233 results found.
... .95, 52 illus., 3 indexes, 1992. 548 references, LC 91-68541. ISBN 0-915554-26-7 , 7x10. Biological Anomalies: Humans II: A Catalog of Biological Anomalies Sorry, Out of print The second Catalog volume on human biological anomalies focuses upon the "internal" machinery of the body (1 ) Its major organs; (2 ) Its support structure (the skeleton); and (3 ) Its vital subsystems (the central nervous system and the immune system) Typical subjects covered: Enigma of the fetal graft * Phantom limbs * Blood chimeras * Anomalous human combustion * Bone shedders * Skin shedders * "Perfection" of the eye * Dearth of memory traces * Sudden increase of hominid brain size * Health and the weather * Periodicity of epidemics * Extreme longevity * AIDS anomalies * Cancer anomalies * Human limb regeneration * Nostril cycling * Voluntary suspended animation * Male menstruation [Picture caption: Is the complexity of the human eye anomalous?] 297 pages, hardcover, $19.95, 40 illus., 3 indexes, 1993. 494 references, LC 91-68541, ISBN 0-915554-27-5 , 7x10. Biological Anomalies: Humans III: A Catalog of Biological Anomalies Sorry, Out of print Completing our trilogy on human anomalies, this volume focuses on four areas (1 ) the human fossil record; (2 ) biochemistry and genetics; (3 ) possible unrecognized living hominids; and (4 ) human interactions with other species and "entities " Typical subjects covered: Neanderthal demise * ...
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... speculation. Even today we marvel at their immense, flat-topped temple mounds, the huge earthen enclosures, and the meticulously wrought artifacts of copper, mica, and clay. Squier and Davis objectively described the features of this New World civilization in words and drawings. It is the drawings, though, that really capture the reader. They are superb, almost overwhelming. Rude Stone Monuments in all Countries: Their Age and Uses View Cart Buy online via PayPal with MC/Visa/Amex J. Fergusson, 1872, 578 pp., $26.95p Fergusson's famous compilation of worldwide megalithic monuments is a fit complement to our photocopied edition of Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, from 1848. Fergusson has filled his book with 233 line drawings of artifacts from the megalithic period. The emphasis is on the massive monuments, but you'll also see some sketches of pottery and inscribed stones. Naturally, there are long chapters on the British Isles, Ireland, and Europe; but the author also demonstrates how the megalithic culture extended into North Africa, the Middle East, and India. It is a pleasure to page through this old classic and read how our parents' parents interpreted these edifices. Aboriginal Monuments of the State of New York View Cart Buy online via PayPal with MC/Visa/Amex E.G . Squier. 1849, 193 pp., $19.95p With the help of 72 figures and 14 large plates, Squier details the abundant aboriginal works found in New York and elsewhere. Included are chapters on mounds and other earthworks ...
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... bruised silk; They poured into the bowl of the sky with the gentle flow of milk. So wrote R.W . Service, the poet of the Arctic realms, about the eerie voices of the auroras. The low-frequency sound of the aurora is barely detectable by human ears. It is "felt" more than heard, as Service expressed so eloquently. Some skeptics have maintained that these ethereal sounds do not really exist, but modern instruments confirm that pressure waves are definitely produced in the atmosphere as the auroras weave and dance in the sky. Most auroral sound is in the infrasound range, which begins at the lower limit of human hearing -- about 20 Hertz. Just enough sound energy seeps over the 20-Hz limit to be heard by sensitive human ears during periods of intense activity. Another natural infrasound, weak but continuous, is the "voice of the sea." These sound waves, called "microbaroms," have periods in the 5-7 second range (0 .20-0 .14 Hz), well below the range of human ears. Such low-frequency sounds travel great distances with little attenuation. It is thought, therefore, that the "voice of the sea" is an extended source -- perhaps the collective acoustical signature of all the storms from all the world's oceans. But this is surmise. Actually, the air is full of infra-sound emanating from still-unidentified sources, as indicated in the figure. Humans may not hear infrasound, but a form of "mountain music" ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 132: NOV-DEC 2000 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Sandslides: Desert Catastrophes Some of the most important fossil discoveries being made today come from the desolate Gobi Desert -- a most unlikely place for the sudden mass burial of agile animals. Furthermore, the fossils now coming to light in the Gobi sandstones are not only abundant but also preserved with great fidelity. For example, at Ukhaa Tolgod, paleontologists are excavating the planet's largest assemblage of fossil vertebrates from the end of the Cretaceous Period (71-75 million years ago). In 1993, about 1,000 fossils representing 20 species of mammals and reptiles were collected. Amazingly, these bones were not disarticulated, scattered about, or severely worn. It was obvious that the Ukhaa Tolgod animals had been very suddenly engulfed by a "tidal wave" of sand. It was a catastrophic event of some sort. But what kind of catastrophes occur on desolate, riverless deserts? Wind is always blowing sand about and dunes creep along in deserts, but healthy animals easily avoid burial. Of course, there are rare, sudden downpours even on the Gobi. But one would expect this rain to be quickly absorbed by the sand. Intrigued by the evidence of unexpected catastrophism in the Gobi, scientists from the American Museum of Natural History first took a look at Nebraska's strange Sand Hills. These Sand Hills stretch for thousands of square miles, reach heights of 400 feet, and are believed to be of aeolian ...
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... However, the existence of Mirror-Matter neutrinos spinning the other way would redress things, making the universe "perfect" -- at least as far as human aesthetics are concerned. (Other entities might yearn for asymmetry, who knows?) Anyway, Mirror Matter is defined as being palpable and could also be that "missing mass" or "dark matter" that astronomers need to explain why spinning galaxies do not fly apart. Mirror Matter could also account for some mysterious terrestrial phenomena such as that unaccountable lack of a significant crater in Siberia, where the 1908 Tunguska blast leveled a huge forest but hardly disturbed the ground. Recently, Mirror Matter has been invoked to explain the ups and downs of terrestrial biodiversity. R. Foot and Z. Silagadze propose that the 26-millionyear periodicity in terrestrial extinctions -- claimed to be present in the fossil record -- is due to a solar-system planet made of Mirror Matter (and therefore invisible). This postulated planet has a period of 26-million years and regularly gravitationally jostles the Oort Cloud of comets on the periphery of the solar system. These jolts unleash torrents of devastating comets upon the inner solar system every 26-million years, thereby blasting the earth and its sensitive biological cargo. This supposed Mirror-Matter planet happens to be the conceptual double of a Normal-Matter, hypothetical planet named Nemesis, which was proposed in the 1980s to account for the same periodical extinctions in the fossil record. However, diligent searches did not locate Nemesis. Of course, if Nemesis were made of Mirror Matter ...
