Have crop circles been debunked yet?

[thetaobums]

How could such large intricate patterns spring up overnight? If humans are doing them, which kind of machines could they possibly be using? These circles usually have the cut crops removed.

 

[phyzguy]

How could such large intricate patterns spring up overnight? If humans are doing them, which kind of machines could they possibly be using? These circles usually have the cut crops removed.

People have confessed to making most of them, and even demonstrated how they made them, including photos of before and after. Here is a place to start.

 

[russ_watters]

These circles usually have the cut crops removed.

Actually, no, most have the crops just bent over.

 

[phinds]

Have crop circles been debunked yet?

Please. This is a physics forum, not a crackpot forum. Do you REALLY think they are done by aliens?

 

[Averagesupernova]

Have crop circles been debunked? That depends on who you ask. From day one I think most of us knew what they were.

 

[flatmaster]

From the Wikipedia article sighted above.

"In 2009, the attorney general for the island state of Tasmania stated that Australian wallabies had been found creating crop circles in fields of opium poppies, which are grown legally for medicinal use, after consuming some of the opiate-laden poppies and running in circles."

 

[AdkinsJr]

Please. This is a physics forum, not a crackpot forum. Do you REALLY think they are done by aliens?

If I was an alien conquering interstellar distances the first thing I would do is make crop circles, mutilate cattle and sexually abuse Jesse Long. Makes practical sense.

 

[phinds]

If I was an alien conquering interstellar distances the first thing I would do is make crop circles, mutilate cattle and sexually abuse Jesse Long. Makes practical sense.

Yes, and I would ALWAYS leave before the media showed up with cameras.

 

[Averagesupernova]

If I was an alien conquering interstellar distances the first thing I would do is make crop circles, mutilate cattle and sexually abuse Jesse Long. Makes practical sense.

How do you know it is the first thing aliens conquering interstellar distances have done? Maybe all the other research is done so they thought they would have some fun. They're probably saying: Man those earthlings will fight about this stuff for years.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

This appears to be a crop circle report from Sussex Notes and Queries, 1932.
http://oldcropcircles.weebly.com/uk-1932-bow-hill.html

And this appears to be a report published in Nature, in 1880
http://oldcropcircles.weebly.com/uk-1880-guildford.html

It is my understanding that crop circle formations were formerly studied by meteorologists in the US back around the 1940s or 50s, but I have never been able to find the published work on the internet. The report that I heard went on to describe a hypothesis from that work suggesting that wind vortices formed along hilltops and later touched down in adjacent fields, causing the odd formations.

I believe what was new in the 1970s were the intricate designs. From what I have seen, documented cases of simple formations appear to predate the hoaxes by a century or more.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Also, there is at least one scientist who has studied crop formations and published on the subject. He claims that physiological effects on the plants were documented that rule out simple wind votices as the cause of some crop formations. Here is the abstract.

Physiologia Plantarum
Volume 92, Issue 2, pages 356–363, October 1994

Anatomical anomalies in crop formation plants

Crop formations consist of geometrically organized regions ranging from 2 to 80 m diameter, in which the plants (primarily grain crops) are flattened in a horizontal position. Plants from crop formations display anatomical alterations which cannot be accounted for by assuming the formations are hoaxes. Near the soil surface the curved stems often form complex swirls with ‘vortex’ type patterns. In the present paper, evidence is presented which indicates that structural and cellular alterations take place in plants exposed within the confines of the ‘circle’ type formations, differences which were determined to be statistically significant when compared with control plants taken outside the formations. These transformations were manifested at the macroscopic-level as abnormal nodal swelling, gross malformations during embryogenesis. and charred epidermal tissue. Significant changes in seed germination and development were found, and at the microscopic level differences were observed in cell wall pit structures. Affected plants also have characteristics suggesting the involvement of transient high temperatures.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1399-3054.1994.tb05348.x/abstract

I am quite sure that I've heard Levengood specify that in his opinion, real crop formations are simple, not complex designs.

 

[Chronos]

The motives of 'aliens' are hard to fathom. They appear to behave more like drunken teenagers who borrow the family spaceship to tease farm animals. If they are coded messages, I'm still waiting for a report of a crop circle that imparts 'hidden' knowledge.

 

[Curious3141]

The motives of 'aliens' are hard to fathom. They appear to behave more like drunken teenagers who borrow the family spaceship to tease farm animals.

That has Gary Larson's "The Far Side" written all over it.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Please. This is a physics forum, not a crackpot forum.

It's a little tough to tell based on the answers in this thread.

 

[DennisN]

I felt I simply had to share the following quotes (from The 8 Most Common Sci-Fi Visions of the Future (And Why They'll Never Happen);

"#5. An Invasion by Hostile Aliens (Why it Will Never Happen):
Because so far the only aliens technologically advanced enough to visit Earth seem primarily interested in abducting h*cks and probing a**ses. These poor creatures cross the vast emptiness of space only to crash their saucers in New Mexico and have no technology to avoid detection by farm folk with disposable cameras. The chances for a successful full-scale invasion do not appear to be strong."

"#1. A Spacefaring Intergalactic Megasociety (Why It Will Never Happen):
It turns out the universe is mostly frigid, empty space and some rocks. If there are other intelligent life forms out there, they're far more likely to look like quivering mile-wide clumps of algae than British actors with rubber prosthetics glued to their foreheads."

 

[DaveC426913]

When did "hicks" become a cuss word?

 

[DennisN]

I tried to be careful; I did not want to risk getting an infraction by posting a pejorative term. :shy:

 

[HowlerMonkey]

Please. This is a physics forum, not a crackpot forum. Do you REALLY think they are done by aliens?

"Skepticism and Debunking" IS the crackpot forum.

This is why it exists away from the other forums here.

 

[phinds]

"Skepticism and Debunking" IS the crackpot forum.

.

I take it you have never visited an ACTUAL crackpot forum.

 

[Dotini]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zkk0ilevkVg&feature=player_embedded
http://www.wdbo.com/ap/ap/top-news/crop-circles-appear-in-e-washington-wheat-field/nP7Xf/
This crop circle recently appeared in a wheat field in eastern Washington, USA, reasonably close to the middle of nowhere for new-agers and mystical types.

It's mysterious because of its geometric form and lack of footprints or tracks leading to it, or other evidence of human construction. I favor a natural (if unknown) cause in any case, and do rule out aliens as a cause of this or any crop circles.

Respectfully submitted,
Steve

 

[lptaylor]

Well you could just take five seconds google it and find that its mostly people doing it because not only is it artistic but also gullible people think aliens are responsible