... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 102: Nov-Dec 1995 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology ANCIENT ACOUSTICAL ENGINEERING THE CANDELABRA OF THE ANDES Astronomy HUGE FIREBALL EXPLOSION IN 1994 2,000,000,000 BC: THE EPOCH OF QUASARS Biology TWO POLITICALLY INCORRECT BIOCHEMICAL ANOMALIES FROM DUST UNTO ABYSSAL MUD PERFECT PITCH AND SUNDRY SYNDROMES KING CRAB CONGREGATIONS THE BIRDS Geology WARM LAKE FOUND UNDER ANTARCTIC ICE SHEET REMNANTS OF TUNGUSKA "WEIRD ICICLES" IN A REFRIGERATOR Geophysics A TUNGUSKA-LIKE BLAST IN BRAZIL IN 1930 STYTHE? ICE "METEORITES" FALL LONG-LIVED BUBBLE IN THE ATMOSPHERE Psychology UNCONVENTIONAL WATER DETECTION FUNGAL PHANTASMS Mathematics 1, 089, 533, 431, 247, 059, 310, 875, 780, 378, 922, 957, 447, 308, 967, 213, 141, 717, 486, 151 Physics SOUR GRAPES! ...

... grids work just like the real ones. When cattle approach them, they 'put on the brakes with all four feet,' as one rancher expressed it to me. .. .. . "According to my hypothesis of formative causation..., organisms inherit habits from previous members of their species. This collective memory, I suggest, is inherent in fields, called morphic fields, and is transmitted through both time and space by morphic resonance, a process which takes place on the basis of similarity. From this point of view, cattle confronted for the first time by grids, or by things that look like grids, would tend to avoid them because of morphic resonance from other cattle that had learnt by experience not to try to cross them." Sheldrake follow these two paragraphs with an examination of more conventional explanations. He is wise to do this because morphic resonance does seem pretty farfetched. Do new naive cattle somehow acquire this aversion to cattle grids, real or fake, from an experienced member of the herd? Apparently not, because a herd of all naive cattle will avoid the painted grids. Can the spell of fake grids be broken? Yes, due to fear or the desire for food, some cattle will jump over the fake grids, but others will inspect them carefully, see what they really are, and proceed to walk across. Thereafter the fake grids are useless with an "educated" herd. (Sheldrake, Rupert; "Cattle Fooled by Phoney Grids," New Scientist, p. 65, February 11, 1988. ...

... . 130: JUL-AUG 2000 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Drifters Sure, there may now be or once have been primitive life forms on Mars, but there does seem to be a serious shortage of carbon-based life forms elsewhere in the universe. In fact, there seems to be a great dearth of small, cool, solid, water-and-carbon-rich planets circling beneficent suns. Can it be that we are looking for extraterrestrial life in the wrong places? Life may have originated and prospered on the multitude of sun-less aggregations of matter drifting through the void, some doubtless quite close to us. Myriad nomadic planets may be roaming our Galaxy free from the clutches of parent stars. Two teams of astronomers think they have detected 25 of these free-floating planets, and say there could be hundreds of millions of them wandering the Milky Way. These free-floaters or "drifters" were created when small clouds of gas and dust coalesced under gravity's urging. If such collapsing clouds were less than 80 times Jupiter's mass, they would not be able to sustain nuclear reactions and become long-lived stars. Many would be-come "brown dwarfs." Still smaller aggregations -- less than 14 Jupiters -- would never shine at all. These would remain warm for a while as they dissipated the gravitational energy that created them. Such small objects would be temporarily detectable by infrared telescopes. Hundreds of such infrared "point sources" turn up ...

