2482 results found.
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 138: NOV-DEC 2001 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects "Redshift is A Shaky Measuring Rod"So saith M. Burbidge, an astronomer at the University of California at San Diego. Her assertion echoes what Arp has been proclaiming for years. (AR#3 ); namely that some redshifts are not due to the Doppler effect and an expanding universe. Since redshift is the major cosmological yardstick, the whole fabric of modern cosmology would become unwoven if redshifts cannot be used to measure distances reliably. We bring this subject up once more because Burbidge claims that some newly discovered quasar pairs cast additional doubt on redshift distance measurements. For example, she, along with Arp and Y. Chu, point to the quasar pair flanking the galaxy named Arp 220 (one of Arp's earlier discoveries). Quasars are very energetic sources of visible light, radio waves, and X-rays. The problem with Arp-220's flanking quasars is that they have much greater redshifts than the galaxy that seems to be situated in between them and likely at the same distance. Is this just a chance association, and the quasars are really much farther away than the galaxy -- as suggested by their high redshifts? Most astronomers believe this must be the case, but Burbidge and, of course, Arp, doubt it. They point to 10 other galaxies nearby that are also straddled by quasar pairs with higher redshifts. All of these were discovered within the last four years ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 59 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf138/sf138p03.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 131: SEP-OCT 2000 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Clovis Police are Back in Action Just because you read a lot in Science Frontiers about pre-Clovis sites (those New World digs asserted to be older than 12,000 years), do not imagine that all archeologists embrace these claims. For example, a recent issue of Discovering Archeology debunked them at great length and rather testily to boot. This broadside was followed by a devastating review of T.D . Dillehay's The Settlement of the Americas: A New Prehistory in the magazine Natural History. The reviewer for Natural History, A.C . Roosevelt, a respected anthropologist at the University of Illinois, targets the Cactus Hill site, in Virginia (SF#130). This dig, she says, is characterized by "inconsistent dates, vague stratigraphy, and inadequate artifact samples that disqualify them from scientific acceptance." Even Dillehay's monumental work at Monte Verde, Chile, does not survive the review unscathed. In fact, the claimed pre-Clovis sites, according to Roosevelt, do not yield sound, consistent radiocarbon dates earlier than 11,500 B.P . She will, however, entertain Bering Strait crossings as early as 12,000 B.P ., but not a microsecond earlier. (Roosevelt, Anna Curtenius; "Who's on First?" Natural History, 109:76, July-August 2000.) Continuing the assault on pre-Clovis thought ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 59 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf131/sf131p00.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 136: JUL-AUG 2001 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects 2000 CR105 and Planet X 2000 CR105 is a supercomet some 400 kilometers in diameter. It is one of hundreds of icy TNOs (Trans-Neptunian Objects) that normally populate the Kuiper Belt girdling the solar system just beyond the orbit of Neptune. The problem is that 2000 CR105 is not normal. Its orbit is highly eccentric, with an aphelion 13 times farther out than Neptune's . This massive object (probably mostly ice) takes 3175 years to circle the sun. 2000 CR105 is real; it has been photographed; it is not Mirror Matter; no one blames any terrestrial extinctions on it. Nevertheless, we can and must wonder how its orbit became so badly distorted. Often in past years, whenever astronomers detected cometary orbits gone awry, they invoked Planet X; that is, some undiscovered massive body plying the outer reaches of the solar system. Indeed, there have been several intense and unsuccessful searches for Planet X over the years. (See Chapter AX in The Sun and Solar System Debris.) History seems to be repeating itself with 2000 CR105. Astronomer B. Gladman proposes that 2000 CR105 was forced into its present eccentric orbit by an encounter with a Mars-size Planet X that now orbits the sun at a distance about 15 times that of Neptune. From the standpoint of celestial mechanics, this perturbation of 2000 CR105's orbit is certainly within the realm of possibility. But two associated ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 59 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf136/sf136p04.htm
... 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 Has Human Evolution Been Directed by Bacteria?With considerable fanfare, a multinational team of scientists has announced that the mtDNA (mitochondrial DNA) "squeezed" from a 29,000-year-old Neanderthal skeleton found in the northern Caucasus differs by 3.48% from the mtDNA of a 40,000-year-old Neanderthal skeleton from (fittingly) Germany's Neander Valley. Furthermore, both mtDNA samples differ from that of modern humans by a substantial 7%. These two innocent-appearing, widely publicized numbers have far-reaching implications: Modern humans and Neanderthals are only very distantly related, and they certainly never interbred, as suggested in many recent, popular articles; and Since neither Neanderthal mtDNA sample is closer to that of modern Europeans than it is any other modern human population, the so-called "multiregional" theory of human evolution and dispersion is unlikely to be correct. Thus, the out-of-Africa theory is favored;. These data and their implications stimulate several observations and comments; only one of which is mentioned in the references given below. F.H . Smith, an anthropologist from Northern Illinois University and a supporter of the multiregional theory, opines that 30,000-40,000 years ago the mtDNA of the early humans, who were mixing it up with the Neanderthals, was certainly very different from what it is today. Since mtDNA mutates rapidly, ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 59 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf130/sf130p06.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 134: MAR-APR 2001 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Bigfoot Mile-high, But Light-years From Acceptance Colorado is not prime Bigfoot country. Most Bigfoot reports come from the Pacific Northwest. Nevertheless, enough Bigfoot sightings, hearings, and footprints have accumulated in the Rockies for the Denver Post to print a lengthy review of the Bigfoot phenomenon. The article identifies three Colorado hotspots: (1 ) Leadville, where the Little Creek Monster was reported as early as the 1880s; (2 ) the southern San Juan Mountains; and (3 ) Pike National Forest. A few reports even come from the plains east of the Front Range. Coloradans have reported seeing the animals walking along a stream below Loveland Pass, drinking from a pond in the Lost Creek Wilderness, running after deer in the Roosevelt National Forest, chasing cars near Gypsum and roaring at hikers, campers and fishermen in various locations. The reports have come from scientists, wildlife biologists and elk hunters. Surely, this enough to convince everyone of Bigfoot's reality. Not so! To recognize Bigfoot officially scientists must have a living specimen, a corpse, or at least an good skeleton. They do not. Even though there are thousands of Bigfoot sightings recorded continent-wide plus hundreds of casts of huge footprints, these are not enough. Just as with UFOs and sea monsters, fraud and misidentification abound in that field of endeavor called "cryptozoology." However, bigfoot researchers do have one advantage over ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 59 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf134/sf134p06.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 132: NOV-DEC 2000 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Earthmovers of the Amazon In South America, most archeologists gravitate to the highlands of the Andes to study the grand cities, roads, and geoforms constructed by the Inca, the Nazca, the Tiahuanacans, and other ancient cultures. Many coffee-table-type volumes are filled with glorious color photos resulting from such research. Much-too-neglected is the Amazon Basin. The belief is widespread that there is nothing of great archeological importance there -- just oppressive jungle, biting bugs, and primitive tribes. That there is much of scientific significance hidden under the lush greenery is just now being realized. For example, A.C . Roosevelt has already proven that surpringly advanced cultures did inhabit the Amazon Basin for thousands of years. ( SF#71 ) We are now learning that some of these Amazon peoples were extraordinary earthmovers. Having little stone to work with, they matched the achievements of the Inca in the mountains just to the west with many miles of earthen causeways. Canals just as long were dedicated to fish-farming. Huge mounds rising above the flood plains supported villages. Even the mounds hold mysteries. One of them, named Ibibate, has been described by anthropologist W. Balee as being: .. .as close to a Mayan pyramid as you'll see in South America.... Beneath the forest cover is a 60-foot [18-meter] human-made artifact ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 59 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf132/sf132p02.htm
