768 results found.
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 56: Mar-Apr 1988 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The new holism -- but is it whole enough?In the short space of two weeks, the New Scientist printed two articles that confront the obvious complexity of nature. Not only is this complexity persistent under the attack of the Second Law of Thermodynamics, but it seems to actually increase with time. Do formative or guiding principles exist that science does not take into account? The two articles have very different answers. The creative cosmos. "Most people accept without question that the physical world is coherent and harmonious. Yet according to the traditional scientific picture, the Universe is just a random collection of particles with blind forces acting upon them. There is, then a deep mystery as to how a seemingly directionless assembly of passive entities conspire to produce the elaborate structure and complex organisation found in nature." The author of this introductory paragraph, P. Davies, asks, as we all do, "What is the origin of this creative power?" In groping for an answer, he presents first a common example of "blind" organization: the hexagonal convection cells in a pan of heated water. Using for a stepping stone the cooperative action of atoms in a laser, he leaps to the development of an embryo from a single strand of DNA! All such systems are "open"; that is, energy can flow in and out. They are also nonlinear, which means that chaotic, unpredictable action ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 58: Jul-Aug 1988 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects One of the most astonishing discoveries of modern science!We take this title from P. Huyghe's recent overview of the "oceans from space" controversy, printed not surprisingly in Oceans . (See p.000.) As readers will recall, we have been following this debate for over two years. Rather than retrace all the details, it is sufficient to say that the scientific community has been generally negative and often condemnatory about L. Frank's assertion and evidence that each year some 10 million icy comets, each averaging sixty compact cars in weight, strike the earth's atmosphere and, in the fullness of time, help fill the ocean basins. In his article Huyghe reviews the considerable evidence that has accumulated supporting Frank's claim: The water in Halley's comet had the same abundances of two key isotopes as the earth's oceans; The rocket detection of unexpected amounts of water vapor in the upper atmosphere; The microwave detection of unusual water-vapor events in the upper atmosphere; The Lyman-alpha detection of hydrogen concentrated near the earth; and The photographic detection of small, incoming objects with the characteristics of the debated icy comets. (Huyghe, Patrick; "Oceans from Space -- New Evidence," Oceans , 21:9 , April 1988.) Item 5. has been reported in other publications: "Using a telescope with a moving field of view ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 52: Jul-Aug 1987 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Do large meteors/comets come in cycles?Only a few years ago, geologists refused to recognize any terrestrial meteor craters larger than Arizona's Meteor Crater, which is merely a mile or so in diameter. Now, we have a long list of craters or astroblemes (star wounds), some of which measure hundreds of miles across. In fact, there are enough large dated crters so that some scientists have taken up a time-honored human pastime: Looking for cycles or periodicities in the data. (Humans can find cyclicities in almost any collection of data!) To be more specific, some have claimed that large meteor craters come in clusters dated 28-31 million years apart. These catastrophic events have been correlated with biological extinctions, magnetic field reversals, and basalt flooding. The astronomical causes of this supposed periodicity range from the solar-system's crossing of the galactic plane, to the perturbations of an unseen solar companion, to regular perturbations of the Oort cloud of comets that is thought to hover at the fringe of the solar system. In short, a large, interlocking edifice of geological and astronomical speculation has been erected upon a foundation of terrestrial crater ages. But how well do we really know the ages of these craters? How complete is the cratering record? The answer to the first question is: "Not well at all." Further, we can be certain that many ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 50: Mar-Apr 1987 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Mind-bending the velocity vectors of marine algae From the referenced paper's abstract: "A consciousness experiment in which the Doppler shift of He/Ne laser light was used to describe changes in the velocity and vector of a marine alga, Dunaliella, was reported by Pleass and Dey in 1985. Because the subject of the consciousness experiment is living, we expect strings of baseline velocity and vector data which are, at some level, inextricably time-variant. This complicates the statistical procedures which must be used to analyze the data. "This paper examines the variation in baseline data strings, and describes two alternative statistical procedures which have been used to determine the probability of consciousness effects. Two levels of control are applied, allowing global comparison of frequency distributions of experimental scores with similar distributions derived artificially from baseline data. In both cases the null hypothesis is that there is no psi effect. The data quite strongly suggest the rejection of the null hypothesis, although the distributions of run scores contain several values beyond 3 sigma and are nonnormal. This limits the definition of probabilities." (Pleass, C.M ., and Dey, N. Dean; "Finding the Rabbit in the Bush: Statistical Analysis of Consciousness Research Data from the Motile Alga Dunaliella," The Explorer, 3:6 , no. 2, 1986. The Explorer is a publication of the Society for Scientific Exploration.) Comment. ...
