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... hammerheads were not aggressive when so occupied and could be approached closely. They swam pointed in roughly the same direction, maintaining about the same spacing through the groups, which sometimes numbered 100 or more. They did not feed, mate, or do anything collectively; but once in a while an individual would suddenly engage briefly in acrobatic behavior -- one common type was dubbed the "shimmy dance." The researchers concluded that these shark groups had no obvious purpose and that, for reasons beyond the ken of man, this behavior somehow contributed to their evolutionary success. (Klimley, A. Peter; "Grouping Behavior in the Scalloped Hammerhead," Oceanus, 24:65, Winter 1981/1982.) Comment. The sharks might be much "farther along" without complex, time-wasting group behavior. What do sharks know about evolution anyway? From Science Frontiers #20, MAR-APR 1982 . 1982-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Cairns In The California Desert The anomaly here resides in the caliche (CaCO3 ) adhering to the bones and rock undersides in a California burial cairn. The caliche has been dated at more than 21,000 B.P . by radiocarbon methods and 19,000 B.P . by thorium methods -- ages much too large for conventional archeological histories of the Southwest. P.J . Wilke objects that only the age of the soil caliche has been measured and that the bones and their burial may be much younger. This cairn site, called the Yuha burial site, possesses no other datable characteristics. On the other hand, many other California burial cairns (the California desert is amply provided with them) have been dated only from 5,000 B.P . to historic times. In this context, Wilke maintains that it is easier to believe that the Yuha bones are merely 5,000 years old, and that the problem is actually in the dating. (Wilke, Philip J.; "Cairn Burials of the California Deserts," American Antiquity, 43:444, 1978.) Comment. Such reasoning is the typical reaction when data contradict prevailing hypotheses -- and sometimes it is correct. From Science Frontiers #7 , June 1979 . 1979-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Centered In Canada When scientists recently examined gravity anomaly data for North America, strange circular ripples appeared to surround a point near Hudson Bay. These ripples seem to have spread out like those from a pebble dropped into a pond, but here the ripples are actually ancient density variations in the earth's crust, now covered over by thick sediments. One hypothesis is that a 60-90 kilometer meteorite smashed into the earth some 4 billion years ago, wrinkling the young surface for several thousand kilometers in all directions around a colossal crater. Magma welling up in the crater solidified creating the nucleus of the North American continent. It is quite possible that the other continents began their existences in this way -- meteor impact. The gravity data that led to this hypothesis have been available for some time but apparently no one ever looked at them with continental patterns in mind. (Simon, C.; "Deep Crust Hints at Meteoric Impact," Science News, 121:69, 1982.) Comment 1: John Saul has discovered surface indications of immense ring structures in the American southwest. See ETC2 in our Catalog: Carolina Bays, Mima Mounds, which is described more fully here . Comment 2: If all our continents were initiated by meteor impacts, and if they were once clustered together in a supercontinent, as postulated by Continental Drift, then the incoming meteorites would have to have been focussed on a restricted portion of the earth's surface; that is, where the supercontinent was formed prior to continental drift. Several solar system bodies show just such preferential cratering ...
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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 African Fossil Sequences Support Punctuated Evolution East of Lake Turkana, in northern Kenya, the geologist finds exceptionally fine sequences of fossil molluscs in old lake deposits. Williamson has scrutinized the distribution of some 190 faunas with high stratigraphic resolution; that is, he believes he has been able to sketch for the first evolutionary events on a fine time scale. Williamson underlines three important observations: (1 ) Species seemed to arise suddenly, as predicted by the "punctuated evolution" model; (2 ) The formation of new species was accompanied by marked developmental instability in the transitional forms; and (3 ) All lineages were morphologically stable for long periods -- they did not change form! The biological implications of this important study are summarized in the preceding item. (Williamson, P.G .; "Palaeontological Documentation in Cenozoic Molluscs from Turkana Basin," Nature, 293:437, 1981.) Comment. Evolutionists have often bewailed the obvious lack of transitional forms (missing links) in the stratigraphic record. According to Williamson's results, transitional forms would be few in number and display considerable morphological instability. In essence, this means that missing links may not exist in a practical sense. If this is true, one wonders whether those famous evolutionary family trees in all the textbooks, such as that of the horse, are really misleading. From Science Frontiers #19, JAN-FEB 1982 . 1982-2000 ...
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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 Fatal flaw in pole-flipping theory V. Slabinski of the Communications Satellite Corporation claims that there are three separate errors in P. Warlow's theoretical analysis of terrestrial pole-flipping due to the gravitational torques created by a passing celestial body. With these errors corrected, the earth is 200 times less sensitive to pole-flipping. Slabinski does not believe that any known solar system object could turn the earth end-for-end if it passed by. This item proclaims that the discovery of Warlow's errors is a serious blow to Velikovskian catastrophism. (Anonymous; "Fatal Flaw in Pole-Flipping Theory," New Scientist, 92:433, 1981.) Comment. We shall now wait for a rebuttal by Warlow and/or the Velikovskians. The flipping torques depend, of course, upon the mass and distance of the perturbing body. Whatever the outcome, the reality of astronomical and terrestrial catastrophism depends upon terrestrial geology, the testimony of history and myth, and other sources. Update. Over a decade has passed and no rebuttal by Warlow has been seen. We must, therefore, consider his hypothesis highly questionable. From Science Frontiers #19, JAN-FEB 1982 . 1982-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 14: Winter 1981 Supplement Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Does the moon really faze people?Folklore strongly supports the power of the full moon to disturb people's minds, as underscored by the term "lunatic." The many scientific studies of this supposed lunar effect, however, have come to conflicting conclusions. Templer and Veleber have surveyed previous studies and believe that the discrepancies arise because of different methodologies. By combining new and older data and using a common approach, they confirm folklore by finding a disproportionate frequency of abnormal behavior occurring at the times of full moon, new moon, and the last half of the lunar phase. (Templer, Donald I., and Veleber, David M.; "The Moon and Madness: A Comprehensive Perspective," Journal of Clinical Psychology, 36:865, 1980.) Reference. The moon's putative effect on human behavior is discussed at BHB4 in our Catalog: Biological Anomalies: Humans I. For ordering information, visit: here . From Science Frontiers #14, Winter 1981 . 1981-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... 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.) Comment. It is rather ironical that the proposed encounter with an invading planet so closely parallels some long condemns scenarios of astronomical ...