... 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 A SAGA OF SOOT: PART I The tale began on March 27, when Comet Hyakutake passed within 15 million kilometers of earth. At this point in its trajectory, it came into the field of view of the X-ray astronomy satellite ROSAT. ROSAT was designed to look at stars whose extremely high temperatures can generate X-rays. It seemed ridiculous to point ROSAT's instruments at a comet composed mainly of ice and dust. How could a comet emit X-rays? When a German-American team of scientists proposed taking a peek at Hyakutake with ROSAT, scientific eyebrowns were raised. What a waste of observing time! At the most, the team thought they might pick up a smudge of weak X-rays where dust grains flying off Hyakutake collided with dust grains normally present in interplanetary space. The team did get ROSAT to take a look, and what the satellite saw ignited a controversy. Some 50,000 kilometers in front of the comet was a bright crescent of X-rays, 100 times brighter than the brightest "smudge" the team of scientists had hoped for. This was completely unexpected. All astronomers could do was come up with three rather unconvincing theories: (1 ) Solar X-rays were absorbed and reemited by the comet (Xray fluorescence); (2 ) Cometary material emitted X-rays when bathed in the solar wind; and (3 ) Charged particles were ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 59 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf106/sf106p02.htm
... 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 Drifters Sure, there may now be or once have been primitive life forms on Mars, but there does seem to be a serious shortage of carbon-based life forms elsewhere in the universe. In fact, there seems to be a great dearth of small, cool, solid, water-and-carbon-rich planets circling beneficent suns. Can it be that we are looking for extraterrestrial life in the wrong places? Life may have originated and prospered on the multitude of sun-less aggregations of matter drifting through the void, some doubtless quite close to us. Myriad nomadic planets may be roaming our Galaxy free from the clutches of parent stars. Two teams of astronomers think they have detected 25 of these free-floating planets, and say there could be hundreds of millions of them wandering the Milky Way. These free-floaters or "drifters" were created when small clouds of gas and dust coalesced under gravity's urging. If such collapsing clouds were less than 80 times Jupiter's mass, they would not be able to sustain nuclear reactions and become long-lived stars. Many would be-come "brown dwarfs." Still smaller aggregations -- less than 14 Jupiters -- would never shine at all. These would remain warm for a while as they dissipated the gravitational energy that created them. Such small objects would be temporarily detectable by infrared telescopes. Hundreds of such infrared " ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 58 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf130/sf130p04.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 133: JAN-FEB 2001 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Superorganisms: From Simplicity To Complexity Superorganisms are biological entities made up of large numbers of simpler entities that have banded together to perform functions they cannot do as individuals. Termite mounds are often mentioned as superoganisms. But here we examine colonies of organisms that are much simpler and much smaller than termites. What entices the anomalist to attend to superorganisms? Here are two of the several questions superorganisms raise. How do superorganisms evolve properties that its constituent individuals do not possess, such as mobility, unique sensors, and even a modicum of intelligence. Since superorganisms do not reproduce as superorganisms, how can natural selection operate on these superorganisms? Salps. Books dealing with the unexplained sometimes include a photograph of a huge marine creature identified as a sea monster. This famous photo is real and so is the monster in it. But this creature is not reptilian; it is really a salp, a colonial tunicate. Tunicates are tiny, primitive marine organisms usually classified as invertebrates. Some species of tunicates have somehow acquired the habit of aggregating in immense numbers to create long, hollow, snake-like tubes called "salpa." Salps may reach lengths of 45 feet, with diameters of 3 feet. No wonder they are falsely identified as sea monsters. Structurally, the tunicates comprising the salp are embedded in a gelatinous wall facing inward. Each possesses a siphon that pumps nutrient-carrying sea water. Working in unison, the tunicates create ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 58 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf133/sf133p08.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 132: NOV-DEC 2000 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Theories that are Hard to Believe Explain Things We Cannot See That "something" we cannot see is that astronomical fudge factor called "dark matter". Astronomers are sure it exists because its presence, though unseen, explains two anomalies: The high circular velocity of the stars and gas in the outer reaches of galaxies. Circular velocities should decrease with distance from the galactic center, just as planet velocities do in the solar system. They don't , so some gravitational force from some unseen mass must counterbalancing centrifugal force (mark that this is presumptious! The "force" need not be gravity.) Observations suggesting that galaxies formed when the universe was less than a billion years old. The gravitational pull of the visible mass is inadequate to cause this clumping so quickly in the history of the universe. Many candidates have been proposed to play the dark-matter role. One of the more popular possibilities is that vast sea of neutrinos pervading the cosmos -- if they really do display just a hint of mass. Two other candidates now on the table are so bizarre that we marvel at the ingenuity of the theorists. One involves exceedingly large particles, the other unbelievably tiny clumps of particles. At the "giant" end of the size spectrum are galaxy-size particles weighing only 10-24 as much as an electron, which is itself by no means large. It would be hard to experimentally distinguish such ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 57 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf132/sf132p05.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 137: SEP-OCT 2001 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Ashen Light Of Venus Closing The Book Scientists are understandably delighted when they believe they have definitively and indisputably explained one of Nature's many mysteries. They can then finally "close the book" on the phenomenon. Sometimes, though, the book is slammed shut prematurely or unjustifiably. Also, as it often happens, closing one book opens another and the new one is even harder to close. Below, we present three examples where finality (closed books) seems to be proclaimed too quickly. On occasion, the night side of Venus (which goes through phases like the moon) seems to glow softly and subtly. For some 350 years, keen-eyed observers have seen this phenomenon through their telescopes. Nevertheless, the effect is so elusive that many astronomers doubt its physical reality. Additionally, it is easy to doubt the existence of the ashen light because good explanations are as elusive as the light itself. During the past decade, two scientific nails have also been driven into the ashen-light coffin: Spectrographic studies of the upper atmosphere of Venus do detect some nighttime air glow, but it is much too weak to account for the abundant telescopic observations from earth. The Cassini spacecraft did not detect any high-frequency radio noise typical of lightning when it passed close to Venus in 1998 and 1999. This put an end to the surmise that the ashen light was due to rapid, widespread lightning occurring ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 57 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf137/sf137p02.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 138: NOV-DEC 2001 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Remarkable Animal Talents And Capabilities Looking backward with genital photoreceptors. Photoreceptors are sensitive to light but do not produce images. They are found in many groups of animals. Even humans possess photoreceptors besides their eyes; specifically, in the pineal gland and, perhaps, the knees. (SF#116, SF#117) The pineal gland (our "third eye") may have registered photons at some stage in our evolution, but it is now useless or adapted to other purposes. The arthropods, however, still find photoreceptors useful. Crayfish have them on their abdomens, where they initiate an escape response when illuminated. Additionally, the blind shrimp that collect around the glowing deep-sea vents have photoreceptors perched on their backs, presumably to guide them to their prey located around the luminous vents. Recently, the Japanese yellow swallowtail butterflies were discovered to sport photoreceptors on their genitalia. These I are used during mating to confirm the position of the female's ovipositor.