Science Special News

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Crop circles to be debated

Crop circles enthusiasts in Wiltshire have been overwhelmed by this year's harvest of unexplained activity. A well-timed crop circle conference has been organised for this weekend, which will give visitors the opportunity to view some of the designs that have cropped up across the county.Francine Blake said: "We have had a fantastic year. It is beautiful. They have come up all over Wiltshire. We've had 25 so far and they are quite brilliant. "The county is notorious for hosting the designs, and while it is a nuisance for farmers, Wiltshire is proving to be a top destination for crop circle spotting.This weekend's conference starting on Saturday at Marlborough College will include two-days of lectures, films and workshops, as well as helicopter flights on Monday.There are ten speakers in the line-up including many authors and experts in the field of crop circle investigation. Janet Ossembard, a researcher from Holland has been brought in to replace author Sylvia Franke.

[Rasputin]

David Sereda: My invisible world

David Sereda: Mark Twain said, “I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." I have always been a rebel of the educational system for ignoring the hidden. There were just too many phenomena stuffed in the closet that science, history and religion did not want to treat with respect. That is the paranormal.In 1987, I had my first experience of seeing, with my own eyes, my Stepfather’s (David Cooper) sister, Patsy Cooper, the night of the day she died: January the 11th, 1987. I was asleep on my writing partner’s sofa in Redondo Beach, California. In the middle of the night, I felt a woman’s hand touching my leg. I was startled and awoke to see a young, beautiful girl of 24 years of age, with a violet strip of light all around her. She floated off the ground and wore all white. She was crystal clear to my eyes. My heart beat so fast I could not believe what I was seeing.I had just had the most powerful experience of my life on December 22nd and 23rd, 1986 where I was taken into 7 ascending Heavens. That was those two days in a row I was transformed in the most powerful spiritual light I had ever experienced. I heard angels, deafening angels, and I felt the most remarkable presence of God in the Light, ecstasy, peace, beauty, wisdom, graces, power and Holy God. No words can describe what I saw, and no words or music on earth could compare to what I heard in the deafening Angelic Choir as I ascended through 7 heavens in God’s Kingdom.Now, days later, I was seeing the first ghost I had ever seen, and I had just seen Patsy a year before. We talked about everything. I just loved her. She was a quilt maker and a student of Tibetan Buddhism. During a retreat in San Francisco, she was taking a walk in a shopping mall and just dropped dead of a brain aneurism.

The same night, I saw Patsy, but she felt lost, confused, and then there was the violet light. It took me too many years to know what that meant. Humans can see all of the colors of the rainbow from Red to violet light, but they cannot usually see into the invisible Near UV, Far UV and Extreme UV. But perhaps my experience in Heaven changed all of that for me. Perhaps I was seeing Patsy in the UV spectrum with my own eyes. Is that what the violet light around her meant? Birds and bees can also see UV light.After the fear overwhelmed me, I asked Patsy to leave with my mind. She turned and floated right through the fireplace wall. I was so blown away with goose bumps, I just sat there for hours in the dark. How did she hear my thoughts?Nikola Tesla, the inventor of AC electricity, Radio (See US Supreme Court Ruling June 21st, 1943), Florescent lighting, and 110 US patents on file, locked himself in his lab for days unaware that his best friend, Mark Twain was dying. When Mark Twain had died April 21, 1910, Tesla was not answering the door. Days later, Tesla was notified that Twain had passed away days before. Tesla answered, “That is impossible, he was with me in the lab last night.” Tesla also had the ability to see into the invisible. Why then, if so many of our icons have these experiences, do we ignore the paranormal truth?

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Alien planet 'could float on water'

A newly discovered alien planet is so large and light that it could float on water, posing new challenges to astronomers who are devising theories to explain how planets are born. The gas-giant planet is about twice the size of Jupiter - the largest discovered so far - and its density as low as that of cork or balsawood, according to the study led by Georgi Mandushev of Lowell Observatory in Arizona to be published in the Astrophysical Journal.The strange world is so hot, puffed up and diffuse that it is likely to have only a tenuous grasp on its outer atmosphere. Astronomers predict it has a curved comet-like tail as it loses its grip. The bloated planet lies in the constellation Hercules and is orbits the star catalogued as GSC02620-00648, which is about 440 parsecs (1,435 light-years) away from Earth.