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... which are fitted nicely by some organic materials, especially microbes. Hole and Wickramasinghe devote most of the present article to making a spectroscopic case for their theory, but near the end they shake the Temple of Science a bit: "Precious little in the way of biochemical evolution could have happened on the earth. It is easy to show that the two thousand or so enzymes that span the whole of life could not have evolved on the Earth. If one counts the number of trial assemblies of amino acids that are needed to give rise to the enzymes, the probability of their discovery by random shufflings turns out to be less than 1 in 1040000." They conclude that the genes that control the development of terrestrial life must have evolved on a cosmic scale, where there has been more time and much more room for shufflings. (Hoyle, Fred, and Wickramasinghe, Chandra; "Where Microbes Boldly Went," New Scientist, 91:412, 1981.) Comment. Could not the "new" bacteria that appeared in the Mt. St. Helens area, as described in LIFE'S ORIGIN WITHIN THE EARTH? , have drifted down through the atmosphere into the lakes and ponds -- a sort of modern, ever-continuing panspermia? It is interesting to note here that even Hoyle, who has espoused the Steady State theory of the cosmos, seems to require the creation of life followed by evolution. This need for an origin of life is a human philosophical weakness. In principle, matter and life, too, could have always existed. From ...
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... 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 ...
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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 A Funny Thing Happened Along The Mean Free Path A little anomaly may go a long way. Accelerator experiments at Berkeley have again focussed attention on those few fragments from nuclear reactions that have unexpectedly short trajectories. About 6% of these fragments travel only about one tenth as far as prevailing physical laws say they should. These anomalously short mean free paths are not new, having first cropped up in 1954, but they have gone unexplained for 26 years. Current speculation is that the anomalous fragments somehow change their identities, making them more susceptible to collision (i .e ., their collision cross sections spontaneously increase by ten times). But no known transformations of matter can do this! Consequently, we are left with the possiblity that some entirely new form of matter exists. (Robinson, Arthur L.; "A Nuclear Puzzle Emerges at Berkeley," Science, 210:174, 1980.) Comment. Just a few weeks ago, some nuclear physicists were saying that the advent of quark theory explained everything in their field. From Science Frontiers #13, Winter 1981 . 1981-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Anomalous Sounds From An Australian Fireball On April 7, 1978, a very large fireball passed through the atmosphere above the east coast of New South Wales. Seen by hundreds, it generated many high quality reports. Fifteen of the written reports mentioned anomalous sounds -- hisses, hums, swishes, and crackling sounds heard simultaneously with the visual sighting. Such sounds are anomalous because the meteor is tens of kilometers high and real sound would take a minute or more to reach the ground. (The sound from a detonating meteor is often heard several minutes later.) Keay is convinced of the reality of the anomalous sounds and suggests that the highly turbulent plasma in the meteor wake generates powerful electromagnetic radiation at audio frequencies. This intense radio energy reaches the earth at the same time the visible light does. It may be converted into sound as it interacts with the surface and the observer. (Keay, Colin S.L .; "The 1978 New South Wales Fireball," Nature, 285:464, 1980.) Reference. Sounds from high-altitude meteors (" electrophonic" sounds) are covered in GSH2 in our Catalog: Earthquakes, Tides, Anomalous Sounds. Information on this book is posted here . From Science Frontiers #12, Fall 1980 . 1980-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 12: Fall 1980 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Static on the hare-lynx cycle signal Almost all ecology textbooks present the 10-11 year hare-lynx cycle as a classic case of prey-predator oscillations. The major data source for such population studies is the record of pelt sales rather than actual field observations. Looking beyond such superficial information, researchers have discovered that the quantity of pelts offered for sale by the Indians depends upon the amount of time they can divert to hunting pelts. This, in turn, is affected by the abundance of food animals, such as moose and hares. It is food first and pelts second. Furthermore, when the plants consumed by hares are overbrowsed during periods of dense hare population, they defend themselves by generating resins and other compounds toxic or repellent to hares. Thus, the hare abundance cycle is affected by: (1 ) Plant defenses; (2 ) Indian hunting strategies; and (3 ) The lynx. (May, Robert M.; "Cree-Ojibwa Hunting and the Hare-Lynx Cycle,: Nature, 286: 108, 1980.) Comment. Here is another case where the attractiveness of a theoretical model has dampened further inquiry. From Science Frontiers #12, Fall 1980 . 1980-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The nuclear threat: bad dates Woodmorappe has assembled an impressive and disconcerting collection of anomalous radiometric dates. Over 300 serious discrepancies are tabulated and backed by some 445 references from the scientific literature. To remove triviali-ties, only dates that were "wrong" by 20% or more were included. This criterion insured that the anomalous dates were off by one or more geological periods. To enhance his case, Woodmorappe excluded data for such troublesome minerals as K-feldspar, which have unreliable records. The surviving discordances will certainly disturb anyone who has long accepted radioactive dating as the near-final word in geochronology. The lengthy text accompanying the table delves into the geological problems posed by the tabulated anomalies, primarily the severe distortions implied in the supposedly well-established geological time scale. Many attempts have been made to explain away these discrepancies, usually by asserting that the system must have been "open"; that is, contamination and/or removal of materials occurred. But a far more serious situation exists: the reluctance of researchers to publish radiometric dates that fly in the face of expectations. Data selection and rejection are epidemic. Some authors admit tossing out wild points; others say nothing. (Woodmorappe, John; "Radiometric Geochronology Reappraised," Creation Research Society Quarterly, 16:102, 1979.) From Science Frontiers #10, Spring 1980 . 1980-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... rings of various radii seen in mica and other minerals. There is general agreement that alpha particles emitted by radioactive isotopes create the halos. The radii of the rings are proportional to the alpha particle energy, and can thus identify the isotopes in the mineral. Some halos, however, are apparently formed by very short-lived polonium isotopes without any trace of parent uranium isotopes. How can polonium isotopes with half-lives only seconds long get into geologically old mica sans parents? York argues the case for selective local chemical concentration of polonium from fluids in the surrounding rocks. The captured polonium atoms decay almost immediately while the fluid containing the parent atoms passes on. R.V . Gentry objects that mica is almost im permeable and that we must consider the possibility that our concepts of geological time are grotesquely wrong. York energetically defends established Geology using radioactive dating and paleontological arguments. His contempt of Gentry's position is scarcely veiled. This paper is an excellent review of the piechroic halo problem as well as a classic defense of the scientific status quo. (York, Derek; "Polonium Halos and Geochronology," EOS, 60:617, 1979.) Comment. York does not mention Gentry's years of careful work that led him to his heresy, nor are the many objections to radioactive dating discussed. It reminds one of the confident assertions of the permanency of the ocean basins made only a few years ago. York might be correct, but the "we now know that" approach is disturbing. From Science Frontiers #9 , Winter 1979 . 1979 ...