(Arikawa, Kentaro; "Hindsight of Butterflies," BioScience, 51:219, 2001.) Barn-Owl auditory neurons multiple signals. Barn Owls can locate rustling mice in the dark with high precision. They discern their prey by sound rather than light. To achieve the high accuracy needed to home in on small rodents in the black of night, their ears are slightly offset so that they can draw a bead by using microsecond time ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 57 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf138/sf138p04.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 138: NOV-DEC 2001 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects It's Time For A Bit Of Generalization No one can contest that quantum mechanics has been extremely successful in describing the phenomena of physics. This fact does not mean that it is easy to understand. In fact, there are eight competing "interpretations" of quantum mechanics, none of which is completely convincing. No wonder, because quantum mechanics implies four characteristics of the universe that are seriously at odds with our everyday experience: The quantization of the properties of matter; The probabilistic nature of physical measurements; Entanglement; that is, the mysterious instantaneous connection of objects and processes across immense distances; and Superposition; for example, an electron is both here and there until we look at it! A. Zeilinger, University of Vienna, advances the idea that we can truly understand quantum mechanics only when we discover an underlying principle -- something akin to the concept of energy which led to the quantification of the laws of thermodynamics. (Incidentally. we only think we know what energy is, but it is a human construct and is not a physical dimension like mass or distance.) Zeilinger asserts that the underlying principle of quantum mechanics is the quantization of information. Every inquiry science makes into the nature of the universe, says Zeilinger, can be reduced to a yes-or-no question; i.e ., a 1 or 0. To a scientist, nature is really like a person on a ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 54 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf138/sf138p12.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 129: MAY-JUN 2000 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Uplifting may be Hazardous Two women were killed by lightning when the metal in one of their under-wire bras acted like a conductor, a London inquest was told Wednesday. Sunee Whitworth, 39, and her friend Anuban Bell, 24, were killed Sept. 22 in a city park. Iain West, a pathologist, said the metal had melted. "They were enveloped in a massive amount of energy," he said. (Anonymous; "Bra Conducts Lightning; 2 Women Killed," Chicago Sun-Times, October 28, 1999. Cr. J. Cieciel.) From Science Frontiers #129, MAY-JUNE 2000 . 2000 William R. Corliss Other Sites of Interest SIS . Catastrophism, archaeoastronomy, ancient history, mythology and astronomy. Lobster . The journal of intelligence and political conspiracy (CIA, FBI, JFK, MI5, NSA, etc) Homeworking.com . Free resource for people thinking about working at home. ABC dating and personals . For people looking for relationships. Place your ad free. ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 52 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf129/sf129p13.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 129: MAY-JUN 2000 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Why we "Roll in the Aisles"Some of the research pursued by the Leiden Medical Center, Netherlands, was truly a laughing matter. G.J . Lammers and colleagues investigated the effects of laughing upon the H-reflex that affects the soleus muscles in our calves. A decrease in the H-reflex is usually accompanied by a marked weakness in these muscles. They first showed slides -- some funny, some not -- to volunteers at 2-second intervals. Sure enough, when the subjects laughed, their H-reflexes nearly disappeared. Trying to quantify the phenomenon: The researchers then repeated the experiment with several new volunteers, but in this case they tried to make the subjects laugh by telling them jokes. When individuals laughed at the jokes, their H-reflexes de-creased in amplitude by 89 percent---significantly more than when the jokes merely made them smile. (Anonymous; "Falling Down Laughing," BioScience, 49:940 Comment. Presumably the subjects were firmly seated during all the hilarity. If they had been standing when their calf muscles gave way, the lawsuits received by the Medical Center would not have been so funny! Who said science was no fun? From Science Frontiers #129, MAY-JUNE 2000 . 2000 William R. Corliss Other Sites of Interest SIS . Catastrophism, archaeoastronomy, ancient history, mythology and astronomy. Lobster . The journal of ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 51 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf129/sf129p05.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 133: JAN-FEB 2001 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Unlocking Hidden Talents Dementia is a devastating illness. The brain deteriorates slowly. Sometimes, though, it seems like the illness strips away barriers and reveals hidden or suppressed talents, as seen in the two dementia patients described below. One 53-year-old man, a car stereo installer with a 10th-grade education and no prior interest in art, suddenly began painting. At first, he drew simple still lifes of vases and bridges. But his work became increasingly sophisticated. Eventually, he was painting Indians, churches and haciendas recalled from distant memories of his youth. Similarly, a 51-year-old housewife who had never had artistic training took up painting. She initially created unsophisticated images of rivers, ponds and rural settings; later, elaborate and sometimes eccentric versions of the works of great masters. Unfortunately, such new-found talents are short-lived. They, too, deteriorate. (Stein, Rob; "Patients' New Gift Paints Clearer Image of Disease," The Brain in the News, p. 7, October 30, 1998. Cr. J. Cieciel) Comment. This peeling away of mental barriers suggests that we all have hidden or suppressed capabilities. Perhaps, some day, we will know how to unlock these in normal people. It is pertinent here that in idiot savants these mental barriers are also somehow removed to expose remarkable mathematical talents, such as calendar calculating ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 51 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf133/sf133p15.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 138: NOV-DEC 2001 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The 8 Greatest Mysteries of Cosmology Such is the title of a lengthy article in the June 2001 issue of Astronomy. It is always dangerous to employ superlatives; "greatest" is particularly hazardous. Anyway, it is useful to review what mainstream astronomers consider to be their major unsolved problems. Naturally, we shall add a few that we think should have been on the list. How multidimensional is the universe? For example, gravitons, which are believed to exist in a fifth dimension, are supposed to transmit gravitational force. This dimension is barely separated from our well-known four. The thin barrier separating us from the graviton universe seems to leak a bit therebyallowing gravity, the weakest of all our universe's forces, to exist. Sounds pretty far-out, but not as bizarre as string theory which requires many more dimensions! How did the universe begin? The cosmic microwave background is much too smooth. If it was smoothed out by a sudden expansion of the universe (so-called "inflation"), what caused the inflation? Why does matter fill the universe? in other words, where is all the antimatter that we think must have been created in equal amounts? (This equality is a human philosophical requirement. The universe can do anything it wants!) How did galaxies form? What is cold dark matter? This "substance" seems to be filaments threading the surfaces of cosmic ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 51 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf138/sf138p02.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 137: SEP-OCT 2001 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Ship-swallowers It's happened hundreds of times, and thousands of sailors have lost their lives. The killers are giant, usually solitary, waves that seem to come out of nowhere. These monster walls of water appear in seas that are rough but not fearfully so. Suddenly. a ship will find itself in a deep trough. Then conies a wall of water. 50-100 feet high. (34 meters is the biggest reliable measurement.) The vessel is flooded, perhaps its back is broken. It sinks like a rock without even sending a distress signal. Another ship has been devoured by a rogue wave. Giant solitary waves are usually preceded by deep troughs. as seen in this sketch of a vessel in the notorious A gulhas Current off the coast of South Africa. (From: Earthquakes. Tides....) Just between 1969 and 1994. 60 supercarriers were lost due to sudden flooding. Of this number, 22 were apparently swallowed by rogue waves. The rogue waves appear unexpectedly. They dwarf all surrounding waves. For a long time, the rogues were said to be just chance additions of two smaller waves. But they are too big and occur too frequently to be statistical flukes. In addition, statiticians have trouble in accounting for the fabled and feared "three sisters" -- three massive waves in succession. Consequently, scientists have retreated to a now-familiar ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 51 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf137/sf137p12.