The following word(s) are in the skip word list and have been omitted from your search: "on"
2 results found containing all search terms. 1198 results found containing some search terms.
... all directions. Two researchers now say the universe is even lumpier, has faster relative motion and shows larger structures than previously believed." N. Bahcall and R. Soneira have been studying the structures and motions of superclusters of galaxies. Each supercluster consists of clusters of clusters of galaxies and contains upwards of hundreds of billions of stars. (Obvious-ly, these are not inconsequential entities!) By analyzing the redshifts of galaxies, Bahcall and Soneira have found that the universe is much more dynamic and inhomogeneous than expected. (1 ) The clusters of galaxies are larger and more extensive. Superclusters can be 500 million light years across -- about 1% of the known universe (2 ) Relative motions within the clusters are as high as 2,000 kilometers per second more than one can account for using gravitational attraction alone. (Kleist; T.; "Lumps, Clumps and Jumps in the Universe," Science News, 130:7 , 1986.) Comment. Before swallowing whole such grand sketches of the cosmos, one should always examine the assumptions. Here, redshifts are assumed to be measures of velocity, which if an expanding universe is assumed, can be converted into distances. Local Group of galaxies, including the Milky Way. and nearby superclusters are all moving in the same direction at about the same speeds. (Adapted from Sky and Telepscope, 72:28, 1986) From Science Frontiers #47, SEP-OCT 1986 . 1986-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 25 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf047/sf047p03.htm
... and General Relativity. Initially, scientists were skeptical about black holes because of their bizarre properties: They emit no light and inhale unwary starships. Black holes are also singularities, and singularities make scientists nervous. In the black-hole singularity, thousands of stars are swallowed and compressed into an infinitesimally small volume. (Ref. 1) This grates against common sense. The philosophical uneasiness about black holes is worsened by the discovery that they: ". .. threaten the universe with an irreversible loss of information, which seems to contradict other laws of physics." (Ref. 2) Adding to these problems are nagging doubts about General Relativity, which underpins black-hole theory. Recently, some theorists have shown that General Relativity requires that two bodies of approximately equal size not attract one another! (Ref. 2) Despite all these qualms, black holes have become a fixture of astronomy because they promise to explain the incredibly powerful energy sources seen in the cores of galaxies. Do astronomers really observe black holes? The answer is: MAYBE. And even if YES, there are not nearly enough of them to satisfy theory. To illustrate, according to present theory, when stars weighing in at less than three solar masses collapse, they become neutron stars; if larger, the stars turn into small black holes. Theoretically, there should be one small black hole for every three neutron stars. But with some 500 neutron stars already pin-pointed, only 3 "possible" small black holes have been given votes of confidence; namely, Cyg X-1 ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 25 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf099/sf099a04.htm
... surveyed nearly 100 megalithic sites in Britain and nearby Europe. Archeologists generally applaud the Thoms' careful work but vehemently attack their conclusions. The Thoms see in their surveys evidence that the early Britons built megalithic astronomical instruments with scientific capabilities far beyond their needs for calendar-keeping. Actually, they suggest that these "primitive" people built a society so strong that it could devote time and labor to a program of astronomical research generations in extent. In short, they were precociously bright and socially strong; so much so that they could indulge their scientific desires. The Thoms' prehistoric scenario departs radically from that of the current archeological establishment, which has searched for flaws in the Thoms' work. Naturally, some defects have emerged. Clive Ruggles, the author of the present article, is one of the skeptics. He feels that the megalithic sites are impressive and intriguing but not the work of mental giants. After all, Ruggles says, 72 points of the compass have some lunar significance. Almost any circle of stones built for simple ritual purposes would have some significant lunar alignments! (Ruggles, Clive; "Prehistoric Astronomy: How Far Did It Go?" New Scientist, 90: 750, 1981.) Comment. The kind of statistical argument reminds one of those monkeys who will eventually type out the works of Shakespeare. Presumably, the same monkeys could construct Stonehenge, given enough time. Reference. Our Handbook Ancient Man contains abundant material on megalithic sites. For details, visit: here . From Science Frontiers #17, Fall 1981 . 1981-2000 William ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 25 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf017/sf017p01.htm
... were "choosing" their prime factors at random. Alluding to a assertion Einstein is said to have made, Erdos commented: "God may not play dice with the universe, but something strange is going on with the prime numbers." (Mackenzie, Dana; "Homage to an Itinerant Master," Science, 275:759, 1997.) Cross reference. The distribution of prime numbers is more than strange, see the plot in SF#42/332. What do prime numbers have to do with the real world? Are math and natural science really separate, unlinked disciplines? Pythagoras, 2,500 years ago, decided that: "All is number." He may be right. A strange connection seems to exist between prime numbers and quantum physics. On one side of the chasm that supposedly separates math from physics, we have the prime numbers and the Riemann zeta function, which provides information on how prime numbers are distributed among the other integers. On the "physics" side of the chasm, we have the behavior of complex atomic systems. The chasm seems bridged when one compares the energy levels of an excited heavy nucleus with the distribution of the zeros of the zeta function. Why should this correspondence exist? B. Cipra exclaimed: "Just why number theory and quantum chaos should be soul mates is a mystery for the gods to unveil." (Cipra, Barry; "Prime Formula Weds Number Theory and Quantum Physics," Science, 274:2104, 1996.) Comment. God, well known to be a geometer ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 25 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf111/sf111p00.htm
... Subjects The Incorruptibility Of The Ganges The Ganges is 2525 kilometers long. Along its course, 27 major towns dump 902 million liters of sewage into it each day. Added to this are all those human bodies consigned to this holy river, called the Ganga by the Indians. Despite this heavy burden of pollutants, the Ganges has for millennia been regarded as incorruptible. How can this be? Several foreigners have recorded the effects of this river's "magical" cleansing properties: Ganges water does not putrefy, even after long periods of storage. River water begins to putrefy when lack of oxygen promotes the growth of anaerobic bacteria, which produce the tell-tale smell of stale water. British physician, C.E . Nelson, observed that Ganga water taken from the Hooghly -- one of its dirtiest mouths -- by ships returning to England remained fresh throughout the voyage. In 1896, the British physician E. Hanbury Hankin reported in the French journal Annales de l'Institut Pasteur that cholera microbes died within three hours in Ganga water, but continued to thrive in distilled water even after 48 hours. A French scientist, Monsieur Herelle, was amazed to find "that only a few feet below the bodies of persons floating in the Ganga who had died of dysentery and cholera, where one would expect millions of germs, there were no germs at all. More recently, D.S . Bhargava, an Indian environmental engineer measured the Ganges' remarkable self-cleansing properties: "Bhargava's calculations, taken from an exhaustive three-year study of the ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 25 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf094/sf094g11.htm
... first Europeans who sailed up the Amazon circa 1540 reported large, well-populated cities on the Amazon flood plains, modern archeologists have generally traveled to the high Andes for "high" ancient civilizations in South America. In retrospect, this is not surprising. By 1700, the cities of the 1540s had been swallowed up by the jungle. Besides, most thought, the conditions in the lowland tropics are too harsh to nourish advanced societies. Fortunately, a few archeologists have recently invaded Amazonia with aerial sensors, magnetometers, and the oldfashioned shovel. And indeed there once was a high civilization along the great river; and, some say, it may have spread from the lowlands to the Andes far to the west. What a turnabout in archeological outlook -- if sustainable by facts. One intriguing site in Amazonia is the island of Marajo, 15,000 square miles in area, located at the mouth of the Amazon. Here are found some 400 huge dirt mounds, including one with a surface area of 50 acres and a volume of a million cubic yards. Radiocarbon dates suggest that Marajo had been occupied for over a thousand years. Nearby, on the Tapajos River in Brazil, A. Roosevelt found elaborate pottery, finely carved jade, and a culture going back perhaps 7,000 years. In other parts of Amazonia, surveys uncovered tens of thousands of acres of raised fields connected by causeways. There remains little doubt that an advanced, complex civilization dwelt in Amazonia for millennia. Archeologists are now asking where these people came from and how they were related to ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 25 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf071/sf071a02.htm
