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... . The large British total was made possible because of the cooperation of so many enthusiasts via the nationwide CERES organisation. "As usual for Britain most circles were found in wheatfields, but there were some reports from fields of barley, rapeseed, linseed, and long grass grown for silage. In 1990, as in 1989, Wiltshire dominated the British scene with about 70% of the year's total. This year the leading counties were Wiltshire: over 400; Hampshire: over 50; Norfolk: 18; Devon: 17; Sussex: 16; Oxfordshire: 13; Buckinghamshire: 12; and so on." In his review of the 1990 phenomena, G.T . Meaden dwelt on the Hampshire dumbbell formations. From these many spectacular "circles" we focus on the one at Seven Barrows, Hampshire. Two of the 1990 Hampshire dumbell formations. (L ) Near Seven Barrows; (R ) Near Morestead. "The next system [see figure] was at Seven Barrows, north of Litchfield, Hampshire near the A34 highway to Newbury. On the evening of 22 June I pointed out this featureless field to conference members as we drove past following our circles tour, saying that this was a 'repeater' region for circles events (circles are known for these fields for 1976, 1978, 1981, 1983 and 1985). The next morning, the day of the conference, attendees travelling north from Hampshire to Oxford spotted the formation which had appeared overnight. The circles were a hundred metres from a group of Bronze Age barrows which had been there ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 45: May-Jun 1986 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Exploding Lake August 15, 1984. The village of Njindom, Cameroon. About 11:30 PM, the villagers heard a loud explosion coming from Lake Monoun. Early the next morning, people in a van driving past the lake discovered the body of a motorcyclist. The air smelled like battery fluid. One of the van's occupants collapsed. The others ran for their lives toward Njindom. By 10:30 AM authorities had found 37 bodies along a 200meter stretch of road by the lake. Blood was oozing from the noses and mouths; the bodies were rigid; first-degree chemical burns were present. Also, animals and plants along the shore had been killed. On August 17, the lake turned reddish brown, indicating that it had been stirred up somehow. Although Lake Monoun is in a volcanic crater, chemical analysis of the water found little of the sulphur and halogens normally associated with volcanic action. However, the analysis did find a tremendously high level of bicarbonate ions, which form from the dissociation of carbon dioxide. One theory is that an earthquake disturbed the carbonate-rich deep water of the lake, which as it rose to the surface and lower pressures, released huge volumes of carbon dioxide -- something like opening a soda bottle. The resulting wave of water and cloud of gas caused the deaths and devastation. If there had been some nitric acid in the cloud, the burns ...
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... religious conversion, a near-death experience (NDE), ecstasy, or similar "peak" experiences. Scores of such highly subjective phenomena have been described and cataloged in the psychological literature. This vast body of anecdotal knowledge is still formless and deserves to be systematized and modelled in some way. In this spirit, we reproduce below (with permission) the abstract of a long paper that presents a preliminary model of this realm of irregular, subjective, and often-vague phenomena. Hard scientists used to the quantitative definition of variables and reams of instrument readings will be entering a different world -- a qualitative world. The language and concepts are so different. But, EEs and EHEs (Exceptional Human Experiences) are so ubiquitous in human life that they should not be ignored. One supposes that they must have some meaning and evolutionary value. The Exceptional Human Experience (EHE) process is a unique, dynamic, progressive, reiterative, evolving pattern of human consciousness development initiated by an anomalous experience and evidenced by expanding levels of reported inner and outer transpersonal awareness. This paper is based on a review of hundreds of experiencer first-person written narratives solicited by Rhea White and the EHE Network over the past decade. It presents an orthogonal expansion of our original 5-stage EHE process outline. The expanded model highlights a 5-stage x 12-classifier matrix design, including 60 unique cells into which characteristics synthesized across and detailed within, experiencer narratives can be captured and mapped. The matrix model offers both a tool for researchers, in the form of a classification ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 109: Jan-Feb 1997 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Too Much Order In The Early Cosmos Astronomers are becoming accustomed to the idea that many nearby galaxies are concentrated in spherical shells separated from one another by about 400 million light years. This onion-skin geometry is inferred from the fact that galactic red shifts cluster around specific values; that is, they are quantized. Since red shifts are held to be proportional to distance in the expanding universe paradigm: Voila! We have shells! This evidence of nearby cosmic order does not seriously disturb cosmologists, because in the nearby galaxies we are seeing that portion of the universe that is billions of years old. In other words, nearby there has been enough time for some degree of order to have evolved out of the primordial chaos of the Big Bang. Now though, "deep" surveys of galaxies, looking much farther back in time, still show clustered red shifts -- not the expected increasing chaos required by theory. Although the surveys are incomplete, astronomers are discomfited by this early lumpiness. Their theories say that there was not enough time for galaxies to organize themselves into sheets, shells, and skeins. If further "deep" probings of the cosmos confirm this redshift clustering, we may need a new evolutionary scenario. Good bye Big Bang and expanding universe! (Vogel, Gretchen; "Goodness, Gracious, Great Walls Afar," Science, 274:343, 1996. Vergano, D.; "New ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 12: Fall 1980 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Schizophrenic Neutrinos "As the concept of the neutrino has developed since the early 1930s, it has developed a split personality and put on weight. The neutrino is now thought to come in three varieties -- electron neutrino, muon neutrino and tau neutrino. And a number of experiments are showing hints that a neutrino has a small mass and that it can oscillate from one variety to another." These experiments are not yet conclusive; and if the neutrino mass is not zero, it hardly weighs more than the grin of a Cheshire cat. But taken together, the laboratory results confirm that neutrinos are perplexing particles. Are they different entities or a single species wearing different costumes? The implications of the recent measurements are far-reaching: Physicists believe that there are a billion neutrinos around for each nucleon (proton, neutron, etc.) so that if neutrinos possess just a hint of mass, they will dominate the mass of the universe; and Measurements of solar neutrinos fall short by a factor of three of what theory says the sun should spew out. This discrepancy could be explained if the solar neutrinos change from electron neutrinos to another form during their flight from the sun to earth, for the terrestrial neutrino detectors measure only electron neutrinos. (Anonymous; "Do Neutrinos Oscillate from One Variety to Another?" Physics Today, 33:17, July 1980.) From Science Frontiers #12, Fall 1980 . 1980- ...