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 138: NOV-DEC 2001 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects A Down Side To Moundbuilding?The thousands of earthen mounds and walls piled up basketful-by-basketful by Native Americans throughout the Midwest and, especially, Ohio, suggest only simple cultures that raised rude edifices and monuments to their chiefs and gods. But now some anomalies have arisen from below the Midwestern soil. Archeologists got a shock in 1998, when drillers installing a drainage system at huge, terraced Monk's Mound in Illinois discovered that the mound was not all dirt after all. Some 40 feet below one of the terraces they ran into a 32foot-thick layer of stones. Hidden for centuries, no one knows the extent or purpose of this huge mass of stones. (SF#117) Now, just 3 years later, scientists using magnetic and other noninvasive equipment have discerned a buried circle of "something" measuring 90 feet across. Like the stones in Monk's Mound, the find was entirely serendipitous. The locale is Paint Creek Prairie, Ross County, in Southern Ohio. There are run-of-the-mill mounds at the site but no one supposed there was anything of significance beneath the surface. (Sloat, Bill; "Mysterious Circle Found Buried beside Mounds," Cleveland Plain Dealer web site, September 6, 2001. Cr. P. Huyghe) Comment. The Hopewell Culture flourished in this region from about 400 BC to 400 AD. In fact, they ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 51 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf138/sf138p01.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 131: SEP-OCT 2000 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Will mtDNA Trump C14 and Projectile Points?Do not imagine for a minute that the Clovis Police are successfully suppressing all radical notions in archeology. Revolutionaries are everywhere. Not the least of these are studying the mtDNA (mitochondrial DNA) of Native American peoples and comparing it with the mtDNAs of Asians and Europeans. The geographical distribution of mtDNA haplogroups can trace out the migratory routes of early humans in the New World and, in addition, provide rough times-of-arrival. Some of this mtDNA evidence will undoubtedly attract the attention of the Clovis Police. But do these law enforcers -- mostly archeologists -- dare to challenge genetic data? Can mtDNA lie? There are in the cells of North American Native Americans mitochondria that seem to divide these peoples into four major "haplogroups." These four groups can be readily traced back to Siberia and northeast Asia. No trouble from the Clovis Police here! But there is also a "haplogroup-X " that does not fit the Clovis paradigm. In North America, haplogroup-X is found frequently among the Algonkian-speaking tribes, such as the Ojibwa. This same haplogroup occurs in Europe and the Middle East, especially Israel. It is notably absent in Asia. Furthermore, the data suggest that haplogroup-X was resident in North America thousands of years before the Vikings and Columbus made landfall. (Schurr, Theodore G.; "Mitochondrial DNA and the ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 51 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf131/sf131p01.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 131: SEP-OCT 2000 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Female Feral Fowl Foil Rapists Male animals possess an inspired arsenal of devices to ensure that their sperm are the ones that fertilize chosen females. Their mechanical devices range from scrapers that physically remove sperm deposited by competing males to plugs that block sperm access in subsequent matings. It is claimed that some male ejaculates introduce not only fertilizing sperm but also "kamikaze" sperm specially designed to hunt down and destroy competing sperm. Well, both sexes can play these games. Some females have ways to eject sperm from undesired males. For example, female feral fowl (hens gone wild!) prefer to mate with dominant males. Often, however, subdominant males force themselves on the females despite resistance and stress calls. The female response to such rapes is differential sperm ejection; that is, they immediately expel the unwanted ejaculate -- at least most of it -- raising the probability that they will be fertilized by the preferred dominant males. (Pizzeria, T., and Birkhead, T.R .; "Female Feral Fowl Eject Sperm of Sub-dominant Males," Nature, 405:787, 2000.) Comment. An interesting sort of sperm ejection occurs among Dunnocks, small brown birds common in English gardens. Alpha males try to prevent matings by lower-ranking males but are rarely successful. Most Dunnock matings are preceded by a ritual-like phenomenon called "cloaca-pecking." The female raises her ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 51 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf131/sf131p05.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 133: JAN-FEB 2001 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Statistical Astrology No matter how severely scientists demonize astrologers, statistics keep piling up suggesting that season-of-birth can influence human traits and talents. When one relects upon this matter, a rational, cause-and-effect chain is not far out on the lunatic fringe. After all, a pregnant woman's body responds to varying temperatures, changing amounts of sunlight, seasonal foods, and varying physical activity during the year. Such effects can be felt in utero, too. Many of the multitudinous studies looking into the season-of-birth correlations are very specialized and employ small samples. For example, English professional soccer players in the 1991-1992 season were twice as likely to have been born September through November. Mental traits are also influenced by season-ofbirth. More medical students are born April through June than can be explained by chance. Best of all (for us) is the following correlation: Perhaps the most unusual seasonal effect is found amongst scientists who support revolutionary theories. It seems that academics who were quick to support controversial theories such as relativity and evolution tended to he born between October and April. (Thomas, Jens; "Like a Virgo," New Scientist, p. 56, December 25, 1999.) Comment. So, there is a season for iconoclasts and anomalists! However, we (the editorial "we") bucked the trend. Could we have ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 51 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf133/sf133p06.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 132: NOV-DEC 2000 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Puzzling Partitions The Indian mathematician S. Ramanujan's has been called a "magical genius" because his remarkable insights seemed to come out of the blue -- like magic. We have not neglected Ramanujan in this newsletter ( SF#53 and here ), and now we spotlight him again. First, a quick primer on a fascinating mathematical byway called "partitions." A partition is a way in which a whole number can be expressed as the sum of positive integers. For example, 5 can be partitioned in seven ways: 5 4+ 1 3+ 2 3+ 1+ 1 2+ 2+ 1 2+ 1+ 1+ 1 1+ 1+ 1+ 1+ 1 The number 4 has only five partitions. Check it out. Historically, ordinary mortals saw no patterns in the number of partitions possessed by the parade of numbers until Ramanujan came along. He had in front of him a list of the number of partitions for each of the first 200 integers. They ranged from one (for 1) to 3,972,999,029,388 (for 200). [That of a computer is itself worthy of mention!] Here is the order that Ramanujan perceived: Starting with 5, the number of partitions for every seventh integer is a multiple of 7, and starting with 6, the number of partitions for every 11th integer is a multiple of 11 ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 51 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf132/sf132p12.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 137: SEP-OCT 2001 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Bird's Eggs As Information Carriers Bird communication may be more subtle than trills and squawks. Take, for example, the observation that the last egg laid by several species is distinctly lighter in color than the others in the clutch. This late-egg phenomenon is seen in the sparrows especially (House, Tree, Dead Sea, Grey-Head, and others). Common Terns, Fieldfares, Herring Gulls, and Moorhens also lay pale last eggs. Since the changes in the egg production line exact a cost in the females, there might be an adaptive explanation for the phenomenon; that is, the final paler egg may lead to increased survival of the participating species. To illustrate, in 1980, Yom-Tov suggested that: .. .this last odd egg might have evolved as a signal to potential brood parasites that the female has finished laying the clutch and has begun incubation. If a parasite lays its egg after incubation has commenced, then it would be unlikely to hatch, hence the potential parasite would benefit from heeding such a warning signal, if it could then find an alternative host nest where incubation had yet to commence. The signaling host would also benefit from avoiding the costs of warming an extra egg [the parasite's ] for some of the incubation period, costs that can be considerable, as well as the possible cost of having to rear an extra chick. G.D ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 51 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf137/sf137p05.