery, which Hoyle based on photos taken with a low-angle flash and EN100 film, Nield wonders why it was published in the British Journal of Photography instead of Nature or Science implying that Hoyle's group didn't dare submit their report to high-class journals! As for the "discovery" of double-struck feathers in the Archaeopteryx fossil, which Hoyle thinks were the result of inexpert forgers, Nield remarks that these were noted by naked as long ago as 1954, and are due to two rows of slightly overlapping feathers with faint "through-printing". And while it is true that the two halves of the fossil studied by the Hoyle group are not perfect positive ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 126: Nov-Dec 1999 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Vegetable Connection Within the human brain, probably quite close to the number module, there must be a "vegetable module"; that is, a few brain cells that recognize and process information about vegetables. Furthermore, there must be cross-talk between the vegetable and number modules. This is obvious from the following query posted in New Scientist. "Why is it that when you repeatedly ask someone addition problems that all add up to six (such as two plus four, one plus five) for a number of minutes and then ask them to think of a vegetable, 90 per cent of people will say "carrot"? "The person you are asking must have no knowledge of what you are asking them or why. The questions should be asked rapidly, encouraging the person answering to answer them quickly with little thought." (Versteegen, Adam; "Carrot Brains," New Scientist, p. 97, Jule 24, 1999.) From Science Frontiers #126, NOV-DEC 1999 . 1999-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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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 Night Of The Polar Dinosaur Somewhere west of Deadhorse, a small town on Prudhoe Bay in northern Alaska, paleontologists have found the bones of at least three species of dinosaurs. But wait, the latitude there is 70 north today and according to magnetic measurements of the rocks, it was about the same when the dinosaurs met their demise. At these high latitudes the dinosaurs either had to contend with two months of darkness each year or they had to migrate many hundreds of miles over the rough Alaskan landscape. The visions of dinosaurs groping for tons of vegetable food in the polar night is about as incongruous as imagining them trekking down to the Lower 481 Scientists are now maintaining that these dinosaurs did prosper on the shore of the Arctic Ocean, even in the dark, because the climate then was semitropical or temperate. This was because the earth's climate was more equable or uniform. They are, however, surprised by the lack of mineral deposition in the dinosaur bones, which look rather "mode m". (Anderson, Ian; "Alaskan Dinosaurs Confound Catastrophe Theorists, " New Scientist, p. 18, August 22, 1985. ) (The apparent survival of dinosaurs during two months of darkness is being used as an argument against asteroidal catastrophism, which it is claimed wiped out the dinosaurs with a long-lived dust cloud that blocked the sun. WRC) From Science Frontiers #42, NOV- ...
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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 Mysterious hums: the sequel The toadfish mating season is over and quiet has returned to Sausalito, but over at Pacific Heights and the Marina District on San Francisco Bay a new hum is driving people crazy. Speculation is rampant: Is the source a diesel generator, a hospital's portable CAT-scan machine, or underground electrical power lines ? We'll just have to await more communications from California. (Rubenstein, Steve; "Detours on the Trail of Mysterious Hum," San Francisco Chronicle, September 25, 1985. Cr. P. Bartindale) From Science Frontiers #42, NOV-DEC 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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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 sausalito hum "The mysterious underwater hum that has annoyed Sausalito's houseboat community for the past 11 summers is back, and investigators still do not know the cause. 'It's a loud and audible mechanical raspy hum,' said Waldo Point Harbormaster Ted Rose, who said the vexing noise sounded like an electric razor. 'It sounds like this mzmzmzmzmzmzmzm,' Rose said. 'Sometimes it gets so loud you have to talk above it. It can drown out conversations and wake people from a dead sleep.' For reasons no one understands, the noise can be heard only from about 8 p.m . until sunrise, and it goes silent from late September until mid-April, when it begins humming again through the summer." Acoustical engineers from Berkeley could not pinpoint the source of the sound with the help of instruments and a diver. Biologists believe the noise is made by the singing toad-fish, also called the plainfin midshipman. (Leery, Kevin, "Sausalito's Weird Hum Is Back, " San Francisco Chronicle, July 29, 1985. Cr. P. Bartindale. Also: Anderson, fan; "Humming Fish Disturb the Peace, " New Scientist, p. 64, September 12, 1985.) (See Category GSMI in EARTHQUAKES, TIDES, UNIDENTIFIED SOUNDS for more instances of underwater sounds, especially those mysterious sounds heard near the mouth of the ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 126: Nov-Dec 1999 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology A PARADE OF EARLY VISITORS TO AMERICA Ancient stage design Astronomy It's all in the seeing It's all in the believing Biology Swimming up the wrong streams Knismesis and gargalesis Geology Flotsam on the great sand sea Geophysics Towering shafts of light Icy comets, oceans, life Psychology The number module The vegetable connection ...