... at the top of a crescent-shaped behemoth. On the inside of the curve, the dune was a good 200 feet high and as close to vertical as a sand dune gets. "We gathered timidly at the edge of the precipice. But our guide, seemingly bent on suicide, sat down at the crest and started to slide down the dune face, the seat of his pants sending a small cascade of sand slithering to the bottom. Instantly, the entire dune began to pulsate, groaning and grumbling, as if armies of Frank Herbert's sand-worms from Dune were chewing their way to the surface. In a moment, all of us were laughing and scooting down the dune, the unearthly roar echoing in the natural amphitheater." What a delightful introduction to one of Nature's light-hearted anomalies! Such booming dunes and roaring sands may be found in thirty-or-so localities all over the world, mostly in desert envi-ronments. Most of the booming dunes are composed of quartz sands, the main exception being the Barking Sands on Kauai, Hawaii, which are calcium carbonate. Despite over a century of investigation, no one knows exactly why some dunes boom. In fact, the sand grains of booming and silent dunes look pretty much alike. The addition of sand from a booming dune will not make a silent dune roar, but the additon of silent-dune sand to a booming dune will contaminate it and ruin its boomability. Glass beads of the same size as the quartz grains in a booming dune will not ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 25 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf072/sf072g10.htm
... again in the future because the compound's "morphogenetic field" will "guide" the chemical processes along paths already established. Can you wonder why mainstream science advised that Sheldrake's book, A New Science of Life , be BURNT! Well, there was a lot of smoke but the theory survives. Nature, in fact, is full of observations, such as parallel evolution, that support the idea of morphic resonance. And in the laboratory, a few brave souls are conducting experiments that seem to confirm the theory more directly. "Using a novel laboratory approach, researchers at Yale University have been able to create a morphogenetic effect after stimulating only 100 subjects. They employed a series of trivial paper-and-pencil tasks (such as "Put an X in any one of the four boxes shown below"). Experimenters tallied how an initial group of 100 students responded to these tasks. Then they forced a second group of 100 students to respond to the tasks in a set manner (" Put an X in the third box below"). Finally, they presented the same tasks to a third group of 100 students, allowing them to complete them, as with the first group, however they wished." Results showed that in one task the third group had been unknowingly influenced by what the second group had been forced to do! This was interpreted as evidence of morphic resonance. (Anonymous; "New Evidence for Morphogenetic Field," Venture Inward , p. 10, September/October 1994.) Comment. There can be no ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 25 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf097/sf097p17.htm
... and-ring engraving was 3-5 millennia ago, this unique design suggests the worldwide diffusion of culture thousands of years ago. A cup-and-ring engraving consists of a hollow or cup anywhere from 4 to 30 inches in diameter, surrounded by 1 to 9 rings. The rings may be gapped, with a narrow groove running through the gaps from the outside. (See the illustration,) Cups-and-rings have been found at over 700 sites in Great Britain. Most date between 2200 and 1600 B.C . The cup-and-ring is much rarer in the States. A few are known from Alabama, California, Georgia, Hawaii, Texas, and doubtless other states. In contrast to the British cups-and-rings, the American ones are upgapped, though otherwise indistinguishable. What is the significance of the motif? Of course, no one can say for sure. Many in Britain are near copper and gold workings. Other are associated with burials and astronomical alignments. Some European archeologists think they represent the sun or sun god. For the anomalist, the cups-and-rings hint at an ancient worldwide culture that left its signature on rocks just about everywhere. (Morris, Ronald W.B .; "The Cup-andRing Motif in the Rock Art of the British Isles and in America," Occasional Papers, Epigraphic Society , 17:19, 1988.) From Science Frontiers #62, MAR-APR 1989 . 1989-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 25 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf062/sf062a01.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 117: May-June 1998 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Aliens, Mystery Races, Or Aborigines?Some of Australia's rock art -- the Wandjina paintings -- depicts humanoids in fulllength gowns with strange halos encircling their heads. Those favoring the "ancient astronaut" theory assure us that the Wandjina figures are those of alien visitors! The so-called Bradshaw paintings don't fit in the "alien" category but they are so interesting that we choose to reproduce one here. It raises three problems: (1 ) The slim, flowing human figures remind one more of the Tassili rock art found in Africa's Sahara rather than that of the Australian Aborigines; (2 ) The objects at the left are enigmatic and technical-looking; and (3 ) The symbols (? ) at the top are undeciphered. The article at hand from Antiquity does not attempt to interpret the Bradshaw art. Instead, it discusses the social factors that mold the interpretation of the Wandjina and Bradshaw paintings. When Europeans first saw these paintings they were certain that their "advanced style" was far beyond the capabilities of the Aborigines (colonial prejudice). They must, therefore, be the work of "preAborigines." Today's Aborigines will have none of this condescension. They were the original settlers of Australia, and as such they have bona fide land and title claims. Any recognition of "pre-Aborigines" would undercut these claims. (McNiven, Ian ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 25 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf117/sf117p01.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 59: Sep-Oct 1988 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects PERIODIC EXTINCTIONS AND EXPLOSIONS IN TERRESTRIAL LIFE Claims of a 26-million-year periodicity in biological extinctions have been given wide publicity recently. One theory has it that periodic comet showers have created this regular pulse beat in the history of life. A recent issue of Science presents the results of an analysis of the ups and downs of 20,000 marine genera -- that is, percent extinctions over a period of 600 million years, as revealed by the fossil record. The graph of ten groups of 1000 genera shows at least two things: (1 ) strong hints of periodicity; and (2 ) suggestions that extinctions, whatever they really are, "cut across functional, physiological, and ecological lines." The plotters of these graphs, D. Raup and G. Boyajian, claim that whatever the mechanism, "major pulses of extinction result from geographically pervasive environmental disturbances." What besides powerful, external physical forces (read "comets and asteroids") could affect such wide ranges of marine organisms? (Lewin, Roger; "Pattern and Process in Extinctions," Science, 241:26, 1988.) Comment . This all sounds so reasonable that one must wonder why it is given space in Science Frontier. The reason is that we have a suspicion that it is all too easy, too simplistic. Could something more subtle be at work? After all, we really know next to nothing ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 25 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf059/sf059p08.htm
... : Its orbit is retrograde and highly elliptical (1 .4 x 9.7 million kilometers) Its brightness changes by a factor of four as it rotates Its diameter, according to M.W . and B.E . Schaefer (Nature, 333:436, 1988) is thought to be at least 660 kilometers. None of these facts taken alone is anomalous, but (2 ) and (3 ) taken together seem incompatible. If the large brightness changes are due to a highly irregular shape, Nereid's 660-kilometer size is too large, because astronomers agree that gravitational forces will sphericize all objects larger than 400 kilometers. On the other hand, if Nereid is two-faced, like Saturn's moon Iapetus (it's carbon-black on one side, light-colored on the other), astronomers are again faced with trying to explain how such a large solar-system object can acquire so much carbonaceous material on one side only. Also, Nereid's eccentric, retrograde orbit surely hints at a history of capture or orbit disruption. (Weisburd, S.; "Neptune's Nereid: Another Mysterious Moon," Science News, 133:374, 1988. Also: Veverka, J.; "Taking a Dim View of Nereid," Nature, 333:391, 1988.) From Science Frontiers #59, SEP-OCT 1988 . 1988-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 25 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf059/sf059p05.htm
