... . 20: Mar-Apr 1982 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Heads or tails?Fake-head butterflies often escape predators that make passes at their cleverly designed tails, which as the figure shows, look awfully like butterfly heads, with eye spot, fake antennas, etc. Further, the converging stripes direct attention to the false head. The result is that this type of butterfly may lose its tail but save its real head. This effective stripe pattern has evolved (? ) independently at least six times in the Neotropics. (Robbins, Robert K.; "The 'False Head' Hypothesis: Predation and Wing Pattern Variation of Lycaenid Butterflies," American Naturalist, 118:770, 1981.) Comment. One wonders why all butterflies haven't evolved this neat ploy? From Science Frontiers #20, MAR-APR 1982 . 1982-2000 William R. Corliss ...

... Harvard Medical School. This is not a hoax! Melanoma sniffing. In 1989, the Lancet , a respected British medical journal, published an article relating how a female dog, half border collie, half doberman, sniffed out a spot of melanoma on a woman. In fact, the dog ignored all of the other moles on the woman and even tried to bite off the melanoma. Melanoma is the most dreaded form of skin cancer, so this bizarre report stimulated A. Cognetta, an American dermotologist, to try an experiment. First, another dog, named George, was trained to find tubes containing melanoma samples, which he did correctly 99% of the time. Next, a human with active melanoma was enlisted. Several bandages were placed on the subject's body including one over the melanoma site. Once again, George was almost 100% accurate in his diagnosis. Subsequently, George successfully identified malignancies on other patients. (Walker, Kenneth; "George the Dog Helps Take a Bite out of Skin Cancer," Chicago Sun-Times , September 6, 1998. Cr. J. Cieciel.) Seizure sniffing. An English woman subject to epileptic seizures never goes anywhere without her dog Rupert. Rupert has a nose for the odor that precedes epileptic seizures in humans. He barks about 40 minutes before the actual seizure, giving the woman a chance to get to a safe place. Of course, Rupert barks at other things, too, but his seizure bark is noticeably different. (Walker, Kenneth; "Mutt Gives Epileptic Advance Warning on ...

... 20: Mar-Apr 1982 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Puzzling Group Behavior Of Sharks For some unknown reason, sharks often congregate in immense groups. Approximately 2,000 sharks took over 24 kilometers of the surf zone near Corpus Christi during June 1977. Some courageous divers decided to study large groups of the scalloped hammerhead that regularly gather in the Gulf of California. Happily, the hammerheads were not aggressive when so occupied and could be approached closely. They swam pointed in roughly the same direction, maintaining about the same spacing through the groups, which sometimes numbered 100 or more. They did not feed, mate, or do anything collectively; but once in a while an individual would suddenly engage briefly in acrobatic behavior -- one common type was dubbed the "shimmy dance." The researchers concluded that these shark groups had no obvious purpose and that, for reasons beyond the ken of man, this behavior somehow contributed to their evolutionary success. (Klimley, A. Peter; "Grouping Behavior in the Scalloped Hammerhead," Oceanus, 24:65, Winter 1981/1982.) Comment. The sharks might be much "farther along" without complex, time-wasting group behavior. What do sharks know about evolution anyway? From Science Frontiers #20, MAR-APR 1982 . 1982-2000 William R. Corliss ...

... pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Subterranean petroleum factories?Sediment samples dredged up from the bottom of the Gulf of California near some hydrothermal vents contain petroleum similar in some ways to commercial petroleum. Apparently organic matter in the vicinity of the vent is thermally converted into oil, or at least something that, like wine, matures into something useful. (Simoneit, Bernd R.T ., and Lonsdale, Peter F.; "Hydrothermal Petroleum in Mineralized Mounds at the Seabed of Guayman Basin," Nature, 295:198, 1982.) Comment. The recently discovered hydrothermal vents are only the external manifestations of what must be extensive chemical factories beneath the crust. The rich assemblages of thermosynthetic life (not photosynthetic life) around the vents makes one speculate about what might be transpiring chemically and biologically in the hot, fluid-saturated crevices and pores of the earth's crust. Carbon dating of petroleum sometimes yields absurdly young ages. Could it be that all the natural gas and petroleum we could ever need is now being manufactured for us subterraneanly ? The Gaia hypothesis would lead us to expect just such a process. After all, humankind requires abundant fuel if it is to carry earth life out into the reaches of space! From Science Frontiers #20, MAR-APR 1982 . 1982-2000 William R. Corliss ...