... to be generated by 'mini-tornadoes' of electrically-charged air. "Plasma vortices can be luminous at night. 'They are often mistaken for UFOs,' says Dr Terence Meaden, director of the Oxford-based Tornado and Storm Research Organization." (Spicer, Andi; "Clue to mystery of Circles," London Observer, May 20, 1990. Cr. T. Good via L. Farish) Alien Hieroglyphics? "The extraordinary variety of circle formations and multiple-ringed circles is quite unlike what one would expect for a natural phenomenon, such as an atmospheric vortex. The complexity has increased through the 1980s, and this year it has developed at a startling pace. "In May there began to appear what researchers call pictograms. Initially these consisted of two circles joined by a straight channel of flattened corn, with extra features such as rectangles or semicircular rings. There have now been about 20 of these. The latest have quadrupled the length to about 150 yards and consist of complex arrangements of up to nine plain or ringed circles with new features, like 'keys,' which can be seen in photographs of the Alton Barnes pictogram. Nothing like this was observed in previous years." (Wingfield, George; "Ever-Increasing Circles of Bewilderment," London Independent, August 4, 1990. Cr. T. Good via L. Farish) Comments. Wingfield believes that the circles are symbols left by a non-human intelligence. Having failed to establish communication with us via UFOs, marine lightwheels, cookie-cutter holes ...

... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 102: Nov-Dec 1995 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Unconventional water detection In SF#97, we inserted a short notice about some apparently promising dowsing research being conducted by a group in Germany. A lengthy, comprehensive report of this research has been published in two issues of the Journal of Scientific Exploration. We now quote from that part of the abstract dealing with field experiments in several countries. "This report presents new insights into an unconventional option of locating water reserves which relies on water dowsing. The effectiveness of the method is still highly disputed. Now, however, extensive field studies -- in line with provable and reliable historic account -- have shown that a few carefully selected dowsers are certainly able to detect faults, fissures and fractures with relative alacrity and surprising accuracy in areas with, say, crystalline or limestone bedrock. A series of Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Technische Zusam menarbeit (GTZ) projects involving this technique were carried out in dry zones with unexpectedly high rates of success. In particular, it was possible to locate a large number of relatively small underground aquifers in thinly populated areas and to drill wells at the sites where water is needed; the yields were low but sufficient for hand-pump operation throughout the year. Finding or locating a sufficient number of relatively small fracture zones using conventional techniques would have required a far greater work input." A second part of the study involved controlled experiments in which dowsers tried to detect concealed targets such as pipes. ( ...

... . C.F . Chyba has examined the lunar impact record and derived an estimate of the total mass of objects impacting the moon during the (hypothetical) period of heavy bombardment 3.8 to 4.5 billion years ago. This allowed him to calculate the mass influx for the earth during this period. His conclusion: if only about 10% of the incoming mass consisted of comets (mostly ice), the earth would have acquired all its ocean water. (Chyba, Christopher F.; "The Cometary Contribution to the Oceans of Primitive Earth," Nature, 330:632, 1987.) Comment. Frank claims that the earth today is continually bombarded by small icy comets, which down the eons may have kept the ocean basins full. So, we have two possible extraterrestrial sources of oceans -- both of a cometary nature. It was only yesterday that the idea of ice surviving in outer space was ridiculed; no one even dreamed that our oceans could be composed of space ice! From Science Frontiers #56, MAR-APR 1988 . 1988-2000 William R. Corliss ...

... 1992.) The implications of this strange case were described in Science News: "The peculiar inability of a 70-yearold woman to name animals has led scientists to propose that the brain harbors separate knowledge systems, one visual, the other verbal or language-based, for different categories of living and inanimate things, such as animals and household objects." (Bower, B.; "Clues to the Brain's Knowledge Systems," Science News, 142:148, 1992.) Comment. Experiments with animals suggest that the brain's memory is "distributed"; that is, like a hologram, both nowhere and everywhere. Also, it may not be pertinent, but R.O . Becker, in SF#81, hypothesized that the brain utilizes two modes of communication, one digital, the other analog. From Science Frontiers #84, NOV-DEC 1992 . 1992-2000 William R. Corliss ...

... been spotted high in the sky to the west of the island. The officers of the Baron Pentland picked up the object with binoculars and sextant. "First thoughts were that this was the satellite Cosmos 1402, but this was dismissed as it was a day too early and it was not moving fast enough. In fact it appeared stationary to the naked eye. Another school of thought was that this was a weather balloon. As can be seen from the simple sketch, it was unlike any weather balloon previously seen by the observers. It was of a squat cylinder shape, wider than it was tall. The circle at the bottom appeared to be dimly lit with a pale blue colour. The 'torso' was almost invisible, even with binoculars, giving the impression that there were two distinct and separate lights. The top 'light' appeared to be a dome atop the main body and it was extremely bright. By wedging the binoculars in the bridge doorway, it was possible to gain a very steady view as the vessel's main propulsion system was shut down and the seas were light. Thus a clearer picture was obtained and in this way the object was identified as being cylindrical. The bottom circle also appeared to be 'webbed' with dark radial lines." At 0643 GMT, the object had disappeared in the west. (Strachan, C.; "Unidentified Flying Object," Marine Observer, 54:27, 1984.) From Science Frontiers #34, JUL-AUG 1984 . 1984-2000 William R. Corliss ...