... delusion called Capgras' Syndrome. People displaying this syndrome believe that important people in their lives (family members, etc.) have been replaced by exact doubles. No hallucinations or illusions are involved; rather it is a belief. Those afflicted with Capgras' Syndrome may even believe that they themselves are represented somewhere by a double they never see. Not all persons with close emotional ties are believed to be doubled; and these un-replaced persons are always identified accurately. People with these beliefs usually possess normal perceptions and memories but are (obviously) disturbed emotionally with paranoid tendencies. (Berson, Robert J.; "Capgras' Syndrome," American Journal of Psychiatry, 140:969, 1983.) Comment. This strange mental state is apparently not related to autoscopy, where one hallucinates one's self. From Science Frontiers #30, NOV-DEC 1983 . 1983-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 25 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf030/sf030p15.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 127: Jan-Feb 2000 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Ants Like Microwaves Back in 1990, an item in SF was titled "Ants Like Amps." (SF#60/160) The subject then was the strange mesmerizing effect electrical equipment has on ants. They dote on airport runway lights, household electrical meters, and in particular electrical relays, where they congregate en masse. Now, a decade later, we discover that they are also not adverse to exploring microwave ovens -- even when they are turned on! We cannot explain the attraction of electrical relays, but we do know how ants survive in humming microwave ovens. It is because the microwaves inside the oven form standing waves. Energy is high in some areas -- ants would fry there -- and weak elsewhere. Ants seem to be able to find these lowenergy refuges and survive very nicely -- perhaps on the food you were planning to consume! (Anonymous; "Them!" New Scientist, p. 109, July 31, 1999. Comment. You can map you microwave's standing waves by filling a flat tray with marshmallows. A pattern of toasted and untoasted marshmallows will appear post-zapping. From Science Frontiers #127, JAN-FEB 2000 . 1997 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 25 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf127/sf127p07.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 57: May-Jun 1988 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Mysterious Bird Deaths "An eight-year study by Indian zoologists has failed to establish why birds commit suicide year after year at the small village of Jatinga in the northeastern state of Assam. "Attracted by the lights, birds converge on Jatinga at night and on landing become immobile, stop feeding and starve. They neither resist capture nor try to fly away." The mysterious phenomenon dates back to 1905. It peaks in September and October, as the monsoon season wanes, with as many as 500 birds, from some 36 species, dying each night. The birds alight at the same spot each year -- a one-kilometer stretch in the town. No one can account for the selection of this precise spot or for the dazed condition of the birds. (Jayaraman, K.S .; "Mystery of Bird Deaths in Assam," Nature, 331:556, 1988.) From Science Frontiers #57, MAY-JUN 1988 . 1988-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 25 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf057/sf057b07.htm
... as well as the possible cost of having to rear an extra chick. G.D . Ruxton et al have used game theory to show that Yom-Tov's speculation has considerable merit. However, there are nonadaptive explanations. The females in the species that lay pale last eggs may simply run out of egg pigment, or they may change physiologically as the egg-laying phase nears its end. (Ruxton, G.D ., et al; "Are Unusually Colored Eggs a Signal to Potential Con-specific Brood Parasites?" American Naturalist, 157:451, 2001.) Comment. We will not quarrel with game theory but hasten to point out that the evolution of interspecies signalling requires: (1 ) A population of hosts in which some females, for one reason or other, lay pale last eggs; and (2 ) A population of parasites in which, for one reason or another, some individuals have an aversion to laying eggs in nests with a pale egg. It takes two to signal! From Science Frontiers #137, SEP-OCT 2001 . 2001 William R. Corliss Other Sites of Interest SIS . Catastrophism, archaeoastronomy, ancient history, mythology and astronomy. Lobster . The journal of intelligence and political conspiracy (CIA, FBI, JFK, MI5, NSA, etc) Homeworking.com . Free resource for people thinking about working at home. ABC dating and personals . For people looking for relationships. Place your ad free. ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 24 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf137/sf137p05.htm
... shows a prominent feature centred at 3.4 micrometres which the two astronomers attribute to emission by carbon-hydrogen bonds in a solid." Chandra Wickramasinghe (Dayal's brother) states that the emissivity of Halley's comet matches exactly the emissivity of bacteria as observed in the laboratory. This observation supports the Hoyle-Wickramasinghe suggestion that comets transport life forms around the universe. Of course, more conservative scientists contend that rather complex organic molecules can be synthesized in space abiogenically. These molecules might account for the observations. (Chown, Marcus; "Organics or Organisms in Halley's Nucleus," New Scientist, p. 23, April 17, 1986.) Comment. This article seems to be accompanied by a bit of scientific revisionism. In response to this discovery, one English scientist remarked that these results, ". .. only confirm what everyone has always suspected." Now, it is true that comets have long been termed "dirty snowballs" but until very recently no one has maintained that comets are covered with dark, organic sludge. Reference. In category ACO23 in our catalog The Sun and Solar System Debris, we discuss in depth the blackness of cometary nuclei. For more information on this book, visit: here . From Science Frontiers #46, JUL-AUG 1986 . 1986-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 24 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf046/sf046p05.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 70: Jul-Aug 1990 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Two Anomalous Types Of Stars Blue straggler stars. The stars comprising a star cluster are usually assigned the same age, since it is thought that they were all created at the same time that the cluster was formed. Lurking in many star clusters, however, are brighter, bluer nonconformists called "blue straggler stars." These stars seem to have about twice the mass of the "normal" cluster members, and they appear to be only about one-fifth as old as their compatriots. The motions of the blue stragglers are consistent with those of bona fide cluster members, implying that they are not interlopers or foreground objects. Several explanations have been suggested to explain the presence of blue stragglers. One thought is that they harbor asteroid-size black holes at their cores. So far, all of the profferred explanations have serious flaws. (Fogg, Martyn J.; "Blue Straggler Stars: A Cosmic Anomaly," The Explorer, 6:4 , Spring 1990.) Socket stars. "A picture book hardly seems a likely source of an astronomical discovery, especially in a world where mysteries of the universe usually tumble from sophisticated electronic instruments attached to huge telescopes. Nevertheless, while recently paging through Exploring the Southern Sky , by G. Madsen and R. West, Walter A. Feibelman (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center) recognized something that had caught his attention decades before. High-resolution photographs of ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 24 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf070/sf070a03.htm
