212 results found.
... , AIDS is a collection of symptoms arising from such factors as the repeated use of intravenous drugs and malnutrition. Mainstream researchers think that Duesberg is wrong on (1 ); that (2 ) is irrevelant, since asymptomatic carriers of typhoid and cholera exist; and that (3 ) may be incorrect, since SIV (Simian Immunodeficiency Virus) does induce simian AIDS in monkeys. (Weiss, Robin A., and Jaffe, Harold W.; "Duesberg, HIV and AIDS," Nature, 345:659, 1990.) Also: Brown, Phyllida; "' Selective' TV Documentary Attacked by AIDS Researchers," New Scientist, p. 23, June 16, 1990.) Comment. However self-assured the mainstreamers are, they must have flinched at a paper given by L. Montagnier, of the Pasteur Institute, at the recent AIDS conference in San Francisco: "Montagnier says research conducted in his lab suggests HIV initially exists peacefully within the CD4 T-lymphocytes, white blood cells that assist in immune defenses. But co-infection with a mycoplasma, he contends, may transform the slowly replicating HIV into a killer." (Fackelmann, K.A .; "Data and Dispute Mark AIDS Meeting," Science News, 137: 404, 1990.) Reference. The many anomalies associated with HIV and AIDS are covered in BBH14, BBH22 in our catalog: Biological Anomalies: Humans II. For details, visit: here . From Science Frontiers #71, SEP-OCT 1990 . 1990-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... . 78: Nov-Dec 1991 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Kamikaze Sperm Sperm is popularly thought to have but a single purpose -- fertilization of the egg. This is not so! "Nonfertilizing sperm with special morphologies have long been known to exist in invertebrates. Until recently, abnormal sperm in mammals were considered errors in production. Now, however, Baker and Bellis have proposed that mammalian sperm, like some invertebrate sperm are polymorphic and adapted to a variety of nonfertilizing roles in sperm competition, including prevention of passage of sperm inseminated by another male. More specifically, their 'kamikaze' hypothesis proposes that deformed mammalian sperm are adapted to fa cilitate the formation and functioning of copulatory plugs." The author of the present paper, A. H. Harcourt, thinks that although some 20% of mammalian sperm, on the average, is abnormal (two heard, no heads, two tails, no tails, coiled tails, etc.) such sperm represents only errors on the assembly line. These abnormal sperm have no special purpose, at least in mammals. (Harcourt, A.H .; "Sperm Competition and the Evolution of Nonfertilizing Sperm in Mammals," Evolution , 45:314, 1991.) Comment. Even if mammals haven't yet developed kamikaze sperm, some animals have; and one must wonder exactly how multipurpose sperm (and ova, too) evolved. For a copulatory plug to be effective, large numbers of mutant sperm with special plugging properties and knowing just where ...
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... Is it all worth the risk? Will the university support research on this new untried idea? This would be unlikely since funds are thin, the idea is not part of the overall research plan, and worse yet, an enemy sits on the research fund committee. Getting external funds is impossible unless one can show that your university has enough confidence in the idea to support it financially. A way out is to publish the idea at a conference in hopes of raising interest and money. Hold it, the referees will ask why a few obvious points have not been checked out in the lab. "Suddenly you realize that there is a far more serious problem. The current scientific system is based on the assumption that there is no such thing as a radically new idea. Each new paper is required to climb on the back of a plethora of earlier published papers, and does little more than add another layer of gloss to the cited references. Genuinely new ideas no not have a heap of existing papers to support them. This means that the standard of proof expected will be very much higher than for a typical 'me too' paper. You glance across the old medieval library and note with alarm that the bust of Aristotle seems to be laughing at you." And what does our hero do after confronting these realities of university life? He plays it safe. He will publish a few third-rate "me too" papers every year to fill his quota and try to get his name on a friend's research grant application to show his concern for ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 64: Jul-Aug 1989 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Directed Mutation Dear reader, things have a way of working out serially. For several months, we have had in our possession a paper from Nature, by J. Cairns, of Harvard, plus some passionate correspondence stimulated by the paper. Now that the circle-forming sheep have provided a good introduction, we will jump into the fray, too. Basically Cairns (in Nature) and B. H. Hall (in Genetics ) say that organisms can respond to environmental stresses by reorganizing their genes in a purposeful way. Such "directed mutation" shifts the course of evolution in a nonrandom way. Such a conclusion was like waving a red flag in front of the evolutionists. R. May, at the University of Oxford, complained, "The work is so flawed, I am reluctant to comment." On the other side, a University of Maryland geneticust, S. Benson, comments, "Many people have had such observations, but they have problems getting them published." Our template in this discussion is an article by A.S . Moffat in American Scientist. She says, "The stakes in this dispute are high, indeed. If directed mutations are real, the explanations of evolutionary biology that depend on random events must be thrown out. This would have broad implications. For example, directed mutation would shatter the belief that organisms are related to some ancestor if they share traits. ...
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... places. Both are nicely horizontal, and there is basically no evidence that 200 million years of erosion and tectonic disturbances separate them. In some places, the two limestone strata intertongue or interfinger, such that by moving vertically one flashed back and forth in 200-million-year jumps. In both limestone strata, one finds layers of the same micaceous shale containing the same fossil tubeworms, suggesting near-simultaneous deposition. In one place, the two limestones clearly grade into one another, with no separation at all. Anyone who walks down the Canyon trails can see that the evidence for a 200-million-year hiatus between the Mississippian and Cambrian limestones is shaky at best. With the accuracy of geological dating through the use of contained fossils at risk, one would expect many professional papers dealing with this situation. Instead, the geological literature says little. One of the few papers mentioning the "unconformity" states that the contact between the two limestones displays ripples 2 feet from crest to trough, as one might expect with a true unconformity. Such ripples do not seem to exist. (Waisgerber, William, et al; "Mississippian and Cambrian Strata Interbedding: 200 Million Years Hiatus in Question," Creation Research Society Quarterly, 23: 160, 1987.) Comment. Aha, this paper was written by scientific creationists, who have an obvious ax to grind. There's surely nothing to it. However, the senior author is a consulting geologist, and the paper is replete with photographs and diagrams. And you can always go see for yourself! ...
