Mexico’s Bermuda Triangle - The Zone of Silence

There’s an area in Mexico’s Chihuahuan desert that’s just plain different. Many people are familiar with the odd phenomena at Sedona and electromagnetic anomalies and disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle. But Mexico’s La Zona Del Silencio, or Zone of Silence, seems to exhibit all of these phenomena, plus a lot more.

Located about 400 miles west of El Paso, Texas near a place called the Trino Vertex in Mexico, the Zone of Silence is a weird patch of desert that is all but uninhabited. There is a tiny settlement called Ceballos about 25 miles from the heart of the Zone. It is not yet well known, visited only by few outsiders and researchers working at a complex built by the Mexican government to study the area and its plants and animals.

The earliest known documented incident in the Zone occurred in the 1930s when pilot Francisco Sarabia reported his instruments went wild as he flew over the area and his radio stopped working. This phenomenon bears a striking resemblance to many incidents reported by people crossing through the Bermuda Triangle.

In the 1970s, an errant American missile fired at the White Sands Missile Base in New Mexico inexplicably went off course and crashed in the region. The Mexican government allowed the U.S. Air Force to investigate the crash. The Americans made a remarkable discovery. Local magnetic fields create a zone strong enough that no signal can penetrate the area. This includes both radio and satellite signals.

Scientists have discovered some unusual geological phenomena in the Zone. For example, it contains substantial magnetite and uranium deposits. Some scientists believe these deposits create electromagnetic pulses which disrupt radio and other signals. The area also attracts more than its share of meteorites.

Naturally, there are numerous reports of UFOs and aliens, which is surprising considering the Zone’s sparse population. Most of the reports follow familiar patterns. Area ranchers report strange lights and UFOs. Burned brush and vegetation have sometimes been found at reported UFO landing sites. Area ranchers have said that the night skies are often filled with mysterious lights.

 Some of the oddest stories involve three blonde strangers, two men and a woman, who all speak perfect Spanish.  These people have often been seen by multiple witnesses. According to one story, these long-haired people are regular visitors at one ranch. They ask for water, but never for food or other supplies. When asked by the rancher where they came from, they answered "from above."

There’s another interesting story involving the blonde strangers. When a visitor to the research facility became lost in the desert, the trio appeared and directed him back to the center. A TV news crew that became stuck following a cloud burst was helped by the same three strangers. This story has an odd distinction: The news crew reported that the trio was wearing long raincoats and baseball caps. No one seems to know where they live. In an area with such a tiny population, usually someone knows where their neighbors live, but in this case the locals either do not know or they are not saying.

There is yet another weird fact about the Zone of Silence. It is located just north of the Tropic of Cancer and at the same latitude as those of the Egyptian pyramids and the famous Bermuda Triangle. Many scientists and researchers see this as nothing more than an interesting coincidence, but others see much more.

If you’d like to find out more, visit here and here

Can This Simple Discovery Stop Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis?

Tuberculosis is one of the most feared diseases in today’s world. Worse yet, this infection, which killed 1.4 million people in 2011, has become increasingly resistant to the drugs used to treat it. Experts estimate that about 650,000 people currently have multi-drug resistant cases with about 9% suffering from extensively drug-resistant infections.

Now a team of researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Israel’s Yeshiva University has stumbled over what may be a simple, inexpensive addition to existing tuberculosis drugs that can destroy the bacteria causing the disease.

The team, led by Dr, William Jacobs, Jr., were attempting to discover why TB bacteria were becoming resistant to isoniazid, a front-line drug used in treating tuberculosis. They grew tuberculosis bacteria in laboratory cultures and began studying them in hopes of finding out how the bacteria developed drug resistance. They discovered that the isoniazid-resistant bacteria lacked a molecule known as mycothiol.

The team reasoned that the bacteria that could not make their own mycothiol might contain more cysteine (an amino acid). They added isoniazid and cysteine to their cultures, expecting the bacteria to develop resistance. To their great surprise, the cultures died.

The team then recreated the experiment, this time using vitamin C instead of cysteine. Once again, their culture died.  Another experiment showed that Vitamin C by itself produced the same result.

Since an estimated 95% of tuberculosis deaths occur in poor or low-income countries, the discovery that vitamin C, which is cheap and easily available, can kill the bacteria, there is now hope that cheaper drugs can help mitigate the horrific effects of tuberculosis.

So far, researchers do not know whether vitamin C will actually work on humans. But they have enough evidence to proceed with a clinical trial. The results should be interesting.

For more technical information on this discovery, visit

Amphibians Are Disappearing

For more than two decades, amphibians such as frogs, toads and salamanders are known to have suffered significant population declines all over the world. Now it seems that they are vanishing at a faster rate than previously estimated, at least in the United States and likely throughout the rest of the world.

In the United States, amphibian populations may be completely gone from half of their current habitats in another 20 years. A study of 48 species at 34 sites in California, Colorado and Florida was conducted over a ten-year period by the U.S. Geological Survey. Researchers were shocked to find that amphibian population declines are more widespread and severe than had been previously thought. In fact, scientists have calculated that amphibians are vanishing at a rate of about 3.7 percent per year.

What is even more disturbing is that amphibians considered threatened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature are vanishing at an even faster rate calculated at 11.6 percent per year, which means that these already- endangered animals will disappear from half of their current habitat in only six years.