... see, most of the earth's internal fires are fueled by the radioactive decay of uranium and thorium. The heat produced by these disintegrations eventually makes its way to the surface where we can measure it. but the helium (4He) created by the radioactive decay of the uranium and thorium is mostly missing. The discrepancy is large, and scien tists are confronted with the possibility that we are wrong about either the source of the earth's heat or the facts of nuclear physics. You can bet it will not be the latter. We are confident that helium atoms cannot change their type like those solar neutrinos! Neither can we blame chemical sequestration because helium is a noble gas. Perhaps the missing helium is physically trapped and stored somewhere in the earth's mantle. No one knows the answer; nor does any one pay much attention to this clearcut anomaly. (Chin, Gilbert, ed. ; "A Scarcity of Gas," Science, 292:2219, 2001.) From Science Frontiers #137, SEP-OCT 2001 . 2001 William R. Corliss Other Sites of Interest SIS . Catastrophism, archaeoastronomy, ancient history, mythology and astronomy. Lobster . The journal of intelligence and political conspiracy (CIA, FBI, JFK, MI5, NSA, etc) Homeworking.com . Free resource for people thinking about working at home. ABC dating and personals . For people looking for relationships. Place your ad free. ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 24 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf137/sf137p10.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 95: Sep-Oct 1994 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The urge to replicate: part i The inside front cover of the March 1944 issue of BioScience displays five pairs of colorful butterflies. Each member of each pair is virtually a duplicate of its partner in shape, design, and colors. Yet, each member of each pair is a different species. Although the pairs are from the same geographical regions, it is not obvious why this astounding mimicry should occur. Here, one cannot invoke the explanation that one species gains an evolutionary advantage by mimicking an unpalatable species, as with mimics of the Monarch Butterfly. That is, there seems to be no evolutionary advantage to looking alike. (Miller, Julie Ann; BioScience, inside front cover, March 1994. Miller's editorial remarks are based upon a later article by H.F . Nijhout, who also supplied the photographs. Nijhout's article explains how butterfly wing patterns may have evolved.) Comment. Cases of remarkable mimicry also occur among geographically separated species. For example, the North American Meadowlarks are dead ringers for the African Yellow-throated Longclaw. "Convergent evolution" names the phenomenon but doesn't tell how or why long chains of random mutations can come up with the same designs where there seems to be no "guidance" by the forces of natural selection. Perhaps genomes contain "subprograms" for those patterns and structures often used in biology. Of course, Sheldrake's idea of ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 24 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf095/sf095b10.htm
... friend Supernova 1987A, the subject of several past SF items. This time, the anomalies are associated with three bright rings now gracing 1987A's environs. The thin, dense, elliptical inner ring, the first to be noted, has always been a puzzle. Its diameter suggests that it was probably created about 30,000 years before 1987A blew up. But what is it? Its existence is hard to explain, as N. Panagia has confirmed: "The presence of a dense, thin, ring surrounding a massive star at the end of its evolution is not easy to account for." In other words, this ring is foreign to mainstream astronomical theory. Now, with the help of the Hubble Space Telescope, two additional faint rings near 1987A have been detected. One seems to be the mirror image of the other. The bizarre part is that they are not centered on 1987A at all, like the ring mentioned above. One of the new rings seems to be in front of 1987A, the other in back -- but this is a subjective call. Speculation is rampant, and all three rings are enigmatic. Is 1987A blowing out rings of matter front and back? (Panagia, Nino; "Origins Revealed in Demise," Nature, 369:354, 1994. Cowen, R.; "Mysterious Rings Surround Supernova," Science News, 145:340, 1994.) From Science Frontiers #95, SEP-OCT 1994 . 1994-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 24 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf095/sf095a04.htm
... 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 What happened in 2345 b.c .? Australian astronomer G.F . Dodwell has analyzed the observational records com-piled for the many gnomons erected all over the civilized world during the past 4,000 years. Gnomons are vertical markers that cast shadows from which the local latitudes can be computed. (All one needs are the measurements of the shadow lengths on the longest and shortest days of the year.) The earth's tilt or obliquity-of-the-ecliptic may also be calculated from gnomon data -- and therein lies the anomaly. The tilt of the earth's axis is supposed to vary cyclically between 22 and 24.5 over a period of some 40,000 years due to the pulls of the moon, the sun, and the planets on the earth's equatorial bulge... Tilt angles computed from ancient gnomon observations deviate markedly from the theoretical curve. The alignment of the ancient Egyptian temple at Karnak and other oriented sites extend the deviation toward the date 2345 B.C . Either the ancient observations were systematically in error all over the world or the earth's tilt angle changed in historical times. (Bowden, M.; "The Recent Change in the Tilt of the Earth's Axis," Pamphlet No. 236, July 1983. Creation Science Movement.) Comment. One would think that such startling data, compiled by a recognized astronomer ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 24 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf030/sf030p02.htm
... 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 Why don't we all have cancer?Biologists have just found that the difference between a normal human gene responsible for manufacturing a specific protein and a gene causing cancer is the replacement of a single nucleotide by another in a very long string of nucleotides. This is a very delicate situation. The difference between cancer and no cancer is simply too tiny. Given the high frequency of random changes (mutations), we should all have cancer. One implication is that humans (and other animals, too) have come up with some method of preventing or correcting these minor mutations -- otherwise we would have become extinct long ago. No one knows what this mechanism is or why it sometimes fails. (Anonymous; "More Speculation about Oncogenes," Nature, 300;213, 1982.) Reference. Other anomalies of cancer are cataloged in BHH23-35 in: Biological Anomalies: Humans II. For a description of this volume, visit: here . From Science Frontiers #25, JAN-FEB 1983 . 1983-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 24 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf025/sf025p07.htm
... Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Pliocene sculptures or freaks of nature?We have at hand Number 20 of Archaeologische Berichten , 1990, 108 pp. This thick booklet bears the subtitle Picture Book of the Stone Age . And a picture book it is, with hundreds of drawings interspersed with 26 pasted-in color photos. The text is English. What do these photos and drawings show? Basically, they portray stones and pepples picked out of gravel pits and similar accumulations of rocky debris that look like human heads, ape heads, primitive tools, etc. Some of the pebbles do indeed resemble humanmade artifacts. (See accompanying sketch.) Most, though, require some imagination. The import of these artifacts, if that is what they really are, comes home when one learns that they come from deposits that are millions of years old! If any of these pebbles are really human-made, anthropology will be stood on its head. Since the present report is the 20th in a series, one can assume that the contributors to Archaeologische Berich ten have amassed incredibly large collections of ancient stones and pebbles that "look like" artifacts. Comment. Similar purported artifacts have been found at the controversial Calico Hills site, California, in Pleistocene deposits that may be 100,000 years old. And don't forget that "Face on Mars"! From Science Frontiers #77, SEP-OCT 1991 . 1991-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 24 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf077/sf077a01.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 43: Jan-Feb 1986 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Waiting for saturn's rings to collapse The more we learn about Saturn's rings, the stranger they seem. One of the latest theoretical models of the rings has them composed of balls of hard ice, which interact through mutual collision and are herded by the gravitational caresses of small moons. The successes of this model have been tempered by the fact that it also implies that Saturn's rings are very young. "Theorists would have no problem with a broad, featureless disk surviving the 4.5 billion years since the early days of the solar system, but features such as spiral density waves are clear evidence that satellites, including the profusion of small ones found near the rings, are draining angular momentum from the rings. The satellites should be spiraling outward into ever larger orbits as they gain angular momentum, and the A-ring should collapse inward into the B-ring in just 100 million years as its particles lose angular momentum." (Kerr, Richard A.; "Making Better Planetary Rings," Science, 229:1376, 1985.) Reference. For other indications of youth in Saturn's rings, see ARL16 in our catalog: The Moon and the Planets. For information on this book, visit: here . From Science Frontiers #43, JAN-FEB 1986 . 1986-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 24 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf043/sf043p04.htm
... Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Anomalons Are Lazy Or Fat No, an "anomalon" is not an animal unknown to science. "Anomalon" is the name that has been given to unusual fragments that are created in high-energy collisions of atomic nuclei. The fragments are peculiar because they appear not to travel as far as expected in the special "nuclear" emulsion used to study the interactions of high-energy nuclei from heavy-ion accelerators or in cosmic rays. This suggests that the anomalons are either much larger than conventional nuclei, and are more likely to interact in the emulsion and therefore do not travel so far, or are some unusually long-lived form of matter, lasting for around 1011 seconds or more." One thought is that anomalons may be constructed of two triplets of quarks. These sextets are called "demon deuterons." Another hypothesis has small nuclei bound loosely together -- they don't say by what. The whole thing is up in the air, or should we say in the emulsion? (Sutton, Christine; "Anomalon Data Continue to Baffle Physicists," New Scientist, 96:160, 1982.) Comment. One thing is sure, nuclear physicists have a lot of fun naming their newly found particles. From Science Frontiers #25, JAN-FEB 1983 . 1983-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 24 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf025/sf025p13.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 37: Jan-Feb 1985 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Secret Of It All Is In The Pi In the above, Pollard discoursed on the meaning of it all and how mathematics seemed to mirror reality so marvelously. Now, one fixture of mathematics is the transcendental number. The adjective "transcendental" is most appropriate here given the title of Pollard's article. Of the transcendental numbers, pi is a great favorite. Mathematicians like pi so much that they have computed it out to well beyond 10 million decimals. Are there any inklings to the meaning of it all in these 10 million-plus decimals? Well, at decimal 710,100 there are seven 3s in a row. At decimal 1,526,800, we find the digits 2718281, the first seven digits of e, the base of natural logarithms. Then at decimal 52,638 there is 14142135, the first eight digits of the square root of 2. But all these discoveries are hardly profound, for they could occur by chance -- nothing really "transcendental" so far. A more astounding discovery is that: 22(pi)4 = 2143 A few multiplications, and the 10 million-plus decimals of pi have vanished. (Can this remarkable relationship mirror some as yet undiscovered facet of physical reality?) While it is difficult to squeeze the meaning of the universe out of pi's 10 million-plus decimals, one has to admit that pi is everywhere. ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 24 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf037/sf037p20.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 15: Spring 1981 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects If bacteria don't think, neither do we As one goes step-by-step down the ladder of biological complexity, one discovers that flatworms, plants, and even bacteria display purposeful behavior. Bacteria, which are usually regarded as fairly inert when it comes to responding to environmental pressures, actually react in different ways to dozens of different stimuli. This ability at the very least requires sensory equipment, internal clocks, a memory, and a decision-making capability. If bacterial activity is all preprogrammed (the reductionist view), are not humans also preprogrammed? Human programs are larger and more complex, of course, but still devoid of "thinking." Conversely, if humans really do think; that is, transcend preprogramming (free will, if you wish), then bacteria must also think. The third possibility is that at some step in the ladder of life, "higher" life forms begin to think. There is little evidence that life is split so profoundly between thinkers and non-thinkers. (Morowitz, Harold J.; "Do Bacteria Think?" Psychology Today, 15:10, February 1981.) Comment. This ancient controversy about determinism has been revived as: (1 ) Simple life forms have been found to be not-so-simple; (2 ) All life seems unified by a single (or small number of) genetic codes; and (3 ) " ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 24 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf015/sf015p08.htm
... - even tens of millions of years! For the solar system, if those ubiquitous computers are correct, is not a well-behaved family of planets. J. Laskar concludes from extensive numerical experiments: "The motion of the Solar System is thus shown to be chaotic, not quasiperiodic. In particular, predictability of the orbits of the inner planets, including the Earth, is lost with a few tens of millions of years." (Laskar, J.; "A Numerical Experiment on the Chaotic Behavior of the Solar System," Nature, 338:237, 1989.) Comment. Laskar's comments are directed toward the future, but the same conclusions should apply if we ran the solar system backwards in time. From this very narrow perspective of celestial mechanics, one cannot say positively that the planets, the inner ones especially, could not have radically altered their orbits within the past few millions of years. Reference. See ABB1 in our catalog: The Sun and Solar System Debris for more on the solar system's instability. This book is described here . From Science Frontiers #63, MAY-JUN 1989 . 1989-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 24 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf063/sf063a05.htm
... 1981, issue of Science devotes three entire pages to a discussion of the issues raised in the book Genes, Minds, and Culture, written by Edward Wilson and Charles Lumsden. The subject of this book is "gene-culture coevolution," which infers that human culture is controlled not so much by "free will" as by rapidly changing human genes. The authors propose that as few as 1000 years are sufficient for important genetic shifts. Such shifts might, for example, impel humans to break out of the Middle Ages and bring on the Industrial Revolution. The most controversial facets of the theory are: (1 ) The tight genetic control over human culture with little room for free will; and (2 ) The rapid blossoming of many cultures as genes shift about. As one scientist remarked, this book is "dangerous." Others describe it as marvelous. The Science article deals not so much with the book as with the reactions to it -- and the reactions have been powerful, both pro and con. (Lewin, Roger; "Cultural Diversity Tied to Genetic Differences," Science, 212:908, 1981.) Comment. The impression one gets from the synopsis of the book is that humankind is diversifying rapidly into new cultural configurations not through human volition but because of those imperious "selfish genes" we all carry. From Science Frontiers #16, Summer 1981 . 1981-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 24 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf016/sf016p06.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 43: Jan-Feb 1986 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Biological Diversity Crisis If life fills all available energy niches, life must be capable of transforming itself (or of being transformed) into a multitude of different energy transducers or energy utilizers. E.O . Wilson has outlined the diversity of terrestrial life in a recent issue of BioScience. The earth, it appears, is a veritable Gene sis Machine; and it is only one planet among a possible infinitude. So many terrestrial species have already been described that one could easily believe that biological collectors roaming the planet's wild places have just about completed their task. Some recent totals: 47,000 species of vertebrates, 440,000 plants, and 751,000 insects. But we may not even be close to grasping life's diversity on earth! We do well in counting the large mammals and birds, but most insects and microscopic forms of life have escaped description. To illustrate, in 1964, the British ecologist C.B . Williams, combining intensive local sampling and mathematical extrapolation, extimated the insect population as 3 million species. However, by 1985, this figure has been raised ten-fold to 30 million species. Why the huge jump? For the first time, entomologists had found a way to efficiently sample the canopies of tropical forests. This rich stratum between the sunlight and gloomy forest floor 100+ feet below had been largely neglected before. The slick tree trunks and the attacking ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 24 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf043/sf043p10.htm