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... been afire. This, according to B. Hurdle and colleagues at the Naval Research Laboratory, who speculate that the dinosaur hegemony may ended suddenly in flames rather than in a long, drawn-out whimper. (Day, Michael; "Hell on Earth," New Scientist, p. 5, November 20, 1999) 55 million years ago. Ten million years after the dinosaurs may have roasted in a global firestorm, another methane burp may have erupted from the oceans. This burp was slower and did not ignite but was just as lethal. It filled with atmosphere with a highly effective green-house: methane. The result was a pulse of global warming; as seen in a 5-7 -deg C increase in the temperature of ocean-bottom water during that period. Biological evidence for the event occurs in the skeletons of marine animals that litter the ocean sediments laid down in that lethal period. On the land, prior to the methane release, North America was'populated by an odd assortment of unfamiliar mammals; "unfamiliar" to ustoday because they left no descendents. These archaic mammals succumbed to the effects of the sudden global warming and were ultimately replaced by the ancestors of our familiar deer, horses, and canines that streamed across the now-open Bering Land Bridge. Geology, too, provides evidence of this traumatic event. Ocean-bottom cores reveal landslide debris that was probably triggered by the sudden decomposition of great masses of methane hydrate. Seismic probes of the ocean sediments reveal chaotic zones suggesting a violent event. (Kerr, Richard ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 136: JUL-AUG 2001 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects An Ice Ring In A Canadian Pond Ice rings (really ice "discs") are large circular discs of ice that occasionally form in rivers. One well-observed ice ring appeared in the Pite River in northern Sweden in 1987, About 100 feet in diameter, it was rotating slowly within a slightly larger hole in the ice covering the rest of the river. (SF#112) This ring was fashioned out of ice floes that had been captured by a whirlpool and set spinning. Its rough periphery had been "machined" to circular perfection over a period of weeks as it rotated ponderously within the confining river ice. A curious phenomenon is this, but one that seems to yield to simple explanation rather easily. Somewhat more puzzling is a 16-foot ice ring that formed overnight in the more placid waters of a farm pond near Delta, Ontario, in December 2000. The ice was too thin to walk upon, so it had to be a natural phenomenon. However, there was no whirlpool to provide the lathe-like action needed to create the neat disc. Nor was the disc said to be rotating when discovered. The whole event happened very quickly, too. (Bronskill, Jim; "Strange Ice Rings Baffle Researchers," Toronto National Post, March 8, 2001. Cr. G. Duplantier via L. Farish.) Comment. Even small farm ponds have some circulation of water ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 137: SEP-OCT 2001 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Sex and TGA A curious and somewhat amusing mental phenomenon strikes about a dozen out of every 100,000 people. These hapless individuals, for better of worse, develop amnesia during or right after sex. They recover in six hours or so but have no recollection of what happened during that period. This type of amnesia, Transient Global Amnesia (TGA), is more frequent among people in their 50s and 60s. Men are slightly more susceptible than women. (Anonymous; "Who Was That Lady I Saw You With Last Night?" Chicago Sun-Times, June 29, 2001. Source cited: the British medical journal Lancet. Cr. J. Cieciel.) Comment. How could we avoid commenting on this one? But we'll take the high road! Since sexual amnesia has not been eliminated by natural selection, it very likely has (or had) some survival value. We wonder what that might be (or have been)? Could sex have been extremely unpleasant in the past---so much so that memories of the act had to be suppressed in order for the species to continue? From Science Frontiers #137, SEP-OCT 2001 . 2001 William R. Corliss Other Sites of Interest SIS . Catastrophism, archaeoastronomy, ancient history, mythology and astronomy. Lobster . The journal of intelligence and political conspiracy (CIA, FBI, JFK, MI5, NSA, etc ...
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... The Earth Made Mars Different At the June, 2000, meeting of the Society for Scientific Exploration, R.A . Day presented a paper that: Itemized the many important ways n which Mars differs from the other inner planets and moons; Proposed a mechanism that might lave created these stark differences; and Identified the earth as the most likely perpetrator of this celestial catastrophism. Day's abstract follows: Mars has surface features that are not seen on inner planets or moons. These are hemispheric asymmetries, idiosyncratic surface fracturing, localized vulcanism, altitude differences, chains of pits, and the nature of dry river-like channels. Other features include extensive loss of an early atmosphere and liquid water. There is interest in the lower-altitude northern region, with its surface formed after the period of heavy bombardment, as a possible ocean basin. The evidence for this is very sparse: no river deltas, no river networks, little debris at the ends of the catastrophic flow channels. The surface is consistent with the stripping anticipated by a Roche-limit encounter. The low-density Martian moons appear to be unconsolidated material of higher density; they appear to be from low-gravity aggregation of that part of the Martian debris that went into orbit as a short-lived ring. A Roche-limit encounter is invoked as a reasonable hypothesis to explain these features. Earth, Mars' nearest planetary neighbor, may have provided that encounter. The Roche limit is 2.9 Earth radii. The Roche limit is that distance within which Mars would begin to be torn apart ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 130: JUL-AUG 2000 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Saguenay Earthquake Lights November 1988-January 1989. Saguenay region of Quebec. During this period, a total of 67 quakes were recorded. The foreshock (November 23) registered 4.8 ; the main shock (November 25), 6.5 mmlg. Many after-shocks followed. During this spate of tremors, 38 unusual luminosities were initially reported from the region, 8 of them before the foreshock, being in effect earthquake precursors. Afterwards, residents were queried for details and additional observations. A total of 46 reports sufficiently detailed for analysis were obtained. These luminous phenomena were classified according to a scheme proposed by F. Montandon in 1948. Montandon's five categories are: Seismic lightning (no thunder); Luminous bands in atmosphere; Globular incandescent masses; Fire tongues, small mobile flames near the ground, like will-o '- the wisps; and Flames emerging from the ground. The globular incandescent masses were by far the most common type of earthquake light during this Canadian "flap." Of these, F. St-Laurent writes: There were twenty-two reports coming from different places. Often they were seen far from the epicenter or when the seismic activity was low or quiet. Some were stationary (in one case, the yellow and orange mass presented a horizontal elongated form), others were seen emerging from the ground, some were very fast-moving near the ...
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... Project Sourcebook Subjects Unexpected Signals Within Life Forms Multicellular organisms are information networks. They have to be because life is conferred by the flow of information. We all learn how the nervous system carries a heavy traffic of electrical signals, but we hear less about chemical signals, and they are more important. Chemical signalling molecules help cells learn what is going on around them so that they can make decisions concerning metabolism, division, and even whether to die not not. This is mainstream biochemistry, although there is much here yet to be learned. A signalling medium that still survives well off the mainstream is the old idea that information is carried from cell to cell via electromagnetic radiation. Yes, we mean mitogenetic radiation--the infamous M-rays of the 1920s and 1930s. During this period about a thousand technical papers were published on mitogenetic radiation -- mostly in Russian. The champion of mitogenetic radiation was A.G . Gurwitsch. He claimed that fundamental biological functions, such as cell division, were communicated via ultraviolet light. Although a few other researchers said they detected mitogenetic radiation, most could not replicate Gurwitsch's work. Mitogenetic radiation was thereafter subjected to the "cold-fusion" treatment; it was one of those things that "wasn't so"! In a recent article in the Journal of Scientific Exploration, R. Van Wijk tries to reignite interest in "bio-photons" that carry "bio-information." First, he assures us that mitogenetic radiation is real, that bio-photons truly exist. To thus swim against ...
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... . does contain typical Clovis artifacts. These are warmly received by mainstream archeologists for they support a highly cherished paradigm. But only 6 inches below the Clovis level, the diggers gingerly brushed the dirt off crude projectile points that were clearly not of Clovis manufacture. This level seems to be about 5,000 years older than the Clovis level according to radiometric dating of charcoal. Skeptics suggest that there has been mixing of the sandy soil and that these early dates are suspect. But thermoluminescent dating has confirmed the 5,000-year time gap. Thorough analyses of the soil with its plant and animal re-mains indicated little if any mixing. D. Stanford, from the Smithsonian Institution, asserts that these purported pre-Clovis projectile points resemble those common in Europe in the same time period. From all this, it seems that Europeans may have preceded the Clovis immigrants from Asia. Archeology, it seems, is being rocked by a powerful paradigm shift! (Stokstad, Erik; "' Pre-Clovis' Site Fights for Recognition," Science, 288:247, 2000. Bower, B.; "Early New World Settlers Rise in East," Science News, 157:244, 2000. Todt, Ron; "Site May Settle 1st Americans Debate," Austin American Statesman, April 9, 2000. Cr. D. Phelps. Anonymous; "Settlement Proves First U.S . Immigrants Arrived Earlier," Oil City Derrick, April 9, 2000. Cr. E. Fegert.) From Science Frontiers #130, JUL-AUG ...