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... Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Deathbed Experiences Laid To Rest Over the years, doctors and psychiatrists have accumulated a large lode of deathbed or near-death experiences. Typically, one about to pass through the veil feels exhaltation, meets long-dead relatives, reviews his past life, encounters luminous beings, departs his body to view friends clustering around, and so on. What to make of it all? Is heaven or some sort of after life just beyond death's door? Alcock's analysis is very revealing. He first describes several well-known psychological states: out-of-the-body experiences, hypnogogic sleep, hallucinations, and the so-called mystical experience. He concludes that the full spectrum of deathbed experiences can occur any time, not merely during the final moments of life. Nothing unique happens at death's door, merely the altered states of consciousness expected at such a crucial moment. Thus, death-bed experiences reveal nothing of the territory beyond the grave. Alcock does maintain, however, that these various altered states of consciousness are very curious and well worth further study. (Alcock, James E.; "Psychology and Near-Death Experiences," The Skeptical Inquirer, 3:25, Spring 1979.) From Science Frontiers #8 , Fall 1979 . 1979-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 2: January 1978 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Blind Man Runs On Lunar Time A psychologically normal blind man, living and working in normal society, was found to have circadian rhythms of body temperature, alertness, cortisol excretion, etc., that were out-of-step with society's normal 24-hour schedule. The periods of these biological cycles were about 24.84 hours and indistinguishable from the lunar day. (Miles, L.E .M ., et al; "Blind Man Living in Normal Society Has Circadian Rhythms of 24.9 Hours," Science, 198:42l, 1977.) Comment. How are these lunar influences communicated, or are they innate? From Science Frontiers #2 , January 1978 . 1978-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 1: September 1977 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Four Extragalactic Sources Expand Faster Than Light Three quasars and one galaxy possess structures that apparently expand faster than light. The sizes of the three qua sars were measured over periods of time by Very Long Baseline Interferometers (VLBIs). In the case of quasar 3C279, the apparent velocity of expansion was ten times that of light. The quasars all have rather large redshifts, indicating great distances from earth, but the lone galaxy displaying "superluminal" expansion has a redshift of only 0.032. This fact suggests that superluminal velocities cannot be employed as arguments against redshifts being cosmological; that is, measures of distances from earth. Therefore, if the redshift is truly a measure of distance (as it seems to be), some astronomical structures (perhaps not matter itself) seem to grow faster than the velocity of light. (Cohen, M.H ., et al; "Radio Sources with Superluminal Velocities," Nature, 268:405, 1977.) From Science Frontiers #1 , September 1977 . 1977-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 4: July 1978 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The four-eyed fish sees all Anableps, the four-eyed fish, frequents the rivers and estuaries from southern Mexico to northern South America. Ac-tually, this curious fish has only two eyes, but each is divided in half horizontally; that is, each eye had two separate optical systems, each with its own focal length. The top half is for seeing in the air; the bottom half is for underwater. Thus equipped, Anableps can see prey and predators above and below the surface at the same time and increase its opportunities to get meals as well as escape from its enemies. (Zahl, Paul A.; National Geographic Magazine, 153:390, 1978.) Comment. Nature is full of such "marvelous" adaptations, but it is hard to see how fish bifocals could develop gradually, given the intolerance of optical systems to minute changes in dimensions, position, and refractive index. From Science Frontiers #4 , July 1978 . 1978-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 3: April 1978 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Marsh gas or the planet venus?October 16, 1976. Aboard the m.t . Farnelia, Barents Sea fishing grounds. Observers, Skipper H. Powdrell and Mr. G. Christmas, Radio Officer. "At 2307 GMT while I was visiting the wheelhouse, the Skipper pointed out to me an object flying across the sky. It had already been in view for some five minutes or more and was first observed on a bearing of 140 T heading due North. I first sighted it on a bearing of 050 T. "Observation was constantly kept by myself and the Skipper with the aid of binoculars from the time I first sighted the object. It could be described as being a brilliant light travelling at a very high altitude, leaving a bright Vshaped trail of rays which could be likened to the sun's rays as they would appear from behind a cloud. However, they were very much smaller due to the height and were also horizontal. The object followed a course from south to north to be astern of us at 2308. It then commenced to come back along its course while losing altitude. I would point out here that there was no visual evidence of the object actually turning back but rather as though it had been put into reverse. "The appearance and shape of the object was now changed, becoming totally circular in shape, still losing height and coming closer. The outer edge of the circle ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 4: July 1978 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Bioluminescence And Spurious Radar Echoes March 18, 1977. North Atlantic. Throughout the day, spurious echoes had been appearing on the radar screen aboard the m.v . Ebani. Resembling the echoes from small clusters of fishing boats, they would close to within 5 nautical miles and then disappear. At 2200, echoes appeared, closed to within 5.5 nautical miles, and then spread out around the ship in a circle, all the while maintaining a 5-mile range. At this time, the entire sea took on a milky appearance and a fishy smell was dected. The beam from an Aldis lamp revealed luminescent organisms in the sea. After 45 minutes, both milky sea and spurious radar echoes disappeared together. (Richards, A.W .; "Radar Echoes and Bioluminescence," Marine Observer, 48: 20, 1978.) Comment. Why should radar echoes and bioluminescence be connected? Does the "fishy smell" imply that the milky sea released something into the atmosphere that created a radar target? Other bioluminescent phenomena, including the famous "light wheels" are catalogued in Section GLW in Lightning, Auroras, Nocturnal Lights. For more information on this book, visit: here . From Science Frontiers #4 , July 1978 . 