2 results found containing all search terms. 170 results found containing some search terms.
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 27: May-Jun 1983 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects How Trees Talk To One Another Trees talk only in children's cartoons -- that's currently accepted wisdom. But when trees attacked by caterpillars sound an alarm that other trees in the vicinity detect and heed, some sort of communication system seems required. The evidence is found in trees that react to caterpillar attack or leaf damage by making their leaves harder to digest. When one tree is attacked, not only does it start making less nutritious leaves but so do other trees as far as 200 feet away. No root connections have been found. In tests with potted maples and poplars inside plexiglass enclosures, the attack warning got through to trees in the same chamber but not to control trees outside the plexiglass. Thus, the warning seems to be transmitted by air -- probably chemically. David Rhoades is conducting further research at the University of Washington. (Boling, Rick; "Tree ESP," Omni, p. 42, December 1982. Cr. P. Gunkel) Comment. Question: How is the message received, decoded, and turned into biological action? If we could set up chemical "antennas" in the air around us, what other revealing messages would we "hear"? From Science Frontiers #27, MAY-JUN 1983 . 1983-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf027/sf027p05.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 38: Mar-Apr 1985 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Ancient Engineering Feat Current excavations at Shringaverapura, in Uttar Pradesh, have brought to light a huge, well-preserved water tank about 800 feet long. At its widest point, the tank is about 60 feet wide and 12 feet deep. The entire complex in brick-lined and includes a large settling tank for water diverted from the River Ganga. During the dry season, additional water was supplied from a series of dug wells. This immense system of channels, walls, access stairways, etc. is about 2,000 years old. (Lal, B.B .; "A 2,000-Year-Old Feat of Hydraulic Engineering in India," Archaeology, 38:48, January/February 1985.) From Science Frontiers #38, MAR-APR 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf038/sf038p02.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 27: May-Jun 1983 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Ogham Inscriptions in West Virginia? An Earthen Stonehenge Astronomy Anomalous Redshifts (Again) Biology A Compass in Our Sinuses? How Trees Talk to One Another Does Ri = Mermaid? Great Balls of Snakes Geology The Solar-system Dust Bin Hushing Up the Guadeloupe Skeleton Geophysics Electromagnetic Noise Prior to Earthquakes The Current Anomalous El Nino ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf027/index.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 76: Jul-Aug 1991 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology An ancient egyptian ship in australia? THE MEXICAN SELLOS: POSSIBLE EVIDENCE FOR EARLY EUROPEAN CONTACTS The orogrande, nm, site Astronomy Catastrophic flooding on mars? Will earth's rings return? Biology Ants as "excitable subunits" Eight leatherback mysteries FLYING, PARACHUTING, AND FALLING FROGS Geology Baby oil UNDERGROUND CURRENT ELECTRIFIES AUSTRALIA Geophysics Atlantic's waves getting bigger Subterranean "circles" Psychology PSI EFFECTS IN THE SACRIFICE OF MARINE ALGAE Physics COLD FUSION: NEW EXPERIMENTS AND THEORIES NEW INSIGHTS AS TO THE STRUCTURE OF MATTER ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf076/index.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 41: Sep-Oct 1985 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects California Skeletons Not So Old After All About a decade ago, considerable controversy erupted when some obviously old human skeletons were dated at 37,000, 44,000, and even 70,000 BP by a new dating technique called Aspartic Acid Racemization (AAR). Conventional radioactive dating had put all of these skeletons at well under 10,000 BP, well within bounds of the Bering Strait migration hypothesis. The early AAR dates were thus at odds with current archeological thinking and, in addition, very encouraging to those who believed that humans occupied North America long before 10,000 BP. J.L . Bada, a proponent of AAR dating, now states that the controversial AAR dates were based on calibration skeletons which had been erroneously dated by radioactive methods. It seems that AAR dating requires an accurately dated reference skeleton. With the reference skeleton dates now known to be incorrect, Bada had to recalibrate his AAR dating scheme. The reference skeletons were therefore redated using a more accurate radioactive technique. All of the incredibly ancient skeletons have now been redated by AAR methods using the revised reference skeletons. The 37,000 BP date now becomes a reasonable 5,100 2000 BP figure. The AAR dating crisis seems to be over. All anomalies have been expunged. (Bada, Jeffrey L.; "Aspartic Acid Racemization Ages of California Paleoindian Skeletons," American Antiquity, 50:645, 1985.) From ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf041/sf041p03.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 71: Sep-Oct 1990 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Nature Communicates In Mysterious Ways Most of us will recall that the wings of butterflies and moths sometimes display eyespots, which, according to current thinking, are designed to startle potential predators. Perhaps so, but butterfly and moth wings can convey a wide range of "signals." K.B . Sandved, a nature photographer, has also found remarkable renditions of all the letters in the English alphabet (one at a time, of course) on the wings of these insects. In fact, he has accomplished this several times over using different species. He has found all the Arabic numerals, too, as well as ampersands, question marks -- you name it! Although Greek pi and capital omega have turned up, butterflies and maths are clearly trying to impress people who utilize the Roman alphabet. After all, it is difficult enough to evolve an ampersand; generating Chinese characters would strain credulity too much. (Amato, Ivan; "Insect Inscriptions," Science News, 137: 376, 1990.) Comments. Incidentally, of what survival value are these wing symbols? Obviously, the butterflies and moths have not got their act completely together as yet. Words and phrases will come soon, we are certain. Look at the eggplants for example. They have specialized in Arabic. It has recently been reported in British newspapers and on BBC Radio 4 that when the Kassam family sliced up an eggplant, ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf071/sf071b08.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 69: May-Jun 1990 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Megawalls Across The Cosmos "The universe is crossed by at least 13 vast 'walls' of galaxies, separated by about 420 million light years, according to a team of British and American researchers. The walls seem to be spaced in a very regular way that current theories of the origin of the universe cannot explain." "Walls" of galaxies emerge when galaxy separation distance is plotted against the number of galaxies possessing specific separation distances. (128 million parsecs = 420 million light years). The astronomers have collected observations of galaxy redshifts along a linear "borehole" through the universe 7 billion light years long centered on the earth. If the redshifts are assumed to be measures of distance (as mainstream thinking demands), one gets the clumping effect seen in the accompanying illustration. (Henbest, Nigel; "Galaxies Form 'Megawalls' across Space," New Scientist, p. 37, March 19, 1990.) Comment. Not mentioned in the above article are the papers by W.G . Tifft on quantized redshifts. (See SF#50, for example.) It will be interesting to learn if "boreholes" pointed in other directions will encounter the same megawalls. If they do, the earth will be enclosed by shells of galaxies, much as some elliptical galaxies are surrounded by shells of stars. Wouldn't it be hilarious if the earth were at the center of these concentric ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf069/sf069a03.