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... 51: May-Jun 1987 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Evolution Through Mergers The overview in Natural History describes how, in theory, the mitochondria in cells were created by bacterial invasion. The presence of chloroplasts in plants, too, may have come about in this way. A case also exists for the alliance of spirochetes with cells to form flagella and cilia. These three "mergers" provided cells with metabolism, photosynthesis, and mobility. Margulis and Sagan obviously do not believe that the "bacterial connection" ended there. They bring their article to a close with an almost poetic manifesto that we now quote in part. The context of the quotation is their assertion that plant and animal evolution would never have taken place unless one life form attacked another and the latter defended itself, all this followed by accomodation and the development of a symbiotic relationship. "Uneasy alliances are at the core of our very many different beings. Individuality, independence -- these are illusions. We live on a flowing pointillist landscape where each dot of paint is also alive. Earth itself is a living habitat, a merger of organisms that have come together, forming new emergent organisms, entirely new kinds of 'individuals' such as green hydras and luminous fish. Without a a life-support system none of us can survive. It is in this light that we are beginning to see the biosphere not only as a continual struggle favoring the most vicious organism but also as an endliess dance of diversifying life forms, where partners triumph ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 73: Jan-Feb 1991 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Piney Pitstop Of The Paranormal Evidently trying to inject some joy into our country's financial capital, the Wall Street Journal recently printed a story on Spook Hill, Lake Wales, Florida. Spook Hill is one of several spots in the U.S . where gravity seems to be defied. "Sue Robertson motors her maroon Ford Tempo to the white line painted across Fifth Street, shifted into neutral and slowly rolls backward up Spook Hill. "' Eerie, weird, and definitely strange," she says, finally easing to a stop near the top of the rise. "Hers is the same amazed reaction expressed by most tourists who discover this piney pitstop of the paranormal, 50 miles south of Orlando. On a typical Saturday, up to 30 cars an hour line up at the top of the hill for their turn to drive down to the white line and drift back up." Not only cars roll up the hill. Farmers had to stop planting oranges in the area because visitors pulled them off the trees so they could watch them roll uphill. Skateboarders and cyclists also feel the pull of gravity in the wrong direction. Scientists who deign to investigate sites like Spook Hill usually end up by claiming them to be merely optical illusions. "If it's an optical illusion at work here, it's an odd one; a reporter applying a carpenter's level at about the hill's ...
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... Of Offshore Booms Beginning in December 1977, offshore detonations heard along the Atlantic Coast from Canada to South Carolina captured the media's fancy. Newspapers and TV news programs all over the country described these unidentified explosions. However, not a word about the detonations appeared in most of the scientific publications we regularly monitor, with the exception of the British New Scientist and a recent article in Science, 199:1416, March 31, 1978. Comment. The detonations were rather strong, shaking houses and even causing picture windows to fall out. In some instances, flashes of light and other luminous phenomena were reported. The sounds were characterized as "air quakes" by some scientists because they did not always register on seismographs, although they were usually recorded on air-pressure monitoring equipment. One's first inclination is to attribute such detonations to supersonic aircraft and missles, but the U.S . military immediately denied they were to blame. Seismic noises come to mind next, but the frequent failure to register the events on seismographs suggested an atmospheric phenomenon. The National Enquirer (January 24, 1978) rather predictably linked the booms to UFOs. In the federal government, the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) was assigned the task of tracking down the booms. In March, NRL reported that all of the 183 detonations they investigated were due to supersonic aircraft. That seemed to end the matter -- just as the Condon Report signalled the demise of UFOs!! The booms had an interesting side effect: they triggered urgent requests for the two Strange Phenomena sourcebooks from several ...
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... 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 What Sang First?Not WHO, but WHAT! Sophisticated music predates the advent of modern humans by tens or hundreds of million years. Whales and birds filled the ocean and primeval forest with song long before our hominid branch sprouted on the Tree of Life. As a matter of fact, our closest relatives, the great apes, sing not at all. Somewhere in the hominid genome "music" genes reside, unexpressed in the apes, but somehow triggered into activity in the human line. We have learned recently that the Neanderthals manufactured bone flutes as far back at 53,000 years. They may not have been able to speak to one another in words, but they had the language of music. Their music, and ours, may have been entrained in genes inherited from nonhominid ancestors that lived 60 million years ago, but which have been suppressed in primates until Neanderthals and modern humans came along. You may wonder where this argument is taking you. It goes back at least 60 million years to when the cetacea (whales and dolphins) split off from the evolutionary track leading to humans. It may even go back farther to when birds split away from the reptilian line. The music of birds and whales incorporate some of the complexity and sophistication of Beethoven's Fifth. The genes that have led to such musical talents may be ancient indeed, as speculated in the Science article under review. The authors go so ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 130: JUL-AUG 2000 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Attention, Pupils!The following questions appeared in the December 11, 1999, issue of the New Scientist: Why do some animals have a non-circular pupil? Cats and some snakes have a vertical shape yet horses and goats have a horizontal one. What is the reason behind the differences and, more importantly, how do the different shapes affect how animals actually see things? The answer for the vertical slit is that it improves an animal's focus in the direction perpendicular to the slit. Thus, cats and snakes hunting close to the ground can better detect their prey over a wide horizontal field. But how about the horses, goats and other grazing animals that must keep their eyes open for predators across a wide horizon? Pupils with horizontal slits would seem to defeat this purpose. Ah, but when they lower their heads to graze, their vertical pupils become horizontal. Simple! (Anonymous; "Eye to Eye," New Scientist, p. 85, December 11, 1999.) Comments. But puzzles remain, otherwise we wouldn't address this subject. (1 ) Some snakes have round pupils (as in the illustration) having apparently been subjected to different environmental forces; (2 ) Of all the 9,000+ species of birds, only the skimmers own pupils with vertical slits. You would expect ground-feeding birds like robins and larks to also have them; ( ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 99: May-Jun 1995 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Ballistic Panspermia Scientists are already convinced that cratering events on the moon and Mars have propelled rocky debris in the direction of the earth, and that some of these fragments have landed here in the guise of meteorites. A logical question is: Can life forms and/or chemical precursors of life be transported thus across the far reaches of the solar system? Can one planet infect another ballistically? An analysis by M.K . Wallis and N.C . Wickramasinghe is rather warm towards this idea: "The mass of escaping ejecta from the presumed 10-km comet that caused the 180-km Chicxulub crater, with a radius of roughly 10 km and 1 m deep, amounted to ~300 Mm3 , of which one third may have been rock and 10% higher-speed ejecta that could have transited directly to Mars. It may have taken 10 Ma to impact Mars but...the probability is not exceedingly low but 0.1 -1 %. "The survival and replication of microorganisms once they are released at destination would depend on the local conditions that prevail. Although viability on the present-day Martian surface is problematical, Earth-to-Mars transfers of life were feasible during an earlier 'wet' phase of the planet, prior to 3.5 Ga ago. The Martian atmosphere was also denser at that epoch, with several bars of CO2 , thus serving to decelerate meteorites, as ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 48: Nov-Dec 1986 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Geocorrosion?In studying the minute electrochemical cells responsible for metal corrosion, J.G . Bellingham and M.L .A . MacVicar, at MIT, discovered a remarkable effect: "One interesting and surprising property of electrochemical cells was discovered by accident. Normally, the magnetometer scans each cell as the cell moves horizontally beneath the magnetometer. During one run, the researchers left the cell in a single position for a long time while the magnetometer was still on. After 20 minutes or so, the magnetic field strength began to drop. 