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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 Instances Of Observed Speciation Creationists have long maintained that no one has ever observed the creation of a new species in nature. C.A . Callag han has sought to counter this attack on evolution with a paper bearing the above title. Her concluding paragraph is: "I have cited several instances of ob served speciation that can be used as illustrative examples in the classroom. They should also silence at least one common creationist argument against evolution." The paper begins with the well-worn peppered-moth story; but Callaghan quickly dismisses this, as the creationists do, as merely an example of variation within a species. We now quote the lead sentences from her discussions of the next two candidates: "An incipient neospecies of Drosophila may have developed in Theodosius Dobzhansky's laboratory sometime between 1958 and 1963 in a strain of D. paulistorum...." "A probable instance of a naturally emerging plant species was discovered on both sides of Highway 205 at a single locality 25.5 miles south of Burns, Harney County, Oregon...." We have inserted underlining beneath the two words that greatly weaken the paper. In short, the biologists are not really sure that speciation occurred in these two cases. The reasons for doubt are also presented. The paper concludes with a discussion of allopolyploidy in plants, in which the chromosomes of a sterile hybrid are doubled, giving rise to a fertile ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 63: May-Jun 1989 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects More confusion at the k-t boundary Just a few years ago, many scientists, especially physicists and astronomers, considered the Book of Science to be closed in the matter of what happened at the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K -T ) boundary, 65 million years ago, and why the dinosaurs met their end. It was declared, rather imperiously, that a large asteroid had impacted the earth, causing much physical and biological devastation. Many scientific papers are still being written on this singular period in the earth's history, and the situation is no longer so clear-cut. We select for brief review four papers, each with a different perspective. Occurrence of stishovite. Stishovite, a dense phase of silica, is widely accepted as an indicator of terrestrial impact events. It is not found at volcanic sites. Now, J.F . McHone et al report its existence at the K-T boundary, at Raton, New Mexico. (McHone, John F., et al; "Stishovite at the CretaceousTertiary Boundary, Raton, New Mexico," Science, 243:1182, 1989.) A plus for the pro-impact side. The impact of an asteroid can initiate basaltic flooding and trap formation. Evidence of a global fire. Soot appears at the K-T boundary at many sites, but where did it come from? Chemical analyses of these soots show an enhanced concentration ...
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... Anomalies An inscribed stone from Connecticut. Interpreting the marks as ogam writing; Face 1 (left) reads up, Face 2 (right) reads down. Adapted from the Bulletin of the Early Sites Research Society and the Occasional Publications of the Epigraphic Society. One would think that all North American archeological anomalies worth mentioning would already be firmly ensconced in the professional literature. This does not seem to be the case, unless one is very conservative about defining "worth mentioning." Ancient coins, anomalous inscriptions, and other intriguing tidbits are being found all the time, but few hear about them. The conventional journals, such as American Antiquity and the American Anthropologist disdain such discoveries. One place to find them is in the Occasional Publications of the Epigraphic Society. The 1987 compilation of these papers is at hand, and it is chock full of fascinating things. The following data are from Volume 16 for 1987. Ancient coins. A bronze coin of the ancient Greek city of Amisos was found about six years ago by Doyle Ellis, who was searching for gold with a metal detector in the channel of the Snake River in Idaho. It was deeply embedded in the gravel. In a small Indian mound at Deer Creek, near Chilicothe, Ohio, a Numidian bronze coin was recently uncovered. It has a BC date. "Oddly, those same coins, regarded in the Old World as artifacts of the highest importance, are never regarded at all by archeologists in America, who blithely declaim the 'absence' of Old World artifacts in America." (p . 14 ...
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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 More challenges to newton's law of gravitation Two experiments reported at the 1988 meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco can be added to the others that question Newton's venerable Law of Gravitation. The abstracts of these papers are short and to-the-point, so we quote them: "We have performed an experimental test of Newton's inverse-square law of gravitation. The test compared accurately measured gravity values along the 600 m WTVD tower near Raleigh, North Carolina, with upward, continued gravity estimates calculated from ground measurements. We found a significant departure from the inverse-square law, asymptotically approaching -547 36 microGal at the top of the tower. If this departure is derived from a scalar Yukawa potential, the coupling parameter is alpha = 0.023, the range is lambda = 280 m, and the Newtonian Gravitational Constant is G = (6 .52 0.01) x 1011 m3 kg-1 s-2 . We do not yet have adequate resolution to discriminate this scalar model from a scalarvector model." (Eckhardt, D.H ., et al; "Experimental Evidence for a Violation of Newton's Inverse-Square Law of Gravitation," Eos, 69:1046, 1988.) "In the late summer of 1987, an ex periment was performed to determine the value of the Newtonian gravitational constant, G, by measuring the ...
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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 The cup-and-ring motif in america Typical cup-and-rings from Ireland. Drawing from Ancient Man. The 1988 volume of the Occasional Papers of the Epigraphic Society is at hand. As usual, it is chock full of ancient symbols, motifs, and writings, many of which come from anomalous times and/or places. R.W .B . Morris, an authority on prehistoric rock art, has contributed an article comparing the cup-and-ring motif, as found in Great Britain, with that found in North America. Since this stereotype motif decorates the rocks of all continents, save Antarctica, and since the hey-day of cup-and-ring engraving was 3-5 millennia ago, this unique design suggests the worldwide diffusion of culture thousands of years ago. A cup-and-ring engraving consists of a hollow or cup anywhere from 4 to 30 inches in diameter, surrounded by 1 to 9 rings. The rings may be gapped, with a narrow groove running through the gaps from the outside. (See the illustration,) Cups-and-rings have been found at over 700 sites in Great Britain. Most date between 2200 and 1600 B.C . The cup-and-ring is much rarer in the States. A few are known from Alabama, California, Georgia, Hawaii, Texas, and doubtless other states. In contrast to the ...
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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 A Hoax Admitted Above, we summarized a paper entitled "Uncanny Prophecies in New Zealand: An Unexplained Scientific Anomaly." The author of this paper, R. Kammann, has revealed that the whole business was a hoax. He now comes forth with details of the hoax and an explanation of why he chose to withhold data from the readers of the Zetetic Scholar. "In writing up this episode for readers outside of New Zealand, I chose initially to hide the skeptical origin of these bogus prophecies to allow readers to experience them as they might be presented by paranormal advocates. Although the predictions drew widespread attention in New Zealand media, their impact was undoubtedly dampened by their honest portrayal as an anti-astrology lesson by a skeptical psychologist. For a proper evaluation, it was therefore necessary to hide their true origin for at least one public presentation. Even there (in Zetetic Scholar, #11) I constrained myself to scientifically accurate reporting and quoted my own original wordings of the prophecies and their fulfillments from the tapes of the radio programs. For the miracle mongers of the paranormal press, such loyalty to the facts would be considered a bad precedent." (Kammann, Richard; "New Zealand Prophecies Exposed as a Hoax," Zetetic Scholar, no. 12, p. 34, August 1987.) Comment. Kammann's confession is nice to have, but can anyone be certain that he is not ...
