697 results found.
... 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 Grounded Bats Nicheless New Zealand boasts two bat species (Mystacina) which can fly but really prefer to clamber around on the ground hunting for insects, pollen, and fruit. So far, these bats have defied classification. They are distinctly different from their flying cousins in the area. Blood protein analysis links them to tropical bats in South America. No oth-er bats from New Zealand and Australia show such a relationship. Although these two oddball species may have flown in from South America some 80 million years ago, when the land masses were thought to be much closer, one then has to explain how these tropical bats survived the Ice Ages that afflicted New Zealand. (Anonymous; "Grounded Bats," New Scientist, p. 25, October 2, 1986.) From Science Frontiers #49, JAN-FEB 1987 . 1987-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... . Now, in a strange turn-about, a creationist writer is using evolutionary theory to infer a very short history for the formation where geologists want a good deal of time. We quote from the conclusion of J.R . Meyer: "If any group of animals were ever going to undergo significant degrees of evolution from parent stock and obtain resultant speciation, surely the Kaibab squirrel would be one of the more likely candidates. Supposedly isolated from their neighbors for hundreds of thousands of generations over a period of at least several million years, and significantly violating virtually every restriction of the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium for the non-evolving population, these organisms, even by creationist standards, should have undergone significant and detectable changes. In reality all they show are moderate changes, primarily in two coat color characteristics for part of their population. To make things even worse, this species is known to have a highly variable coat-color polymorphism throughout its range. Thus, even the differences displayed appear to be easily accounted for by several mutations and a slight change in gene frequency for one or two loci, all occurring in a limited period of time. "If an organism such as the Kaibab squirrel is able to escape all but a few minor changes in coat color (and these of dubious survival value) given the supposed immense time of rather complete isolation and violation of the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, we must ask wherein lies the fault. Is it in the violation of the Hardy-Weinberg concept, or is it in the time alloted for gene pool changes to ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 47: Sep-Oct 1986 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Booming Dunes "On two occasions it happened on a still night, suddenly -- a vibrant booming so loud I had to shout to be heard by my companion. Soon other sources, set going by the disturbance, joined their music to the first, with so close a note that a slow beat was clearly recognized. This weird chorus went on for more than five minutes continuously before silence returned and the ground ceased to tremble." P.K . Haff opens his review of booming sands with the above quote from R.A . Bagnold. One would think that since booming sand is not uncommon and scientists can pick it up and take it back to their laboratories, we know all about why it booms so unexpectedly when set in motion down a dune face. Haff relates his own experiments and ties them into the rather large body of previous work on the subject. The factors of dampness, grain size, cleanliness, grain shape and smoothness, etc., have all been examined. But Haff concludes: "In spite of these experiments and the work of other researchers, it is still not known how booming dunes work." (Haff, P.K .; "Booming Dunes," American Scientist, 74:376, 1986.) Reference. Booming dunes are cataloged along with "muscial sands" in ESP14 in the catalog volume: Anomalies in Geology. For ordering information, visit: ...
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... 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 Green Sky Flashes March 25, 1984. Indian Ocean. "Two successive 'green flashes' were observed. The first, at 2100 Ship's Time or 1530 GMT, was a bright green and bore 240 at an altitude of 75 ; it moved vertically downwards to an altitude of approximately 20 over a period lasting about 3 seconds. The second flash was observed at 2250 Ship's Time. It was green/white and was first observed at an altitude of 40 , bearing approximately 340 .It moved diagonally across the sky before disappearing behind low cloud at an altitude of 30 , bearing 310 . This time the duration was 1-2 seconds. In both cases the ship's radars were turned on but nothing was observed other than rain showers between 4 and 12 n. mile from the ship, mainly forward of the beam. Both flashes were of about the same brightness as that of lightning, the first being brighter than the second. In both cases it was difficult to judge the distance. The phenomenon was thought to have possibly been some form of lightning as its appearance was unlike that of any flare and in both cases the distance from the ship did not appear great enough to be compatible with a meteor or other object entering the earth's atmosphere." (Aston, A.; "' Green Flashes'"; Marine Observer, 55:30, 1985.) Comment. ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 42: Nov-Dec 1985 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Can spores survive in interstellar space?There is good evidence that life appeared on earth just 200-400 million years after the crust had cooled (assuming conventional methods of measuring age). Two hundred million years seems a bit on the short side for the spontaneous generation of life, although no one really knows just how long this process should take (forever?). The apparent rapidity of the onset of terrestrial life has led to a reexamination of the old panspermia hypothesis, in which spores, bacteria, or even nonliving "templates" of life descended on the lifeless but fertile earth from interstellar space. P. Weber and J.M . Greenberg have now tested spores (actually Bacillus subtilis) under temperature and ultraviolet radiation levels expected in interstellar space. They found that 90% of the spores under test would be killed in times on the order of hundreds of years -- far too short for panspermia to work at interstellar distances. However, if the spores are transported in dark, molecular clouds, which are not uncommon between the stars, survival times of tens or hundreds of million years are indicated by the experiments. Under such conditions, the interstellar transportation of life is possible. But perhaps the injection and capture phases of panspermia might be lethal to spores. Weber and Greenberg think not -- under certain conditions. The collision of a large comet or meteorite could inject spores from a life-endowed planet ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 44: Mar-Apr 1986 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Of Dust Clouds And Ice Ages Ice cores from the polar ice at Camp Century, in Greenland, have been analyzed for the presence of cosmic dust. "It is concluded that on five occasions during the interval 20,000-14,000 years BP, cosmic dust mass concentrations in the solar system rose by one and two orders of magnitude above present day levels. Moreover if the particles found in these ice core samples are indicative of the particle size distribution which prevailed in the interplanetary medium at that time, then it may be concluded that the space number density of submicron sized particles must have uncreased by a factor of 105 or more. During these times the light transmission properties of the solar system would have been significantly altered resulting in major adverse effects to the earth's climate. Thus it is quite possible that these dust congestion episodes were responsible for the abrupt climatic variations which occurred toward the end of the last Ice Age." Whence these interplanetary dust clouds? The author of this article ruled out terrestrial volcanism (an insufficient source of iridium) and encounters with asteroids and cometary tails (too infrequent to account for the long periods of high dust levels). Rather, the dust source may have been the same event that created the recently discovered dust ring between Mars and Jupiter, which is believed to be only a few tens of thousands of years old. The nature of the "event" is not ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 45: May-Jun 1986 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Champ in 1985 Below we quote two of the 14 digests of Champ sightings in 1985. Champ, as all cryptobiologists know, is the oft-reported monster of Lake Champlain. "June 29, 1985: Peg McGeoch and Jane Temple; off Scotch Bonnet, south of Basin Harbor, Vermont; 'length well over 30 feet'; head/neck similar to a brontosaurus, with head held 'about 5 feet above surface'; body was snakelike. "August 8, 1985: Jean and Becky Joppru; in Mullen Bay, New York; 4 or 5 black humps protruding 2 or 3 feet from water; total length, 30 feet." (Zarzynski, Joseph W.; "LCPI Work at Lake Champlain, 1985," Cryptozoology, 4:69, 1985.) Location of the 14 1985 sightings. From Science Frontiers #45, MAY-JUN 1986 . 