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 137: SEP-OCT 2001 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Granite-working In Ancient Egypt The ancient Egyptians cut and shaped limestone with ease and alacrity. The 2.5 million multiton limestone blocks in the Great Pyramid are more than ample proof of their ability to work this soft stone. But how about the polished black granite walls of the King's Chamber in the Great Pyramid and the hollowed-out sarcophagus of obdurate chocolate-colored granite in the same room? These granites are much harder than limestone and even harder than the copper saws and drills that the Egyptian stoneworkers had at their disposal. So, how did they work their granite? [No lasers allowed!] The King's Chamber in the Great Pyramid is encased with multiton blocks of hard-to-work granite. For some reason the five granite slabs in the ceiling were finished on only their bottom sides. (From: Ancient Structures) As a matter of fact, there is little mystery here despite what you read in the popular magazines. The Egyptian workers simply dribbled quartz sand beneath the copper saws and drills. This abrasive is harder than the mica and feldspar components of granite but not the quartz. Nevertheless, granite will yield slowly to the abrasive, as do the copper tools themselves. In 1999, D.A . Stocks tested the efficacy of copper saws and drills on the granite in the Aswan quarries 500 miles up the Nile. The copper saw in his test was 1. ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 51 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf137/sf137p01.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 132: NOV-DEC 2000 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Luminous Toroid Dangled Sparkling "Candies"Ball lightning (BL) may assume many weird forms, which is one reason some scientists claim it is more likely an illusion than physical reality. Those physicists who admit that BL exists think that some electromagnetic mechanism might account for any nicely spherical, luminous globes with lifetimes of just a few seconds, but their equations cannot handle the phenomenon that took place at Gmuend, Austria, in 1996. A.G . Keul and O. Stummer personally investigated this case. The salient facts are as follows. A. Reisinger was working in her garden about 10 meters from an apple tree when she observed a phenomenon that seems to have been an elaborate and hard-to-explain form of ball lightning. When the BL appeared suddenly from behind the tree, it caught the attention of the witness who said that it looked like it "sat down on to the tree." It had the dimensions of "a small truck tyre, not as large as a tractor one," and it had a definite torus shape. What made the dark object an even stranger sight was a considerable number of "Xmas candies", all hanging down from its underside 15 to 20 centimetres long and "sparkling", which means changing brightness with an emission of sparks at the same time. A humming and sizzling sound was associated with the optical effect, but there was no static electricity. The ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 51 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf132/sf132p10.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 136: JUL-AUG 2001 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Lake Michigan's Annual Silt Plume The item on the Caribbean "whitings" in SF#135 brought forth an article from a Chicago newspaper describing a similar phenomenon. Every spring a great plume of silt -- an estimated million tons of it -- is stirred up by winds and currents on Lake Michigan. This plume is easily visible to those who care to brave the bitter weather that time of year. The 125-mile-long chalky plume stretches along the shore from Wisconsin, past Illinois, around the southern tip of the lake, and up along the Michigan shore. The plume lasts several weeks and is easily seen by satellites high overhead. (Kendall, Peter; "Scientists Plumb Mystery of Lake Plume," Chicago Tribune, February 1997 or 1998. Cr. J. Cieciel.) Spring winds and currents stir up a 125-mile-long, chalky plume on Lake Michigan. From Science Frontiers #136, JUL-AUG 2001 . 2001 William R. Corliss Other Sites of Interest SIS . Catastrophism, archaeoastronomy, ancient history, mythology and astronomy. Lobster . The journal of intelligence and political conspiracy (CIA, FBI, JFK, MI5, NSA, etc) Homeworking.com . Free resource for people thinking about working at home. ABC dating and personals . For people looking for relationships. Place your ad free. ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 51 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf136/sf136p12.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 132: NOV-DEC 2000 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Fish Tales From the Mouth of Fishes Several species of fishes live inside the mouths and gills of larger species of fish. Some are true parasites. Attached by their teeth, they drink the blood of their hosts. Other fishes have fins that have been transformed into adhesive disks that allow them to also live inside the mouths and gill cavities of larger fish. These are true symbionts that feed on food scraps. The sizes and shapes of these invaders are neatly adapted to the mouths and cavities of each host. It is possible, but not easy, to explain how these remarkable physiological and behavioral transformations were initiated and perfected via random mutations and natural selection. (Gudger, E.W .; "Fishes That Live in the Mouths or Gill Cavities of Other Fishes," Scientific Monthly, 24:556, 1927.) A fish living within a fish. The shapes and sizes of such symbionts and parasites have evolved to fit their unusual niches. E.W . Gudger (see above) collected all sorts of piscine anomalies. He would have been delighted to learn of a really bizarre type of parasitism involving the spotted rose snapper (and probably other species) and a parasitic isopod (a relative of crabs and lobsters). The isopod first invades the mouth of the host fish and then consumes its tongue. It then hooks itself into the place where the tongue used to be and, being about the same ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 51 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf132/sf132p07.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 136: JUL-AUG 2001 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Grunting Transcends Biological And Geographical Boundaries "Grunting for worms," that is. Birds are the most frequent worm-grunters; but reptiles do it (turtles, SF#65); and so do mammals (humans, SF#106). Grunting is an amusing and effective technique for luring earthworms to the surface where they can be consumed or used for fish bait. Animals usually grunt for worms by stomping on the ground after a rain. Just why the worms below rush to expose themselves upon detecting these seismic signals is known only to them. Perhaps they think more rain is falling or that a mole is burrowing toward them. All we know is that grunting works. In the article under review, English seagulls are reported doing a flat-footed version of an Irish jig to entice their dinner to the surface. Oystercatchers, on the other hand, prefer a reel-like dance in which they cavort in circles and straight lines. Somehow, the grunting technique has been communicated to birds everywhere. Red-billed gulls in New Zealand grunt for worms, so do the olive thrushes of South Africa. (Smith, Richard Hoseason, et al; "Rain Dance," New Scientist, p. 102, May 12, 2001.) Comment. It is mildly anomalous that this unlikely hunting technique is found in so many places and employed by so many species. Our own research adds that strange New ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 51 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf136/sf136p05.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 131: SEP-OCT 2000 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Anomalous Dreams At the 2000 annual meeting of the Society for Scientific Exploration, S. Krippner and L. Faith reported on their analysis of 1,666 dream reports. In this large sample, they identified 134 dreams that they deemed anomalous in one way or another. They classified these dreams as follows: In telepathic dream reports, it is the dreamer's impression that the dream correctly identified the thoughts of someone in external reality at the time of the dream. Mutual dreams are those in which the dreamer and someone else report similar dreams on the same night. Clairvoyant dreams concern distant events about which the dreamer had no ordinary way of knowing. In precognitive dreams, information is reported about an event that had not taken place at the time of the dream. A past-life dream concerns past events in which the dreamer participated but with a different identity than characterizes his or her current life. Initiation dreams introduce the dreamer to a new worldview, or to a new mission in life. In visitation dreams, the dreamer is visited by ancestors, spirits, or deities, and is given messages or counsel by them. Lucid, healing, and out-of-body dreams were also deemed anomalous but were not defined in the abstract. In fact, lucid dreams were the most common type of anomalous dream. Out-of-body dreams came next. Precognitive dreams were third in frequency. (Krippner, ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 51 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf131/sf131p12.