2482 results found.
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 10: Spring 1980 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Universal Urge To Join Up Take a mouse cell and place it in contact with a human cell. The two separating membranes will dissove and the cell contents will mix. The once-independent and widely different cell nuclei will fuse, forming a single hybrid cell with a common membrane. Even more astonishing, this totally new biological entity will often divide and produce an endless line of the new hybrid. As might be expected, some hybrids do not remain true and revert to one or the other of the original species. Although cell fusion has been observed only under laboratory conditions, it seems to represent a near-universal cell phenomenon that might be realized rarely under natural conditions. The implications for the history of life are far-reaching. For example, the mitochondria in human cells that help our bodies use oxygen to obtain energy may well be descendants of bacteria that once fused with primitive cells. The same may be true for the chloroplasts in plant cells. (Thomas, Lewis; "Cell Fusion: Does It Represent a Universal Urge to 'Join Up'?" Science Digest, 86:52, December 1979.) Comment. Natural cell fusion might make large evolutionary steps possible and be much faster than endless small genetic changes. Are we all composite creatures? From Science Frontiers #10, Spring 1980 . 1980-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 11: Summer 1980 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Ignis Fatuus Ignorance A.A . Mills, a British scientist, has had the courage to research will-o '- wisps, those greatly neglected luminous phenomena frequenting marshy places. His literature search confirms the reality of these cold flames, though they seem to be reported only rarely in modern times. Actually, today's science tends to laugh off will-o '- the-wisps as old wive's tales or as misidentifications of St. Elmo's Fire or Ball Lightning. At the best, will-o '- the-wisps are considered simply the spontaneous ignition of marsh gas -- a trivial phenomenon not worth wasting time on. Mills' study, however, shows this condescending attitude to be far off the mark. He has experimented with marsh gases, even constructing his own controlled "swamp," and has been unable to duplicate the established characteristics of will-o '- the-wisps; ie., spontaneous ignition, cold blue flames, no significant odor, etc. The marsh gas theory does not seem to hold water, despite many chemical variations. (Mills, A.A .; "Will-O 'the-Wisp," Chemistry in Britain, 16:69, February 1980.) Reference. All manner of eerie lowlevel noctural lights are cataloged at GLN1 in Lightning, Auroras. Ordering information and description here . From Science Frontiers #11, Summer ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 122: Mar-Apr 1999 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Earth Hums More Loudly In The Afternoons It has been known for almost a century that large earthquakes set the earth to ringing like a bell. In SF#118, we reported that the planet also "hums" when there have been no earthquakes. Just what forces stimulate this seismic humming of the earth-as-a -whole is still a matter of conjecture. Actually, "hum" is a poor choice of words. The period of these vibrations ranges from 3 to 8 minutes, which puts them in the range of infrasound. Recently, N. Suda of Nagoya University has found a clue suggesting that thunderstorms may excite these very-lowfrequency vibrations. Suda and his colleagues analyzed the seismic records at four seismically quiet locations around the globe and discovered that the hum is loudest between noon and 8 PM local time. The quietest period is from midnight to 6 AM. These are the same time frames when thunderstorms are most active and quiet. It's circumstantial evidence, but it makes sense. (Kerr, Richard A.; "Earth Seems to Hum along with the Wind," Science, 283:321, 1999.) Comment. Infrasound in the atmosphere may originate from storms thousands of miles away and from strong winds blowing across mountain crests. It appears that the earth is an immense, spherical aeolian harp! From Science Frontiers #122, MAR-APR 1999 . 1999-2000 ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 86: Mar-Apr 1993 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Cosmic Snowballs And Magnetic Asteroids The genesis of a cosmic "dust bunny". The nebulous meteor of July 29, 1970, as observed over Dover, England. The great diversity of the debris swirling around the solar system is making life difficult for scientists trying to reconstruct solar-system history. At the high end of the density spectrum, we now have an asteroid that seems to be mostly metal (probably iron). This is the asteroid Gaspra, some 13 kilometers across, that the Galileo spacecraft encountered in August 1992 on its way to Jupiter. Scientists had not expected Galileo's magnetometer to flicker as it passed Gaspra at a distance of 1600 kilometers -- but it did. In fact, considering the inverse square law and Gaspra's small size, it was a magnetic wallop. Thus, Gaspra is the first known magnetic asteroid; and it is probably mostly metal. (Kerr, Richard A.; "Magnetic Ripple Hints Gaspra Is Metallic," Science, 259: 176, 1993.) At the low end of the density spectrum, we now find that Pluto's moon, Charon, and some of Saturn's moons have very low densities (1 .2 -1 .4 ), meaning they are probably mostly water ice. Such density figures come from direct observation of these objects' volumes combined with mass estimates from their orbital dynamics. (Crosswell, Ken; " ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 38: Mar-Apr 1985 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Still Another Mystery Cloud April 9, 1984. Western Pacific. The crews of three airliners en route from Tokyo to Anchorage observed a gigantic mushroom cloud about 180 miles east of Japan. The cloud was moving rapidly up and away from a cloud layer at 14,000 feet. It eventually reached a maximum altitude of about 60,000 feet, at which time its maximum diameter was about 200 miles. No fireball or flash was seen by anyone. A nuclear explosion, possibly on a submarine was suspected. One pilot issued a Mayday alert and ordered his crew to don oxygen masks. However, when an F-4 Phantom dispatched from Japan arrived at the scene, it detected no abnormal levels of radioactivity. Wake Island hydrophones, to the southeast, detected some submarine volcanic activity far south of the cloud, but no detonations in the area the cloud was spotted. The distance of the volcanic disturbances and the prevailing winds ruled out volcanic sources of smoke. In the absence of any hydrophonic evidence, the authors concluded that the mysterious cloud came either from a man-made atmospheric explosion (a huge one!) or some as yet unknown natural phenomenon. (Walker, Daniel A., et al; "Kaitoku Seamount and the Mystery Cloud of 9 April 1984," Science, 227:607, 1985.) From Science Frontiers #38, MAR-APR 1985 . 1985-2000 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 earth: a doubly charmed planet In SF#85, we learned that the evolution of advanced life forms on earth may have depended upon the protective influences of Jupiter and Saturn. These two giant planets can gravitationally deflect potentially devastating asteroids and comets away from the earth. It seems now that we are doubly lucky! Computer runs demonstrate that the presence of our large moon has stabilized the earth's spin axis down the eons. Presently, the earth's spin axis makes an angle of 23.5 with the plane of the earth's orbit (its "obliquity"). The well-known result is our yearly procession of seasons. Without the steadying effect of the moon, however, the earth's obliquity would probably have swung chaotically over much larger values. Such extreme changes would have been inimical to the development of life, particularly advanced life. As a case in point, the polar axis of Mars, with only two tiny moons to dampen its spin excursions, seems to have gone through many wild swings, as indicated in the figure. What deadly climatic changes must have wracked our sister planet! (Touma, Jihad, and Wisdom, Jack; "The Chaotic Obliquity of Mars," Science, 259: 1294, 1993. Also: Laskar, J., and Robutel, P.; "The Chaotic Obliquity of the Planets," Nature, 361:608, ...