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 64: Jul-Aug 1989 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Bimini Archeological Anomalies Bimini offshore features. C marks regular blocks. E indicates ancient beach lines. F is the current shore. G is forested shore. See text for A, B and D. The famous Bimini "wall" or "road," in the Bahamas, has engendered many a sensational article in the popular press. Atlanteans and even extraterrestrials have been credited with the building of the "road" and other constructions reported around the Caribbean island. The fact is that the "road" does exist, but the weight of opinion among those who have investigated it is that it is a natural formation of beach rock fractured in a disturbingly regular manner. But this assessment does not mean that all anomalies in the shallows around Bimini have been exorcised. D.G . Richards, in a splendid article in the Journal of Scientific Exploration gives us a blow-by-blow account of the investigations (both amateur and professional) of Bimini waters. It is a curious panorama of wild claims by adherents of the Cayce-inspired Atlantis searchers and the knee-jerk academic scoffers - both of which go overboard! Be this as it may, our purpose here is the recording of some of the features near Bimini that Richards thinks are still anomalous. Three of these are located at A, B, and D in the accompanying drawing, which is based on an aerial photo taken at 6,000 feet. ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf064/sf064a01.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 25: Jan-Feb 1983 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Three "proofs" of a young earth Responding to letters published in the June 1982 issue of Physics Today that insisted (some, very emotionally) that no evidence exists for a very young earth, Robert V. Gentry summarized three kinds of evidence that certainly seem to undermine current dating schemes. Halos produced by the alpha particles emitted by Po218 are found in granite rocks in many areas. Yet, the half-life of Po218 is only 3 minutes. Since the Po218 has no identifiable pre-cursors in the rock, ". .. how did the surrounding rocks crystalize rapidly enough so that there were crystals available ready to be imprinted with radiohalos by alpha-particles from Po218 ? This would imply almost instantaneous cooling and crystallization of these granitic minerals -- and we know of no mechanism that will remove heat so rapidly; the rocks are supposed to have cooled over millennia, if not tens of millennia." In coalified wood dated as older than 200 million years, the ratio between U238 and Pb206 should be low. It is actually very high. "Thus ages of the entire stratigraphic column may contain epochs less than 0.001% the duration of those now accepted and found in the literature." Diffusion calculations insist that Pb in zircon crystals found in deep granite cores at 313 C should diffuse out of the crystals at the rate of 1% in 300,000 years. No loss of Pb can ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf025/sf025p10.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 46: Jul-Aug 1986 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Tree-toting Extraordinaire Early Chinese Contacts with Australia? Astronomy Cosmic Currents Salt Structures on Venus? Halley's Comet Infected by Bacteria? Solar Neutrino Update Biology Spontaneous Human Combustion The Music of the Genes Are Fruit Bats Primates? Tigers in Western Australia? Geology Archaeopteryx and Forgery: Another Viewpoint More Paluxy Impressions Blackened, Broken Stones of the Middle East Which Came First? Geophysics The Moon and Avalanches Curious Luminous Display Over the Pacific Ocean Psychology When to Believe and When Not To Geomagnetic Stimulation of Poltergeist Activity ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf046/index.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 24: Nov-Dec 1982 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Africa Not Man's Origin! Early Chinese Voyages to Australia The Calico Site Revisited Astronomy Mysterious "thing" in Orbit Around Saturn The Spin We're In Islands of Hope for Life Eternal A Hint of Extraterrestrial Oceans Biology Why Cancer? Mice Transmit Human Gene Sequences to Their Progeny Biological Regeneration: Two Anomalies Geology Seismic Ghost Slithers Under California Powerful Earth Current Enters North America From the Pacific The Polyna Mystery Geophysics Balls of Fire Enter Room Through Metal Screens Massive Freak Wave Psychology The Cinema of the Mind ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf024/index.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 46: Jul-Aug 1986 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Blackened, broken stones of the middle east The current issue of Pursuit presents an article by Z. Sitchin in which he expounds his theory about ancient conflicts between gods and men. As evidence of this supposed strife, he reproduced a photograph of a plain in the Sinai Peninsula. Basically white limestone, the plain is thickly strewn with blackish, angular stones. Whence these immense quantities of incongruous stones? Sitchin proposes that they were created when an ancient spaceport was destroyed! (Sitchin, Zecharia; "The Wars of Gods and Men," Pursuit, 18:106, 1985.) Comment. Whatever one thinks of Sitchin's theory, the stones remain and must be accounted for. They are not the only such deposits in the Middle East. Velikovsky, in his Earth in Upheaval, states that 28 such rock fields are found in Arabia, some with areas of 6 or 7 thousand square miles. These are the "harras." Velikovsky thinks they are meteoric debris! Are there other explanations around? Reference. The blackened stones are just one variety of anomalous superficial aggregation of surface rocks. For more, see ESM1 in Neglected Geological Anomalies. Details here . From Science Frontiers #46, JUL-AUG 1986 . 1986-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf046/sf046p13.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 63: May-Jun 1989 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Peruvian geoglyphs A NEW LOOK AT THE BAT CREEK INSCRIPTION Explaining the "artifact gaps" Astronomy A HEX ON SATURN The planets are unpredictable Comets and life Life currents in space Some editorial pedantry Biology Caterpillars that look like what they eat A MAGNETIC SENSE IN MICE Taking the radon cure Trees talk in w-waves The language of life Geology More confusion at the k-t boundary Where on earth is the crust? Physics Cold fusion and anomalies ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf063/index.htm
... rocks, such as kimberlite. Many South African diamonds are mined from kimberlite pipes. Diamonds are never pure carbon; they always contain some nitrogen and boron. Occasionally, they harbor tiny radioactive impurities; usually alpha-particle emitters in the uranium-238 decay chain. Alphas emitted by these impurities have well-defined energies and penetrate the diamond matrix only so far. If one examines a diamond with a high-power microscope (say, at 100 x), one can see concentric rings surrounding the impurities. These dark radiohalos or "pleochroic" halos have specific radii and can be used to identify the radioisotopes that produced them. So far, so good; but: "The fact that fully formed, optically visible internal radiohalos in diamonds are now presented casts a considerable shadow over current theories of diamond genesis." Actually, the radiohalos pose three challenges to diamond-genesis theory. Problem 1. The half-lives of the halo-creating radioisotopes are measured in thousands of years rather than the billions prescribed for crystallization. In fact some of the half-lives are only minutes or days long. M.H . Armitage comments: "How could these halos become imprinted if the formative cooling processes involved require such lengthy intervals?" Problem 2. The radioactive impurities producing the radiohalos are very tiny -- about 2-4 micrometers in diameter -- and are highly concentrated. Armitage continues: "What is most difficult to understand is that many of these inclusions and impurities have much lower melting and boiling points than the diamonds in which they are found. ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf092/sf092g09.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 89: Sep-Oct 1993 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects RHYTHMIC SUBMARINE VOLCANOS AND EL NINOS An El Nino commences when a giant high pressure system centered near Easter Island weakens slightly and causes a shift in the circulation of Pacific Ocean currents. Weather patterns from North America to Australia lurch ponderously in sympathy. El Ninos occur every 4-7 years, suggesting some periodic phenomenon is waving a geophysical baton. The real cause of El Ninos is still obscure. However, the recent discovery of over 1,000 previously unmapped submarine volcanos rising from the seafloor in the eastern Pacific may lead to El Nino's source. The synchronous eruption of, say, 100 of these volcanos might warm the ocean around Easter Island a tad -- just enough to warm the atmosphere above a bit -- resulting in a shift of the high pressure area. The area of intense volcanic activity covers 55,000 square miles of sea floor where the Pacific and Nazca plates are separating. In addition to the active volcanos, many plumes of 800 F water gush from the sea floor in this area. The volcano-El Nino link is, therefore, not so far-fetched. (Nash, Nathaniel C.; "Volcano Group in Pacific May Cause El Nino," Pittsburgh Post Gazette, February 14, 1993. Cr. E. Fegert) Comment. If submarine volcanos do cause the El Ninos, and the El Ninos are periodic, the submarine volcanism would have to be periodic, ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf089/sf089g10.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 94: Jul-Aug 1994 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Our genes aren't us!Almost without exception, biology textbooks, scientific papers, popular articles, and TV documentaries convey the impression that an organism's genes completely specify the living animal or plant. In most people's minds, the strands of DNA are analogous to computer codes that control the manufacture and disposition of proteins. Perhaps our current fascination with computers has fostered this narrow view of heredity. Do our genes really contain all the information necessary for constructing human bodies? In the April 1994 issue of Discover, J. Cohen and I. Stewart endeavor to set us straight. The arguments against the "genes-are-everything" paradigm are long and complex, but Cohen and Stewart also provide some simple, possibly simplistic observations supporting a much broader view of genetics. Mammalian DNA contains fewer bases than amphibian DNA, even though mammals are considered more complex and "advanced." The implication is that "DNA-as-a -message" must be a flawed metaphor. Wings have been invented at least four times by divergent classes (pterosaurs, insects, birds, bats); and it is very unlikely that there is a common DNA sequence that specifies how to manufacture a wing. The connections between the nerve cells comprising the human brain represent much more information than can possibly be encoded in human DNA. A caterpillar has the same DNA as the butterfly it eventually becomes. Ergo, something ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf094/sf094b10.htm
... . 96: Nov-Dec 1994 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects "ADAPTIVE" MUTATION Six years ago, J. Cairns performed experiments with bacteria that implied that said bacteria could "direct" their own mutations so that they could cope more speedily with sudden environmental trauma. (SF#64) In Cairns' experiments, bacteria unable to digest lactose were presented with an all-lactose diet. They quickly acquired the mutations needed to digest the only food available. They did not have to wait for random mutations to accidentally hit upon the correct genome changes. A firestorm spread across the scientific community, even though other researchers saw similar effects. It was traumatic! One of science's foundation stones was at risk. The current theory of biological evolution insists that all mutations are random. Cairns believed he had shown that his bacteria experienced only useful mutations. This claim was too awful to accept. In the July 21, 1994, issue of Science, two new papers appeared that, while not proving that only useful mutations occur in Cairns-type experiments, do indicate that something unusual is indeed happening. Basically, when bacteria are under stress (say, starving), a "distinctive" type of mutation occurs! Is "distinctive" a code word for "non-random"? The title of the commentary accompanying the two articles says it all. (Culotta, Elizabeth; "A Boost for 'Adaptive' Mutation," Science, 265:318, 1994.) From Science Frontiers # ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf096/sf096b08.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 97: Jan-Feb 1995 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The 627-foot water slide between australia and india The world ocean, when viewed close-up from ship or airplane, displays the familiar microstructure of waves and currents. The view from a satellite, thousands of miles up, is startling to say the least. Huge bulges hundreds of feet high and hundreds of miles in extent appear when satellite radar altimeter data are plotted. Equally large depressions in the ocean surface also show up -- none obvious to surface observers. This unexpected macrostructure of the ocean surface is shaped by variations in the strength of the earth's gravitational field and sea-bottom terrain. Wherever the gravitational field is stronger, it creates a depression on the fluid surface. German geophysicists, in fact, have drawn a global map of the ocean's large-scale topography, as measured from the European Space Agency's ERS-1 satellite. The surface of the world ocean departs wildly from a smooth sphere. On their colored map: "Brilliant pink and red areas are continental-size mounds of water most notable northeast of Australia, where the sea topography is up to 85 meters (280 ft.) higher than the standard ocean level. Just to the west near India, deep blue indicates a 105-meter (346-ft.) deep depression in the sea surface. Major differences in the gravity fields and terrain underlying the two regions cause a variation of 190 meters ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf097/sf097g10.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 23: Sep-Oct 1982 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Where are the primordial stars?Down the years, astronomers have been able to divide almost all stars into two groups: Population I, made up of young stars enriched by the products of their ancestors; and Population II, those relatively older ancestor stars containing more hydrogen and fewer heavier elements. Population I, according to present thinking, was formed out of the "ashes" of Population-II stars. What is missing from the picture are PopulationIII stars -- stars almost devoid of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium, and formed while the Big Bang was still echoing throughout the cosmos. Current astrophysical theory requires "ashes" from Population III to create Population II. Do the astronomers find any primordial Population-III stars kicking around? Hardly a handful; not nearly enough to satisfy the prevailing model of stellar evolution. One explanation is that Population-III stars have been around long enough to collect a camouflaging veneer of metallic debris. Some astronomers surmise that Population-III stars are truly extinct for some unknown reason. (Anonymous; "Where Is Population III?" Sky and Telescope, 64:19, 1982.) From Science Frontiers #23, SEP-OCT 1982 . 1982-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf023/sf023p04.htm