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 128: MAR-APR 2000 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Ganymede Magnetic Paradox In December 1995, the Galileo space-craft was injected into orbit around Jupiter, thereby becoming the first known artificial satellite of this giant planet. In the five years that have transpired, Galileo has radioed back voluminous data about Jupiter itself and its four large Calilean satellites. These natural satellites have turned out to be a disparate bunch. Three have iron cores, but Callisto breaks the mold with an unusual core of mixed ice and rock. Europa probably possesses an ocean, and Callisto might also. Only one of Jupiter's large satellites, Ganymede, boasts a magnetic field. In fact, Ganymede is apparently the only satellite in the solar system to display an intrinsic, dipole magnetic field like the earth's . Although Ganymere's magnetic field is like that produced by a permanent bar magnet, its core is much too hot for permanent magnetism. Again like the earth, Ganymede's field is theorized to be generated by the convection of electrically conducting liquid in its core -- a dynamo of sorts. All well and good, but Ganymede is so small that it should have cooled off billions of years ago thereby freezing its metallic core. So then, whence its magnetic field? One way out of this box it to suppose that about a billion years ago Ganymede was circling Jupiter in an orbit that took it much closer to this ponderous planet. Then, Jupiter's powerful ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 51 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf128/sf128p04.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 136: JUL-AUG 2001 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Bacon Bits Roger Bacon may have been involved with the Voynich Manuscript described in SF#135, but it was Francis Bacon who, some claim, wrote some of the plays commonly attributed to Shakespeare. We apologize for this slip-up and thank all who pointed it out. As for the possibility of a cipher in Shakespeare's plays, this idea was promoted by that trouble-maker I. Donnelly. His book, The Great Cryptogram (1875). was proof, Donnelly asserted, that it was really Francis Bacon who penned what is now erroneously attributed to Shakespeare. Donnelly was a great collector of anomalies. From his vast researches came Atlantis: the Antediluvian World, a book that sparked worldwide interest in that lost city, and the equally seminal Ragnarok: the Age of Fire and Gravel, that introduced Velikovskian catastrophism 67 years before Worlds in Collision. From Science Frontiers #136, JUL-AUG 2001 . 2001 William R. Corliss Other Sites of Interest SIS . Catastrophism, archaeoastronomy, ancient history, mythology and astronomy. Lobster . The journal of intelligence and political conspiracy (CIA, FBI, JFK, MI5, NSA, etc) Homeworking.com . Free resource for people thinking about working at home. ABC dating and personals . For people looking for relationships. Place your ad free. ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 51 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf136/sf136p02.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 134: MAR-APR 2001 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects I Must Go Down To The Goo Again!With apologies to Masefield for mangling a line of his poetry. it really is tine to go down to the sea and examine its microstructure. The ocean is not what it seems. When you snorkel in crystal-clear Caribbean waters, you do not sense that you are swimming in a very thin jelly. In reality, ocean water is filled with a complex tangle of microscopic strands and particles of gel. According to F. A zam , an oceanographer at Scripps: It's not in the textbooks or in the classical explanations. The gel's existence fundamentally changes our ideas of the microcosmos in which sea organisms live. It has added another layer of complexity that people are only now starting to consider in the context of whole ocean systems . . Gel is like the dark matter of the sea. While sea gel does not impede the snorkeler, . it does herd microbes into clumps or microniches . which we cannot see either. These microbes. in effect, exist in a tangled. 3-D mesh that affects not only their movements but also those of their prey and predators. A few statistics confirm the amazing complexity of the seawater microcosm and its incredibly high microbe population density. The long strands in the oceanic gel are mostly crosslinked polysaccharides. If the polysaccharides in 1 milliliter of seawater could be placed end-to-end, they would stretch out ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 51 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf134/sf134p09.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 138: NOV-DEC 2001 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Drifting, Glowing Fog January 29, 2001. Avening, Gloucestershire, England. Testimony of M.J . "McLaughlin as reported by C. Roland. On Monday, January 29, I took a ride out Stroud way and decided to walk around Woodchester Park. It was a nice day and what better place to take advantage of the weather. I had not been [there] for a couple of years. Everything was going as normal until I got down into the park. I took the "red" path which takes you right round the lakes. I had walked down to the old kennels when I saw what I can only describe as a glowing fog. I thought it must be some sort of peculiar weather phenomenon. I carried on skirting the lake but the "glow" was still there. I looked around for someone to confirm this odd scene with me but I was alone. I must admit I began to feel a little unnerved by it. I quickened back; the glow could still be seen except it had drifted out over the lake. It was about six feet (two metres) high and three feet (one metre) wide -- although not a column. Indeed, at one point I almost thought it looked like a figure. I have never seen such a peculiar sight in all my days, and only wish someone else had seen it, too. (Roland, ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 51 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf138/sf138p08.htm
... 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 The Most Mysterious Manuscript Forget the Kensington Stone and Easter Island's "talking boards," the so-called Voynich Manuscript is claimed to be the most mysterious writing on the planet. This 234-page, handwritten, parchment-book is in a class by itself. One's attention is first caught by page after page of truly strange depictions of plants, astronomical maps, and even crude human figures. Then, there's the boldly written script that annotates the drawings -- copiously on occasion. Superficially the Voynich Manuscript looks like a medieval herbarium combined with an astronomer's musings. The words look as if you could read them easily, but you cannot. No one has been able to, except for the interpretation of a few plant labels. The words represent no known language, yet statistical tests confirm that a real language was used. "Real" but uncrackable after much labor by leading cryptographers. The plants look like species you might find in your backyard and nearby fields. Botanists, though, assure us that most do not exist in nature. The copious plant labels in that unreadable language are of no help. Astronomical drawings and zodiacs fill some pages. Hope rises when we see a zodiac beginning with Pisces but fades when Scorpius turns out to be a lizard. Cancer is represented by two lobsters; Gemini by a man and woman. Superficially, the manuscript seems so readable and ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 51 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf135/sf135p00.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 133: JAN-FEB 2001 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Ribbons In The Sky November 18, 1999. North Atlantic Ocean. Aboard the m.v . Waterford enroute from Pto Bolivar, Columbia, to Ijmuiden. At 1832 UTC an azimuth of Jupiter was taken shortly after sunset. The sky in the vicinity of Jupiter was completely clear, no cloud of any type, with but a few small cumulus dotted around the horizon. About five minutes later, having completed the calculations, the observer again looked out to see a ribbon type cloud, broken in formation, stretching almost from [the] eastern horizon to [the] western horizon. If the estimated height (see below) is reasonably correct, then the bandwidth couldn't have been more than a few hundred feet, apparently more cigar-shaped in cross section than flat, the maximum axis being horizontal, the minimum vertical. The cloud was fairly consistent in density, and at a fairly stable altitude, not undulating or rippled, having the consistency of a small cumulus cloud (white and fleecy), but also translucent. Initially, it was thought to be a condensation trail, but this was shortly dismissed as it was considered too low (estimated to be less than 10,000 ft altitude, probably around 7,0008,000 ft). Both ends of the cloud were checked with binoculars but no aircraft was evident; however, as a yardstick, and by good fortune, one did appear ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 51 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf133/sf133p13.htm
