... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 54: Nov-Dec 1987 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Uncertainty Of Knowledge "Human beings of all societies in all periods of history believe that their ideas on the nature of the real world are the most secure, and that their ideas on religion, ethics and justice are the most enlightened. Like us, they think that final knowledge is at last within reach. Like us, they pity the people in earlier ages for not knowing the true facts. Unfailingly, human beings pity their ancestors for being so ignorant and forget that their descendants will pity them for the same reason." E. Harrison, who penned the above, sees knowledge as perpetually uncertain and always changing. Scientists will always be surprised, he says, and scientific laws are never final. He concludes: "I feel liberated by this philosophy. I find comfort in the thought that the creative mind fashions the world in which we live. For it means that the mind and reality are more profound than we normally suppose." (Harrison, Edward; "The Uncertainty of Knowledge," New Scientist, p. 78, September 24, 1987.) From Science Frontiers #54, NOV-DEC 1987 . 1987-2000 William R. Corliss ...

... 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 Did irish monks build this new england chamber circa 700 ad?Curious stone chambers dot the New England countryside. Are they all potato cellars built by farmers? Most archeologists insist that they are. But some seem too sophisticated for such a mundane application. One of these problematic chambers is built into a hillside at Upton, Massachusetts. J.W . Mavor, Jr., and B.E . Dix carefully measured and studied this chamber over a period of years. They give three reasons for asserting that it was really built by Europeans around 700 AD -- long before the Norse set foot on North America. The dry masonry chamber at Upton, Massachusetts. (Adapted from ESRS Bulletin, 1:12, 1973) The sophisticated corbelling of the structure closely follows that seen in Irish and Iberic chambers, such as New Grange. The long passageway is aligned with the summer solstice sunset, also a feature of some ancient European structures, but hardly of any concern to a New England farmer. The Upton chamber seems to be associated with linear arrays of stones and stone cairns on nearby Pratt Hill. These alignments have obvious astronomical significance. In fact, based upon changes in the setting positions of several stars (due to precession), Mavor and Dix believe the whole complex dates back to 700-750 AD. They conclude: "Of all the enigmatic structures that we have seen in America, the Upton chamber ...

... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 26: Mar-Apr 1983 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Punching A Hole In The Asteroid Hypothesis Scientists have long searched for a cause for the profound geological and biological changes that apparently occurred between the Cretaceous and Tertiary periods. When an iridium-rich layer was found in several areas at this important boundary, many claimed it as proof of an asteroid impact or some other catastrophism that would nicely explain the massive worldwide changes that occurred. With this preamble in mind, consider the following abstract from an article in Science: "Analyses of the clay mineralogy of samples from the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary layer at four localities show that the boundary clay is neither mineralogically exotic nor distinct from locally derived clays above and below the boundary. The significant ejecta component in the clay that is predicted by the asteroid impact scenario was not detected." (Rampino, Michael R., and Reynolds, Robert C.; "Clay Mineralogy of the Cretaceous-Tertiary Boundary Clay," Science, 219:1983.) From Science Frontiers #26, MAR-APR 1983 . 1983-2000 William R. Corliss ...

... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 27: May-Jun 1983 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Ogham inscriptions in west virginia?Several petroglyphs in Wyoming and Boone counties, West Virginia, long-identified as random Indian doodling with little message content, may actually be Celtic Ogham writing. Translations of the petroglyphs reveal several Christian messages, as in the segment illustrated below. Based upon the style of the Ogham, these petroglyphs may have been chiseled some time between the early Sixth and late Eighth centuries. The Ogham writers may have been Irish monks who, after the fashion of St. Brendan, sailed west from Europe during this period. (Pyle, Robert L.; "A Message from the Past," p. 3. Gallagher, Ida Jane; " Light Dawns on West Virginia History," p. 7. Fell, Barry; "Christian Messages in Old Irish Script Deciphered from Rock Carvings in W. Va.," p. 12. All three articles appeared in: Wonderful West Virginia, vol. 47, March 1983.) Comment. Wonderful West Virginia is obviously not a science journal. Pyle is identified as an archeologist. The articles include many excellent color photographs of the inscriptions, so their reality can hardly be doubted. Reference. Our Handbook Ancient Man covers enigmatic ancient inscriptions in great detail. To order, see: here . Translation: "The season of the blessed advent of the Savior, Lord Christ (Salvatoris Domini Christi)" From Science Frontiers #27, MAY ...

... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 28: Jul-Aug 1983 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Alaskan Jigsaw Puzzle Alaska seems to be plastered together from bits and pieces that originated far from the present position of this state. The units that now make up southern Alaska, for example, started north of the equator 250 million years ago, crossed into the southern hemisphere, and started back north about 160 million years ago. However, the itinerary of northern Alaska cannot even be guessed at. Present thinking is that this portion of the state was close to the geographic north pole during the late Cretaceous. But this is the period when the huge coal deposits were formed on the Arctic slope. Much of this coal comes from evergreens, which could not have survived in high latitudes due to the lack of sunlight. So, the pieces of the puzzle are at hand, but their travels are a mystery. (Anonymous; "Fragmented Alaska," Open Earth, no. 17, 1982.) Reference. For more on exotic terranes, see ESR9 in our Catalog: Inner Earth. Ordering information here . From Science Frontiers #28, JUL-AUG 1983 . 1983-2000 William R. Corliss ...

... that has been disturbed by natural forces, such as sudden weather changes and, especially, earthquakes. A famous example of the latter seichedriving force occurred on March 27, 1964, when the Great Alaskan Earthquake sent seismic waves rippling around the globe. Fourteen minutes after this quake, the tremors reached the U.S . Gulf coast and triggered numerous seiches in bays, harbors, canals, bayous, etc. Some crest-to-trough waterlevel oscillations reached 2 meters in amplitude. Startling though these seiches were to Gulf fishermen, most seiches are wellexplained. Bodies of water that are mostly enclosed have natural frequencies of oscillation or "sloshing," just as do coffee cups and bathtubs. The Alaskan quake just operated on a larger scale than a bump to your coffee cup! Short-period oscillations in the tidal record from Puerto Princesa, Palawan Island, Philippines. These are coastal seiches, but hardly "death waves"! So far, so good. But there are exists an interesting -- and sometimes dangerous -- class of related events that affects open coastal waters. The Irish call them "death waves." In the Baltic, they are "seebars;" in the Azores, "lavadiads." Whatever their name, they are large, tsunamilike waves that suddenly enter coastal waters and which cannot be assigned to any known triggering force. The frequency of occurrence of these "coastal seiches" may be a clue to their source. For example, off the Puerto Rican island of Magueyes, coastal seiches are most common about 7 days after new and full ...

... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 30: Nov-Dec 1983 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Soil Temperatures Forecast Rainfall Patterns Dig a hole about 40 inches deep, take the soil temperature at that depth, and you can predict future wet and dry periods months ahead of time. To illustrate, warm spring soils are usually followed by rainy summers; cold soils precede dry summers most of the time. At first, American scientists doubted this Chinese discovery, but their re-search soon proved that the correlation is even stronger in the United States. The best explanation so far is that soil temperatures affect atmospheric convection and modify weather patterns locally. (Anonymous; "Digging for a Forecast," Science Digest, 91:30, September 1983.) From Science Frontiers #30, NOV-DEC 1983 . 1983-2000 William R. Corliss ...

... : 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 compared with ESP explanations." ( ...

... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 32: Mar-Apr 1984 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Spores still viable after 7,000 years Bacterial spores embedded in muds lining Minnesota's Elk Lake -- the muds were carbon-dated at 7518 years(!) -- grew vigorously when placed in a nutrient-rich solution. (Anonymous; "Spores Still Viable after 7,000 Years," Science News, 124:280, 1983.) Comment. Such long periods of suspended animation support the panspermia concept, which states that life can be transported through outer space on meteorites and other debris. From Science Frontiers #32, MAR-APR 1984 . 1984-2000 William R. Corliss ...

... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 33: May-Jun 1984 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Comet Puffs A Smoke Ring When the periodic comet Kopff was photographed on August 13, 1983, using the 4-meter Mayall reflector at Kitt Peak, the black-and-white photo showed nothing out-of-the-ordinary. But digitization and computer enhancement revealed a previously unnoticed cloud of matter -million miles long trailing the nucleus. Curiously, the cloud resembled a huge smoke ring -- a distinct departure from the long, flowing tails shown in the textbooks. (Anonymous; "The Unusual Dust Cloud of Comet Kopff," Sky and Telescope, 67:226, 1984.) Comment. Obviously forces other than the solar wind were at work here. From Science Frontiers #33, MAY-JUN 1984 . 1984-2000 William R. Corliss ...

... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 35: Sep-Oct 1984 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects A Different Way Of Looking At The Universe Here is an excellent survey of American archeoastronomy from Canadian medicine wheels to Mesoamerican aligned structures. To the anomalist, the most interesting part of Aveni's review paper is found in his comments about the world view of the Precolumbian Americans, particularly the Maya. That the Maya were acute astronomers is beyond question. They had even developed a correction scheme to keep Venus' 584-day canonical cycle on track with its true synodic period of 583.92 days. Their predictions of the position of Venus were accurate to 2 hours in 481 years! Not bad for a civilization that did not seem to have any conception that the planets revolved around the sun. The Maya, in fact, did not seem to care what made heavenly bodies move; they only wished to predict their appearance accurately. Instead of developing celestial mechanics based on gravitation and laws of motion, as we have done, they were content with numerical algorithms; that is, ways of computing a desired result. Their astonishingly accurate predictions of Venus, solar eclipses, and other astronomical phenomena evolved from cycles of numbers advancing each day like interlocking gear teeth. These algorithms gave them no insight into cause and effect, but they got the right answers. They needed no physical laws, just patterns of numbers. It was a different way of comprehending and dealing with the universe. (Aveni, Anthony F.; " ...

... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 37: Jan-Feb 1985 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects A DISASTER-DRIVEN EARLY CIVILIZATION Archeologists had long recognized the existence of a highly sophisticated early civilization in the Cauca Valley region stretching 550 miles from southern Ecuador into Columbia. This civilization produced a distinctive pottery and spectacular gold artifacts. It was obviously a highly advanced culture, technologically and socially. But it was dated at 400-800 AD; and for this period in South American history these accomplishments did not seem out of line. Recently, though, additional evidence of this civilization was discovered beneath a datable volcanic ash. The new dates for this civilization are 600-1 ,500 BC, putting it about 1,000 years ahead of Maya and Inca achievements. The "digs" show further that this culture was frequently beset by devastating outbursts of volcanic activity, which often rendered large areas of land uninhabitable. Rather than suppressing this remarkable culture, Donald Lathrap, a University of Illinois archeologist, says: "Those disasters pushed people from the region and led to upward leaps in social evolution..." (Anonymous; "Key to a Vanished Empire," San Francisco Chronicle, June 14, 1984. Cr. J. Covey.) Comment. The reaction of this early society of advanced organisms to environmental stress seems a perfect introduction to several items that follow on how cells and other species respond to stresses from without. From Science Frontiers #37, JAN-FEB 1985 . 1985-2000 William R ...

... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 62: Mar-Apr 1989 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Recent Martian Rivers Erode Alba Patera Most of the Martian surface is thought to be more than 3.8 billion years old. This portion is densely cratered from a period pf heavy meteorite bombardment. It is also carved by many channels that are thought to have been cut in ancient times by flowing water, water which quickly escaped into space or combined chemically with Martian minerals. The present atmosphere of Mars, in consequence, contains little water vapor. But some of the Martian landscape, notably Alba Patera, raises questions about the above scenario. The anomalous characteristic of Alba Patera is its relative smoothness and scarcity of impact craters. This Martian real estate is believed to be 2 billion years younger than the rest of the planet. Even so, it, too, is marked by "fluvial" features that resemble stream beds. Question #1 . How did Alba Patera get smoothed out or "reworked"? In other words, what happened to the ancient craters that must have pocked its surface, as they do everywhere else? Question #2 . Where did the water come from to cut Alba Patera's stream beds if all of the Martian water disappeared 2 billion years earlier? One line of thought maintains that "fluvial" does not mean "pluvial," and that Martian water has come from below rather than as rain from the atmosphere. Both fluvial episodes, in this view, occurred when something caused the ...

... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 92: Mar-Apr 1994 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Diamonds are an anomalist's best friend The diamonds we mine today were, according to prevailing wisdom, formed about 3 billion years ago, at depths of 150-300 kilometers, where pressures of 725,000-1 ,000,000 psi are believed to exist. After lengthy cooling periods, the crystalized diamonds were transported to the surface by fluid, lower-melting-point rocks, such as kimberlite. Many South African diamonds are mined from kimberlite pipes. Diamonds are never pure carbon; they always contain some nitrogen and boron. Occasionally, they harbor tiny radioactive impurities; usually alpha-particle emitters in the uranium-238 decay chain. Alphas emitted by these impurities have well-defined energies and penetrate the diamond matrix only so far. If one examines a diamond with a high-power microscope (say, at 100 x), one can see concentric rings surrounding the impurities. These dark radiohalos or "pleochroic" halos have specific radii and can be used to identify the radioisotopes that produced them. So far, so good; but: "The fact that fully formed, optically visible internal radiohalos in diamonds are now presented casts a considerable shadow over current theories of diamond genesis." Actually, the radiohalos pose three challenges to diamond-genesis theory. Problem 1. The half-lives of the halo-creating radioisotopes are measured in thousands of years rather than the billions prescribed for crystallization. ...

... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 51: May-Jun 1987 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects A QUESTIONABLE 200-MILLION-YEAR HIATUS Hiking down into the Grand Canyon of the Colorado is a geological education. As one descends past the beautifully exposed horizontal strata, one also turns back the geological clock in welldefined ticks. That is what the signs along the way say, and that is what all the textbooks proclaim! But when the juncture between the Redwall Limestone and Muav Limestone is reached, a 200million-year gap appears. The sign posted here by the National Park Service reads: An unconformity "Rocks of the Ordovician and Silurian Periods are missing in Grand Canyon. Temple Butte Limestone of Devonian age occurs in scattered pockets. Redwall Limestone rests on these Devonian rocks or on Muav Limestone of much earlier Cambrian Age." This supposed unconformity is puzling for several reasons: The two limestone strata "seem" conformable in most places. Both are nicely horizontal, and there is basically no evidence that 200 million years of erosion and tectonic disturbances separate them. In some places, the two limestone strata intertongue or interfinger, such that by moving vertically one flashed back and forth in 200-million-year jumps. In both limestone strata, one finds layers of the same micaceous shale containing the same fossil tubeworms, suggesting near-simultaneous deposition. In one place, the two limestones clearly grade into one another, with no separation at all. Anyone who walks down the Canyon trails can see that the evidence for a ...

... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 123: May-Jun 1999 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Puzzling Shadows August 3, 1997. Dooey, West Donegal, Ireland. The observer, A. Evans, was on a north-south beach. "It was a glorious day with some broken cloud over the land but none out to sea. Over the period between 3.00 and 6.00pm, a total of five jets passed overhead, all leaving vapour trails. Two showed a very interesting phenomenon, because while the vapour trails extended eastwards, the trails were continued westwards in front of the planes as dark lines which stretched all the way to the horizon. It was as if the plane was running on an aerial railway. I think it significant that only two of the planes showed this phenomenon as I suspect it was heightdependent. At this time the sun was high and shining from the south-southwest." J.O . Mattsson, Lund University, surmised that the black streaks in front of aircraft were shadows of the condensation trails behind the two planes. The shadows were cast forward ahead of the planes upon the hazy, though cloudless, atmosphere above the ocean. (Evans, Alun; "Condensation Trail Shadows," Weather, 53:371, 1998.) Comment. Since the sun was high in the sky, it is difficult to visualize how a the vapor-trail shadow could be cast directly ahead of the aircraft. Hummm! We suppose that the vapor trails acted like ...

... 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 ...