1986-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... 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 Are fruit bats primates?The profound differences between the fruit bat (megabats) and echo-locating, insect-eating bats (microbats) were mentioned above. The primate-like eye-brain system of the fruit bats suggests two possibilities: 1. Primitive bats first developed flight and then the fruit bats developed their primate-like eye-brain systems through "convergent evolution"; or 2. The fruit bats inherited their eye-brain system from closely re lated primates and then developed flight through "convergent evolu tion." R.D . Martin, a physical anthropologist and author of this article, has reviewed the morphological characteristics of the fruit bats and primates. On this basis, he doubts that the fruit bats are pri-mates. Furthermore, molecular studies are also negative. Therefore, possibility #1 above is the more likely one. (Martin, R.D .; "Are Fruit Bats Primates?" Nature, 320:482, 1986.) Comment. In either case, #1 or #2 , we must acknowledge convergent evolution and the likelihood that some subroutine in the genetic code repeats itself in divergent species. Speculative as always, we must ask if the genetic instructions for human or even superhuman intelligence do not reside dormant-for-now in other species. Reference. For more on megabat similarities to primates, go to BMC4 in the catalog volume: Biological Anomalies: ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 47: Sep-Oct 1986 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Lumps, clumps, and jumps "Astronomers have already discovered lumps, motion and structure never suspected in a universe once considered smooth and expanding uniformly in all directions. Two researchers now say the universe is even lumpier, has faster relative motion and shows larger structures than previously believed." N. Bahcall and R. Soneira have been studying the structures and motions of superclusters of galaxies. Each supercluster consists of clusters of clusters of galaxies and contains upwards of hundreds of billions of stars. (Obvious-ly, these are not inconsequential entities!) By analyzing the redshifts of galaxies, Bahcall and Soneira have found that the universe is much more dynamic and inhomogeneous than expected. (1 ) The clusters of galaxies are larger and more extensive. Superclusters can be 500 million light years across -- about 1% of the known universe (2 ) Relative motions within the clusters are as high as 2,000 kilometers per second more than one can account for using gravitational attraction alone. (Kleist; T.; "Lumps, Clumps and Jumps in the Universe," Science News, 130:7 , 1986.) Comment. Before swallowing whole such grand sketches of the cosmos, one should always examine the assumptions. Here, redshifts are assumed to be measures of velocity, which if an expanding universe is assumed, can be converted into distances. Local Group of galaxies, including the Milky Way. and nearby superclusters ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 47: Sep-Oct 1986 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Magnetic Theory Of Dowsing The following two paragraphs were taken from a letter to Nature: "David Marks, in The Skeptical Inquirer, asserts that there are no theories to account for paranormal effects. This is not true for dowsing. Serious dowsing claims, such as those made by Soviet geologists, which are difficult to account for in terms of the reception of normal sensory cues, may be explained by postulating human sensitivity to small magnetic field gradient changes. The theory is supported by a series of tests involving 150 subjects. "The magnetic theory predicts that dowsers can achieve above-chance re sults only if the features they claim to detect are associated with magnetic gradients of at least one nanotesla per metre. This was not the case in Randi's recent experiments, so his chance results are therefore consistent with the magnetic theory, which merits further investigation." (Williamson, Tom; "Dowsing Explained," Nature, 320:569, 1985.) From Science Frontiers #47, SEP-OCT 1986 . 1986-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... 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 The kensington stone: a mystery not solved It is safe to say that the great majority of professional archeologists consider the Kensington Stone, with its runic inscription, to be a hoax. E. Wahlgren's 1958 book bears the title: The Kensington Stone: A Mystery Solved. This title reflects the professional attitude, although not the disdain, even contempt, with which academics now view this controversial artifact. Two major challenges to the authenticity of the Kensington Stone are: (1 ) Its use of Arabic number placement: that is, decimal placement, and (2 ) Its use of the symbol for 10. Professional archeologists and epigraphers maintain that genuine runic inscriptions did not use these Arabic innovations. In the present article, R. Nielsen, University of Denmark, demonstrates with actual, well-established runic inscriptions that the above criticisms are without foundation. Such notation and convention were employed. In fact, the use of Arabic innovations actually supports the authenticity of the Kensington Stone. (Nielsen, Richard; "The Arabic Numbering System on the Kensington Rune Stone," Epigraphic Society, Occasional Publications, 15:47, 1986.) Reference. For more on the controversy surrounding the Kensington Stone, see our handbook Ancient Man. Details at: here . From Science Frontiers #48, NOV-DEC 1986 . 1986-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... 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 Rhythms in 5,927,978 french births The following is an English summary of a paper that appeared in a French scientific journal. "Is there any relationship between the times when babies are born and the synodic lunar cycle? There are published works that show that there is such a relationship. We have looked at 5,927,978 French births occurring between the months of January 1968 and the 31st December 1974. Using Fourier's spectral analysis we have been able to show that there are two different rhythms in birth frequencies: (1 ) A weekly rhythm characterized by the lowest number of births on a Sunday and the largest number on a Tuesday; (2 ) An annual rhythm with the maximum number of births in May and the minimum in September-October. "A statistical analysis of the distribution of births in the lunar month shows that more are born between the last quarter and the new moon, and fewer are born in the first quarter of the moon. The differences between the distribution observed during the lunar month and the theoretical distribution are statistically significant." (Guillion, P., et al; "Naissances, Fertilite, Rythmes et Cycle Lunaire," Journal de Gynecologie, Obstetrique et Biologic de la Reproduction, 15:265, 1986.) From Science Frontiers #48, NOV-DEC 1986 . 1986-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... 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 Archaeopteryx a dead end?" Just as the 150-million-year-old Archaeopteryx fossil is being reinstated as the earliest known bird after considerable controversy, along come two crowsize skeletons that are not only 75 million years older than Archaeopteryx but also more birdlike, according to the paleontologists who discovered them. The Washington, D.C .- based National Geographic Society, which funded the work, announced this week that Sankar Chatterjee and his colleagues at Texas Tech University in Lubbock found the 225-million-year-old fossils near Post, Tex." (Weisburd, S.; "Oldest Bird and Longest Dinosaur," Science News, 130:103, 1986.) Chatterjee has named the new fossil Protoavis. "Protoavis seems certain to reopen the long-running controversy on the evolution of birds. In particular whether the common ancestor of birds and dinosaurs was itself a dinosaur. Protoavis, from the late Triassic, appears at the time of the earliest dinosaurs, and if the identification is upheld it seems likely that it will be used to argue against the view of John Ostrom of Yale University that birds are descended from the dinosaurs. It also tends to confirm what many paleontologists have long suspected, that Archaeopteryx is not on the direct line to modern birds. It is in some ways more reptilian than Protoavis, and the period between the late Jurassic Archaeopteryx and the world-wide radiation of birds in ...