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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 Mind-bending the velocity vectors of marine algae From the referenced paper's abstract: "A consciousness experiment in which the Doppler shift of He/Ne laser light was used to describe changes in the velocity and vector of a marine alga, Dunaliella, was reported by Pleass and Dey in 1985. Because the subject of the consciousness experiment is living, we expect strings of baseline velocity and vector data which are, at some level, inextricably time-variant. This complicates the statistical procedures which must be used to analyze the data. "This paper examines the variation in baseline data strings, and describes two alternative statistical procedures which have been used to determine the probability of consciousness effects. Two levels of control are applied, allowing global comparison of frequency distributions of experimental scores with similar distributions derived artificially from baseline data. In both cases the null hypothesis is that there is no psi effect. The data quite strongly suggest the rejection of the null hypothesis, although the distributions of run scores contain several values beyond 3 sigma and are nonnormal. This limits the definition of probabilities." (Pleass, C.M ., and Dey, N. Dean; "Finding the Rabbit in the Bush: Statistical Analysis of Consciousness Research Data from the Motile Alga Dunaliella," The Explorer, 3:6 , no. 2, 1986. The Explorer is a publication of the Society for Scientific Exploration.) Comment. ...
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... always reproducible. (7 ) No evidence of fraud was found. The data originally published in Nature were not explained or shown to be invalid. (11) In fact, the Nature investigation actually confirmed some of the original findings. (5 ) All of the French work and that of the cooperating laboratories were attributed to "autosuggestion"! (4 ) Qualifications of the Nature investigators. J. Benveniste pointed out that none of the three members of the Nature team had any experience in immunology. (4 , 11) The team consisted of J. Maddox (a physicist), J. Randi (a professional magician), and W. Stewart (an organic chemist). Curious aspects of Nature's publication and following investigation. Why did Nature accept and publish a paper when fraud and poor science were suspected? (4 , 11) Why didn't Nature hold publication of the original Benveniste paper for four weeks until the investigation was completed? (4 , 11) Why didn't Nature insist upon prior experiment replication by an independent laboratory? (6 ) Actually, replications of the experiment were completed before publication, but at labs selected by Benveniste. Conventional explanations of Benven iste's results. Several letters to Nature have proposed reasonable explanations for the supposedly impossible results of the "infinite dilution" experiments. (8 , 9) It is therefore possible that Benveniste's data are valid and not due to "autosuggestion." Has the "infinite dilution" anomaly been exorcised? Not in our opinion. Too many unexplained data survive ...
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... Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Synchronous Rhythmic Flashing Of Fireflies We humans are pretty smug about our ability to communicate complex messages via sound waves. Of course, we recognize that whales and other cetaceans also seem to "talk" to one another, and that other animals employ their sense of smell for relaying messages. But most of us do not realize that lowly fireflies congregate to communicate en masse, with untold thousands of individuals cooperating in huge synchronized light displays. In reading some of the descriptions of these great natural phenomena, one recalls the light displays used to communicate with the aliens in the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind . J. Buck has been studying flashing fireflies for over half a century. In fact, his first review paper was published in 1938. Buck has now brought that paper up to date in the current Quarterly Review of Biology with a 24page contribution. It is difficult to do justice to this impressive work in a newsletter. Our readers will have to be satisfied with a mere two paragraphs, in 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 ...
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... Recently, perhaps mostly because there is a nuclear power plant right across the Connecticut River, there has been a concerted scientific effort to find out just what is going on in south-central Connecticut. A brief glimpse of the phenomenon was provided by W. Sullivan in the New York Times: "From last Sept. 17 to Oct. 22, more than 175 small earthquakes occurred near the town of Moodus, Conn. Many were accompanied by sounds like gunshots; the strongest vibrated a van. The phenomenon was another swarm of Moodus quakes that have puzzled generations of earth scientists. The earliest was recorded in 1568 and Indians knew of them long before then: Moodus is an Indian word meaning 'place of noises.'" Sullivan's article was derived from a spate of scientific papers delivered at the Spring meeting of the American Geophysical Union. (Sullivan, Walter; "A Connecticut Mystery Still Defying Scientists," New York Times, May 22, 1988. Cr. P. Huyghe, D. Stacy, R.M . Westrum) Abstracts of all the scientific papers presented at the meeting of the American Geophysical Union appeared in Eos. Here are excerpts from one of them: "Since the installation of a six-station microearthquake network in the Moodus, Connecticut, area in 1979, four extensive microearthquake swarms of several months duration each, all accompanied by main shocks of Mc greater than 2, have been recorded. All of the swarms have occurred at shallow depths (less than 2.3 km) and have been concentrated primarily in one small source ...
