Crop circles have moved well past circles. Now they’re jellyfish, dragonflies, and trilobites, drawn using higher math, computers, laser pointers, and GPS’s. A lovely little essay by a physicist in a recent Nature calls them “modern mathematical artworks” and hopes that this summer will produce a “bumper batch.” They seem to have no larger meaning, just that they’re quixotic, beautiful, and I thought you’d like them.
Crop circles have been seen for centuries. How they got there is a little mysterious and has been the subject of a great number of theories: scientific ones include hill-induced vortices, and less-scientific ones include aliens. The majority of the circles are not mysterious at all: they’ve been done by hoaxer/artists and the most recent ones are increasingly mathematical, fractal, and gorgeous. The artists work in teams and use some of the same math that nature uses — like the golden ratio — to create the same designs nature does.
The physicist’s essay has an odd little tone, a combination of highly specific detail about the history and math, and vagueness about artists and techniques — as though the author doesn’t want crop circles giving up all their mystery. Or maybe, because the circles are done so quickly and secretly and last so briefly, the author really doesn’t know.
The internet turns up beautiful pictures of the circles, but the sites tend to have the words in their addresses that don’t encourage belief in the reliability of either the sites’ information or the sources for the pictures.
Photo: top – Wikimedia Commons; bottom – Hansueli Krapf
Nice try…
the original official explanation when the UK Gov was confronted by the bizarre overnight appearances of these majestic and massive geometric ‘artworks’ was, two old duffers who served in WW2, said they did it as a prank. That week another large circle appeared inside a Royal compound! One of the old duffers consequently admitted he lied, and as for their their alleged technique, a piece of wood with blanket wrapped around it and a pole on each end, to stomp the crops flat.
Really… the significance of the manm ade crop circles is interesting, as Gov has obviously put a lot into discrediting the alien theory, with these attempts at disinformation.
You do not mention the scientific analysis of the crop stems, conveniently, which have undergone super heating, by mircowave energy, and many have a metal pellet inside the stems.
Then there is the elevated background radiation within the circle, diminishing as you travel out of the crop manipulated area.
Also, you fail to mention that the crops have not been trampled, well the faked ones have been, in the real ones the stems are woven and laid flat, through heating of the base of the stems.
So, no, nice try dude, but no gold star!