... Project Sourcebook Subjects Astronomers up against the "great wall"" For more than a decade now, astronomers have been haunted by a sense that the universe is controlled by forces they don't understand. And now comes a striking confirmation: 'The Great Wall.'" The Great Wall is the largest known structure in the universe at present, having superceded sundry superclusters and clusters of superclusters. The Wall is a "thin" (15 million-light-year) sheet of galaxies 500 million light years long by 200 wide; and it may extend even farther. It is emplaced some 200-300 million light years from earth. It helps outline contiguaous parts of vast "bubbles" of nearly empty space. Both the Wall and the adjacent voids are just too large for current theories to deal with. All popular theories have great difficulties in accounting for such large inhomogeneities. To illustrate an important observable -- the 2.7 K cosmic background radiation -- which is usually described as the afterglow of the Big Bang, ar gues for a very smooth, uniform distribution of galaxies. Great Walls are definitely anomalous. M.J . Geller, codiscoverer of the Great Wall with J.P . Huchra, remarked: "My view is that there is something fundamentally wrong in our approach to understanding such large-scale structure -- some key piece of the puzzle that we're missing." (Waldrop, M. Mitchell; "Astronomers Go Up against the Great Wall," Science, 246:885, 1989.) Also: Geller ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf067/sf067a08.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 21: May-Jun 1982 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Natural lasers in the terrestrial and martian skies?In a current laser patent dispute, one side claims that a certain laser patent is invalid because natural phenomena cannot be patented under U.S . law. It seems that last year, Michael Mumma and colleagues at Goddard Space Flight Center and the University of Maryland discovered a 10-micrometer (infrared) laser in the Martian atmosphere. This laser is located about 75 kilometers above the surface, is optically pumped by the sun, and radiates an astonishing 101 2 watts. The terrestrial atmosphere may contain a natural 4.3 -micrometer laser, for auroras are accompanied by very intense molecular emissions at this wavelength. (Raloff, J.; "Gould Laser Patent Ruled Invalid -- So Far," Science News, 121: 199, 1982.) From Science Frontiers #21, MAY-JUN 1982 . 1982-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf021/sf021p06.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 101: Sep-Oct 1995 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects "ALMOST INCONCEIVABLE" CHANGES IN THE GEOMAGNETIC FIELD A decade ago, a trio of geophysicists published a group of papers based on their measurements of the remnant magnetism of the 16-million-year-old layered lava flows at Steens Mountain, Oregon. (SF#45) At that time, they claimed that these finely bedded lava flows testified that, during a field reversal, the earth's field swung around at the astonishing rate of 3 per day! This rate is about one thousand times the current rate of polar drift. Mainstream geophysicists could not believe the 3 /day figure because it implied incredibly rapid changes in the flow of those molten materials within the earth that supposedly generate the geomagnetic field. The Steens Mountain data were "tabled"; that is, dismissed. The three researchers, though, continued their labors at Steens Mountain and have now offered additional, even more impressive data. They now find that the geomagnetic field probably shifted as much as 6 in a single day. Their work has been carried forward so professionally and meticulously that other scientists are finding their conclusions harder and harder to dismiss. Instead, the search is on for explanations of the rapid field changes. Three possibilities have been advanced -- all of them unpalatable to geophysicists: The Steens Mountain rocks are not faithful recorders of the main geomagnetic field. Should this be actually so, the whole field of paleomagnetism, including plate tectonics ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf101/sf101g11.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 20: Mar-Apr 1982 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Something hot beneath small saturn-satellite surfaces Crater-density studies of the small, icy Saturn satellites Rhea, Dione, Mimas, and Tethys reveal important non-uniformities in crater distribution and age. The anomalies are so large that astronomers have concluded that these objects must have undergone considerable evolution after they were formed by accretion (the currently accepted mode of formation). Unfortunately these four satellites are so small that they could not have accommodated any reasonable energy source capable of causing the observed crustal evolution. The authors suggest strong local concentrations of radioactive heat generators rather than uniformly distributed radiogenic substances, such as those that helped mould the earth's surface. (Plescia, J.B ., and Boyce, J.M .; "Crater Densities and Geological Histories of Rhea, Dione, Mimas and Tethys," Nature, 295:285, 1982.) Comment. Interestingly enough, local concentrations of radioactivity have been discovered on the moon. From Science Frontiers #20, MAR-APR 1982 . 1982-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf020/sf020p03.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 86: Mar-Apr 1993 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Cloud Plumes Natural But Still A Bit Anomalous During the mid-1980s, satellites photographed strange cloud plumes that stretched hundreds of kilometers downwind of some nothern islands, especially Bennett Island, in the Soviet Arctic. Some wondered if perhaps the Soviets were conducting tests of some new type of weapon in these remote locations. With the end of the Cold War, flights of instrumented aircraft over the islands were permitted. Data from these flights support the idea that the mystery cloud plumes are formed by air currents passing over the islands. In other words, they are only orographic or mountaincaused clouds, like those sometimes seen over the Rockies. But puzzles persist: Why are the plumes so long? Why do they form at such high altitudes -- more than 3 kilometers above the tops of the relatively small mountains on the islands? (Monastersky, R.; "Mountains Give Rise to Perplexing Plumes," Science News, 141:422, 1992. Also: Fett, Robert W.; "Major Cloud Plumes in the Arctic and Their Relation to Fronts and Ice Movements," Monthly Weather Review , 120: 925, 1992.) From Science Frontiers #86, MAR-APR 1993 . 1993-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf086/sf086g14.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 68: Mar-Apr 1990 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Crop Circle Craze Continues Trying to maintain our sanity during the current crop-circle flap, we have adhered closely to reports in the conservative Journal of Meteorology, U.K . But don't imagine that wilder accounts are not surfacing in the newspapers. Two accounts should suffice. Australia. "Three frightened farmers believe a gigantic UFO landed last week on their Victorian wheat property. "A pattern of five perfect circles - in which unbroken wheat stalks swirl anticlockwise - have been found on the 9000- hectare farm, West Park, run by Max and Nancee Jolly and their son Stuart, 29. "The startling discovery comes only weeks after the family's 700 sheep were panicked by a huge yellow object pulsating above the paddocks in western Victoria's Mallee region." (Pickney, John; "Sheep Panicked by Eerie Light in Fields," Melbourne Truth, December 16, 1989. Cr. P. Norman via L. Farish) Canada. "Argyle, Man. - There's a mystery on Ray Crawford's land and stumped investigators say anything from bizarre weather phenomena to visitors from outer space could have put it there. "Sometime in the past year, an almost perfect circle was gouged out of a remote patch of the elderly cattle farmer's property, 30 kilometres north of Winnipeg, on the edge of the rockstrewn scrub and bush that comprise the region between Lake Manitoba and ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf068/sf068g15.