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... 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 Prebiological chemistry in titan's atmosphere From the abstract of the referenced paper: "An organic heteropolymer (Titan tholin) was produced by continuous dc discharge through a 0.9 N2 / 0.1 CH4 gas mixture at 0.2 mbar pressure, roughly simulating the cloudtop atmosphere of Titan [one of Saturn's moons]. Treatment of this tholin with 6N HCl yielded 16 amino acids by gas chromatography after derivatization to N-trifluroacetyl isopropyl esters on two different capillary columns...The presence of 'nonbiological' amino acids, the absence of serine, and the fact that the amino acids are racemic within experimental error together indicate that these molecules are not due to microbiol or other contamination, but are derived from the tholin...These results suggest that episodes of liquid water in the past or future of Titan might lead to major further steps in the probiological organic chemistry on that body." (Khare, Bishun N., et al; "Amino Acids Derived from Titan Tholins," Icarus, 68:176, 1986.) From Science Frontiers #49, JAN-FEB 1987 . 1987-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... ONLINE No. 38: Mar-Apr 1985 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The sounds that shouldn't have been November 1984. Several Texas localities. The spectacular reentry of the Space Shuttle Discovery was observed by many Texans in the pre-dawn skies. Among these were Ben and Jeannette Killingsworth. As they observed the Space Shuttle streak across the sky, "they both heartd an unmistakable 'swishing noise' as it passed south of their rural Galveston County home. The sonic boom came several minutes later -- but the swishing sound occurred simultaneously with the visual apparition....Ben graphically described the sounds as 'like a skier coming down a slope,' but with a rapid fluctuation in loudness, 'about two or three hertz.' Jeannette compared the faint sound to the noise made by a fast boat as it slaps across waves on a choppy lake. 'But there was no motor noise,' she added, 'just a sound like repeated puffs of air through your mouth.'" Oberg points out that the mysterious Space Shuttle sounds are basically the same as the anomalous swishes and whizzes attributed by some to meteors. So far, few scientists have accepted meteor sounds as real, preferring to label them "psychological." But now that the Space Shuttles are known to generate similar anomalous sounds, perhaps scientists will install instruments along their well-known reentry paths and find out what is really happening. (Oberg, Jim; "Shuttle 'Sounds' May Provide Answer to Old ...
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... 38: Mar-Apr 1985 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Subtle Placebo A most interesting series of placebo experiments have been carried out by J.D . Levine and N.C . Gordon, of the University of California at San Francisco. The subjects were all dental patients who were tested when their surgical anesthesia was wearing off. The substances administered were: (1 ) a placebo; (2 ) morphine; and (3 ) naloxone, a substance that blocks the opiates produced in the brain. The doses were administered: (1 ) openly, when the experimenter knew which substance was being given; (2 ) by a person hidden from both experimenter and patient; and (3 ) by a machine. Two findings are particularly revealing. First, pain always increased after naloxone was administered, implying that the opiates blocked by naloxone are probably the same as those released by placebos. More significant, however, was the fact that both the open and hidden administrations of the placebo reduced pain while the machine-applied placebo resulted in more pain. In other words, when either the experimenter or the hidden administrator knew that the placebo was being given, the placebo worked. Levine and Gordon supposed that there must have been subtle clues, detected subconsciously by the patients, that the hidden person was administering the placebo. (Anonymous; "The Subtle Strength of Placebos," Science News, 127:25, 1985.) Comment. If no subtle clues existed, wouldn't this be a ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 39: May-Jun 1985 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Saturn's rings may be young When the Voyager spacecraft swept past Saturn, they radioed back photos of a complex, very dynamic system of rings -- thousands of rings. Studies of these rings have led some astronomers to wonder if they are really as old as Saturn itself. Two lines of thinking suggest a recent origin: (1 ) The rings are composed of both light material (very likely water ice) and dark material (probably rocks and dust). The rocky fragments, according to the prevailing nebular theory, should have condensed early in solar-system history, and then been swept gravitationally into the planet as they were slowed by friction with the uncondensed nebular material. Yet, dark material is still in the rings. (2 ) The incessant bombardment of the rings by meteorites should have pulverized the rings, sending fragments and vaporized material in all directions. In just 10 million years the rings should have been largely erased. They are still there. (Cuzzi, Jeffrey N.; "Ringed Planets: Still Mysterious -- II," Sky and Telescope, 69:19, 1985.) Comment. Assuming the rings are young, where did they come from? What happened to Saturn in "recent" times? Reference. Several lines of evidence point to the youth of Saturn's rings. See: ARL16 in our catalog The Moon and the Planets. Ordering information here . From ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 40: Jul-Aug 1985 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Neptune's arcs: embryonic moons?The publicity given to the 1984 observations of possible discontinuous rings around Neptune (SF#38) have brought to light two other enigmatic observations. The 1981 sighting of a "third satellite" of Neptune have now been interpreted as still another discontinuous ring at a different radius. A third discontinuous ring seems to be indicated by the reanalysis of some 1968 occultation data. Astronomer Bill Hibbard, at the University of Arizona, speculates that the three separate arcs of material orbiting Neptune are "trying to decide whether to become a satellite." (Hecht, Jeff, and Henbest, Nigel; "Neptune's Arcs -- A Satellite in Formation?" New Scientist, p. 19, Apil 25, 1985.) Comment. If the debris around Neptune is just now accreting into satellites and Saturn's rings really do have youthful features (SF#39), one has to consider some disquieting possibilities: (1 ) Saturn and Neptune have been recently "disturbed," or (2 ) The entire solar system is not as old as the conventional scenario demands. From Science Frontiers #40, JUL-AUG 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 40: Jul-Aug 1985 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Vanishing Goo "Some time between the 12th and 18th of December (1983), the west end of North Reading in Massachusetts was bombarded with blobs of jelly-like goo, greyish-white and oily-smelling. The first blob -- two feet in diameter -- was found by Thomas Grinley in his driveway. He thought something was leaking from his car until he found similar blobs on Main Street and on the gas station pumps. State officials denied that the blobs were dropped by a plane. They were soon absorbed into the pavement, but a little goo was saved and was being studied at the state's Department of Environmental Quality Engineering. Preliminary results showed that they were not toxic." (Anonymous; "Vanishing Goo," Fortean Times, no. 43, p. 23, Spring 1985. Extracted from USA Today of December 22, 1983.) Comment. These disappearing blobs represent a typically Fortean phenomenon with a history going back before the first aircraft. The reports are generally ridiculed and quickly written off. Given their historical persistence, perhaps we should pay more attention to them, trivial though they seem. Speaking of falling goo, a detailed historical study of pwdre ser in folklore and science has just appeared. Pwdre ser, as readers of our Handbooks and Catalogs will know, is the Welsh name for star jelly. That jelly-like lumps of materials have been found in the ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 40: Jul-Aug 1985 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Double Nuclei At Darmstadt At the GSI Darmstadt (West Germany) heavy ion facility, particle physicists have been firing heavy nuclei at each other. Some very suggestive evidence has turned up that giant nuclei are being formed with atomic weights and numbers approximately double those of the colliding nuclei. The words "giant nuclear molecule" and "giant di-nuclear system" are being bandied about. Two nuclei of uranium-238 might, for example, unite for 10-19 second in a supernucleus. As the author of this article says, "What is going on?" (Silver, Joshua; "Giant Nucleus at Darmstadt?" Nature, 315:276, 1985.) From Science Frontiers #40, JUL-AUG 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... 