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... Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Complexities Of The Inner Earth So many new and startling facts about the inner earth are emerging from current magnetic, seismic, and gravitic researth that a little list is in order. Bear in mind when going down the list that most of these features would have been considered absurd only a decade or two ago. The earth's solid inner core, which "floats" inside the liquid core, is not spherical. Rather, it is anisotropic with its axis of symmetry aligned with the earth's axis of rotation. (Ref. 1 below) "The CMB (core-mantle boundary) is the most dramatic discontinuity in the earth's internal structure in terms of the physical and chemical properties as well as the time scale of the processes that take place on either side of it. Its shape, if different from that predicted by the hydrostatic equilibrium theory, may contain information important to our understanding of geodynamic processes in the mantle or the geomagnetic field generated in the outer core." (Ref. 1, and also item #7 below) The earth's magnetic field possesses four lobes which remain fixed relative to the earth's surface, as demonstrated by 300 years of data. These lobes do not drift westward like the general field. (Ref. 2) "Core-spot pairs" of magnetic intensity seem to move westward and poleward. In the southern hemisphere, they originate under the Indian Ocean and drift under South Africa into the southern Atlantic. This motion reminds one of ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 56: Mar-Apr 1988 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Ubiquity Of American Archeological Anomalies An inscribed stone from Connecticut. Interpreting the marks as ogam writing; Face 1 (left) reads up, Face 2 (right) reads down. Adapted from the Bulletin of the Early Sites Research Society and the Occasional Publications of the Epigraphic Society. One would think that all North American archeological anomalies worth mentioning would already be firmly ensconced in the professional literature. This does not seem to be the case, unless one is very conservative about defining "worth mentioning." Ancient coins, anomalous inscriptions, and other intriguing tidbits are being found all the time, but few hear about them. The conventional journals, such as American Antiquity and the American Anthropologist disdain such discoveries. One place to find them is in the Occasional Publications of the Epigraphic Society. The 1987 compilation of these papers is at hand, and it is chock full of fascinating things. The following data are from Volume 16 for 1987. Ancient coins. A bronze coin of the ancient Greek city of Amisos was found about six years ago by Doyle Ellis, who was searching for gold with a metal detector in the channel of the Snake River in Idaho. It was deeply embedded in the gravel. In a small Indian mound at Deer Creek, near Chilicothe, Ohio, a Numidian bronze coin was recently uncovered. It has a BC date. "Oddly, those same coins, regarded in the Old World as artifacts of ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 53: Sep-Oct 1987 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The perseus flasher: mystery solved!So goes the title of an item in Sky and Telescope. Instead of ending with an exclamation point, a question mark would have been more appropriate. The Perseus Flasher, a recurring flash of light in Perseus described in SF#39 and #49, is a topic upon which astronomers also wish to "close the book." So, we must ask ourselves how accurate the above title is. Photographic records of the Perseus Flasher site show no flashes at all in 3,288 hours of monitoring. In fact, a Harvard plate, which was being exposed at the same time that a 0-magnitude flash was reported by naked-eye observers, revealed nothing! The passages of some artificial satellites through the Perseus site have been correlated with naked-eye-observed flashes, suggesting that the flashes are only sun glints. One meteor observer, N. McLeod, claims that there is a background level of flashes from other parts of the sky which can also be attributed to satellite glints. The Sky and Telescope item concludes: "So the mystery is solved!" (Anonymous; "The Perseus Flasher: Mystery Solved!" Sky and Telescope, 73:604, 1987.) Comment. So, science in its relentless, inerrant progress has positively solved still another mystery. (Triumphal background music here!) In case you haven't noticed, the three ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 60: Nov-Dec 1988 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Anomalous Geographical Distribution Of Diabetes Mellitus The incidence of diabetes mellitus among children varies dramatically with geography. For children under 15, it is only 1.7 per 100,000 in Japan but rises to 29.5 in Finland. Within the States, it is 9.4 per 100,000 in San Diego and peaks at 20.8 in Rochester, Minnesota. Children of European descent in New Zea land contract it three times as often as Maori children. U.S . whites get the disease more frequently than blacks and Hispanics. "Causes of these 'extraordinary' distribution differences remain unknown .. .. Both genetic and environmental factors appear necessary for the disease." (Eron, C.; "Cold Facts on Diabetes," Science News, 134:117, 1988.) From Science Frontiers #60, NOV-DEC 1988 . 1988-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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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 Expanding ball of light (ebl) phenomenon X8. June 22, 1976. North Atlantic. "At 2113 GMT a pale orange glow was seen to be coming from behind a bank of towering cumulus to the west. At 2115 a ghostly white disc (see sketches) was observed at an approximate altitude of 10-degrees and bearing 290-degrees. The glow from behind the cloud persisted." The glowing region developed as indicated in the figure. Stars could be seen throught the disc at all times. By 2140 the disc had disappeared. In the latest number of the Journal of Scientific Exploration, R.F . Haines presents a summary table of 15 cases of a luminous phenomenon he has dubbed the Expanding Ball of Light or EBL. EBLs are very large, sometimes occupying much of the sky. They seem to occur everywhere, though rarely. Haines elaborates: "According to several pilot witnesses, the center of the EBL is at relatively high altitude while it is forming. Its color is evenly whitish or yellowish and becomes increasingly transparent to background stars as it expands. As it enlarges it appears to maintain a sharply defined edge. At some point it fades completely from sight. The rate of boundary interface expansion is impossible to determine without knowing its distance from the observer. It is also of interest to note that most EBL events have taken place after dark. If EBL phenomena are associated with an advanced ...
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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 A Truly Fortean House A host of Fortean forces descended upon a house in Orland Hills, Illinois, in 1988. "Once, a blue flame an inch in diameter shot out of a wall socket for more than 30 seconds, and the outlet still worked. That incident was witnessed by two police officers. Another time, a similar flame set a mattress afire while investigators were prowling outside. "In all, there were 26 separate incidents, all of them witnessed by either police or fire investigators... "' I was there one night when the room was filled with a white haze. I couldn't see my hand in front of my face,' Smith said. 'There was a strong sulfur smell and my eyes were burning. I took a sample (of the vapor) in a vacuum canister. We came up with nothing.' "Neither did engineers, chemists and geologists." Understandably, the occupants of this hexed house had moved out long ago with such goings-on. Teams of experts ruled out arson, natural gas, methane leaks, sewer gas, and electrical malfunctions. The house was finally bulldozed in October 1988. (Elsner, David; "Bulldozers Lay House to Rest," Chicago Tribune, October 16, 1988. Cr. K. Fabian. Also: Anonymous; "Strange Phenomena Force Bulldozing of House," Lorain (Ohio) Journal, October ...
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... 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 The cup-and-ring motif in america Typical cup-and-rings from Ireland. Drawing from Ancient Man. The 1988 volume of the Occasional Papers of the Epigraphic Society is at hand. As usual, it is chock full of ancient symbols, motifs, and writings, many of which come from anomalous times and/or places. R.W .B . Morris, an authority on prehistoric rock art, has contributed an article comparing the cup-and-ring motif, as found in Great Britain, with that found in North America. Since this stereotype motif decorates the rocks of all continents, save Antarctica, and since the hey-day of cup-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 ...
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... 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 Recent Martian Rivers Erode Alba Patera Most of the Martian surface is thought to be more than 3.8 billion years old. This portion is densely cratered from a period pf heavy meteorite bombardment. It is also carved by many channels that are thought to have been cut in ancient times by flowing water, water which quickly escaped into space or combined chemically with Martian minerals. The present atmosphere of Mars, in consequence, contains little water vapor. But some of the Martian landscape, notably Alba Patera, raises questions about the above scenario. The anomalous characteristic of Alba Patera is its relative smoothness and scarcity of impact craters. This Martian real estate is believed to be 2 billion years younger than the rest of the planet. Even so, it, too, is marked by "fluvial" features that resemble stream beds. Question #1 . How did Alba Patera get smoothed out or "reworked"? In other words, what happened to the ancient craters that must have pocked its surface, as they do everywhere else? Question #2 . Where did the water come from to cut Alba Patera's stream beds if all of the Martian water disappeared 2 billion years earlier? One line of thought maintains that "fluvial" does not mean "pluvial," and that Martian water has come from below rather than as rain from the atmosphere. Both fluvial episodes, in this view, occurred when something caused the ...
