212 results found.
... seem to be related to no known languages. But there are affinities with Nile Valley languages. In fact, the similarities involve just those words one would associate with Egyptian trading communities of 2,000 years ago. As would be expected, most archeologists will have none of this. "Where are the coins, the buildings, the piers?" they ask. Countering such criticism, W. Rudersdorf notes that no artifacts have ever been found from Coronado's expedition, only 450 years ago, when thousands of Spanish soldiers marched across the South. (Anonymous; "Professor Believes Egyptians Sailed Mississippi, Left Culture," Northwest Florida Daily News, December 27, 1991. Cr. R. Reid via L. Farish. Also see: Fell, Barry; Epigraphic Society Occasional Papers , 19:35, 1990.) From Science Frontiers #82, JUL-AUG 1992 . 1992-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 59: Sep-Oct 1988 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects OBSERVATIONS OF LUMINOUS PHENOMENA AROUND THE HUMAN BODY In front of us is a 13-page paper dealing at length with phenomena normally considered impossible. The paper's abstract is not as informative as the introductory paragraph, which we now quote: "Mysterious and unexplained luminous phenomena have fascinated humankind since ancient times. The psychical research literature offers a variety of unexplained luminous phenomena such as reports of glows seen around mag-nets, crystals and minerals, lights reportedly seen with mediums, and luminous apparitions, among others." The paper then goes directly into a review of specific observations. We shall have to be satisfied here with just one of the many examples: "D .D . Home was reported to produce many striking luminous phenomena. In one seance Dunraven observed that one of Home's hands 'became quite luminous,' and that two persons 'saw tongues or jets of flame proceeding from Home's head.' On another occasion: 'He was elongated slightly.. and raised in the air, his head became quite luminous at the top, giving the appearance of having a halo round it. When he was raised in the air, he waved his arms about, and in each hand there came a little globe of fire (to my eyes blue)...' (Alvarado, Carlos S.; "Observations of Luminous Phenomena around the Human Body: A Review," Society ...
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... the skin of females. They then insert spermatophores with their penises. In the giant squid, however, the male's penis is formidable, muscular, and almost a meter long. It is powerful enough to insert spermatophores directly under the skin of the females. The males are not always accurate, for males themselves are sometimes impregnated in this manner during the squids' deep-sea orgies. (Norman, Mark D., and Lu, C.C .; "Sex in Giant Squid," Nature, 389:683, 1997.) The free-style penis. In the octopus and many cephalopods, the males have a special tentacle with which they insert their spermatophores under the mantle of the female. The tentacle is then retracted for future use. The male paper nautilus is more profligate with its tentacles. The paper nautilus is cephalopod which, like its cousin, the chambered nautilus, "sails the unshadowed main."* When the male detects a receptive female, he avoids intimacy. It's sex at a distance. His spermatophore-bearing tentacle detaches itself from the body and swims -- under its own power -- to the female, being in effect a swimming penis. Just how this peculiar arrangement evolved is anyone's guess. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that the female paper nautilus still retains a molluscan shell, while the male has lost this armor and looks more like an aspiring octopus. Without a shelly defense, the male may not want to get too close to the female! (Anonymous ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 118: Jul-Aug 1998 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Broadside Against Small Icy Comets In a late-1997 issue, Geophysical Research Letters published a group of five papers that detailed five different lines of evidence that are inconsistent with the claim by L.A . Frank and J.B . Sigwarth that the earth is bombarded daily by 30,000 house-size icy comets. If such bombardment has really been occurring, scientists would have to rethink the origins of the earth's oceans, terrestrial life, and the formation of the solar system. No wonder the icy-comet hypothesis is strongly challenged! Three of the more interesting points made by this group of papers are as follows: Our moon could not escape the icy-comet bombardment. Roughly 1,000 craters 50 meters in diameter and splashes of debris 150 meters in diameter must occur each. There is no evidence that the moon is thus afflicted. Comets also carry the noble gases argon, krypton, and xenon. These gases should accumulate in the atmosphere as the comets disintegrate. The amounts of these gases actually measured are 10,000 times less than those the postulated bombardment would produce. The icy comets should break up near the earth and produce clouds of ice crystals. Sunlight reflected from such 30-ton clouds would be brighter than Venus and easily visible before they disperse. Such objects are rarely seen, implying that small icy comets do not exist in the numbers claimed. Preceding this series of five ...
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... perhaps a wee earlier. The Pedra Furada site has been dated at 50,000 BP by N. Guidon and her team of archeologists. This challenge to the dominant paradigm is powerful and unambiguous. Picking up the gauntlet, several more-conservative archeologists visited the Brazilian site and penned a blistering critique in Antiquity. (Ref. 1) Their major contention was that the 500+ supposedly human-made stone "artifacts" collected by Guidon's team are actually "geofacts"; that is, they were chipped and flaked naturally as rocks fell one upon the other from nearby cliffs. We discussed this problem in some detail in SF#105. Several other reservations about the Pedra Furada work are also offered in Ref. 1. The reaction of Guidon et al to the Antiquity paper was thunderous to say the least. It revealed the depth of the chasm separating archeologists on the date of human occupation of the New World as well as internecine politics in archeology. (Ref. 2) Guidon et al flung two serious charges at the authors of the first Antiquity paper: (1 ) They had their facts all wrong; and (2 ) Their objectivity was distorted by their loyalty to the aforestated paradigm. Not withholding any punches, N. Guidon and A.-M . Pessis entitled their opening broadside: "Falsehood or Untruth"! They wrote: "The article by Meltzer et al (1994) is based on partial data and false information (highlighted below). Its battery of questions takes us by surprise; none of the three colleagues came up ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 112: Jul-Aug 1997 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects A TWISTED COSMOS?An astronomer really risks his or her reputation if he or she suggests that the universe has a preferred direction. A core belief in cosmology maintains that no point or direction in the cosmos is in any way "special." So, B. Nodland and J.P . Ralston stirred up a hornets' nest this past spring when they published a paper that began with this paragraph: "Polarized electromagnetic radiation propagating across the Universe has its plane of polarization rotated by the Faraday effect. We report findings of an additional rotation, remaining after Faraday rotation is extracted, which may represent evidence for cosmological anisotropy on a vast scale." (Ref. 1) Most inflammatory was their claim that the plane of polarization of the radio waves rotated more along a particular direction [axis?]; specifically, along a line connecting the constellations Aquila and Sextans. (Ref. 2) Only a few days after the NodlandRalston paper was published, it was blasted in Science. The major complaint was that their data were old and incomplete, since they derived mainly from observations made prior to 1980. (Ref. 3) Indeed, a similar study using more recent measurements but fewer radiation sources seems to refute the NodlandRalston claim of a preferred direction in the cosmos. (Ref. 4) Nodland and Ralston disagree with the charges and the implications of the other study. It will be a while before this ...