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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 A Tsunami And A Peruvian Cultural Glitch We quote from the abstract of a paper by R.M . Bird from American Antiquity. "While investigating the archaeological background of early maize on the coast of Peru, I realized that several factors affect interpretation. The estimated date for the start of common use of maize there is close to the apparent dates of a large tsunami, the abandonment of many coastal sites, and the start of occupation at Chavin de Huantar in the highlands. While investigating the possible relations between the principal pretsunami coastal culture and Chavin, I discovered that depictions of a monstrous head link the two cultures." The "monstrous head" is thought by the Bird to be a stylized representation of a tsunami wave. Not mentioned at all in the abstract are the physical evidences of tsunami damage along the Peruvian coast. This article portrays the possible effects on the ancient manmade structures in the region as well as the widespread deposits of sand, cobblestones, and other sediments. (Bird, Robert McK.; "A Postulated Tsunami and Its Effects on Cultural Development in the Peruvian Early Horizon," American Antiquity, 52:285, 1987.) Profile of a north-south site trench at a a site on the Peruvian coast, showing thick strata that may have been deposited by a tsunami. From Science Frontiers #53, SEP-OCT 1987 . 1987-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 52: Jul-Aug 1987 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Meteorites Also Transport Organic Payloads Excerpts from the Abstract of a paper printed in Nature: "Much effort has been directed to analyses of organic compounds in carbonaceous chondrites because of their implications for orgainc chemical evolution and the origin of life. We have determined the isotopic composition of hydrogen, nitrogen and carbon in amino acid and monocarboxylic extracts from the Murchison meteorite. .. .. . "These results confirm the extraterrestrial origin of both classes of compounds, and provide the first evidence suggesting a direct relationship between the massive organo-synthesis occurring in interstellar clouds and the presence of pre-biotic compounds in primitive planetary bodies." (Epstein, S., et al; "Unusual Stable Isotope Ratios in Amino Acid and Carboxylic Acid Extracts from the Murchison Meteorite," Nature, 326:477, 1987.) From Science Frontiers #52, JUL-AUG 1987 . 1987-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... exist, too, namely in North America and northern Australia. Both Australia and the Americas seem to have been peopled late; and both regions seem to have been invaded from the north - according to conventional thinking. Serious anomalies arise because some controversial dates of human occupation from South America and southern Australia are considerably older than those from North America and northern Australia* - at least if we dismiss those North American dates considered as "unreliable" by the archeological establishment. In the Americas, reliable dates older than 12,000 years are found in South America (Monte Verde, Chile); in Australia, all dates exceeding 24,000 years are found along the southern coast.* The "artifact gaps" are therefore clearly established! R.G . Bednarik, in a recent paper in Antiquity, offers a related observation: "It is generally agreed that both regions have been settled from the north, yet no trace has been found of the first settlers in either North America or northern Australia. In northern Australia one finds groundedge axes at up to 23,000 b.p ., which have no counterparts in the probable catchment area of the first colonizers, Indonesia; while in North America the earlist human settlers used elaborate projectile points, which have no counterparts in the final Pleistocene of eastern Siberia. When and where did such innovations then evolve?" Bodnarik's aolution to this double dilemma assumes that the first colonizers in both cases did indeed come from the north-- -some 40,000 years ago in both Australia and North America - but ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 60: Nov-Dec 1988 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Global fire at the k-t boundary The worldwide deposit of iridium at the K-T (Cretaceous-Tertiary) boundary has been considered very strong evidence that a large astronomical object (asteroid or comet) devastated our planet some 65 million years ago. Some scientists, however, propose that the iridium layer was instead deposited through widespread volcanic activity. The proponents of an astronomical mechanism should be heartened by a recent paper in Nature, by W.S . Wolbach et al. Here is their Abstract: "Cretaceous-Tertiary (K -T ) boundary clays from five sites in Europe and New Zealand are 102 -104 -fold enriched in elemental C (mainly soot), which is isotopically uniform and apparently comes from a single global fire. The soot layer coincides with the Ir layer, suggesting that the fire was triggered by meteorite impact and began before the ejecta had settled." The composition of the hydrocarbons in the sediments points to the earth's biomass (mainly surface vegetation) as the source of the soot. The total quantity of K-T soot is equivalent to that which would be produced by burning 10% of all present terrestrial plant material. (Wolbach, Wendy S., et al; "Global Fire at the Cretaceous-Tertiary Boundary," Nature, 334:665, 1988.) Comment. Unmentioned in the above article is the possibility that extensive wildfires might have been ...
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... pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Esp of atoms?Preamble. Theosophy is an occult doctrine with three professed goals: To form a nucleus of the univer sal brotherhood of humanity, without distinction of race, creed, sex, caste, or color. To encourage the study of comparative religion, philosophy, and science. To investigate the unexplained laws of nature and the powers latent in man. (From: Encyclopedia Americana) Just before the turn of the century, two leaders of the Theosophical movement, Annie Besant and C.W . Leadbeater, decided to collaborate on Goal 3 and investigate the micro-structure of matter. They eschewed the physics laboratory, preferring instead ESP. S. Phillips has now summarized their discoveries in a compact little paper. He concludes as follows: "This article has presented a few examples of the many correlations between modern physics and psychic descriptions of sub-atomic particles published over seventy years ago. Scientists and laypersons alike may find it difficult to believe that Besant and Leadbeater could in some way unknown to science describe the structure of objects at least as small as atomic nuclei, which are about one ten-thousand-billionth of an inch in size. But they cannot in all sincerity dismiss the Theosophists' claims as fraudulent for the obvious reason that they finished their investigations many years before pertinent scientific knowledge and ideas about the structure of sub-atomic particles and the composition of atomic nuclei became available to make fraud possible in principle. "Nor can critics plausibly reject their claim to possess micro- ...
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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 Egyptian pyramids actually made of synthetic stone?The assertion of the title above has been around for a while, but now it has been detailed in a paper before the American Chrmical Society. "An authority on ancient building materials reported evidence Friday that the Egyptian pyramids were built of a remarkable synthetic stone that was cast on the site like concrete. "The new theory challenges the widely accepted belief that the pyramids were built from natural stone obtained from quarries and laboriously moved to the site on wooden rollers. "Dr. Joseph Davidovits said that the synthetic pyramid stone was made with cement far stronger than modern portland cement, which binds together the rock and sand in concrete. Portland cement has an average span of about 150 years, he said, but cements like those used in the pyramids last thousands of years. .. .. . "Davidovits said that a new deciphering of an ancient hieroglyphic text now provides some direct information about pyramid construction and supports his theory that synthetic stone was the construction material. .. .. . "Davidovits said the cement used in the pyramids binds the aggregate and other ingredients together chemically in a process similar to that involved in the formation of natural stone. "Portland cement, in contrast, involves mechanical rather then molecular bonding of the ingredients. Thus, pyramid stone is extremely difficult to distinguish from natural stone. "He cites a number of other pieces of evidence to support his ...
