August 22, 2001: Science Topics - John Gribbin | Crop Circles - Linda Moulton Howe & Lucy Pringle
Lucy Pringle describes the disorienting experience of walking through the massive pattern, where even finding the center proved nearly impossible. A professional New Jersey land surveyor estimates that using the most advanced GPS equipment, simply staking out the center points of all 409 circles would take far longer than the seven hours of darkness in which it appeared. A German surveyor, Andreas Mueller, confirms the formation showed no footprints in the rain-dampened soil and no distortion despite severe ground irregularities.
Professor John Gribbin from Great Britain discusses climate change, warning that a five-degree Celsius increase could exceed the temperature shift that ended the last ice age. He then turns to time travel, explaining that nothing in the laws of physics forbids it and describing how cosmic strings or wormholes could theoretically enable backward travel. He also addresses quantum computing and the possibility of parallel universes.
Key Moments
Milk Hill 409-circle formation revealed: Howe describes the August 12 Ron Reed wheatfield formation at Milk Hill, Wiltshire: 409 circles in six curved arms spanning 787 feet, with the central circle 72 feet across.
Surveyor: humans could not have made this overnight: Citing GPS surveying math, 409 circles at 45 minutes each far exceeds the seven hours of darkness available, and the accuracy across every arm is flawless.
Cosmic strings as natural time machines: Gribbin explains that cosmic strings, tubes of fantastic energy density that distort spacetime, could function as natural time machines, with black holes acting as cosmic-subway gateways.
Fine-tuning and lethal alternate universes: Gribbin describes how slightly different physical constants would prevent stars and chemistry, and warns that quantum-jumping to a neighboring universe could land you somewhere where life is impossible and you drop dead.
Fred Hoyle's eternal universe vs Big Bang: Gribbin notes Hoyle's death days earlier and explains Hoyle's idea of an eternal expanding infinite universe in which the Big Bang was merely a local event.