... a half-million years. "Remarkably, that same era marked the time when early human ancestors known as Homo habilis lived and left their remains in the tropical Olduvai Gorge of what is now Tanzania. Mochanov's collection of tools closely resembles the ones that anthropologists have long collected from digs in Africa." All this contrasts strongly with the dominant view of hominid evolution, which cites warm, verdant African forests and savannas as our most likely place of origin. Siberia, with its -50 winters and fleeting summers, hardly seems conducive to hominid speciation. Mochanov's rationale is that this severe climate actually stimulated ancient hominids to create tools, fashion warm clothing, and build winter shelters -- these Siberian hominids had to evolve or perish! In addition to the climate factor are two other problems: (1 ) The Siberian sites have yielded no hominid bones nor have animal bones of any kind been found; and (2 ) The dating of the tools is shaky. They cannot be radiometrically dated. Instead, Mochanov has had to rely on the tools' similarity to African tools of 2 million years ago, magnetostratigraphy, the decayed luminescence of the soil, and the ages of the strata in the 450-foot gorge of the Lena River. It goes without saying that other anthropologists are reserving judgment. Nevertheless, Mochanov's Siberian discoveries have produced a magnitude-8 tremor in science. (Perlman, David; "Russian Scientist Says Homo sapiens Has Arctic Origins," San Francisco Chronicle, January 17, 1994. Cr. J. Covey. A ...

... Thereby it can both acquire and insert information, both objective and subjective, from and to its resonant partners." (Ref. 2) The immense body of empirical data amassed by Jahn's PEAR laboratory certainly suggests the existence of an allpervading information-transfer medium that is independent of space and time. Persinger relies upon a different corpus of research: neurological experiments as well as scores of his own studies of the effects of the geomagnetic environment upon human perception and consciousness. Both Jahn and Persinger write of information flow. The ideas of brain matrices and resonances are not too dissimilar. Persinger relies upon the electromagnetic medium; Jahn's is not specified. Jahn and Persinger are visionary regarding their research. It is perhaps well to reproduce Persinger's warning: "Within the last two decades, a potential has emerged which was improbable but which is now marginally feasible. This potential is the technical capability to influence directly the major portion of the approximately six billion brains of the human species without mediation through classical sensory modalities by generating neural information within a physical medium within which all member of the species are immersed." (Ref. 1) Can Orwell's Big Brother be far away? Some writers, such as J. Vallee, suggest that we are already being manipulated via some unrecognized information channel. References Surely all readers of SF will understand that Science and Nature do not yet publish the types of research just described. Ref. 1. Persinger, M.A .; "On the Possibility of Directly Accessing Every Human Brain by Electromagnetic Induction of Fundamental ...

... Sopelia Tower at the southern boundary of the reservation for seven (approximately 9:00 p.m . to 4: a.m ., September 3-4 ). According to Vogel the noise was like a 'turbine' or 'unsynchronized propellers on a multi-engine aircraft.' When let outside the lookout station, the fire lookout's dog displayed anxiety, and the lookout felt barely perceptible vibrations under her feet when standing on a concrete slab. The lookout said she had heard the same sound during the summer of 1978, but always during the daylight." Colorado. Testimony of T. Adams: "Camping on the western slope of the Sangre de Cristos, northwest of Mount Blanca and south of the Sand Dunes, we heard the sounds in 1970. Two or three nights in succession, it 'cranked up' after midnight and subsided shortly before dawn. It wasn't really loud enough to hear over conversation - but definitely sounded like a motor of some sort, with a suggestion of a dynamo-type whine to it. And others had said that it sometimes seems even louder with an ear to the ground. One could easily imagine (Adam's emphasis) the sound was coming from beneath the surface, but whether it did or not remains purely speculative." The report referenced below contains similar observations from Texas, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, California, Puerto Rico, England, and Ita ly. Unusual luminous phenomena have also been noted in the areas where the underground sounds have been heard, which explains ...

... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 34: Jul-Aug 1984 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The mind's control of bodily processes T.X . Barber has reviewed the role of the mind in the control of many physiological processes in a chapter appearing in a new book. The chapter is 58 pages long, with 176 references, making it a major contribution to the subject. To give the reader the flavor of this paper, two paragraphs are now reproduced: "The data presented in this chapter should, once and for all, topple the dualistic dichotomy between mind and body which has strongly dominated Western thought since Descartes. The meanings or ideas imbedded in words which are spoken by one person and deeply accepted by another can be communicated to the cells of the body (and to chemicals within the cells); the cells then can change their activities in order to conform to the meanings or ideas which have been transmitted to them. The believed-in (suggested) idea of being stimulated by a poison ivy-type plant, transmitted to a person who is normally hypersensitive to this type of plant, can affect specific cells (probably in the immunological and vascular systems) so that they produce the same type of dermatitis which results when the person actually is stimulated by a poison ivy-type plant. Similarly, individuals who are viewed as allergic to pollen or house dust may not manifest the allergic reaction when they believe (falsely) that they have not been exposed to the allergic substance. .. ...

... ballad and a symphony movement, suggesting a similar attention span. Some whale songs are similar in structure to human compositions. The tone and timbre of many whale notes are similar to human musical sounds. Humpback songs contain repeating phrases that form rhymes, again this is similar to human music. The list paraphrased in part above, in which the word "similar" is repeated again and again, is longer ; but the point is adequately made that the genes that lead to whale music may be the same ones we have inherited but which are only now being expressed. (Gray, Patricia M. , et al; "The Music of Nature and the Nature of Music ," Science, 291:52, 2001.) Comment. Many questions arise after reading the above article. Two will have to suffice here. First, music is so complex, sophisticated, and packed with information compared to the grunts and squeaks that suffice for many animals that we have to ask : What evolutionary imperatives required its emergence? Second, and equivalently, why and how did humans, whales, and birds evolve the diverse, specialized physiological apparatuses that produce music? From Science Frontiers #134, MAR-APR 2001 . 2001 William R. Corliss Other Sites of Interest SIS . Catastrophism, archaeoastronomy, ancient history, mythology and astronomy. Lobster . The journal of intelligence and political conspiracy (CIA, FBI, JFK, MI5, NSA, etc) Homeworking.com . Free resource for people thinking about working at home. ABC dating and personals . For people looking for relationships. ...

... sort. However, Goldstein adds that there are actually three additional structures on this long line in Kentucky. (Goldstein, Alan; "Multiple Strike Stricken," Astronomy, 24:20, July 1996) Comment. Even if eight of the eleven structures on the line are cryptoexplosive in origin, one has to wonder why these are all lined up. A long line of weakness in the crust? Meanwhile, in Africa. 1994 radar images from the Space Shuttle have revealed a chain of three suspicious circular structures in the Sahara of northern Chad. Largely buried in sand, each is about 12 kilometers in diameter. Only one of these structures has been studied at ground level; and it is of impact origin, as confirmed by upturned strata and grains of shocked quartz. The other two could be volcanic say the skeptics. It will take an expedition to Chad to clarify things. (Kerr, Richard A.; "Impact Craters All in a Row?" Science, 272:33, 1996) A final comment -- at last! All impactcrater chains are relevant to the claim of H.R . Shaw that even the earth's largest impact structures are found in swathes (chains). In his wonderfully heretical book Craters, Cosmos, and Chronicles: A New Theory of the Earth, Shaw mentions several such swathes. One of his chains includes Chicxulub (beneath Yucatan), Manson (Iowa), Avak (Alaska), and three more in Russia. These are giant craters stretched out over much of the planet, not pipsqueak craters athwart ...