1978-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Project Sourcebook Subjects New England Seamounts Once Near Surface Exploration of the New England Seamount chain by the research submarine Alvin confirmed that some of these peaks, now all a kilometer or more below the surface, were once at or above the surface of the ocean. This undersea mountain chain contains more than 30 major peaks and stretches 1,600 miles southeast from the New England coast. Deep-sea dredging has previously brought up Eocene limestone of shallow-water origin from the submerged mountain tops, but the Alvin explorations resulted in the first eye-witness accounts of dead coral (which grows only near the surface) and rock samples containing strands of dead algae that grows only within 100 meters of the surface. The New England Seamounts have therefore either subsided on the order of a kilometer since Eocene times or sealevel has altered drastically. The Alvin dives also discovered a series of very striking and perplexing buttes obviously the results of erosion (see drawing on cover). The buttes are apparently composed of volcanic rock and are only a few meters high. Some unexplained, extremely vesicular (holefilled) rocks seen on the sea floor during the dives seem to be identical to samples occasionally dredged up and formerly classified as cinders jettisoned from old steamships. The underwater surveys suggested that these "cinders" have a natural (still mysterious) origin. (Heirtzler, J.R ., et al; "A Visit to the New England Seamounts," American Scientist, 65:466, 1977.) Reference. Guyots pose several enigmas, see ETH1 in our Catalog: Carolina Bays, Mima ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 2: January 1978 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Does man survive death?In this remarkable paper, published in one of the most important medical/psychological journals, the author surveys the history of research into the survival of bodily death. He identifies three historical periods that mirror the scientific thinking of their times. At one point, research waned as many investigators believed that living individuals with paranormal powers were responsible for all the evidence. Now, however, research again proceeds on a broad front; even though hampered by most scientists' outspoken disbelief in the whole business. The important types of evidence reviewed include the speaking of languages not normally learned, out-of-the-body experiences, and reincarnation memories. [Subjects that 99% of the scientific community would dismiss without examination. Ed.] The author, a professor of psychiatry, feels that this contempt is unwarranted and that most scientists are simply not aware of the vast amount of high quality data available. The long, well-documented paper concludes with the assertion that the data acquired so far do not actually compel the conclusion that life exists after death but that it certainly infers it strongly. (Stevenson, Ian; "Research into the Evidence of Man's Survival after Death," Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 185:152, 1977.) From Science Frontiers #2 , January 1978 . 1978-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 1: September 1977 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Lightning Superbolts Detected By Satellites The Vela satellites carry optical sensors for the detection of terrestrial nuclear explosions. Four Vela satellites keep the entire earth under constant surveillance. In addition to nuclear explosions, these satellites register many intense lightning flashes. Some of the flashes are over 100 times more brilliant than average. Only about five of these "superbolts" occur for every 10 million flashes registered. Superbolt flashes have relatively long durations (about one thousandth of a second) and do not appear to be confined to the upper levels of the clouds. A large fraction of the superbolts are recorded over Japan and the northeast Pacific during intense winter storms. Ground observations during these storms reveal occasional very powerful discharges of long duration from positively charged regions near the cloud tops to the ground. In contrast, typical lightning arises from negatively charged regions of clouds. (Turman, B.N .; "Detection of Lightning Superbolts," Journal of Geophysical Research, 82:2566, 1977.) Reference. Many of lightning's anomalies are described in Chapter GLL in our Catalog: Lightning, Auroras. For ordering information, visit: here . From Science Frontiers #1 , September 1977 . 1977-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... 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 universities, think-tanks, and intelligence agencies. There may be more to this than meets the ear. For more information, see Walter Sullivan's articles in the new York Times of January 13 and 19, 1978. The Strange Phenomena sourcebooks are superceded by a series of four geophysics Catalogs. One of these, Earthquakes, Tides, Unidentified Sounds, describes many other mysterious "booms." More information here . From Science Frontiers #3 , April 1978 . 1978-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 4: July 1978 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Is the earth a giant methane reservoir?T. Gold, of Cornell, theorizes that a vast reservoir of methane resides in the earth's crust -- a left-over from the formation of the earth. This accumulation of methane, he suggests, has been the major source of carbon at the surface throughout geological time. The existence of subterranean methane is manifested when flames shoot up during earthquakes. Tsunamis or tidal waves are probably caused by the release of immense bubbles of methane during quakes rather than by actual motion of the sea floor. (Lewis, Richard S.; "Is the Earth a Giant Methane Store?" New Scientist, 78:277, 1978.) Comment. Gold has also correlated offshore booms with sea-floor methane releases. More of his heretical thoughts on these matters are to be found in Section ESC in our Catalog: Anomalies in Geology. This volume is described here . From Science Frontiers #4 , July 1978 . 1978-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 3: April 1978 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Scientifically Acceptable Fossil Footprints Mary Leakey has announced the discovery of fossil footprints made by prehuman ancestors more than 3.5 million years ago at Laetolil, 25 miles southwest of Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania. The hominoid had apparently walked across slightly moist sand, and the prints were soon filled with volcanic ash. The prints were made by feet shorter and wider than those of modern humans; but the big toe definitely points forward and is not splayed as in apes. (Anonymous; "Footprints in the Sands of Time," New Scientist, 77:483, 1978.) From Science Frontiers #3 , April 1978 . 