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 107: Sep-Oct 1996 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects "NOT WITH A BANG BUT A WHIMPER"Poet T.S . Eliot speculated that life on earth might not after all be terminated catastrophically, as in the impact of a large asteroid (today's popular doomsday machine). Rather, we might depart slowly, quietly, and mournfully. Of course, Eliot was not thinking of asteroids -- no one foresaw impact havoc in his day. But, his use of the word "whimper" can be attached to another, much slower astronomical agent of planetary death: cosmic dust and gas. Here's the current situation: "For the most part of the past five million years, the Solar System has been moving through a rather empty region of interstellar space between the spiral arms of the Milky Way. But a few thousand years ago, it entered a diffuse shell of material expanding outward from an active star-forming region called the Scorpius-Centaurus Association. Such 'super-bubble' shells of gas and dust result from the formation of massive stars, or the explosion of those stars as they become supernovas, and contain gas and dust clouds of varying densities." The density of matter in this solarsystem-engulfing shell could well shroud our planetary system with dust and gas a million times more dense than that we now encounter. If this happens, the sun's rays would slowly dim and life forms dependent on photosynthesis would expire. ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf107/sf107p05.htm
... 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 On The Trail Of The Fifth Force Well publicized lately has been the modern reanalysis of the old Eotvos balance experiments. Some think they show the presence of that famous "fifth force" which is supposed, according to some theories, to modify Newton's Law of Gravitation, and become measurable at distances of about 100 to 1000 meters. The Eotvos results may also be explicable in terms of laboratory air currents. But the fifth force may be showing up in geophysical experiments. "One of the most comprehensive geophysical experiments so far has been conducted by Frank Stacey at University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, and his colleagues. Working in two metal mines, the researchers have measured a gravitational constant that is 0.7 percent greater than that measured in the laboratory -- suggesting the presence of a fifth force." (Weisburd, Stefi; "Geophysics on the Fifth Force's Trail," Science News, 131: 6, 1987.) From Science Frontiers #50, MAR-APR 1987 . 1987-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf050/sf050p23.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 10: Spring 1980 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Double hubble: age in trouble A key concept in modern astronomy -- the distance scale -- has been challenged by a new measurement technique. In recent years, the so-called Hubble Constant has been used to determine the distances of the farthest observable galaxies and, by assuming that they are near the periphery of the expanding universe, obtaining the age of the cosmos by dividing distance by the speed of light. Until this current challenge, the age of the universe was generally taken as about 20 billion years. The "old" Hubble Constant, however, was determined from the measurements of the distances to rather close galaxies and then assuming that the Constant thus derived held for the entire universe. The new yardstick reaches farther out into space. It is based upon the observation that the broadening of galaxy's 21-centimeter radio emission depends upon its rate of rotation, plus the belief that the rate of rotation is proportional to its brightness! This "new" Hubble Constant is 95 kilometers/second/ megaparsec, which translates into an age of only 10 billion years for the universe. Both the 10-billion-year and 20billion-year camps claim strong supporting evidence for themselves and also point to serious difficulties in the opposing method. The stage is thus set for a delightful controversy. (Hartline, Beverly Karplus; "Double Hubble: Age in Trouble," Science, 207: 167, 1979.) ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf010/sf010p03.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 111: May-Jun 1997 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Tobacco And Cocaine In Ancient Egypt The current newsletter of the New England Antiquities Research Association has flagged an important anomaly that appeared on a 1997 TV program. "In January [1997] the Discovery Channel broadcast a program stating that cocaine and tobacco had been found in Egyptian mummies known to be at least 3,000 years old. Tests used modern forensic methods and were repeated many times under carefully controlled conditions. Since coca and tobacco are not known to have grown anywhere other than the Americas, the evidence points to trade routes across the Pacific or Atlantic in those remote times. The program seemed to favor a Pacific crossing and then delivery via the Silk Route. Watch for a rebroadcast." This news item continued with a reference to Dr. Balabanov's supporting tests on bodies from China, Germany and Austria, spanning the years 3,700 BC to 1100 AD. These bodies contained incredibly high percentages of nicotine. (Ross, Priscilla; NEARA Transit, 9:5 , Spring 1997.) Comment. In SF#7 /48, back in 1978, we reported that the mummy of Rameses II contained anomalous traces of nicotine. From Science Frontiers #111, MAY-JUN 1997 . 1997-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf111/sf111p01.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 77: Sep-Oct 1991 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Mercury: the impossible planet Mercury, largely hidden in the sun's glare, also conceals beneath its baked, cratered surface: (1 ) far more iron than solar-system theory allows; and (perhaps) (2 ) a dynamo that should not exist. Let us take the excess-iron problem first. Mercury's density is 5.44 (compared to earth's 5.52), so that it very likely contains much iron. Our moon, which resembles Mercury in size and external appearance, only has a density of 3.34, implying an altogether different origin. In the currently accepted theory of solar-system formation, all of the planets and their satellites condensed from a primordial disk of dust sur rounding the just-formed sun. The planets closer to the solar inferno lost more of their easily vaporized constituents due to the sun's heat. The cooler, outer planets were able to retain large amounts of ices. In this scenario, we would expect Mercury to be rich in iron and rocks. This seems to be the case, but it has too iron to fit the theory. Astronomers have tried to save the theory by supposing that a large asteroid sideswiped Mercury tearing off part of its outer layer of lighter rocks, leaving the heavier iron core untouched. The theory doesn't say what happened to the debris from this colossal collision. As for Mercury ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf077/sf077a03.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 17: Fall 1981 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Shergottites and nakhlites: young and mysterious The shergottites and nakhlites are two types of meteorites that have scientists scratching their heads. Both types have been dated by various radioactive clocks at 1,300 million years or less -- far younger than all other meteorites. Where could such young meteorites have originated? The asteroids and moon's surface are far too old. A current guess is the surface of Mars. There, an impacting meteor could have blasted pieces of young lava sheets in space and thence to earth. The shergottites have a shocked structure and could well have originated in such catastrophism, but the nakhlites show no signs of violence and seem to require a separate explanation. (Anonymous; "Mystery Meteorites May Come from Mars," New Scientist, 91:219, 1981.) From Science Frontiers #17, Fall 1981 . 1981-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf017/sf017p08.