... 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 Mystery Glow On The Sea Floor "Marine scientists have discovered two thermal vents on the seabed that glow in the dark. A group of researchers, led by oceanographers from the University of Washington, detected faint light during an expedition to the Juan de Fuca Ridge. The ridge and the vents, 300 km off the coast of British Columbia, follow an underwater fault formed by the junction of the Juan de Fuca and the Pacific tectonic plates...John Delaney, leader of the expedition, described the glow as a 'flame-like light' that seems to emanate from the super-heated water emerging from the thermal vents, 2200 meters below the surface...'The source of the light is still unclear,' said Joe Cann, a geologist from the University of Newcastle in Britain. The scientists suspect that the water itself is glowing." The water temperature is so high -- 350 C -- that bioluminescence is unlikely. The presence of the glow does, however, imply that photosynthesis is still possible in these sunless depths. Life forms do congregate around these vents. A curious shrimp found in the area where the glow was noted is eyeless but does possess photoreceptors on its back! (Dayton, Sylvia; "The Underwater Light Fantastic," New Scientist, p. 32, August 25, 1988. Also: Anonymous; "Mystery Glow Emanates from Ocean Bottom," Albuquerque Tribune ...

... ONLINE No. 107: Sep-Oct 1996 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Subversive Cancer Cells It has been generally believed that most cancers originate in a single founder cell, which then multiplies to create the tumor. But cancer is more insidious than expected. A precancerous founder cell may actually subvert nearby noncancerous cells and turn them into cancerous cells. In this sense, the first precancerous cell recruits and transforms healthy cells, enlisting them in its destructive operations, and thereby turning them against the body that produced them. No one yet knows how this subversion is effected or how it evolved. (Why is there cancer anyway?) The basis for this claim involves a few rare human mosaics, whose bodies are built of cells with two different genetic complements. Cancers in human mosaics have been found to contain both types of cells and, therefore, did not grow from a single cell alone. (Day, Michael; "Cancer's Many Points of Departure," New Scientist, p. 16, June 1, 1996) Comments. Curiously, some "primitive" animals, such as sharks, seem to have evolved defenses against cancer that mammals lack. With reference to "mosaics," see item in SF#105 on "Mixed-Up People." Also relevant is BHH25 "' Insidious' Properties of Cancer Metastases" in Humans II . For information on this book, visit here . From Science Frontiers #107, SEP-OCT 1996 . 1996-2000 William R. Corliss ...

... found in Brazil possesses features of South Sea Islanders rather than Asians. Stone artifacts. Scrapers and other simple stone artifacts from Los Toldos Cave in Patagonia, dated as 12,000 years old, are suspiciously similar to late-Pleistocene tools in Australia. (Ref. 1) Cave paintings. At Los Toldos and especially another Patagonian site called Estancia La Maria, there is distinctive artwork virtually identical to some from Australia. Specifically, this artwork consists of "hand negatives" (silhouettes of the artists' hands) and spiral and circular drawings composed of little spots. (Ref. 1) Additionally, a remarkable and entirely distinct form of Australian art -- the famous Bradshaw paintings -- are strangely echoed in the artwork of the Paracus Culture of Peru. (Ref. 2) Two curiously adorned flowing figures from a Bradshaw gallery, Australia It is relevant in the above context that one of the Bradshaw paintings depicts a boat with upright prow and stern and which is manned by many paddlers. The Bradshaw people obviously were familiar with the sea. No one seems to know when the Brad shaw Culture flourished in Australia or where it came from. It disappeared suddenly, leaving behind perhaps 100,000 Bradshaw "art galleries" decorating rock overhangs along Australian rivers. (Ref. 2) References Ref. 1. Cardich, Augusto; "The First Americans: Were They Australians?" The Mammoth Trumpet, 16:4 , March 2001. Cr. C. Davant. Ref. 2. Coukell, Allan; "Spellbound," New Scientist, p. 34 ...

... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 73: Jan-Feb 1991 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects New Kinds Of Matter Turns Up In Cosmic Rays "Japanese physicists claim to have found evidence of 'strange matter' in cosmic rays. Their detectors have recorded two separate events, each of which can be explained by the arrival of a particle with a charge 14 times as great as the charge on a proton, and a mass 170 times the proton's mass. No atomic nucleus -- made of protons and neutrons -- exists that matches this description, but these properties are precisely in the range predicted for so-called quark nuggets, which physicists believe may be made of a type of material dubbed strange matter." (Gribbin, John; "New Kind of Matter Turns Up in Cosmic Rays," New Scientist, p. 22, November 10, 1990.) The original report appeared in Physical Review Letters , 65:2094, 1990. In it, the Japanese scientists describe their balloon-borne equipment, proving that one does not need fancy spacecraft to make important discoveries. The key feature of the quark nugget is its very high mass-to-charge ratio. Where do quark nuggets come from? The theoreticians surmise that they may be created when neutron stars collide or, perhaps, they are left over from the hypothetical Big Bang. From Science Frontiers #73, JAN-FEB 1991 . 1991-2000 William R. Corliss ...