'It was very dramatic to watch this field collapse,' says MacVicar. After about a minute at zero, the magnetic field grew larger again but in the opposite direction." These reversals occurred over and over again at regular intervals. (Peterson, I.; "Tracing Corrosion's Magnetic Field," Science News, 130:132, 1986.) Comment. The self-reversal of magnetic specimens has been observed before under some conditions, but here is a periodic reversal of an electrochemical system. Why place it under the heading of Geology? Because the earth's field seems to reverse on a fairly regular basis. Catastrophists have invoked as teroid or cometary collions to account for these flip-flops, but it might be that the earth contains giant electrochemical cells that spontaneously reverse on a million-year timescale rather than minutes. We know the earth' ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 31: Jan-Feb 1984 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects There are cold anomalies "out there"As data from the IRAS (Infrared Astronomy Satellite) pile up (at 700 million bits per day), astronomers are seeing a new universe -- one consisting of cold gas, dust, and debris that emit little or no visible light. Here are just four of the new enigmas revealed: (1 ) Infrared "cirrus clouds." A network of faint wisps of cold matter that cover the whole sky. (2 ) Galactic matter of an unknown nature. This material has been observed only on one of the 100-micrometer IRAS scans. (3 ) A ring of solid particles around the star Vega. (4 ) "Blank fields." IRAS scans have found infrared sources where no visible object exist. (Waldrop, M. Mitchell, and Kerr, Richard A.; "IRAS Science Briefing," Science, 222:916, 1983.) From Science Frontiers #31, JAN-FEB 1984 . 1984-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 19: Jan-Feb 1982 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Magic numbers in helium-atom clusters Because spheres can be packed snugly together in certain configurations, one would expect the atoms of inert gases, such as helium, to cluster together in similar tightly packed groups. The numbers of spheres or atoms in these geometrically and energetically favored clusters are termed "magic." One would expect, for example, the number 13 to be magic because this would be the number of spheres fitting tightly into a 20-sided solid. Sure enough, when clusters of helium atoms are "weighed" with a mass spectrometer, the number 13 is strongly favored; so are 19, 25, 55, 71, 87, and 147. Some of these experimentally derived magic numbers can be predicted theoretically, but others were surprises. Some theoretical magic numbers did not turn out to be magic in reality; notably 7, 33, and 43. Clearly nature has other criteria for "magickness" than the physicists. (Anonymous; "Magic Numbers Do Hold Atoms Together," New Scientist, 92:598, 1981.) From Science Frontiers #19, JAN-FEB 1982 . 1982-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 90: Nov-Dec 1993 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Mystery Light Flashes Above Storms Past issues of Science Frontiers have recorded several examples of anomalous luminous phenomena above cloud tops (in SF#89, for example). Almost all of these observations have been anecdotal and too qualitative to be of use to scientists. Happily, some atmospheric scientists are now taking more interest in "rocket lightning" and those strange light flashes seen above storm clouds. First, though, one more anecdotal report, and then we'll summarize two recent scientific efforts to elucidate these phenomena. July 28, 1993. 150 miles south of Panama. From an aircraft flying at 33,000 feet. "I and another pilot in the cockpit of American Airlines Flight 912 were watching and circumnavigating a large cumulonimbus cloud. About five times, a large discharge of lightning at the top of and within the cloud was followed by a vertical shaft of blue light that propagated from the top of the cloud upward to 100,000 ft. "The beam was very straight and the color distinctly different from the lightning. At the top of this shaft, the column fanned out just before its disappearance. All the occurrences were identical. At least one also was witnessed by three other American pilots about 30 min. behind us on the same route." (Hammerstrom, John G.; "Mystery Lightning," Aviation Week , 139:6 , August 30, 1993. Cr. J.S ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 53: Sep-Oct 1987 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Pi And Ramanajan Someone has finally complained about an equality sign in SF#37 namely, 22[PI]4 = 2143 D. Thomas has correctly pointed out that we have here only a very good approximation. Of course, one need not do the actual calculation to prove that it is an approximation, because 2143/22 is a rational fraction which can be expressed as a repeating decimal; whereas pi is irrational. The number (2143/22) is a discovery of Ramanujan, about whom we heard on p. 000. How did he ever stumble upon this extremely accurate approximation of pi -- one that is accurate to 300 parts in a trillion? N.D . Mermin suggests that Ramanujan may have taken it from the expansion: [PI]4 = 97+ 1/(2+ 1/(2+ 1/(3+ 1/(1+ 1/(16539 +.... If 16,539 is replaced by infinity, Ramanujan's result follows. (Mermin, N. David; "Pi in the Sky," American Journal of Physics, 55:584, 1987.) From Science Frontiers #53, SEP-OCT 1987 . 1987-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 91: Jan-Feb 1994 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Remarkable Hailstones Oddly shaped hailstones from the 1993 Tulsa fall. Such weird shapes are duplicated by the million by some unappreciated storm mechanism. Dimensions in mm. October 16, 1993. Tulsa, Oklahoma. "Circa 5:00 PM, CDT, anomaly witness Keith L. Partain, a trained entomological systematicist, heard a tornado siren. Funnel-like phenomena were reported by local weathercasters, one of which approached within one mile of the witness before it lost its vorticity. This was between 5:00-5 :15 PM and parenthesized the interval of anomalous hail. In the target interval numerous hail peppered the area described above. Partain observered shapes which did not conform to spherical and collected several specimens, which he immediately froze." See accompanying figure for shapes and dimensions. (Partain, Keith L.; private communication, October 17, 1993.) Comment. Often such grotesque hail-stones are produced in immense quantities -- a meteorological factory of the absurd -- and we do not know how this production line operates! From Science Frontiers #91, JAN-FEB 1994 . 1994-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 90: Nov-Dec 1993 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Ancient romans in texas?If one searches long enough and hard enough, one can discover hints that just about any ancient culture you care to name set foot in the New World well before the Vikings and Columbus. Old coins, inscriptions, language concordances, and the like are taken by many as proofs that Egyptians visited Oklahoma, the Chinese moored along the Pacific coast, the Celts toured New England, and so on. Now, according to Professor V. Belfiglio, the ancient Romans had Texas on their itineraries. Belfiglio's evidence is fourfold, and so are mainstream criticisms: Roman coins found in Texas . The most convincing example came from the bottom of an Indian mound at Round Rock. This mound is dated at approximately 800 AD. Skeptics suppose that the coin was dropped on top of the mound in recent times and was carried to the bottom by rodents and tree roots. Hmmm! The remains of a shipwreck . Circa 1886, the wreck of an unusual ship was found in Galveston Bay. Belfiglio says this ship's construction is typically Roman. Nautical experts doubt this. but they will admit that real Roman craft were perfectly capable of sailing to Texas. The remains of an ancient bridge . Also in Galveston Bay, the timbers of an old bridge were found under 15 feet of sediment. A similar divergence of opinion prevails here. Language concordances . Belfiglio has pointed out many similarities between Latin and ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 139: Jan-Feb 2002 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Mysterious First Green Egg In SF#138, we addressed the subject of birds' eggs as signals. Another similar and even more curious case occurs on the Antipodes Islands 500 miles southeast of New Zealand. There, five species of erect-crested penguins breed. These birds normally lay two eggs but raise only one chick. The first egg is distinctly greenish and much smaller than the second white egg. The little greenish egg is totally neglected and often ejected from the nest. No one knows why. (Davis, Lloyd Spencer; "A Superlative Penguin," Natural History, 110:46, November 2001.) First and second eggs of an Erect-Crested Penguin, respectively. (Left) Small and greenish (Right) Large and white. Comment. We suppose the first little egg could be a trial run of the female's reproductive machinery. Its small size and subsequent neglect seem to indicate that it is not a "back-up" egg in case the second egg is defective or eaten by a predator. Or maybe the little egg is a sop to predators with a hope that they will be satisfied with it. It would be interesting to know if the first eggs are ever hatched and what sort of chicks emerge. From Science Frontiers #139, Jan-Feb 2002 . 