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... , I expressed my grave doubts. At this he handed me the twigs and after a brief instruction goaded me to try. After a few paces I was astonished to feel the two bent twigs move in my hands. I am not skeptical any more, I know it works." (Younger, Paul L., and Skelcher, B.W .; "Dowsing-Sense," New Scientist, p. 62, April 9, 1987.) Comment. Such testimonial evidence, abundant though it is, will not be accepted by the scientific community. In stead they point to their controlled experiments, which are strongly negative. Why do so many individuals experience psi phenomena casually, but when controls are applied, the effects are most elusive? Most people, at one time or another, have had a profoundly shocking psychic experience. Are these events real, and, if so, why don't they manifest themselves in the labs? From Science Frontiers #52, JUL-AUG 1987 . 1987-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... world. "The total magnetic field of the Earth is not uniform. It is distorted by the underlying geology, forming a topography of magnetic 'hills and valleys.' My analysis shows that the animals move along the contours of these magnetic slopes, and that in certain circumstances this can lead them to strand themselves. In the oceans, sea-floor spreading has produced a set of almost parallel hills and valleys. Whales could use these as undersea motorways, but might swim into problems when they came near the shore, because the magnetic contours do not stop at the beach. They continue onto the land, and sometimes so do the whales." In addition to stranding because of land-intersecting contours, unpredictable changes in the earth's magnetic field can upset the whales' timing mechanism, causing them to lose their true position on their magnetic dead-reckoning maps. Magnetically speaking, they become lost. (Klinowska, Margaret; "No Through Road for the Misguided Whale," New Scientist, p. 46, February 12, 1987. Also: Ellis, Richard; "Why Do Whales Strand?" Oceans , 20:24, June 1987.) Comment. Klinowska's theory is attractive in the sense that one can test it by checking strandings against magnetic contours and magnetic variations. However, the theory requires whales to sense changes in the earth's field of only 1 nanotesla (that is, one part in 50,000). No one has any idea how this can be accomplished biologically. Furthermore, how are the world ...
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... all of these remarkable developments are the consequence of small, randome mutations guided by the forces of natural selection. To Barrett, plant mimicry is proof positive that evolution is true. It should not surprise the readers of Science Frontiers that this very same article is a goldmine of biological anomalies, that is, data that seem to challenge ruling paradigms. (Barrett, Spencer C.H .; "Mimicry in Plants," Scientific American, 257:76, September 1987.) Comment. Evolution, like beauty, must be in the eye of the beholder! At this point, we could easily launch into a lengthy harangue about why it seems highly improbable that a plant, through chance mutations, could hit upon just the right combination of form, color, odor, and flowering time to dupe an insect pollinator -- even with the aid of natural selection and a billion years. The point we wish to stress here is that the author of this paper sees the same facts and comes to diametrically opposite conclusions! Reference. Our handbook Incredible Life devotes and entire chapter to the anomalies of the plant kingdom. For further information, visit: here . This Orchid flower mimicks a female bee, thus encouraging pollination by male bees. From Science Frontiers #54, NOV-DEC 1987 . 1987-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... up all manner of galactic clusters, superclusters, and great skeins of superclusters strung across the heavens. Instead of a puree of matter, there is more and more structure the farther we peer into space. R.B . Tully, at the University of Ha waii, now charts a billion-light-year structure that he calls the Pisces-Cetus complex. This aggregation of galaxies includes us (the Milky Way), our Local Supercluster, and many neighboring superclusters. In actuality, the PiscesCetus complex is not a continuous structure. Rather, it is defined by a plane -- one containing a host of superclusters as well as voids. The problem posed for theorists is that they can suggest no way in which such a far flung manifestation of order could have evolved in the time available since the Big Bang. (Waldrop, M. Mitchell; "The Large-Scale Structure of the Universe Gets Larger-- Maybe," Science, 238:804, 1987.) From Science Frontiers #55, JAN-FEB 1988 . 1988-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... and transients. A particularly annoying source of unwanted signals impinging upon European radios is the Soviet Woodpecker over-the-horizon radar. In some bands, radio hams are blasted off the air when the Woodpecker is aimed at them. So much for electromagnetic problems. In the audio range of the sound spectrum, Fox brings up the topic of those still unidentified hums that afflict a small group of people, who are now known as "hummers." Fox himself turns out to be a hummer. "By coincidence, I happen to be blessed, or cursed, with good low-frequency hearing. For several years now, I have intermittently heard a curious low-frequency sound coming from a deep below the high ground around my home in Hampstead Heath in London. Most of the time it is swamped by other noises, because human hearing adjusts sensitivity to compensate for background noise. The noise is an intermittent rumble, like a very distant generator, or the compressor for a pneumatic drill, coming on and off load. Most people cannot hear it at all. I usually hear it only in the still of night." Fox applied considerable effort in trying to find the source of the sound to no avail. The hum has been recorded and analyzed. It peaks at about 48 Hertz, and thus seems unrelated to the British 50-Hertz power mains. (Fox, Barry; "Things That Go Buzz in the Night," New Scientist, p. 72, October 8, 1987.) Reference. Other natural hums are described in GSH5 in our ...
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... , about whom we heard in the above item. We will not comment on the reincarnation bit, but it does seem that S. Devi's remarkable capabilities are somewhat different from those of Ramanujan. The latter intuitively saw mathematical relationships as expressed in equations and identities; Devi is a mental calculator of no mean talent. In 1977, Ms. Devi beat a UNIVAC 1108 computer to the 23rd root of a 201-digit number. The machine, which required two hours to program for the task, took more than a minto solve the problem. She took 50 seconds. "And, in 1981, she made the Guinness Book of World Records as the 'Human Computer' by correctly multiplying two 13-digit numbers -- 7,686,369,774,870 times 2,465,099,745,779 -- in 28 seconds. The awesome answer? 18,947,668,177, 995,426,462,773,730." S. Devi is also a calendar calculator, being able to name the day of the week for any date in the past or future, taking into account leap years and calendar changes. She never attended school or had any formal mathematical training! (Young, Luther; "Numbers Whiz Takes Delight in Beating Computers;" Baltimore Sun, January 21, 1988, p. A1.) Comment. Such prodigies have appeared regularly down recorded history. What is the meaning of the phenomenon? Why does evolution produce talents that far exceed the "need" of the species? Is ...