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 48: Nov-Dec 1986 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Geophysiology The concept of the earth-as-an-organism -- the so-called Gaia hypothesis -- keeps popping up. We now have an excellent progress report on current Gaia research; e.g ., the Daisyworld model; by J.E . Lovelock. He defines Gaia in an early paragraph: "In the early 1970s, Lynn Margulis and I introduced the Gaia hypothesis. It postulated the earth to be a self-regulating system comprising the biota and their environment, with the capacity to maintain the climate and the chemical composition at a steady state favorable for life." L. Margulis is an author of Micro-Cosmos and a champion of evolution-via-endosymbiosis; that is, diverse organisms uniting to create new species. Going back to Lovelock's review, there is little that is anomalous on a small scale. Of course, on a large-scale, the data supporting the concept of life-as-a -whole manipulating the atmosphere, oceans, etc., to perpetuate and perhaps improve itself are highly anomalous, because the Gaia hypothesis is far out of the scientific mainstream. (Lovelock, James E.; "Geophysiology," American Meteorological Society, Bulletin, 67:392, 1986.) Comment. Our secret purpose here is to use the Lovelock article as an excuse to out-Gaia Gaia! Lovelock's article plus those preceding on ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf048/sf048p09.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 49: Jan-Feb 1987 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Enormous Stellar Shell Raises Theoretical Questions "Stars tend to lose material to the space that surrounds them. Some of this loss is gradual and continuous -- the so-called stellar winds. Some is abrupt -- the sudden blowing off of a surface layer that then forms a shell around the star. A group of astronomers now reports in the Nov. 15 Astrophysical Journal the discovery of an especially large, cool shell around the star R Coronae Borealis. How this shell was formed and what makes it glow are both mysteries for which current theory does not seem to have answers." The newly discovered shell is 26 light-years across, roughly 20 times larger than previously discovered shells. If our sun were in the center, the shell would encompass the nearest 50 stars! The usual stellar shells glow as they absorb and reemit radiation from their parent stars, but the R Coronae Borealis shell, given its distance from its star, cannot be explained in this way. (Thomsen, D.E .; "Enormous Stellar Shell Raises Theoretical Questions," Science News, 130:333, 1986.) From Science Frontiers #49, JAN-FEB 1987 . 1987-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf049/sf049p03.htm
... the unexplained sometimes include a photograph of a huge marine creature identified as a sea monster. This famous photo is real and so is the monster in it. But this creature is not reptilian; it is really a salp, a colonial tunicate. Tunicates are tiny, primitive marine organisms usually classified as invertebrates. Some species of tunicates have somehow acquired the habit of aggregating in immense numbers to create long, hollow, snake-like tubes called "salpa." Salps may reach lengths of 45 feet, with diameters of 3 feet. No wonder they are falsely identified as sea monsters. Structurally, the tunicates comprising the salp are embedded in a gelatinous wall facing inward. Each possesses a siphon that pumps nutrient-carrying sea water. Working in unison, the tunicates create a surprisingly strong current of sea water through the tube, and the salp becomes jet-propelled. Thus, we have a mobile monster, but no ship-swallowing leviathan. (Griffin, D.J .G ., and Yaldwyn, J.C .; "Giant Colonies of Pelagic Tunicates..," Nature, 226:464, 1970) Slime molds. Moving down life's ladder to even smaller and simpler organisms, some amoebas have a bizarre life cycle that ends as a superorganism called a "slime mold." If you viewed an amoeba through the microscope in biology lab, you know that they are very tiny, very simple, and most certainly not very bright. But given enough food, some species of amoeba divide and keep dividing until they clump together in ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf133/sf133p08.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 17: Fall 1981 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Mysteries Around Uranus August 15, 1980. European Southern Observatory, La Silla, Chile. Using the 3.6 -meter reflector and a photoelectric detector, astronomers recorded the occultation of a star by Uranus. The currently recognized rings of Uranus were duly noted as they dimmed the star's light, but so did seven other "objects." Observers at Las Campanas and Cerro Tololo, who were also monitoring the occultations, did see the seven extra occultations of the star. Clouds and faulty equipment have been ruled out. No one knows what caused the anomalies, (Anonymous; "More Mysteries of Uranus' Rings," Solar System Today, 3:56, 1981.) From Science Frontiers #17, Fall 1981 . 1981-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf017/sf017p02.htm
... From aircraft and satellites, one can see strong contrasts in the roughness of the ocean surface in the lee of those idyllic islands with their volcanic peaks that poke over 10,000 feet into the Pacific airstreams. These long streaks on the ocean surface are called "wind wakes." The wind wake leeward the Hawaii is spectacular. These islands are swept by steady northeast trade winds. Mauna Kea (4201 meters), Mauna Loa (4201 meters), and other Hawaiian peaks penetrate high above trade inversion. Together they create a visible wind wake some 3,000 kilometers long to the west -- many time-greater than any other island wind wakes to be seen on the planet. The effects of these soaring peaks are more than visual. Their wind wake drives an eastward ocean current that, in turn, draws warm water away from the Asian coast 8,000 kilometers distant from Hawaii. Thus, a few island mountains affect the climate of a continent a fifth of the way around the globe! (Xie, Shang-Ping, et al; "Far-Reaching Effects of the Hawaiian Islands on the Pacific Ocean-Atmosphere System," Science, 292:2057, 2001.) Comment. The Hawaiian wind wake is not anomalous but it is surely interesting. From Science Frontiers #137, SEP-OCT 2001 . 2001 William R. Corliss Other Sites of Interest SIS . Catastrophism, archaeoastronomy, ancient history, mythology and astronomy. Lobster . The journal of intelligence and political conspiracy (CIA, FBI, JFK, MI5, NSA, etc) ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf137/sf137p11.htm
... this redshift is interpreted as a measure of the quasar's distance (Who would risk his reputation by suggesting otherwise?), it is 14 or billion light years away. If the Big Bang is assumed (Who would risk..etc?), this quasar is only about a billion light years from the edge of the universe. Its age, then, is only a billion years. But this stripling of a quasar appears perfectly "normal" with no signs of youth! Its spectrum indicates that even at this young age, the elements were present in the same abundances found in older quasars. And, of course, at this quasar's core there must be a billion-solar-mass black hole (Who would risk..etc.?). Current theory is hardpressed to explain this very rapid evolution of a "normal" quasar with its immense black hole. (Peterson, I.; "Quasar Illuminates the Most Distant Past," Science News, 136: 340, 1989.) Comment. Could it be that our fanatically held ideas about redshifts, black holes, and Big Bangs are wrong? You bet it could! Reference. The redshift controversy the the anomalies that create it are cataloged in: Stars, Galaxies, Cosmos. Ordering information here . From Science Frontiers #67, JAN-FEB 1990 . 1990-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 14 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf067/sf067a06.htm