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... No. 114: Nov-Dec 1997 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Gene Wars In past issues, we have mentioned: Sperm wars. Where an animal's sperm are polymorphic; some of which attack alien sperm, some dash directly to the eggs, etc. (SF#78) Selfish DNA. Where animals are merely mechanisms by which DNA perpetuates itself and expands its domain. In other words, DNA calls the shots -- not us! (SF#11) Now we learn about "gene wars." As is well known, genes are thought to control much of what goes on in a living organism. But are they only carriers of hereditary information? Not according to a long, very technical paper by L.D . Hurst et al. It seems that, like selfish DNA, genes have their own agendas. The insidiousness of this is seen in the first sentence of the paper's abstract: "Self-promoting elements (also called ultraselfish genes, selfish genes, or selfish genetic elements) are vertically transmitted genetic entities that manipulate their "host" [as in "us'] so as to promote their own spread, usually at a cost to other genes within the genome." You may not sense it, but your genes are struggling with each other, and you and/or your progeny will carry out the dictates of the victors of the "gene wars." (Hurst, Laurence D., et al; "Genetic Conflicts," ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 107: Sep-Oct 1996 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Ten Myths Of Science We have at hand a lengthy paper bearing the above title. It is copyrighted with ominous warnings about quotations. So, we will paraphrase a lot. The significance of the article is so great that we dare to quote the first sentence: "This article addresses and attempts to refute several of the most widespread and enduring misconceptions held by students regarding the enterprise of science." We now paraphrase the ten myths of science, as recognized by W. McComas of the School of Education, University of Southern California. McComas analyzes each "myth" in depth, explaining why it is not a "truth." Myth 1. Hypotheses turn into theories which eventually become enshrined as laws. Myth 2. Hypotheses are really only educated guesses. Myth 3. There exists a scientific method that is general and universal. Myth 4. Certainty results when facts are accumulated and analyzed. Myth 5. The scientific method leads to absolute truth. Myth 6. Science is less creative than it is procedural. Myth 7. All questions posed by the universe can be answered via the scientific method. Myth 8. High objectivity is the hallmark of science. Myth 9. Scientific knowledge is based mainly on experiment. Myth 10. Scientists always review and check the work of their colleagues. (McComas, William; "Ten Myths of Science: Reexamining What We Think We Know...," School Science ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 118: Jul-Aug 1998 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Monogrammic Determinism About 2 years ago (SF#108), we succumbed to the lure of "nominative determinism." The Feedback page of the New Scientist had been printing case after amusing case in which a person's occupation was described or suggested by his or her surname. A classic example is seen in a paper on incontinence published in the British Journal of Urology by J.W . Splatt and D. Weedon! Does a person's name exert a psychological force of the choice of a career? We have seen no formal studies of nominative determinism, but we have just discovered a closely allied phenomenon that has been scientifically investigated. We call it "monogrammic determinism.' An individual's monogram does not seem to be associated with his or her occupation but rather with longevity. People with monograms such as ACE, WOW, or GOD tend to live longer than those with monograms like PIG, RAT, DUD, or ILL. The study was conducted at the University of San Diego, where 27 years of California death certificates were examined. Only men were chosen because their initials did not change with marriage. They were divided into three groups: (1 ) those with "good" monograms; (2 ) those with "bad" monograms; and (3 ) a control group with "neutral" monograms. Those men bearing "good" monograms lived 4.48 years longer than those ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 114: Nov-Dec 1997 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The bermuda triangle is still spooky The London Times is a very reputable paper, so we must assume the following story is accurate. It may have a sensible explanation, but it is generic Bermuda Triangle material. "A Royal Navy frigate found a yacht abandoned and adrift in the Bermuda Triangle. Crew from the HMS London , who boarded the 50ft German ketch Ruth in the mid-Atlantic last week were baffled to find clothes and personal belongings lying around, and even an open book on a bunk." The HMS London crew cleaned up the vessel and made minor repairs, but it was otherwise shipshape. They learned that the boat belonged to a German couple hoping to sail around the world. Evidence indicated that the yacht had been adrift for all of 10 months. Repairs made, the Royal Navy crew headed for Puerto Rico, but the Bermuda Triangle did not release its grip. The new crew encountered huge storms, their navigation equipment failed, as did the engine. Using sails, the crew persevered. Now the final twist of the tale. "Once out of the Bermuda Triangle, the equipment started working again, and the crew arrived safely in Puerto Rico to rejoin HMS London on July 12." (Foreign staff; "Abandoned Yacht Found Adrift in Bermuda Triangle," London Times, July 16, 1997. Cr. A.C .A . Silk.) Comment. Could the missing German ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 108: Nov-Dec 1996 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Hairy Rarity Ordinarily, we avoid two-headed snakes, six-legged calves, and the like. Sometimes biological machinery sputters a bit and freaks (terata) result, just as Detroit assembly lines turn out lemons once in a while. Occasionally, though, we come across a defect so rare and curious that we must pass it along. So, here is the Summary of a serious scientific paper, along with a sketch, that satisfies our Fortean urge. "A Burmese family with congenital hypertrichosis lanuginosa [excessive hairiness] had an eventful history in the nineteenth century. The earlier members of this family were employed at the court of Ava, but the later ones spent their lives in show business, being widely exhibited for money in the 1800s. Their extraordinary hairiness attracted much curiosity, and they were photographed several times. The hairy Burmese are the only example of a fourgeneration pedigree of congenital hypertrichosis lanuginosa, which is consistent with an autosomal dominant mode of inheritance. There is good evidence that, when members of this family were hairy, their dentition was also deficient." (Bondeson, J., and Miles, A.E .W .; "The Hairy Family of Burma: A Four Generation Pedigree of Congenital Hypertrichosis Lanuginosa," Royal Society of Medicine, Journal, 89:403, 1996. Cr. A.C .A . Silk) Reference. Excessively hairy people are cataloged at BHA26 ...
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... are nothing to them. The megaparsec (3 ,528,000 light years) is but a hop, skip, and jump. A pressing question for these cosmologists searching for the really big picture is whether there is any order in the distribution of galaxies, galactic clusters, and superclusters. The scale of organization of the universe is of critical importance because it is a measure of state of the cosmos when hydrogen atoms first condensed from the seething sea of ions following the Big Bang. The prevailing expectation has been that galactic clusters and superclusters should be distributed at random; that is, no order prevails at that scale. Recent redshift measurements, however, hint more and more forcefully that the huge superclusters of galaxies are almost as neatly arranged as the atoms in a crystal. A recent paper in Nature by J. Einasto et al puts a number on the spacing of the superclusters: "Here, using a new compilation of available data on galaxy clusters, we present evidence for a quasi-regular three-dimensional network of rich superclusters and voids, with the regions of high density separated by "120 Mpc [megaparsecs]. If this reflects the distribution of all matter (luminous and dark), then there must exist some hitherto unknown process that produces regular structure on large scales." (Einasto, J., et al; "A 120-Mpc Periodicity in the Three-Dimensional Distribution of Galaxy Superclusters," Nature, 385:139, 1997.) Comment. Hmmm! A "hitherto unknown process." It appears that our science is still ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 108: Nov-Dec 1996 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Earthquakes And Mima Mounds In a recent paper in Nature, P.B . Umbanhower et al described how they created regular geometric patterns in a layer of fine particles (only 0.15 mm in diameter) spread on a vibrating surface. At various forcing frequencies, they saw the layer of tiny brass spheres heap up into hexagonal honeycombs, circular piles, and even stranger shapes. (Umbanhower, Paul B., et al; "Localized Excitations in a Vertically Vibrated Granular Layer," Nature, 382: 793, 1996) Comment. Nothing anomalous here, you say? Quite right, but perhaps there is in this experiment an explanation of a long-recognized geological anomaly: The origin of the famed Mima Mounds found scattered by the thousands in various regions of the planet, such as Mima Prairie near Puget Sound, in Washington State. Actually, the demonstration of Umbanhower et al was preceded by a similar experiment back in 1990. In that year, A.W . Berg reported in Geology how he had covered a piece of plywood with a thin layer of fine sand (loess) and subjected the plywood sheet to impacts simulating earthquakes. Lo and behold, the sand rose up in an array of Mima Mound-like heaps. (See: SF#69 and p. 201 in the book Science Frontiers. This book is described here . Umbanhower, a physicist, probably doesn't read Geology ...
