Tag: unexplained phenomena

‘Strange Metal’ Discovered by Scientists Could Lead to Understanding of Three-Decade-Long Mystery

So-called “strange metals” do not behave in ways typical to other metals when they are heated or cooled, deviating from the usual rules of physics.Scientists have discovered a new “strange metal” with a behaviour they do not seem to understand. The moment occurred when looking into bosonic systems, where such behaviour had not been spotted before.The new research was published in Nature on Wednesday, titled “Signatures of a strange metal in a bosonic system”. The scientists discovered a never-before-seen type of metal behaviour in the system, where an electrical charge is not carried by electrons, as usual, but by so-called Cooper pairs.Cooper pairs are bosons — particular kinds of subatomic particles. Electrons are fermions, another kind of such particles.

“We have these two fundamentally different types of particles whose behaviours converge around a mystery”, Jim Valles, a professor of physics at Brown and an author of the new study, said, as cited by The Independent. “What this says is that any theory to explain strange metal behaviour can’t be specific to either type of particle. It needs to be more fundamental than that”.The new research could open the door to solving a mystery that has been troubling scientists for almost three decades, since cuprates — a class of materials that tend to behave in ways different to other metals — were discovered.These “strange materials” do not appear to display the same characteristics as other other metals when they are heated. Normally, their resistance goes up until the point when it becomes constant. Cuprates, however, do not follow these rules, and scientists are still struggling to figure out why.

Keep reading

OK! It’s time to take UFOs seriously

Of all the year’s political drama, the most surprising may be the U.S. government’s actions on unidentified aerial phenomena, or UAPs — better known as UFOs.

The opening act came in June, when the Pentagon and the director of national intelligence delivered an astonishing report to Congress addressing UAPs. Most of these phenomena turn out to have prosaic explanations — such as weather balloons, space debris and atmospheric effects in the sky — with a small percentage exhibiting unusual flight characteristics that suggest advanced technology.

The June report, however, found the opposite: It could account for only one of the 144 UAP sightings between 2004 and 2021 that it examined, including 80 observed with multiple sensors such as high-tech military radar and infrared cameras mounted on warplanes.

Take one of the most memorable sightings, caught on infrared camera in 2004. Navy pilots flying from the USS Nimitz spotted a 40-foot white object resembling a Tic Tac mint levitating erratically above the waters off the California coast. As the pilots approached, the Tic Tac — despite lacking wings or any sign of propulsion — rose to meet them midair before speeding instantly away, vanishing. The report did not conclude what the Tic Tac or any other UAPs are, and it could not attribute them to secret technology developed by the U.S. or any adversaries.

Now Congress wants answers. In November, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) authored legislation creating an office to study UAPs government-wide and report to Congress. Then the Defense Department tried to stake its claim to the issue, shortly after announcing the formation of its own UAP unit. Its team would investigate only UAPs spotted in sensitive military airspace, and it would operate without congressional supervision. Some criticized the half-measure as a preemptive ploy to avert oversight, though the Pentagon denies those claims.

But Gillibrand anda bipartisan bloc of lawmakers, including Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), were not deterred. They steered legislation through Congress — attached as an amendment to the annual defense bill, sent to President Biden’s desk Wednesday to be signed into law — that establishes a new office to study UAPs. The amendment also requires unclassified reports on UAPs delivered to Congress each year, as well as semiannual classified briefings to legislators.

The move represents the most significant public progress yet to understand UAPs. For all its dysfunction, only Congress has the institutional power and legitimacy to lead this conversation.

Keep reading

What Caused The Patomskiy Crater in Siberia?

In the Summer of 1949, a geologist named Vadim Kolpakov discovered a strange feature on the surface of the earth in the Bodaibo, Irkutsk, region of South-Eastern Siberia. Encircled by a largely treed area, this anomaly is oval with a conical crater that contains a small ball-like mound in its middle. The entire structure consists of broken grey limestone. Its width is between 130-160 meters, while the cone is up to 80 meters high. Oddly, few trees grow on the formation, however, the surrounding conifers have experienced rapid growth. Named the Patomskiy Crater, the Kolpakov Cone, and the Fire Eagle Nest, the geologic mystery has baffled scientists who are uncertain of what caused this weird formation.

Far Out Theories on the Patomskiy Crater

I don’t know if it is a meteorite or a spaceship, but there is definitely something under the crater.ALEXANDER DMITRIEV

Named for the river that runs near the anomaly, the Patomskiy crater has spawned many interesting theories. Wild ideas speculated that it was a secret Stalin-era uranium mine that used Gulag labor forces. Ancient astronaut theorists chimed that it was the landing site of an alien UFO. Other popular theories include: an underground uranium or natural-gas explosion, a dust-sized meteorite that burrowed through the planet and left the crater as an exit wound, a cylindrical metallic object of unknown origin, and the Tunguska Event.