... community's acceptance of theories. This, after all, is what science is all about. It turns out that Alfven has made many correct scientific predictions. (He even shared a Nobel Prize in 1970.) But, as S.G . Brush has related in a detailed article in Eos, being correct is not the same as being accepted. "According to some scientists and philosophers of science, a theory is or should be judged by its ability to make successful predictions. This paper examines a case from the history of recent science - the research of Hannes Alfven and his colleagues on space plasma phenomena - in order to see whether scientists actually follow this policy. Tests of five pre-dictions are considered: magnetohydrodynamic waves, field-alligned (' Birkeland') currents, critical ionization velocity and the existance of planetary rings, electrostatic double layers, and partial corotation. It is found that the success or failure of these predictions had essentially no effect on the acceptance of Alfven's theories, even though concepts such as 'Alfven waves' have become firmly entrenched in space physics. Perhaps the importance of predictions in science has been exaggerated; if a theory is not acceptable to the scientific community, it may not gain any credit from successful predictions." Brush concludes that the continuing resistance to Alfven's work is due to the widely held opinion that his theory is not plausible; that is, it does not conform to the dominant paradigm. (Brush, Stephen G.; "Prediction and Theory Evaluation," Eos, 71:19 ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 14 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf070/sf070g19.htm
... "The sky was 'crystal clear' and there was brilliant moonlight, the Moon being 1 day past Full. An object approximately 0.5 -0 .75 the size of the Full Moon, but a dull, mottled red in colour, was observed to cross the sky from west to east in approximately 3 seconds. As it approached the area of the Moon it faded away, giving the impression of being drowned out by the moonlight. Mr. Scarlioli observed the object to be of an irregular shape and says that he could see it 'turning' as it moved along. No trail was left behind the object and there were no 'sparks' normally associated with the fragmentation of a fireball during the ablation process. No sound was heard from this object. There is currently no explanation for this event." (Anonymous; "Unexplained Event 1990 Sep 6, 2029 UT," Meteoros , 20:44, Autumn 1990.) From Science Frontiers #74, MAR-APR 1991 . 1991-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 14 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf074/sf074a03.htm
... Grone and M. Sher, the universe-as-a -whole may undergo a phase change. Such an event has already happened once and it may again. Approximately 10-10 seconds after the Big Bang, the force laws changed discontinuously as the universe cooled. Some models of the cosmos predict that another such phase change may occur when photons suddenly acquire mass. Grone and Sher have sketched the effects on terrestrial civilization: "The most dramatic effect would be the elimination of all static electric and magnetic fields over a range greater than 1 cm, and the elimination of all electromagnetic radiation with frequencies smaller than a few hundred gigahertz. We have shown that there would be relatively little impact on atomic structure and on solar radiation. The absence of electrostatic fields would force a redesign of current power plants (to use smaller solenoids); the absence of radio and television waves would force a much greater use of cables. The elimination of solar and geomagnetic fields would have a significant meteorological impact. The potential ly most devastating effect could be on the propagation of neural impulse along motor neurons; it appears that the effects might be small, but they do depend on the precise value of the photon mass." Crone and Sher conclude that the effect would be devastating to humanity but probably not fatal. (Crone, Mary M., and Sher, Marc; "The Environmental Impact of Vacuum Decay," American Journal of Physics, 59:25, 1991.) Comment. No TV; now that is fatal! From Science Frontiers #74, MAR-APR ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 14 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf074/sf074p17.htm
... Mesoamerica only 2500 years ago. Even so, trans-Pacific voyages 2500 years ago are definitely not part of acceptable archeology. Anthropologist P. Tolstoy, swimming against the mainstream, has surveyed the manufacturing technology of both bark paper and ordinary paper on a worldwide basis. He identified some 300 variable features in the process, 140 uses of the final products, and 100 specific details of bark beaters. Tolstoy concluded: "All this points to the direct transfer of technology from Southeast Asia to Mesoamerica, apparently by a sea voyage that took place about 2500 years ago." Tolstoy rejects the tapa (bark cloth) of Polynesia as a credible link between Southeast Asian and Mesoamerican barkpaper making. The technology transfer was not island-to-island but direct! Invoking Kon Tiki and the prevailing currents and winds, he postulates a 2500-year-old voyage swinging north of Hawaii along an islandless route to Mesoamerica. (Tolstoy, Paul; "Paper Route," Natural History, 100:6 , June 1991.) From Science Frontiers #77, SEP-OCT 1991 . 1991-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 14 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf077/sf077a02.htm
... 15.5 million years ago. The scientific "instruments" here are the cooling lava flows. As they solidify from the outside in, a process taking about 2 weeks for a 2meter-thick flow, the lava is magnetized in the direction of the field prevailing at the moment of solidification. We would thus have a 2-week continuous record of the behavior of the earth's field. Ordinarily, we would not expect to see very much change in 2 weeks; even a reversing field is thought to take thousands of years to complete its flip-flop. However, at Steens Mountain, when the field reversed 15.5 million years ago, the lava flows suggest that the field's axis was rotating 3-8 per day -- incredibly fast according to current thinking, in fact a thousand times faster than expected. The conundrum (one might call it a scientific impasse) arises because the flowing electrically conducting fluids that supposedly constitute the earth's dynamo would have to flow at speeds of several kilometers/hour. No one has ever contemplated molten rock moving at such speeds in the core! (Appenzeller, Tim; "A Conundrum at Steens Mountain," Science, 255:31, 1992. Lewin, Roger; "Earth's Field Flips Flipping Fast," New Scientist, p. 26, January 25, 1992.) Could it be that the prevailing dynamo theory is incorrect? To make matters more interesting, it now seems that the paths taken by the reversing poles follow similar routes with each flip-flop. ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 14 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf080/sf080g13.htm
... of the Bells," Readers Digest , p. 185, April 1992. Cr. J.B . Dotson.) Comment. Note the correlation of the sound with the green portion of the aurora. July 29, 1990. On Coll Island in Centennial Lake, 120 kilometers west of Ottawa. Watching an auroral display, L.R . Morris heard the sound of the aurora: "It was a faint but distant windlike sound; which, by process of elimination, could not be accounted for by any phenomenon other than the aurora." (Anonymous; "Auroral Sounds," Sky & Telescope , 83:105, January 1992. Cr. D. Snowhook.) Comment. Auroras have been heard for centuries, but they "shouldn't be." Current theory restricts auroral activity to altitudes above 50 miles, where a fair vacuum prevails, and sound generation and propagation are impossible. One explanation for auroral sounds is that intense electromagnetic waves created by the auroras sweep through the observer's brain and are rendered as sound (electrophonic sound). But perhaps some auroras reach down lower into the atmosphere than theory allows. See GSH3 in our catalog: Earthquakes, Tides, Unidentified Sounds. To order, visit: here . From Science Frontiers #81, MAY-JUN 1992 . 1992-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 14 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf081/sf081g13.htm
