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analysis. Volunteers also tested formations for magnetic anomalies, prompted by reports of compasses being affected by residual energies. Magnetometer readings suggested that the soil within several Wiltshire formations had been magnetized and it was theorized that this was caused by the circle- Another study, published in 1992, was carried out by Robert Irving and Pam Price and based on the idea that, if the hypothesis that circles were created by a burst of microwave radiation was correct, the populations of bacteria on the plants would be affected, either by a reduction in numbers or in mutation. No significant difference was detected between the circle samples and controls. Levengood published further results, including a paper in the scientific journal Physiologia Plantaurum, which showed that sample plants had alterations to their cell structure. 1993 again saw American attempts to find scientific evidence for the circles when Peter Sorrenson, together with veteran circles researcher Busty Taylor, collected samples of crops which showed signs of ‘glazing’ with a coating later analysed as iron and oxygen. Further tests showed significant differences between the samples and controls in the growth rate of seeds and electrical conductivity of the tissue around the seed head. This research which was carried out by Levengood and a physicist, John Burke, led to the hypothesis that particles from the annual perseids meteor shower had been drawn to the Earth by a plasma vortex and converted to a molten state during entry into the Earth's atmosphere. Two years later an engineer, Jim Lyons, advanced the interesting theory that the circles could be forming where powerful vertical electrostatic fields interact with points of low impedance on the Earth - the intersections on the Earth's proposed energy grid. Such interactions might cause the formation of nitrogen gases in the atmosphere and nitrates in the soil, therefore testing soil from circle formations might reveal these compounds. With support from the Agricultural Development and Advisory Service (ADAS), tests were done to measure nitrate levels inside and outside formations. The results of these tests showed some Two prominent scientific figures, Lord Zuckerman (formerly the British government's chief scientific adviser) and Rupert Sheldrake, a biologist famous for his concept of 'morphic resonance’, had (independently) suggested that the truly scientific approach to the question of whether or not human beings were capable of making circles was to determine experimentally exactly what humans could accomplish. At Sheldrake's prompting The Cerealogist, with sponsorship from the UK newspaper the Guardian and the German magazine PM, organized a circle-making competition on Edward Dashwood's land in Buckinghamshire in the summer of 1992. The rules of the competition required competitors to work at night, while scrutineers monitored for noises or lights, deducting marks accordingly. The rationale being that, if humans were responsible, they had to be capable of constructing complex formations in making agency. suggestions of anomaly but, overall, provided no conclusive evidence to support the theory. Testing Human Capabilities