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 Wimps in the sun?For over two decades now, physicists have been measuring the neutrino flux emitted by the sun -- and despite all attempts this flux is much too low. It just doesn't jibe with what theorists say should be happening in the thermonuclear powerhouse in the sun's interior. J. Faulkner and R. Gilliland have conceived a solution to this dilemma. They postulate a large population of WIMPS (Weakly Interactive Massive Particles) orbiting the sun's core, but still well beneath the sun's visible surface. The WIMPS help convey heat out of the core, thereby cooling it to temperatures significantly less than those predicted by the astrophysicists. A cooler core emits fewer neutrinos, bringing theory into line with reality. And just what are these WIMPS? One suggestion is that they are photinos, a particle suggested (but not proved) by recent experiments at CERN (SF#37) (Thomsen, D.E .; "Weak Sun Blamed on WIMPS," Science News, 128:23, 1985.) Comment. WIMPS represent just the kind of particle that Dewey Larson railed against in his book: The Universe of Motion. He maintains that astronomers have to engage in such ridiculous theoretical gymnastics and invention only because they have picked the wrong energy-generating mechanism for stars and refuse to give it up! Larson's theory, on the other hand, solves this ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 43: Jan-Feb 1986 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects A JAPANESE PRESENCE IN ANCIENT MEXICO?A. von Wuthenau, a specialist in Precolumbian art, at the University of the Americas in Mexico City, has long been a champion of ancient contacts between the New World and Africa, the Orient, and the Mediterranean region. For example, his book Unexpected Faces in Ancient America contains hundreds of photographs of Precolumbian figurines and other artwork showing facial features typical of the Old World and Asia. His latest find consists of a terra cotta model of an ancient sailing ship manned by figurines of ten oarsmen, all with striking Japanese features. The model boat is one foot long; the oarsmen, two inches high. It was discovered at a burial site in the Guerrero region of Mexico. Von Wuthenau has tentatively dated the boat as 2,500 years old (Anonymous; "Sailors in a Model of an Ancient Ship Found in Mexico Have Asian Features," Boston Sunday Globe, November 10, 1985. Cr. J. Whittall.) A sketch of one of the giant Olmec stone heads from von Wuthenau's book. He believes this particular head, La Venta III, displays Asiatic features. Others seem African. From Science Frontiers #43, JAN-FEB 1986 . 1986-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... when the pyramid was constructed (about 2800 BC). No one seems to have listened to Lowell, even though he was quite correct. Most books on the Great Pyramid still insist on the fancied pole star alignment. If the entrance tunnel wasn't pointing at the pole star, what other esoteric reason did the pyramid builders have for the 26 .523 angle? (It seems that everyone expects all dimensions of the Great Pyramid to have special significance.) R.L . Walker, of the Naval Observatory, has come to the rescue. He observes that the tangent of 26 .523 is almost exactly (actually 0.4991). Although there may be some occult significance to , this fraction also signals to us that 26 .523 is also the angle created when two cubical blocks are laid horizontally for every one installed vertically, as in the sketch. It seems that 26 .523 is simply the natural consequence of the internal pyramid construction process. (Anonymous; "End of a Pyramid Myth," Sky and Telescope, 69:496, 1985.) Comment. P. Lowell also showed that Thuban did cross the tunnel entrance centuries before and after the accepted date of construction. Could the date of the pyramid be in error, or were the builders planning for the future? Anything is possible in Pyramidology! Reference. Pyramid puzzles of all types are described in the handbook: Ancient Man. To order, visit: here . From Science Frontiers #42, NOV-DEC 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 45: May-Jun 1986 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Eastern Quakes May Be Lubricated By Heavy Rainfalls Some of our continent's most powerful earthquakes have shaken the eastern half rather than the Pacific states, where the edges of tectonic plates grind together. The devastating New Madrid and Charleston quakes did not occur at plate boundaries, and it is hard to find active faults to blame for the crustal commotion. A hint of a possible solution to the dilemma comes with the correlation of earthquakes with heavy rainfalls and high water tables. For example, the Charleston quake of 1886 was preceded by two years of unusually heavy rainfall followed by a short dry spell. Also, seismicity in the New Madrid (MO) area increases 6-9 months after the Mississippi has crested. The theory is that the added water penetrates deep into the earth where it lubricates faults, causing them to become active and jolt the surface above. (Weisburd, S.; "Trickle-Down Theory of Eastern Quakes," Science News, 129:165, 1986.) Comment. The above correlations and our inability to explain deep-focus earthquakes underscore our ignorance of the mantle. To illustrate, Soviet drillers have found fluids circulating through fractured rocks 11 kilometers down, where one would expect every thing to be sealed tight by the weight of the overlying sediments. From Science Frontiers #45, MAY-JUN 1986 . 1986-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... changes in the impressions themselves are mostly confined to lengthening in the downriver direction. The most significant change, however, is that surrounding the toe area. In almost each of the prints in the trail, three large 'toes' have appeared, similar to nearby dinosaur tracks. These toes, typically, are coloration phenomena only, with no impressions, in most cases. Frequently the 'mud pushup' surrounding the original elongated track is crossed by this red coloration. The shape of the entire track, including both impression and coloration, is unlike any known dinosaur print." J. Moore, the author of this article and a creationist, suggests that creationists no longer use the Paluxy tracks as evidence that humans and dinosaurs once coexisted. But he adds that several mysteries still exist, two of which are: (1 ) Why is erosion improving the quality of the tracks instead of the reverse? (2 ) Why aren't those tracks exposed earlier also acquiring the stain marks? Moore also points out that the reddish stains could have easily been added artificially!! (Morris, John D.; "The Paluxy River Mystery," ICR Impact Series no. 151, January 1986. ICR = Institute for Creation Research.) Comment. Fraud is certainly implied by the suggestion of artificiality. Would the enemies of creationism go out at night with a brush to destroy a key datum supporting creationism? Of course we don't know. But the whole business bears a fascinating resemblance to the case of Paul Kammerer, who in the 1920s reported lab data supporting ...