The planet is about over four million miles away from its parent star - over ten times closer than Mercury is to our own Sun - and is heated by the intense starlight to about 2300 degrees Fahrenheit.Because it makes a complete revolution around its local star every 3.55 days a year on this planet is shorter than a week on Earth. The world is so big that it is hard to explain by current theory.“We continue to be surprised by how relatively large these giant planets can be”, says Francis O’Donovan, a graduate student in astronomy at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena.

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Loch Ness Monster sightings down this year

Fewer people are reporting sightings of the Loch Ness monster, amid concerns scepticism about its existence could threaten tourism in the region. There have only been two reports of sightings this year, compared to three in 2006 and much lower than a decade ago, when the annual number sightings was consistently in the double digits. "It's becoming a potential crisis," said Mikko Takala, 39, a founding member of the Loch Ness Monster Fan Club who runs four webcams on the lake's north shore. advertisement Loch Ness is about 750 feet deep and is deeper than most parts of the North Sea. There have been more than 4000 purported sightings of "Nessie" since a surgeon vacationing at the lake in the 1930s released a photo allegedly capturing the legendary monster on film. Since then, the monster has been a key tourism draw, bringing an estimated £6 million a year into the Highland economy. The faithful have speculated whether Nessie is a completely unknown species; a sturgeon, even though they have not been native to Scotland's waters for many years; or even a last surviving dinosaur. In the age of digital cameras, webcams and video recorders, it is surprising that the number of reported sightings is falling.

Adrian Shine, 58, a naturalist who has investigated the mystery of the monster for 20 years, thinks the trend shows the world has become more sceptical. "I think we live in a more pragmatic age, and that people are becoming more aware of the sort of illusions that can occur on water," he said.

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Modern humans retain caveman's instincts

Like hunter-gatherers in the jungle, modern humans are still experts at spotting predators and prey, despite the developed world's safe suburbs and indoor lifestyle, a new study suggests. The research, published online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, reveals that humans today are hard-wired to pay attention to other people and animals much more so than non-living things, even if inanimate objects are the primary hazards for modern, urbanized folks. The researchers say the finding supports the idea that natural selection molded mechanisms into our ancestors' brains that were specialized for paying attention to humans and other animals. These adaptive traits were then passed on to us. "We're assuming that natural selection takes a long time to build anything anew and that's why this is left over from our past," said study team member Leda Cosmides, an evolutionary psychologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). Ancestor's eyes Immersed in a rich, biotic environment, it would have been imperative for our ancestors to monitor both humans and non-human animals. Predators and prey took many different forms—lions, tigers and bears—and they changed often, so constant eyeballing was critical. While the environment has changed since then, with high-rises emerging where forests once took root and pampered pets taking the place of stalking beasts, our instinct-driven attention has not followed suit. "Having this pop-out attentional bias for animals is sort of a vestigial behavior," said study team member Joshua New of Yale University's Perception and Cognition Lab.

In the study, groups of undergraduate students from UCSB, watched images displayed on computer monitors. The flashing images alternated between pairs of various outdoor scenes, with the first image showing one scene and the next an alternate version of that scene with one change. Participants indicated each time whether they detected a change.

[Rasputin]

Water forms floating 'bridge' with high voltage

While it's one of the most important and abundant chemical compounds on Earth, water is still a puzzle to scientists. Much research has been done to uncover the structure of water beyond the H2O scale, which is thought to be responsible for many of water’s unique properties. However, the nature of this structure, governed by hydrogen bonds, is currently unknown. “Water undoubtedly is the most important chemical substance in the world,” explained Elmar Fuchs and colleagues from the Graz University of Technology in Austria in a recent study. “The interaction of water with electric fields has been intensely explored over the last years. We report another unusual effect of liquid water exposed to a dc electric field: the floating water bridge.” When exposed to a high-voltage electric field, water in two beakers climbs out of the beakers and crosses empty space to meet, forming the water bridge. The liquid bridge, hovering in space, appears to the human eye to defy gravity. Upon investigating the phenomenon, the scientists found that water was being transported from one beaker to another, usually from the anode beaker to the cathode beaker. The cylindrical water bridge, with a diameter of 1-3 mm, could remain intact when the beakers were pulled apart at a distance of up to 25 mm. Why water would act this way was a surprise, Fuchs told PhysOrg.com. But the group’s analyses have shown that the explanation may lie within the nature of the water’s structure. Initially, the bridge forms due to electrostatic charges on the surface of the water.

The electric field then concentrates inside the water, arranging the water molecules to form a highly ordered microstructure. This microstructure remains stable, keeping the bridge intact. The scientists reached the microstructure hypothesis after observing that the density of the water changes between the beaker edges and the center of the bridge. A microstructure consisting of an arrangement of water molecules could have a similar density variation.