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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 Cold Fusion Update We gingerly approached the topic of cold fusion in SF#63. Sure enough, a lot has happened in the past two months. For one thing, a panel of physicists got together and "voted" down cold fusion almost unanimously. This authoritative declaration seemed to be the beginning of the end for cold fusion - good riddance to those impertinent electrochemists! At the end of May, scientists assembled at Santa Fe for a Workshop on Cold Fusion Phenomena. Most thought this would be the coup de grace for cold fusion. Not so! More and more researchers reported either anomalous heat production or anomalous emission of neutrons from experiments based on the cold fusion results of Pons and Fleischmann at the University of Utah. Curiously, no one seemed able to get heat and neutrons at the same time and in the amounts Pons and Fleischmann had reported. We cannot go into all the experiments here. The upshot seems to be that cold fusion is not dead at all. In fact, a lot of people now believe that cold fusion actually does take place in palladium and titanium electrodes. Why, no one is sure. Nor is anyone able to explain the anomalous heat generation. Some think that two separate and distinct phenomena are being observed. One unbelievable anomaly has fissioned into two more-believable anomalies! Tune in next issue for the latest. Con't believe anything until things cool down a bit. ( ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 63: May-Jun 1989 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Life Currents In Space A few of the hundreds of meteorites picked up in the Antarctic wastes have chemical properties consistent with a Martian origin. Calculations, too, support the notion that a large meteoric impact could propel bits of the Martian surface into space where, statistically speaking, a tiny fraction would be captured by the earth's gravitational field. Some of these would fall to earth; others would remain in orbit. Now, the reverse scenario has been investigated numerically. S.A . Phinney and colleagues at the University of Arizona have calculated what would happen to small chunks of the earth's crust if a large meteor impact excavated a 60milewide crater. "Phinney's group used a computer to calculate where 1,000 particles would go if ejected from Earth in random directions, moving about 2.5 kilometers per second faster than the minimum speed necessary to escape. Of the 1,000 hypothetical particles, 291 hit Venus and 165 returned to Earth; 20 went to Mercury, 17 to Mars, 14 to Jupiter and 1 to Saturn. Another 492 left the solar system completely, primarily due to gravitational close encounters with either Jupiter or Mercury that 'slingshot' them on their way." (Eberhart, Jonathan; "Have Earth Rocks Gone to Mars?" Science News, 135:191, 1989.) Comment. One implication from the preceding analysis is that terrestrial bacteria and spores could well ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 70: Jul-Aug 1990 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects A RELUCTANT, LONG-OVERDUE PARADIGM SHIFT How many times in SF have you read items about that 12,000-year barrier before which American archeologists would not permit serious consideration of human habitation in the Americas? Well, see SF#65, 59, and 57 for starters. In SF#55, written scarcely two years ago, establishment archeologist P.S . Martin wrote: "If humans lived in the New World more than 12,000 years ago, there'd be no secret about it." But, in late March, 1990, at a conference in Boulder, Colorado, D. Stanford lef off with: "It's time to acknowledge that we do have a pre-Clovis culture in the New World." (Pre-Clovis -before 12,000 years ago.) It's all true! A long-standing consensus has collapsed: the 12,000-year barrier, like the Berlin Wall, has disintegrated. The two most important demolition charges were the widely-accepted dates of 16,000 B.P . from the Meadowcroft Rockshelter, Pennsylvania, and 13,000 B.P . from the Monte Verde site in Chile. The Monte Verde date probably represents an American entry date of at least 20,000 years ago, if one accepts that the first Americans trekked all the way down from the Bering Strait to Chile. Will ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 42: Nov-Dec 1985 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Left-handers have larger interbrain connections The two halves of the human brain are connected by a bundle of nerve fibers called the corpus callosum. The corpus callosum is thought to help integrate the activities of the right and left brains which, for reasons unknown, seem to specialize in different kinds of mental operations. Studies of the corpus callosum reveal that it is about 11% larger in left-handers than in right-handers. In terms of interconnecting nerve fibers this comes to 25,000,000 more for the left-handers. Just what sort of information flows along these myriad pathways is not known, although we do know that left-handers have greater bihemispheric representation of cognitive functions; i.e ., the brain functions are not so specialized in each half of the brain. But why should left-handers and right-handers be different at all? Are they born with unequal corpus callosa? Or are these nerve highways equal are birth and atrophy in right-handers ? (Witelson, Sandra F.; "The Brain Connection: The Corpus Callosum is Larger in Left-Handers, " Science, 229:665, 1985. ) From Science Frontiers #42, NOV-DEC 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 108: Nov-Dec 1996 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Deflating a paradigm: brazil's pedra furada The paradigm. The New World was peopled from Asia by migration across the Bering Land Bridge about 12,000 years ago, or perhaps a wee earlier. The Pedra Furada site has been dated at 50,000 BP by N. Guidon and her team of archeologists. This challenge to the dominant paradigm is powerful and unambiguous. Picking up the gauntlet, several more-conservative archeologists visited the Brazilian site and penned a blistering critique in Antiquity. (Ref. 1) Their major contention was that the 500+ supposedly human-made stone "artifacts" collected by Guidon's team are actually "geofacts"; that is, they were chipped and flaked naturally as rocks fell one upon the other from nearby cliffs. We discussed this problem in some detail in SF#105. Several other reservations about the Pedra Furada work are also offered in Ref. 1. The reaction of Guidon et al to the Antiquity paper was thunderous to say the least. It revealed the depth of the chasm separating archeologists on the date of human occupation of the New World as well as internecine politics in archeology. (Ref. 2) Guidon et al flung two serious charges at the authors of the first Antiquity paper: (1 ) They had their facts all wrong; and (2 ) Their objectivity was distorted by their loyalty to the aforestated paradigm. Not withholding any punches, ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 49: Jan-Feb 1987 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Optical Bursters For years astronomers have been puzzling over the significance of "bursters"; i.e ., short bursts of radiation from various spots in the heavens. With sophisticated terrestrial and satellite-borne instruments, they have detected gamma-ray, X-ray, and infrared bursters. The visible portion of the spectrum has been neglected because of the slow development of sensitive, high-time-resolution