... line of low cloud was observed in an otherwise cloudless sky, see sketch. The cloud was in the form of an arc in an east-west line, reaching the surface approximately 2 n. mile ahead and astern of the vessel. Visibility under the cloud was about 10 n. mile in the north-south direction and 2 n. mile to the east and west. Once the vessel reached the point where the cloud touched the surface, the visibility was reduced to approximately 1.5 n. mile. Whilst the vessel was passing the cloud, the barograph trace fell almost vertically and both the air and sea temperatures dropped several degrees." (Shepherd, F.; "Cloud," Marine Observer, 51:107, 1981.) Comment. This is just one more mysterious cloud arch, but on a very small scale. What bizarre meteorological conditions create such strange structures? Reference. Other unusual cloud phenomena may be found in Section GWC in our Catalog: Tornados, Dark Days. For more information on this book, visit: here . A curious cloud arch in the Strait of Gibralta. The ends terminated in the ocean at points 4 miles apart. From Science Frontiers #20, MAR-APR 1982 . 1982-2000 William R. Corliss ...

... fossils. Under low-angle illumination, the new specimen shows parallel impressions originating from the lower arm of the left "wing." These impressions are "interpreted" as imprints of feather shafts. Thus, the new fossil reinforces the mainstream position that Archaeopteryx really did have feathers and was a link between reptiles and birds. Evolutionists will rest easier now. Two bothersome observations intrude, however. First, although the report on the new specimen states that the question of forgery does not arise here, even though the specimen's tail has been restored to the length deemed by the owner. In addition, the new Archaeopteryx is 10% larger than the London specimen, 30% larger than the Berlin specimen, and fully twice the size of the Eichstatt specimen. Is there more than one Archaeopteryx species? (Wellnhofer, Peter; "A New Specimen of Archaeopteryx," Science, 240:1790, 1988. Also: Wilford, John Noble; "Fossil May Help Tie Reptiles to Birds," New York Times, June 24, 1988. Cr. J. Covey) Comment. We wonder if Hoyle and Wickramasinghe will be allowed to examine the new specimen. Of course, this new discovery does not disprove the forgery claim for the two specimens studied by Hoyle and Wickramasinghe; it merely weakens their case. From Science Frontiers #59, SEP-OCT 1988 . 1988-2000 William R. Corliss ...

... 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 Anomalous Sky Flash December 28, 1980. In the South At antic. "At approximately 2245 GMT on a moonless night the entire ship and immediate surrounding area were illuminated by what can be best described as a great camera flash. The flash was bluish-white and a small bolt of lightning appeared to be centered just above the vessel's samson posts. No noise was heard and the flash lasted only a second. The sky was clear at the time and stars of all magnitudes were clearly visible. The only clouds that could be seen were two or three small cumulus clouds; one of these was above the vessel and the others were moving towards us from the south, our course being l42 (T ) and the wind being S'E , force 3. The cloud above the vessel was at a height of about 600 feet." (Rutherford, N.W .C .; "Unidentified Phenomena," Marine Observer, 51:186, 1981.) Comment. This was obviously not ordi nary lightning, but the small cloud and small bolt of lightning indicate some sort of anomalous electrical discharge. The literature contains many other reports of bright sky flashes that cannot be attributed to meteors, heat lightning, or other sources. Reference. Entry GLA14 in Lightning, Auroras contains additional examples of all-sky flashes. This Catalog volume is described here . From Science Frontiers #21, MAY- ...