1978-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 82: Jul-Aug 1992 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects CROP CIRCLE FOUND INSIDE A FENCED COMPOUND IN JAPAN Y-H . Ohtsuki, a physicist at the Waseda University, Tokyo, reports (in pretty good English): "A large circle appeared in the doublyfenced compound of a Radio Nippon transmitting station near Tokyo. At the same time the survey protection equipment of the transmitting system worked abnormally. This shows that the circles effect is not simply a matter of hoaxing. It was the night of 31 August 1991 when the survey protection equipment (electromagnetic-noise warning detector) of the transmitting system of the Radio Nippon station in Kisarazu, Chiba prefecture, worked seventeen times during 40 minutes from 2.00 a.m . (that is, on 1 September). This is a wholly abnormal occurrence because the survey protection goes off only once a week on average. Next morning one of the staff discovered a 10-metre circle in the doubly-fenced ground of the Radio Nippon station. The grass in the ground was pushed down, but without leaving a clear spiral mark. The ground area is approximately 20,000 m2 , and three antenna towers are located in the ground. The fences are formed by 2.5 -m -high wire netting and the station was watching for 24 hours. There were only two men in the station, and they were in a watching room for eight hours from 10.00 p.m . to 6.00 ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 84: Nov-Dec 1992 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects THE "AMERICA BEFORE COLUMBUS" CONFERENCE Tennessee Bat Creek stone with supposed Hebrew characters Last summer, the New England Antiquities Research Association (NEARA) organized a meeting of off-mainstream archeologists at Brown University. As readers of Science Frontiers have long been aware, the New World was not new to many ancient voyagers. A review of the Conference in the New York Times gave wide exposure to some of these controverted pre-Columbian contacts: 5000-year-old pottery found in coastal Peru bears an uncanny resemblance to pottery made in Japan during the same period. How could the Japanese have reached Peru circa 3000 BC? Easy! Storms could have blown fishermen into the trans-Pacific current. (See "Current Treads" item under GEOPHYSICS.) The Zuni Indians of New Mexico may have been influenced by Japanese voyagers in the Thirteenth Century, as suggested by their distinctive blood chemistry, language, and culture. 700-year-old temple art from India reveals detailed depictions of ears of corn, which was supposedly unknown outside the Americas until after Columbus. Jewish refugees from the Roman Empire may have somehow reached eastern Tennessee, if the famous Bat Creek Stone really bears an ancient Hebrew inscription. The grave in which the stone was found has been carbon-dated between 32 and 769 AD. (Wilford, John Noble; "Case for Other Pre-Columbian Voyagers," New York Times , July 7, 1992 ...
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... surface of the water. The whole ship was surrounded by a mass of blue and white light forming complex patterns that were visible in all directions as far as the eye could see. Looking almost like an 'electric mist', it moved with such speed and ease, as if it were alive. "At the peak of the activity, there appeared to be two central points of spiralling, each about 150 m off either side of the ship about midships. From these points there seemed to be emerging highly confused patterns of spiralling spokes moving in an anticlockwise direction on the port side and clockwise on the starboard side of the ship. It was difficult to estimate accurately how many spokes were present in each circle, but it was thought that there were three or four at any one time, moving very fast and curving to produce what could only be described as a 'whirlpool' effect. "At the same time, there were pulsating rings expanding from the centres at intervals of about threequarters of a second. They moved extremely fast, each circle taking about one second to reach a diameter of about 200 m before being lost in the mass of flashing blue and white lights. The thickness of each ring remained constant at about 2 m as the diameter of the circle increased; the formation was always a perfect circle. "About 300 m off the ship's side, large irregular shapes were observed, They were all about 3-m in diameter and changed both size and shape while flashing intensely. By 1817 the effect had completely stopped on the starboard side ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 84: Nov-Dec 1992 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects ROCKET LIGHTNING PHOTOGRAPHED FROM SPACE SHUTTLE Rocket lightning observed over the South Atlantic in 1964 Scientific disbelief in this phenomenon recedes as observations accumulate. We present below a few short excerpts from a scientific report: "Video images from space showing a single upward luminous discharge into the clear night air above a thunderstorm were recorded for the first time during the space shuttle STS-32 mission, and later during the STS-31 mission and other missions using the shuttle's payload-bay TV cameras. .. .. . "Figure 1 [impossible to reproduce] shows the upward luminous discharge that was seen to move out of the top of a single thunderstorm during the flight of STS-31. This video image was taken at 0335:59 UTC 28 April 1990 while the shuttle was on its 55th orbit and passing over Mauritania, northwest Africa. .. .. . "The storm that had the luminous discharge was located at approximately 7.5 N, 4.0 E, and was about 2000 km from the shuttle's position. The lightning discharge was determined to be at least 31 km long. .. .. . "We are now trying to understand the significance in relationship to the earth's atmosphere and the global electric circuit." (Vaughan, Otha H., Jr., et al; "A Cloud-to-Space Lightning as Recorded by the Space Shuttle Payload- ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 82: Jul-Aug 1992 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects DID THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS SAIL UP THE MISSISSIPPI?No one has found chariot wheels or pyramids attributable to the ancient Egyptians in the Lower Mississippi Valley, nor are their hieroglyphics carved on the rocks in that area. However, there are striking correspondences between the languages of ancient Egypt and those of the Indians that inhabited the areas around Louisiana about the time of Christ! B. Fell, the main pillar of the Epigraphic Society, has stated that the language of the Atakapas, and to a lesser extent those of the Tunica and Chitimacha tribes, are