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... a disease. These are called Koch's Postulates, after R. Koch, who formulated them a century ago: Every patient who has the disease must also harbor the suspected microorganism. Some AIDS sufferers do not have the AIDS virus, although it is debated whether as many as half don't or very few don't . The microorganism must cause the disease when injected into research animals -- primates for example. The AIDS virus does not; although some other diseases, such as small pox, do not affect other animals either. The suspect microorganism must be isolated from the patient and grown in a culture. Duesberg claims that HIV definitely fails the first two Koch tests. (Shurkin, Joel N.; "The AIDS Debate: Another View," Los Angeles Times, January 18, 1988. Cr. J.M . Ward) Three months after the above article was published. the journal Science jumped into the fray. Additional points of interest: Duesberg considers the HIV to be such a "pussycat" that he would gladly be injected with the virus. Duesberg has published his reservations in Cancer Research , but no formal response from the scientific community has resulted, although there has been plenty of unpublished name-calling. The HIV behaves like no other known virus; viz., its long latency and its persistence despite the production of antibodies. (Actually, the herpes family of viruses is also known for its long latency.) (Booth, William; "A Rebel without a Cause of AIDS," Science, 239:1485 ...
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... that were thought to show a Yeti. The latest issue of Cryptozoology contains a letter from Wooldridge in which he tells of his return, in 1987, to the site where the 1986 photos were taken. The bush in the 1986 photos was still there; the Yeti wasn't ; the snow was somewhat deeper. Wooldridge and some companions took more pictures of the site: "Stereo pairs of photos taken in 1987 have been used to produce a threedimensional map of the terrain near the bush. When this is used to derive an absolute scale for pairs of photos from 1986, it shows that, whatever I photographed in 1986, lies below the snow level in the 1987 photos. The object is leaning slightly uphill, and no movement can be detected when comparing photos taken at different times in 1986. The apparent change in position relative to the bush in some photos taken from different camera positions is caused by parallax. This evidence demonstrates beyond a reasonable doubt that, what I had believed to be a stationary, living creature was, in reality, a rock." (Wooldridge, Anthony B.; "The Yeti: A Rock After All?" Cryptozoology, 6:135, 1987.) Reference. More information on the Yeti is available in BHU7 in the catalog: Biological Anomalies: Humans III. For information on this book, see: here . From Science Frontiers #57, MAY-JUN 1988 . 1988-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... temples of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries BC near Mysore, India, hold in their hands representations of maize ears. There are more than 63 of these large ears at Somnanthpur, and maize is represented at three other temples I have visited. "In the Hoysala tradition, worshippers must have used maize as a golden-coloured and many-seeded fertility symbol in their religious rites. That the ears are modelled on maize is shown by the ear length-todiameter ratio, the ear sizes in relation to parts of the human figures, and the wide variation of anatomical detail in the carvings that all belong to maize: the ears have either parallel, highly tapered or bulging sides, their tips are pointed, and their axes may be straight or warped, depending on the moisture at the time of picking and the way maize dries. .. .No other plant or object has the extensive intricacy and variation of highly segregated maize that could serve as a model for the sculptures. No other fruits have the same number and shape of the closely packed kernels that are arranged in parallel rows in the sculptures." (Johannessen, Carl L.; "Indian Maize in the Twelfth Century BC," Nature, 332:587, 1988. Ct. R. Noyes.) From Science Frontiers #58, JUL-AUG 1988 . 1988-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... .J . Melosh; "Recent evidence that the SNC meteorites originated on Mars raises the question of whether large impacts on Earth may eject rocks that could fall on Mars (or other planets in the Solar System) and, if so whether they might contain spores or some sort of viable microorganisms that would have the opportunity to colonize Mars." After some computations Melosh concludes: "It seems likely that the impacts that produced craters on Earth that are greater than 100 km in diameter would each have ejected millions of tons of near-surface rocks carrying viable microorganisms into interplanetary space, much in the form of boulders large enough to shield those organisms from ultraviolet radiation, low-energy cosmic rays, and even galactic cosmic rays. Under such circumstances spores might remain viable for long periods of time." (Melosh, H.J .; "The Rocky Road to Panspermia," Nature, 332:687, 1988.) Comment. Next we need a reasonable mechanism that spreads life through interstellar space. Light pressure, that's it; and the idea is over a century old! Incidentally, SNC is short for Shergottites, Nakhalites, Chassignites; all rare classes of meteorites. From Science Frontiers #58, JUL-AUG 1988 . 1988-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... survive the impact intact. .. .. . "The idea that comets supplied the Earth with the organic material needed to create life has been around for more than 20 years, but as often as some scientists have put forth the hypothesis, others have shot it down. "About 20% of comet nuclei are composed of organic matter, the rest ice and dust. Most of the organic component appears to be in a complex, polymerized form similar to kerogen, which is found in sedimentary rocks on Earth. From 4.33.7 billion years ago, during the period of heaviest bombardment by meteorites and comets, an estimated 1023 g of organic material would have been added to Earth by comet impacts had they made up 10% of the extraterrestrial flux. That is 1001000 times larger than most estimates of the photochemical production of the compounds over the same period." (Anonymous; "Comets and Life," Eos, no. 13, 1989.) Comment. Nowhere in the above article does one find the name of Fred Hoyle, whose ideas along these lines have been ridiculed for years. From Science Frontiers #63, MAY-JUN 1989 . 1989-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 63: May-Jun 1989 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Where on earth is the crust?This long article concludes with an intriguing snippet. "Plate tectonic processes circulate the entire oceanic crust back into the mantle every 100 million years. Ero sion also removes part of the continental crust, and some of the eroded material may eventually find its way to deep oceanic trenches, where it is also returned to the mantle. This implies that at any given time only about 10% of the crust is at the surface. Much of the continental crust, however, is more than half the age of the earth, so one can infer this part has not recirculated recently." (Anderson, Don L.; "Where on Earth Is the Crust?" Physics Today, 42:38, 1989.) Comment. The machinations of plate tectonics, therefore, may well be responsi ble for missing sections of the geologi cal column and fossil record. From Science Frontiers #63, MAY-JUN 1989 . 1989-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... ) Drobyshevski's combustion theory assumes a "local" origin (within the solar system) for Halley. But measurements of the ratio of carbon-12 to carbon-13, made during the 1986 flyby, produced a ratio of 65:1 . This compares to 89:1 for solar system material. The 65:1 ratio, it turns out, is more typical of interstellar material. This datum seems to place Halley's birthplace somewhere outside the solar system. (Weiss, R.; "Carbon Ratio Shows Halley May be Alien," Science News, 135:214, 1989.) As if all this were not bad enough, calculations of the amount of matter expelled from Halley and incorporated in known meteor streams allow an estimate of Halley's residence time in the inner solar system. (One has, of course, Halley's present mass, but must estimate its original mass!) The conclusion is that Halley has spent only 23,000 years in its present orbit! (Maddox, John; "Halley's Comet Is Quite Young," Nature, 339:95, 1989.) Comments. Admittedly, this is a pretty shaky calculation, but it accords with the calculation that Halley had a close encounter with Jupiter about 20,000 years ago. The manifest contradictions in the inferences made above from recent observations of Halley mean that we still have a lot to learn about comets, Halley in particular. One should also recall that the solar system has other features that may be youthful, such as Saturn' ...