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... is that it seems to be almost impossible to start a serious discussion between E and D. As a dissident is in a very unpleasant situation, I am sure that D would be very glad to change their views as soon as E gives convincing arguments. But the argument "all knowledgeable people agree that..." (with the tacit addition that by not agreeing you demonstrate that you are a crank) is not a valid argument in science. If scientific issues were decided by Gallup polls and not by scientific arguments science will soon be petrified forever." (Alfven, Hannes; "Memoirs of a Dissident Scientist," American Scientist, 76: 249, 1988.) Comment. If you do not climb on the scientific bandwagon, you won't get funding, papers published, or even a handshake from your colleagues. Look what has happened to Arp, Gold, Hoyle, and other "dissidents" in the past few years. From Science Frontiers #59, SEP-OCT 1988 . 1988-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... instead of the earth. Looking over the literature, one sees that this debate has been characterized by much invective and scientific infighting. Today, most scientists concur that some tektite strewn fields are definitely associated with specific, although distant, meteor craters on the earth's surface. Unfortunately, the large separations of craters and strewn fields add a circumstantial flavor to the evidence. However, some tektite-like objects are to be found in the immediate vicinities of terrestrial craters, but not in far-flung strewn fields; viz., the Aouelloul Crater in Mauritania, and the Zhamashin Crater in the USSR. Another example has now come to light: the Lonar Lake Crater, a 50,000-year-old impact crater, in the Deccan flood basalts in India. From the paper's abstract: "Homogenous, dense glass bodies (both irregular and splash form) with high silica contents ( 67% SiO2) occur in the vicinity of Lonar Crater, India. Their lack of microlites and mineral remnants and their uniform chemical composition virtually preclude a volcanic origin. They are similar to tektites reported in the literature....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." ( ...
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... All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Collision/eruption/extinction/ magnetic reversal An increasingly popular scenario is: (1 ) Every 34 million years the solar system bobs up and down through the thickly populated disk of our galaxy; (2 ) The resulting encounters lead to showers of comets and/or asteroids on earth; (3 ) The mechanic trauma leads to basalt flooding; (4 ) Great biological extinctions occur in consequence; and (5 ) The terrestrial magnetic field reverses in step. Now, if scientists could show that all of these phenomena occur at the same frequency and are roughly in phase, it would constitute one of science's most important syntheses. The stratigraphic record and the estimated ages of meteor craters certainly hint at such synchrony. Recently, two more papers have appeared which support the above scenario. First, M.R . Rampino and R.B . Stothers show that during the past 250 million years, eleven episodes of basalt flooding have occurred with an average cycle time of 32 million years. Second, J. Negi maintains that the earth's magnetic record boasts a similar string of disturbances, with an average period of 33 million years. (Anonymous; "Regular Reversals in Earth's Magnetic Field A Fluke?" New Scientist, p. 32, August 25, 1988.) From Science Frontiers #60, NOV-DEC 1988 . 1988-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... was translucent, and the rapidly changing colours showed spots of light green, crimson, light blue and pale yellow. It was bright enough to be clearly visible in daylight, and it was uniformly bright over its entire surface. It had protrusions 'like the Andromeda nebula.' "When it came near the table, where my uncle and I were sitting, I tried to get up to have a closer look. My uncle (fortunately) held me back. It then rolled towards the tiled stove on the right side of the room, crept up the iron parts of the stove leaving (in its path) a deep groove about the width and depth of a thumb, then it exploded in the (airvent) higher up, the sound was like that of a blown up paper bag when (burst) leaving a smell of ozone. The path of the ball was about 5-6 m in length, and it left no marks on the wooden floor." (Stenhoff, Mark; "Torro Ball Lightning Division Report: April 1987," Journal of Meteorology, U.K ., 12:200, 1987.) From Science Frontiers #54, NOV-DEC 1987 . 1987-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... 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 from R. E. Morlan's paper in Early Man in America, A. L. Bryan, ed., p. 81). From Science Frontiers #51, MAY-JUN 1987 . 1987-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... . It should not surprise the readers of Science Frontiers that this very same article is a goldmine of biological anomalies, that is, data that seem to challenge ruling paradigms. (Barrett, Spencer C.H .; "Mimicry in Plants," Scientific American, 257:76, September 1987.) Comment. Evolution, like beauty, must be in the eye of the beholder! At this point, we could easily launch into a lengthy harangue about why it seems highly improbable that a plant, through chance mutations, could hit upon just the right combination of form, color, odor, and flowering time to dupe an insect pollinator -- even with the aid of natural selection and a billion years. The point we wish to stress here is that the author of this paper sees the same facts and comes to diametrically opposite conclusions! Reference. Our handbook Incredible Life devotes and entire chapter to the anomalies of the plant kingdom. For further information, visit: here . This Orchid flower mimicks a female bee, thus encouraging pollination by male bees. From Science Frontiers #54, NOV-DEC 1987 . 1987-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... 12 female volunteers were evaluated for their suggestibility before and after an approximately 15-min. exposure to either sham, 1-Hz or 4-Hz magnetic fields that were applied across their mid-superior temporal lobes. During the field application, subjects were instructed to view a green light that was pulsating at the same frequency as the field and to imagine encountering an alien situation. Results were commensurate with the hypothesis that weak brain-frequency fields may influence certain aspects of imaginings and alter suggestibility." (De Sano, Christine F., and Persinger, M.A .; "Geophysical Variables and Behavior: XXXIX. Alterations in Imaginings and Suggestibility during Brief Magnetic Field Exposures," Perceptual and Motor Skills , 64:968, 1987.) Comment. The import of this paper is written between the lines of the Summary . One of the authors (M .A .P .) has long been investigating the possibility that UFOs, earthquake lights, and nocturnal lights are basically hallucinatory and are stimulated by natural variations in the magnetic field. From Science Frontiers #53, SEP-OCT 1987 . 1987-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 64: Jul-Aug 1989 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Zeitoun Apparitions The luminous phenomena observed at Zeitoun, Egypt, have attracted the attentions of a wide spectrum of believers and nonbelievers. Each group seems to interpret the phenomena according to its own particular mind-set! To set the stage for the study reviewed here, we quote first the two lead paragraphs of the paper. "Between April 1968 and May 1971 hundreds of thousands of people reported seeing apparitions of the Virgin Mary over a Coptic Orthodox Church in Zeitoun, near Cairo, Egypt. When photographed, these phenomena appeared as irregular blobs of light. Primarily there were two types of events: small shortlived, highly kinetic lights (' doves') and more persistent coronal type displays that were situated primarily over the apical structures of the church. More detailed descriptions of the phenomena, such as visions often occurred as 'flashes'; their details usually reflected the religious background of the experient. "The characteristics of these luminous phenomena strongly suggested the existence of tectonic strain within the area. According to the hypothesis of tectonic strain, anomalous luminous phenomena are generated by brief, local changes in strain that precede earthquakes within the region. Psychological factors determine more elaborate details of the experiences because there are both direct stimulations of the observer's brain as well as indirect contributions from reinforcement history." The authors of the study at hand, J.S . Derr and M.A . Persinger, are well known for ...