2001 William R. Corliss Other Sites of Interest SIS . Catastrophism, archaeoastronomy, ancient history, mythology ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 136: JUL-AUG 2001 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects An Ice Ring In A Canadian Pond Ice rings (really ice "discs") are large circular discs of ice that occasionally form in rivers. One well-observed ice ring appeared in the Pite River in northern Sweden in 1987, About 100 feet in diameter, it was rotating slowly within a slightly larger hole in the ice covering the rest of the river. (SF#112) This ring was fashioned out of ice floes that had been captured by a whirlpool and set spinning. Its rough periphery had been "machined" to circular perfection over a period of weeks as it rotated ponderously within the confining river ice. A curious phenomenon is this, but one that seems to yield to simple explanation rather easily. Somewhat more puzzling is a 16-foot ice ring that formed overnight in the more placid waters of a farm pond near Delta, Ontario, in December 2000. The ice was too thin to walk upon, so it had to be a natural phenomenon. However, there was no whirlpool to provide the lathe-like action needed to create the neat disc. Nor was the disc said to be rotating when discovered. The whole event happened very quickly, too. (Bronskill, Jim; "Strange Ice Rings Baffle Researchers," Toronto National Post, March 8, 2001. Cr. G. Duplantier via L. Farish.) Comment. Even small farm ponds have some circulation of water ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 32: Mar-Apr 1984 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Animals As Nutrient Carriers "It has long been recognized that the movement of grazing animals from one terrestrial ecosystem to another, feeding in one and defaecating in the other, may result in significant movement of certain [chemical] elements between them (i .e . the ecosystems). What has now been made evident, in work on the coral reefs of the Virgin Islands, is that a similar process takes place in aquatic ecosystems." Several examples, terrestrial and aquatic, follow this introductory paragraph of the referenced article. (Moore, Peter D.; "Animals As Nutrient Carriers," Nature, 305:763, 1983.) Comment. This process may emphasize the fine-tuning of the Gaia Hypothesis, in which life-as-a -whole operates in ways that make the planet-as-a -whole more productive of life. From Science Frontiers #32, MAR-APR 1984 . 1984-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 104: Mar-Apr 1996 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects A HOLLOW, TRIANGULAR ICICLE We swore that we were not going to pass along any more "weird" icicle observations -- and there are many of them--but this one is the weirdest of the weird. The scene is a Norwich, England, garden, wherein one night a plastic saucer full of tap water was placed. The night was clear, cold, and windless. In the morning, T. Bushnell found protruding from the saucer a "strange tubelike structure" about 3 inches long. His color photograph cannot be conveniently reproduced here, but it clearly shows his icicle growing upward at about a 45 angle. Bushnell wrote further: "What may not be apparent from the picture is that the tube is triangular in cross section and it is completely hollow down as far as the unfrozen water lying underneath the thick layer of ice. The fairly robust tube was an integral part of the underlying ice pool. We noticed that the outside of the tube was segmented in appearance, as though the ice had built up layer by layer." (Bushnell, T.; "Ice Surprise," New Scientist, inside back cover, October 7, 1995) Comment. The other "weird" icicles we have reported were all solid and roughly hexagonal prisms. (SF#79, SF#100, SF#102) From Science Frontiers #104, MAR-APR 1996 . 1996-2000 ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 136: JUL-AUG 2001 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Mirror Matter May Matter Mirror Matter, if it exists, would be difficult to detect because it does not emit radiation to betray its presence. It interacts with Normal Matter (us and our instruments) only through its gravitational pull. The Mirror-Matter concept has been around since the 1950s because physicists needed (and still need) "something" that balances the universe -- which if you haven't noticed is asymmetrical. To illustrate this cosmic "deformity," note that Normal-Matter neutrinos always spin in the same direction, when half should spin one way and half the other way if the universe is symmetrical. However, the existence of Mirror-Matter neutrinos spinning the other way would redress things, making the universe "perfect" -- at least as far as human aesthetics are concerned. (Other entities might yearn for asymmetry, who knows?) Anyway, Mirror Matter is defined as being palpable and could also be that "missing mass" or "dark matter" that astronomers need to explain why spinning galaxies do not fly apart. Mirror Matter could also account for some mysterious terrestrial phenomena such as that unaccountable lack of a significant crater in Siberia, where the 1908 Tunguska blast leveled a huge forest but hardly disturbed the ground. Recently, Mirror Matter has been invoked to explain the ups and downs of terrestrial biodiversity. R. Foot and Z. Silagadze propose that the 26-millionyear periodicity ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 21: May-Jun 1982 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Strange Megalithic Monuments In The Central Sahara Archeologists have recently made some spectacular discoveries of megalithic structures in the central Sahara. This region boasts many V-shaped prehistoric monuments as well as spiral and meandertype carvings. There are even a few cup-and-ring markings, like those so prevalent in northern Europe. Most curious are the so-called "axle-type" monuments, which consist of a central hub with two straight projecting arms. Early in 1981, the monument shown in the sketch was found in the Immidir district. It is basically V-shaped, with two sets of "auxiliary" arms, one V-type and one axle-type, both of which are detached from the hub like "spare parts." The tips of the north-south arms in the sketch are about 75 meters apart. Clearly, orientation was important to the builders of the monuments, but the asymmetry and auxiliary arms are puzzling. The stonework in these central Saharan monuments is good. Dates are elusive, but all indications are that the sites are ancient. (Milburn, Mark; "Multi-Arm Stone Tombs of Central Sahara," Antiquity, 55:210, 1981.) Reference. For more on megalithic ruins in North Africa, consult our Handbook: Ancient Man. This book is described here . From Science Frontiers #21, MAY-JUN 1982 . 