... immediate vicinities of terrestrial craters, but not in far-flung strewn fields; viz., the Aouelloul Crater in Mauritania, and the Zhamashin Crater in the USSR. Another example has now come to light: the Lonar Lake Crater, a 50,000-year-old impact crater, in the Deccan flood basalts in India. From the paper's abstract: "Homogenous, dense glass bodies (both irregular and splash form) with high silica contents ( 67% SiO2) occur in the vicinity of Lonar Crater, India. Their lack of microlites and mineral remnants and their uniform chemical composition virtually preclude a volcanic origin. They are similar to tektites reported in the literature....Our geochemical data are consistent with these high silica glass bodies being impact melt products of two-thirds basalt and onethird local intertrappean sediment (chert). The tektite-like bodies of the impact craters Lonar, Zhamanshin, and Aouelloul are generally similar. Strong terrestrial geochemical signatures reflect the target rock REE patterns and the abundance ratios and demonstrate their terrestrial origin resulting from meteorite impact, as has been suggested by earlier workers." (Murali, A.V ., et al; "Tektite-Like Bodies at Lonar Crater, India: Implications for the Origin of Tektites," Journal of Geophysical Research, 92B:E729, 1987.) Comment. Obviously, the glassy droplets at the Lonar Crater strongly support a terrestrial origin for tektites. Proponents of a lunar origin can still point out, however, that some strewn fields cannot be associated with any known terrestrial crater ...

... of these ice sheets had to be at least 850 x 500 m (about 100 acres!) in extent. That's big, to be sure, but hardly anomalous. (Reid, John B., Jr., et al; "Sliding Rocks at the Racetrack, Death Valley: What Makes Them Move?" Geology , 23: 819, 1995) Comment. If scientists would spend as much effort on marine light wheels and UFOs as they do on sliding rocks, we anomalists wouldn't have so much to write about. It's all a question of what is "academically respectable." Reference. Sliding rocks at Racetrack Playa and other localities are cataloged at ESM11 on Neglected Geological Anoma lies . For a description of this book, visit here . Two of the parallel tracks of rocks on Racetrack Playa. The parallelism suggests that the rocks were embedded in the same ice sheet. From Science Frontiers #109, JAN-FEB 1997 . 1997-2000 William R. Corliss ...

... , which will vary according to such factors as minute voltage variations and the aging of the machine's components. For example, the CDC 3600, on which I learned to program in 1975, had an accessible microsecond clock, and my program to calculate the first five perfect numbers* required about 15 minutes of run time; the last few digits of the exact number of microseconds required to run this program each time varied quite unpredictably. In other words, it was a random number, except perhaps from the standpoint of philosophical determinism, which claims that every event in the entire universe has been determined from the beginning." (Everit, Richard G.; personal communication, November 2, 1996) *A perfect number is equal to the sum of its divisors. The first two are 6 and 28; the others being difficult to find with just pencil and paper! Comment. Computer unpredictability? There's something human in those chips! Of course, K. Capek knew this would be the case with any complex machine, as he predicted in his 1921 drama R.U .R . (Rossum's Universal Robots). From Science Frontiers #109, JAN-FEB 1997 . 1997-2000 William R. Corliss ...

... support this far-out interpretation, ridiculous or not. "The mass of these objects is estimated at about 108 gm each, and the total flux is about 107 small comets per year. If this flux is representative of the average flux over geologic time, then the water influx is sufficient to fill the Earth's oceans. The fluxes of these objects are also large for all the planets outside the orbit of Earth. Considerations of thermal stability imply that the fluxes of comets that impact Venus are considerably less. The outer giant planets may be significantly heated relative to solar insolation by the small-comet impacts. For example, the total energy input due both to solar insolation and comet impacts may be similar for Uranus and Neptune. Thus it is possible that the temperatures of these two planets are similar, even though Neptune is farther from the Sun." (Frank, L.A ., et al; "On the Presence of Small Comets in the Solar System," Eos, 68:343, 1987.) Comment. What has all this to do with "cosmic Gaia"? By "cosmic Gaia" we mean the cosmic version of the conventional Gaia concept; i.e ., earth-as-an-organism. The answer is that small icy comets can in principle transport throughout all of space: Immense quantities of water needed for life-as-we-know-it. The carbonaceous material basic to that same kind of life. (See SF#48.) The seeds of life, a la Hoyle and ...