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... believes strongly enough in the power of the stars and planets to shape human destiny, events may be correlated with the heavens. Such was the case in ancient China. In China, the "Mandate of Heaven" concept has been used since ancient times as both a framework for history and a guide to future actions. The basic idea is that Heaven awards ruling power to a sage-king because of his virtue. His descendants remain as Earthly deputies until they become corrupted, whereupon outraged Heaven gives signs in the sky that the Mandate has passed on to a different sage-king to continue the cycle. Three transfers of the Heavenly Man-date marked the beginnings of the Hsu, Shang, and Chou Dynasties. In fact, the tightest grouping of the five visible planets in the period from 3,000 B.C . to 5,000 A.D . (8 ,020 years!), occurred, on February 26, 1953 B.C ., when they were aligned in a 4.33 arc. This was seen by the Chinese power brokers as a celestial command to begin a new social order. Thus was born the Hsu Dynasty. Similar, but looser, conjunctions ushered n the Shang Dynasty (December 20, L576 B.C .) and Chou Dynasty (May 28. L059 B.C .) . So, astrology can influence human destiny, if humans believe in it strongly enough. Astrology almost changed the course of history in modern times. Rudolph Hess, fervent believer in astrology, took the conjunction of May 10 ...
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... were found to resolve this matter. The implication of all of this is that, although the Arctic may have been very cold 36,000 years ago, it was largely ice-free. (Pavlov, Pavel, et al; "Human Presence in the European Arctic Nearly 40,000 Years ago," Nature, 413:64,2001. Wilford, John Noble; "New Evidence of Early Humans Unearthed in Russia's North," New York Times, September 6, 2001. Cr. D. Phelps) Comment. A nearly ice-free Arctic some 40,000 years ago might have permitted human diffusion into the New World, but so far we have seen nothing this early. It is likely that the Southern Hemisphere was also freer of ice during this period. Although humans had gained Australia by this time, we know of no good evidence that they used Antarctica and the islands of the Southern Ocean to reach the New World. But see a related item under GEOLOGY. From Science Frontiers #138, NOV-DEC 2001 . 2001 William R. Corliss Other Sites of Interest SIS . Catastrophism, archaeoastronomy, ancient history, mythology and astronomy. Lobster . The journal of intelligence and political conspiracy (CIA, FBI, JFK, MI5, NSA, etc) Homeworking.com . Free resource for people thinking about working at home. ABC dating and personals . For people looking for relationships. Place your ad free. ...
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... were dug up at a medieval friary in northeastern Britain. The earliest of these bones date back to about 1300. In fact, the new evidence suggests that there was a geographically limited mini-epidemic of syphilis in Britain about this time. Columbus was now off the hook, but who should be hung on it instead? The Vikings, of course. Viking merchants began visiting this part of England about 1300. And it is now admitted that the Vikings had made it to the New World source of the disease circa 1000. Case closed!? (Malakoff, David; "Columbus, Syphilis, and English Monks," Science. 289:723, 2000.) Comments. But the Viking contacts with the American aborigines were far from amicable. If some Viking skeletons from this period were to show signs of syphilis, we could blame them more easily. Until then, let's line up some other suspects: the Welsh Prince Madoc, the Irish St. Brendan, Earl Henry Sinclair of Orkney, or those Celts and Phoenicians who seem to have left messages on rocks throughout eastern North America. From Science Frontiers #132, NOV-DEC 2000 . 2000 William R. Corliss Other Sites of Interest SIS . Catastrophism, archaeoastronomy, ancient history, mythology and astronomy. Lobster . The journal of intelligence and political conspiracy (CIA, FBI, JFK, MI5, NSA, etc) Homeworking.com . Free resource for people thinking about working at home. ABC dating and personals . For people looking for relationships. Place your ad free. ...
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... -told tales are truthfully no more convincing to a scientist than many UFO anecdotes. When carbon atoms danced through the dreaming brain of A. Kekule, they led the waking Kekule to conceive the structure of the benzene molecule. I. Lowe awoke from a dream one night, jotted down a few notes, and fell back to sleep. On waking, he could not decipher his scrawl. Happily, the next night the dream recurred. Lowe raced to his lab, performed the experiment outlined in his dream, and thereby developed a new theory of brain activity. In 1869, D. Mendeleyev was puzzling over the disparate properties of the 63 elements then known. Was there any pattern? One night he fell asleep and in a dream the elements fell into their proper places in the Periodic Table. (Mazzarello, Paolo; "What Dreams May Come?" Nature, 408:523, 2000.) Comments. These mammalian anecdotes involving sleep and dreams are amusing, but most dreams are frivolous, bizarre, and of very little practical value, Mendeleyev notwithstanding. The utility of sleeping and dreaming do not seem at all commensurate with the accompanying vulnerability and the loss of waking hours. However, speculation is fun. There are at least two rather far-fetched explanations for characteristics (sleeping and dreaming here) that do not appear to have very much survival value. Sleeping and dreaming may be linked genetically to a characteristic that does have considerable survival value. Example: Resistance to malaria is coupled to sickle-cell anemia. Sleeping and dreaming may represent unavoidable, intermediate ...
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... times the rate of continental drift. The earth from afar must have seemed to be a disturbed top---on a geological time scale, of course! What could have perturbed the earth? One suggestion blames a sudden shifting of the planet's mass distribution, some sort of subterranean indigestion, like a subducted ocean plate suddenly plunging through into the lower mantle. (Kerr, Richard A.; "Did the Dinosaurs Live on a Topsy-Turvy Earth?" Science, 287:406, 2000.) The biological consequences of such a sudden tilting could have been severe. The event -- known as rapid true polar wander -- may have been accompanied by worldwide volcanic upheavals and reorganization of tectonic plates that would have played havoc with anything living in the Late Cretaceous period, 65 million to 99 million years ago. Although the notion that an asteroid was the immediate cause of dinosaur extinction about 65 million years ago has won wide acceptance, many paleontologists have argued that volcanic activity may have played a role in changing the climate and sending populations of the giant creatures into decline. (Bowman, Lee; "Scientist's Say Earth's Magnetic Field Shifted Rapidly in Time of Dinosaurs," Dallas Morning News, January 21, 2000. Cr. Phelps) Comment. Coincidentally (honest!), we are offering with this mailing a reprint of C.H . Hapgood's The Path of the Pole. From Science Frontiers #128, MAR-APR 2000 . 1997 William R. Corliss Other Sites of Interest SIS . Catastrophism, archaeoastronomy ...
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... exact a cost in the females, there might be an adaptive explanation for the phenomenon; that is, the final paler egg may lead to increased survival of the participating species. To illustrate, in 1980, Yom-Tov suggested that: .. .this last odd egg might have evolved as a signal to potential brood parasites that the female has finished laying the clutch and has begun incubation. If a parasite lays its egg after incubation has commenced, then it would be unlikely to hatch, hence the potential parasite would benefit from heeding such a warning signal, if it could then find an alternative host nest where incubation had yet to commence. The signaling host would also benefit from avoiding the costs of warming an extra egg [the parasite's ] for some of the incubation period, costs that can be considerable, as well as the possible cost of having to rear an extra chick. G.D . Ruxton et al have used game theory to show that Yom-Tov's speculation has considerable merit. However, there are nonadaptive explanations. The females in the species that lay pale last eggs may simply run out of egg pigment, or they may change physiologically as the egg-laying phase nears its end. (Ruxton, G.D ., et al; "Are Unusually Colored Eggs a Signal to Potential Con-specific Brood Parasites?" American Naturalist, 157:451, 2001.) Comment. We will not quarrel with game theory but hasten to point out that the evolution of interspecies signalling requires: (1 ) A population ...