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... down the tornado uprooted a large oak tree, 15 metres high, in Lawn Road (luckily the residents of the house were away on a holiday). The tornado proceeded to rip tiles off several roofs, demolished completely several greenhouses, and next scorched a 4-metre section of gable on the south side of a house in Forest Street (number 9). The gable section was scorched so badly that the gable had already been repainted when I called, although the evidence could still be seen." (Matthews, Peter; "Lightning inside a Tornado?" Journal of Meteorology, U.K ., 10:375, 1985.) July 1, 1952. Nottingham, England. Unusual features of a spectacular thunderstorm. Some recently reviewed records of a great thunderstorm mention two interesting anomalies: Hailstones 2 inches long shaped like cigarettes Three successive balls of lightning corkscrewing down from the sky. (Meaden, George T.; "Cigarette-Shaped Hailstones and Spiral Descent of Ball Lightning," Journal of Meteorology, U.K ., 10:332, 1985.) Reference. The foregoing anomalies are discussed in our Catalog of Anomalies. See GWT2 in Tornados, Dark Days for tornado burning and dehydration and GWP for oddly shaped hailstones in the same volume. Ball lightning is cataloged in GLB in Lightning, Auroras. Both books are described more fully here . The funnel of the 1955 tornado at Blackwell, Oklahoma, was lit up like a neon tube. Cloud-to-earth electrical currents could be the cuase of the scorching reported above. From ...
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... more. The giants were majestic masses of swirling sand that moved along at leisurely paces. These appeared harmless enough, but stepping through the outer wall into the vortex sucked the air out of the lungs. "Outside our hangar there is a large stretch of wind-sheltered concrete which becomes intensely hot. In this area, close to the foot of the hangar, one can start up one's own little devils on occasions by a quick sweep of a signalling bat (which is shaped like a large ping-pong bat) from shoulder level in circular and downwards direction to a point almost touching the ground; one must step rapidly back or the vortex that is set up is spoilt. Such a miniature thermal starts about a foot in diameter and quickly assumes a conical shape about two feet high, moving along the ground at a walking pace. Its rotation increases very rapidly, until one has the impression of a whirling snake in front of one. As it reaches the edge of the concrete a little sand is thrown up and the thermal dies away." (Swinn, R.H ., "On Flying Gliders into Wind Devils," Journal of Meteorology, U.K ., 10:17, 1985.) From Science Frontiers #39, MAY-JUN 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... are or what causes them. "The clouds dissipate in a few hours vanishing as mysteriously as they appear. "Among the plumes are a series of massive clouds that during the past four years have periodically swelled over Novaya Zemlya, the Arctic island long used by the Soviets for nuclear weapons tests. "However, there appears to be no correlation between the clouds and known Soviet tests, which are usually detected by Western governments. Further, non-governmental scientists said the 200-mile-long plumes appear to be many times larger than the largest conceivable nuclear explosion could produce." A NOAA satellite detected a large plume coming from the Arctic Ocean near Bennett Island, north of the Soviet Union, in 1983. Three distinct sources were found; one on the island and the other two about 9 miles offshore on the ice-covered ocean. This plume was 6 miles wide, 155 miles long, and 23,000 feet high. (Anonymous; "' Plumes' over Soviet Isles Continue to Baffle Experts," Las Vegas Sun, July 20, 1986. Cr. T. Adams via L. Farish) From Science Frontiers #49, JAN-FEB 1987 . 1987-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... J. Maddox, Editor of Nature, to the effect that the labors of Hoyle and Wickramasinghe were not convincing very many scientists because they ". .. had become caught up in the eccentric doctrine of panspermiology, a doctrine for which there was said to be little or no evidence." Hoyle and Wickramasinghe deny their eccentricity and affirm that their ideas have been acquired through observation and the generally accepted methods of deductive science. Basically, Hoyle and Wickramasinghe maintain that evidence supports the concept of life originating, evolving, and being transported from place to place in outer space. We have published many of their results in past issues of SF and see no need to cover the same ground again. Rather, we wish to dwell on the scientific reception of their work. We do this with two quotations from their Nature article. These quotations are embedded in their review of the infrared evidence for biological material in outer space: "Still persuing the infrared problem, we eventually found that among organic materials polysaccharides gave the best correspondence to the astronomical data, and it was exactly at this point in our work that we began to experience hostility from the referees of journals and from the assessors of grant applications at what was then the Science Research Council. We realize now that because polysaccharides on the Earth are a biological product we had unwittingly made a contact that is deeply forbidden in our scientific culture, a contact between biology and astronomy." And now the second quote: "We are aware that astronomers and chemists can be found who will claim that these results are not impressive, because ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 40: Jul-Aug 1985 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Messengers of a "new physics"In a "garage" off the road tunnel running deep under Mont Blanc sits a huge particle detector called Nusex. A second, complementary experiment resides 600 meters below the surface in a Minnesota mine. Both experiments are tuned to measure charged particles of very high energy, especially muons, which penetrate their high rocky ceilings with ease. These two arrays of buried detectors have both picked up fluxes of muons coming from the direction of Cygnus X-3 Now Cygnus X-3 is already classed as a remarkable object because it spews out pulses of X-rays and gamma-rays. It turns out that the muon fluxes arrive in phase with the pulses of gamma-rays and X-rays, and are thus definitely linked to Cygnus X-3 . The problem here is that muons are electrically charged particles that would assuredly be thrown far off course by intergalactic magnetic fields if they originated at Cygnus X-3 . The muons, therefore, must be created by electrically neutral particles arriving at the earth's atmosphere from Cygnus X-3 . Neutrons can be ruled out because they would decay in transit. X-ray photons and neutrinos have also been ruled out. The only alternative left seems to be some unknown neutral particle generated at Cygnus X-3 . Cygnus X-3may be a huge particle accelerator which "may operate in a realm of physics inaccessible on Earth, ...