detectors capable of monitoring large areas of the sky. Of course, the human eye is an excellent instrument for searching for optical bursters, but professional naked-eye astronomers are few and far between nowadays. It has fallen to amateur astronomers to pioneer this field, as first mentioned in SF#39, where we introduced those optical flashes seen in Perseus. At last, the professional astronomers are taking more interest in this class of bright, unexplained flashes in the night sky. Those amateur astronomers, with their "primitive" instrumentation, have actually had a paper published in the highly technical Astrophysical Journal. Their abstract follows: "Between 1984 July and 1985 July, 24 bright flashes were detected visually near the Aries-Perseus border by eight different observers at a total of 12 sites across Canada. One flash was photographed, and another was seen by two observers at different locations. Their duration was usually less than 1 s. The estimated positions of 20 of the events and another seen in 1983 were close enough ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 20: Mar-Apr 1982 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Gravity Anomaly Ripples Centered In Canada When scientists recently examined gravity anomaly data for North America, strange circular ripples appeared to surround a point near Hudson Bay. These ripples seem to have spread out like those from a pebble dropped into a pond, but here the ripples are actually ancient density variations in the earth's crust, now covered over by thick sediments. One hypothesis is that a 60-90 kilometer meteorite smashed into the earth some 4 billion years ago, wrinkling the young surface for several thousand kilometers in all directions around a colossal crater. Magma welling up in the crater solidified creating the nucleus of the North American continent. It is quite possible that the other continents began their existences in this way -- meteor impact. The gravity data that led to this hypothesis have been available for some time but apparently no one ever looked at them with continental patterns in mind. (Simon, C.; "Deep Crust Hints at Meteoric Impact," Science News, 121:69, 1982.) Comment 1: John Saul has discovered surface indications of immense ring structures in the American southwest. See ETC2 in our Catalog: Carolina Bays, Mima Mounds, which is described more fully here . Comment 2: If all our continents were initiated by meteor impacts, and if they were once clustered together in a supercontinent, as postulated by Continental Drift, then the incoming meteorites would have to have been focussed on ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 82: Jul-Aug 1992 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Efficacy Of Homeopathy Over the last several years we have been following the feud between the homeopathists and mainstream medicine, particularly the saga of J. Benveniste. Despite what the media writers say, homeopathy continues to produce positive results, as confirmed in the following item from the British Medical Journal: "Many doctors do not believe that homoeopathy [sic] is an efficacious treatment as it is highly implausible that infinitesimally diluted substances retain their biological effects. It is also often said that homoeopathy has not been evaluated with modern methods -- that is, controlled trials. The first argument may be true, the second is not. [J .] Kleijnen et searched the literature and found 96 reports containing 107 controlled trials of homoeopathy. Most trials turned out to be of very low quality, but there were many exceptions. The results show the same trend regardless of the quality of the trial or the variety of homoeopathy used. Overall. of the 105 trials with interpretable results, 81 showed positive results of homoeopathic treatment. A complicating factor in such reviews, especially of controversial subjects such as homoeopathy, is publication bias. If the results of Kleijnen et do not reflect the true state of affairs, publication bias must be considered a great problem in evaluations of homoeopathy. In any event, there is a legitimate case for further evaluation of homoeopathy, but only by means of trials with sound methodology." (Anonymous; "Clinical ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 36: Nov-Dec 1984 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Four 'clever' adaptations According to theory, many butterflies have wing patterns that evolved in response to predation. Some wing patterns blend into the background, making the butterfly hard to spot; other wings have prominent eyespots that are supposed to deter predators or trick them into striking at the wings instead of the soft, vulnerable body. But some tropi cal butterflies have a double problem; their predators change from dry to wet season. One butterfly, Orsotriena medus, masters this situation by changing wing patterns with the season. In the dry season, it is dark brown and inconspicuous; in the wet season, it switches to black wings with ostentatious eyespots and white bands. (Anonymous; "Cryptic Butterflies," New Scientist, 20, September 13, 1984.) The Asiatic freshwater clam has spread rapidly across North America since its accidental introduction about 50 years ago. In addition to its natural dispersal via its more mobile larvae, the young adult clams have a surprising method of hitchhiking rides on the water currents. Through their siphons they deploy long mucous threads. Water currents pull on these threads just as air currents catch the silken threads of migrating spiders. Given a water current of 10-20 cm/sec, the small clams manufacture and deploy their threads, and off they go downstream. (Prezant, Robert S., and Chalermwat, Kashane; "Flotation of the Bivalve Corbicula Fluminea as a Means of ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 110: Mar-Apr 1997 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Is oliver a "humanzee"?Oliver: male, 30ish, very hairy, height 1.2 meters, weight 50 kilos, erect posture, unusual ears, offensive odor. Oscar always walks on two feet, uses a human toilet (which he flushes), can mix drinks, and enjoys a cup of coffee and a nightcap. Chimps ignore him; humans wonder what he is. Superficially, Oscar is definitely chimp-like; but shave his head and he becomes eerily human. Although Oscar was widely exhibited in the 1970s, his fame diminished in the 1980s. But now, scientists want to count his chromosomes and find out what he really is. One suggestion is a cross between a chimpanzee and a bonobo (a "pygmy chimpanzee"). Or how about a chimp-human hybrid? There have been dark rumors of hushhush experiments in China, Italy, and the U.S . We'll let you know what the geneticists conclude -- unless there is more "hush-hush." (Holden, Constance; "' Mutant' Chimp Gets a Gene Check," Science, 274:727, 1996. Also: Anonymous; "Oo-be-doo, I Want to Be Like You," Fortean Times, no. 95, p. 15, February 1997.) From Science Frontiers #110, MAR-APR 1997 . 