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... Frontiers ONLINE No. 87: May-Jun 1993 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Whence the earth's pulse?Geological history records a restless planet subject to a succession of chemical and physical upheavals. Have these great paroxysms been random in time? M.R . Rampino and K. Caldeira do not think so: Number of geological events during geologic time "Published data sets of major geologic events of the past 250 Myr (extinction events, sea-level lows, continental flood-basalt eruptions, mountain-building events, abrupt changes in sea-floor spreading, ocean-anoxic and blackshale events and the largest evaporite deposits) have been synthesized (with estimated errors). These events show evidence for a statistically significant periodic component with an underlying periodicity, formally equal to 26.6 Myr, and a recent maximum, close to the present time. The cycle may not be strictly periodic, but a periodicity of 30 Myr is robust to probable errors in dating of the geologic events." The obvious question is: What could cause a 30-million-year periodicity? Internally, the earth's innards might be periodic, possibly in terms of plume eruption, mineral phase changes, core convection, etc. Externally, comets and asteroids are cyclic. Rampino and Caldeira point out that the solar system crosses the heavily populated plane of the Galaxy every 30 million years. (Rampino, Michael R., and Caldeira, Ken; "Major Episodes of Geologic Change: Correlations, Time Structure and ...
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... cycle, which began with the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century. All the harmonies we hear today were developed in this last cycle." So begins the final section of a recent reprinting of W.D . Allen's sweeping 1951 overview of the human fascination with music. But what's this about a 500-year cycle in music? It turns out that not only is there a 500-year pulse in musical creativity, but nested within the long swings are 100-year subcycles! Allen's article, as it appeared originally in the Journal of Human Ecology (1 :1 , 1951), ran 41 pages. We can hit only a few high notes here. And, since we are concerned mainly with anomalies, we shall concentrate on this unexpected periodicity in musical creativity. Allen describes how musical theorists have proposed both supernatural and evolutionary explanations for this periodicity, which commenced some 2,500 years ago with the Ancient Greeks. He is not convinced by either class of explanations. Instead, Allen has been beguiled by the long-period tones of environmental cycles: "Now we have knowledge of a constantly operating cyclic factor in our cosmos, scientifically based on a mass of inductive evidence that goes beyond recorded history into the tree-ring records from centuries B.C . For the first time, we are provided with a powerful conditioning factor, if not a determinant, in the creation of music." Here are two statements reflecting Allen's observations on the subject: "After 1590, as a new warm period began in ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 88: Jul-Aug 1993 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Seashore Seiches At many spots around the world, sealevel rises and falls with periods of only a few minutes -- much shorter than the common semidiurnal tides and much longer than wind-generated waves. These oscillations of the water surface are termed "seiches." Two fundamentally different kinds of seiches have been noted in the recent literature. The first variety is transitory and can be set into motion by weather disturbances and earthquakes. The second is permanent and a bit more mysterious. Let's take transitory seiches first September 17, 1992. Anglesey, England. At about 0700 in the morning: "I was on the beach at Trearddur on western Anglesey, when an acquaintance drove down the beach towing a fishing boat. He launched the boat in about six inches of water and we then engaged in conversation for a couple of minutes. Turning to the boat, we were amazed to find that it was high and dry about 20 metres from the water's edge. Small flatfish, mainly immature brill, could be seen stranded and flapping in the wet sand. About a minute later, the sea started to return and quickly rose up the beach beyond where the boat had originally been launched. An hour later, the oscillation in sea level was still taking place. I determined that the period was just over three minutes and the amplitude just under one metre, the latter measured with reference to a half-submerged ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 85: Jan-Feb 1993 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Biology's big bang Representatives of three body plans (phyla): jellyfish (coelenterata); aphid (arthropoda); eohippis (chordata); The title refers to the so-called "Cambrian explosion," that period that began some 570 million years ago, during which all known animal phyla that readily fossilize seem to have originated. The biological phyla are defined by characteristic body plans. Humans, for example, are among the Chordata . Some other phyla are the Arthropoda (insects, crustaceans), the Mollusca (clams, squids), the Nemotada (roundworms), etc. All of these phyla trace their ancestries back to that biologically innovative period termed the Cambrian explosion. Even at the taxonomic level just below the phylum, the class (i .e ., the vertebrates), most biological invention seems to stem from the Cambrian. J.S . Levinton, in a long article in the November 1992 Scientific American, explores the enigma of the Cambrian explosion. Did some unknown evolutionary stimuli prevail 570 million years ago that made the Cambrian different from all periods that followed? Or, has something damped evolutionary creativity since then? Levinton holds that biological innovation has continued unabated at the species level since the Cambrian explosion, but that new body plans; that is, new phyla; have not evolved for hundreds of millions of years. Therefore, something special and very mysterious -- some highly creative ...
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... This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The shorter, the stranger Just a few months ago (in SF#85), we held forth on biology's Big Bang: that Cambrian paroxysm of biological creativity about 570 million years ago. Until now, biologists had opined that this "explosion" required a rather leisurely 20-40 million years (still very short in geological terms). After all, biological creativity must take time if it is powered only by stepwise random mutations. But the recent dating of Cambrian formations in northeastern Siberia (which was previously off limits to Western scientists because of its Soviet radar installations) has now compressed this great event to a veritable flash. S.A . Bowring et al, in their startling report in Science, have measured the length of this period of unparalleled biological diversification at only 5-10 million years, possibly as short as a mere 1 million years! What wand of biological creativity was waved at this magical moment? It had to be something that has not happened again down the long eons that followed, for never again has nature favored our planet in this way. Never again were any more of life's major body plans (the phyla) synthesized. Even ardent evolutionists marvel at the newly measured intensity of this moment. For example, S.J . Gould has remarked: "You've taken the most accelerated period of evolutionary rates and made it a whole lot shorter. The degree of speed is so fast, it's downright peculiar. The strange gets stranger, the fast gets faster. ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 87: May-Jun 1993 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Uniqueness Of Human Adolescence What major biological characteristics separate humans from other animals? The usual list begins with our large brain and bipedality, but these features are shared with dolphins and birds, respectively. Even our peculiar reproductive biology (permanent breasts, continuous sexual receptivity of both sexes, etc.) no longer seem so unique, particularly after reading about the antics of the bonobos (pygmy chimps)! But wait! No other animal, even the other primates, go through adolescence. That time period between puberty and the attainment of adult stature turns out to be something uniquely human. The great puzzle of adolescence, according to B. Bogin, is its evolutionary origin. What possible advantage does adolescence confer on humans in the battle for survival? To the contrary, skipping the teens would appear to be an advantage in the survivability of parents! One guess is that adolescence -- all 8 or so years of it -- is required for the development of the complex social skills needed by adults. (Bogin, Barry; "Why Must I Be a Teenager at All?" New Scientist, p. 34, March 6, 1993.) From Science Frontiers #87, MAY-JUN 1993 . 