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... Newcomb had noticed that books of logarithms in the libraries were always much dirtier at the beginning. Hmmm! Were his fellow scientists looking up the logarithms of numbers beginning with 1 more frequently than 2, 3, etc.? It certainly seemed like it. He formalized his suspicions in a conjecture: p = log10 (1+ 1/d ) Where p = the probability that the first significant digit is d. This (unproven) equation states that about 30% of the numbers in a table or group will begin with 1. Only about 4.6 % will begin with 9. This result certainly clashes with our expectation that the nine digits should occur with equal probability. Fifty-seven years later, F. Benford, a GE physicist, unaware of Newcomb's paper, observed the same dirty early pages in the logarithm tables. He came up with exactly the same conjecture. Benford didn't stop there. He spent several years collecting diverse data sets -- 20,229 sets, to be exact. He included baseball statistics, atomic weights, river areas, the numbers appearing in Reader's Digest articles, etc. He concluded that his (and Newcomb's ) conjecture fit his data very well. There were notable exceptions, though. Telephone directories and square-root tables didn't support the conjecture. Interestingly, the second digits in numbers are more equitably distributed; the third, even more so. Mathematicians have never been able to prove the Newcomb-Benford conjecture. How could they if it doesn't apply ...
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... was observed." (Docobo, J.A ., et al; "Investigation of a Bright Flying Object over Northwest Spain, 1994 January 18," Meteoritics and Planetary Science , 33:57, 1998.) Comments. We cannot resist associating these strange "craters" with the even stranger "cookie-cutter" holes or shallow "craters" reported in SF#37 and in more detail in ETB7 in our catalog Carolina Bays, Mima Mounds, etc. In a bizarre coincidence, the fireball item of SF#110 is immediately preceded by a suggestion by R. Spaulding that TWA800 was downed by a methane eruption from the sea which ignited, thereby leading to the several observations of streaks of light prior to that disaster. And who is the secondlisted author of the paper abstracted above? None other than R. Spaulding!! (A ) The shallow Spanish "crater" (D ) "crater" lip (E ) walkway (F ) trees plastered with soil (G ) soild thrown from "crater" (H ) trees 0.6 -meter (2 -feet) in diameter thrown down the slope. From Science Frontiers #120, NOV-DEC 1998 . 1998-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... year faster than the mantle and crust. The inner core interacts with the geomagnetic field and is, in effect, like the rotor of a slow, ponderous induction motor. Expanding upon this vision of the earth as a colossal electrical machine, E. Stokstad writes: "Electric currents of about a billion amps flow across the boundary between the solid inner core and the fluid outer core that lies around it. In the presence of the Earth's magnetic field, these currents generate massive forces that tug on the inner core. And because the outer core has a relatively low viscosity, the inner core can spin freely." (Stokstad, Erik; "Earth's Heart Is in a Spin," New Scientist, p. 18, July 20, 1996. The basic paper is: Song, Xiadong, and Richards, Paul G.; "Seismological Evidence for Differential Rotation of the Earth"s Inner Core," Nature, 382:221, 1996) Comments. Awesome as this gigantic natural electric motor may be, it doesn't challenge any paradigms; in fact, it reinforces current notions concerning the origin of the geomagnetic field. The anomalist, however, inevitably asks questions and makes iconoclastic connections. Why couldn't this planet-size piece of rotating machinery actually be a generator rather than a motor? The kinetic energy of the faster-spinning inner core might actually create the geomagnetic field. What happens when the geomagnetic field reverses, as it has often done according to the magnetostratigraphic record? Does the earth's motor go into ...
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... itself was the fact that Big Blue sometimes made different moves when confronted with identical chessboards! With these denials of cyberdeterminism in mind, consider the following anecdote. About 40 years ago, D. Herschbach witnessed the first test of an early chess-playing program written by the renowned S. Ulam for the MANIAC I computer. "In this test, the MANIAC I computer played both sides of the board. After a rather bizarre game, Black made a move that checkmated White. Only then did Ulam realize that the program did not say what to do when mated; it just required that a move be made to escape check. While Ulam and his colleagues debated what might happen, the computer whirred on for about ten minutes. Finally it punched out White's move (on paper tape, then the mode). The uncanny solution: a spurious pawn appeared and began to march down the board to become a new queen." (Herschbach, Dudley; "Computer Milestones," Discover, 17:12, October 1996) Comment. If vacuum-tube-equipped MANIAC I was so resourceful and innovative, what might a modern supercomputer "think" up? Remember HAL of 2001: A Space Odyssey and treat your own computer with respect! From Science Frontiers #108, NOV-DEC 1996 . 1996-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... important anomaly, which in essence is the human compulsion to take up a profession described by his or her surname. No less an authority than C. Jung wondered about this common phenomenon in his classic Synchronicity; An Acausal Connecting Principle . He noted, for example, that Herr Feist (Mr. Stout) was the food minister and Herr Rosstauscher (Mr. Horsetrader) was a lawyer. He mused: "Are these whimsicalities of chance, or the suggestive effects of the name, as Stekel seems to suggest, or are they 'meaningful coincidences'?" Jung never answered his own question. The British New Scientist, in its "Feedback" column, has since tackled this enigmatic phenomenon many times. Nominative determinism was introduced first in 1994, when it was remarked that a paper on incontinence in the British Journal of Urology was authored by J.W . Splatt and D. Weedon! New Scientist readers added many more examples, proving just how powerful this psychological force really is. "The head of planning for British Airways is Rod Muddle...Frances Crook is the director of the Howard League for Penal Reform...S .M . Breedlove writes on sexual dimorphism for the Journal of Neuroscience...The US Heritage Foundation's senior researcher on children in foster care is Patrick Fagan...etc. ad infinitum." (From New Scientist "Feedback" columns of April 20 and June 22, 1996) Tik-tok, was the most famous thinking machine in the Land of Oz. But is Tik-tok the ...
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... boulders as large as 320 kg [700 pounds] sit on the Racetrack Playa, Death Valley, California; trails leading to them indicate that the rocks have moved large distances. The process has never been witnessed. Although high winds and a wetted surface seem necessary, controversy persists about the need for other conditions, especially ice sheets. On the basis of experiments with a wetted Racetrack surface (soft mud about 3 cm deep), we find the effective coefficient of friction to be surprisingly high, about 0.8 . Movement by wind alone of moderate-sized (20 kg) rocks with cubic shape requires sustained winds close to the ground of about 80 m/s (about 180 mph). Larger flat-lying rocks require much higher winds." The authors of this paper, J.B . Reid, Jr., et al, precisely mapped a large number of the enigmatic tracks. Their maps revealed many "mated pairs" of rocks, whose curving tracks matched near their origins to within a few centimeters, even though the tracks were separated by up to 830 meters (over 0.5 mile!). Apparently these mated rocks were locked into a huge ice sheet resting -- almost floating -- on slippery mud. Sustained winds blowing over the large areas of ice generated enough horizontal force to propel the ice sheets with their cargos of rocks. Measurements showed that some of these ice sheets had to be at least 850 x 500 m (about 100 acres!) in extent. That's big, to be sure, but ...