... 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 Mud Springs Regurgitate Ancient Fossils Mud springs in Wiltshire, England, may be the only ones of their kind on the planet. The Wiltshire mud springs are cold. They are not hot and steaming like those seen where geothermal heat is close to the surface, as in New Zealand, Java, and Yellowstone. They are also unique in their entrainment of subterranean fossils and bringing them to the surface. "There is no explanation of the way the springs ooze a pale, cold, grey mud to the surface, forming blisters that spurt high into the air. "Neville Hollingworth of the Natural Environment Research Council said: 'They are like a fossil conveyor belt bringing up finds from the clay layers below and then washing them out in a nearby stream.'" The fossil conveyor belt yields bones of marine reptiles, oyster shells, and the remains of sea creatures that lived during the Jurassic, about 165 million years ago. Some of the bivalves still retain their organic ligaments. Geologists wonder what forces squeeze the mud to the surface like toothpaste from a tube. (Nuttall, Nick; "Mud Springs a Surprise after 165 Million Years," London Times, May 2, 1996. Cr. A.C .A . Silk) From Science Frontiers #106, JUL-AUG 1996 . 1996-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 51 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf106/sf106p11.htm
... 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 Oil Deposits And Rotary Phenomena Sometimes obscure and unlikely correlations lead to new insights. In this context, we are obliged to mention a most improbable connection proposed by chemical engineer S. Mori in a paper presented at the Spring 2000 meeting of the American Geophysical Union. Mori suspects that oil and gas deposits are linked to the origin of tornados! In his paper, Mori said that positively charged oil deposits underground establish polarity with negatively charged oxygen ions at the surface. When a thunderstorm passes over the oil field, he thinks this subsurface polarity links up the with electric polarity established between clouds and ground, creating the vacuum that spawns the tornado. Over the years, Mori said he's built a data base of about 8,000 tornado hits in the United States for comparison with the location of known oil and gas deposits. He said that studies in Kansas, Pennsylvania and Texas found a high correlation. (Lore, David; "Underground Oil One Twist in Tornado Theory," Charleston Dispatch, June 8, 2000. Cr. J. Dotson.) Comments. There have been numerous reports of electrical and burning phenomena associated with tornados. See GWT1 & GWT2 in Tornados, Dark Days. The oil-sodden lands of the Persian Gulf can be correlated with another sort of rotary phenomena: the strange phosphorescent wheels of light that have been seen many times swirling in the shallow waters of the Gulf. See GLW ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 51 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf135/sf135p09.htm
... 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 Oklahoma's ornate flints: "eccentric" or fraudulent?Some Mayan eccentric flints were of extremely complex and delicate design. The first of the accompanying illustrations shows some of the ornate flints dug up in Delaware County, Oklahoma, in 1921 by M. Tussinger. The second picture is of a genuine Mayan "eccentric" flint from Quirigua, Guatemala. These exquisite examples of flint knapping evoke two questions: (1 ) Why bother turning out these highly labor-intensive objects by the thousands? (2 ) What are typically Mayan artifacts doing so far north in Oklahoma? Many of the flints, whether from Mayan sites or Oklahoma, are incredibly complex. Some are up to 20 inches in length. Countless hours must have been invested in delicately chipping away at flint blanks. Apparently, ornate flints were an art form of great importance to the Maya. They are found in large numbers in the burials of important personages. Archeologists too often explain puzzling artifacts by saying they had "ritual value." But, this answer may be correct here. Mayan eccentric flints are probably the equivalents of Christian stained-glass windows and elaborately illuminated manuscripts. The less "practical" they are, the higher their ritual value! Purpose aside, did Mayan influence and trade really reach far north into Oklahoma? Many archeologists doubted this at first. They claimed that Tussinger knapped the Oklahoma flints himself and sold them during the Depression for ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 51 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf106/sf106p15.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 137: SEP-OCT 2001 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Luck or Fate?Bristol University scientists say they will follow the lives of 14,000 children to "discover whether we are ruled by fate or create our own luck." Should have results in two years, with a few breaks. (Anonymous; "Free Will Offering," Chicago Sun-Times, June 20, 2001. Cr. J. Cieciel.) Questions. How can these scientists distinguish between fate and luck? How did this grant ever get past peer review? From Science Frontiers #137, SEP-OCT 2001 . 2001 William R. Corliss Other Sites of Interest SIS . Catastrophism, archaeoastronomy, ancient history, mythology and astronomy. Lobster . The journal of intelligence and political conspiracy (CIA, FBI, JFK, MI5, NSA, etc) Homeworking.com . Free resource for people thinking about working at home. ABC dating and personals . For people looking for relationships. Place your ad free. ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 50 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf137/sf137p17.htm
... 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 American Anomalophobia Ins't it interesting that of the 21 sources used above 14 are from British publications? What has happened to that vaunted American pioneering spirit? We suppose that an American scientist cannot paddle too far out of the scientific mainstream without jeopardizing his or ger funding. From Science Frontiers #105, MAY-JUN 1996 . 1996-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 50 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf105/sf105p18.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 132: NOV-DEC 2000 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Do Not Try this Experiment at Home!Our tolerance of heat is limited, and without enough drinking water, a single day a hot desert is likely to end in a miserable death. But in 1775 the Secretary of the Royal Society, Mr. Blagden, had a room heated to well above the boiling point, and, together with a dog and a piece of raw meat, he entered the room at 105 C. When he left it 15 minutes later, he and the dog were fine, but the steak was well done. (Schmidt-Nielsen, Knut; "At the Edges of Life," Nature, 407:132, 2000.) From Science Frontiers #132, NOV-DEC 2000 . 2000 William R. Corliss Other Sites of Interest SIS . Catastrophism, archaeoastronomy, ancient history, mythology and astronomy. Lobster . The journal of intelligence and political conspiracy (CIA, FBI, JFK, MI5, NSA, etc) Homeworking.com . Free resource for people thinking about working at home. ABC dating and personals . For people looking for relationships. Place your ad free. ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 50 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf132/sf132p06.htm
... 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 Fall Babies Live Longer Not by much, just a few months longer, but enough to look for a reason. In Austria, babies born October-December live about 0.6 year longer than those who first see the world April-June. The same effect emerges in Denmark, but the fall advantage is only 0.3 year. Don't bother looking for an astrological explanation. The longevity enhancement may just be the consequence of more fruits and vegetables being available to pregnant women in the months preceding birth. (Anonymous; "Study: Babies Born in Fall Live Longer," Scranton Tribune, February 27, 2001. Cr. M. Piechota.) From Science Frontiers #135, MAY-JUN 2001 . 2001 William R. Corliss Other Sites of Interest SIS . Catastrophism, archaeoastronomy, ancient history, mythology and astronomy. Lobster . The journal of intelligence and political conspiracy (CIA, FBI, JFK, MI5, NSA, etc) Homeworking.com . Free resource for people thinking about working at home. ABC dating and personals . For people looking for relationships. Place your ad free. ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 50 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf135/sf135p06.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 132: NOV-DEC 2000 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Hold that Mega-Megalith Those huge standing stones (the tombs of the Genii), located in a remote region of eastern Asia ( SF#131 ), just might be natural after all. We have found a copy of the original 1860 source, and its author does not claim them to be artificial. In fact, his accompanying illustrations of some of the rock formations in the area indicate regular patterns of jointing that could yield blocks similar to the mega-megalith. The Genii, it turns out, were "powerful spirits". More of this later as investigation proceeds. (Atkinson, Thomas Witlam; Travels in the Region of the Upper And-Lower-Amoor, New York, 1860.) From Science Frontiers #132, NOV-DEC 2000 . 