1993-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 85: Jan-Feb 1993 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Growth Spurts In Children Daily length measurements (in centimeters) versus age (in years) for a male infant showing growth spurts. Despite much anecdotal evidence and the convictions of many parents, biologists have not generally recognized the reality of short, sharp growth spurts on the order of 1 centimeter in a single 24hour period. Rather, the consensus has been that child growth was divided into three stages (infancy, childhood, adolescence), each characterized by different, but steady rates of growth. This conclusion was based upon annual and quarterly length measurements. However, when children are measured more often (weekly or daily), the growth curve is seen to be step-like rather than smooth, as in the accompanying illustration. Indeed, the mean amplitude of the growth spurts was found to be about 1 centimeter; and the duration of the spurts, about one day. These spurts punctuated long intervals of no growth. In infants, for example, 90-95% of their development is growth-free! (Lampl, M., et al; "Saltation and Stasis: A Model of Human Growth," Science, 258:801, 1992.) From Science Frontiers #85, JAN-FEB 1993 . 1993-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 81: May-Jun 1992 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Folie a deux involving a dog!The term "folie a deux" is used to describe an induced psychosis; it is usually reserved for human-human interfaces. Folie a deux generally occurs when two or more people are very close emotionally. But some people living alone do develop close emotional bonds with their pets, and apparently, vice versa: "Ms. A, an 83-year-old widow who had lived alone for 15 years, complained that the occupant of an upstairs flat was excessively noisy and that he moved furniture around late at night to disturb her. Over a period of 6 months, she developed delusionary persecutory ideas about this man. He wanted to frighten her from her home and had started to transmit 'violet rays' through the ceiling to harm her and her 10-yearold female mongrel dog. Ms. A attributed a sprained back and chest pains to the effect of the rays and had become concerned that her dog had started scratching at night when the ray activity was at its greatest. For protection, she had placed her mattress under the kitchen table and slept there at night. She constructed what she called an 'air raid shelter' for her dog from a small table and a pile of suitcases and insisted that the dog sleep in it. When I visited Ms. A at her home, it was apparent that the dog's behavior had become so conditioned by that ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 84: Nov-Dec 1992 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects A Permian Polar Forest "An in situ Upper Permian fossil forest in the central Transantarctic Mountains near the Beardmore Glacier includes 15 permineralized trunks in growth position; the paleolatitude of the site was approximately 80 to 85 south. Numerous leaves of the seed fern Glossopteris are present in the shale in which the trunks are rooted. The trunks are perminealized and tree rings reveal that the forest was a rapidly growing and young forest, persisting in an equable, strongly seasonal climate -- a scenario that does not fit with some climate reconstructions for this time period." Some models of the Permian climate, based on astronomical and meteorological parameters, have winter temperatures at the site averaging -30 to -40 C, with the average summer temperature at merely 0 C. This fossil forest is clearly at odds with these models. (Taylor, Edith L., et al; "The Present Is Not the Key to the Past: A Polar Forest from the Permian of Antarctica," Science, 257:1675, 1992.) From Science Frontiers #84, NOV-DEC 1992 . 1992-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... 150 cats that plummeted from windows at different heights. "Falling from 32 storeys, a cat had more time to work out a plan of action, because once it reached terminal velocity and stopped accelerating, it started to relax, he said in Sydney yesterday. "Once the moggie reached top speed of 100 kmh and realised it was not speeding up any more, it spreadeagled its limbs in the perfect position for maximum wind resistance. "' Once it reaches the ground, the cat just kisses the ground on all four paws simultaneously and the shock is absorbed,' Dr. Kruszelnicki told his bemused audience at the University of New South Wales during a talk organized by the Alumni Association. "Of the 150 cats that fell from highrise buildings in New York over a five-month period, 10 per cent died, with the chances of survival rising with the distance of the fall." It seems that at least one cat per day takes the plunge in New York City, but do they jump...or are they pushed? Dr. Kruszelnicki supposed that some may have leaped at passing birds! (Anonymous; "High-Flying Cats Have the Big Drop Licked," Wellington, New Zealand, The Dominion , September 17, 1992. Cr. P. Hassall) From Science Frontiers #84, NOV-DEC 1992 . 1992-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... of the A/C they leveled off and flew on tail of Beau (Beaufighter -- their aircraft, Ed.) for 2 minutes and then peeled up and turned away. 8th mission -- sighted 2 orange lights. One light sighted at 10,000 feet the other climbed until it disappeared. "December 28. 1st patrol saw 2 sets of 3 red and white lights. One appeared on the port side, the other on starboard at 1000 to 2000 feet to rear and closing in. Beau peeled off and lights went out. Nothing on GCI scope at the time "Observed lights suspended in air, moving slowly in no general direction and then disappeared. Lights were orange, and appeared singly and in pairs. These lights were observed 4 or 5 times throughout the period." There is no evidence as yet that any of the World War-II combatants had anything in their arsenals that could have accounted for the foo fighters. (Greenwood, Barry; Just Cause , no. 32, p. 1, June 1992.) Comment. If the foo fighters were a natural phenomenon, one would expect at least a few modern reports from the thousands of commercial and military aircraft in the skies. From Science Frontiers #83, SEP-OCT 1992 . 1992-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... -Apr 1992 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Spider Swordplay Ventral view of D. raptor . The claws are on the tips of the bottom two pairs of legs. Greatly enlarged photos reveal them to be wicked-looking fang-like structures. D. raptor, a Hawaiian spider, has lost its ability to spin webs and therewith capture prey. This unusual spider, however, has evolved: ". .. one of the most remarkable morphological features ever found in spiders (immense elongations of the tarsal claws)." These claws, just visible on the two lowermost pairs of legs in the sketch, are employed to skewer passing insects in flight: "The spider is strictly nocturnal, spending most of the activity-period hanging upside down from silk threads. Small insects are snagged directly from the air using a single long claw. For larger insects the spider uses both long claws on legs I, or sometimes all the long claws." (Gillespie, Rosemary G.; "Impaled Prey," Nature, 355:212, 1992.) Comment. Nature has produced many remarkable creatures. They become anomalous only if they cannot be explained as the products of small, random, cumulative mutations. From Science Frontiers #80, MAR-APR 1992 . 1992-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 87: May-Jun 1993 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Zuni Enigma The Zuni sacred rosette (top) closely resembles Japan's national symbol, a stylized chrysanthemum (bottom) The Zunis of New Mexico are different from other Native Americans in many ways. In an impressive, very detailed paper in the NEARA Journal, N.Y . Davis summarizes her investigation of these anomalies as follows: ". .. evidence suggesting Asian admixture is found in Zuni biology, lexicon, religion, social organization, and oral traditions of migration. Possible cultural and language links of Zuni to California, the social disruption at the end of the Heian period of the 12th century in Japan, the size of Japanese ships at the time of proposed migration, the cluster of significant changes in the late 13th century in Zuni, all lend further credibility to a relatively late prehistoric contact." We cannot delve into all classes of evidence adduced by Davis. Let us focus on the Zuni biological anomalies: Skeletal remains. These show a significant change in Zuni physical characteristics from 1250-1400 AD, suggesting the arrival of a new element in the Zuni population. Dentition. Three tooth features of the Zunis lie midway between those of Asians and other Native Americans; namely, shoveling, Carabelli's cusp, and 5-cusp pattern on the lower second molar. Blood-group characteristics. Blood Type B is frequent in East Asian populations but nearly absent in most Native Americans. Zuni, on ...