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Army vet recalls Roswell incident

In June or early July 1947, a farmer found strange debris while working on a ranch about 70 miles north of Roswell. He put some of it in a box and drove to the local sheriff. Neither man knew what to make of it, so the sheriff called Roswell Army Air Field, which sent two men to investigate. On July 9, 1947, the Roswell Daily Record, a newspaper, printed a story with the alarming headline: "RAAF Captures Flying Saucer On Ranch in Roswell Region." Other than those facts, there appear to be few things people agree on regarding what has become known as "the Roswell incident."Six decades later, competing UFO enthusiasts promote their own theories, skeptics dismiss the spaceship claims as outrageous, and the military, which originally claimed all the fuss was over a weather balloon, now sticks to its story that it was an experimental spy craft.Escondido resident Milton Sprouse, 85, said he knows what happened in Roswell - not because he favors one theory over another, but because he was there.As for the outrageous stories of mysterious metal, alien corpses and a military coverup?It's all true, he said. Before arriving at Roswell Army Air Field in 1945 as a corporal and engine mechanic, Sprouse already had participated in an undisputable historic event.As a member of the 393rd Bomb Squadron assigned to the 509th Composite Group, Sprouse worked on the ground crew of Big Stink, one of the B-29 bombers stationed on the Pacific island of Tinian, where the two atomic bomb missions on Japan were launched to end World War II.After the war, the 509th Composite Group was reassigned to Roswell, where they were renamed the 509th Bomb Wing.

Sprouse continued to lead the ground crew of Big Stink, which had been renamed Dave's Dream after the pilot."There was nothing there but tumbleweeds blowing for miles," he said about arriving at Roswell in November 1945.

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The abnormal moons of Mars

In 1988 the soviet Union launched two probes to study Mars and its two moons Phobos and Deimos. Unlike most other Russian missions around the solar system, the Phobos I and II missions were done with some cooperation with the United States, which contributed the use of the Deep Space radio telescope network, along with various contributions from Sweden, Switzerland, Austria, Germany and France. The missions were to provide the first close look at Phobos and Deimos, and hopefully answer the question as to why these two moons are unlike anything else in the solar system. The names of the two moons comes from greek mythology, after the sons of the god Mars. Phobos (meaning fear) and Deimos (meaning panic) both appear, at least according to current science, to be ex-asteroids that were captured by Mars' gravity, rather than being moons in the traditional sense. They are both quite small, being only a few tens of kilometers in size, and are tootiny for their gravity to pull themselves into spheres as with most larger moons in the solar system, and as a result they resemble an oblong potato. Deimos is the smaller of the two, and orbits mars more distantly than Phobos. We know it has a composition similar to a meteorite sometimes found on earth called a carbonaceous chondrite, a fascinating group of rocks that contain not only the most ancient material known to man, some of which predates the solar system entirely, but also amino acids which are organic molecules that form the basis for life. Oddly, Deimos is relatively uncratered.

In contrast, Phobos is heavily cratered, and orbits Mars in a very bizarre way; it moves so fast that it rises and sets to an observer on Mars twice each day, and due to that speed appears to rise in the west and set in the east, the opposite of earth's own moon. Phobos seems to be composed of the same materials as Deimos, but for some reason, the moon has a seriously low density. So low that in the 1960's Russian planetary scientists suggested that the moon was hollow, and might be an artificial satellite.

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Incredible comet bigger than the Sun

A comet that has delighted backyard astronomers in recent weeks after an unexpected eruption has now grown larger than the sun. The sun remains by far the most massive object in the solar system, with an extended influence of particles that reaches all the planets. But the comparatively tiny Comet Holmes has released so much gas and dust that its extended atmosphere, or coma, is larger than the diameter of the sun. The comparison is clear in a new image. "It continues to expand and is now the largest single object in the solar system," according to astronomers at the University of Hawaii. The coma's diameter on Nov. 9 was 869,900 miles (1.4 million kilometers), based on measurements by Rachel Stevenson, Jan Kleyna and Pedro Lacerda of the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy. They used observations from the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope. The sun's diameter, stated differently by various sources and usually rounded to the nearest 100, is about 864,900 miles (1.392 million kilometers). Separately, a new Hubble Space Telescope photo of the comet reveals an intriguing bow-tie structure around its nucleus. The comet's coma—mostly microscopic particles—shines by reflecting sunlight. See for yourself Holmes is still visible to the naked eye as a fuzzy star anytime after dark, high in the northeast sky. You can find it by using this sky map. It is faintly visible from cities, and from dark country locations is truly remarkable. "Right now, in a dark sky it appears as a very noticeable circular cloud," said Joe Rao, SPACE.com's Skywatching Columnist.