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... the machine's components. For example, the CDC 3600, on which I learned to program in 1975, had an accessible microsecond clock, and my program to calculate the first five perfect numbers* required about 15 minutes of run time; the last few digits of the exact number of microseconds required to run this program each time varied quite unpredictably. In other words, it was a random number, except perhaps from the standpoint of philosophical determinism, which claims that every event in the entire universe has been determined from the beginning." (Everit, Richard G.; personal communication, November 2, 1996) *A perfect number is equal to the sum of its divisors. The first two are 6 and 28; the others being difficult to find with just pencil and paper! Comment. Computer unpredictability? There's something human in those chips! Of course, K. Capek knew this would be the case with any complex machine, as he predicted in his 1921 drama R.U .R . (Rossum's Universal Robots). From Science Frontiers #109, JAN-FEB 1997 . 1997-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... inevitable educational cleansing of the earth... "At the end of this general period of transition, mankind was to be "born anew" with a new sense of his [or her] place in the universe." Surveying his collection of like testimony, Ring generalized: "Surprising commonalities in these visions predicted a rising tide of natural, economic, and political crises culminating around 1988. Unless human beings turned toward God, took better care of the planet and each other, an apocalyptic cleansing would occur, possibly including a nuclear war, followed by the long promised New Age." 1988 has passed and we are still here. Is there objective evidence that humans mended their ways and averted the promised "cleansing? A.S . Alschuler, the author of this provocative paper thinks so, and he produces four graphs to prove his point. Each addresses a concern transmitted via people who experienced NDEs: (1 ) production of chlorofluorocarbons; (2 ) nuclear arsenal levels; (3 ) weapons exports; and (4 ) the number of peacekeeping missions. (We reproduce only two of Alschuler's graphs.) All four graphs show global "sea changes" commencing about 1988! In other words, collective humanity did reform enough to avert disaster! But how were these atypical human actions initiated and organized? Alschuler suggests "collective psychokinesis." (Alschuler, Alfred S.; "When Prophecy Succeeds: Planetary Visions Near Death and Collective Psychokinesis," American Society for Psychical Research, Journal, 90:292, 1996.) Comment. Alschuler ...
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... would be 2.4 meters (about 8 feet) higher. Many existing coastal structures will be smashed to bits. All this is over and above any effects from rising sea levels. The records from the Seven Stone Light Vessel are corroborated by an analysis of more then 20,000 wave charts of the North Atlantic drawn between 1960 and 1988. It therefore seems clear that something unusual is going on in the North Atlantic. One would suspect increased winds, but velocities measured at Seven Stone have remained constant while wave heights rose. It is concluded that the bigger waves are not generated by local winds; rather, they are swells that have been created thousands of miles away. The cause of these larger swells now affecting the entire North Atlantic is not known. The authors of this paper are forced to conclude with: "It should be noted that so far it has not been possible to attribute the observed change to either an anthropogenic cause or to natural climate variability on decadal time scales." (Bouws, E., et al; "The Increasing Wave Height in the North Atlantic Ocean," American Meteorological Society, Bulletin, 77:2275, 1996.) Reference. Other unusual wave phenomena are cataloged in Chapter GHW in our Earthquakes, Tides. For information on this volume, go here . Atlantic wave heights, 1960-1988. 1, 10, 50 percentiles. From Science Frontiers #113, SEP-OCT 1997 . 1997-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Waterfall Phenomena Waterfalls are more than just cascades of disorganized water molecules. There must be some structure and regularities in these streams of crashing fluid because waterfalls generate remarkable acoustical and luminous phenomena. First, we recall those curious pure acoustical tones that have recently been detected by seismic recorders in the ocean near French Polynesia. (SF#115) Geologist W.A . Charlie has associated these tones in the ocean with the strange but well-verified pure tones heard emanating from some waterfalls. Charlie recalls that the famous European geologist A. Heim observed that 15 Alpine waterfalls all produced two nonharmonizing groups of pure acoustical notes. These, a Zurich musician likened to the major-C triad and F. (Heim published his observations in a paper entitled: "Tone der Wasserfalle." Verhandlung der Schweizeren Naturforschung Gesellschaft, 8:209, 1874) In his letter to the magazine Earth (now defunct), Charlie wondered if the same resonant tonegenerating mechanism (rising clouds of bubbles) operated in both the oceans and waterfalls. (Charlie, Wayne A.; "Musical Monotones," Earth , 7:7 , June 1998.) Comments. In our catalog Earthquakes, Tides (GQV2), we recorded how waterfalls produce low-frequency terrestrial vibrations with one frequency predominating. This characteristic frequency is inversely proportional to the height of the waterfall. Just as fascinating are the remarkable flashes of light that emanate (rarely) from the bases of waterfalls. These may be due to sonoluminescence. (GLD14 in Lightning, Auroras ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 120: Nov-Dec 1998 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Are ufo abductions akin to ndes?Hard-core UFO researchers will probably reject S.W . Twemlow's associating UFO abductions with NDEs (Near-Death Experiences). Here is an abstract of his 1994 paper published in the Journal of Near-Death Studies. "This article proposes an integrated psychodynamic perspective to account in part for a variety of similarities between near-death experiences and UFO abductions. The psychodynamic psychology of these experiences implies that their "realness" is mainly a function of that psychology, rather than primarily of an objectifiable external reality. Clinical and research examples highlight the theoretical and practical usefulness of this model." (Twemlow, Stuart W.; "Misidentified Flying Objects? An Integrated Psychodynamic Perspective on Near-Death Experiences and UFO Abductions," Journal of Near-Death Studies, 12:205, 1994. As abstracted in: Exceptional Human Experience , 14:261, 1996. Address of the latter: 414 Rockledge Road, New Bern, NC 28562.) Comments. If one prunes away the psychological verbiage, Twemlow seems to be saying that in the minds of the percipients, NDEs and UFO abduction experiences are pretty much the same; that is, both phenomena are mental and not physical. However, in the same issue of the Journal of Near-Death Studies, K. Basterfield asserts that physical evidence exists for UFO abductions but that there is none for NDEs! Apparently ...