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... no visible beginning of this display,such as you would see in a comet .. .. . "The awesome feature of this display was its magnitude. I thought if whatever was creating the display collided with our Earth, then we would no longer exist. I also feel that I was seeing only a small portion of the whole. As hindsight I can only regret that I did not report this sighting through Air Traffic Control channels. The crew discussed and speculated on what we had seen, then promptly forgot about it." The account continues, relating how on the next night, when the aircraft departed the Philippines for Guam and Wake Island, the same phenomenon appeared in the east, although the plane's heading was then about 60 . The display appeared unchanged on two more mights on the legs from Wake to Hawaii and Hawaii to California. On the fifth night, however, from California to Washington, DC, nothing was seen. (Silva, John J.; personal communication, December 28, 1985.) From Science Frontiers #46, JUL-AUG 1986 . 1986-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... was worked into the experiment, despite the fact that the astrologers approved the design and predicted 50 per cent as the 'minimum' effect they would expect to see, astrology failed to perform at a level better than chance. Tested using double-blind methods, the astrologers' predictions proved to be wrong. Their predicted connection between the positions of the planets and other astronomical objects at the time of birth and the personalities of test subjects did not exist. The experiment clearly refutes the astrological hypothesis." (Carlson, Shawn; "A Double-Blind Test of Astrology," Nature, 318:419, 1985.) Next, if overkill is required, the Skeptical Inquirer, matches the Nature article with one on the effect of the moon on human behavior. The authors (two psychologists and an astronomer) conclude: "This article outlines the results of a meta-analysis of 37 studies and several more recent studies that examined lunar variables and mental behavior. Our review supports the view that there is no causal relationship between lunar phenomena and human behavior. We also speculate on why belief in such relationships is prevalent in our society. A lack of understanding of physics, psychological biases, and slanted media reporting are suggested as some possible reasons." (Kelly, I.W ., et al; "The Moon Was Full and Nothing Happened: A Review of Studies on the Moon and Human Behavior and Lunar Beliefs,"Skeptical Inquirer, 10:129, 1985.) Reference. Possible connections between human behavior and astronomy are cataloged at BHB27-BHB29 ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 40: Jul-Aug 1985 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Hypnotic Misrecall Hypnosis is occasionally employed to help witnesses remember forgotten events in criminal and civil investigations. Scientists have long questioned whether hypnosis really improved recall. After a two-year study of hypnosis experiments, a panel of the American Medical Association has issued recommendations that hypnosis be limited to the investigative stages of the judicial process. This conclusion is based on studies that show that hypnosis may increase the amount of information recalled, but that it also introduces errors. The ability of subjects to recall poems learned years earlier was enhanced by hypnosis. Unfortunately, the subjects also fabricated forgotten sections of the poems in the styles of the poets. Conclusion: Hypnosis should be used only where information recalled can be checked for accuracy. (Anonymous; "Hypnotic Misrecall," Scientific American, 252:73, June 1985.) From Science Frontiers #40, JUL-AUG 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Most Profound Discovery Of Science This is what one scientist calls Bell's Theorem. Certainly not all scientists would agree with such an absolute declaration. Since Bell's Theorem lurks in the fog-shrouded country of quantum mechanics, most biologists probably haven't even heard of it. In any event, they would probably think the discovery of the genetic code more profound. Why all the fuss over Bell's Theo-rem? In the laboratory, Bell's Theorem is associated with an admittedly spooky effect: the measurements made on one particle affect the measurements made on a second, far-removed particle. In theory, the second particle could be on the other side of the galaxy, with absolutely no physical connection between the two -- unless you admit to spooky action-at-a -distance forces. (Some over-ly zealous think-tankers have even contemplated applying this effect to long distance, untappable, unjammable communications with submarines!) The article (referenced below) in which this apparent magic is discussed also dwells on another profundity associated with quantum mechanics: does that which is not observed exist? Einstein felt intuitively that it did; and one of his remarks on the subject led to this article's title. Unfortunately for Einstein, all recent laboratory experiments demonstrate that spooky actionat-a -distance forces do exist and that Einstein's intuition was incorrect. (Mermin, N. David; "Is the Moon There When Nobody Looks? Reality and the Quantum Theory," Physics ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 39: May-Jun 1985 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects East Bay Wall Photographs R. Swanson has kindly sent some photographs of the East Bay Walls described in SF#38. The photo on the left shows a rather complete section, 5-feet high, on Mission Peak, Fremont, California. N. Fink is shown measuring this wall. On the right, one of the walls leads to a "hill fort" at an elevation of 1,400 feet. Two other walls terminate at this rock pile. This wall has obviously experienced the ravages of time. It is said that these walls were in place when the Spanish arrived. From Science Frontiers #39, MAY-JUN 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... 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 Tigers in western australia?The title of course refers to the Tasmanian tiger or wolf or thylacine. We reported above on the possibility of a small relict population of Tasmanian tigers in Tasmania, where the supposedly last specimen expired in a Hobart zoo in 1936. There is now good evidence that the thylacine also roams Western Australian, where it has been believed extinct for thousands of years! At hand are photographs, casts of footprints, a carcass that may be very recent, and many eye-witness reports. Much of the recent evidence has been gathered by Kevin Cameron, a first-rate bushman with two superbly trained dogs. A.M . Douglas, the author of this article and formerly Senior Experimental Officer at the Wetern Australian Museum in Perth was skeptical about living thylacines at first but is now a firm believer. He states, "I think Kevin Cameron has made the single most important wildlife discovery of this century." (Douglas, Athol M.; "Tigers in Western Australia?" New Scientist, p. 44, April 24, 1986.) From Science Frontiers #46, JUL-AUG 1986 . 1986-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Frontiers ONLINE No. 47: Sep-Oct 1986 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Clump Of Antimatter The clumpiness of the universe described above assumed ordinary matter. Perhaps there are inhomogeneities on a different, more basic level -- matter vs. antimatter. According to one popular theory, the universe began with equal amounts of matter and antimatter. If so, where did all the antimatter go? We assume we observe a universe that is virtually 100% matter. Of course, we cannot really tell for certain because an antimatter galaxy would appear to us just like a galaxy composed of ordinary matter. The only clues revealing substantial pockets of antimatter would be the annihilation radiation produced where matter and antimatter regions rubbed against one another. The two types of matter always annihilate one another in bursts of very distinctive radiation. Well, there seems to be at least one region of antimatter near the center of our galaxy. The HEOS3 satellite and ballon-borne instruments have pinpointed a source of 511 kev gamma rays that can come only from a spot where electrons and positrons are mutually annihilating each other. (The positrons are antimat-ter analogs of electrons.) This region of mutual destruction is about 1013 kilometers across. Is it a pocket of antimatter left over after the Big Bang that a sea of surrounding matter is finally wiping out, or is it newly created antimatter in the vicinity of a black hole? No one knows. The mystery has deepened with the discovery that the intensity of the annihilation radiation varies with time. ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 43: Jan-Feb 1986 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Treasures In A Toxonomic Wastebasket The Burgess Shale, in British Columbia, ia all that is left of a Middle Cambrian mudbank that adjoined a massive algal reef. Here, many "experimental" forms of life prospered and succumbed. The Burgess Shale is probably the world's greatest depository of fossils of softbodied creatures. Quoting Stephen Jay Gould: "The Burgess (fortunately for us) occupies a crucial time in life's history. It represents our only 'window' upon the first great radiation of complex life on earth. All but one or two modern phyla originated in a burst of evolutionary activity associated with the so-called Cambrian explosion some 570 million years ago. The Burgess provides our only peek at the soft-bodied forms of this first flowering. All other soft-bodied fossil assemblages are much younger; they represent faunas well past the initial burst and sorting out of Cambrian times." The morphological diversity of the Burgess Shale, incorporating many bizarre forms of life, represents a true biological revolution. Here are found a dozen genera that do not fit into any modern phylum. Most of the novelties never survived into modern times. (Gould, Stephen Jay; "Treasures in a Taxonomic Wastebasket," Natural History, 94:24, December 1985.) Comment. Somewhere on today's earth, there must be mudbanks washed by nutrient-rich waters and bathed in tropical sunlight. Is some ...
