Posted on 09/30/2002 9:49:01 PM PDT by SteveH
Round in circles
Rodney Chester
28sep02
IF THE "croppies" are right, there is a race of aliens who travel across the universe to communicate with the people of Earth, and the way they choose to leave their message is through crop circles that no one understands.
And if you are a croppie, like Nancy Talbott, this type of scenario could make perfect sense.
What's more, she believes she can prove it.
Well, at least she believes she can prove that there is something about these crop circles that is definitely not man-made.
Talbott is part of the group who believes there is something non-Earthly about these funny shapes in fields around the world and is using the tools of science to prove it.
Her research team believes "it is possible that we are observing the effects of a new or as yet undiscovered energy source".
The strange geometric circles that some believe are a sign from another species have been appearing in English wheat fields since the late 1970s, with up to 10,000 circles reported around the world.
A dedicated group of researchers including Talbott, aided by the hype of the Mel Gibson movie Signs, say there is "evidence" that something is not kosher about the circles.
Talbott's work follows a breakthrough geologist Diane Conrad claims to have made after examining soil samples taken from a crop circle near her Utah home.
The soil was not what you might expect. The preliminary results showed that the soil had a significant increase in its crystallinity, meaning that the crystals within the soil were more ordered.
In short, the researchers say the soil's crystal structure appeared to be similar to crystals normally found in sedimentary rock which has been exposed for hundreds of thousands of years to heat from the Earth's core and the pressure of tonnes of overlying rock.
Not that everyone accepts that evidence as proof, with sceptics, crop circle creators and scientists pointing to the lack of scientific rigour in the work of Conrad and others.
If the science of these croppies is so good, why hasn't it been published in respected peer-related scientific journals, those in the science community typically ask.
Certainly, even the croppies acknowledge that many of the crop circles are man-made.
That is evidence impossible to refute, when you consider that some of the crop circle creators now go public about their work.
England's community of circle makers now have their own website in which they detail the geometrically complex crop circles they have made, give tips on how to make your own circle using a footboard attached to a length of rope, and criticise croppies and those who believe them for accepting what they see as dodgy research techniques as science.
"In their attempts to create a universal acceptance of the crop circles' paranormal origins, leading cerealogists often pretend a relationship with orthodox science," the site's beginner guide to crop-circle making says.
"Such phrases as 'we are working closely with scientists' or, 'we are awaiting the results of analysis' are commonly used in press releases, for instance, or on the lecture circuit.
"As well as the possibility that this might fool gullible, provincial journalists who aren't particularly bothered if they parrot rubbish to their readership, this provides a certain security amongst the rank-and-file researchers, who, when pressed, will cite the need for only one circle to be proved to be 'of unknown origin', thereby justifying their pursuance of the phenomenon."
The site has examples of patterns they have made that some labelled as too intricate to be a hoax until the hoaxers came forward with proof of it being a man-made creation.
Talbott, who describes herself as a music producer with a research background, runs the BLT Research Team, with New York businessman John Burke and Michigan biophysicist Dr William Levengood, which is dedicated to science and the circles.
The group believes that the key to solving the mystery of the circles could be in the soil. The BLT Research Team says its study of the soil taken from the circles has shown that the strange shapes were made by some form of extreme but unknown energy.
Levengood has reported finding tiny holes in the plant stems that he says are caused by microwave energy heating the plants from the inside out, turning the water they contains into steam. Levengood and Burke have patented a way to replicate this phenomena, claiming it could lead to new types of plants that grow faster than their conventional equivalents.
Conventional scientists typically quickly dismiss the BLT claims, but not everyone is as sceptical.
New York philanthropist Laurance S. Rockefeller recently funded the research team to embark on its biggest crop examination yet.
Soil samples were taken from crop circles in the Netherlands and the US, along with hundreds of plant and soil samples from a seven-circle barley formation in Canada, and were examined using a process similar to that adopted by Conrad.
Preliminary results showed crystal growth similar to those achieved in a laboratory when temperatures of more than 600C are used.
Seeking confirmation of the findings from the scientific community, Talbott sent the results to emeritus professor of geology and mineralogy at Dartmouth College, Dr Robert Reynolds, who is considered a world expert in X-ray diffraction analysis of clay minerals.
In a letter to the BLT team, Reynolds wrote that the heat required to have made the observed changes in crystallinity would have incinerated the plants.
"In short, I believe that our present knowledge provides no explanation," Reynolds said.
The BLT Research Team's website says that an academic paper presenting the "remarkable results" of this study is in progress and will be submitted for publication soon.
Whatever the full study finds, it is unlikely to convince Joe Nickell, a senior research fellow of the sceptics group called the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal.
Nickell has studied the crop circle phenomenon for decades, and believes all crop circles are the work of hoaxers.
"The escalation in appearances correlated directly with the increase in media coverage," he says. "For years the phenomenon was concentrated in southern England.
"Only after media reports spread internationally did crop circles begin to appear in significant numbers elsewhere."
While the croppies are experiencing increased interest in their work thanks to the release of the movie Signs, the sceptics also are glad the movie has appeared.
"It's about time that crop circles get put in their proper place," Nickell says.
"Crop circles are the stuff of Hollywood fiction, not science."
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