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... of the natural uranium and surrounding materials at that time had been just right to sustain fission. In fact, the analysis of the nuclear waste in the burned rocks demonstrated that plutonium had also been created. This implies that natural breeder reactors are also possible, raising the possibility of hitherto unappreciated, long-lived heat sources deep in the earth, in the other planets, and inside some of the stars. Don't worry that the Oklo phenomenon might occur today on the earth's surface. The concentration of fissionable U-235 has fallen considerably in the last 2 billion years due to its radioactive decay. But, deep inside the earth and other astronomical bodies, nuclear criticality might still be possible due to different pressures, densities, etc. In a stimulating and generally overlooked paper in Eos, J.M . Herndon proffers four important natural phenomena that may involve natural fission reactors. Geomagnetic reversals . In the deep earth, where pressures and densities are high, natural nuclear reactors may generate intermittent bursts of heat -- just as they did at Oklo -- and thereby cause the earth's dynamo to falter and reverse. Planetary heating . Jupiter, Saturn, and Neptune emit much more energy than they receive from the sun. Natural nuclear reactors could be the reason. Stellar thermonuclear ignition . Astronomers assume that the high temperatures required to ignite the thermonuclear reactions powering stars come from gravitational collapse, but this source does not seem adequate to some scientists. Nuclear fission reactors could ignite stars just as they do H-bombs. Missing matter . Natural nuclear reactors ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 110: Mar-Apr 1997 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects A NAZCA ZODIAC?Although the famous Nazca lines and figures etched into Peru's Atacama Desert are assuredly not part of an extraterrestrial landing field, they still may have a stellar connection of sorts. P.B . Pitluga, of Chicago's Adler Planetarium, proposes that some of the figures may be part of a Zodiac; that is, a terrestrial representation of the constellations. Here follows an abstract of her paper presented before a meeting of the Society for Scientific Exploration . "New field measurements and computer analysis link the gigantic ground drawings to the Andean tradition of dividing up space and time by cycles of the Milky Way. By including ethnoastronomy in the analysis, these conclusions differ from [those of] previous researchers. The first hypothesis tested was that the figures could be considered like labels to the lines. Of the twenty-seven figures, ten are birds, three are whales, and two are seaweed plants. Theodolite measurements revealed a non-random distribution of the directions of lines attached to look-alike figures. The second test showed a physical relationship of present-day Andean plant and animal figures imagined as silhouettes in dark spots along the Milky Way to figure-lines pointing to the rising and/or setting of the same Andean figure 2000 years ago. In the third test, all other lines extending to the desert horizon from a figure center keyed into dark spots and bright stars along the Milky ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 98: Mar-Apr 1995 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Crop-circle litmus test?Crop-circle articles that appear in scientific journals, when they appear at all, are usually of the debunking variety. But here follows the abstract from a recent paper printed in a European journal. It presents data that could lead to a technique for separating "real" crop circles from hoaxes! "Crop formations consist of geometrically organized regions ranging from 2 to 80 m diameter, in which the plants (primarily grain crops) are flattened in a horizontal position. Plants from crop formations display anatomical alterations which cannot be accounted for by assuming the formations are hoaxes. Near the soil surface the curved stems often form complex swirls with 'vortex' type patterns. In the present paper, evidence is presented which indicates that structural and cellular alterations take place in plants exposed within the confines of the 'circle' type formations, differences which were determined to be statistically significant when compared with control plants taken outside the formation. These transformations were manifested at the macroscopic level as abnormal nodal swelling, gross malformations during embryogenesis, and charred epidermal tissue. Significant changes in seed germination and development were found, and at the microscopic level differences were observed in cell wall pit structures. Affected plants also have characteristics suggesting the involvement of transient high temperatures." (Levengood, W.C .; "Anatomical Anomalies in Crop Formation Plants," Physiologia Plantarum, 92:356, 1994. Cr. N ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 96: Nov-Dec 1994 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Psi Phenomena And Geomagnetism The item on solar wind and hallucinations in SF#95 brought varied responses. It seems that several psi phenomena have been correlated with geomagnetic activity or the lack of it. For example, A. Gauld sent a copy of a long paper that he and H.P . Wilkinson wrote entitled: "Geomagnetism and Anomalous Experiences." We have room for only a short section of their abstract: " .. .in the end we were left with a residuum of positive findings: (a ) There is a weak but persistent statistical relationship between lowish absolute levels of geomagnetic activity and the occurrence of spontaneous cases of apparent telepathy/clairvoyance. (b ) There is a small tendency for the days on onset of cases of poltergeists and hauntings to be days of higher-than-usual geomagnetic activity. What underlies these observed relationships remains to be determined." Gauld noted in his letter of transmittal that the conclusions of Wilkinson and himself were at variance with the item in SF#95. (Wilkinson, H.P ., and Gauld, Alan; "Geomagnetism and Anomalous Experiences, 1868-1980," Society for Psychical Research, Proceedings, 57:275, 1993.) Another pertinent paper was presented at the 1994 meeting of the Society for Scientific Exploration in Austin. Employing data collected at the Maimonides Dream Laboratory from a subject with apparently telepathic dreams, S. Krippner and M ...
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... -Aug 1995 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The watchmaker is not blind after all!Neo-Darwinists are chained to the premise that evolution proceeds "blindly"; that is, mutations are random and unrelated to the biological needs for survival. This assumption is enshrined in R. Dawkins' book The Blind Watchmaker . Catchy though this title is, it looks more and more like the Watchmaker sees something. For over a decade, experiments have hinted that those mutations that are helpful to an organism's survival occur more often than those that are not "adaptively useful." This controversial phenomenon is termed "adaptive mutation." (SF#64 and SF#96*) A recent issue of Science presents two more papers that seem to confer the gift of sight on the old Watchmaker. Biochemist J.A . Shapiro, in a commentary accompanying the two Science papers, highlights a significant feature of adaptive mutation in bacteria: The genetic changes involved are multicellular. In other words, DNA rearrangements in one cell are actually transferred to other cells. But most profound of all for the whole science of biology is his sentence: "The discovery that cells use biochemical systems to change their DNA in response to physiological inputs moves mutation beyond the realm of 'blind' stochastic events and provides a mechanistic basis for understanding how biological requirements can feed back onto genome structure." (Shapiro, James A.; "Adaptive Mutation: Who's Really in the Garden?" Science, 268:373, ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 95: Sep-Oct 1994 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects It's according to hoyle and wickramasinghe The June 17, 1994 issue of Science did not ignore it. In fact, this conservative journal devoted almost an entire page to a paper presented by Yi-Jehng Kuan and Yanti Miao at the recent Minneapolis meeting of the American Astronomical Society. Students of L. Snyder, at the University of Illinois, Kuan and Miao reported that the amino acid glycine had been detected in a molecular cloud named Sagittarius B2. Glycine has only ten atoms and is the smallest of the 20 amino acids vital to life-as-we-know-it. The Science article supposed that this discovery of extraterrestrial glycine might reignite speculation that earth life might not be unique after all. (Travis, John; "Hints of First Amino Acid outside Solar System," Science, 264:1669, 1994.) Structure of the amino acid glycine What Science did not mention but New Scientist did is that F. Hoyle and C. Wickramasinghe have long predicted that the molecules of life, as well as life itself, would be found in outer space. Now, after much ridicule, they are being vindicated. "It's been a long hard struggle," said Hoyle. Wickramasinghe remarked that the discovery was "no surprise at all." "He believes it is only a matter of time before other amino acids, together with nucleotide bases, the components of nucleic acids that ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 96: Nov-Dec 1994 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Remarkable Straw Fall Summer of 1994, Bucks., England "Engineer Ken Davey thought he had stepped into a scene from the Bible when he saw tons of straw falling from the sky. "The 42-year-old, of Holtspur Avenue, Wooburn Green, was leaving work at Glory Mill Papers, Glory Mill Lane, on Thursday when he noticed the whole building was covered in straw. "He suddenly realised everyone was staring upwards at objects descending from the sky. "He said: "I looked up and these massive lumps -- some as big as bales -- were gracefully floating down. It was beautiful. .. .. . "Mr. Davey estimated as much as ten tons of straw had fallen. The whole of the surrounding area was covered in it." (Anonymous; "Glory! Glory! Haylelujah ," Midweek, Bucks Free Press, July 19, 1994. Cr. A.C .A . Silk) Comment. Rarely during haying season, we have seen whirlwinds drape trees and utility wires with wisps of hay -- but 10 tons of straw? Never even close! However, equally prodigious falls of hay and leaves were occasionaly remarked upon in the scientific journals of the last century. See GWF6 in Tornados, Dark Days, etc. Ordering information here . From Science Frontiers #96, NOV-DEC 1994 . 