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... Project Sourcebook Subjects A Larger Sun During The Maunder Minimum Europe's so-called "Little Ice Age" (1645-1715) coincided with the Maunder Minimum -- a period during which sunspots were exceedingly rare. How was the sun different during the Maunder Minimum? This subject of solar variability (in both diameter and period of rotation) has been long debated. Some early measurements of solar diameter, begun at Greenwich in 1830, seemed to some to show a steadily shrinking sun, but others found cyclic patterns. E. Ribes et al have just presented some data on solar diameter actually taken during the Maunder Minimum. "By analysing a unique 53-year record of regular observations of the solar diameter and sunspot positions during the seventeenth century, we have shown for the first time that the angular diameter was larger and rotation slower during the Maunder Minimum." A larger sun might be cooler, providing less heat, thus accounting for climate changes. (Ribes, E., et al; "Evidence for a Larger Sun with a Slower Rotation during the Seventeenth Century," Nature, 326: 52, 1987.) Comment. Just why the sun expands and contracts over a period measured in hundreds of years is a major astro physical conundrum. Variation in solar diameter, 1860-1940. Arrows indicate sunspot maxima. (From ASO-X6 in The Sun and Solar System Debris). From Science Frontiers #51, MAY-JUN 1987 . 1987-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Without a a life-support system none of us can survive. It is in this light that we are beginning to see the biosphere not only as a continual struggle favoring the most vicious organism but also as an endliess dance of diversifying life forms, where partners triumph." (Sagan, Dorion, and Margulis, Lynn; "Bacterial Bedfellows," Natural History, 96:26, March 1987.) Comment. One should observe that there is a strong connection between the Gaia concept of a living planet and the theory of symbiotic evolution. Strong philosophical statements are also inherent in this outlook on life and its development. For example, individuality and free will would seem to be denied. Also, can life forms be "vicious" and yet "cooperative" at the same time? From Science Frontiers #51, MAY-JUN 1987 . 1987-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... case of hives. "The hives will occur even if Timmy drinks orange juice and another personality appears while the juice is still being digested. What's more, if Timmy comes back while the allergic reaction is present, the itching of the hives will cease immediately, and the water-filled blisters will begin to subside." How does one explain such phenomena? We cannot obviously, at least not yet. What the phenomenon of multiple personality does do is offer us a "window" for observing that mysterious interface between one's thoughts and bodily functions. Perhaps, if we can heal the mind, we can also heal the body. (Where have we heard this before?) (Goleman, Daniel; "Probing the Enigma of Multiple Personality," New York Times, p. B7, June 28, 1988. Cr. J. Covey) From Science Frontiers #59, SEP-OCT 1988 . 1988-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 51: May-Jun 1987 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Antarctic Ozone Hole Has Complex Structure "One more mystery has been added to the seasonal loss of ozone in the stratosphere over Antarctica. It now appears that the 'hole' is an uneven one, with 2- to 3-kilometer-thick slices of ozone-poor air sandwiched within layers of only minimal depletion." These new data came from McMurdo Sound, where a series of balloons carrying ozone sensors were released. Ozone depletion seems to be confined to the region 12-20 kilometers altitude and the top of the stratosphere. The overall depletion in this region was 35% at the time the balloons were lofted. However, some zones from 1 to 5 kilometers thick showed depletions as great as 90%. The reason for this stratificaiton is not yet known. (Silberner, J.; "Layers of Complexity in Ozone Hole," Science News, 131:164, 1987.) From Science Frontiers #51, MAY-JUN 1987 . 1987-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... compiled an annotated checklist of between 110 and 138 animals (some questions remain about how many are distinct species) which do not seem to be recognized by science. His list is based upon his collection of 20,000 references. Obviously we cannot reproduce all his descriptions here, but we will pass along three of the most interesting. A dolphin with two dorsal fins, both curved backwards, the anterior one set on the forehead like a horn. The first observation was apparently by Mongitore in the Mediterranean. During the Uranie and Physicienne expedition, Quoy and Gaimard reported a whole school of them between the Sandwich Islands and New South Wales. They were spotted black and white. Hairy "wild men," known as satyrs in classical antiquity. These were probably Neanderthals that survived into historical times. The most recent sightings were in 1774, in the Pyrenees, and 1784, in the Carpathians. Giant birds of prey in North America -- the famous "thunderbirds." Observers put the wingspans between 10 and 16 feet, making thunderbirds much larger than the Andean condor. Reports have come in from all over the southern United States. Some remains of these carnivorous birds have been dated at 8,000 years. (Heuvelmans, Bernard; "Annotated Checklist of Apparently Unknown Animals with Which Cryptozoology Is Concerned," Cryptozoology, 5:1 , 1986.) Comment. Although Heuvelmans has a file of 20,000 references, formal scientific recognition usually requires specimens, or something better than testimony. Reference. The subject of cryptozoology is covered in BHU and BMU in our ...