... : altered states of consciousness, visualization, positive expectation, and belief. Indeed, the correspondences are strong; and this fact leads to the sentence from the summary quoted above. (Winkelman, Michael; "Magic A Theoretical Reassessment," Current Anthropology, 23:37, 1982.) Comment. A conventional rationalistic scientist would, or should, react to Winkelman's paper by saying that: Magic is not based on psi, rather psi is magic and has no scientific basis. Winkelman, on the other hand, tacitly assumes the reality of telepathy, precognition, etc. The real issue, of course, is whether there really is an "order of the universe" beyond the ken of present-day science. The history of science shows that science has eventually accepted one impossible idea after another; viz., meteorites and hypnosis. Psi may not make the grade. Even if psi is real, it cannot become part of the scientific belief system until dogmas about the nature of life and man change. From Science Frontiers #21, MAY-JUN 1982 . 1982-2000 William R. Corliss ...

... of suns. Researchers say in studies to be published today that the explosion, called a gamma-ray burst, occurred 9 billion light years from earth. What caused the explosion is a mystery." (Anonymous; "Blast's Light May Have Been Greater Than Rest of Universe," Baltimore Sun, March 26, 1999.) "Every day, the sun blows billions of tons of ionized gas, electrons and protons into space -- the "solar wind." Sometimes, especially near the solar maximum, this wind is punctuated by squalls and storms of dangerous highenergy particles." Two giant solar storms erupted in 1972. Luckily, they were sandwiched between Apollo 16 and Apollo 17 missions to the moon. If the astronauts had been caught on the lunar surface during one of these storms, they would probably have died. (Roylance, Frank D.; "Sun Puts Chill on Space Missions," Baltimore Sun, Apil 1, 1999.) From Science Frontiers #123, MAY-JUN 1999 . 1999-2000 William R. Corliss ...

... 't let the title of this item deter you; this is serious stuff. We all know about the placebo effect. A sick patient improves because he believes he is getting a helpful medicine, even though it is an inert substance. The reverse works, too, at least in experiments with mice. It seems that mice can be conditioned into believing that an ordinarily delectable substance (saccharin and water) gives them stomach pain, by simultaneously injecting them with a pain-producing chemical. Unexpectedly, this chemical also suppressed the immune system of the mice. The mice, of course, knew nothing about the effect on their immune system. Nevertheless, whenever they received saccharin after being conditioned, their immune system was suppressed even though the pain-producing chemical was not administered. While one can imagine the mice consciously associating saccharin and stomach pain, and their brains somehow sending signals that simulated pain, it seems inconceivable that the mice knew anything about their immune system. We have always assumed that the placebo effect (and its reverse) worked because of the subjects' logical association of cause and effect, but evidently there is something else going on here! (Wingerson, Lois; "Training the Mind To Heal," Discover, 3:80, May 1982.) Comment. This all opens a rather large Pandora's Box, because it implies that seemingly innocent signals can trigger unrealized reactions. It's something like a post-hypnotic suggestion. Some cause -- not recognized as a cause -- results in an effect -- not consciously related ...

... long gallery behaves like a giant wind instrument. The peak occurs smack in the center of the decorated area. At the peak, in the dotted circle, there is a rocky projection in the shape of a (hard-to-see) feline head. On the opposite wall (not shown), the same peak coincides with an ocher circle that dominates a meter-long decorated panel. (Dauvois, Michael, et al; "Son et Musique au Paleolithique," Pour la Science , p. 52, no. 253, November 1998. Cr. C. Mauge.) Comment. Modern humans are also cognizant of acoustical effects, as in the design of auditoriums, churches, whispering galleries, etc. North Wall of La Galerie Jeannel. The dotted curve indicates standing wave amplitude at 95 Hertz. From Science Frontiers #123, MAY-JUN 1999 . 1999-2000 William R. Corliss ...

... Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Cosmic Whirl From the analysis of position angles and polarizations of some radio stars, it seems that the entire cosmos is rotating with an angular velocity of about 10-13 radians per year. The Big Bang scenario allows for uniform, universal expansion but certainly no general rotation. P. Birch, the author of this article, puts his finger on the problem in his abstract: "This would have drastic cosmological consequences, since it would violate Mach's principle and the widely held assumption of large-scale isotropy." (Birch, P., "Is the Universe Rotating?" Nature, 298:45l, 1982.) Comment. Since Birch's indicators of rotation are positive in one half of the sky and negative in the other, are we really seeing an entire universe rotating about the earth (and humankind) as a center? What an anti-Copernican thought; we are the focus of everything after all! Reference. Other evidence for universal rotation may be found at ATB4 in our Catalog: Stars, Galaxies, Cosmos. This Catalog volume is described here . From Science Frontiers #23, SEP-OCT 1982 . 1982-2000 William R. Corliss ...

... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 124: Jul-Aug 1999 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Photosynthesis At Deep-Sea Vents The surprisingly rich populations of lifeforms that prosper around the hydrothermal vents have been thought to be utterly dependent upon chemical energy for their survival. Such now seems to be a limited view. There is light at the bottom of the ocean! "Of particular interest is the potential for deep-sea vents and subsurface environments to support geothermally (rather than solar-) driven photosynthesis. Recent work on ambient light conditions at hydrothermal vents indicates that the photon flux generated by thermal radiation of 350 C water should be sufficient to sustain lowlevel photosynthesis, and there is at least one report of a faculative phototroph isolated from water samples taken near a deep-sea vent." A particularly important implication of this undersea light source is that the evolution of photosynthesis need not have been dependent upon the existence of life on land. Also, hydrothermal vents could have served as refuges for photosynthesizing life forms down the geological eons when: (1 ) ocean surfaces were ice-covered; (2 ) the terrestrial surface was exposed to deadly levels of radiation, as when the ozone layer was destroyed; and (3 ) when volcanism or dust from meteor impacts blackened the skies. (Van Dover, Cindy Lee; "Biology in Extreme Environments at Deep-Sea Hydrothermal Vents," Eos, 70:F54, 1998.) From Science Frontiers #124, JUL-AUG 1999 . 1999-2000 William R ...

... have a look at the light, he attempted to touch it but the light receded as his finger approached within 3 cm of it. The effect died away at about 2340 as soon as rain started to fall." (Smedley, R.; "Corposants," Marine Observer, 69:55, 1999.) Comments. The corposant's six-fold symmetry is like that of snowflakes. Strange as it may sound, they may be a connection. First, recall what J. Maddox once wrote about snowflakes in Nature. "But the symmetry of the whole crystal, represented by the exquisite six-fold symmetry of the standard snowflake, must be the consequence of some cooperative phenomenon involving the growing crystal as a whole. What can that be? What can tell one growing face of a crystal (in three dimensions this time) what the shape of the opposite face is like?" (SF#38) The speculation is that electrical forces may control the long-range symmetry of snowflakes as well as the unusual six-fold symmetry of the corposant described above. It's a thought anyway. The word "corposant" is said to be derived from the Latin for "bodies of the saints." It seems that the corpses of some of the saints have been luminous! (See BHA22 in Humans I .) From Science Frontiers #124, JUL-AUG 1999 . 1999-2000 William R. Corliss ...