... rather plaintive article to the Journal of Scientific Exploration detailing some of his experiences down the years. His first "bad" experience occurred just after the end of World War II when, fresh from intensive work in radar signal processing, he proposed that the human ear is an active rather than passive receiver; that is, it actually emits sound itself. This self-generated tone aids the ear in signal processing. The thought that the ear could be a sound source was patently ridiculous, and Gold's idea got nowhere. However, recent experiments confirm that the human ear does indeed emit a tone at about 15,000 Hz. Another, more recent, proposal for research on the behavior of hydrocarbons under high temperatures and pressures got very high marks from reviewers on all points but one: Should the proposal be funded? Several reviewers thought not; one saying that the whole idea was "misguided." In what way was Gold misguided? Well, it seems that his proposed work on hydrocarbons related to his idea that primordial hydrocarbons deep in the earth's crust contribute heavily to the reservoirs of oil and methane we tap on the planet's surface. And everyone knows that all oil and gas is biogenic; that is, derived from buried organic matter! Gold has concluded that "not all is well" with American science. (Gold, Thomas; "New Ideas in Science, "Journal of Scientific Exploration, 3:103, 1989.) From Science Frontiers #68, MAR-APR 1990 . 1990-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 24 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf068/sf068g19.htm
... not been [there] for a couple of years. Everything was going as normal until I got down into the park. I took the "red" path which takes you right round the lakes. I had walked down to the old kennels when I saw what I can only describe as a glowing fog. I thought it must be some sort of peculiar weather phenomenon. I carried on skirting the lake but the "glow" was still there. I looked around for someone to confirm this odd scene with me but I was alone. I must admit I began to feel a little unnerved by it. I quickened back; the glow could still be seen except it had drifted out over the lake. It was about six feet (two metres) high and three feet (one metre) wide -- although not a column. Indeed, at one point I almost thought it looked like a figure. I have never seen such a peculiar sight in all my days, and only wish someone else had seen it, too. (Roland, Cynthia; "Peculiar Sight in Park," Journal of Meteorology, U.K ., 26:229, 2001.) Comment. It is the luminous feature of this phenomenon that makes it so interesting. Could it have been a will-o 'the-wisp? Or it might have been kin to the drifting, luminous "bubble" described in SF#102. From Science Frontiers #138, NOV-DEC 2001 . 2001 William R. Corliss Other Sites of Interest SIS . Catastrophism, ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 24 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf138/sf138p08.htm
... human mind can affect random physical events, such as radioactive decay. "Surprisingly, the PK effect appears quite independent of physical variables, such as the distance or the complexity of the random generator. The subjects succeed by aiming at the result, regardless of the intermediate steps required to reach this result. Such a goal-oriented, even non-casual feature of PK has been emphasized by PK experiments with pre-recorded, random events. In these experiments, random events were first pre-recorded, and later played back to a PK subject who tried to enforce a certain outcome. These experiments gave positive results, even though the subject's mental effort occurred after the random events had been macroscopically recorded." Now, that is weird, too! (In fact, one paragraph echos the other.) But of course almost no one believes in PK because there is no theory for it. (Schmidt, Helmut; "The Strange Properties of Psychokinesis," The Explorer, 3:4 , January 1986. The Explorer is the newsletter of the Society for Scientific Exploration.) From Science Frontiers #46, JUL-AUG 1986 . 1986-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 24 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf046/sf046p17.htm
... All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Phoebe Not Locked To Saturn When Voyager 2 passed through the Saturn system a few months ago, it snapped pictures of Phoebe, Saturn's outermost moon. Phoebe is nicely rounded, 200 kilometers in diameter, and swings around Saturn in a retrograde orbit 550 days long -- nothing anomalous so far. Phoebe, however, turns out to be the only solar-system satellite whose axial period of rotation is not about equal to its period of rotation about its parent planet. All other moons, including our own, are gravitationally "locked" so that they always point the same hemisphere at the parent planet. (Anonymous; "Voyager's Fleeting Glimpse of Phoebe," New Scientist, 91:779, 1981.) Comment. One inference here is that Phoebe is a relatively recent addition -- and a good-sized one -- to the Saturn system, and just hasn't been there long enough to become "locked." From Science Frontiers #18, NOV-DEC 1981 . 1981-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 24 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf018/sf018p04.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 18: Nov-Dec 1981 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Descent of man -- or ascent of ape?New Scientist has just published a controversial pair of articles by John Gribbin and Jeremy Cherfas. Summarizing mightily, it seems that: There are no fossils that are unequivocally ancestral to chimpanzees and gorillas but not to man; Therefore, the only good measure of the time when these three species split from one another is the comparison of genetic material; Genetic dating and serological techniques are unanimous in dating the chimp-gorilla-man split at about 5 million years ago. The conclusion that chimpanzees, gorillas, and humans diverged from a com mon ancestor only 5 million years ago is opposed to the widely accepted 20 million years. This conflict in dating is controversial enough, but Gribbin and Cherfas, after considerable fossil analysis, take one more giant step: they suggest that chimps, gorillas, and man descended from an ancestor that was more man-like than ape-like. Chimpanzees and gorillas in this view are descended from man rather than vice versa. (Cherfas, Jeremy, and Gribbin, John; "The Molecular Making of Mankind," and "Descent of Man -- Or Ascent of Ape?" New Scientist, 91:518 and 91:592, 1981.) Comment. This hypothesis is inflammatory enough without our adding more fuel, but the possible connection to the Sasquatch/Abominable Snowman problem should not be overlooked. Reference. The many problems associated ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 24 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf018/sf018p05.htm
... causing waves to spread out. In this case each wave crest was a band of fantastic light. Each wheel would last for a couple of minutes, continually flashing out bands of light as though a transmitter was located at its centre. Wheels could be observed in all directions. At the same time systems of moving parallel bands could be observed, again travelling in totally random directions with respect to each other and passing off into the distance, only to be followed by another set." The complexity of the display was so great that it confused the eye. Of particular interest was the fact that the centers of the wheels seemed to keep pace with the ship. Sometimes parallel bands of light were seen emanating from the side of the vessel itself, as if it was a center of one of the wheels! The light bands were 3-5 meters wide; the parallel bands at least 160 meters long. Circle diameters ranged from 3 to perhaps 200 meters. Flashes occurred less than a second apart and were pale green with a touch of gold. At 1740 GMT the vessel passed out of the display and seemed to cross a distinct line. On one side it displays were active, on the other all was dark. The light could be seen astern disappearing over the horizon. (Round, G.E .; "Bioluminescence," Marine Observer, 54:78, 1984.) Reference. Even more fantastic bioluminescent displays are cataloged in Chapter GLW in our volume: Lightning, Auroras. For details on this book, visit: here . From Science Frontiers ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 24 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf038/sf038p18.htm
... photosynthesis? Did photosynthesis evolve at the earth's surface or deep in the oceans near hydrothermal vents? Such questions are engendered by the strength of the mysterious glow that emanates from these deep-sea vents. It is at these cracks in the ocean floor that very hot, mineralladen water gushes forth, and where colonies of bizarre tube worms, blind shrimp, and hyperthermophilic (high temperature-loving) bacteria thrive. (For details, see SF#60 or p. 238 in Science Frontiers, the book) The first anomaly is the strength of the glow itself. It is not all thermal radiation emitted by the 350 C water spewing forth from the vents; in fact, it is 19 times more intense than expected from theory. Something else is contributing energy, but no one knows what it is so far. The unexpected intensity of the vent glows also asks some provocative questions of the biologists: Is the glow strong enough to sup port photosynthesis? Quite likely, seems to be the answer. Are life forms in the vicinity of the vents employing photosynthesis? We don't know yet, but some bacteria do photosynthesize. Might not life and perhaps photo synthesis, too, have originated at the vents rather than on the planet's surface? This is an attractive possi bility, because very early in the earth's history the surface was con tinually blasted by meteorites, comets, etc. -- a very inhospitable place. The above questions are so fascinating that we might easily neglect another vent anomaly; one involving those blind shrimp. Like ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 24 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf108/sf108p07.htm