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... common to many biological functions.) By simply placing a mirror under your nostrils and watching for the larger amount of condensation, one can determine which nostril is in use. "What are the ramifications of this seemingly insignificant phenomenon? The yogis reportedly have said that improved sleeping, more satisfying sex, enhanced digestion, and appropriate thought patterns were controlled by the use of a certain nostril." It is further maintained that one can force a change in nostril breathing through meditation. In this way, it is possible to enhance sleeping, sex, digestion, and mental acuity! (LeBow, Howard A.; "Have You Heard about This One?" Cycles, 37:191, 1986.) Comment. All we know is what we read in the journals! The next time you feel down, think about your breathing, or try a little cotton. From Science Frontiers #52, JUL-AUG 1987 . 1987-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... our galaxy; (2 ) The resulting encounters lead to showers of comets and/or asteroids on earth; (3 ) The mechanic trauma leads to basalt flooding; (4 ) Great biological extinctions occur in consequence; and (5 ) The terrestrial magnetic field reverses in step. Now, if scientists could show that all of these phenomena occur at the same frequency and are roughly in phase, it would constitute one of science's most important syntheses. The stratigraphic record and the estimated ages of meteor craters certainly hint at such synchrony. Recently, two more papers have appeared which support the above scenario. First, M.R . Rampino and R.B . Stothers show that during the past 250 million years, eleven episodes of basalt flooding have occurred with an average cycle time of 32 million years. Second, J. Negi maintains that the earth's magnetic record boasts a similar string of disturbances, with an average period of 33 million years. (Anonymous; "Regular Reversals in Earth's Magnetic Field A Fluke?" New Scientist, p. 32, August 25, 1988.) From Science Frontiers #60, NOV-DEC 1988 . 1988-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 60: Nov-Dec 1988 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects How Genius Gets Nipped In The Bud At once amusing and tragic, the article bearing the above title treats the reader to the musings of a university researcher who has a brilliant new idea -- or so it seems to him. At first he is ready to rush to the literature and check out the idea's originality and feasibility. But wait, this groundwork will take considerable time, and the idea may turn out to be old hat. Is it all worth the risk? Will the university support research on this new untried idea? This would be unlikely since funds are thin, the idea is not part of the overall research plan, and worse yet, an enemy sits on the research fund committee. Getting external funds is impossible unless one can show that your university has enough confidence in the idea to support it financially. A way out is to publish the idea at a conference in hopes of raising interest and money. Hold it, the referees will ask why a few obvious points have not been checked out in the lab. "Suddenly you realize that there is a far more serious problem. The current scientific system is based on the assumption that there is no such thing as a radically new idea. Each new paper is required to climb on the back of a plethora of earlier published papers, and does little more than add another layer of gloss to the cited references. Genuinely new ideas no ...
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... .. "People have known there was communication between trees for several years, but they've explained it by the chemicals trees produce," Wagner said. "But I think the real communication is much quicker and more dramatic than that," he said. "These trees know within a few seconds what is happening. This is an automatic response." "Wagner has measured the speed of W-waves at about 3 feet per second through the air. "They travel much too slowly for electrical waves," he said. "They seem to be an altogether different entity. That's what makes them so intriguing. They don't seem to be electromagnetic waves at all." (Anonymous; "Physicist Says Blip Proves Trees Talk," Seattle Sun Times , February 12, 1989. Cr. R.L . Simmons) Comment. In addition to the above discovery, Wagner, who holds a PhD in physics from the University of Tennessee, has detected electrical standing waves in trees. The voltage measured by electrodes implanted in trees goes up and down as one goes higher and higher up the trees. Wagner's work has been published in Northwest Science , but we have not yet seen it. Incidentally, electricity does seem to affect plant growth, as described in our handbook: Incredible Life . For a description of this book, visit: here . From Science Frontiers #63, MAY-JUN 1989 . 1989-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 52: Jul-Aug 1987 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Carbon In A New Comet Astronomers in Australia have confirmed that organic matter exists in Comet Wilson, which is on what is believed to be its first and only visit to our Solar System. "It is the first time that organic matter has been found on a comet new to the Solar System. The astronomers, who observed the comet from the AngloAustralian Telescope at Siding Spring Observatory in New South Wales, say that this finding lends weight to the theory that comets brought to Earth the carbon-based chemicals from which life evolved." (Anonymous; "Astronomers Spot Carbon in a New Comet," New Scientist, p. 23, May 28, 1987.) Reference. Organic compounds in meteorites are cataloged under AYE2 in our catalog: The Sun and Solar System Debris. To find out more about this book, visit: here . From Science Frontiers #52, JUL-AUG 1987 . 1987-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... solar neutrinos! There will be egg on a lot of faces if our notions of stellar energy generation are widly in error. We may be overreacting here; but we predict with confidence that the future will bring a good many scientific papers that begin with those all-toofamiliar words, "We now know that..." If physicists must now develop a new appreciation of electrochemistry, should not the biologists, too? At the risk of going too far, we recall that L.C . Kervran talks at length about his findings that the human body converts one element into another. See his book Biological Transmutations . Could he possibly have something? The scientific world utterly rejects Kervran - with some justification. This is being written in mid-April (1989). By the time it is received, the situation may be radically changed. In any event, it is good to see important work accomplished without huge machines, billions in Federal funds, and a phalanx of white-coated technicians. From Science Frontiers #63, MAY-JUN 1989 . 1989-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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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 Celestial burlesque?Astronomers have long wondered about Mercury. Its density (5 .44) is unusually high for such a small planet, and its orbit's inclination (7 ) and eccentricity (0 .206) are also anomalously high. In one blow. W. Benz, A.G .W . Cameron, and W. Slattery may have solved all three problems. Four frames from a computer simulation of proto-Mercury being stripped of its lighter, outer crust by a collision. Frame times are -1 , + 2.3 , + 7.7 , and + 41.7 minutes after impact. The dark molten sheet of iron in Frame #4 will collapse into a sphere, while the silicates will escape Mercury's gravitational pull. They think Mercury's original, lighter, silicate outer layers were stripped off during the impact of one of the small protoplanets that are thought to have swirled around the inner solar system shortly after its formation. Computations on a supercomputer revealed to these three researchers that, if the protoplanet had hit Mercury at between 20 and 30 kilometers/second, then its dense iron core would have survived pretty much intact. A lower velocity would not have stripped off the lighter outer layers; anything higher would have blasted the whole planet into smithereens. Calculations of this type also suggest that if a protoplanet the size of Mars had hit protoearth, it likewise would ...
