Nexus - 0222 - New Times Magazine-pages

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MYSTiERY LINES ON THE (cid:1) INULLARBOR (cid:1) A series of five long parallel lines have been observed on daytime satellite images of the Westem/ South Australian border, leaving geologists scratching their heads. The lines, estimated to be about 400 lilo metres long and 5-15 ki~ometres MEDICAL STUDENTS REJECT (cid:1) differences between, say, rock and sand are DARWINISM (cid:1) greatest at night During the day, features of the land are uniformly hot, making them The British medical journal The Lancet difficult to identify from thermal images. has published a survey carried out by pro The lines appear to be about 2°C cooler fessor Roger Short from the department of than the surrounding plain. Physiology at Monash University, Victoria. The mystery was revealed in Sydney in 'The questionnaire was given Ito over 150 late August at a forum. on remote sensing. flTSt year medical students. wide, Dr Ian Barton, of CSIRO's Division of Twenty-seven per cent of those surveyed were found on images of the Nullarbor Almospheric Research in Melbourne, said thought species did not evolve by natural Plain, the vast desert that stretches north the lines were fLTst noticed last month by selection, i.e., Darwin was wrong. Twenty from the Great Australian Bight. his colleague, Dr Fred Prata. Barton sent seven per cent also believed that humans But they are not supposed to be there. the images for analysis to Tapley's group at could not have evolved from apelikG ances "The Nullarbor is supposed to be a fea the CSIRO Division of Exploration and tors, and twenty-one per cent believed God tureless expanse," says Dr Ian Tapley of Mining in Perth. created Eve from Adam's rib. the CSIRO, Australia's national research Prata was studying images taken by The students then attended eight lectures organisation. "We have no explanation for Europe's remote-sensing satellite, ERS-l, on evolutionary theory, were ttaken on an the lIDes yet." over 10 days in October 1992. Since this excursion to meet their ancestors, and Even more puzzling is that the lines discovery, the lines have also been found asked to write an essay on the topic, appear only during the day. This is odd on thermal images taken on the same days "Discuss the origin and destiny of the cur because they have been detected by by a weather satellite operated by the US rent races of mankind". All essays suppon infrared sensors which produce ,their best National Oceanic and Atmospheric ed evolutionary theories. images at night. Infrared radiation gives a Administration. After this, they were surveyed again. measure of temperature-and temperature (Sources: New Sciemjst. 3 Sept '94; CSIRO) There were no significant changes in the answers to any of the questions. (Source: The SydneJ Morning Herald, 11 April 1994) CONFLICTING DATA ABOUT EXTENT OF ICE AGE An American geologist, Christopher Scotese of the University of Texas, believes that most glaciers in the ice age of 650 million years ago never got within 30 degrees of the equator. Geologists can track the motion of conti nents hundreds of millions of years ago because the direction of the Earth's magnet ic field changes with latitude, and is fIXed in the rocks as they solidify. Most geolo gists believe Africa, North America, Australia and Europe were near the equator during this ice age. Evidence suggests that these continents contained glaciers at this time. Christopher Scotese has been analysing magnetic data collected by Rob Van Der Voo of the University of Michigan, and Chris Powell of the University of California at Santa Barbara. He came up with a model that puts West Africa and much of Europe near the South Pole, the OCTOBER - NOVEMBER 1994 NEXUS. 57