1982-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 66: Nov-Dec 1989 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Rogue Waves "Shortly before dawn on Sunday, June 3, 1984, the 117-foot, threemasted Marques sailed into a fierce squall about 75 miles north of Bermuda. Heavy rain began to pelt the ship, and a furious wind sprang up out of nowhere. Squalls were nothing new to the Marques , one of 39 tall ships participating in a transatlantic race. But as a precaution, Stuart Finlay, the seasoned 42-year-old American captain of the ship, shortened the sails. The Marques was carrying a crew of 28 - half of whom were under 25. At the helm, Philip Sefton, 22, fought the angry waves that now confronted them. "Suddenly a heavy gust of wind pushed the Marques down on its starboard side. At the same instant 'a freakish wave of incredible force and size,' as Sefton later described it, slammed the ship broadside, pushing its masts farther beneath the surging water. A second wave pounded the ship as it went down. The Marques filled with water and sank in less than one minute. Most of the crew were trapped as they slept below deck. Only Sefton and eight shipmates survive." Accounts such as that above are part of sea lore. Waves 50-100 feet high have been frequently reported over the years. Most often, they are encountered in rough seas, but some walls of water have smashed ships in relatively calm waters ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 135: MAY-JUN 2001 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Kisses From Heaven The Hershey kind, that is. And these hailstones really do resemble this favorite candy. There was more than a bagful of them; they came down in a fusillade of millions, as related by A. Wills. A neatly sculpted conical hailstone. One of millions that recently fell in Wales. Were they aerodynamically shaped? During a recent hailstorm in Wales, I was surprised to see that all the hailstones were conical. Each one had an apex angle of about 75 , with a flat or slightly curved base about 4 millimeters across. What caused this? Is this shape common, and is its similarity to an Apollo re-entry capsule coincidental? (Wills, A.; "Hail Capsules," New Scientist, p. 121, March 24, 2001.) Comments. Actually, conical hail is more common than you might think. See GWP in Tornados, Dark Days... for many examples. How conical hail forms in such prodigious quantities and in such geometric perfection in the maelstroms of violent storms is unknown. The morphological similarity to the Apollo reentry vehicle is almost certainly coincidental. Droplets of liquid rock that reenter the earth's atmosphere are molded into buttons, spheres, and other shapes to create tektites. We do not know of any conical tektites. From Science Frontiers #135, MAY-JUN 2001 . 2001 William R. Corliss Other Sites of Interest SIS . ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 78: Nov-Dec 1991 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Curious Silver Crosses From A Georgia Mound In November of 1832, two silver crosses were extracted from an Indian mound in Murray County, Georgia, along with more usual Indian relics. The crosses are exquisitely wrought and were most likely brought to the Americas by the expedition of Hernando de Soto. Some of de Soto's men, under Adelantado, ventured into what is now Georgia trying, among other things, to Christianize the Indian. The puzzle of the silver crosses is not in their source but in the crude figures and inscription added to one of them. The cross shown in the figure depicts a horse on one side and an owl on the other. The inscription (too small to be read on the figure) is withing the central ring and states: IYNKICIDU, which makes no sense in any known language. This minor mystery was first revealed in the 1881 Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution . Charles Fort took note of it in his Book of the Damned , where he pointed out that the letters C. D, and K are turned the wrong way in the inscription and, further, that the crosses, having equal arms, are not conventional crucifixes. (Pontolillo, James; "The Silver Indian Crosses of Murray County, Georgia," INFO Journal, no. 63, p. 26, June 1991.) From Science Frontiers #78, NOV-DEC 1991 . 1991-2000 William ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 78: Nov-Dec 1991 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Terraforming Mars The concept of terraforming a planet is an old standby of science fiction; it is the process by which a technologically advanced race manipulates the surface and atmosphere of an uninhabitable planet so that it becomes inhabitable. We humans know to our dismay that we have the capacity to modify the earth's environment, but could we perhaps exercise better judgment and terraform Mars? C.P . McKay et al have looked into this possibility: "From our analysis, one could propose the following sequence of events: production of CFCs (or other greenhouse gases) starts on Mars and the surface temperature warms up by about 20 K. The regolith and polar caps release their CO2 and the pressure rises to 100 mbar. One of two things could then happen. If there were large regolith and polar CO2 reservoirs, the pressure would continue to rise on its own. If these were absent, the CO2 pressure would stabilize, and additional CO2 would have to be released from carbonate minerals. At this point (perhaps between 100 and 105 years) Mars may be suitable for plants. If there was a mechanism for sequestering the reduced carbon, these plants could slowly transform the CO2 to produce an O2-rich atmosphere in perhaps 100,000 years. If sufficient N2 could also be released from putative soil deposits, and the CO2 level kept low enough, then a human- breathable atmosphere could be produced. (McKay, ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 86: Mar-Apr 1993 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Hypnosis And Skin Temperature The mind can affect the body in many ways. One of the most bizarre is the use of hypnosis to raise skin temperature on selected parts of the body. A recently published example of this phenomenon was observed by P. Hajek et al, at the Institute of Physiology in Prague: "Eight patients with atopic eczema and six healthy subjects were given hypnotic suggestion to feel pain in the upper part of the back and in one case on the palm. An average local increase in skin temperature of 0.6 C (detected by thermovision) occurred under this condition. For some patients, cutaneous pain threshold was increased before the experiment by means of repetitive hypnotic suggestion of analgesia. These subjects reported feeling no pain subjectively, but the local change in skin temperature was equal in both cases. The results suggest a central mechanism induced by measuring changes in pain threshold in the skin, which changes are independent of local changes in blood flow." (Hajek, P., et al; "Increase in Cutaneous Temperature Induced by Hypnotic Suggestion of Pain," Perceptual and Motor Skills, 74:737, 1992.) From Science Frontiers #86, MAR-APR 1993 . 1993-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Signposts, Ritual Paths The high, desloate, and sere plains of western South America are an ideal medium upon which to inscribe immense pictographs. Die-straight lines several miles long and a few yards wide were made centuries ago on Peru's Nazca Plain by simply removing off to the side the rocky veneer of the plain's surface. Less than an inch of rain falls each year there -- not enough to wash out of word of what was written 2,000 years ago. Actually, no words as such are inscribed, rather there are huge biomorphs (for example, a pelican 1,000 feet long) and geoglyphs (a trapezoid enclosing 160,000 square yards). Overlaying and mingling with these pictographs is an apparent hodgepodge of hundreds of straight lines, one of which is 9 miles long. It is a confusing canvas to say the least. This gigantic terrestrial easel covers 400 square miles. Upon it are drawn more than 1,000 biomorphs and geoglyphs, plus some 800 straight lines. It is one of the world's great archeological legacies from the deep past. Actually, at least two canvasses seem to be superimposed. The earliest canvas consists of the geoglyphs, which were incised beginning about 200 B.C . Peel away these, and we are left with the geometrical figures and straight lines. These seem to have been inscribed starting about 600 A.D . -- a time of severe drought, which may be a clue to their purpose. Next, strip off the geoglyphs (trapezoids and such), and ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 33: May-Jun 1984 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Azilian Pebbles Although Bahn's article is primarily about how to spot fake Azilian pebbles, he also provides some fascinating facts about the real ones. Genuine Azilian pebbles seem to have been carefully selected for size and shape. Most are oval or oblong and may be up to 8 centimeters long, 3 centimeters wide, and one centimeter thick. Over a thousand have been found around Europe. They have been considered primitive art, markers for prehistoric games, and possibly early forms of notation. Claude Couraude has analyzed the markings and concluded that particular combinations of signs recur frequently; the same for certain numbers of dots. There are 16 simple types of signs (dots and lines) but only 41 of the many possible combinations have been found. Evidence supports the existence of some sort of 'syntax.' Couraud speculates that some sort of cyclic notation is involved, perhaps lunar in nature, like some of the markings found on bones from the same general period. (Bahn, Paul G.; "How to Spot a Fake Azilian Pebble," Nature, 308:229, 1984.) Reference. Additional information on the Azilian pebbles may be found in our Handbook Ancient Man. To order, visit: here . Typical Azialian pebbles (from Ancient Man) From Science Frontiers #33, MAY-JUN 1984 . 