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... the situation is even worse than chaotic! Some systems, perhaps most systems, are also indeterminate, meaning that we cannot predict their qualitative behavior either. A simple example is the water swirling down the bathtub drain. This is not only chaotic but it has two qualitative final states: clockwise and counterclockwise. Regardless of which hemisphere you are in, you can change the direction of swirl with negligible effort. Each of the two final states of motion is still quanti tatively unpredictable. Systems that are more complex will possess many different final states, all chaotic. Can nature really be fundamentally chaotic as well as qualitatively uncertain? J.C . Sommerer and E. Ott have mathematically examined a relatively simple system consisting of a single particle moving in a force field, experiencing friction, and being periodically jolted. Besides settling into chaotic motion, this particle may also be forced away to infinity -- two radically different final states. The analysis revealed that for any set of initial conditions leading to the first type of behavior, there was an infinite number of slightly different initial conditions that would lead to the second type of behavior. In other words, systems that we have long thought to be deterministic, like the motions of the planets, may be not only chaotic but indeterminate. Since Sommerer and Ott found their indeterminate system easily, we must face the possibility that the future behavior of just about everything is beyond our capability to predict, even with our best instruments and computers. Apparently the universe is built in such a way that exact science is impossible. (Sommerer, John ...
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... In fact, Honorton designed his Ganzfeld experiments specifically to counter the critics of parapsychology, who are numerous and vocal. If telepathic transmissions really do exist, they just might be discerned when the receiver's mind is open to the tiniest sensory cues. Have the ubiquitous doubters been swayed by Honorton's experiments? Some critics of parapsychology, such as S. Blackmore, opine that Honorton has come up with best best evidence yet for telepathy; but Blackmore still has her doubts. Already experimental flaws have been pointed out in Honorton's work. For example, the researchers scoring the experiments must be completely ignorant of which film clips were used, but surreptitious peeks at the automated equipment were possible, and there could have been subliminal cues as to film-clip identities from the time periods required to rewind the tapes. Then, in the scoring conferences with the receivers, the scorers could have subconsciously led the receivers along. So, the verdict still seems to be that telepathy is unproven. In fact, one wonders if a foolproof telepathy experiment is really possible at all. (McCrone, John; "Roll Up for the Telepathy Test," New Scientist, p. 29, May 15, 1993.) Comment. One of Honorton's Ganzfeld discoveries was that strongly positive results occurred only with movie clips; still photos were 'transmitted' only at chance levels. Honorton attributed this to the richer imagery of action scenes. However, many other 'remote-viewing' experimenters have claimed success with still photos! No wonder mainstream science is wary of the ...
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... though not necessarily a causeeffect relationship -- your life span may depend on the number of sunspots that appeared in the year your mother was born. "They found that if the sun was at a maximum in its 11-year cycle (during which the number of sunspots rises and falls), children of mothers born at that time would die an average of two to three years sooner than if their mothers had been born during the sunspot minimum." Before dismissing this fascinating correlation as "nut science," consider that the study was conducted by two established scientists at Michigan State University, B. Rosenberg and D.A . Juckett. Their report was published in the March 1993 issue of the mainstream journal Radiation Research . Furthermore, in two English studies of longevity. the same periodicity was remarked. Although the population sample in the Michigan State work was small (7552), the phenomenon appears sufficiently robust to admit to the columns of Science Frontiers! (In truth we covet bizarreness as much as robustness!) But what possible causal link might connect one's longevity with one's mother's date of birth? Rosenberg and Juckett point to the fact that when a woman is born all of her eggs are already formed. Later, they will mature and be released one at a time (usually). Therefore, if solar radiation levels (proportional to sunspot numbers) are high near her time of birth, her entire inventory of eggs will be bombarded by high levels of solar radiation. The ensuing damage might show up as shortened lifetimes for her ...
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... notion of quantized redshifts, cosmologists find them undigestible, even pathogenic. But replication and non-replication are the essence of science, so B. Guthrie and W.M . Napier, at the Royal Observatory at Edinburgh, undertook another study. They selected 89 nearby spiral galaxies that had not been incorporated in any of the previous surveys. These galaxies had very accurately measured redshifts and were distributed all over the celestial sphere. "As expected, the galaxies' redshifts showed a smooth distribution. Clearly, no quantization was being introduced by the radio telescopes or the data reduction process. But after Guthrie and Napier corrected each redshift to account for the Earth's motion around the center of the Milky Way -- a different correction for each location in the sky -- out popped a periodicity of 37 km/sec, close to one of Tifft's values. It was so strong that the chance of it being a statistical fluke was less than 1 in 3,000." Tifft's work therefore seems to have been verified again. But Tifft is now waxing even more iconoclastic, claiming that galactic redshifts have actually changed slightly in just a few years! (Anonymous; "Quantized Redshifts: What's Going on Here?" Sky and Telescope , 84:128, 1992.) Comment. A strange geometrical concordance exists between quantized redshifts and the shells of stars surrounding some elliptical galaxies. See AWO5 in our catalog: Stars, Galaxies, Cosmos . This volume also contains much more on quantized redshifts in AWF8. Ordering information here . From Science ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 71: Sep-Oct 1990 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Wyoming: a periodic spring "Near the base of a limestone cliff in Wyoming's Bridger-Teton National Forest, spring water gushes from an opening for several minutes, stops abruptly, then begins a new cycle a short time later. This is Periodic Spring, whose intermittent flow is a rare geologic phenomenon. The water is cold and clear, an indication that this is not a geyser like Old Faithful; such geysers, of volcanic origin, send forth hot water. Through the years various observers have timed the flows at anywhere from four to twentyfive minutes, with similarly varying dry spells. The intermittent flow is especially regular in late summer and autumn. During stormy periods or when there is heavy snow melt-off, the flow fluctuates but does not stop entirely." At full flow, Periodic Spring discharges about 285 gallons/second into a stream 9 feet wide and 1 feet deep. Periodic Spring, therefore, is fairly impressive, but it is not anomalous. (Mohlenbrock, Robert H.; "Periodic Spring, Wyoming," Natural History, 99: 110, April 1990.) Comment. Siphon action nicely explains periodic springs. Water keeps flowing through the upper loop until the water level in the reservoir drops below the siphon intake. The spring will not flow again until the reservoir fills to the top of the upper loop(level a) again initiating siphon action. Siphon action seems simple ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 68: Mar-Apr 1990 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Periodical Invasions Of Aliens Forget those contemporary tales of UFO landings and human contacts with their alien navigators. Aliens have been land-ing here and mixing with the human populace for centuries. In fact, their traffic peaks about every 11 years, just when the solar cycle reaches its maximum. By now, you've probably guessed that F. Hoyle and N.C . Wickramasinghe are again talking about flu pandemics and sunspots. You must admit, however, that their correlation is becoming more and more convincing. Yearly means of daily sunspot numbers correlated with dates of flu pandemics First, we have their graph covering the past 70 years which speaks for itself. You can add the 1990 flu outbreak to the curve yourself! To strengthen the correlation Hoyle and Wickramasinghe tabulate flu and sunspot data back to 1761. They find that flu pandemics and sunspot maxima have kept in step for the last 