... drop-like and button-like shapes. They are found primarily in four strew fields in Europe, Australia, North America, and Africa. Just about everyone believes that tektites are once-liquid droplets of rock that were solidified in flight. The major question -- often intemperately debated -- is the location of the tektite source. Are they of terrestrial, lunar, cometary, or some other origin? A recent study by Shaw and Wasserberg, using element abundances as a guide, strongly favors a terrestrial origin, with meteor impacts serving as the liquefying and splashing agents. Indeed, specific craters have long been associated with the European and African strew fields. Those who believe that the tektites were splashed all the way from the moon by meteor impacts have not given up yet. One provocative fact stressed in this article is that the ages of the four groups of tektites are 35, 14, 1.3 , and 0.7 million years. Tektites are all quite young! (Smith, Peter J.; "The Origin of Tektites -- Settled at Last?" Nature, 300: 217, 1982.) Comment. Were there no tektite-forming meteor impacts prior to 35 millions of years ago? Is this observation related to the great rarity of meteorites in sedimentary rocks? Just what is different about the past 35 million years? Reference. Twelve tektite "problems" are cataloged at ESM3: in Neglected Geological Anomalies. For more on this book, go to: here . From Science Frontiers #25, JAN-FEB 1983 . 1983 ...

... the time of the incident"! (Mancusi, Bruno; "A Block of Ice Falls on Rue, Switzerland," WGN, the Journal of the IMO, 27:2 , 1999. WGN = Werkgroepnieuws.) April 9, 1999. Salt Lake Valley, Utah. "Maybe it's a bird, maybe it's a plane. But it is certainly sewage. "And it's no joke in the Salt Lake Valley, where gobs of thick, raw sewage falling from the sky a dozen times since April 9 have soiled up to seven houses at once." The smell in the area was "terrible" according to the mayor of Taylorsville. Sheriff's deputies were studying the "splatter pattern" and firemen were hosing down the houses. One house required 500 gallons of water and 30 gallons of bleach. Aircraft landing at the Salt Lake City airport sometimes pass over the afflicted area, but the Federal Aviation Administration stated -- as they always do -- that jet toilet tanks can only be flushed using an external valve. Furthermore, the bluish disinfectant used in aircraft toilets was not present in the sewage samples. (Anonymous; "Mysterious Sewage from Sky Splattering Utah Houses," Arkansas Democrat-Gazette , May 16, 1999. Cr. L. Farish.) Comment. The repetition of the phenomenon (a "dozen" times) in the same area is curious. Assuming that aircraft were at fault, was a single plane responsible, or did a dozen have the same defective valve? From Science Frontiers # ...

... long been accepted as objective scientific observations. The most popular explanation of these color phenomena involves the eruption of gases around the craters. In 1964, in an attempt to better understand TLPs, NASA organized a network of amateur lunar observers with communication links to the Corralitos Observatory in New Mexico. Corralitos possessed a 5-inch reflector equipped with color filters which could checkout network sightings. In almost 3,000 hours of surveillance, no color phenomena were recorded using the Corralitos instruments -- even when the network reported a colored TLP in progress. Are all TLPs therefore illusory? The NASA program certainly suggested that TLPs might be subjective phenomena, perhaps something like the colored coronas observed during solar eclipses. TLPs are still reported nevertheless. And there are also recognized phenomena that might account for TLPs. One such phenomenon is prismatic dispersion in the earth's atmosphere. On the moon's surface, thermoluminescence is a possibility, as is the fluorescence of lunar soils being bombarded by solar wind. Even so, the gist of this S&T article can be seen in the following sentence: "It is far easier to believe that misinterpretations of mundane atmospheric and instrumental effects are responsible." In other words TLPs, like anomalous coronas, can all be written off as observer illusions! (Sheehan, William, and Dobbins, Thomas; "The TLP Myth: A Brief for the Prosecution," Sky & Telescope . 98:118, September 1999.) Comment. However, it is perfectly acceptable to enlist vague, marginal phenomena to support theories that are approved by mainstream ...