1984-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 33: May-Jun 1984 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The moon's moonlets The great lunar basins are not arranged randomly. They occur in bands -- not one band but several. How can this geometry be explained. One hypothetical scenario has the primitive moon surrounded by many moonlets 60 miles and larger in diameter, plying equatorial orbits that are unstable. As the moonlets' orbits decayed, some crashed into the moon's equatorial regions, blasting out a band of huge craters. The force of the impacts also caused the lunar crust to slide over the still-liquid core by as much as 90 . When the next group of moonlets crashed, they gouged out a new belt of craters and shifted the crust still more. Magnetic measurements of lunar rocks tend to confirm that the lunar crust did indeed shift by large angles -- several times. (Anonymous; "Did the Moon Have Moonlets?" Science Digest, 92:20, January 1984.) Comment. Such events could also have happened on earth, which would account for tropical-zone fossils being found at the present-day poles. From Science Frontiers #33, MAY-JUN 1984 . 1984-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 132: NOV-DEC 2000 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Viking Mooring-Stone Saga Sails On One of the more fascinating types of North American artifacts is the so-called Viking mooring stone. It has been impossible to ignore them in past issues of this newsletter. ( SF#69 and SF#113 ) The latter issue displays a photograph of three of the unique triangular holes characteristic of the "mooring stones" drilled into a boulder resting in a North Carolina stream bed. North Carolina is hardly Viking country no matter how receptive you are to claims of an early and extensive Norse presence in North America. After all, the interior of North Carolina is hundreds of miles from L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland, and nowhere near the site of the infamous Kensington Stone in Minnesota. Yet, several hundred of these Viking mooring stones have been found all the way from Canada south to Missouri. Most, however, are clustered in Minnesota. For those unfamiliar with this unusual artifact, it is the curious triangular holes that are diagnostic of the Viking mooring stones. These holes are essentially identical everywhere: an inch across, 4-5 inches deep, triangular in cross section, with neatly rounded corners. The saga is reviewed in our catalog Ancient Infrastructure . Cross section of one of the strange triangular holes found in boulders. Note the rounded corners. Drillers and purpose are unknown. Our purpose here is to flag a recent article in Ancient American that tells of the ...
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... 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 Beware of Rapidly Ascending Armadillos After watching armadillos awkwardly snuffling for tidbits, one might conclude that these "little armored ones" are not too bright and certainly no threat to humans. But armadillos possess a remarkable defense mechanism you should be aware of. Not all of them curl up into tight, nigh-impenetrable balls when threatened as the field guides promise us. Instead, some suddenly jump straight up -- as much as 8 feet high! Woe be to anyone hovering over armadillos favoring this type of defense. Broken noses, loosened teeth, and black eyes have been inflicted by these armored projectiles. Another unexpected habit of the armadillo is its crossing of small streams by walking along the bottom underwater. It can swim if necessary and gains buoyancy by filling its intestines with air. (From Biological Anomalies: Mammals I ) (White, Robb; "Armadillos, and Dangerous," Natural History, 109:86, July-August 2000.) From Science Frontiers #131, SEP-OCT 2000 . 2000 William R. Corliss Other Sites of Interest SIS . Catastrophism, archaeoastronomy, ancient history, mythology and astronomy. Lobster . The journal of intelligence and political conspiracy (CIA, FBI, JFK, MI5, NSA, etc) Homeworking.com . Free resource for people thinking about working at home. ABC dating and personals . For people looking for relationships. Place your ad free. ...
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... 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 Anomalous High Altitude Luminosity (AHAL)When meteors plunge into the earth's upper atmosphere, friction with the air causes them to incandesce and burn up. The smaller ones are completely consumed. A few bigger ones reach earth and are renamed "meteorites." So far, all of this is well-understood. But when meteors begin to burn up much above 100 kilometers, a problem arises. The air there is normally much too thin to cause incandescence and burn-up. Observational anomalies are abundant. Two Leonid fireballs were seen glowing at 160 kilometers by Japanese scientists. In 1998, a Dutch team in China detected bright Leonids at 200 kilometers! In addition, some Russian reentering space-craft began glowing well above 100 kilometers. ANAL is a solid phenomenon. Of course, the density of the upper atmosphere does increase somewhat when solar activity is high. Atmospheric gravity waves can also cause the atmosphere to bulge out. But these effects are inadequate to explain all observations. R. Spalding, at Sandia National Laboratories, ventures that ions in the upper atmosphere are electrostatically attracted to meteors and create light when they collide with them. A. Ol'khovatov suggests that "plasma instabilities" may be involved. To learn more about these, go to the latter's web site at: www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Cockpit/3240/ (Ol'khovatov, Andrei; "Anomalous High ...
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... pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects You can fool some of the animals some of the time, but....R. Sheldrake has found another possible example of "morphic resonance," as he relates in the New Scientist: "Ranchers throughout the American West have found that they can save money on cattle grids by using fake grids instead, consisting of stripes painted across the road. Real cattle grids, known as cattle guards in the U.S ., are usually made of a series of parallel steel tubes or rails with gaps in between, which make it physically impossible for cattle to walk across them. However, cattle do not usually try to cross them; they avoid them. The illusory grids work just like the real ones. When cattle approach them, they 'put on the brakes with all four feet,' as one rancher expressed it to me. .. .. . "According to my hypothesis of formative causation..., organisms inherit habits from previous members of their species. This collective memory, I suggest, is inherent in fields, called morphic fields, and is transmitted through both time and space by morphic resonance, a process which takes place on the basis of similarity. From this point of view, cattle confronted for the first time by grids, or by things that look like grids, would tend to avoid them because of morphic resonance from other cattle that had learnt by experience not to try to cross them." Sheldrake follow these two paragraphs with an examination of ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 106: Jul-Aug 1996 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Slamming the door on parapsychology -- again An exchange of letters in the April issue of Physics Today demonstrates that an influential portion of mainstream science (particularly physics) is firmly committed to reductionism and objectivism. Translation: this faction wants no part of parapsychology. In the first letter, A.A . Berezin bravely proclaimed that science needs more rather than less research in parapsychology, citing specifically the work of H. Schmidt and R. Jahn. Further, he maintains that the major science journals should be open to high quality research in parapsychology. He wrote: "One cannot exorcise unorthodox claims by repeating mantras that they are 'pseudoscience.'" A second letter from S. Malin begins by noting that physics has undergone two major paradigm shifts during its history: (1 ) Aristotelian to Newtonian physics; and (2 ) Newtonian to contemporary physics. Additional shifts are likely, and the next one might well involve the relation of consciousness to the physical world. In support of his intuition, he quoted from E. Schroedinger's 1958 book Mind and Matter on the "principle of objectivation." "By this I mean what is also frequently called the 'hypothesis of the real world' around us. I maintain that it amounts to a certain simplification which we adopt in order to master the infinitely intricate problem of nature. Without being aware of it and without being rigorously systematic about it, we exclude the ...