... workers are studied. Whole colonies of Leptothorax allardycei show rhythmic changes in movement-activity level. Fourier and autocorrelation analyses indicate that the activity levels of colonies are periodic, with an average period of 26 min. Single, isolated workers do not show the pattern of periodic changes in activity level. Single workers become active spontaneously, but at no particular interval. Pairs of workers, confined together, also do not show periodicity in activity level. One worker can stimulate another worker to become active, thus coupling their movement-activity patterns. As ants are placed in larger groups, the variation in the interval between activity peaks declines in a manner predicted by coupled oscillator theory. It is argued that the colony can be regarded as a population of 'excitable subunits.," Activity records from two ant colonies. Time (horizontal axis) is measured in 30-second intervals. (Cole, Blaine J.; "Short-Term Activity Cycles in Ants: Generation of Periodicity by Worker Interaction," American Naturalist, 137:244, 1991.) Comment. The author also pointed out the "formal" or mathematical similarity of the ant movement-activity levels and the dynamics of epidemics! This makes us wonder whether wars, economic cy-cles, etc. might be explained by considering humans as "excitable subunits." From Science Frontiers #76, JUL-AUG 1991 . 1991-2000 William R. Corliss ...

... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 72: Nov-Dec 1990 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects 1989 SIGHTINGS OF OGOPOGO Okanagan Lake, in south central British Columbia, is the home of Ogopogo. At least this is where a large, elusive lake monster has been reported for many years. During the summer of 1989, the British Columbia Cryptozoology Club (BCCC) made two expeditions to Okana gan to search out Ogopogo. Several sightings of the animal were made, as well as a video tape. The first sighting, on July 30, was quite detailed, and we quote here from the BCCC report. July 30, 1989. Four sketches of Ogopogo from different vantage points. "The focus of the investigation turned to Summerland, and a particularly good vantage point was located at Peach Orchard Beach, Lower Summerland, on July 30. All four members of the investigating team were stationed at various points on the beachfront when, at 3:55 p.m ., a most extraordinary occurrence took place. A large patch of white water materialized close to a headland at the southern end of the beach, drawing the attention of the BCCC observers. It was about 1,000 feet distant at this point, and it was clear that a large animal was swimming in a northerly direction against the prevailing wind and slight swell. At a distance of about 600 feet, Kirk Sr. was able to see clearly through a Bushnell 40X telescope that this was the classic Ogopogo, with its humps well above the water ...

... Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Carbon Problem The "carbon problem" seems to hit the scientific creationists the hardest, but it also has interesting implications for today's earth. Consider first where the carbon in the earth's crust resides: Petroleum 201 x 1018 grams Coal 15 Limestone 64200 Biosphere 0.3 In this article, these figures are made more understandable by physical descriptions of some of the truly colossal deposits of oil, coal, and limestone. For example, in the Canadian Rockies, the Livingstone limestone was deposited 2000 feet deep on the margin of the Cordilleran geosyncline but thins eastward to about 1000 feet in the Front ranges. ". .. it may be calculated to represent at least 10,000 cubic miles of broken crinoid plates." Two implications are: Even if the earth's biosphere were completely converted into oil, coal, and limestone each year, the earth would have to be far older than the 6000 years desired by the creationists, unless most of the carbon deposits had non-biological origins, which seems unlikely. The immense inventory of carbon tied up in biologically produced deposits was originally abiogenic. Where did it come from? Abiogenic methane and carbon dioxide released from the crust seem the most likely sources. This means that the crust must have once had, and may still have, prodigious supplies of methane. T. Gold and S. Soter have long argued that the earth's crust still retains and sometimes releases methane. (Morton, Glenn R.; "The Carbon Problem," Creation ...