2000 William R. Corliss Other Sites of Interest SIS . Catastrophism, archaeoastronomy, ancient history, mythology and astronomy. Lobster . The journal of intelligence and political conspiracy (CIA, FBI, JFK, MI5, NSA, etc) Homeworking.com . Free resource for people thinking about working at home. ABC dating and personals . For people looking for relationships. Place your ad free. ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 50 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf132/sf132p03.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 138: NOV-DEC 2001 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Britain More Hazardous Than Ever Accident figures derived from selected British hospital admission records show that visitors to this island nation must be very careful indeed. It seems that the most innocent-looking objects may put you in the hosptial! The following data are extrapolated to the country-as-a -whole. Type of Accident Increases 1998/1999 Tea cosies 20/37 Place-mats 157/165 Trousers 5137/5945 Socks and tights 9843/10733 Vegetables [bananas?] 12362/13132 Tree trunks 1777/1810 Bird baths 117/361 Bean bags 957/1317 (Anonymous; "Feedback,' p. 104, June 7, 2001.) From Science Frontiers #138, NOV-DEC 2001 . 2001 William R. Corliss Other Sites of Interest SIS . Catastrophism, archaeoastronomy, ancient history, mythology and astronomy. Lobster . The journal of intelligence and political conspiracy (CIA, FBI, JFK, MI5, NSA, etc) Homeworking.com . Free resource for people thinking about working at home. ABC dating and personals . For people looking for relationships. Place your ad free. ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 50 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf138/sf138p06.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 129: MAY-JUN 2000 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Leif was Late This 10-foot-high standing stone is located near Ungava Bay, Quebec. It is said to resemble the Hammer-of-Thor motif. (From: Ancient Infrastructures) It took decades for a scientific consensus to emerge that the Norse did indeed establish a settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland, circa 1,000 AD. This Viking outpost may have been only a short chapter in a long book on the Norse pre-Columbian presence in North America. Mainstream archeologists contemptuously dismiss the Kensington Stone Rhode Island's Newport tower, and those runestones from Oklahoma; but hard-to-explain artifacts continue to crop up in the Canadian Arctic. Recently, there have been purported rivets from a Viking longboat and strand of Norse yarn from the Arctic tundra -- the latter carbon-dated as 800 years old. The Canadian Arctic is also the location of strange stone towers, stone foundations, and standing stones like that illustrated. Canadian author, F. Mowat, asserts that these structures in the far north are neither Eskimo nor Viking in origin. In his new book, The Farfarers, he claims that some 200 years before the Vikings built L'Anse aux Meadows, voyagers from northern Scot-land crossed the Atlantic in walrus-hide boats and established a colony in Newfoundland. Mowat bases his conjectures upon the strong similarities between the stone structures in the Arctic and those on ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 48 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf129/sf129p00.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 129: MAY-JUN 2000 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Extremophilic Terraforming of Mars If we are to colonize Mars, we must make it more earthlike; and that is what terraforming does. Right now, the Martian atmosphere, surface temperatures, level of ionizing radiation, and noxious soil are inimical to delicate, complex life forms, such as us. But these hostile Martian conditions are easily endured by some bacteria, such as Deinococcus radiodurans . This bacterium, one of the extremophiles, lives in our sewage systems and other unpleasant places. It can survive desiccation, freeze-drying, and high radiation levels. D. radiodurans can do more than survive on Mars. It can begin to detoxify the soil and prepare the way for other pioneer microorganisms. And even more: What D. radiodurans can provide is a microscopic (and therefore easily portable) factory -- a kind of terra-forming toolkit -- from which any number of products potentially can be derived. Whether it is engineered to reduce metals, produce drugs for ailing astronauts or simply manufacture the polymers necessary for the production of thread, D. radiodurans , one of the world's oldest bacteria, may provide a means of expanding the limits of human imagination beyond the written sci-fi page. (Slotnick, Rebecca Sloan; "Extremophilic Terraforming," American Scientist, 88: 124, 2000.) Comment. Perhaps D. radiodurans is the oldest bacterium on earth. Having arrived eons ago on ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 48 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf129/sf129p03.htm
... 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 Host Tapeworms For Health!?While K. Fujita, of Tokyo's Medical and Dental University, was studying tropical diseases in Borneo, he was amazed to discover how remarkably healthy the children were, despite the heavy loads of parasites they carried. Fujita asked himself what seems like a ridiculous question: Could some parasites actually promote good health? Ensnared by this thought, he tested the idea by introducing a tapeworm into his own gut. Both Fujita and tapeworm did well. So well, that Fujita now hosts four thriving tapeworms! Fujita wonders why his colleagues are not interested in his experiment. They don't invite him to their meetings anymore. (Anonymous; New Scientist, p. 116, New Scientist, February 24, 2001.) From Science Frontiers #135, MAY-JUN 2001 . 2001 William R. Corliss Other Sites of Interest SIS . Catastrophism, archaeoastronomy, ancient history, mythology and astronomy. Lobster . The journal of intelligence and political conspiracy (CIA, FBI, JFK, MI5, NSA, etc) Homeworking.com . Free resource for people thinking about working at home. ABC dating and personals . For people looking for relationships. Place your ad free. ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 48 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf135/sf135p05.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 129: MAY-JUN 2000 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects If Fingerprints Don't Lie, Neither to Toe Prints J. Chilcutt is a highly regarded finger-print expert for the Conroe, Texas, Police Department. In his spare time, he collects fingerprints and toe prints from other primates. Working with zoo officials, who were naturally skeptical at first, Chilcutt has amassed a collection of about 1,000 nonhuman primate prints. He has discovered that print characteristics differ markedly from one species to another. When Chilcutt learned that J. Meldren, a professor of anatomy at Idaho State University, had accumulated 100 or so casts of Bigfoot prints, he had to check out their dermal whorls and arches. Some of Meldren's casts turned out to be obvious fakes upon which human fingerprints had been impressed. But a few specimens surprised him. The print ridges on the bottoms of five castings -- which were taken at different times and locations -- flowed lengthwise along the foot, unlike human prints which flow from side to side. "The skeptic in me had to believe that (all of the prints were from) the same species of animal," Chilcutt said. "I believe that this is an animal in the Pacific Northwest that we have never documented." (Rice, Harvey; "Is Something Afoot with Bigfoot? Print Expert Thinks So," Houston Chronicle, February 20, 2000. Cr. D. Phelps.) From Science Frontiers # ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 48 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf129/sf129p06.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 136: JUL-AUG 2001 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Forests Of Mars The Web is a source for all manner of speculation, such as the following: Recently, some new images have come to light, courtesy of Graham Orme, taken by MGS [Mars Global Surveyor] in 2000 near the Martian south pole, of more unusual landforms which for all the world look like large-scale vegetation of some sort or possibly ancient coral, as has also been suggested. Is this really evidence of macro life, past or present, or just another form of unusual geology, which Mars is becoming known for? (Anderson, Paul; "The 'Forests of Mars': Biology or Exotic?" http://geocities.com/erasproject/marsforest.html ( Copy ), April 4, 2001. Cr. D. Phelps.) Comment. Claims of Martian vegetation go back almost a century. The so-called "wave of darkness" that moves toward each Martian polar region with the advent of spring was claimed to be due to greening vegetation. See AMO3 in The Moon and the Planets. From Science Frontiers #136, JUL-AUG 2001 . 2001 William R. Corliss Other Sites of Interest SIS . Catastrophism, archaeoastronomy, ancient history, mythology and astronomy. Lobster . The journal of intelligence and political conspiracy (CIA, FBI, JFK, MI5, NSA, etc) Homeworking.com . Free resource for people thinking about working ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 48 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf136/sf136p15.htm