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... Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects A Demurrer From The Epigraphic Society The following letter was received in response to an item in SF#32. Since it contains much information, we decided to reprint it with the writer's permission. "I am writing to mildly protest the substance and style of your article 'Two Remarkable Inscribed Stones.' Of course substance and style are interrelated, but I'll try to separate them as best I can. First, let me address style. The condescending 'fragile hypothesis treatment' (' .. . which in his view...' 'Fell, however, considers them...' '. .. Comparisons... suggest...') is totally inappropriate when one considers the mathematical probabilities of thousands of petroglyphs possessing markings coincidently identical to those of ancient languages of the Old World. And one has to marvel at the cutting power and linguistic talent of certain plows. "In the substance area vis-a -vis the alleged absence of artifacts: While it wouldn't be fair to expect the author to have been familiar with Professor Fell's three books on the subject, and the previous volumes of the ESOP, with their many references to artifacts (loomweights, amphorettas, Roman lamps, countless Roman and other coins, and various other Old World items) it would not seem unreasonable to expect the author to have been familiar with the articles about Roman artifacts in the same volume he extracted portions from. Concerning the glib question about ' ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 24: Nov-Dec 1982 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Mice Transmit Human Gene Sequences To Their Progeny Viruses habitually subvert the manufacturing facilities of host cells so that they turn out viruses instead of material useful to the host. Stewart and his col-leagues injected fertilized mouse eggs with human beta-globin gene sequences. One of the resulting adult mice carried the human gene sequence intact; one of the others carried at least part of the sequence. More significantly, the latter mouse transmitted the human gene sequence to its progeny in a Mendelian ratio. (Stewart, Timothy A., et al; "Human Beta-Globin Gene Sequences Injected into Mouse Eggs, Retained in Adults, and Transmitted to Progeny," Science, 217:1046, 1982.) Comment. Animal cells are therefore not too fastidious about what they manufacture and what is transmitted to progeny. The unanswered questions are: How far can this proxy replication and transmission of genes go; and, most important, can it occur in nature to a degree sufficient to contribute to the evolution of new species? From Science Frontiers #24, NOV-DEC 1982 . 1982-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 126: Nov-Dec 1999 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Flotsam On The Great Sand Sea One of the strangest mysteries nestled among the giant dunes of the Egyptian Sahara was not recognized by modern scientists until 1932. In December of that year, P. Clayton, a surveyor for the Egyptian Geological Survey, was driving among the dunes near the Saad Plateau when he heard his tires crunch on something that wasn't sand. It turned out to be large pieces of marvelously clear yellow-green glass -- not just any glass but ultra-pure glass, 98% silica. As often the case, Clayton was not the first to come across the now-famous Libyan Desert Glass or LDG. Prehistoric humans had made knives and other sharp-edged tools from it; the ancient Egyptians had carved a scarab from LDG and deposited it in Tutankhamen's tomb. But Clayton and the ancients did not recognize the scientific implications of their discovery. LDG is the purest natural silica glass ever found. Over a thousand tons of it are strewn across hundreds of kilometers of bleak desert. Some of the chunks weigh 26 kilograms, but most LDG exists in smaller, angular pieces looking like shards left when a giant green bottle was smashed by colossal forces. Pure as it is, LDG does contain tiny bubbles, white wisps, and inky black swirls. The whitish inclusions consist of refractory minerals, such as cristobalite. The ink-like swirls, though, are rich in iridium ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 125: Sep-Oct 1999 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Tyrannies Of The Tiny Because we cannot see them with the naked eye, we tend to forget that the earth's atmosphere, its oceans, and the solid crust to unknown-but-great depths are colonized in profusion by minute biological entities -- mainly bacteria and viruses. Only when we get the flu or infected finger do these entities impinge upon our consciousness. Below we will learn that there are many more of them than you think. Do viruses control the oceans? You may avoid the beaches after you learn that one teaspoon of seawater typically contains 10-100 million viruses and onetenth that many bacteria. Obviously, most are harmless to humans. However, the viruses do infect the bacteria and phytoplankton, destroying them, and thereby releasing their nutrients. By doing this, they keep the oceans' biological engines running. Further, the viruses act as genetic engineers as they transfer DNA from one individual to another. The oceans may be viewed as vast test tubes in which biodiversity is maintained by teeming, invasive viruses. (Suttle, Curtis A.; "Do Viruses Control the Oceans?" Natural History, 108:48, February 1999.) We are only 10% human! The average human body contains 100 trillion cells, but only 1 in 10 of these cells is your own. The remaining 90% are bacteria. These alien organisms coat your skin and pave your inner passageways from mouth ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 25: Jan-Feb 1983 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Manifestations of earth energy at megalithic sites?Stories have long circulated that strange phenomena cluster about megalithic sites, such as Stonehenge. Those who claim psychic powers state that earth energies (whatever they are) seem to focus at these ancient constructions. The story goes that the builders of the stone circles could also detect these natural forces and intentionally chose these spots where the energies were most powerful. "Proper" siting and orientation were doubtless important to the builders of the megalithic structures, but can modern, no-nonsense science even begin to explore these mystical, psychic claims? Given today's scientific impatience with all psychic subjects, one would not expect a scientific journal, even a popular one, to touch the subject of "earth energies." Yet, here is an article describing the use of ultrasound detectors and Geiger counters in surveying megalithic monuments for foci of earth energies. Sure enough, curious enhancements of ultrasound intensity were discovered at the Rollright Stones. At another site, the natural radiation background level was anomalously depressed. It is all very mystifying. (Robins, Don; "The Dragon Project and the Talking Stones," New Scientist, 96: 166, 1982.) Comment. This appearance of this article would be comprehensible if it were in the April 1 issue of New Scientist, but it wasn't . In truth, of course, there could be something in the "earth energy" ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 11: Summer 1980 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects United By An Invisible Cord The largest study of separately raised identical twins has discovered incredible similarities among twins who never set eyes on each other before. There are difference, too, but not as many as expected by psychologists who hold that we are shaped primarily by our environments. Only a few of the astounding (and strange) similarities can be recounted here. Two 39-year-old twins, meeting for the first time, were both wearing seven rings each, two bracelets on one wrist, a watch and one bracelet on the other wrist. Two men both had dogs named Toy, had married and divorced women named Linda, remarried women named Betty, and named their sons James Allan and James Alan. Two other males had similar medical histories: hemorrhoids, same pulse rates and blood pressures, same sleep patterns. Both had put on 10 pounds at the same times in their lives. (Holden, Constance; "Identical Twins Reared Apart," Science, 207:323, 1980.) From Science Frontiers #11, Summer 1980 . 