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... some 200 kilometers. Astronomers believe they are volcanic vents, which are a scant few million years old. (Anonymous; "Recent Volcanism on Mars?" Sky and Telescope, 73:602, 1985.) Comment. Another of the surprisingly large number of youthful features in the solar system. From Europa. The surface of Europa, one of Jupiter's large Galilean satellites, seems to be covered with a relatively smooth veneer of ice. Beneath this frigid skin, according to one theory, lie about 100 kilometers of liquid water. Why hasn't this water frozen completely, given the trifling sunlight at Jupiter's distance from the sun? Tidal stresses provide some heat but not enough; unless, of course, Europa's orbit was much more eccentric in recent times. (Anonymous; "Oceans under the Crust of Europa," Sky and Telescope, 73:602, 1987.) Comment. An alternate possibility is that Europa's ice and water inventories are recent acquisitions, like Saturn's rings! From Science Frontiers #53, SEP-OCT 1987 . 1987-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... tissue fluid and cell debris. Surprisingly, lizards seem to go out of their way to attract the chiggers -- they have special mite pockets that provide a protected, warm and humid site. In many cases, the skin of the lizard also has smaller scales than normal and a good blood supply in the pocket, which enables the parasites to feed more readily." There does not seem to be any advantage to the lizards providing plush accommodations for the chiggers. The chiggers can wreak havoc on their hosts in the form of skin lesions, allergic reactions, secondary infections, and the transmission of diseases. Nevertheless, some 150 species in 5 distinct lizard families possess mite pockets, which are often located in different places in different lizard species. Apparently, the mite pockets evolved separately several times. But why? (Benton, Michael J.; "The Mite Pockets of Lizards," Nature, 325:391, 1987.) Comment. Why haven't the lizards evolved thicker skin or some sort of chemical defense instead of reducing their fitness with mite pockets? Or, are other factors operating? From Science Frontiers #51, MAY-JUN 1987 . 1987-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... demonstrate that conclusively. Then it follows, most peo-ple have thought, that the best level is zero, and any increase should produce an increasing rate of lung cancer. But controversial studies show that this may not be so. "In one study Dr. Bernard Cohen of the University of Pittsburgh compared average lung-cancer rates in many counties with the average radon rates found in the respective counties. It's an ambitious study - 39,000 measurements in 415 counties. "The results: In counties where lung cancer in women would have been expected to be up 25 percent from the radon levels, the incidences of cancer were actually down 30 percent. There are others. Finland has average indoor-radon levels of 2.5 picocuries per liter - 2.5 times higher than the world average. Yet the female lung-cancer rate in Finland is only 70 percent that of other industrialized countries." (Gilmore, C.P .; "Radon: Cancer Killer?" Popular Science, p. 8, May 1989. Cr. R.W Schiller) From Science Frontiers #63, MAY-JUN 1989 . 1989-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... the floor of the southeast Pacific, about 1400 kilometers west of Cape Horn, about 5 kilometers down, they found high concentrations of iridium in Upper Pliocene sediments about 2.3 million years old. Since the proposed projectile hit in very deep water, no crater was dug out. What did survive is called an "impact melt." This is debris rich in noble metals, such as iridium, and contains particles typical of a low-metal mesosiderite. Some 600 kilometers of the ocean floor received this debris. Kyte and his associates estimate the size of the impacting object at at least 0.5 kilometers in diameter. No biological extinctions are correlated with the 2.3 -million-year date, but there appears to have been a major deterioration of climate at about this time. There was a shift in the marine oxygen isotope records and, more obvious, the creation of the huge loess (sandy) deposits in China. What the impact may have done is to vaporize enough water into the atmosphere to increase the earth's albedo, reflecting sunlight back into space, lowering the average temperature, and thus triggering the Ice Ages. (Kyte, Frant T., et al; "New Evidence on the Size and Possible Effects of a Late Pliocene Oceanic Asteroid Impact," Science, 241:63, 1988.) Comment. Aficionados of the Ice Age problems will have to add this theory to the already long list of Ice Age hypotheses. From Science Frontiers #59, SEP-OCT 1988 . 1988-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... (J .) Labeyrie. 'One, about 10,000 years ago, made the pain tings. Another, much older, was responsible for the artifacts.' "In the grotto's dim light, a red comet 4.5 feet long stretches across the low ceiling, against a painted backdrop of stars. Red suns rise and set amid figures of lizards, a creature traditionally associated with the sun. .. .. . "Near the entrance of the cave is a notch where every year, precisely on the winter solstice (June 21 in the Southern Hemisphere), the sunlight enters and illuminates a red sun painted on the slanted ceiling." (Muello, Peter; "Find Puts Man in America at Least 300,000 Years Ago," Dallas Times Herald , June 16, 1987.) Reference. In our handbook Ancient Man you will find many additional archeological anomalies disputing current theories about the peopling of the New World. Further information here . From Science Frontiers #54, NOV-DEC 1987 . 1987-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... in the process of mineralization. (Dupont, George; "Et Si les Stalactites Etaient Vivantes?" Science et Vie , p. 86, August 1987. Cr. C. Mauge.) Besides being a surprising adjustment of our ideas about stalactite growth, the recognition that microorganisms may play an active role in the subterranean world stimulates two new questions: (1 ) Can we believe any longer that stalactite size is a measure of age, as is often claimed? (2 ) Is the immense network of known caves (some as long as 500 kilometers) the consequence only of chemical actions? It turns out that the earth beneath our feet is not so solid after all. Some 40,000 caves are known in the United States alone. There are thought to be ten times that number that have no surface openings and therefore escape spelunking census takers. And besides caves big enough for humans to crawl into, there exists an immensely greater continuum of cracks, crevices, channels, and pores which circulate air, water, and chemicals in solution. This "crevicular structure" may be continuous for thousands of miles, possibly around the world. Furthermore, it is filled with life forms of great variety, usually blind, and usually related to creatures of the light. A recent article in American Scientist focuses on the evolution of the larger forms of subterranean life, especially the amphipods. Interestingly enough, it doesn't even mention micro-organisms. (Holsinger, John R.; "Troglogbites: The Evolution of Cave-Dwelling Organisms," (American ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 56: Mar-Apr 1988 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Wandering Molluscs "How could a mollusc which lived all its adult life cemented fast to the seabed in shallow water occur thousands of kilometers apart in the Arabian Gulf and the Caribbean? Almost identical forms of the extinct bivalve Torreites sanchezi have been found in rocks from the Caribbean and the Gulf. Peter Skelton of the Open University and Paul Wright of the University of Bristol suggest that the larval stage of the bivalve must have 'island hopped.'" The two researchers rule out convergent evolution and note that the two seas were never any closer together. They suppose that in Cretaceous times there was an equatorial current that swept the larval forms long distances. (Anonymous; "Wandering Molluscs," New Scientist, p. 33, October 15, 1987.) Comment. The same situation prevails for other species, such as some of the amphipods and the unique life forms dependent on seafloor vents. From Science Frontiers #56, MAR-APR 1988 . 1988-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 60: Nov-Dec 1988 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Spiral-circle ground patterns in field crops G.T . Meaden has recently summarized his research into those marvelously sharp and complex designs cut into English field crops by atmospheric vortices. (Why other countries are not similarly affected is unknown.) The simple circles range from 3 to 30 meters in diameter. The central, flattened vegetation is crushed clockwise about half the time, counterclockwise in the other cases. On two known occasions, the flattening process has actually been observed. The invisible atmospheric vor tex does its work in 30 seconds or less and generates a high-pitched humming sound. The complex nature of these vortices is attested to by the rare ringed circles and multiple patterns. Both single- and double-ringed circles are known. The wind direction always alternates from central circle to first ring to second ring. The most common multiple patterns consist of large central circles flanked by two or four, smaller satellite circles, all nicely spaced. In the quintuplets, all five circles are usually flattened clockwise, but one case has presented theorists with four counterclockwise circles accompanied by a single improbable clockwise circle! (Meaden, G.T .; "The Mystery of Spiral-Circle Ground Patterns in Crops Made by a Natural Atmospheric-Vortex Phenomenon," Journal of Meteorology, U.K ., 13:203, 1988.) Quintuplet pattern in barley crop, west Wiltshire, 1987 From Science Frontiers #60, ...