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... America, the Parana Plateau of South America, and the Tungusska Basin of Siberia. All consist mostly of basalt lava flows; those on continents include minor quantities of rhyolite, and variable amounts of sediment. All seem to have appeared suddenly, within plates. No consistent context of plate interactions explains them. We suggest that large lava plateaus are indeed terrestrial maria." Alt et al go on to show that these lava plateaus seem to have initiated continental rifts and hotspot tracks where none existed before. A reasonable inference is that these plateaus are the consequence of the impacts of large meteorites. This is particularly the case with the Deccan Plateau, which is agedated as synchronous with the Cretaceous-Tertiary Boundary event, with its legacy of worldwide iridium deposits and the wholesale extinction of life. The paper concludes with: "It therefore appears that random encounters with vagrant asteroidal objects play an important role in setting the course of plate tectonic events. The earth does not control its own agenda." (Alt, D., et al; "Terrestrial Maria: The Origins of Large Basalt Plateaus, Hotspot Tracks and Spreading Ridges," Journal of Geology, 96:647, 1988.) From Science Frontiers #61, JAN-FEB 1989 . 1989-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... 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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... , with its islands of mental ability in a sea of mental handicap and disability. "Through the past century, since Down's description of this disorder, the several hundred idiot savants reported in the world literature have shown remarkable similarities within an exceedingly narrow range of abilities, given the many possible skills in the human repertoire. Why do so many idiot savants have the obscure skill of calendar calculating? Why does the triad of retardation, blindness, and musical genius appear with such regularity among them? Why is there a 6:1 male-to-female ratio in this disorder? What accounts for the more common occurrence of the idiot savant among patients with infantile autism than among those with other developmental disabilities?" Other questions that can be framed based on the rest of the paper are: How do some talents arise from injuries? Why do some talents disappear when other, different, skills are learned? Treffert admits to science's complete bafflement over this phenomenon. No wonder, for how can we, in our present state of knowledge, account of these two cases: Twin savants who can instantly name the day of the week over a span of 8000 years, and who may have an unlimited digital span; i.e ., an unlimited memory for numbers. Blind Tom, possessing a very lim ited IQ, who played Mozart on the piano at 4, and who could play back flawlessly any piece of music, re gardless of complexity. He could also repeat a discourse of any length in any language without the loss of a syllable. ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 52: Jul-Aug 1987 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Do dreams reflect a biological state?Scientists have never been able to agree on the meaning of dreams or even if there is one. Mostly dreams were thought to have psychological import, as in the work of Freud and his followers. But there has also been another group of researchers who have considered dreams to be a consequence of one's biological state; that is, one's physical health. The present paper supports this latter belief. Some 214 patients were heart problems participated in this study. "The patients' dreams were evaluated for the predicted correlations of the number of dream references to death (men) and separation (women) with different levels of severity of heart disease. The severity of heart disease was evaluated with anatomical (coronary angiography) and physiological (ejection fraction) measures obtained at cardiac catheterization, each represented by a 6-point scale of increasing severity. There was no correlation of the number of dream references with the severity of abnormalities on coronary angiography. However, the number of dream references to death and separation correlated with the severity of cardiac dysfunction, as measured by the ejection fraction, which is a more sensitive parameter of disease severity." (Smith, Robert C.; "Do Dreams Reflect a Biological State?" Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 175:201, 1987.) Comment. One would suppose that the minds (and dreams) of people who ...
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... 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 theorize, and that's ...
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... 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 Monte Verde, Chile. Human artifacts have been found in the 34,000 BP layer. From Science Frontiers #57, MAY-JUN 1988 . 1988-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... effort to catalog anomalies, it is possible that cold fusion may be occurring deep in the earth giving rise not only to heat but the upwelling flux of helium-3 , now called "primordial" perhaps in error. The icy planets Jupiter and Saturn generate heat, too, and may also be cold fusion reactors! Even the sun, which is undeniably hot (at least on the surface!), may be fusing light elements in ways we have yet to grasp in our stellar models. After all, no one has yet explained that deficit in solar neutrinos! There will be egg on a lot of faces if our notions of stellar energy generation are widly in error. We may be overreacting here; but we predict with confidence that the future will bring a good many scientific papers that begin with those all-toofamiliar words, "We now know that..." If physicists must now develop a new appreciation of electrochemistry, should not the biologists, too? At the risk of going too far, we recall that L.C . Kervran talks at length about his findings that the human body converts one element into another. See his book Biological Transmutations . Could he possibly have something? The scientific world utterly rejects Kervran - with some justification. This is being written in mid-April (1989). By the time it is received, the situation may be radically changed. In any event, it is good to see important work accomplished without huge machines, billions in Federal funds, and a phalanx of white-coated technicians. From Science ...
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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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... terrestrial and satellite-borne instruments, they have detected gamma-ray, X-ray, and infrared bursters. The visible portion of the spectrum has been neglected because of the slow development of sensitive, high-time-resolution detectors capable of monitoring large areas of the sky. Of course, the human eye is an excellent instrument for searching for optical bursters, but professional naked-eye astronomers are few and far between nowadays. It has fallen to amateur astronomers to pioneer this field, as first mentioned in SF#39, where we introduced those optical flashes seen in Perseus. At last, the professional astronomers are taking more interest in this class of bright, unexplained flashes in the night sky. Those amateur astronomers, with their "primitive" instrumentation, have actually had a paper published in the highly technical Astrophysical Journal. Their abstract follows: "Between 1984 July and 1985 July, 24 bright flashes were detected visually near the Aries-Perseus border by eight different observers at a total of 12 sites across Canada. One flash was photographed, and another was seen by two observers at different locations. Their duration was usually less than 1 s. The estimated positions of 20 of the events and another seen in 1983 were close enough in the sky to suggest a common celestial origin." The brightest of the flashes was of magnitude -1 and lasted about 0.25 second. (Katz, Bill, et al; "Optical Flashes in Perseus," Astrophysical Journal, 307: L33, 1986.) Comment. Hurray for Katz and the cooperating amateurs ...