... al. (SF#125) They claim that their search of the sky with the Naval Space Command Radar would surely have detected the icy comets if they exist. Frank and Sigwarth respond that Knowles et al used radar cross sections that are significantly different from those typical of icy comets. It is likely that the Navy radar would not have been able to detect the comets. (Frank, L.A ., and Sigwarth, J.B .; "Comment on 'A Search for Small Comets with the Naval Space Command Radar' by S. Knowles et al," Journal of Geophysical Research, 104:22,605, no. A10. Cr. P. Huyghe.) Knowles et al replied that the cross sections were O.K . and their conclusion stands! Too much water and carbon. Strong, indirect evidence for the steady influx of icy comets comes from the geologists. They find that on and near the surface of the earth there is much more water and carbon than can be ascribed to the weathering of the earth's rocks. For example, the amount of carbon tied up in rocks (carbonates, etc.) is 600 times that now found in the combined atmosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere. Where did all this extra carbon come from? The same question can be asked about the earth's water inventory. Geologists have long assumed that this excess water and carbon came from the outgassing of volcanos. But recent quantitative estimates tell us that the volcanic sources are grossly inadequate. So are all other possible terrestrial sources ...

... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 30: Nov-Dec 1983 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Throbbing Earth The planet earth throbs regularly every 12 sidereal hours according to gravity-wave detectors located in Geneva and Frascati, Italy. The pulsations, presumably expansions and contractions of the earth-as-a -whole, have been re-corded at both places for over a year. Pulse amplitudes are about 100 times larger than those that are expected from gravity waves, so planetary pulsations are blamed. Since sidereal time is measured with respect to the fixed stars rather than the sun, an extraterrestrial origin is possible, although no one knows what sort of cosmic force could make our planet throb like this with such precise timing. (Anonymous; "Italians Discover Earth Throb," New Scientist, September 29, 1983.) From Science Frontiers #30, NOV-DEC 1983 . 1983-2000 William R. Corliss ...

... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 32: Mar-Apr 1984 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Thou canst not stir a flower, without troubling of a star This poetic title from Francis Thompson tries to express the unity of nature from the smallest to the largest realms. One characteristic of the realms even smaller than that of the flower is the quantization typical of the subatomic world -- that is, microscopic nature. At the human locus in the dimensional scheme of things, quantization is difficult to detect outside the physics laboratory. Daniel M. Greenberger, perhaps with the above title in mind, asked whether quantization might not also exist in astronomy and cosmology -- that is, macroscopic nature. He has applied the principles of quantum mechanics to nature in-the-large where gravitational forces are dominant. (Gravitational forces are negligible in the subatomic world.) His math cannot be reproduced here. Suffice it to say that Greenberger has applied his findings to the absorption lines of quasars and the elliptical rings surrounding normal galaxies. Now, quasars and galaxies are far from atomic nuclei, being vast assemblages of diverse matter. Somewhat surprisingly, his equations are successful in predicting some features of these two macroscopic entities. (Greenberger, Daniel M.; "Quantization in the Large," Foundations of Physics, 13:903, 1983.) Comment. At the very least it is mindstretching to find that complex systems with millions of stars may exhibit quantum effects. With some relief, we note that like microscopic quantization effects ...

... speculate that the sheer size of the natural lasers could make them useful tools in the future for communicating with distant civilizations beyond our own planetary system." The atmospheres of Mars and Venus are almost pure CO2 . The CO2 molecules are excited by the absorption of energetic solar photons; then, thermally emitted photons at about 10 micrometers from lower reaches of the atmosphere collide with the excited molecules, stimulating them to emit another 10-micrometer photon, thus doubling the number of photons. This is typical laser action. Deming and Mumma speculate that the natural laser action existing in the Martian atmosphere could be intensified and focussed into an intense beam of infrared radiation of enormous power by placing two large mirrors in orbit, creating a space-borne analog of a laboratory laser. With this huge laser, one could conceive of communicating with neighboring stellar systems. (Taylor, F.W .; "Natural Lasers on Venus and Mars," Nature, 306:640, 1983.) From Science Frontiers #32, MAR-APR 1984 . 1984-2000 William R. Corliss ...