1997-2000 William R ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 42: Nov-Dec 1985 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Remarkable Distribution Of Hydrothermal Vent Animals Hydrothermal vents support a bizarre array of large clams, mussels, worms and other curious species. These biological communities are unique in that they are supported not by solar energy but rather the earth's thermal energy. What verges on the anomalous is the appearance in both Atlantic and Pacific Oceans of very similar vent communities, with similar or identical species. How did these continent-separated communities originate ? In the words of the author of the present article, "The cooccurrence of a clam, a mussel, and a vestimentiferan worm at widely separated sites in the Pacific and Atlantic represents either an unusual distribution from a single lineage or, even more remarkably, cases of parallel evolution. " (Grassle, J. Frederick; "Hydrothermal Vent Animals: Distribution and Biology, " Science, 229:713, 1985.) From Science Frontiers #42, NOV-DEC 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 19: Jan-Feb 1982 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Rims Of Galaxies Spin Too Fast According to the physical laws governing orbital motion in a central force field, like that of our sun, distant objects should rotate more slowly than those closer to the central mass. Thus, the outer planets of the solar system swing around the sun more slowly than the earth and the other inner planets. Astronomers always expected that the stars rotating around the massive hubs of the galaxies would obey these laws in a like manner. No such luck! Doppler measurements of galaxy rotations made by Vera C. Rubin and her colleagues, at the Carnegie Institution, indicate that most stars out near the galactic rims rotate just as fast or faster than those closer to the hub. Astronomers suppose that this anomalous rotation may be due to halos of undetected burntout stars and/or gas fringing the galaxies. Such halos would dis-tort the inverse-square-law field, permitting the observed anomalous rotation. (Anonymous; "Fast-Spinning Galaxies," Science Digest, 89:18, November 1981.) Comment. No one has yet discovered these hypothetical halos of mass. The universe seems to be full of "missing mass." An unpopular alternative would be the admission that Newton's Law of Gravitation does not hold on the galactic scale. From Science Frontiers #19, JAN-FEB 1982 . 1982-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 135: MAY-JUN 2001 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Asteroid Ponds, Beaches, And Boulders Once considered only dull, nondescript vagabonds of the solar system, asteroids are turning out to be rather mysterious and surprisingly complex bits of celestial real estate. The close-up photos of the asteroid Eros (35-kilometers long) from the spacecraft NEAR-Shoemaker have added two new phenomena to the list of asteroid enigmas. Boulders. Eros is covered with huge boulders -- perhaps a million of them over 8-meters wide. The boulders are likely just accreted solar-system debris; but why are they strewn naked on the surface of Eros instead of being intermixed with other rocky debris? Speculation is that the large boulders were coaxed to the surface preferentially over the eons by seismic vibrations -- said vibrations being caused by multitudinous impacts. This type of jostling action also explains why Brazil nuts greet you when you open a well-travelled can of mixed nuts! Ponds and beaches. The fine debris coating Eros may also have responded to the same vibrations, but in different ways. It sort of "flowed" downhill to form curious flat features resembling ponds. Between the ponds and rough terrain, the fine debris has also built up transition zones that look like beaches. Cormell's J. Veverka isn't betting on any of the proposed theories as yet. He declared: We're facing processes we're not familiar with. I truly don't ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 34: Jul-Aug 1984 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Does string hold the universe together?Cosmological speculation is getting more and more bizarre. Astronomers are now postulating a kind of cosmic 'string' that is very, very thin (10-30cm), enormously massive (1022 grams per centimeter), and very taut (1042 dynes tension). This string exists only in closed loops of infinite strands. Such string in loop form could have seeded galaxies and even black holes of solar mass. But these are not the major reasons why astronomers like the string hypothesis. It turns out that this bizarre string can tie the universe together gravitationally; that is, provide the long-sought 'missing mass.' The so-called 'missing-mass problem' is two-fold: Astronomers cannot see, with eye and instrument, enough mass to keep the universe from expanding indefinitely. If the kinetic energy of cosmic expansion is to be balanced by gravitational potential energy (an apparent philosophical imperative), we have so far identified only 15% of the required mass. (2 ) On a smaller scale, galaxies in large galactic clusters are moving too fast. They should have flown apart long ago, but some unseen 'stuff' holds them together. Is it cosmic string? (Waldrop, M. Mitchell; "New Light on Dark Matter? Science, 224:971, 1984.) Comment. Since cosmic string weighs about 2 x 1015 tons per ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 58: Jul-Aug 1988 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Mystery Of The Idiot Savant To describe the enigmas of the idiot savant, we can do no better than quote the first two paragraphs of a review article by D.A . Treffert: "At the 1964 annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association, a discussant concluded, 'The importance, then, of the Idiot-Savant lies in our inability to explain him; he stands as a landmark of our own ignorance and the phenomenon of the Idiot-Savant exists as a challenge to our capabilities.' In the years that have followed, the inability to explain the idiot savant has not lessened, and the challenge to our capabilities remains undiminished. However, no model of brain function, particularly memory, will be complete until it can account for this rare but spectacular condition, with its islands of mental ability in a sea of mental handicap and disability. "Through the past century, since Down's description of this disorder, the several hundred idiot savants reported in the world literature have shown remarkable similarities within an exceedingly narrow range of abilities, given the many possible skills in the human repertoire. Why do so many idiot savants have the obscure skill of calendar calculating? Why does the triad of retardation, blindness, and musical genius appear with such regularity among them? Why is there a 6:1 male-to-female ratio in this disorder? What accounts for the more common occurrence of the idiot ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 46: Jul-Aug 1986 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects More Paluxy Impressions The response to the SF#45 item on the Paluxy comingling of dinosaur and human footprints was immediate, copious, and sometimes emotional. Even though we regularly survey 100-or-so scientific journals, it seems that considerable Paluxy field work has never attained these hallowed pages -- probably it never will! Even though the SF#45 report was rather negative on the issue of the validity of the claims of the creationists, it evidently was not negative enough. We now have some documentation with which to clarify some points. G.J . Kuban has been in the forefront of Paluxy research for several years. He has submitted a long letter plus the Spring/Summer issue of a publication entitled Origins Research (published by the Students for Origins Research). This issue of Origins Research contains a lengthy article by Kuban plus shorter contributions from J. Morris (author of the ICR article digested in SF#45) and the Films for Christ Association (preparers of the film Footprints in Stone.) First, we quote from Kuban's personal communication: "As is explained in the enclosed Origins Research issue, the tracks never did merit a human interpretation, and presently are not as 'mysterious' as ICR and some other creationist groups would have us believe. Indeed, whereas the geo-chemistry of the colorations is still being studied, the color distinctions are definitely part of the rock material ...