The uranium theory may sound unlikely. However, this area is known to be rich in naturally occurring radioactive elements. A precise series of events would need to take place in order to create the circumstances for an explosion, but it lies within the realm of possibility. However, the trees do not indicate large explosions from uranium or the Tunguska event which would have leveled the conifers.

Keep reading

Massive Mystery Blast Leaves Behind Huge Crater on New York Island

Authorities in New York are investigating a curious case wherein a massive blast created a huge crater on the beach of an uninhabited island. The odd mystery reportedly began on Sunday morning when people living in the southern part of Long Island heard and felt an enormous blast. As is often happens with such events, concerned residents flooded their local police station with calls and social media lit up with people wondering what had just happened. However, in this instance, questions surrounding where the inexplicable boom could have come from were quickly answered as cops managed to determine its origin.

Investigators traced the blast back to Fox Island, a small nearby spot that is accessible only by boat, where they found a huge and rather worrisome crater measuring four feet wide and two feet deep on the beach. Beyond the huge hole, however, they saw no signs of any explosive device having been detonated. Be that as it may, authorities believe that the blast was detonated by some individual or a group of people and have set their sights on a boat photographed in the general area at the time of the incident.

Keep reading

10 Explanations For UFOs Weirder Than Aliens

If you don’t believe UFO sightings are the result of the misidentification of either astronomical or mundane aerial objects, you most likely believe in the extraterrestrial hypothesis, which states UFOs are vehicles sent by civilizations from far distant stars to bring us a message of peace or probe us mercilessly. Yet, there are other possibilities as well.

Keep reading

US probes rash of health incidents among diplomats in Vienna

The Biden administration is investigating a recent rash of mysterious health incidents reported by American diplomats and other government employees in Vienna, Austria, U.S. officials said Friday.

Some of the symptoms are similar to those first reported by U.S. diplomats and spies in Havana, Cuba, in 2016 and 2017 for which no definitive cause has yet been determined, according to the officials, who said more than 20 new cases were being looked at by medical teams at the State Department and elsewhere, including the Pentagon and CIA.

“In coordination with our partners across the U.S. government, we are vigorously investigating reports of possible unexplained health incidents among the U.S. Embassy Vienna community,” the State Department said. “Any employees who reported a possible UHI received immediate and appropriate attention and care.”

Some believe the unexplained injuries, which include brain damage, are the result of attacks with microwave or radio wave weapons. However, despite years of study there is no consensus as to what or who might be behind the incidents or whether they are, in fact, attacks.

Keep reading

Cattle Mutilations in Oregon Continue

The mysterious cattle mutilation phenomenon continues to vex ranchers in Oregon as three more curious cases have now been reported. According to a local media outlet, the latest incident occurred earlier this month on the property of rancher Fee Stubblefield near the community of Ukiah. As he was checking on his cattle one evening, he spotted a dead cow that sported unusual injuries which “didn’t look right.”

Specifically, the creature’s tongue and sex organs had been removed by way of a bloodless cut described by Stubblefield as unusual. Additionally, in a rather odd detail, one of the animals ears had been severed and inexplicably placed upon its neck. The rancher’s misgivings about the manner in which the cow died were subsequently confirmed by local authorities who examined the creature and noted that it bore all of the telltale signs of a cattle mutilation case.

The determination was particularly worrisome to Stubblefield as “now that we’ve identified this as a mutilation kill, we’ve actually discovered we had two other ones.” Those cases, he said, took place earlier this year under similarly puzzling circumstances. Stubblefield’s most recent lost cattle comes on the heels of an odd cattle mutilation that took place in Oregon back in July as well as a highly-publicized incident last summer in which five mutilated bulls on a different ranch in the state.

Keep reading

INTERSTELLAR VISITOR MAY BE ONE OF RAREST OBJECTS IN UNIVERSE

Scientists say that ‘Oumuamua, the giant space object that came from outside our solar system, could actually be an extremely rare chunk of hydrogen ice.

It’s an out-there idea — Wired reports that there are only a few places in the universe capable of creating a hydrogen iceberg. But the Yale scientists behind the theory say that if the interstellar visitor were a giant iceberg, many of its more bizarre properties would suddenly make sense.

Unidentified Frozen Object

One of the hardest things to explain about ‘Oumuamua’s path through our solar system is how it accelerated as it traveled. Comets accelerate, but there was no indication that ‘Oumuamua relied on that mechanism.

But if ‘Oumuamua were a hydrogen iceberg, the gradually-sublimating ice would propel it forward, according to research accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal.

“Even though the hydrogen iceberg thing is a little exotic, it explains every single mysterious thing about ‘Oumuamua,” recent Yale Ph.D. graduate Darryl Seligman told Wired.

Keep reading