1994-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... research of M.A . Persinger, at the Laurentian University, inquiring into the claimed effects of minute electromagnetic signals, such as those observed in the geomagnetic field, upon human consciousness and perception. On the other hand, we have R.G . Jahn's work in the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research (PEAR) program, which looks into the anomalous information transfer between humans and the environment, as claimed to be seen in psychokinesis and remote viewing experiments. The research goals and methodologies differ, and the resulting reports couched in different terminologies, but the similarities are what is really important. Both scientists are exploring unconventional information pathways connecting the human brain (consciousness) and the environment. The pathways are open in both directions. First, we quote the summary from a recent Persinger paper. The jargon may be technical, but one can readily visualize the human brain immersed in a sea of signals -- nominally electromagnetic but possibly of other sorts. "Contemporary neuroscience suggests the existence of fundamental algorithms by which all sensory transduction is translated into an intrinsic, brain-specific code. Direct stimulation of these codes within the human temporal or limbic cortices by applied electromagnetic patterns may require energy levels which are within the range of both geomagnetic activity and contemporary communication networks. A process which is coupled to the narrow band of brain temperature could allow all normal human brains to be affected by a subharmonic whose frequency range at about 10 Hz would only vary by 0.1 Hz." (Ref. 1) Second, Jahn sees a remarkably similar information channel, but of a ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 97: Jan-Feb 1995 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects A Major Study Of Dowsing Most evidence for the efficacy of dow-sing is anecdotal. Most evidence for the inefficacy of dowsing comes from carefully controlled field experiments, including such props as buried pipes with and without running water and other juicy targets for the dowser's wand. It is, therefore, somewhat surprising to find that a large study by physicists at the University of Munich supports the reality of dowsing. Here follows part of the abstract from a paper on this work: "We report on the first major scientific program to tackle this intricate problem aiming for, at least, solid proof for either existence or non-existence of the debated phenomenon. Within a period of two years some 100 dowsers have been tested by means of sophisticated experiments, designed and supervised by a very large team of scientists. A statistical analysis of the results revealed a very high level of significance for the existence of a real dowsing phenomenon. "Further geological experiments have been conducted, and are still going on, which aim at the location of underground drinking water. The results turn out to be extremely positive. This leaves hardly any doubt that certain persons are capable of locating position-dependent anomalies by utilizing a new, still unknown mechanism. Various attempts will be described which explain how the reproducible phenomena could be dealt with. In particular, arguments will be discussed which speak in favor of the dominance of a cause-reaction model ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 99: May-Jun 1995 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Untapped Human Mind In 1994, J. Wilding and E. Valentine, both at the University of London, provided the British Journal of Psychology with two studies of people claiming to have exceptional memories. In their second paper (Ref. 2), they detailed the mental workings of TM, a 25-year-old male, and an accomplished user of mnemonics. TM astounds audiences with his seemingly impossible memory feats. These feats, however, are no mystery to TM, and he has carefully explained how it is all mnemonics and nothing paranormal. But there remains the clear implication is that the normal human mind is underestimated and underused. TM's "performances" involve six demonstrations, two of which we now elaborate upon. Demonstration 2. TM asks audiences for birthdates and very quickly gives the day of birth. He has explained this "gift" thusly: "The day of birth calculations were originally carried out through use of a system of numerical codes for years and months which were combined and subjected to certain calculations. However, with practice many shortcuts and mnemonics have been developed and now TM often knows instantly that certain dates imply certain days, like learning the multiplication table. Every year and month has a code from 0 to 6 and TM has learned the codes (by the method explained below) for all years from 1900 to 2000. For any given date the method is to add the ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 94: Jul-Aug 1994 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects First you don't see it; then you don't don't see it Astronomers are always claiming that they have observational proof that other stars have planets circling them and that black holes truly exist. These claims always fade away or are refuted. Recently, the papers were full of still another claim that a black hole had been found. This time there was no doubt; this was it; a bona fide, undeniable black hole. The search was finally over! Later, though, this claim was muted to: "the best evidence yet for a black hole." [Remember that no light escapes a black hole; you cannot see it directly. It is detected only through its effects on nearby observable matter.] Despite what the theorists fervently believe, black holes may not be lurking out there in space, unseen, but still able to gobble up matter and unwary alien spacecraft. For example, consider the following iconoclastic tidbit: "A gigantic, exceptionally bright star that scientists thought could become a black hole is actually shedding mass at such an astonishing rate that it eventually will disappear, a discovery that casts doubt on theories of stellar evolution, a researcher reports. "' If such massive stars are losing mass at such a prodigious rate, they will not form black holes but will peel off to virtually nothing,' Sally Heap, a NASA astronomer, said yesterday at a national ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 98: Mar-Apr 1995 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Six Immense Armadas Of Icebergs Invaded The North Atlantic "Observations of large and abrupt climate changes recorded in Greenland ice cores have spurred a search for clues to their cause. The search has revealed that at six times during the last glaciation, huge armadas of icebergs launched from Canada spread across the northern Atlantic Ocean, each triggering a climate response of global extent." The foregoing abstract does not mention the interesting Heinrich layers that fostered the above scenario. In 1988, H. Heinrich published a paper describing a curious set of sedimentary layers found in cores drilled in the tops of the Dreizack seamounts in the eastern North Atlantic. Heinrich concluded that each of the six layers he found represented the melting of "six great armadas of icebergs." These icebergs carried debris picked up in Canada and, as they melted, deposited it on the seamounts and ocean floor. Each layer could be correlated with the major climate boundaries revealed by the Greenland ice cores. Very fittingly, these iceberg incursions are now termed "Heinrich Events." (Broecker, Wallace S.; "Massive Iceberg Discharges as Triggers for Global Climate Changes," Nature, 372:421, 1994.) From Science Frontiers #98, MAR-APR 1995 . 