... Brecher and W.G . Haag have contended in earlier papers that two of the existing four avenues were solstice markers. R.D . Purrington, in the first of a pair of papers in American Antiquity, maintains that the Poverty Point ridges have been so badly eroded over the last 3,000 years that sight lines cannot be determined with any accuracy. In fact, the precise center of the octagonal figure is a matter of judgment. Purrington's reconstruction of sight lines along the avenues, using his assumed center, does not support the idea that the avenues were solstice markers. Brecher and Haag responded in the second paper that their viewing center is 100 meters from Purrington's . With this change. they claim good fits for two of the avenues as solstice markers. One of the two remaining avenues turn out to mark the setting of Canopus, the second brighest star in the sky. Even the unassigned last avenue has astronomical significance; it marks the setting of Gamma Draconis, a second-magnitude star, which the ancients employed as a nocturnal hour hand as it swung around the pole star. (Purrington, Robert D.; "Supposed Solar Alignments at Poverty Point," American Antiquity, 48:157, 1983. Brecher, Kenneth, and Haag, William G.; "Astronomical Alignments at Poverty Point," American Antiquity, 48:161, 1983.) Comment. It seems that just a difference of 100 meters in the viewing center makes the difference between a people who merely liked to build huge geometrically shaped ridges (Purrington' ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 24 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf027/sf027p02.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 27: May-Jun 1983 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Hushing Up The Guadeloupe Skeleton Just offshore of Guadeloupe, in the West Indies, lies a kilometer-long formation of extremely hard limestone dated as Miocene, or about 25 million years old. Nothing surprising so far! However, history records that in the late 1700s many human skeletons -- all indistinguishable from modern humans -- were excavated from this limestone. One of the quarried specimens, ensconced in a 2-ton slab, was shipped to the British Museum. It arrived in 1812 and was placed on public display. With the ascendance of Darwinism, the fossil skeleton was quietly spirited away to the basement. The discovery of these human remains has been well-documented in the scientific literature. Here is another pertinent geological fact: the limestone formation in question is situated 2-3 meters below a 1-million-year-old coral reef. If the limestone is truly 25 million years old, the human evolutionary timetable is grossly in error. Even if this is not the case, and the bones are merely 1 million years old or so, as required by the coral reef; then, fully modern humans lived in the New World long before the Bering Land Bridge went into service. The only way a serious geological or archeological anomaly can be avoided is to predicate that the limestone formation was really laid down in the last 10,000-20,000 years -- something like that doesn't ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 24 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf027/sf027p09.htm
... Mar-Apr 1986 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Squirrels As Measures Of Geological Time Over a century ago, when the truth of biological evolution via natural selection was hotly debated, the proponents of Darwinism were delighted when the geologists presented them with almost endless periods of time in which evolution could progress in small steps from species to species. Now, in a strange turn-about, a creationist writer is using evolutionary theory to infer a very short history for the formation where geologists want a good deal of time. We quote from the conclusion of J.R . Meyer: "If any group of animals were ever going to undergo significant degrees of evolution from parent stock and obtain resultant speciation, surely the Kaibab squirrel would be one of the more likely candidates. Supposedly isolated from their neighbors for hundreds of thousands of generations over a period of at least several million years, and significantly violating virtually every restriction of the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium for the non-evolving population, these organisms, even by creationist standards, should have undergone significant and detectable changes. In reality all they show are moderate changes, primarily in two coat color characteristics for part of their population. To make things even worse, this species is known to have a highly variable coat-color polymorphism throughout its range. Thus, even the differences displayed appear to be easily accounted for by several mutations and a slight change in gene frequency for one or two loci, all occurring in a limited period of time. "If an organism such as ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 24 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf044/sf044p10.htm
... of the light source. So far, everything seems relatively nonanomalous. But when quantities are calculated, though, jaws begin to drop. The sizes of the spots imply that the average meteor involved weighs 10 kilograms, mostly ice and far larger than has been thought. In fact, they may be characterized as small icy comets; that is, compositionally like the dirty snowballs that comets are now thought to be, but much, much smaller. The implication is that from 1,000 to 10,000 times more material is being added to the earth's atmosphere than previously believed -- most of it being water. (Weisburd, S.; "Atmospheric Footprints of Icy Meteors," Science News, 128:391, 1985.) Comment. From this launchpad, one's thoughts can really take off. How much water can this bombardment of icy meteors add to the earth, Mars, and other solar system bodies? In the item under GEOLOGY about the Greenland ice cores, it was indicated that the extraterrestrial dust influx during the Ice Ages might have been as high as 3 x 107 tons per year. If 10,000 times this amount of water is added to the atmosphere from icy meteors, we are approaching 1012 tons of extraterrestrial water per year -- far from an inconsiderable amount. The effects on the earth's climate could be large. If even greater fluxes of icy meteors were intercepted in the past, one might account for "pluvial episodes" on the planets. And further, comets now seem to transport "primordial ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 24 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf044/sf044p13.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 9: Winter 1979 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Purple Blobs In Texas In early September 1979, the Associated Press carried a story about three purple blobs found in a yard in Frisco, Texas. One blob evaporated away, while the remaining two were preserved for analysis by NASA. The blobs were warm when found and had appeared during the height of a meteor shower. At first, NASA scientists did not rule out the possibility that the jelly-like goo might be extraterrestrial, but an AP dispatch the next day (not as widely printed) inferred that the blobs were merely industrial waste! (Anonymous; "NASA Scientists to Prob Mystery of 2 Purple Blobs Found in Texas," Baltimore Sun, September 8, 1979.) Comment. The blobs closely resemble gelatinous meteors or pwdre ser reported rarely down the centuries. One instance of pwdre ser was reported in 1978 from England in the Journal of Meteorology, U.K ., and there are doubtless more that are swept under the rug. We may be sure that NASA will have nothing further to do with something as outrageous as pwdre ser. Many pwdre ser observations are cataloged at GWF7 in Tornados, Dark Days, Anomalous Precipitation. This volume is described here . From Science Frontiers #9 , Winter 1979 . 1979-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 24 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf009/sf009p12.htm
... have some adaptive value in the evolution of birds, because sparrows have also inherited the trait. E.C . Jaeger recounted this anecdote in a 1951 number of The Condor : "During my high school days at West Point, Nebraska, my father was a merchant occupying a building of two stories with a long pebble-covered, tarred roof sloping to the rear. Forming a short walkway behind the rear entrance were two sloping doors, which, when opened up, admitted entry to the basement stairway. Over a period of several days in mid-May of 1903, I noticed many small pebbles scattered about on these doors. I also heard from time to time the sound of small objects falling on the doors. Efforts to find the pebble-droppers were of no avail until one day when I happened to approach the rear of the building from the alley. My position some fifty feet from the building now permitted me to see several House Sparrows ( Passer domesticus ) bringing small stones to the edge of the roof and dropping them. As each pebble was dropped the bird involved turned its head to one side, apparently the better to listen to it and watch it as it struck the door. It may have been a sort of bird pastime; it certainly was an activity of no evident value." (Jaeger, Edmund; "Pebble-Dropping by House Sparrows," The Condor , 53:207, 1951.) From Science Frontiers #110, MAR-APR 1997 . 1997-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 24 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf110/sf110p08.htm