About one-third of the world’s amphibian species are in decline. The IUCN report attributes the causes of the population declines to habitat loss, disease, invasive species, pollution and climate change. Some scientists believe that declining amphibian populations point to a general collapse of the world’s ecosystems. Amphibians may be more sensitive to pollution and climate change than mammals and reptiles. Amphibians are important in pest control and occupy a significant place in the food chain by serving as prey for many species of birds, snakes and fish. Their decline will almost certainly lead to population reductions in these predator species.

Is this the beginning of the end for many species throughout the world?  Can we learn from this disturbing trend?  Is there anything we can do about it?  Only time will tell, and time is certainly not on the side of these ancient animals.

There’s more on the amphibian declines, especially as it relates to Colorado, here

Sometimes It Pays to Look Back

My featured story this week on my “World’s Oldest Stuff” blog is about an ancient artificial pigment called Egyptian Blue. This pigment has a unique property which is now being investigated for use in modern applications as varied as specialized inks and medical imaging.

Egyptian Blue is an artificial pigment which most experts believe was first created in Egypt more than 4,500 years ago. At some point in time, researchers discovered that when a red light is applied to the pigment, it reflects infrared light. Museum conservators and archaeologists have taken advantage of this unique property to spot fake artifacts and to verify others for more than ten years. Now other researchers have made new discoveries about this ancient coloring agent.

A team of chemists at the University of Georgia studying Egyptian Blue’s primary molecule, calcium copper tetrasilicate, have discovered the pigment can reflect infrared radiation even when reduced to the thickness of a single layer a thousand times thinner than a human hair. Now they’re busy dreaming up uses for this discovery.

Tina Salguero, a member of the University of Georgia team, believes the calcium copper tetrasilicate could be used in medical imaging applications since infrared radiation can easily pass through human tissue. Other possible applications might include new types of security inks used to prevent the forgery official documents and paper currencies. Other potential applications for the molecule involve possible uses in LED and optical fiber technologies.

Both LEDs and optical fibers transmit signals using infrared light. Since calcium copper tetrasilicate works so well in extremely tiny quantities, it might be possible to further miniaturize electronic components, for example.

Did the ancient Egyptians know about the unique reflecting properties of Egyptian Blue? Unless they had some way of producing red light, the answer is that they probably did not. But we keep finding out that the ancient ones knew things we are only now discovering. Personally, I wouldn’t put anything past them.

Archaeology’s website is at

If you’d like to read my article about the "World’s Oldest Pigment," go here

Real Life Hobbit Houses

I accidentally stumbled across this site while I was looking for other things. The website’s creator has assembled a colorful collection of Tolkien-inspired homes around the world. They’re not weird or strange (okay, maybe a little), but they are intriguing, and many are downright appealing. Go pay this site a visit. I think you’ll be glad you did.

A New Mystery at Teotihuacan

I’ve written several stories about Teotihuacan, and now I’m writing another one. Researchers studying a tunnel beneath the pyramid known as the “Temple of the Feathered Serpent” discovered hundreds of metallic spheres. The significance of these balls, carved from pyrite, is unknown, but the tunnel was believed to have been used by priests and/or rulers for secret rituals.

Archaeologists initially used robots equipped with laser scanners and infrared cameras to explore parts of the tunnel that had not been previously excavated. Now they plan to excavate the remainder of the tunnel and adjoining chambers. They believe important artifacts are awaiting discovery along with the gold-colored spheres. The tunnel has lain undisturbed for about nearly 2,000 years.

The city of Teotihuacan was already abandoned when it was first discovered by the Aztec, who called it the City of the Gods. It has been slow to give up its secrets, partly because no writing system has been discovered there, which is odd considering the high level of organization required to construct and govern it. No one knows who built thecity, which is believed to have been a major cultural and trading center.

If you would like to read more about Teotihuacan, start here

Jamestown Colonists Survived by Eating Their Own

The winter of 1609-10 was exceptionally brutal and the colonists of Jamestown were not equipped to survive. They had alienated their Native American neighbors early on by raiding villages for food and supplies and violently taking over land the natives considered their own. So when the settlers began to run out of food, their neighbors would not only not help them, but laid siege to James Fort to prevent supplies from reaching the colony. That winter became known as “the starving time.” As many as 200 of the original 300 settlers died and others were left severely weakened by hunger, disease and cold.

Now, it seems that some of the settlers found a way to survive. They resorted to cannibalism.

Rumors had circulated almost from the start that the colonists had eaten one another, but until recently, no one had found evidence to support the stories. Now, however, that has changed with the discovery of the bones of a 14-year-old girl whose skull and tibia show the distinctive marks of butchery. Even more telling, perhaps, was that her bones were found in a trash site located in the cellar of one of the original homes.

Who was she? Researchers say that she was European and believe she may have arrived a few months before winter began in 1609. Forensic scientists have recreated her face and experts are researching documents and other materials in an attempt to identify her. No one knows at this time whether she was murdered or whether she died of natural causes. Researchers have named her “Jane.”

The surviving settlers were rescued at least when a group of settlers who had been shipwrecked in Bermuda finally arrived in May 1610 with fresh supplies.

There’s more detailed information, along with a photo of “Jane,” at