... Trofimenko of the Minsk Department of the Astronomical-Geodesical Society of the USSR believes that all cosmic bodies, including the Sun and the Earth, are riddled with "mini" black holes left over from the big bang. Though much smaller than atoms. such black holes would each contain as much mass as a mountain, up to about 2 x 1020 grams. "Trofimenko originally suggested that energy radiated by these mini black holes could make hot spots that produce volcanic outbursts. Now he has investigated the way in which such objects, by orbiting about the Earth's core, would distort the gravitational field at the surface of our planet." Each time a mini black hole passes beneath a spot on the surface, there would be a "gravitoimpulse" too short to be detected by current instrumentation but sufficient to trigger earthquakes. (Anonymous; "Baby Black Holes Blamed for Earthquakes," New Scientist, p. 18, September 19. 1992.) From Science Frontiers #84, NOV-DEC 1992 . 1992-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 14 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf084/sf084g09.htm
... American Studies at the University of California-Davis. The title above is, in fact, the title of Forbes' forthcoming book. Forbes recently gave a talk on his thesis in Berkeley, and the evidence below is based on a newspaper account of his talk. The account began with: "It is a common perception, and one which is taught in most history classes, that the Europeans 'discovered' America. Some scholars, however, postulate that it may be quite the opposite: Native Americans went across the Atlantic and 'found' their European counterparts first." Now for the claimed evidence: Carribean people were the Polynesians of the Americas. Excellent mariners, they built sophisticated sailing vessels 80-feet long, carrying up to 80 people. With the favorable winds and currents, they had the capabilities of reaching Europe. There are tales of "redmen" arriving on the west coast of Portugal during the Middle Ages. Columbus himself, during a visit to Ireland, noted the presence of people resembling North Americans. Columbus also made notes on Indians in canoes wrecked off the coast of Germany in 1410. Inuits (Eskimos) are said to have landed in the Orkneys, off Scotland. Old Inuit harpoon heads have been dug up in Ireland and Scotland. (Kluepfel, Brian; "Native Americans May Have Found Europe, Says Scholar," Berkeley Voice , January 28, 1993. Cr. P.F . Young. Comment. Obviously, stronger evidence will be required to convince most archeologists. And what about all the purported claims for early contacts ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 14 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf087/sf087a03.htm
... had a glassy appearance." (Kemp, A.K .; "Anglesey Seiche," Marine Observer, 63: 90, 1993.) Short-period oscillations in tidal records at Puerto Princesa, Palawan, the Philippines Permanent feature. Puerto Princesa, Palawan, the Philippines. The basic phenomenon impinging on this coast was described by F.J . Haight back in the 1920s. Haight plotted the sea oscillation in the accompanying graph. Recent studies of the Puerto Princesa seiches show that the amplitudes of the seiches are greatest every two weeks, indicating they are tied to the astronomical tides. However, they lag the lunar tide by a couple of days. Geophysicists now look to Pearl Bank in the Sulu Sea, some 450 kilometers southeast of Puerto Princesa, where they believe tidal currents create "internal waves" as they hit the shallow bank. These internal waves travel beneath the surface at speeds of only about 8 kilometers/hour, taking about 2 days to reach Puerto Princesa. Here, they surge against the land, causing the observed seiches. (Giese, Graham S., and Chapman, David C.; "Coastal Seiches," Oceanus , 36:38, Spring 1993.) Reference. Our catalog Earthquakes, Tides, Unidentified Sounds contains an entire chapter on anomalous wave phenomena. To order, visit: here . From Science Frontiers #88, JUL-AUG 1993 . 1993-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 14 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf088/sf088g13.htm
... .2 million to 8 million years can be derived at the 95% confidence level. Further consideration indicates that we are unlikely to colonize the Galaxy, and that we are likely to have a higher population than the median for intelligent species." Why won't we colonize the Galaxy? Not because we are not able to, Gott says, but because "living things do not usually live up to their maximum potential." Also of interest here is Gott's assessment of SETI (our Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence). Will our big radio telescopes pick up intelligent murmurings arriving from outer space? Gott's calculations are very pessimistic here: "Thus, we do not expect to see a Dyson sphere civilization within our Galaxy, or a Karadashev type III civilization within the current observable horizon." (Gott, J. Richard, III; "Implications of the Copernican Principle for Our Future Prospects." Nature, 363:315, 1993.) *A line from Stephen Spender's poem: From All These Events, from the Slump, from the War, from the Boom . Comment. But perhaps the Copernican Principle, Darwinism, or some other of Gott's assumptions are in error. From Science Frontiers #88, JUL-AUG 1993 . 1993-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 14 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf088/sf088g19.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 4: July 1978 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects A Sinuous Line Of Sea Snakes In the Malacca Straits, on May 4, 1932, a surface congregation of sea snakes 10 feet wide and 60 miles long was observed. Helicopter pilots off Viet Nam and Pakistan have reported similar but much smaller concentrations. Groups of several thousand have also been noted in Panama Bay. This tendency to gather in great numbers at the surface is an enigmatic aspect of sea snakes. One possible answer may lie in the surface feeding habits of some species, such as the yellow-bellied sea snake. These creatures seem to float passively on the sea surface, feeding and reproducing, letting the winds and currents accumulate them in long drift lines. (Minton, Sherman A., and Heatwole, Harold; "Snakes and the Sea," Oceans, 11:53, April 1978.) From Science Frontiers #4 , July 1978 . 1978-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 14 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf004/sf004p06.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 12: Fall 1980 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Astronomy Ephemeral Lines on Mars Little Big Bangs! Schizophrenic Neutrinos Biology Oh, Those Clever Plants Static on the Hare-lynx Cycle Signal The Currents of Life Geology The Earth's Ring The Rehabilitation of Cuvier The Field is Falling, the Field is Falling Geophysics Anomalous Sounds From An Australian Fireball Gravity Down, Mass Up Psychology Nses and reality (whatever that is!) ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 14 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf012/index.htm
... , 1979, a colossal burst of gamma rays swept through the solar system, triggering radiation detectors on nine different spacecraft. By comparing the times of arrival of the burst, the direction of the source was narrowed down to a "box" a couple of arc minutes across. Gamma-ray bursts have never before been correlated with visible sources, but this time the box contained the remnants of a supernova in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of our own Milky Way. The anomaly that arises involves the immense distance of the supposed source and the strength of the burst when it reached the solar system. The power level of the supernova remnant gamma flash would have had to be about 1037 watts -- a stupendous figure. If the supernova remnant is a neutron star, as current theories suggest, the neutron star would have to be 10 to 100 times the size of the usual neutron stars. (Anonymous; "Gamma-Ray Burst Comes from Outside the Galaxy," New Scientist, 87:776, 1980.) From Science Frontiers #13, Winter 1981 . 1981-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 14 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf013/sf013p02.htm
