scientific- methods

Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Crop Circles

Crop circles are defined as the geometric patterns. They are defined as geometric patterns because they are not always round. There are lot of questions as to who is doing them, how are we to relate to these mysterious shapes. The biggest debate is whether these shapes are real or man made. Some believe that we have to approach these symbols with humanity and humbleness because they speak to the heart. Some relate them as the mother devil or witch craft. What is so strange about these circles is that they are only found in well developed countries like United States and Canada.

The laboratory analysis of the crop circle was done in Michigan (USA), and it was first discovered by the farm owner in 1995. “Two large ovoid formations were found in this farm. The material which was ploughed around the farm was corn stems and seed ear. The laboratory analysis done on the soil shows that the soil found on the circle or symbol was radioactive compared to the soil found on the rest of the farm. The experiment performed consists of four samples which were taken from different directions including the control. The result shows that there is a percentage difference on the length of the nodes. The germination tests shows that there is no significant growth difference between the seedlings on the middle of the circle compared to the rest of the circle. Some of the surface samples appear dead black and this gives the appearance of the burned tissue. The burned appearance is caused by the heavy coating of microscopic black spores. The presences of the fungus suggest that a high transient heat did happen, but the intensity is insufficient to cause charring of the tissue” (1, 2).

These tests somehow convince that this crop circle was natural. But still what is amazing is that why are they only occurring in the Northern hemisphere, what happened to that part of the world and also happened to this part at which they are not occurring? According to my own verdict I can say that I believe that these crop circle story is a hoax as good as it sounds. Even though it is not easy to distinguish between a men made crop circle and a natural one I still believe that it is a hoax, it would have been better and convincing if it was also happening in countries which are also poor.

Reference

1. Levengood, W.C. 1995 Pinelandia Biophysical Lab. [Internet] 2006 May 26; 16:09 UTC [Cited 2006 May 26] Available From:
http://planet.uwc.ac.za/nisl/Scientific_methods/Circles/ResearchReport45-25Nov1995-BadAxeMI.pdf

2. Burke, A.J 1995 A.M-Tech. Laboratory. [Internet] 2006 May 26; 14:07 UTC [Cited 2006 May 26] Available from:
http://planet.uwc.ac.za/nisl/Scientific_methods/Circles/ResearchReport44-24Nov1995-InmannKansas.pdf

Dianah Nangammbi
Cilla CSIR
P.O Box 395
Pretoria
0001
Tel: +27 12 841 2133
Cell: +27 73 121 3589
Email: dnangammbi@csir.co.za
http://wwwdianah.blogspot.com/