1995-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 94: Jul-Aug 1994 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Our genes aren't us!Almost without exception, biology textbooks, scientific papers, popular articles, and TV documentaries convey the impression that an organism's genes completely specify the living animal or plant. In most people's minds, the strands of DNA are analogous to computer codes that control the manufacture and disposition of proteins. Perhaps our current fascination with computers has fostered this narrow view of heredity. Do our genes really contain all the information necessary for constructing human bodies? In the April 1994 issue of Discover, J. Cohen and I. Stewart endeavor to set us straight. The arguments against the "genes-are-everything" paradigm are long and complex, but Cohen and Stewart also provide some simple, possibly simplistic observations supporting a much broader view of genetics. Mammalian DNA contains fewer bases than amphibian DNA, even though mammals are considered more complex and "advanced." The implication is that "DNA-as-a -message" must be a flawed metaphor. Wings have been invented at least four times by divergent classes (pterosaurs, insects, birds, bats); and it is very unlikely that there is a common DNA sequence that specifies how to manufacture a wing. The connections between the nerve cells comprising the human brain represent much more information than can possibly be encoded in human DNA. A caterpillar has the same DNA as the butterfly it eventually becomes. Ergo, something ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 99: May-Jun 1995 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Where have all the black holes gone?Like the Big Bang, black holes are an astronomical staple. Most scientists and laymen assume that black holes are proven, well-observed denizens of the cosmos. Certainly the media entertains no doubts! Let us take a skeptical look. Does theory require black holes? In 1939, R. Oppenheimer and H. Snyder showed on paper that a massive star could collapse and create a black hole, assuming the correctness of stellar theories and General Relativity. Initially, scientists were skeptical about black holes because of their bizarre properties: They emit no light and inhale unwary starships. Black holes are also singularities, and singularities make scientists nervous. In the black-hole singularity, thousands of stars are swallowed and compressed into an infinitesimally small volume. (Ref. 1) This grates against common sense. The philosophical uneasiness about black holes is worsened by the discovery that they: ". .. threaten the universe with an irreversible loss of information, which seems to contradict other laws of physics." (Ref. 2) Adding to these problems are nagging doubts about General Relativity, which underpins black-hole theory. Recently, some theorists have shown that General Relativity requires that two bodies of approximately equal size not attract one another! (Ref. 2) Despite all these qualms, black holes have become a fixture of astronomy because they promise to explain the incredibly powerful energy sources ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 103: Jan-Feb 1996 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects "BLUE JETS" EMITTED UPWARD FROM TOPS OF THUNDERCLOUDS Geophysicists have recently recognized that something very strange transpires above thunderclouds. First, there is the phenomenon we have called "rocket lightning" in our books and newsletters. Scientists now call these upwardly directed discharges "sprites." (SF#84) The sprites are short-duration red flashes in the ionosphere, sometimes with bluish tendrils extending down into the thunderclouds. Second, there are the newly recognized "blue jets," a new class of upward discharges. This phenomenon is detailed in a paper by E.M . Wescott et al. Here is their abstract: "Initial observations of as newly documented type of optical emission above thunderstorms are reported. "Blue jets," or narrowly collimated beams of blue light that appear to propagate upwards from the tops of thunderstorms, were recorded on B/W and color video cameras for the first time during the Sprites94 aircraft campaign, June-July 1994. The jets appear to propagate upward at speeds of about 100 km/s and reach terminal altitudes of 40-50 km. Fifty-six examples were recorded during a 22-minute interval during a storm over Arkansas. We examine some possible mechanisms. but have no satisfactory theory of this phenomenon." (Wescott, E.M ., et al; "Preliminary Results from the Sprites94 Aircraft Campaign: 2. Blue Jets," Geophysical Research Letters, ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 101: Sep-Oct 1995 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects "ALMOST INCONCEIVABLE" CHANGES IN THE GEOMAGNETIC FIELD A decade ago, a trio of geophysicists published a group of papers based on their measurements of the remnant magnetism of the 16-million-year-old layered lava flows at Steens Mountain, Oregon. (SF#45) At that time, they claimed that these finely bedded lava flows testified that, during a field reversal, the earth's field swung around at the astonishing rate of 3 per day! This rate is about one thousand times the current rate of polar drift. Mainstream geophysicists could not believe the 3 /day figure because it implied incredibly rapid changes in the flow of those molten materials within the earth that supposedly generate the geomagnetic field. The Steens Mountain data were "tabled"; that is, dismissed. The three researchers, though, continued their labors at Steens Mountain and have now offered additional, even more impressive data. They now find that the geomagnetic field probably shifted as much as 6 in a single day. Their work has been carried forward so professionally and meticulously that other scientists are finding their conclusions harder and harder to dismiss. Instead, the search is on for explanations of the rapid field changes. Three possibilities have been advanced -- all of them unpalatable to geophysicists: The Steens Mountain rocks are not faithful recorders of the main geomagnetic field. Should this be actually so, the whole field of paleomagnetism, including plate tectonics ...
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... Sourcebook Subjects Giant sea-bed pockmarks [The following long, initially dull (? ) discussion leads unerringly to the Bermuda Triangle via a Fortean phenomenon!] Unrecognized until just a few years ago (SF#100*), sea-bed pockmarks are remarkable geological features. They occur worldwide on the floors of all of the oceans and even some lakes. They are found in shallow waters and at depths of thousands of meters. In diameter, these roughly conical depressions may span 350 meters or more and be up to 35 meters deep. No trivial phenomenon, some pockmark fields exceed 1,000 km2. Like the curious abyssal ridges (SF#97), sea-bed pockmarks are rarely discussed despite their great geological and economic importance. Recent issues of Geology contain three fascinating papers relating to giant sea-bed pockmarks. In Ref. 1, J.T . Kelley et al describe a pockmark field in Belfast Bay, Maine. Here, the density of the pockmarks reaches 160 per km2, and they are apparently the largest pockmarks yet discovered. The Belfast Bay field is "fresh" and "active" in the sense that the pockmarks are sharply defined and methane bubbles still stream up from buried organic matter. Natural-gas plume rising from the sea-floor off the Carolina coast. Another pockmark field is the subject of P.R . Vogt et al (Ref. 2). It occupies a strip about 1.3 km wide and 50 km long between Greenland and Spitzbergen. This strip of pockmarks seems to be underlain by a deposit ...
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... direct" their own mutations so that they could cope more speedily with sudden environmental trauma. (SF#64) In Cairns' experiments, bacteria unable to digest lactose were presented with an all-lactose diet. They quickly acquired the mutations needed to digest the only food available. They did not have to wait for random mutations to accidentally hit upon the correct genome changes. A firestorm spread across the scientific community, even though other researchers saw similar effects. It was traumatic! One of science's foundation stones was at risk. The current theory of biological evolution insists that all mutations are random. Cairns believed he had shown that his bacteria experienced only useful mutations. This claim was too awful to accept. In the July 21, 1994, issue of Science, two new papers appeared that, while not proving that only useful mutations occur in Cairns-type experiments, do indicate that something unusual is indeed happening. Basically, when bacteria are under stress (say, starving), a "distinctive" type of mutation occurs! Is "distinctive" a code word for "non-random"? The title of the commentary accompanying the two articles says it all. (Culotta, Elizabeth; "A Boost for 'Adaptive' Mutation," Science, 265:318, 1994.) From Science Frontiers #96, NOV-DEC 1994 . 1994-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... of galaxy light in the 1920s, which seemed to imply an expanding universe. However, our ability to test cosmological theories has vastly improved with modern telescopes covering all wavelengths, some of them in orbit. Despite widespread acceptance of the big bang theory as a working model for interpreting new findings, not a single important prediction of the theory has yet been confirmed, and substantial evidence has accumulated against it. Here, we examine the evidence for the most fundamental postulate of the big bang, the expansion of the universe. We conclude that the evidence does not support the theory, and that it is time to stop patching up the theory to keep it viable, and to consider fundamentally new working models for the origin and nature of the universe in better agreement with the observations." This paper's author, T. Van Flandern, dismisses quickly two pillars of the Big Bang; i.e ., its supposed predictions of the cosmic microwave background and the abundances of light elements in the universe: "The big bang made no quantitative prediction that the "background" radiation would have a temperature of 3 degrees Kelvin (in fact its initial prediction was 30 degrees Kelvin); whereas Eddington in 1926 had already calculated that the "temperature of space" produced by the radiation of starlight would be found to be 3 degrees Kelvin. And no element abundance prediction of the big bang was successful without some ad hoc parameterization to "adjust" predictions that otherwise would have been judged as failures." (Van Flandern, Tom; "Did the Universe Have a Beginning? ...