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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 Galactic Shell Game W.G . Tifft, an astronomer at the University of Arizona, has maintained for some two decades that the redshifts of the galaxies do not fall on a smooth curve as one would expect. Instead, Tifft asserts, redshifts are bunched at intervals of 72 kilometers/second and at onehalf and one-third that value. Mainstream astronomers insist that redshifts be interpreted as Doppler shifts due to the expanding universe. Quantized redshifts just don't fit into this view of the cosmos, for they imply concentric shells of galaxies expanding away from a central point -- earth! Even though more recent redshift data have supported the 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 ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 10: Spring 1980 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects A SUN-AND-SPIRAL CLOCK The astronomical sophistication of ancient humans becomes more obvious each year. A novel method of keeping track of the seasons has been discovered on an isolated butte in New Mexico. Here, the Anasazi, who occupied Chaco Canyon between 400 and 1,300 A.D ., carved spiral petroglyphs into the face of a cliff. Then, they arranged stone slabs so that sharp slivers of sunlight fell on the spirals. The precise position of the sliver of light depends of course upon the location of the sun. The solstices and equinoxes are registered by unique configurations of light slivers and spirals. In contrast to other calendar sites, which rely upon the rising and setting points of sun on the horizon, the New Mexico clock depends upon the altitude of the sun at midday. Slivers of moonlight on the spirals also seem to have astronomical significance. (Sofaer, Anna, et al; "A Unique Solar Marking Construct," Science, 206:283, 1979.) Reference. Our Handbook Ancient Man contains much additional material on archeoastronomy. For a description of this large volume, go to: here . From Science Frontiers #10, Spring 1980 . 1980-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 54: Nov-Dec 1987 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Through A Peephole Tantalizingly The flood of data that comes out of the type of physics experiment in which two subatomic particles collide at high energy is often so copious that physicists need some time to notice and interpret some of the strange new things that appear. This is especially true if the strange new things are of a sort that nobody was looking for. "Thus, some anomalous events that occurred at the PETRA colliding beam apparatus of the German Electron Synchrotron Laboratory (DESY) in Hamburg back in 1984 are now being interpreted as what Harald Fritzsch of DESY calls 'a peephole' into a possible new domain of physics..." What happened in 1984 was that one detector saw unexplainable particles -- that is, unexplainable in the context of cur rent theories. But since so other detectors in operation saw the event, the data were forgotten. But later, five more such events were seen on a different detector. (Anonymous; "Through a Peephole Tantalizingly," Science News, 132:219, 1987.) Comment. Just when we were getting used to fractionally charged quarks and particles of different "colors," this has to happen! From Science Frontiers #54, NOV-DEC 1987 . 1987-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 11: Summer 1980 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects United By An Invisible Cord The largest study of separately raised identical twins has discovered incredible similarities among twins who never set eyes on each other before. There are difference, too, but not as many as expected by psychologists who hold that we are shaped primarily by our environments. Only a few of the astounding (and strange) similarities can be recounted here. Two 39-year-old twins, meeting for the first time, were both wearing seven rings each, two bracelets on one wrist, a watch and one bracelet on the other wrist. Two men both had dogs named Toy, had married and divorced women named Linda, remarried women named Betty, and named their sons James Allan and James Alan. Two other males had similar medical histories: hemorrhoids, same pulse rates and blood pressures, same sleep patterns. Both had put on 10 pounds at the same times in their lives. (Holden, Constance; "Identical Twins Reared Apart," Science, 207:323, 1980.) From Science Frontiers #11, Summer 1980 . 1980-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 12: Fall 1980 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Ephemeral Lines On Mars At first, the close-up Mariner and Viking photos of the Martian surface seemed to dispose of the famous "canals." Few permanent linear features were discovered -- certainly nothing like the complex grid of straight lines sketched and photographed by Percival Lowell. Lowell may be vindicated yet, for at least one sharp, dark line has been photographed by a Viking Orbiter during three Martian springs just north of the great volcano Arsia Mons. Called a "weather wave," this line appears only in the spring when Lowell's canals darkened. This year, a second long line, slightly curved, joined up with the first line at a triangular junction looking suspiciously like one of Lowell's "oases." (Anonymous; "Rare Martian Weather Wave -- with a Kink," Science News, 118: 7, 1980.) Comment. Could it be that the notorious Martian canals are atmospheric features that come and go? For more on the history of the Martian canals and recent observations, see AMO1 in our Catalog: The Moon and the Planets. This volume is described here . From Science Frontiers #12, Fall 1980 . 1980-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 12: Fall 1980 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Oh, those clever plants The Lecythidaceae or Brazil nut family is pantropical in distribution. Some members of this family produce two dif ferent kinds of pollen: (1 ) normal pollen for fertilization; and (2 ) nongerminating pollen that is collected by insects for food. The latter variety of pollen is considered (anthropomorphically) as the plant's way of rewarding insects for carrying the fertile pollen to other plants. As in so many of Nature's remarkable adaptations, the two types of pollen are located in exactly the right portions of the flower to match the anatomy of the foraging insect. In the figure, a carpenter bee collects infertile pollen from the bottom of the flower while being dusted on the head and back by the regions of the fertile pollen. (Mori, Scott Alan, et al; "Intrafloral Pollen Differentiation in the New World.. .. ." Science, 209:400, 1980.) Comment. How can the flower, even over many generations, determine that only the pollen from the upper portion is being used for fertilization and that the lower area of pollen may safely "be allowed" to become infertile? From Science Frontiers #12, Fall 1980 . 1980-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 120: Nov-Dec 1998 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Pyramid stones not "cementitious"In SF#119, we followed the item on artificial basalt with a comment about J. Davidovits' claim that the stone blocks of the Giza pyramids are actually made from a limey cement and poured on-site. No long-distance hauling and lifting into place required! We have since found (serendipitously) an authoritative refutation of Davidovits' claim. K.D . Ingram et al analyzed stone samples from the Giza pyramids using scanning electron microscopy, electron diffraction by X-rays, powder X-ray diffraction, inductive coupled plasmography, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, and other techniques. Their conclusion: ". .. the pyramids are made of limestone and are not cementitious in nature." (Ingram, Kevin D., et al; "The Pyramids -- Cement or Stone?" Journal of Archaeo logical Science, 20:681, 1993.) From Science Frontiers #120, NOV-DEC 1998 . 