... matter, and divided the answer by 81.'" But what, asks Smith, led Aitken to 81? To this question, which is the heart of the mystery, he commendably admits he has no reply. And the same deep mystery confronts us even after all has been said about the sur, as distinct from the underlying, structure of the processing. At the unlettered end of the spectrum of mental calculators, the ". .. ignorant vagabond, Henri Mondeux, who at the age of 14 years, before the French Academy of Sciences, was able promptly to state two squares differing by 133." Of course, some mental feats of calculation can be done consciously employing various shortcuts and mathematical tricks. The really fantastic performances, however, are accomplished unconsciously. No one knows how, even the calculators themselves. (Cohen, John; "What Makes a Calculating Prodigy?" New Scientist, 100:819, 1983.) From Science Frontiers #32, MAR-APR 1984 . 1984-2000 William R. Corliss ...

... that The Edicaran approach to "largeness" was to increase surface area externally. The Ediacarans were therefore shaped like pancakes, tapes, fans, etc. This enabled them to present large areas to the environment for respiration, feeding, and other biological functions. In contrast, many present life forms achieve "largeness" by increasing internal areas, as in the lungs, folded intestines, etc., along with the forced circulation of air, blood, and other sub stances. This latter approach survived, while the two-dimensional Ediacaran Experiment did not. The demise or extintcion of the Ediacarans led Gould, the author of this far-ranging article, to the influence of extinctions on life in general -- a hot topic these days. Gould stated that with natural selection operating, one would expect continual "improvement" in life forms, but that this had not happened. "I regard the failure to find a clear 'vector of progress' in life's history as the most puzzling fact of the fossil record. But I also believe that we are now on the verge of a solution, thanks to a better understanding of evolution in both normal and catastrophic times. We need a twotiered explanation for patterns (or non-patterns) in the history of life." The first tier of explanation involves the theory of punctuated equilibrium, as championed by Gould and Eldredge. Gould says he once thought that punctuated evolution would be sufficient to explain all of life's development, but that now a second tier seemed required; namely, a general theory of ...

... style pottery 4,000-5 ,000 years old has been found on the coast. However, the HTLV-1 virus also could have been introduced to South America by more recent visitors. Is there any way to fix the timing of HTLV-1 's introduction to South America? Actually, there is. The DNA in viruses is not as durable as pottery shards, but it does hang around for a while, as seen is recent efforts to ex-tract DNA from from frozen mammoths for possible "revival" of the species. A team of Japanese and Chilean scientists has been searching for DNA surviving in 104 mummies deposited in South America's arid Atacama Desert 1,200-1 ,500 years ago. Two of the mummies still retained DNA; and one of them included shards of DNA from HTLV-1 . This certainly doesn't prove trans-Pacific diffusion, but it helps. (Holden, Constance; "Backtracking a Mummy Virus," Science, 286:2071, 1999.) From Science Frontiers #128, MAR-APR 2000 . 1997 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. ...

... 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 A Gathering Of Quasars The universe is supposed to be approximately uniform in all directions -- the evenly distributed smoke from the Big Bang. Halton Arp, an energetic opponent of the standard cosmological view, points out that quasars are socializing in disgracefully large numbers in one region of the sky. In the direction of the so-called Local Cluster of galaxies, between redshifts 1.2 -2 .5 , there are roughly four times as many quasars per unit volume as in the other parts of the sky. This unexpected clumping of quasars affects a region 1,3000 million light years in diameter and 4.875 million light years deep, a rather substantial chunk of the cosmos. Arp's discovery places astronomy in a no-win situation. Either the distribution of quasars is too clumpy for current theory or the redshift/distance law is wrong. Neither situation makes astronomers very happy. (Anonymous; "Quasars and Quasi Quasars," New Scientist, p. 20, May 17, 1984.) From Science Frontiers #34, JUL-AUG 1984 . 1984-2000 William R. Corliss ...