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... and Newland Formations, Rove Formation, and Gunflint Iron-Formation. Similar rock types of Archaean age, ranging from 2.68 to 3.8 Gyr, were barren of pellets. If the Proterozoic microfossils are fossilized fecal pellets, they provide evidence of metazoan life and a complex food chain at 1.9 Gyr ago. This occurrence predates macroscopic metazoan body fossils in the Ediacaran System at 0.67 Gyr, animal trace fossils from 0.9 to 1.3 Gyr, and fossils of unicellular eukaryotic plankton at 1.4 Gyr." (Robbins, Eleanora Iberall, et al; "Pellet Microfossils, Possible Evidence for Metazoan Life in Early Proterozoic Time," National Academy of Sciences, Proceedings, 82:5809, 1985.) The senior author of the above paper also submitted a unique interpretation of the data by J.C . Stager. Stager begins by noting that the paper of Robbins et al has been criticized because the earliest known fossils of metazoans date back to only about 1 Gyr and, therefore, the supposed pellets were obviously something else. Sager next makes a giant conceptual leap: Quite clearly the data prove that feces evolved before animals did!! He goes on: "In standard systematic reasoning, one assumes that the most widespread characteristic represents the primitive state. The fact that feces look so much the same from individual to individual strongly suggests that feces are the primitive condition. The variety of animal bodies, on the other hand, implies that bodies are secondary or derived features of the organisms. The expansion of genetic research in ...
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... than 250 km away. The strongest correlation occurred between UFO reports and nearby seismic activity within the same month but not for previous or consequent months. Close scrutiny of daily shifts of epicenters and reports of UFOs indicated that they occurred when the locus of successive epicenters shifted across the area. These analyses were interpreted as support for the existence of strain fields whose movements generate natural phenomena that are reported as UFOs." (Persinger, M.S ., and Derr, J.S .; "Geophysical Variables and Behavior: XXIII. Relations between UFO Reports within the Uinta Basin and Local Seismicity," Perceptual and Motor Skills, 60:143, 1985.) Comment. The "natural phenomena" mentioned above are probably close kin or identical to earthquake lights. An earli-er paper by Persinger alone in the same journal (60:59, 1985) links transient and very localized geophysical forces to such psychic phenomena as haunts and poltergeist activity. These two papers are the latest in a long series, mostly authored by Persinger, in this psychological journal. Calculated correlations between seismic activity and UFO observations in the Uinta Basin. From Science Frontiers #40, JUL-AUG 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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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 Mnemonism not so easy!" This paper reports a systematic study of a man (T .E .) with astonishing mnemonic skills. After a brief description of his most favoured mnemonic technique, the 'figure alphabet,' his performance and the mnemonic techniques used on five classical memory tasks are described. These are: one task involving both short- and long-term memory (the Atkinson-Shiffrin 'keeping track' task), two tasks involving just longterm memory (recall of number matrices and the effects of imagery and deep structure complexity upon recall), and two tasks involving just short-term retention of individual verbal items and digit span. Whenever possible, T.E .' s performance was compared with that of normal subjects, and also with other mnemonists who have been studied in the past. There was no evidence to suggest that T.E . has any unusual basic memory abilities; rather he employs mnemonic techniques to aid memory, and the evidence suggests that previous mnemonists who have been studied by psychologists have used very similar techniques." The "figure alphabet" employed by T.E . was used in Europe as early as the mid-1700s. The Hindus had a Sanskrit version even earlier. Basically, each digit is represented by a consonant sound or sounds: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 T N M R L J K F P Z D Ng G ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 49: Jan-Feb 1987 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Prebiological chemistry in titan's atmosphere From the abstract of the referenced paper: "An organic heteropolymer (Titan tholin) was produced by continuous dc discharge through a 0.9 N2 / 0.1 CH4 gas mixture at 0.2 mbar pressure, roughly simulating the cloudtop atmosphere of Titan [one of Saturn's moons]. Treatment of this tholin with 6N HCl yielded 16 amino acids by gas chromatography after derivatization to N-trifluroacetyl isopropyl esters on two different capillary columns...The presence of 'nonbiological' amino acids, the absence of serine, and the fact that the amino acids are racemic within experimental error together indicate that these molecules are not due to microbiol or other contamination, but are derived from the tholin...These results suggest that episodes of liquid water in the past or future of Titan might lead to major further steps in the probiological organic chemistry on that body." (Khare, Bishun N., et al; "Amino Acids Derived from Titan Tholins," Icarus, 68:176, 1986.) From Science Frontiers #49, JAN-FEB 1987 . 1987-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 48: Nov-Dec 1986 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Rhythms in 5,927,978 french births The following is an English summary of a paper that appeared in a French scientific journal. "Is there any relationship between the times when babies are born and the synodic lunar cycle? There are published works that show that there is such a relationship. We have looked at 5,927,978 French births occurring between the months of January 1968 and the 31st December 1974. Using Fourier's spectral analysis we have been able to show that there are two different rhythms in birth frequencies: (1 ) A weekly rhythm characterized by the lowest number of births on a Sunday and the largest number on a Tuesday; (2 ) An annual rhythm with the maximum number of births in May and the minimum in September-October. "A statistical analysis of the distribution of births in the lunar month shows that more are born between the last quarter and the new moon, and fewer are born in the first quarter of the moon. The differences between the distribution observed during the lunar month and the theoretical distribution are statistically significant." (Guillion, P., et al; "Naissances, Fertilite, Rythmes et Cycle Lunaire," Journal de Gynecologie, Obstetrique et Biologic de la Reproduction, 15:265, 1986.) From Science Frontiers #48, NOV-DEC 1986 . 1986-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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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 Lunar Magnetic Mollusc From the abstract of a paper in Science: "Behavioral experiments indicated that the marine opisthobranch mollusk Tritonia diomedea can derive directional cues from the magnetic field of the earth. The magnetic direction toward which nudibrachs spontaneously oriented in the geomagnetic field showed recurring patterns of variation correlated with lunar phase, suggesting that the behavioral response to magnetism is modulated by circa-lunar rhythm." The magnetic and lunar-phase detectors of this mollusc are not known. In fact, the authors remark in their introductory paragraph that, even in organisms possessing ferromagnetic materials in their systems, there exists no "direct neurophysiological evidence implicating ferromagntic particles in the the detection of magnetic fields." (Lohmann, Kenneth J., and Willows, A.O . Dennis; "LunarModulated Geomagnetic Orientation by a Marine Mollusk," Science, 235:331, 1987.) From Science Frontiers #50, MAR-APR 1987 . 1987-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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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 Quantized Galaxy Redshifts "The history of science relates many examples where the conventional view ultimately was proved wrong." Tifft and Cocke begin their article with this sentence. Wisely, they followed with the tale of how vehemently the quantization of the atom was resisted earlier in this century. They were wise because without such a reminder to be open-minded, many astronomers would automatically toss their article in the wastebasket! In fact, when Tifft's first paper on redshift quantization appeared in the Astrophysical Journal, the Editor felt constrained to add a note to the effect that the referees: "Neither could find obvious errors with the analysis nor felt that they could enthusiastically endorse publication." Even today, after much more evidence for redshift quantization has accumulated, scientific resistance to the idea is extreme. We shall now see what all this fuss is about. Tifft first became suspicious that the redshifts of galaxies might be quantized; that is, take on discrete values; when he found that galaxies in the same clusters possessed redshifts that were related to the shapes of the galaxies. The obvious inference was that the redshifts were at least partly dependent upon the galaxy itself rather than entirely upon the galaxy's speed of recession (or distance) from the earth. Then, he found more suggestions of quantization. The redshifts of pairs of galaxies differed by quantized amounts (see figure). More evidence exists for galactic quantization, but ...