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... predicts that once a chemical compound is synthesized it will be easier to synthesize it again in the future because the compound's "morphogenetic field" will "guide" the chemical processes along paths already established. Can you wonder why mainstream science advised that Sheldrake's book, A New Science of Life , be BURNT! Well, there was a lot of smoke but the theory survives. Nature, in fact, is full of observations, such as parallel evolution, that support the idea of morphic resonance. And in the laboratory, a few brave souls are conducting experiments that seem to confirm the theory more directly. "Using a novel laboratory approach, researchers at Yale University have been able to create a morphogenetic effect after stimulating only 100 subjects. They employed a series of trivial paper-and-pencil tasks (such as "Put an X in any one of the four boxes shown below"). Experimenters tallied how an initial group of 100 students responded to these tasks. Then they forced a second group of 100 students to respond to the tasks in a set manner (" Put an X in the third box below"). Finally, they presented the same tasks to a third group of 100 students, allowing them to complete them, as with the first group, however they wished." Results showed that in one task the third group had been unknowingly influenced by what the second group had been forced to do! This was interpreted as evidence of morphic resonance. (Anonymous; "New Evidence for Morphogenetic Field," Venture Inward , p ...
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... .S . Navy began operating a 90-kilometer-long radio antenna stretching pole-to-pole through a Michigan forest. Broadcasting at only 76 hertz, this long antenna can communicate effectively with submerged submarines. Although the antenna produces electromagnetic fields about the same as those from a large household appliance, some of the trees adjacent to the antenna have enjoyed an unexpected spurt in growth, according to D. Reed and G. Mroz of the Michigan Technological University. "The researchers have been gathering data on the growth of trees since 1985, making measurements at two sites, one near the antenna and the other 50 kilometers away. The results seem to suggest that the electromagnetic field has a subtle influence on the forest. They found that two species of trees, northern red oak and paper birch, do not seem to be influenced by the antenna at all. But red pines near the antenna grew taller than red pines at the distant site, while aspen and red maple grew thicker than their counterparts further off." (Kiernan, Vincent; "Forest Grows Tall on Radio Waves," New Scientist, p. 5, January 14, 1995) Trees are not the only plants affected. Algae in the upper Ford River, where the field is only 10% as strong as that near the antenna, increased chlorophyll production sharply after the antenna started operation. The cause of the growth spurts in trees and algae is still a mystery. (Holden, Constance; "EMF Good for Trees?" Science, 267:451, 1995.) From Science Frontiers ...
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... to those found on Roman bricks in the Old World. Conclusion: "The illustrated bricks of Comalcalco are pieces to a grand puzzle, whose completed, final image may reveal a Roman Christian presence in the Americas a thousand years before the arrival of Columbus." (Ref. 1) Some typical mason's signs found on Roman bricks (left) and Comalcalco bricks (right). Many additional similarities are found between mason's signs from Comalcalco and those from Roman, Minoan, and ancient Greek sites. See Ref. 2. References 1. Steede. Neil; "The Bricks of Comalcalco," Ancient American, 1:8 , September/October 1994. 2. Fell, Barry; "The Comalcalco Bricks: Part 1, the Roman Phase," Occasional Papers, Epigraphic Society , 19:299, 1990. From Science Frontiers #99, MAY-JUN 1995 . 1995-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 99: May-Jun 1995 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Ltps And Ets Looking through our telescope for lighter fare, we discover a recent issue of Selenology . In it, A.V . Arkhipov, a member of the Research Institute on Anomalous Phenomena, based in Ukraine, presents a paper headed by the following abstract: "The "invasions" of Earth's vehicles in certain lunar regions stimulate a statistically significant, real, temporary increase in the probability of lunar transient phenomena there. It could be used as an indicator of a hidden alien presence on the moon also." A transient, reddish glow (shaded area) seen in the crater Gassendi on April 30 - May 1, 1966. Alien activity? To illustrate, says Arkhipov, the impact of Luna 2 and its rocket stage on the moon on September 13, 1959, was accompanied by light flashes and cloudlike phenomena at at least four spots on the moon. Such LTPs (Lunar Transient Phenomena) seem also to be associated with the arrival of other terrestrial spacecraft in a few select regions of the moon, such as Mare Tranquilitatis and Gassendi. What generates these LTPs, and why only in certain areas of the lunar surface? Arkhipov's answer is in his above-quoted abstract. (Arkhipov, Alexey V.; "' Invasion Effect' on the Moon," Selenology , 13:9 , no. 1, 1994) We have never examined this journal. Comment. Reigning paradigms ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 91: Jan-Feb 1994 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Did captive christians and moslems build this mayan pyramid?The cover of the 1993 volume of Epigraphic Society Occasional Papers presents a color photograph of a Mayan stepped pyramid at Comalcalco, Tobasco, Mexico. This pyramid, which is also known as Temple 1, is constructed of fired bricks. The pyramid and bricks are not anomalous, but the graffiti inscribed on thousands of the bricks is, for it is typical of Roman North Africa. Punic, Libyan, and Arabic scripts are represented. Barry Fell suggests that the temple was constructed by Christians and Moslems captured by the Mayans long before Columbus ventured westward into the Atlantic. (Fell, Barry; Epigraphic Society, Occasional Papers , 22:57 and cover, 1993.) Comment. Refer to SF#90 for possible evidence of ancient Romans in Texas. From Science Frontiers #91, JAN-FEB 1994 . 1994-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 91: Jan-Feb 1994 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Do earthquakes raise mima mounds?This possibility was tendered in SF#69 in our notice of a paper in Geology by A.W . Berg. Berg had covered a large sheet of plywood with sandy soil and then vibrated the wooden sheet. The result: small mounds formed at points where intersecting vibrations cancelled each other out. Could the many fields of Mima mounds in North America, Africa, and other continents have been created in a like manner by earthquakes? The recent severe quake in India proved that the answer to the above question might be "yes." Some farm-lands that had been flat were riven by cracks several inches wide and up to 70 feet deep and, in addition, topped by undulating mounds up to a foot high. (Anonymous; "Farmers Work Land Churned by Earthquake," Spokane Review , October 10,1993. Cr. J. Satkoski) Comment. Mima mounds are often higher than 1 foot, but at it certainly seems that Berg's experiment has been repeated by Nature herself. Mima mounds and like structures are cataloged in ETM1 in Carolina Bays, Mima Mounds. This catalog is described here . From Science Frontiers #91, JAN-FEB 1994 . 1994-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... of the North Sea and below the permafrost surface of the North Slope of Alaska. Enrichment cultures of sulphidogens grew at 85 C and 102 C, which are similar to in reservoir temperatures." Stetter et al favor the theory that these hyperthermophiles were injected into the reservoirs through: (1 ) drilling and secondary-recovery operations; and/ or (2 ) natural penetration via faults and seeps. They pointedly distance themselves from the idea, championed by T. Gold, that subterranean bacteria are actually permanent ancient residents of a deep subterranean biosphere. (Stetter, K.O ., et al; "Hyperthermophilic Archaea Are Thriving in Deep North Sea and Alaskan Oil Reservoirs," Nature, 365:743, 1993.) On the other hand, in their comments on the above paper, J. Parkes and J. Maxwell do not shy away from the theory that these denizens of hot, deep oil reservoirs are really indigenous life forms deposited with sediments in distant geological ages, surviving still and even evolving and conquering the infernal regions. They say: "The results presented do, however, provide firm evidence for the presence of a subterranean biosphere in oil reservoirs; moreover they are consistent with demonstrations of the existence of other deep biospheres in aquifers and marine sediments, which together indicate that the biosphere is not just a thin veneer on the geosphere." (Parkes, John, and Maxwell, James; "Some Like It Hot," Nature, 365:694, 1993.) From Science Frontiers #91, JAN-FEB 1994 . 1994-2000 ...
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