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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 Geomagnetic Activity And Paranormal Experiences " Summary . -- 25 well-documented (and published by Stevenson in 1970) cases of intense paranormal (' telepathic') experiences concerning death or illness of friends of family were analyzed according to the global geomagnetic activity (the aa index) as the times of their occurrence. The characteristics of these cases were representative of the general literature and occurred between the years 1878 and 1967. All 25 experiences were reported to have occurred on days when the geomagnetic activity was less than the means for those months. Repeated measures analysis of variance for the daily aa indices for the 7 days before to the 7 days after the experience confirmed the observation that they occurred on days that displayed much less geomagnetic activity than the days before or afterwards. These results are commensurate with the hypothesis that extremely low fields, generated within the earth-ionospheric cavity but disrupted by geomagnetic disturbances, may influence some human behavior. " (Persinger, Michael A.; "Geophysical Variables and Behavior: XXX. Intense Paranormal Experiences Occur during Days of Quiet, Global, Geomagnetic Activity, " Perceptual and Motor Skills, 61:320, 1985.) From Science Frontiers #42, NOV-DEC 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 126: Nov-Dec 1999 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects It's All In The Seeing The August and September issues of Sky & Telescope contain articles that attempt to discredit long histories of observations of Transient Lunar Phenomena (TLPs) and the many, many anomalous coronas seen during total solar eclipses. Both classes of phenomena are written off as either observer misperceptions or idiosyncracies of the earth's atmosphere. Of course, such treatment of strange phenomena is not new, nor is it undesirable, for we do want to confront reality whatever it might be. However, the two "wipes" in Sky & Telescope do seem a bit arrogant, especially when famous scientists do not hesitate to employ ghostly ephemera to support theories favored by the establishment. Strange eclipses. Down the years, many fantastic solar coronas have been sketched during the few minutes of totality. Long coronal petals and errant streamers, often asymmetrically arrayed, are common in the Nineteenth Century astronony journals. Scientists have no problems with these. It is the highly geometrical coronas that are hard-to-account-for. The reported colored coronas, too, seem unlikely. Red, blue, and green hues are definitely frowned upon. Coronas should be brilliant white, perhaps yellowish. S.J . O'Meara, a contributing editor of S&T , thinks many of the older and wilder drawings of coronas can be pinned on observer enthusiasm and active imagination. Modern photographs of coronas provide a much more conservative ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 126: Nov-Dec 1999 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Swimming Up The Wrong Streams Of course, most freshwater fish do swim upstream in the usual way, but not the candiru. It is partial to very specific streams. This small, slim, scaleless species of catfish inhabits the Amazon where it preys on other fish, often by invading their gills and feasting on blood and tissue. They also aim much higher on evolution's ladder: they are the only known vertebrate parasites of humans. It is when they prey upon humans that they swim up the wrong streams -- at least their victims think so! Their technique is simple. They detect human urine released by swimmers and follow it right to the source. They don't stop there but insert themselves right into the penis and keep going, sometimes all the way to the bladder. Once inside the penis they erect their spines and cannot be extracted except by surgery. Left alone, they are not only excruciating to the unwise bather but can eventually be fatal. Surgeons have successfully extracted them from the bladder, but in remote areas penis amputation is the only answer! (Warren, Nicholas; "In Mare Internum," Fortean Times, p. 14, September 1999. Title translation: "Within the Inner Sea.") From Science Frontiers #126, NOV-DEC 1999 . 1999-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 126: Nov-Dec 1999 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Knismesis And Gargalesis This item is not as serious as its pretentious title. Everyone has experienced both of these ominous-sounding physiological conditions. One can inflict knismesis upon one's self, but gargalesis requires someone else or perhaps a human-like robot (android) to perform the act. All right, so knismesis and gargalesis are really only the two recognized kinds of tickling; but the latter form stimulates several interesting physiological conundrums. First, let's separate the two conditions. Knismesis is very light stimulation of the skin, say by a feather. It rarely produces laughter and can be induced autonomously, by someone else, by a crawling insect, or even by mild electricity. Gargalesis cannot be selfinduced. It consists of heavier pressures applied to specific parts of the body, especially the ribs and arm pits. But the finger probing usually has to be done by someone else. Gargalesis is often very unpleasant but is nevertheless likely to be accompanied by smiles and laughter. In fact, gargalesis can be so disturbing that medieval torturers supposedly tickled some of their victims to death! (A variant of Chinese water torture?) Ticklish areas on the human body. Tickling becomes anomalous only with gargalesis. The questions are: Why does this kind of tickling elicit laughter when it is so unpleasant? Why cannot one tickle one's self this way? At least most people can't . Why does gargalesis exist ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 126: Nov-Dec 1999 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Icy Comets, Oceans, Life Our thought, expressed in SF#125, that the icy-comet controversy might be winding down was premature. P. Huyghe, coauthor with L. Frank of The Big Splash, responded to SF#125 with three recent articles. Two reply to major criticisms of the icy-comet theory; the third gives geological and geophysical reasons why there must have been icy comets or some other substantial influx of water and carbon to the earth's surface down the geological eons. No instrumental artifacts. The basis for the 1985 claim of L. Frank et al that small, icy comets continually bombard the earth's upper atmosphere came from photos taken far above the earth from the Dynamics Explorer 1. Large, transient "holes" appeared in the atmosphere. These were attributed to vapor clouds created by small, icy comets. (SF#44) Critics claimed that these "holes" were no more than instrumental errors. L.A . Frank and J.B . Sigwarth have investigated this possibility and have rejected it. (Frank, J.A ., and Sigwarth, J.B .; "Atmospheric Holes: Instrumental and Geophysical Effects," Journal of Geo physical Research, 104:115, 1999. Cr. P. Huyghe) Navy radar search used incorrect cross sections. A more recent attack on the icy comets came from S. Knowles et al ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 17 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf126/sf126p08.htm