unique in the sense that they seem to be related to no known languages. But there are affinities with Nile Valley languages. In fact, the similarities involve just those words one would associate with Egyptian trading communities of 2,000 years ago. As would be expected, most archeologists will have none of this. "Where are the coins, the buildings, the piers?" they ask. Countering such criticism, W. Rudersdorf notes that no artifacts have ever been found from Coronado's expedition, only 450 years ago, when thousands of Spanish soldiers marched across the South. (Anonymous; "Professor Believes Egyptians Sailed Mississippi, Left Culture," Northwest Florida Daily News, December 27, 1991. Cr. R. Reid via L. Farish. Also see: Fell, Barry; Epigraphic Society Occasional Papers , 19:35, 1990.) From Science ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 61: Jan-Feb 1989 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects ARE YOU SATURATED WITH DISCUSSIONS ABOUT THE "INFINITE DILUTION" CAPER?Another pile of references has accumulated concerning J. Benveniste's experiments with (almost) infinitely diluted solutions. This time we shall be brief. After all, the journal Nature has now cut off debate on the subject; shouldn't everyone else? The Book of Science is closed on this one. Despite replications of Benveniste's experimental results at other laboratories and the existence of similar results from several meticulously conducted experiments over the past few decades, Nature's official investigative team (formerly called the "hit team" in these pages) has labelled Benveniste's results a "delusion." Now begins the dirty work of completely destroying the reputation of Benveniste and the believability of any work done in this field. First, in the New York Times, J. Maddox, editor of Nature, stated that Benveniste's positive results were "nonexistent." Then J. Randi, the magician member of the investigative team, called the positive results "fraudulent" in the Lisbon Expressor . This means that five independent laboratories all produced fraudulent results! (Benveniste, Jacques; "Benveniste on the Benveniste Affair," Nature, 335: 759, 1988. Also: Maddox, John; "Waves Caused by Extreme Dilution," Nature, 335:760, 1988.) Comment. Regardless of the merits of the scientific work done ...
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... 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 OBSERVATIONS OF LUMINOUS PHENOMENA AROUND THE HUMAN BODY In front of us is a 13-page paper dealing at length with phenomena normally considered impossible. The paper's abstract is not as informative as the introductory paragraph, which we now quote: "Mysterious and unexplained luminous phenomena have fascinated humankind since ancient times. The psychical research literature offers a variety of unexplained luminous phenomena such as reports of glows seen around mag-nets, crystals and minerals, lights reportedly seen with mediums, and luminous apparitions, among others." The paper then goes directly into a review of specific observations. We shall have to be satisfied here with just one of the many examples: "D .D . Home was reported to produce many striking luminous phenomena. In one seance Dunraven observed that one of Home's hands 'became quite luminous,' and that two persons 'saw tongues or jets of flame proceeding from Home's head.' On another occasion: 'He was elongated slightly.. and raised in the air, his head became quite luminous at the top, giving the appearance of having a halo round it. When he was raised in the air, he waved his arms about, and in each hand there came a little globe of fire (to my eyes blue)...' (Alvarado, Carlos S.; "Observations of Luminous Phenomena around the Human Body: A Review," Society ...
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... healthy person can cure a sick person displaying these symptoms, providing the dose administered is vanishingly small. Science strongly and passionately debunks homeopathic medicine. The Editor of Nature thinks that there must be a systematic error somewhere. Other scientists suggest that, perhaps, somehow, the antibodies left an "imprint" on the diluting water molecules. So far, we have not read that Sheldrake's "morphic resonance" theory has been invoked. The first phase of this controversy is about complete, and we now list the references we have used so far. (Davenas, E.; "Human Basophil Degranulation Triggered by Very Dilute Antiserum against IgE," Nature, 333:816, 1988. Also: Browne, Malcolm W.; "Impossible Idea Published on Purpose," New York Times, June 30, 1988. Cr. D. Stacy, M Truzzi. Also: Nau, Jean-Yves, and Nouchi, Franck; "La Memoire de la Matiere," Le Monde, p. 1, June 30, 1988. Cr. C. Mauge. Also: Beil, L.; "Dilutions of Delusions," Science News, 134:6 , 1988. Also: Vines, Gail; "Ghostly Antibodies Baffle Scientists," New Scientist, p. 39, July 14, 1988. Also: Pool, Robert; "Unbelievable Results Spark a Controversy," Science, 241: 407, 1988. As a matter of fact, the second phase of the controversy has already begun. The July 28 issue of Nature reports that seven repetitions ...
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... are supposed to be detrital accumulations of quartz grains derived from pre-existing formations. The source rocks may have either been igneous or sedimentary, but ultimately most quartz grains in sediments must have an igneous parent rock, probably granite, since this is the most abundant igneous rock on the continents. The quartz derived from granite is characterized by the presence of tiny mineral inclusions. Crystals of mica, rutile and tournaline are common. In sandstones formed from granite-derived quartz grains, mineral inclusions should be evident, but they are rarely present in sand-stones." The accepted explanation of this apparent anomaly is that the inclusions in fresh, granite-derived quartz grains so weakened the grain structure that the flawed grains are quickly broken up during weathering, transportation, and deposition. By the time any sandstone is formed, only flawless bits of sand remain. Case closed. No anomalist worth a grain of salt would let this delightful phenomenon escape without a bit more study. Do young sandstones with identifiable granitic sources show more inclusions than older sandstones? Do desert sands, beach sands, and other unconsolidated quartz grains show any flaws? Has anyone really examined fresh quartz grains weathered from granite to determine how the number of flaws in a grain varies with the grain size? (Cox, Douglas E.; "Missing Mineral Inclusions in Quartz Sand Grains," Creationist Research Society Quarterly, 25:54, 1988.) Comment. Most geologists will complain that we are going out of our way to make trouble. But consider the possibility that some unflawed quartz grains in sandstones may ...
