Crop Circle Scientific Evidence

At the centre of scientific research on plants from crop circles is biophysicist W.C. Levengood of the Pinelandia Biophysical lab in Michigan. Here we summarise some of his findings :
 

Consistent cell pit changes
In July 1992 a night watch, at Woodborough Hill, England was organised in an attempt to contact the intelligence behind the crop circle formations. UFO activity was witnessed by the participants, and a crop circle was found nearby.

Dr Levengood examined wheat samples collected from inside and outside the Woodborough Hill formation. Based on 30 samples, he found a 21 per cent average and consistent increase in cell pit diameters compared to normal control cells. ( Cell pits are small holes in plant cells that allow fluid to flow up and down plant stalks. )

Over the past two years, Dr Levengood has measured a consistent 23 per cent mean average increase in cell pit diameters. He has also discovered a gradual gradation increasing in cell pit size from the edge of the plant leaf to the center and from the outer edge of formations to the centers. If a plant is stepped on, the physical pressure of impact will force fluid in the stem to expand rapidly. Consequently, cell pits will enlarge. But in that situation the expansion is randomly distributed. So far, the only way Levengood has been able to reproduce a consistent cell pit change in control plants was to place them in a microwave oven.
 

Rapid heating
After 30 seconds of microwave exposure, the cell pits were enlarged 14 per cent by the expanding heated water in the plant cells. If heated longer than 30 seconds, the plant cells shriveled from dehydration, which has not been seen in formation plant samples. Given the dehydration factor, Dr Levengood concludes that whatever energy creates the formations, "the heating must occur at a rapid rate, not more than 30 seconds."

Dr Levengood also found evidence of rapid heating in corn seeds from a Medina, New York, circle in October 1991. Those seeds were sent to a scientist who used a scanning electron microscope. She said: "I found unusual crystals, like seeds heated by microwave."
 

Changes in seed growth
Some crop formations have occurred as early as April. In early-growing spring plants, Dr Levengood finds a complete lack of seed development, "no embryogenesis at all". Normally, one would find developing seeds in spring plants. In later, more mature plants from July on, he finds whole and healthy seeds that germinate at a growth rate 87 per cent faster than control plants. Agriculture seed experts say if they can produce a 5 per cent increase in growth rate, they are doing well. "Eighty-seven per cent is astonishing," says Levengood.
 

Node cracking and reorientation
Bruce Rideout, a psychologist with a biology degree who teaches at Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pennsylvania, studied plants from Linfield and Limerick, Pennsylvania, formations northwest of Philadelphia in May 1992. Dr Rideout discovered node splitting or cracking in affected plants and a peculiar and angled reorientation of the growth nodes - the places on plants where leaves and stems branch. Dr Levengood has observed those same changes in reproductive and germination tissue from England crops.
 

Grass circles
In Troy, Illinois, circles in sweet flag grass have occurred in the same two spots in June 1991 and 1992. Dr Levengood found that the cell pits in these circles were expanded 50 per cent larger than normal. He also found that the edges of the leaves were wrinkled oddly, a bit like crepe paper wrinkles when stretched on one side (see photograph on page 19). He said the only way he could reproduce those changes would be by applying a rapid burst of heat in a microwave oven. "There is no way a hoaxer can do this," he said.

Sherry Yarkosky, a chemist trained in plant physiology who works for Alvey Labs in Belleville, Illinois, said the affected plants in Troy showed sodium levels twice as high as unaffected plants and a 5 per cent decrease in nitrogen content. This might be the result of dehydration, but Yarkosky said she did not know the cause.
 

Potato-field circle
As recently as 8 September 1992 a perfect 600-foot wide circle was found in the middle of a 160-acre potato field in Clark, South Dakota. Both plants and potatoes were shipped to Dr Levengood's lab in Michigan.

Dr Levengood reports that in these naturally flat-growing vine plants, he found cell pit enlargement ranging from 19.1 per cent to 27.9 per cent and a striking difference between potatoes from inside the circle compared with potatoes from outside. The normal control 'potatoes' were smooth, red, no blemishes. Samples from inside the circle had yellow streaks along the surface and cracks in the outer epidermis. He found no difference in the internal tissues of control and sample potatoes.
 

Rectangles in sweet-corn
One week earlier, on 30 August, in Austinberg, Ohio, four different rectangles were found in young, growing sweetcorn. The rectangles varied in size from 8 by 25 feet to 15 by 25 feet. All the corn stalks were bent down in one direction. Connie Sistek, an investigator in Ashtabula, gathered plant and ear samples from inside the rectangles and outside for controls and sent them to Dr Levengood.

He found that tassels from the young control plants were tightly closed as they should have been. But in the formation plants, the tassels were completely opened up, suggesting accelerated growth of the affected plants after or during the rectangles' creation.
 

Further Information
This summary is based on a 1992 article by Linda Moulton Howe. For more information about crop circle science and videotapes about the phenomenon, please contact Linda Moulton Howe Productions, PO Box 300, Jamison, PA18929-0300, USA. Fax (215) 491-9842

Dr Levengood has also published a portion of his findings in a peer-review journal, Physiologia Plantarum ( vol. 92, Issue 2, 1994 ). In the Journal of Scientific Exploration, June 1995, he published a second article on a "magnetic glaze" found deposited on plants within a crop circle in 1993.

More information is also available from the Centre for Crop Circle Studies, P O Box 1732, Port Angeles, WA 98362, USA; phone: 360-452-9673; fax: 360-452-0849.