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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 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.) ...
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... feet in diameter, comprised of tumuli material held together by a calcareous cement or mortar. Some who have investigated these mounds believe that the presence of cement, presumably man-made, is proof-positive that the tumuli are the product of human activity. Other archeologists doubt this because the early settlers of New Caledonia did not use cement. Besides, there seem to be no other signs of human involvement. This has led to the hypothesis that the mounds were built by huge, now-extinct, flightless birds for the purpose of incubating their eggs. Some birds do indeed incubate their eggs in mounds today; and some 5,000 years ago New Caledonia did boast a giant bird (Sylviornia neocale doniae), which was 5-6 feet tall. The authors of the present paper feel that the giant bird hypothesis is just as reasonable as the theory that these mounds were built by ancient humans who knew how to make cement. (Mourer-Chauvire, Cecile, and Poplin, Francois; "Le Mystere des Tumulus de Nouvelle-Caledonie," La Recherche, 16: 76, September 1985. Cr. C. Mauge.) Comment. We find in our Handbook Ancient Man an article by A. Rothovius entitled: "The Mysterious Cement Cylinders of New Caledonia." The 1967 article covers much the same ground as that in La Recherche, but sans the giant bird theory. Rothovius states that the cylinders inside the tumuli: ". .. are of a very hard, homogeneous lime-mortar, containing bits of shells which yield radiocarbon dates between ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 14 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf043/sf043p01.htm
... of truth: part ii This item was discovered by accident among the paid ads in Nature -- a place we do not routinely examine for scientific anomalies. Stefan Marinov or some-one acting for him evidently inserted the ad. We have met Marinov before on SF#41, where the Editor of Nature admitted that some of Marinov's ideas might have some scientific support. We missed Part I of the Marinov advertising campaign, in which he presented his fight with the scientific establishment to restore absolute space-time concepts. In other works, Marinov wants to dump Relativity, and believes he has experimentally disproved it. Part II, the present ad, is entitled "The Perpetuum Mobile Is Discovered." It is replete with equations, diagrams, and reference, like a scientific paper, but still a paid ad! Apparently, no scientific or engineering journal will publish Marinov's work. (Marinov, Stefan; "The Thorny Way of Truth: Part II," Nature, 317:unpaged, September 26, 1985.) Marinov's perpetuum mobile. From Science Frontiers #43, JAN-FEB 1986 . 1986-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 14 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf043/sf043p20.htm
... aid of ribozymes and without proteins, the chance of creating life becomes not impossible but merely wildly unlikely." The article concludes with a statement that self-replicating molecules synthesized in hydrothermal systems would be pre-adapted to "life" in the open ocean if they "learned" to surround themselves with bags of lipids. (Bag of lipids = a membrane.) (Nisbet, E.G .; "RNA and Hot-Water Springs," Nature, 322:206, 1986.) It just so happens that D.W . Deamer, University of California, Davis, has now found that the 4.5 -billion-year-old Murchison meteorite from Australia contains lipid-like organic chemicals that can self-assemble into membrane-like films. His paper was presented before the International Society for the Study of Origins of Life. (Raloff, J.; "Clues to Life's Cellular Origins," Science News, 130:71, 1986.) Comment. Strange that the earth should be "tailor-made" for biochemical operations and that outer space teems with meteorites transporting other ingredients of life-synthesis. That the earth's crust and deep soil are conducive to life is apparent in recent work done sponsored by DuPont and the Department of Energy. This effort has found that life is abundant at least 850 feet below the surface -- a realm hardly suspected to harbor life. "' There is life down there, and it is very diverse,' says Carl Fliermans of Dupont's Savannah River Laboratory ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 14 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf047/sf047p11.htm
... of the Epigraphic Society's Occasional Publications (one of two volumes for 1985) contains several articles of great interest to anomalists with an archeological bent. We have space for only two in this issue of SF. In the first of these, Barry Fell deals with the criticism that the now-famous Los Lunas (New Mexico) inscription cannot be the work of ancient Hebrew-writing visitors to the New World because it employs modern punctuation marks. Fell counters this by reproducing several ancient texts that use similar punctuation conventions, thus blunting this attack on the antiquity of the Los Lunas inscription. For readers unacquainted with the Los Lunas inscription, it consists of the Decalogue (the Ten Commandments) engraved in ancient Hebrew on a large basalt rock near Los Lunas, NM. In the second paper, geologist G.E . Morehouse comes to grip with a second criticism leveled at the inscription; namely, that the engraving looks fresh and lacks the patination characteristic of great age. Morehouse concludes that the freshness actually derives from the frequent, recent scrubbing of the inscription (with wire brushes on some occasions) to improve its visibility. Taking this into account, Morehouse estimates the age of the Los Lunas inscription by comparing its weathering with a nearby 1930 inscription. Conclusion: the Los Lunas inscription is much older than 1930. Any length of time from 500-2000 years or more older would be "quite reasonable." We are, therefore, still left with the possibility that Old World travelers with a knowledge of ancient Hebrew visited what is now New Mexico perhaps as early as ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 14 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf043/sf043p02.htm