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... we do have: (1 ) A new theory which shows how noncosmological redshifts can occur; and (2 ) Laboratory demonstrations of "spectral noninvariance" that show how a non-Doppler component can be added to light's redshift. The physicist behind this new research is E. Wolf, at the University of Rochester. His theoretical work was re-ported in the March 3l, 1986, issue of Physical Review Letters. There he showed how quasars and so-called "superluminary" astronomical sources might emit light with a spectrum that evolves as it travels through space. Scientists have always assumed that once light left its source its spectrum remained unchanged. But Wolf shows how spectral changes are "sort of coded into the light due to correlations in the source." Meanwhile, two of Wolf's colleagues have backed up his theory in the lab. The consequences of Wolf's work would in effect shrink the universe, because objects would not be as far away as we now calculate from their redshifts. The size of the universe might contract "by a factor of 100 or more," says Wolf. If this much deflation is accepted by other scientists (It could be quite a fight!), then the age of the universe will also shrink, since it is based in part on our observations of the outer fringe of the universe and the speed of light. (Amato, I.; "Spectral Variations on a Universal Theme,: Science News, 130:166, 1986.) Comment. If we divide the currently accepted age ...
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... but rather by animals much 'lower' on the evolutionary ladder -- fireflies. This illustration is Fig. 3 in a lengthy review article and carries the following unilluminating caption: "Examples of Entrainment of femme C's (see Table 3) Responses to Multiple Counterfeit Flashes." It seems that we have some sort of electronic warfare between the femme (predatory female fireflies that lure other fireflies with false signals) and the preyed-upon species. The many pages describe all sorts of feints, verification signals, and other stratagems. (Carlson, Albert D., and Copeland, Jonathan; "Communication in Insects," Quarterly Review of Biology, 60:415, 1985.) Comment. It is impossible to do justice to this paper in this short review, but two things should be mentioned: (1 ) Fireflies may be considered "low" on the evolutionary ladder, but their tiny brains certainly process a lot of data in complex ways; and (2 ) In southeast Asia, massed fireflies flash in synchronism along some riverbanks, creating one of the great spectacles of nature. See our Handbook Incredible Life for details. For a description of this book, visit: here . From Science Frontiers #44, MAR-APR 1986 . 1986-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 50: Mar-Apr 1987 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The fossil record and the quantization of life!A recent article on the possible quantization of galaxies was placed immediately before an interview with S. Stanley, one of the proponents of punctuated evolution. Either fate or the mysterious forces of seriality seemed to be saying that it is now time to broach the subject of the quantization of life itself. The reader can blame Stanley only for the stimulus and his discussions of speciation and the discontinuous (quantized?) fossil record. (Campbell, Neil A.; "Resetting the Evolutionary Timetable," BioScience, 36:722, 1986.) Comments. When we suggest quantization in biology, two phenomena come to the fore: 1. The obvious splitting of life into well-defined states -- the species -- as defined morphologically and/or by the genetic code; and 2. The gaps in the fossil record, which imply a frequent lack of transitional forms from one species to another. As Stanley asserts repeatedly in his interview, the fossil record is actually quite good in many places, despite the long-voiced claims of the gradualists that transitional forms do not exist merely because of the deplorable state of the fossil record. In physics the analogous phenomena would be: (1 ) The chemical elements and their isotopes (or an atom's energy levels); and (2 ) The lack of transitional forms. Straining the analogy still further, the evolution ...
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... 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 The mind's "scope"Never underestimate the power of the mind. Take "bad breath," for example: "An example is the case of B.O ., white, married, mother of three children (ages 9, 6, and 4), operating room nurse. Her chief complaint was severe bad breath of several years duration. In the past, she had consulted dentists, an E.N .T . surgeon, and a family practice physician who had prescribed two series of antibiotics, then a powerful mouthwash that had denuded the epithellium of her tongue, resulting in severe pain and diet restriction. It took 16 weeks for the tongue to heal. B.O . came to me in January of 1983, when she felt the symptom had worsened." H.P . Golan, who treated B.O . (sic), employed hypnotic techniques in which the patient was first shown the power of her own mind over her body. B.O . responded well, and was soon able to produce temperature changes in her hand and glove anesthesia. "It was explained to her that her physical symptom was an expression of emotional problems caused by stress. The feeling of her hand temperature change and the view of her hand anesthetized had made her realize physiological control was possible over one part of her body. It was explained to her that stress often causes excess acid ...
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... many scholarly studies of this period. These studies were not done by dunces, but by individuals who spent years acquiring the skills and perception necessary to interpret the evidence. Professor Hapgood, to his credit, spent almost ten years studying the evidence and consulting experts in the field. His ideas were rejected in scholarly circles not because of animus but because he had not proved his case. Too many leaps of faith were needed to establish his thesis. I fear it is impossible to be equally charitable toward some later advocates of the Hapgood thesis, whose methods do little credit to his memory." (Jolly, David C.; "Was Antarctica Mapped by the Ancients," Skeptical Inquirer, 11:32, 1986.) Antarctica is in the eye of the beholder. Do these two maps show the same thing? Note that the Finaeus map (1531) (left) would be much larger than the modern map (right) if the scales were equal. From Science Frontiers #49, JAN-FEB 1987 . 1987-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... , the human eye is an excellent instrument for searching for optical bursters, but professional naked-eye astronomers are few and far between nowadays. It has fallen to amateur astronomers to pioneer this field, as first mentioned in SF#39, where we introduced those optical flashes seen in Perseus. At last, the professional astronomers are taking more interest in this class of bright, unexplained flashes in the night sky. Those amateur astronomers, with their "primitive" instrumentation, have actually had a paper published in the highly technical Astrophysical Journal. Their abstract follows: "Between 1984 July and 1985 July, 24 bright flashes were detected visually near the Aries-Perseus border by eight different observers at a total of 12 sites across Canada. One flash was photographed, and another was seen by two observers at different locations. Their duration was usually less than 1 s. The estimated positions of 20 of the events and another seen in 1983 were close enough in the sky to suggest a common celestial origin." The brightest of the flashes was of magnitude -1 and lasted about 0.25 second. (Katz, Bill, et al; "Optical Flashes in Perseus," Astrophysical Journal, 307: L33, 1986.) Comment. Hurray for Katz and the cooperating amateurs in the U.S . and Canada. One can wade through a 10foot pile of the Astrophysical Journal and not find another paper based on naked-eye astronomy. Does this mean that science is at last going to take an interest in other transient luminous phenomena on earth? Unfortunately, this ...