1998-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 12: Fall 1980 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The field is falling, the field is falling NASA's Magnetic Field Satellite has confirmed a trend that goes as far back as Gauss in 1830; namely, that the terrestrial magnetic field is decreasing in strength. At the rate measured by the satellite, the Earth's field will hit zero in about 1200 years. Of course, NASA's scientists warn that the observed decrease may only be a temporary fluctuation. The geological record seems to register a long history of magnetic field reversals, with great biological changes coinciding with the field flips. (Nonymous; "Magsat Down: Magnetic Field Declining," Science News, 117:407, 1980.) Comment. Some field reversals have been within the time of man; 12,000 years ago and less. What happens to life forms dependent upon the earth's field for navigation during a reversal? Can they evolve new navigation methods in only a few thousand years? From Science Frontiers #12, Fall 1980 . 1980-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 13: Winter 1981 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Fish Change Gender When Necessary Abstract. "The simultaneous removal of three to nine males from large social groups of Anthias squamipinnis led to close to a one-to-one replacement of the removed males by sex-reversing females. The females changed sex serially within each group with a mean interval between successive onset times of 1.9 days. The timing of sex change is thus not independent for each fish but is influenced by the events surrounding other sex reversals within the group." (Shapiro, Douglas Y.; "Serial Female Sex Changes after Simultaneous Removal of Males..." Science, 209:1136, 1980.) From Science Frontiers #13, Winter 1981 . 1981-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 120: Nov-Dec 1998 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Why Some Like It Hot That's spicy "hot," not temperature "hot." As travelers can attest, the warmer regions of our planet offer the spicier foods. In a way, this observation is a proof of microevolution. The "fitter" people (that is, "survivors") in hotter climes are those who have inherited a taste for hotter foods. Spices contain chemical compounds that inhibit or kill the bacteria and fungi that are more likely to poison foods where ambient temperatures are higher. Eaters of spicier foods are more likely to survive in these areas. This is not just a surmise. A study of 4578 recipes from 93 cookbooks from all over the world have been analyzed for spice content. Sure enough, the hotter the climate, the more recipes using spices and the hotter the spices used. In the language of science: "The proximate reason spices are used obviously is to enhance food palatability. But the ultimate reason is most likely that spices help cleanse foods of pathogens and thereby contribute to the health, longevity and reproductive success of people who find their flavors enjoyable." (Billing, Jennifer, and Sherman, Paul W.; "Antimicrobial Functions of Spices: Why Some Like It Hot," Quarterly Review of Biology , 73:3 , 1998.) Antibacterial properties of 30 spices. From Science Frontiers #120, NOV-DEC 1998 . 1998-2000 William ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 14: Winter 1981 Supplement Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Beetles Make Scents Termite nests frequently host foreign species that seem to be accepted as fellow termites. Can't termites recognize the invaders? The authors believe that termites probably recognize one another by specific hydrocarbon labels synthesized on their cuticles. If the alien species were to be somehow marked with similar chemical identifiers, the blind termites might not know the difference. Howard et al think this may be the case with a species of beetle often found integrated into termite society. By chemi-cally analyzing beetle and termite cuticles, they have found both wearing the same hydrocarbon labels. Furthermore, the beetles synthesize their own chemical masks. This is an astounding instance of parallel or convergent evolution between remotely related species. (Howard, R.W . et al, "Chemical Mimicry as an Integrating Mechanism....," Science, 210:431, 1980.) Comment. Synthesizing exactly the right hydrocarbons was certainly a great stroke of good fortune for the beetles! From Science Frontiers #14, Winter 1981 . 1981-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 15: Spring 1981 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Invention Of Agriculture May Have Been A Step Backward Anthropological texts have always ballyhooed the development of agriculture as one of man's greatest achievements. Not so, says Mark Cohen, of SUNY Plattsburgh. The switch from hunting and gathering to sedentary agriculture, it seems, occurred rather suddenly and was attended by a sharp drop in life expectancy. Ancient human bones reveal much more disease, fewer older people, and more violent deaths for centuries following the adoption of agriculture. Why did humanity give up the surprising degrees of security, freedom, and leisure intrinsic in hunting and gathering? Cohen claims that population pressure was the cause. Unable to stem the human population explosion, ancient humans were forced to adopt a life of toil, disease, and stress. (Lewin, Roger; "Disease Clue to Dawn of Agriculture," Science, 211:41, 1981.) Comment. Is there an echo of the Garden of Eden story here? From Science Frontiers #15, Spring 1981 . 1981-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 121: Jan-Feb 1999 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Acupuncture 5,200 Years Ago?The Tyrolean Iceman died in the Alps about 5,200 years ago, but his mummified body is exceptionally well-preserved -- so well-preserved that 15 groups of tattoo marks on his body stand out vividly. These punctures do not seem to be ornamental, like those on a sailor's biceps, nor are they on parts of the body usually displayed. What is most interesting are their locations; some groups are placed at traditional Chinese acupuncture points. Bolstering this suspicion is the determination from computer tomography (noninvasive imaging) that the Iceman suffered from arthrosis of the lumbar spine. The Iceman's body is punctured at the points usually used by acupuncturists to treat this condition! "These findings raise the possibility that the practice of therapeutically intended acupuncture originated long before the medical tradition of ancient China (approximately 1000 B.C .) and that its geographical origins were Eurasian rather than East-Asian, consistent with far-reaching intercultural contacts of prehistoric mankind." (Dorfer, Leopold, et al; "5200-Year-Old Acupuncture in Central Europe?" Science, 282:242, 1998.) From Science Frontiers #121, JAN-FEB 1999 . 1999-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 15: Spring 1981 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Distant galaxies look like those close-by Apropos the preceding item that the Expanding Universe Theory may be flawed, astronomers have discovered that supposedly distant galaxies look pretty much like those in our immediate neighborhood. Specifically, galaxies 10 billion light years away differ little spectrally speaking from those only a billion light years away. The point is that the distant galaxies should appear 9 billion years younger because their light took that long getting here. They look the same, and that fact could imply: (1 ) Galaxies mature rapidly and do not change much after a billion years; (2 ) Our cosmic time scale is all wrong; (3 ) There was no Big Bang and galaxies may have widely varying ages; or (4 ) None of the above. (Anonymous; "Most Distant Galaxies: Surprisingly Mature," Science News, 119:148, 1981.) Reference. Distant galaxies are anomalously blue. See AWF1 in our Catalog: Satrs, Galaxies, Cosmos. For ordering information, visit: here . From Science Frontiers #15, Spring 1981 . 