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... the mainstream position that Archaeopteryx really did have feathers and was a link between reptiles and birds. Evolutionists will rest easier now. Two bothersome observations intrude, however. First, although the report on the new specimen states that the question of forgery does not arise here, even though the specimen's tail has been restored to the length deemed by the owner. In addition, the new Archaeopteryx is 10% larger than the London specimen, 30% larger than the Berlin specimen, and fully twice the size of the Eichstatt specimen. Is there more than one Archaeopteryx species? (Wellnhofer, Peter; "A New Specimen of Archaeopteryx," Science, 240:1790, 1988. Also: Wilford, John Noble; "Fossil May Help Tie Reptiles to Birds," New York Times, June 24, 1988. Cr. J. Covey) Comment. We wonder if Hoyle and Wickramasinghe will be allowed to examine the new specimen. Of course, this new discovery does not disprove the forgery claim for the two specimens studied by Hoyle and Wickramasinghe; it merely weakens their case. From Science Frontiers #59, SEP-OCT 1988 . 1988-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 35: Sep-Oct 1984 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects ARE BLUEBLOODS MORE OFTEN TYPE A? In the 1983 issue of Nature (303:522), J.A . Beardmore and F. Karimi-Booshehri reported that, based on a study of a specific British population, A-blood groups are significantly more common among the higher socio-economic groups. As one might predict whenever someone asserts that human success is genetically determined, an avalanche of mail descended on the Nature office. Two other studies that did not show the blueblood effect were offered, although somewhat different populations were involved. Many letters tried to find an explanation for this anomaly in the constitution of the sample. By the time one got to the response by the authors, the whole issue was clouded. (Mascle-Taylor, C.G . N., et al; "Blood Group and Socio-Economic Class," Nature, 309:395, 1984.) From Science Frontiers #35, SEP-OCT 1984 . 1984-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 155: Sep - Oct 2004 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Plant diffusion in the pre-Columbian world Did Chinese Ships Anchor off California 1000 years before Columbus found San Salvador? An Olmec-Chinese Connection Astronomy Our Twin Planet? Evidence that Mars is a former Moon! Biology The Itjaritjari Tick-Tock: Telomeres count off the generations of a species' time on Earth Stealth fish Geology The Dwarfing of island megafauna and the remarkable survival of some A double-whammy for the Yucatan, but that's only part of the story Geophysics A sign? Star-of-David ice crystals fall upon West Sussex Hessdalen: Valley of enigmatic lights When coming events really cast their shadows before them! Physics Entangled moments Mathematics Patterns of very loosely knit prime numbers ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 157: Jan - Feb 2005 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Discovery of a hidden chamber in the Great Pyramid? Who are what was writing over a million years ago? Astronomy The cosmos is 'unspeakably bizarre' -- if you accept two premises No canals but glassy tubes instead Biology Snowflakes of the sea Ground-squirrel infrared countermeasures The shapes that determine time and memory Geology Geyser-type action of the Oklo natural nuclear reactors Geophysics Rogue waves Pwdre Ser falls again Psychology The profundity of sleep Physics Something's the matter with matter Who digs the Higgs? ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 135: May-Jun 2001 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology The Most Mysterious Manuscript A Nuclear Catastrophe in Paleoindian Times? Astronomy Asteroid Ponds, Beaches and Boulders 0.999999999999999999999999c Sourceless Magnetic Fields? Biology Host Tapeworms for Health! Fall Babies Live Longer Longevity and Sardina Where is the Maestro? Geology Oil Deposits and Rotary Phenomena Does the Earth Breath? Geophysics Kisses from Heaven Don't Stomp on Ball Lightning! Whence Whitings? Psychology Modelling Exceptional Human Experience (EHEs) Unclassified Let There Be Dark! ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 128: Mar-Apr 2000 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Archeometeorology Viruses as Ancient Artifacts 100-Mile-Long Wall in Africa Astronomy A Few Cracks in the Foundations of Mainstream Astronomy The Ganymede Magnetic Paradox Biology " Uprooting the Tree of Life " Heart-Stoppers Geology Frozen in Time A Lurch of Death Burps of Death Geophysics Target: Southern Spain A Different Sort of Crop Circle Numberless Black Discs Psychology Fake Needles but Real Knives The Consciousness Gene Mathematics How to Win by Loosing (twice) ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 138: Nov-Dec 2001 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology When the Arctic was Warm A Down Side to Moundbuilding Astronomy The 8 Greatest Mysteries of Cosmology "Redshift is a Shaky Measuring Rod" Biology Remarkable Animal Talents and Capabilities Life as a Complex of "Dominant States" Britain More Hazardous than Ever Geology When the Antarctic was Warm Geophysics Drifting, Glowing Fog Hums Ho! Psychology Born to Enumerate Unconsciousness and its "Zombie Agents" Physics It's Time for A Bit of Generalization The Dynamics of Oleaginated Carbohydrate Parallelopipeds Mathematics Bent Magic ...