1980-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 60: Nov-Dec 1988 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Mysterious Stone Rings After worrying so much above about possible scientific blunders, it is pleasant to relax with a minor geological (perhaps "archeological") anomaly. In Green Ridge State Forest, in Western Maryland, are found 150-200 annular piles of sandstone rocks. All lie on the western slope of Polish Mountain. No one seems to have a good explanation of their origin. Archeological digs have not unearthed any human artifacts. From a photograph of one ring, we estimate an outer diameter of 15 feet, and an inner hole 5 feet in diameter. The height of the rock ring is perhaps 2 feet. The sandstone rocks are generally slab-like. A popular theory states that the rocks were piled up to protect apple trees. (Anonymous; "Rings of Stone Pose Mystery in Md.," Washington Post, June 26, 1988. Cr. J. Judge.) Comment. We have classified this item under GEOLOGY because these rings could be periglacial phenomena; that is akin to patterned ground. Periglacial structures are occasionally found in the Appalachians. From Science Frontiers #60, NOV-DEC 1988 . 1988-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 118: Jul-Aug 1998 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Unidentified Light May 4, 1997. North Atlantic Ocean. Aboard the s.t .s . Astrid enroute from the Azores to Dartmouth. "At 0443 UTC a light was sighted high in the sky above the ship. The light was of the style of a satellite in appearance. However, it was seen for about 10-15 seconds moving west to northwest, with a pulsating white light. In addition, it was moving very fast and it also stopped dead a couple of times. "At one point, the light stopped and turned in the direction of the ship. The light no longer pulsated, and for about one second it was in the form of a spotlight lighting the surrounding area. The light then turned back again and moved very, very fast across the sky before it was lost below the horizon in a matter of seconds." (Ulrich, G.; "Unidentified Light," Marine Observer, 68:64, 1998.) Comment. The erratic motion and use of a searchlight are typical of some of the UFO reports seen in newspapers. However, the Marine Observer is a publication of the UK Meteorological Office. In the above "encounter," aircraft, satellites, and meteors do not fit the testimony of the observers. From Science Frontiers #118, JUL-AUG 1998 . 1998-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 13: Winter 1981 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Fish Change Gender When Necessary Abstract. "The simultaneous removal of three to nine males from large social groups of Anthias squamipinnis led to close to a one-to-one replacement of the removed males by sex-reversing females. The females changed sex serially within each group with a mean interval between successive onset times of 1.9 days. The timing of sex change is thus not independent for each fish but is influenced by the events surrounding other sex reversals within the group." (Shapiro, Douglas Y.; "Serial Female Sex Changes after Simultaneous Removal of Males..." Science, 209:1136, 1980.) From Science Frontiers #13, Winter 1981 . 1981-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 116: Mar-Apr 1998 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Evolution Of Cyberlife The evolvable hardware described in SF#115 is only one several efforts underway aimed at modeling life and evolution. Network Tierra. Here we have a network of 150 computers linked worldwide by the Internet. One objective is the exploration of structures and patterns of information that drive evolutionary processes. A key element is an artificial lifeform that begins as a "seed organism" (modeled as information, of course) that wanders at will among the different environments presented by the computers in the network. So far, these digital organisms are surviving and changing. (Blakeslee, Sandra; "Cyberlife Critters Evolving in Computer Network," Austin American-Statesman , November 30, 1997. Cr. D. Phelps. Minad Project. Begun in 1953, the Minad Project is pure futurism; that is, the prediction of where the computer revolution is taking us. The Minad Project envisioned three evolutionary stages: Wiring the world (already accomplished as today's Internet); The transformation of the network into a high-speed creative mechanism (the Technosphere); and The emergence of global hyperintelligence (the Autosphere). The Minad Project is now forecasting what this all means for non-silicon-based life in the 21st. Century. (Baker, Lance; "They're Taking Over," New Scientist, p.55, December 6, 1997.) From Science Frontiers #116, MAR- ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 42: Nov-Dec 1985 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Trees may not converse after all!Back in SF#27, we reported how some evidence suggested that trees might communicate with one another in connection with insect attacks. S. V. Fowler and J.H . Lawton contest this conclusion, and they have experimental evidence to back them up. Working with birch trees, they defoliated saplings 5% and 2s% and looked for signs of intertree communication. They found none. As for previous claims for this phenomenon, Fowler and Lawton believe that one study was statistically flawed, and the other due to an infectious disease transmitted between caterpillars rather then talking trees. (Fowler, Simon V., and Lawton, John H.; "Rapidly Induced Defense and Talking Trees: The Devil's Advocate Position, " American Naturalist, 126:181, 1985.) From Science Frontiers #42, NOV-DEC 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 112: Jul-Aug 1997 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Large rotating ice discs on ice-covered rivers The fringe literature has made much of the huge, slowly spinning discs of ice seen on some rivers in northern climes. UFOs are connected somehow. Or, more recently, they must be associated with the infamous crop circles! These ponderously rotating ice discs have also caught the attentions of scientists, who have been able to dispel some of these wild speculations. One well-observed ice disc formed on the Pite River in northern Sweden in 1987. It was rotating in a circular hole in the ice covering the rest of the river. "The rotating ice disc had a diameter of 49m [just over 160 feet] while the hole in the ice was 54m in diameter. The time of one full rotation was measured at 545s and 575s on 20 and 24 January respectively. Unverified measurements suggest that the time of rotation had been about 8 min a few weeks earlier. The rotation of the ice disc was anticlockwise and for most of the time the disc was in contact with the border ice. This contact point moved clockwise, i.e . the ice disc was not 'rolling' on the walls of the hole. This erosion by contact, which caused a low-frequency sound, explains why the hole in the ice was kept open for months." The ice thickness was 0.43m. Estimated weight of the ice disc = 864 metric tons -- ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 112: Jul-Aug 1997 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Signals From the Sun And, Eventually (? ), Other Entities It is rather amazing that we can detect neutrinos at all. Carrying no electric charge and possibly massless, most zip right through the entire earth as if it were not there. A very, very few, however, are captured in huge, fluidfilled tanks built by physicists. These trapped ghostly particles tell tales we do not yet fathom. We have mentioned the solar-neutrino problem before (SF#46/84, for example). It is one of science's more perplexing and enduring mysteries. Even the most modern, sophisticated neutrino detectors count only about one-third the number of neutrinos that the sun "should" be sending in our direction -- according to our best theories on the nuclear reactions simmering away in the solar core. To this classical neutrino problem has been added the discovery that the solar neutrino flux varies in ways difficult to explain. P. Sturrock and G. Walther, at Stanford University, scrutinized 20 years of data from a detector deep in the Homestead Mine in South Dakota and find that the neutrino flux seems to peak every 21.3 days, varying as much as 30% to 100%. It may be that the sun's fusion "engine," long thought to run steadily and smoothly, sputters in a cyclic fashion? If an automobile engine did this, we would take it ...
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