17 cycles. Key to the Hoyle-Wickramasinghe argument is their contention that simple life forms (viruses, bacteria, etc.) not only exist in outer space but likely evolved there. If so, how do they ride in to afflict us on the peaks of the solar cycle? Here's how, in their words: "In conclusion, we note that electrical fields associated with intense solar winds can rapidly drive charged particles of the size of viruses down through the exposed upper atmosphere into the shelter of the lower atmosphere, ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 74: Mar-Apr 1991 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Solar eclipse affects a pendulum -- again!The period of a Foucault pendulum located at Jassy University, Romania, was carefully monitored during the solar eclipse of February 15, 1961. The pendulum's length was 25.008 meters; its spherical bob weighed 5.5 kilograms. The eclipse commenced at 8h 49m 3s and terminated at 11h 16m 50s. Observations are recorded in the table below left: Time Period (sec) 8:49 10.028 0.004 9:13 10.028 0.004 9:43 10.024 0.004 10:00 10.019 0.004 10:12 10.020 0.004 10:24 10.024 0.004 10:58 10.028 0.004 Effects of a solar eclipse upon a paraconical pendulum. (After M.F .C . Allais). If the above effect of the eclipse on the pendulum period is not strange enough, consider what happened at 10:08, in the chart, above right. "At that moment a surprising fact occurred, the pendulum produced a perturbation by describing an ellipse whose major axis deviated in relation to the initial plane by approximately 15 . The eccentricity of the ellipse was 0.18. At the end of the eclipse the pendulum continued to maintain the elliptical oscillation, but the major axis approached increasingly to its initial plane." (Jeverdan, G ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 71: Sep-Oct 1990 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Pennsylvanian time-scale problems The advent of radiometric dating seemed to solve once and for all the problem of assigning dates to the key events in the earth's history. Indeed, all of the reference books confidently label charts with firm dates for the appearance of fishes, the demise of the dinosaurs, and so on. Alas, things are not quite as certain as they appear. Radiometric dating is not all that precise; errors may be large indeed. Take the Pennsylvanian period for example. It is part of the Carboniferous period, when many of the great coal deposits were laid down. The classical duration of the Pennsylvanian -- used in many texts -- is 34 million years. A meticulous new study of central European stratigraphy now pegs the Pennsylvanian as spanning only 19 million years. Now that's a 44% change! This new figure for the duration of the Pennsylvanian has already cast doubt on the origin of the famous Pennsylvanian cyclothems (repetitive strata) in North America. It had been thought that these seemingly cyclic deposits were correlated with sea level changes forced by variations in the earth's orbit (the Milankovitch periods). With this substantial compression of Pennsylvan-ian time, this correlation falls apart. The cyclothems, which are of impressive area and thickness, now seem to have been created by some other, still unrecognized phenomenon. (Klein, George deV.; "Pennsylvanian Time Scales ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 80: Mar-Apr 1992 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects More evidence for galactic "shells" or "something else"Measurements of periodic red-shift bunching appeared in the literature at least as far back as 1977 in the work of W.G . Tifft. The implications of this phenomenon are apparently too terrible to contemplate, for astrophysicists have not taken up the challenge. They may be forced to take the phenomenon more seriously, because two new reports of redshift bunching have surfaced. First, B. Guthrie and W, Napier, at Edinburgh's Royal Observatory, have checked Tifft's "bunching" claim using accurately known red shifts of some nearby galaxies. They found a periodicity of 37.5 kilometers/second -- no matter in which direction the galaxies lay. (Gribbin, John; "' Bunched' Red Shifts Question Cosmology," New Scientist, p. 10, December 21/28, 1991.) The work of Guthrie and Napier is elaborated upon in the next item. Sec ond, B. Koo and R. Krone, at the University of Chicago, using optical red-shift measurements, discovered that, in one direction at least , "the clusters of galaxies, each containing hundreds of millions of stars, seemed to be concentrated in evenly spaced layers." (Browne, Malcolm W.; "In Chile, GalaxyWatching Robot Seeks Measure of Universe," New York Times, December 17, 1991. Cr. ...
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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 1977 "wow" signal Anatomy of a "WOW" signal. Vertical ordinate represents intensity; horizontal axis is frequency in intervals of 10 kilohertz. Time axis runs into the chart with 12-second intervals. Over the years, several large radio astronomy antennas have listened for "intelligent" radio signals from outer space. The acronym SETI is customarily applied to such searches; SETI standing for Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. There have been a few exciting false alarms during these listening periods, but most could be attributed to known natural radio sources or manmade interference. All in all, it has been rather disappointing to those who are sure someone else is out there. The major exception in the SETI record was the so-called "WOW" (like Egad!) signal picked up in 1977 by a radio telescope at Ohio State University, in Columbus. The bandwidth of the sig nal was narrower than those of most natural sources; there was also some evidence of periodic and drifting features. The signal never recurred, nor could it be correlated with any manmade or natural radio sources. (Eberhart, Jonathan; "Listening for ET," Science News, 135:296, 1989.) Comment. We can only speculate as to what alien intelligence might mean. Then, too, aliens have probably progressed far beyond primitive radio communication! From Science Frontiers #64, JUL-AUG 1989 . 1989-2000 ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 76: Jul-Aug 1991 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Will earth's rings return?" In the past, the Earth had a ring system just like Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, according to a Danish astronomer. He has gone so far as to say that our planet boasted rings on 16 separate occasions in the past 2800 years. "Kaare Rasmussen of the National Museum in Copenhagen carried out a survey of all reports of meteorite falls, fireballs and showers of shooting stars from 800 BC to 1750 AD. He then carried out a statistical analysis of the data. He discovered that there were many distinct periods of intense activity." Rasmussen found that the active periods, during which he believes a ring existed about the earth, began with a peak of high meteoritic activity as the ring formed, as a consequence of the earth's capture of a comet or asteroid. This was typically followed by a decrease of activity indicating ring stability. Finally, the ring broke up as its particles were decelerated by the earth's upper atmosphere, leading to another peak of activity. Thus, the plot of me-teorite activity is U-shaped, as in the figure, with the bottom of the U a bit higher than the normal background. (Gribbin, John; "Will the Earth's Rings Return?" New Scientist, p. 19, April 6, 1991.) From Science Frontiers #76, JUL-AUG 1991 . 1991- ...
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... Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Two Hot Spots On Mercury Radio telescopes can give planetary astronomers a rough idea of the temperature existing several feet below the surface of a distant planet. Scrutinizing Mercury with their big electronic "ears," they have found two spots on the plamet where the temperatures are several hundred degrees higher than in the surrounding areas. Actually, these hot spots are easy to understand; because, to a Mercurian, the sun comes to a stop in the sky over one of these points and then moves backwards to the other point 180 away. As the sun tarries over these two spots, it heats them preferentially. The strange apparent motion of the sun is due to the 3:2 ratio between Mercury's period of revolution around the sun (88 days) and its axial spin period (59.6 days). What is surprising is that the energy detected radiating from the two hot spots is all reradiated solar energy; that is, there seems to be no contribution at all from Mercury's core! If no heat is leaking out of Mercury's core, the core itself is very likely solid. If it is solid, it cannot establish convection cells and thus generate a magnetic field through dynamo action. But back in 1975, the Mariner 10 spacecraft radioed back that Mercury actually does possess a magnetic field, and a surprisingly large one at that. (Wilford, John Noble; "Theory of Mercury's Hot Poles Is Shown to Be a Fact," New ...