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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 Greenwich Late Time When J. Brink recently visited the Old Greenwich Observatory, in England, he saw a flag hanging on the building giving the longitude of the site, which by definition is 0 0' 0". The flag also announced that: "The Next Millennium Starts Here." Why is this in error? Answer below. (Brink, Johan; "Greenwich Late Time," New Scientist, p. 59, October 19, 1996) LONGITUDE FAUX PAS The next millennium (the year 2001 or 2000, depending upon your mind-set) really begins where all days begin: at the International Date Line, longitude 180 . From Science Frontiers #109, JAN-FEB 1997 . 1997-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... . A paleontological fact of life is that all known body plans (phyla) seem to have evolved suddenly -- within a few million years -- after the onset of the Cambrian period some 545 million years ago. Evolutionists are understandably uncomfortable with such a high rate of evolutionary innovation. Nothing like the Cambrian Explosion appears in the hundreds of millions of years of geological strata that followed. So rapid was speciation during the Cambrian Explosion that doubt is cast upon the accepted mechanisms of evolution: slow, stepwise accumulation of mutations plus natural selection. (Refs. 1 and 2) But G.A . Wray and colleagues seem to have rescued Darwinism. They have analyzed the DNA sequences of seven genes found in living animals. Assuming that these genes mutate at constant rates and working backwards in time, they calculate that animal diversification (i .e ., when chordates diverged from invertebrates) actually began about 1 billion years ago, rather than about 545 million years ago. This expansion of the time frame gives accepted evolutionary processes much more time to innovate and create all those new body plans. The evolutionists are pleased. The paleontologists, however, are in a quandry. They see nothing -- or very little -- in the Precambrian fossil record that substantiates the claim of Wray at al. Thus, molecular biology directly contradicts the findings of paleontology. Not to worry say supporters of the new and much more comfortable scenario: The Precambrian animals were so soft and "squishy" that they did not fossilize well. (Ref. 3) Comment. The molecular biologists are ...
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... be established here. The writer of the two articles digested below is an M.D . and a graduate of the Harvard Medical School. This is not a hoax! Melanoma sniffing. In 1989, the Lancet , a respected British medical journal, published an article relating how a female dog, half border collie, half doberman, sniffed out a spot of melanoma on a woman. In fact, the dog ignored all of the other moles on the woman and even tried to bite off the melanoma. Melanoma is the most dreaded form of skin cancer, so this bizarre report stimulated A. Cognetta, an American dermotologist, to try an experiment. First, another dog, named George, was trained to find tubes containing melanoma samples, which he did correctly 99% of the time. Next, a human with active melanoma was enlisted. Several bandages were placed on the subject's body including one over the melanoma site. Once again, George was almost 100% accurate in his diagnosis. Subsequently, George successfully identified malignancies on other patients. (Walker, Kenneth; "George the Dog Helps Take a Bite out of Skin Cancer," Chicago Sun-Times , September 6, 1998. Cr. J. Cieciel.) Seizure sniffing. An English woman subject to epileptic seizures never goes anywhere without her dog Rupert. Rupert has a nose for the odor that precedes epileptic seizures in humans. He barks about 40 minutes before the actual seizure, giving the woman a chance to get to a safe place. Of course, Rupert barks at other things ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 114: Nov-Dec 1997 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Quantum mechanics is definitely spooky "I cannot seriously believe in [the quantum theory] because it cannot be reconciled with the idea that physics should represent a reality in time and space, free from spooky actions at a distance." (Ref. 1) So Einstein wrote Max Born in March 1947. Well, even Einstein could have been wrong! "It's getting even spookier out there. Particles can be strangely connected over at least ten kilometres, according to results from physicists in Geneva. Using pairs of "entangled" photons, Nicolas Gisin and his colleagues from the University of Geneva have shown that the measurement of one particle will instantaneously determine the state of the other." (Ref. 2) This particular spooky aspect of quantum mechanics was demonstrated 15 years ago over a distance of just a few meters. Many physicists had expected (probably "hoped") that this "mysterious link" between separated particles would weaken with distance. But this quantum-mechanics effect does not conform to "common-sense" expectations! Now it seems that one particle of an "entangled pair" knows instantaneously what its mate is doing, possibly even if it is located on the other side of the universe. More quantum-mechanics spookiness is seen in "tunneling" phenomena, such as that mentioned in AR#3 , where a Mozart symphony zipped through a barrier at 4.7 times the speed of ...
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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 Those Ancient Greek Pyramids That's right. Greek pyramids! On Greek soil, at Hellenikon and Ligourio west of Athens in the Argolid region, are two limestone pyramids that are stylistically very much like those at Giza near Cairo. The big difference is size; the Greek pyramids are only the size of a large room compared to the Great Pyramid's height (with capstone) of almost 500 feet. When excavations were made around the Greek pyramids in the early 1900s, pottery fragments from the Fourth Century B.C . were found, and it was presumed that the pyramids were also constructed then; that is, about the time of Alexander the Great. Recent dating of crystals from internal surfaces of the limestone blocks using thermoluminescence puts the construction times back two millennia. The Hellenikon pyramid dates to 2730 B.C .; the Ligourio, to 2260 B.C . This means that the Greek pyramids were built in roughly the same time frame as the Egyptian pyramids. Why would the ancient Greeks want to build miniature pyramids? The classical scholar Pausanias wrote in the Second Century A.D . that the Hellenikon pyramid was a cenotaph for the dead fallen in a fratricidal battle 4,000 years ago. Nobody believed his story until now. (Hammond, Norman; "Did the Early Greeks Simply Copy the Pyramids of Egypt?" London Times, August 1, 1997. Cr. A.C . ...
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... 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 -- almost 2 million pounds! Formation of the disc began when ice floes formed upstream were captured by ...
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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 The Day The Laws Of Physics Changed Well, maybe there weren't such things as "days" as we now know them back when the universe was very young. In fact, "time" then might have been different from "time" now. This sounds like so much physics-speak; but, seriously, during the birth pangs of the universe, there seems to have been what cosmologists call a "phase change," a mysterious moment when the laws of physics suddenly became more complex. You can reasonably ask: "How can supposedly immutable physical laws change?" The answer seems to be that anything can happen when something is being made from nothing! This apparent plasticity in the laws governing the cosmos is suggested by observations of how galaxies in the early universe were distributed. The standard theory for the origin of the universe predicts that clumps of galaxies of all sizes were created early on. This is not what a survey by S. Sarkar et al, at the University of Oxford, found. A split second after the Big Bang, galaxies were organized in structures about 300-million light years across. The standard model of particle physics cannot account for this preferred size. The theorists' recourse is a phase change, a point in time when the warp and woof of the universe changed; that is, change the rules until they fit. (Chown, Marcus; "In the ...
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... 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 Evidence of ...
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