... nonsense. The Expanding Earth Hypothesis goes back to at least 1933, a time when the Continental Drift Hypothesis was accorded the same sort of ridicule. Now, Continental Drift is enthroned; and ironically many of its strongest proponents are vehemently opposed to the Expanding Earth, ignoring the lessons of history. The data that suggest that the earth has expanded significantly over geological time come from the pleasant pastime of continent fitting. If one takes the pieces of continental and oceanic crust and tries to fit them together at various times over the past several hundred million years, taking into account the production of crust at the midocean ridges, the fit gets worse and worse as one works backward in time. Great gaps (or "gores") appear between the pieces of crust which geologists believed existed at these periods. (Of course, one can play this puzzle-piece game only at passive continent-ocean boundaries where the oceanic crust has not slid under the continental crust. The South Atlantic is a good place to work.) These embarrassing, grotesque gaps can be made to disappear almost as if by magic by assuming that the earth was smaller in the past. This seems, on the surface, to be a crazy idea. Why would an entire planet swell up like a balloon? Hugh Owen answers in this way: "The geological and geophysical implications of such Earth expansion are so profound that most geologists and geophysicists shy away from them. In order to fit with the reconstruction that seems to be required, the volume of the Earth was only 51 per cent of its present ...

... 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 ...

... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 139: Jan-Feb 2002 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Really High Oysters At 12,300 feet of altitude among the cold rarefied peaks of the Andes, one would not expect giant fossilized oysters. But there they are---over 500 of them in one location. Some are 3.5 meters in circumference (about 3.8 feet across). When alive, they probably weighed 300 kilograms (660 pounds). About 200 million years ago, according to the geologists, these oysters were thriving under Pacific waters. One must conclude that the Andes rose to their snowy magnificence in a very short period of geological time. (Mayo, Raul; "Descubren Fosiles de Ostras Gigantes en Plena Cordillera," El Comercio, February 28, 2001. Cr. R. Gabbert) Comment. The article calls the fossils "oysters" (" ostras"), but they look more like giant clams. The high Andes boast some curious marine innuendoes. Lake Titicaca is freshened by melting snows but is said to support a species of seahorse and many fish with marine affinities. It drains into lakes that are highly saline. From Science Frontiers #139, Jan-Feb 2002 . 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 ...

... restraint on physical movement, physical abuse, and the threat of death. For eight victims, these conditions were sufficient to produce a progression of visual hallucinations from simple geometric images to complex memory images coupled with dissociation. The other 23 victims, subjected to similar conditions but without isolation and life-threatening stress, did not experience hallucinations. The hostage hallucinations are compared to those resulting from sensory deprivation, near fatal accidents, and other states of isolation and stress. A common mechanism of action based on entopic phenomena and CNS (central nervous system) excitation and arousal is suggested." In a typical case, an 18-year-old female college student was kidnapped and held for ransom. She was bound, blindfolded, and denied food, water, and toilet facilities. She was periodically threatened with death. She saw dull flashes of light in front of her eyes and small animals and insects on the periphery of her visual field. Becoming hypervigilant, she heard strange sounds and whispers. Hearing loud noises, she thought her captors were coming to kill her. It was then her whole life ran off like a slide show before her eyes. The noises were the police coming to rescue her. (Siegel, Ronald K.; "Hostage Hallucinations," Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 172:264, 1984.) Comment. Some of the hostages experienced the tunnel hallucination so common in near-death visions. These seemingly 'built-in' or hard-wired images may be related to UFO and sea-serpent phenomena. From Science Frontiers # ...