1981-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 15: Spring 1981 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Is your brain really necessary?John Lorber, a British neurologist, has studied many cases of hydrocephalus (water on the brain) and concluded that the loss of nearly all of the cerebral cortex (the brain's convoluted outer layer) does not necessarily lead to mental impairment. He cites the case of a student at Sheffield University, who has an IQ of 126 and won first-class honors in mathematics. Yet, this boy has virtually no brain; his cortex measures only a millimeter or so thick compared to the normal 4.5 centimeters. Although the deeper brain structures may carry on much of the body's work, the cortex is supposed to be a late evolutionary development that gave humans their vaunted mental powers and superiority over the other animals. If the cortex can be removed with little mental impairment, what is it for in the first place? (Lewin, Roger; "Is Your Brain Really Necessary?" Science, 210:1232, 1980.) Comment. Brain size, then, may mean nothing in comparing ancient and modern human skulls or human brain capacity with those of animals! Where is the seat of intelligence? In some cases of hydrocephalus, the cortex is only paper-thin, but little mental impairments is apparent. From Science Frontiers #15, Spring 1981 . 1981-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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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 Possible Chain Of Meteorite Scars In Argentina A string of linear depressions characterizes the Rio Cuarto crater field In the January 16, 1992, issue of Nature, P.H . Schultz and R.E . Lianza describe a curious chain of grooves incised in the Argentine pampas near Rio Cuarto. "During routine flights two years ago .. ., one of us (R .E .L .) noticed an anomalous alignment of oblong rimmed depressions (4 km x 1 km) on the otherwise featureless farmland of the Pampas of Argentina. We argue here, from sample analysis and by analogy with laboratory experiments, that these structures resulted from lowangle impact and ricochet of a chondritic body originally 150-300 m in diameter." There are ten gouges in all, strung out along 50 kilometers. The scars are young, perhaps only a few thousand years old, well within the time of human habitation. Schultz and Lianza also found pieces of meteoritic rock and glassy fragments of impact melt. (Schultz, Peter H., and Lianza, Ruben E.; "Recent Grazing Impacts on the Earth Recorded in the Rio Cuarto Crater Field, Argentina," Nature, 355:234, 1992. Also: Monastersky, R.; "Meteorite Hopscotched across Argentina," Science News, 141:55, 1992.) Comments. Note the similarities to the much more numerous Carolina Bays. See ETB1 in our catalog ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 56: Mar-Apr 1988 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Celestial mirages?Those mysterious giant blue arcs mentioned above have at least two explanations. The less-favored states that the arcs are formed when a spherical light pulse from a briefly flaring quasar encounters a plane of gas and dust. This matter scatters the light, making it visible to us as a huge arc. The preferred model employs gravitational lensing. Here, the arcs are simply distorted images -- mirages, if you want -- of distant galaxies. (Two of the many reports on this subject are: Waldrop, M. Mitchell; "The Giant Arcs Are Gravitational Mirages," Science, 238:1351, 1987; and Anonymous; "Giant Arcs: Light Echoes or Lensed Galaxies?" Sky and Telescope, 75:7 , 1988.) Comment. A bit of background: according to Einstein, the presence of matter can bend light rays, just as our atmosphere does when mirages are created by refraction. Gravitational mirages of celestial objects are thus predicted by Relativity. From Science Frontiers #56, MAR-APR 1988 . 1988-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 107: Sep-Oct 1996 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Precocious Structure In The Cosmos Allied to the problem of old galaxies in young regions of the cosmos is the appearance of substantial amounts of structure early in the history of the universe. The new Keck 10-meter telescope in Hawaii has revealed giant "walls" of youthful galaxies rather than the more uniform distribution expected right after the Big Bang. There is just too much order much too early. (Glanz, James; "Precocious Structures Found," Science, 272:1590, 1996 From Science Frontiers #107, SEP-OCT 1996 . 1996-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 19: Jan-Feb 1982 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects A PREHISTORIC TVA?The Hohokam Indians lived along the Salt River Valley, in Arizona, about 300 BC to 1450 AD. They constructed a network of irrigation canals that is certainly one of the wonders of the Ancient New World. Early investigators recorded more than 500 kilometers of major canals and 1,600 kilometers of smaller ones. (Less than 10 kilometers of these remain intact today.) One of the main canals was 3 meters deep, 11 meters wide at ground level, and 14 kilometers long. Old and recent aerial photos show traces of an incredibly complex irrigation network. W.B . Masse, the author of this article, is very impressed by the earth-moving task but even more so by the degree of social coordination and control that must have been exerted all along the Salt River Valley in building and regulating the use of this remarkable canal system. (Masse, W. Bruce; "Prehistoric Irrigation Systems in the Salt River Valley, Arizona," Science, 214:408, 1981.) Reference. Many other ancient canal projects are described in our Handbook: Ancient Man. Ordering information here . Composite map of canals near Tempe constructed from aerial photographs. From Science Frontiers #19, JAN-FEB 1982 . 1982-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 106: Jul-Aug 1996 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Impact craters: the party line revised and re-revised 100 years ago. Back in 1900, a geologist risked his reputation by suggesting that Arizona's Meteor Crater was an impact structure. It had to be volcanic or perhaps due to a steam explosion! 50 years ago. In 1950, a geologist risked his reputation by suggesting that large impact structures existed; that is, bigger than 10 kilometers in diameter. 0 years ago. Today, geologists converse blithely about 100-kilometer structures buried beneath the Yucatan and Chesapeake Bay. They are, however, exceedingly chary about long chains of impact structures. Those eight craters in a row. Geologists are questioning whether the eight structures stretching from Kentucky to Kansas (mentioned in SF#105) are all impactcaused. In a letter to Astronomy. A. Goldstein asserts that only three are impact craters; the other five are cryptoexplosion structures; that is, due to internal activity of some sort. However, Goldstein adds that there are actually three additional structures on this long line in Kentucky. (Goldstein, Alan; "Multiple Strike Stricken," Astronomy, 24:20, July 1996) Comment. Even if eight of the eleven structures on the line are cryptoexplosive in origin, one has to wonder why these are all lined up. A long line of weakness in the crust? Meanwhile, in Africa. 1994 radar images from the Space Shuttle have revealed a ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 105: May-Jun 1996 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Real perpetual motion?Physicist R.A . Webb and coworkers magnetically induce electrical currents in tiny gold rings at the University of Maryland. The ring temperatures are low but not in the superconducting range. Magnetic induction of electricity is of course perfectly allowable in physics. What is not theoretically permitted is for tiny currents to persist long after the magnetic field has been turned off. The currents are small, only 10-6 of an ampere; but, they are there, and they shouldn't be. (Lipkin, Richard, and Travis, John; "Electric Currents That Merely Flow," Science News, 149:126, 1996) Comment. If you conceive of electrical currents as mists of palpable electrons circulating around inside those gold rings, the situation does resemble perpetual motion. The referenced item is brief and not forthcoming on such mat ters. Do the currents eventually die out? Will any metal work? Does the phenomenon appear at room temperature? From Science Frontiers #105, MAY-JUN 1996 . 