Rao advises looking for the comet this weekend, before the moon becomes more of a factor. The comet will likely diminish in brightness yet remain visible for the next two to three weeks, he said. "Over the next few weeks and months, the coma and tail are expected to expand even more while the comet will fade as the dust disperses," Stevenson and her colleagues write.

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Explanation of mysterious 'Tianchi monster'

A senior researcher from the National Academy of Science of The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) said the "Tianchi monster" a Chinese photographer caught on film last month is probably the mutated offspring of trout stocked by the North Korea 40 years ago. 77-year-old Kim Li-tae said during an interview with the Choson Shinbo, a newspaper published by the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, that he was one of the North Korean researchers who released nine trout into Tianchi Lake, located on Changbai Mountain, on July 30, 1960. At a later date they released other species of fish such as carp and mosquito fish into the lake. Generally fish cannot survive in a lake created by volcanic activity, but the Korean researchers have proven through experiments that fish can be transplanted live into the lake. Fish stocked by the researchers could survive by eating insects and other creatures blown to the lake by strong winds. The fish mutate during growth and form new varieties, so the trout they stocked might now be called "Tianchi trout," Kim said. In 2000, the Korean researchers did experimental tests on "Tianchi trout" found in shoal waters that measured 85 centimeters in length and weighed 7.

7 kilos, but they've never been able to test trout from the deeper waters of Tianchi Lake. The "Tianchi monster" that Chinese photographer Zhuo Yongsheng, who works for a local TV station run by the administration office of the nature reserve at Mount Changbaishan, Jilin Province captured on film last month, might be a "Tianchi trout" from the deep of the lake, Kim said.

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Germany's tired graveyards

Strange as it may seem, the dead have quit rotting in German cemeteries -- they are turning into wax-like corpses. Will the use of burial chambers solve the problem? Or is extensive soil reconditioning the only viable alternative? Cemeteries are supposed to be the quietest places on earth. But that notion may soon have to be laid to rest: Exhumation experts are currently conducting large-scale digging operations in German graveyards, belying the very concept of eternal peace. Corpses are no longer decaying in many German cemeteries. Instead, the deceased become waxen, an uncanny process that has become so rampant it can no longer be ignored. A high moisture content in the subsoil combined with low temperatures and a lack of oxygen are the main culprits. These conditions transform the soft tissue of many bodies not into humus, but rather "a gray-white, paste-like, soft mass," says soil expert Rainer Horn from the Christian Albrecht University in Kiel, Germany. As time passes, the remains of the departed coagulate to form "a hard, durable substance." When knocked with a spade, the wax-like bodies sound hollow. This "grave wax" buildup has disturbed the natural cycle of decay -- and created a horror scenario for burial authorities. When bodies don't decompose, their graves can't be reused -- a common practice in Germany. Contrary to many other countries, where final resting places are traditionally maintained in perpetuity, Germany recycles cemetery plots after a period of 15 to 25 years.

Experience has shown that the earthly remains of the deceased rot away almost entirely in this amount of time, but only under favorable soil conditions. Many German cemeteries today have far from ideal conditions. To make matters worse, the problem appears to be a homemade one: "Huge blunders committed over the past few decades" are to blame, says engineer Heinrich Kettler, who specializes in reconditioning soils that have become unsuitable for decomposition.

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Next solar eclipse mostly for penguins

On February 7th the sun will undergo an eclipse that few will see. It will be an annular eclipse, a "penny on nickel" effect in which the moon will be too small to completely cover the disk of the sun. The result will be the sun mimicking a blazing ring of fire — hence the term "annular," derived from the Latin anularis which means "ring." It will certainly be an unusual and spectacular sight, but only a very few people (and perhaps some penguins) will see it. The region of visibility, if you haven't already guessed, is Antarctica, the only continent in the world with no permanent or indigenous human inhabitants. Larger than the United States, this frozen land is populated by approximately 2,500 people during the summer and fewer than 1,000 in the winter. A solar eclipse is visible wherever the shadow of the moon strikes the Earth. Actually, there are two shadows, the outer shadow, called the penumbra, from where a partial eclipse can be seen, and the darker umbra or central shadow from where the moon completely blocks the sun and the grand spectacle of a total eclipse can be observed. A popular nickname for Antarctica is "the freezer." And it is over that part of Antarctica known as Ellsworth Land that the central axis of the Earth's shadow will make its landfall at 3:20 UT on Feb.