... from H.J . Melosh; "Recent evidence that the SNC meteorites originated on Mars raises the question of whether large impacts on Earth may eject rocks that could fall on Mars (or other planets in the Solar System) and, if so whether they might contain spores or some sort of viable microorganisms that would have the opportunity to colonize Mars." After some computations Melosh concludes: "It seems likely that the impacts that produced craters on Earth that are greater than 100 km in diameter would each have ejected millions of tons of near-surface rocks carrying viable microorganisms into interplanetary space, much in the form of boulders large enough to shield those organisms from ultraviolet radiation, low-energy cosmic rays, and even galactic cosmic rays. Under such circumstances spores might remain viable for long periods of time." (Melosh, H.J .; "The Rocky Road to Panspermia," Nature, 332:687, 1988.) Comment. Next we need a reasonable mechanism that spreads life through interstellar space. Light pressure, that's it; and the idea is over a century old! Incidentally, SNC is short for Shergottites, Nakhalites, Chassignites; all rare classes of meteorites. From Science Frontiers #58, JUL-AUG 1988 . 1988-2000 William R. Corliss ...

... instances where flakes more than 5 centimeters (2 inches) in diameter have been observed. Of these, we have already cataloged six in GWP2, in Tornados, Dark Days, Anomalous Precipita tion, including the prize of the lot: the 15-inch snowflakes that parachuted down on Fort Keough, Montana, on January 28, 1887. Five of Pike's cases that we did not catalog have diameters of "only" 5 or 6 centimeters. The sixth uncataloged observation would certainly have been worth including if we had known about it: March 24, 1888. Shirenewton, England. "Snowstorm with extraordinary flakes, some were 3 3/4 in. in diameter, yet only in. thick, falling like plates. The storm lasted only 2 minutes but in this short period the ground was covered 2 in. deep." The quotation is from British Rainfall, 1988, as requoted by Pike. In all cases, huge snowflakes are really aggregations of many thousands of individual flakes. Observers have thought that the big flakes attract individual flakes. (Pike, W.S .; "Unusually-Large Snowflakes," Journal of Meteorology, U.K ., 13:3 , 1988.) Comment. Could electrostatic forces be involved? Reference. The catalog Tornados, Dark Days, mentioned above, is described here . Snowflakes 38cm in diameter fall in Montana. (From Tornados, Dark Days, etc). From Science Frontiers #57, MAY-JUN 1988 . 1988-2000 William R. Corliss ...

... present. Here we present results obtained from a wide range of Chinese pottery, spanning the interval from 4000 BC to the present, indicating that the field behaviour was more complex. The intensity was high between 1500 and 1000 BC and again in the first half of the first millennium AD. Comparison with results reported for Western Asia, Egypt and Crete suggests that these high values are due to non-dipole disturbances in the geomagnetic field, consistent with long-term records of the cosmogenic radioisotopes 14C and 10Be." (Quing-Yun, Wei, et al; "Geomagnetic Intensity as Evaluated from Ancient Chinese Pottery," Nature, 328:330, 1987.) Comment. This article stimulates three questions: What caused the geomagnetic changes; could some be of internal origin? Are periods of reduced magnetic fields associated with cultural changes? The graph, for example, reveals a dip during the flowering of Greek civilization. Could such ambient magnetic changes have an effect on human imagination, as reported in laboratory test?. See SF#53. Ratios of ancient geomagnetic field intensity to present intensity versus date. Data from China. From Science Frontiers #54, NOV-DEC 1987 . 1987-2000 William R. Corliss ...

... his excavations. On p. 000 we reproduce a photo of the amulet with its strange epigraphy. Now, we add a sketch of the "elongated hafted ground biface, with human figure." Over 13 inches long, this artifact depicts a trousered, bearded man of European countenance, who is missing one arm and a foot. Petersen asserts that the artifacts have no affinities with American Indian artifacts: rather they have a European flavor. What can one make out of all this? Petersen is only able to state: "Although the site is undoubtedly human-made, its function, antiquity and cultural attribution cannot be precisely specified on the basis of the unique characteristics of both the artifacts and the cist. Tentative interpretations allow suggestion that it is attributable to some portion of the historical period, a European cultural tradition, and probably is contemporaneous with or postdates local stone working at the site." In other words, we could have anything from a pre-Columbian European contact to rock doodling by Colonial stoneworkers. (Petersen, James B.; "Grand Lake Stream, The Elliott II Site: An Archaeologist's Preliminary Report," NEARA Journal, 25:3 , Summer/Fall, 1990.) From Science Frontiers #75, MAY-JUN 1991 . 1991-2000 William R. Corliss ...