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... of epicenters and reports of UFOs indicated that they occurred when the locus of successive epicenters shifted across the area. These analyses were interpreted as support for the existence of strain fields whose movements generate natural phenomena that are reported as UFOs." (Persinger, M.S ., and Derr, J.S .; "Geophysical Variables and Behavior: XXIII. Relations between UFO Reports within the Uinta Basin and Local Seismicity," Perceptual and Motor Skills, 60:143, 1985.) Comment. The "natural phenomena" mentioned above are probably close kin or identical to earthquake lights. An earli-er paper by Persinger alone in the same journal (60:59, 1985) links transient and very localized geophysical forces to such psychic phenomena as haunts and poltergeist activity. These two papers are the latest in a long series, mostly authored by Persinger, in this psychological journal. Calculated correlations between seismic activity and UFO observations in the Uinta Basin. From Science Frontiers #40, JUL-AUG 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 42: Nov-Dec 1985 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Peace And Sunspots We quote the abstract of an article that appeared in the journal Cycles: "Periods of international peace were found to occur in nearly regular cycles of 11 years by Edward Dewey in 1957 by analyzing the earlier data of Raymond Wheeler. In this paper the phase relationship between sunspot cycles and international battles was investigated. It was found that peaceful periods ended 7 out of 11 times within two years prior to sunspot peaks. The probability of this occurring by chance is less than .008. "Geomagnetic storms are postulated as the triggering event since: Geomagnetic storms are known to occur with greater frequency and intensity near sunspot peaks; and Geomagnetic storms have been found by other researchers to be associated with increased frequency of accidents, illness, psychiatric hospital admissions, and crimes." (Payne, Buryl; "Cycles of Peace, Sunspots, and Geomagnetic Activity," Cycles, 35:101, 1984.) From Science Frontiers #42, NOV-DEC 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... a few microns in size. These icosahedral crystals are not normal in the sense that they have five-fold symmetry. In fact, to a crystallographer, these crystals are the equivalent to ESP in psychology. All the rules of crystallography insist that icosahedral crystals should not exist. One scientist reacted in this way: "All my training has been with the assumption that crystals are periodic. Now, almost everything has to be reexamined." Actually, the icosahedral crystals are "quasi-periodic"; that is, they are completely regular only over small distances. Nevertheless, there are hints that these materials that should not exist have remarkable structural and electronic properties. (Peterson, Ivars; "The Fivefold Way for Crystals," Science News, 127:188, 1985.) Two-dimensionsal quasiperiodic geometry (Penrose tiling) with five-fold symmetry formerly thought to be impossible in nature. The tricontahedron with 30 faces is the basis of three-dimensional quasiperiodic structures with five-fold symmetry. From Science Frontiers #39, MAY-JUN 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 33: May-Jun 1984 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The failure of two-dimensional life The fossil record tells us that just prior to the Cambrian explosion of life, the earth was populated by a diverse assemblage of soft-bodied, shallow-water marine invertebrates, some with dimensions as large as 1 meter. This whole group of animals did not survive into Cambrian times, thus ending what has been termed The Ediacaran Experiment. Some paleontologists have tried to find similarities between the Ediacaran and Cambrian life forms to preserve the continuity of life. This has proved difficult, and some scientists now feel that The Edicaran approach to "largeness" was to increase surface area externally. The Ediacarans were therefore shaped like pancakes, tapes, fans, etc. This enabled them to present large areas to the environment for respiration, feeding, and other biological functions. In contrast, many present life forms achieve "largeness" by increasing internal areas, as in the lungs, folded intestines, etc., along with the forced circulation of air, blood, and other sub stances. This latter approach survived, while the two-dimensional Ediacaran Experiment did not. The demise or extintcion of the Ediacarans led Gould, the author of this far-ranging article, to the influence of extinctions on life in general -- a hot topic these days. Gould stated that with natural selection operating, one would expect continual "improvement" in life forms, but that this had not happened. ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 32: Mar-Apr 1984 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Two Remarkable Inscribed Stones The first stone is located in western Colorado on a remote canyon ledge, overlooking a broad valley with a stream. "The dolmen is four feet across the top and has three placed stones holding it above the ledge in a level position approximately six feet from the cliff face. The Ogam on top of the capstone is intermixed with cupule-like depressions ranging in size from 7 "- 9 " long, 3"-3 " wide and 1 "- 1 " deep in the center. The cupule-like depressions are very striking because of their uniformity, smoothness, and peculiar shape. The Ogam on the side of the capstone is abundant and occasionally connecting with lines on the top. The surface of the dolmen was obviously smoothed and prepared for the inscriptions. The actual age is unknown but the desert varnish on the Ogam, the depressions, and the smoothed surface is substantial." The Colorado inscribed dolmen in situ. The top is also inscribed. Barry Fell has translated the markings, which in his view are in Arabic Ogam, as: Top: God is strong. Strong to help his right hand. Front: The Koran is the unique achievement of the prophet pious and tender. (Morehouse, Judy; "A Colorado Dolmen Inscribed with Ogam," Epigraphic Society, Occasional Publications, 11:209, no. 269, 1983.) Comment. A photograph accompanying the ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 69 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf032/sf032p01.htm
... 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 Low-level aurora?June 10, 1982. Near Sturgis, Michigan. About 3:00 A.M ., two young women were driving in a semi-rural area. Fog made visibility poor. It began to rain -- a brown jelly-like slime that smeared the windshield. A rotten-egg odor pervaded the area. The car engine stopped, and the two began to walk to find assistance. After 50 yards, they encountered millions of small rays of "lightning" flashing everywhere. They were 2-3 feet long and reached high into the sky. Looking back toward the car, they saw a reddish fluorescent glow with streams of light coming down from the sky to the glowing region. Grass and weeds along the roadside were standing straight up and glowing. Deep-red lines of light were seen dancing on the road. They returned to the car, and it felt hot to the touch! Soon, clouds moved in and the display was over. The authors of this article personally investigated this event within a few days of its occurrence. They found the two witnesses obviously very shaken, but believe that the accounts are fresh and unadulterated. Also pertinent is the fact that a large solar flare had just occurred, and intense auroral displays had been predicted. Also, the two women were apparently the only witnesses of this phenomenon. (Swords, Michael D., and Curtis ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 53 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf034/sf034p17.htm
