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Paranormal For all of you out there who are scared of ghost stories we have some of the truths behind these terrifying visions. Researchers all over the world are looking for scientific explanations behind the supernatural. Whether it's floating Min Min lights, ghostly visions or haunted houses, there almost always seems to be a perfectly reasonable and not very scary explanation. Scientists have even found explanations for the evil spirit said to inhabit rivers and lakes in the Cameroon in Africa. Background Notes A brief synopsis of each of the paranormal items in our shows and links to our references. Is this the explanation for ghost sightings? Infrasound is sound that is at lower frequencies than humans can hear (cf. ultrasound, which is at higher frequencies than human hearing). Some animals use infrasound to communicate (elephants, whales), and other animals can detect infrasound (dogs, horses). Natural disasters like earthquakes, volcanoes and big thunderstorms create infrasound. Until recently, infrasound was thought to have no effect on humans, but when researchers in London played infrasound to a group of people, they started to get nervous, anxious and scared. This could be why people see ghosts - they're in an old house, the house is moving slowly and making low vibrations (infrasound), the person starts to feel scared, so the brain creates ghosts out of shadows as a reason for the person being scared. References
Return to top. There are many phenomena that occur in the world around us that can be explained by science, there are many yet to be explained. Myths often arise surrounding these unexplained phenomena. Some of these myths include that of the mermaid (since explained as a dugong or manatee sighting) and the long held belief that the world was flat (dispelled through observation, calculation and exploration). An Australian phenomenon, Min Min lights, has recently been explained through the use of science. Professor Jack Pettigrew of the University of Queensland, says that the lights are actually an inverted mirage of light sources which are, in some cases, hundreds of kilometres away over the horizon. Pettigrew used a car traveling from beyond the horizon with the lights on high beam to create his own Min Min light. The light is able to travel from beyond the horizon due to a blanket of cold air down at ground level that can bend the light around the globe. Reference
Return to top. Lush valleys with good grazing land right beside a big lake - just the place to live... or is it? In 1986, 1700 people and thousands of animals living near Lake Nyos in the west-African country of Cameroon died overnight. People from neighbouring villages believed that an evil spirit woman lived in the lake, and she had killed everyone and everything because the people had angered her somehow. However, a bunch of researchers have discovered that the mass extinction in 1986 was due to a freak accident rather than supernatural murder. Lake Nyos is in the top of an extinct volcano which is generating carbon dioxide. This gas works its way up through the rock beneath Lake Nyos, and ends up at the bottom of the lake. On that fatal night in 1986, some event (a mudslide, little earthquake, strong wind) disturbed the water and released the carbon dioxide - the lake burped. Because carbon dioxide is heavier than air, the cloud of gas settled down into the valleys, pushing away all the oxygen and suffocating all the people and animals. To stop this kind of thing happening again, a team of scientists and engineers have come up with way of circulating the water, which gradually releases the carbon dioxide into the atmosphere without the devastating effects seen on that night in 1986. Reference
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