... 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 Problems At The Rim Of The Solar System Neptune is an undisciplined member of the solar system. No one has been able to predict its future course accurately. Already this maverick planet is drifting off the orbit predicted just 10 years ago using the best data and solar-system models. All of the outer planets, in fact, confound predictions to some degree. In addition, some long-period comets have anomalous orbits. Astronomers have been aware that something was wrong for decades and anticipated finding a trans-Neptunian planet large enough to perturb the outer solar system. The discovery of Pluto did not help matters; it is much too small. The most popular explanation of the orbital anomalies relies on a large, still-undetected planet, possibly 3-5 times the mass of the earth, swinging sround the sun at some 80-100 Astronomical Units. But many have searched and no one has found anything. Planet-X , as it is often called, is just another bit of "missing mass." Thomas C. Van Flandern and Robert Harrington propose that all the obvious orbital damage in the outer solar system is the result of a single encounter between Neptune and another body, call it Planet X if you wish, that was passing through the outer reaches of the solar system. (Frazier, Kendrick; "A Planet beyond Pluto," Mosaic, 12:27, September/October 1981. ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 24 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf019/sf019p04.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 62: Mar-Apr 1989 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects DANCING TO THE COMETS' TUNE "When planetary scientists examine one kind of meteorite rich in iron, the H-chondrites, they find that the meteorites' ages do not spread evenly through time. Instead, the ages seem to cluster at 7 and 30 million years." Astronomers have hitherto been content to attribute these clumped ages to collisions among the meteorites' parent bodies - the asteroids - which ply periodic orbits. However, S. Perlmutter and R.A . Muller, at Berkeley, point to the apparent 26- to 30-million-year periodicities of three terrestrial phenomena: Biological extinctions in the fossil record, Magnetic field reversals, and Terrestrial-crater ages. Could there be a connection between the clumped meteorite ages and these terrestrial phenomena? Perlmutter and Muller propose that all of these phenomena are the consequence of periodic storms of comets that invade the inner solar system from the direction of the Oort Cloud of comets that purportedly hovers at the fringe of the solar system. These comets not only devastate the earth but also collide with the asteroids, knocking off those bits and pieces we call meteorites. (Anonymous; "Do Meteorite Ages Tell of Comet Storms?" Astronomy, 17:12, January 1989.) Comment. Unanswered above is the question of why comet storms should be periodic. One hypothesis is that Nemesis, the so-called Death Star, a dark companion of our sun, lurks ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 24 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf062/sf062a05.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 23: Sep-Oct 1982 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Facing Up To The Gaps The textbooks and professors of biology and geology speak confidently of the fossil record. Darwin may have expressed concern about its incompleteness, but, especially in the context of the creation-evolution tempest, evolutionists seem to infer that a lot of missing links have been found. Some scientists, however, are facing up to the fact that many gaps in the fossil record still exist after a century of Darwinism. One has even dispaired that "the stratigraphic record, as a whole, is so incomplete that fossil patterns are meaningless artefacts of episodic sedimentation." D.E . Schindel, Curator of Invertebrate Fossils in the Peabody Museum, has scrutinized seven recent microstratigraphical studies, evaluating them for temporal scope, microstratigraphical acuity, and stratigraphical completeness. His first and most important conclusion is that a sort of Uncertainty Principle prevails such that "a study can provide fine sampling resolution, encompass long spans of geological time, or contain a complete record of the time span, but not all three." After further analysis he concludes with a warning that the fossil record is full of habitat shifts, local extinctions, and general lack of permanence in physical conditions. (Schindel, David E.; "The Gaps in the Fossil Record," Nature, 297:282, 1982.) Comment. This candor makes one wonder how much of our scientific philosophy should be based upon such a shaky foundation. From ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 24 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf023/sf023p08.htm
... comets and Saturn's rings are composed mostly of ice, there seems to be no shortage of ice in outer space. It is therefore strange that air-craft are routinely blamed for all falls. A Reuter's dispatch from Beijing has described a recent triplet of possible hydrometeors: "Chinese experts have recovered what they believe to be chunks of meteoric ice that fell to Earth in Zhejiang Province, Xinhua news agency said. Amateur geologist Zhong Gongpei was nearby March 23, when farmers saw three large chunks of ice crash with a whoosh into paddy fields at Yaodou village, Xinhua said late Saturday. .. .. . "' According to witnesses, it fell with a 'whoo-ing' sound, with a cloudy streak, then came crashing down into three fields about one kilometre apart," Xinhua said." "Zhong rushed to the scene, recovered two pieces and sent both to Purple Mountain [Observatory] on March 29 with the aid of a frozen-food company, which kept them from melting." "The largest chunk, now about the size of a fist, left a crater about one metre in diameter." .. .. . "' They are white, semi-transparent, with an irregular shape and what are apparently air bubbles on both the surface and inside the ice. Unlike manmade ice, the ice has air bubbles, is relatively light and doesn't have the layered structure of hailstones,' he said." (Anonymous; "Ice Meteorites Hit Rice Field," Toronto Sun, April 3 ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 24 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf102/sf102g15.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 84: Nov-Dec 1992 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Hunt For The Magnetoreceptor When magnetite particles were found in organisms from bacteria to bats, it was assumed that here was the long sought magnetoreceptor which animals used for magnetic navigation. But so far, biologists do not have the slightest notion how such magnetite particles can be turned into a "magnetic sense," which sends the brain information on the direction of the geomagnetic field or, perhaps, draws a magnetic map of sorts. A completely different sort of magnetreceptor is now under investigation, one that humans may also unknowingly possess. It utilizes special photoreceptors that employ an electron-spin resonance process which is modulated by the geomagnetic field. Some of our very sensitive magnetometers use similar phenomena. The biological version of such a receptor would be connected to the brain, as the eye is, and send signals as to the direction of the earth's magnetic field. Sounds interesting, but is there any basis for thinking such a sophisticated gadget could have evolved? It seems that some experiments with newts by J.B . Phillips and S.C . Borland support the idea. The newts were first trained to orient themselves in a certain direction with respect to the geomagnetic field. "When tested under one of four artificial field alignments (magnetic north at geographic north, east, south or west), the newts kept their training directions constant relative to the magnetic rather than the geographic system of reference, but they selected ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 24 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf084/sf084b99.htm
... 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 Magical Communication In The Subatomic World How do physically separated subatomic particles (and devices based on them) communicate with one another? Somehow one subatomic particle knows what a distant compatriot is doing and reacts accordingly. Physical experiments have confirmed this seemingly impossible situation. No fields, wires, or any other sort of communication line connects the two particles; yet they behave as though there were. Quantum mechanics has an explanation of sorts but it still leaves the situation with an aura of mystery. (Mermin, N.D .; "Bringing Home the Atomic World: Quantum Mysteries for Anybody," American Journal of Physics, 49:940, 1981.) Comment. This digest is greatly oversimplified, and readers are encouraged to read the whole article. It is an important type of physical experiment because some have suggested it may help explain ESP, assuming ESP exists. From Science Frontiers #19, JAN-FEB 1982 . 1982-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 24 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf019/sf019p13.htm