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... -under-Edge, England. "There had been thunder about, but the clouds were high, and there was intermittent sunshine. I was at work with a friend of mine, sawing logs, in one part of the garden. My wife was picking beans, about 80 yards away. Without any kind of warning, there was a violent detonation overhead, at what might have been tree-height. Service in war enables one to describe an explosion better than those whose experience is limited to Guy Fawkes' Day. This seemed to me about the same as an air-burst from a German 88 mm high velocity gun. My friend and I took it to be lightning; but neither of us saw any flash -- perhaps because we were both looking downwards at the time. "Shortly afterwards, my wife appeared, dazed and shaken. The explosion had evidently been closer to her, for she (having served in the WRNS) was reminded of an ammunition ship blowing up 'whoosh,' suggestive of a very high speed aircraft flying very low. That is what she momentarily thought it was, coming from the ridge of the Cotswold escarpment, under which this house lies; and she instinctively ducked. Immediately before the detonation, there seemed to her to be a sound not unlike machine-gun fire; and there was a movement of the air which disturbed the surface of the soil where she was working. She also saw no flash. For some hours afterwards she had a massive headache. "Two near neighbors of ours observed the explosion, ...
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... of X-rays reveal the presence of an ultradense star and an orbiting companion. The rapid orbital motion of the companion star tells us that the central X-ray star has a mass of more than three suns. General Relativity assures us that such a star can only collapse further to form a black hole. Therefore, black holes must exist. J. McClintock, the author of this article, does not buy this reasoning. General Relativity, he says, has been shown to be valid so far only in weak gravitational fields, not in the very powerful gravitational fields of an X-ray star. ". .. we presume that Einstein's theory correctly describes strong gravity when we argue that certain X-ray stars are black holes, yet, at the same time, these alleged black holes are the acid test of Einstein's theory of strong gravity." (McClintock, Jeffrey; "Do Black Holes Exist?" Sky and Telescope, 75:30, 1988.) Comment. The long history of science teaches us that all theories are eventually displaced by more accurate, more all-inclusive formulations. Unfortunately, this makes textbook writing difficult. From Science Frontiers #56, MAR-APR 1988 . 1988-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... for which an explanation within the framework of known physics does not appear to be possible." Arp played this game for 29 years at the Mount Wilson and Palomar Observatories. He compiled the marvelous Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies, and was once rated among the top 20 astronomers. But he kept finding Anomalies -- apparently-associated celestial objects with different redshifts. More and more he began to believe and (perhaps recklessly) assert that some redshifts are not cosmological; that is, a measure of recessional velocity and distance. Soon, his rating dropped from the "upper 20" to "under 200". The final (and disgraceful) blow came about four years ago, when he received an unsigned letter stating that his work was without value and that he could have no more telescope time! Arp now lives in West Germany. (Burbidge, Geoffrey; "Quasars, Redshifts, and Controversies," Sky and Telescope, 75:38, 1988.) Comment. More political details may be found in Arp's book. Is Arp a martyrin-the-making? You bet he is! Burbidge, an admitted Arp sympathizer, suggests that the "Arp Effect" is only the tip of the iceberg. In closing his review, he invokes the ghost of Alfred Wegener, who had the temerity to suggest that continents could drift. From Science Frontiers #56, MAR-APR 1988 . 1988-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... 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 ...
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... than outer stars, resulting in a spiral that gradually winds up as the galaxy ages. But observations of spiral galaxies at various distances -- and thus at different stages in their evolution -- have shown that this is not the case. Astronomers believe density waves, stochastic star formation, or perhaps a combination of both processes may sustain or regenerate the spiral pattern." Density waves have recently been applied to explain the spiral rings of Saturn, and now to the arms of spiral galaxies. The density waves are thought to stimulate the condensation of bright new stars as they move through space. A good analogy is the bioluminescent wake of ship in tropical waters. The density waves in a galaxy maintain the spiral pattern with new stars, while the old stars die out (in much less time than it takes for them to orbit the hub) as they orbit out of the spiral pattern. Postulating density waves just raises more questions, as is often the case in science. What causes the density waves? Theory says that the density waves should damp out in under a billion years, yet we see spiral galaxies over a wide range of ages. (Comins, Neil, and Marscall, Laurence; "How Do Spiral Galaxies Spiral?" Astronomy, 15:7 , December 1987.) Comment. The scientifically outrageous resolution of the winding dilemma is to assert that the universe is so young that the spiral patterns have not yet been dispersed. Interestingly enough, Saturn's rings may turn out to be very young, too! Reference. The anomalous rotation of matter ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 13 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf055/sf055p07.htm