1996-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 21: May-Jun 1982 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Natural lasers in the terrestrial and martian skies?In a current laser patent dispute, one side claims that a certain laser patent is invalid because natural phenomena cannot be patented under U.S . law. It seems that last year, Michael Mumma and colleagues at Goddard Space Flight Center and the University of Maryland discovered a 10-micrometer (infrared) laser in the Martian atmosphere. This laser is located about 75 kilometers above the surface, is optically pumped by the sun, and radiates an astonishing 101 2 watts. The terrestrial atmosphere may contain a natural 4.3 -micrometer laser, for auroras are accompanied by very intense molecular emissions at this wavelength. (Raloff, J.; "Gould Laser Patent Ruled Invalid -- So Far," Science News, 121: 199, 1982.) From Science Frontiers #21, MAY-JUN 1982 . 1982-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 23: Sep-Oct 1982 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Short-circuiting heredity Genes, those carriers of heredity, have turned out to be great gadabouts. Not only do they jump about within a species, but also between species, especially the simple prokaryotic organisms, such as bacteria. It is now well accepted that genes flow between different species of bacteria in physical contact, thus stirring the evolutionary pot. Until recently, scientists believed that the higher organisms, the eukaryotic species, including you and me, did not indulge in such "horizontal" traffic between species. But a few cases have now been found, one involving humans and a microorganism associated with tumors. And the search is just beginning, as biologists look for something they never thought of looking for before. (Lewin, Roger; "Can Genes Jump between Eukaryotic Species?" Science, 217:42, 1982.) Comment. This apparent short-circuiting of classical heredity channels supports the radical notion that evolutionary blueprints may be transmitted between divergent species. In the long view, may-be we should not malign viruses, germs, and biting insects! From Science Frontiers #23, SEP-OCT 1982 . 1982-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... 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 Megamemories This is not about the latest ROMs and RAMs; it's about those few pounds of gray matter sitting atop your shoulders. Every once in a while we see hints of what it can really do. At the age of eight, J. Von Neumann, the great mathematician, could just glance at a telephone book and afterward recite whole pages verbatim. (Myhrvold, Nathan; "John Von Neumann: Computing's Cold Warrior," Time, 153: 150, March 29, 1999.) Recently, H. Goto, in something like 9 hours, recited from memory the first 42,000 digits of pi. (Kaiser, Jocelyn; "Pieces of Pi," Science, 283:1975, 1999.) From Science Frontiers #123, MAY-JUN 1999 . 1999-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 24: Nov-Dec 1982 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Mice Transmit Human Gene Sequences To Their Progeny Viruses habitually subvert the manufacturing facilities of host cells so that they turn out viruses instead of material useful to the host. Stewart and his col-leagues injected fertilized mouse eggs with human beta-globin gene sequences. One of the resulting adult mice carried the human gene sequence intact; one of the others carried at least part of the sequence. More significantly, the latter mouse transmitted the human gene sequence to its progeny in a Mendelian ratio. (Stewart, Timothy A., et al; "Human Beta-Globin Gene Sequences Injected into Mouse Eggs, Retained in Adults, and Transmitted to Progeny," Science, 217:1046, 1982.) Comment. Animal cells are therefore not too fastidious about what they manufacture and what is transmitted to progeny. The unanswered questions are: How far can this proxy replication and transmission of genes go; and, most important, can it occur in nature to a degree sufficient to contribute to the evolution of new species? From Science Frontiers #24, NOV-DEC 1982 . 1982-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 24: Nov-Dec 1982 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Seismic Ghost Slithers Under California From 1973 into 1978, instruments monitoring the San Andreas Fault told geophysicists that north-south distances between observing stations along the fault line were contracting. The Pacific Coast was moving north while the rest of North America was heading south! Then, in 1978, the strain eased in the far south of California only to reassert itself in a few weeks. This strange relaxation of strain seemed to propagate slowly across southern California, as seen by other instruments farther north. As the wave of relaxation moved ponderously along, like a slow flexure of the earth's strata, microearthquakes almost disappeared while the flow of radon from the ground increased, as one might expect. When the strain reappeared, radon flow diminished and a rash of microearthquakes were detected. It took about a year for the strain wave, called a "seismic ghost" by the geophysicists, to flow north from the Imperial Valley into the Los Angeles area. (Alexander, George; "Quakewatch," Science 82, 3:38, September 1982.) Comment. Something had to cause this curious disturbance; and where is it located now? From Science Frontiers #24, NOV-DEC 1982 . 1982-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 24: Nov-Dec 1982 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Powerful Earth Current Enters North America From The Pacific An immense current of terrestrial electricity originating somewhere in the Pacific enters the North American continent along the Strait of Georgia (between Vancouver Island and the British Columbia mainland) and shoots past Tacoma toward Oregon. The discoverers of the current, John R. Booker and Gerard Hensel, at the University of Washington, traced the flow of electricity through a narrow wedge of porous, water-bearing rock that parallels a fault line. Another branch of this terrestrial circuit enters along the Strait of Juan de Fuca. No estimates are given of the magnitude of the current; and there are no speculations as to the origin of the electromagnetic force driving the current. (Anonymous; "Nature's Hidden Power Line," Science Digest, 90:18, October 1982.) Reference. This and other earth currents are mentioned in EZC5 in our Catalog: Inner Earth. For ordering information, visit: here . Comment. In some areas, large artifi cial earth currents are created by high-power transmission lines. From Science Frontiers #24, NOV-DEC 1982 . 1982-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 24: Nov-Dec 1982 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Polyna Mystery "Polyna" is a Russian word meaning "an enclosed area of unfrozen water surrounded by ice." Polynas form for some unknown reason in the Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica. These transient ice-free "lakes" may cover 300,000 square kilometers, inferring a substantial influx of heat countering the frigid polar temperatures. Although small coastal polynas can be blown free of ice by strong Antarctic winds, the open-ocean polynas are much larger and do not seem to owe their origins to wind. One suggested explanation is that warm subsurface water rises suddenly to the surface, but it takes a lot of heat to keep hundreds of thousands of square kilometers ice-free. The most recent polyna opened up a region of the Weddell Sea for about three years (1973-1976). (Simon, C.; "Polynas Surrounded by Ice and Mystery," Science News, 122:183, 1982.) From Science Frontiers #24, NOV-DEC 1982 . 1982-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 60 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf024/sf024p13.htm