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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 Dream Esp And Geomagnetic Activity The following is an abstract from a paper by M.A . Persinger and S. Krippner. "The 24-hour periods in which the most accurate telepathic dreams occurred during the Maimonides studies displayed significantly quieter geomagnetic activity than the days before or after. This statistically significant V-shaped temporal sequence in geomagnetic activity was not evident for those periods when less accurate dreams occurred. When geomagnetic activity around the time of the strongest experimental telepathic dreams was compared to the geomagnetic activity around the time of spontaneous telepathic dreams from the Gurney, Myers and Podmore (1886) collection, very similar (statistically undistinguishable) temporal patterns were observed. Analyses of both experimental and spontaneous telepathic experiences indicated that they were more accurate (or more likely to have occurred) during 24hour intervals when the daily average antipodal (aa) index was approximately 10 3 gammas. When the daily aa index exceeded amplitudes of approximately 20-25 gammas, telepathic experiences became less probable." (Persinger, Michael A., and Krippner, Stanley; "Dream ESP Experiments and Geomagnetic Activity," American Society for Psychical Research, Journal, 83:101 1989.) Comment. It must be added here that mainstream science does not (yet) admit that telepathy exists as a legitimate scientific phenomenon. Nevertheless, there is an immense literature on telepathy and related parapsychological subjects. Once again we have a "shadow science," with ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 67: Jan-Feb 1990 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Solar Activity And Bursts Of Human Creativity Abstract "In a previous paper, evidence has been reported suggesting a link between historical oscillations of scientific creativity and solar cyclic variation. Eddy's discovery of abnormal secular periods of solar inactivity (' Maunder minimum' type) offered the opportunity to put the present hypothesis to a crucial test. Using time series of flourish years of creators in science, literature, and painting (AD600-AD1800), it was found that, as expected: Cultural flourish curves show marked discontinuities (bursts) after the onset of secular solar excursions, synchronously in Europe and China; During periods of extended solar excursions, bursts of creativity in painting, literature, and science succeeded one another with lags of about 10-15 years; The reported regularities of cultural output are prominent throughout with eminent creators. They decrease with ordinary professionals. "The hypothesized extraterrestrial connection of human cultural history has thus been considerably strengthened." (Ertel, Suitbert; "Synchronous Bursts of Creativity in Independent Cultures; Evidence for an Extraterrestrial Connec tion," The Explorer, 5:12, Fall 1989.) Comment. With apologies to the author, a few minor changes in punctuation have been made above. From Science Frontiers #67, JAN-FEB 1990 . 1990-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... all rather different from rote memory, such as employed by memorizers of pi. First, we present Howe-and-Smith's abstract; then, a particularly interesting specific case. "A number of mentally handicapped individuals are able to solve difficult calendar date problems such as specifying the day of the week for a particular date, sometimes over spans of more than 100 years. These individuals are self-taught and do not follow procedures at all similar to the usual, published, algorithms. An investigation of one individual revealed that he retained considerable information about the structure of days in particular months, probably as visual images. His skill closely depended on the extent and form of his knowledge of calendars, and his errors were often a consequence of lack of knowledge about a particular time period. Mentally retarded individuals who perform calendar date feats are often socially withdrawn and devote considerable periods of time to calendar dates. The most capable calendar-date calculators are usually individuals who have a strong interest in calendars as such." Although some calendar calculators may use visual imagery - perhaps something like eidetic imagery - at least one calendar calculator was blind from birth. Example. "One of the few serious attempts that have been made to understand the mental operations underlying calendar skills is described by William Horwitz and others. They examined the abilities of a pair of mentally retarded identical male twins, both of whom performed calendar-calculating feats. During the twins' early childhood, despite severe family difficulties caused partly by the father's alcoholism, the parents, whose efforts to teach numerical ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 66: Nov-Dec 1989 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Neptune Spins Too Fast And Its Magnetic Field Is Awry Some pre-Voyager theories about Neptune have been severely tried by the data trickling back to earth across the great gulf separating us from what is now the most distant planet. Before Voyager, Neptune's spin period was believed to be about 17 hours. This was just the spin rate needed by theorists to explain why Neptune radiates much more heat than Uranus. It seems that spin rate is related to the mixing of a planet's molten innards, which in turn affects the rate at which heat reaches the surface where it is radiated away. With Neptune's period now pegged at 16 hours by Voyager's measurements, the mixing-cooling theory is in trouble. The magnetic-field situation is in even worse shape. When planetary scientists found that Uranus' magnetic field was tilted 60 from the axis of rotation, they worried a bit but didn't think that this one exception would overthrow the favored dynamo theory of field generation. After all, the magnetic fields of Jupiter, Saturn, and earth are reasonably well-behaved. But Neptune's field is now found to be misaligned by 50 ! The confidence of the planetologists has now been shaken. What, if anything, is different about Neptune and Uranus? It may just be that we don't really know how the magnetic field of any planet is generated. (Kerr, ...
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... Frontiers ONLINE No. 73: Jan-Feb 1991 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Saturn's latest burp In late September, 1990, a large white spot appeared on Saturn. Soon, this blemish spread into an oval 21,000 kilometers in length. By early November, it had developed into a planet-encircling band. Apparently, Saturn had "burped," expelling hot gases from its interior. [Saturn emits 50% more heat than it absorbs from the sun.] So far, this is not too beguiling to the anomalist. But now it seems that other white spots, not as large, have been recorded in 1876, 1903, 1933, and 1960. Could the white-spot phenomenon be periodic--like a percolator? More food for thought is found in Saturn's orbital period around the sun: 29.4 years -- not too different from the potential "burp" cycle! (Anonymous; "New White Spot on Saturn Grows, Changes," Science News, 138:325, 1990. Also: Brown, William; "Giant Bubble of Gas Rises through Saturn's Atmosphere," New Scientist, p. 22, October 20, 1990.) Reference. Historical observations of white spots on Saturn are covered in our handbook: Mysterious Universe. To order, visit: here . From Science Frontiers #73, JAN-FEB 1991 . 1991-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Impact Delivery Of Early Oceans Where did the earth's oceans come from? For decades the stock answer has been: from the condensation of vapors escaping from the planet's cooling crust; that is, "outgassing." The possibility that some terrestrial water might have ar rived from extraterrestrial sources after the earth's formation has been discounted. The major reason behind this neglect was the expectation that the erosive effects of large-scale impacts of water-carrying comets and asteroids would preclude any net accumulation of volatiles, and could even reduce any existing inventories of surface water. C.F . Chyba has recently reexamined this question of cometary water influx vs. impact-caused water losses using the latest estimates of comet/asteroid fluxes during the period between 4.5 and 3.5 billion years ago, when bombardment of the inner solar system was thought to be especially severe. Rather than the expected net loss, Chyba computes that the earth would really have gained more than 0.2 - 0.7 ocean masses in that billion-year period. Venus would have fared equally well, but Mars, more sensitive to impact erosion, would have accreted "only" a layer of water 10-100 meters deep over the whole planet! (This Martian water is now mostly below the surface supposedly.) (Chyba, Christopher F.; "Impact Delivery and Erosion of Planetary Oceans in the Early Inner Solar System," Nature, 343:129, 1990.) Comment. Not mentioned in this paper is ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 77: Sep-Oct 1991 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Some Old Geysers Are Not So Faithful Yellowstone's Old Faithful has a namesake in Calistoga, California. This notso-well-known geyser is usually very dependable, erupting every 90 minutes, shooting 350 F water 60 feet into the air. However, some 60 hours before the October 1989, 7.1 -magnitude quake in the San Francisco Bay area, the geyser's period suddenly lengthened to more than 100 minutes. After the quake, it settled back into its usual routine. Prior to two other earthquakes, in 1975 and 1984, the clockwork of Calistoga's Old Faithful also ran slow. (Anonymous; "Unfaithful Geyser," Discover, 12:8 , July 1991.) Comment. Since the quake epicenters were many miles distant from the geyser, how is the geyser's clockwork altered? Somehow, small earth movements must have changed the size of the geyser's water reservoir or, possibly, pressure changes in the surrounding rocks might have reduced the flow of water into the reservoir. Pertinent here are the often-observed changes in well levels and spring flows prior to earthquakes. Reference. Geysers display many anomalies. These are cataloged in GHG1-GHG3 in the book Earthquakes, Tides. For details on ordering, visit: here . From Science Frontiers #77, SEP-OCT 1991 . 1991-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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