7. But it's not the umbra that will pass over this frozen wasteland, for the moon is 238,200 mi (383,350 km) away. As a consequence, the cone-shaped umbral shadow is shorter than that, so the tip of this dark shadow cone ends up falling about 9,400 mi (15,100 km) short of touching the Earth's surface.

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Focussing on triangle-shaped UFOs

Steve Hammons: People who report seeing unusual objects in the sky have described many different sizes and shapes. The basic saucer is commonly reported. Other descriptions include cigar and triangle-shaped objects. Often, only unusual lights can be seen. Some of the recent sightings in Stephenville, Texas, included reports of an object seemingly changing shape. This has been reported before too. In the 1997 "Phoenix lights" incident, some witnesses saw only huge lights. Others claim they saw a massive triangle, boomerang or V-shaped object, a mile long in size, slowly drifting overhead at a low speed right over the center of Phoenix one evening. Triangle-shaped craft have been reported in many places around the world. These could be advanced aircraft from the U.S. or other nations. We know that some stealth aircraft tend to include a kind of one-wing design. U.S. stealth bombers seem to have somewhat of a boomerang shape. Whether these kinds of craft are of U.S. origins or from points unknown, what are their capabilities? Do they have propulsion or anti-gravity systems that use advanced knowledge of physics? Does stealth technology allow them to visually appear and disappear? Can they fly near the ground like a conventional aircraft and also operate in space? What other capabilities might they have? What if one evening you looked up in the sky and saw a large triangle-shaped craft?

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Navy tests incredible sci-fi weapon

The U.S. Navy yesterday test fired an incredibly powerful new big gun designed to replace conventional weaponry aboard ships. Sci-fi fans will recognize its awesome power and futuristic technology. The big gun uses electromagnetic energy instead of explosive chemical propellants to fire a projectile farther and faster. The railgun, as it is called, will ultimately fire a projectile more than 230 miles (370 kilometers) with a muzzle velocity seven times the speed of sound (Mach 7) and a velocity of Mach 5 at impact. The test-firing, captured on video, took place Jan. 31 in Dahlgren, Va., and Navy officials called it the "world's most powerful electromagnetic railgun." The Navy's current MK 45 five-inch gun, by contrast, has a range of less than 23 miles (37 kilometers). The railgun has been a featured weapon in many science fiction universes, such as the new "Battlestar Galactic" series. It has also achieved newfound popularity among the 20-something-and-under generation for its devastating ability to instantaneously shoot a "slug" through walls and through multiple enemies in video games such as the "Quake" series of first person shooters.

The Navy's motivation? Simple destruction. The railgun's high-velocity projectile will destroy targets with sheer kinetic energy rather than with conventional explosives.

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Mystery 'white nose' killing bats

State environmental officials and caving organizations are asking people not to enter caves or mines with bats until further notice to avoid the possible transfer of a mysterious new bat disease from cave to cave. Thousands of hibernating bats are dying in caves in New York and Vermont from unknown causes, prompting an investigation by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, DEC, as well as wildlife agencies and researchers around the nation. The most obvious symptom involved in the die-off is a white fungus encircling the noses of some, but not all, of the bats. Called "white nose syndrome," the fungus is believed to be associated with the problem, but it may not contribute to the actual cause of death. It appears that the impacted bats deplete their fat reserves months before they would normally emerge from hibernation, and die as a result. "What we've seen so far is unprecedented," said Alan Hicks, DEC's bat specialist. "Most bat researchers would agree that this is the gravest threat to bats they have ever seen." Last year, some 8,000 to 11,000 bats died at several locations in New York, the largest die-off of bats due to disease documented in North America. This year, an unknown number of bats are at risk. "We have bat researchers, laboratories and caving groups across the country working to understand the cause of the problem and ways to contain it," said Hicks. "Until we know more, we are asking people to stay away from known bat caves.

" Craig Stihler, a bat specialist with the West Virginia Department of Natural Resources, says, "The fungus has been identified to the genus Fusarium, a common and widespread genus usually associated with plants. Pathologists that have examined the carcasses recovered from the New York sites do not believe the fungus is the main culprit. One guess at this time is that the fungus invades after the bats are stressed by some other factor.