Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

The 1989 discovery by Martin Fleischmann of the University of Southampton and Stanley Pons of the University of Utah of a low temperature method of fusing atomic nuclei, with the consequent release of huge amounts of energy. The process of nuclear fusion, much sought after because of its promise of virtually endless amounts of energy…

“Living fossil” fish, member of an ancient suborder called crossopterygians (“fringe-finned” fish). Coelacanths were long thought to have become extinct during the same period in which the dinosaurs died out. Then in 1938 fishermen landed a living coelacanth off the coast of South Africa. The scientific world was stunned. The discovery of this fish (Latimeria…

Any device or process that will cause clouds to empty to rain. The hope that humans might control weather has a long history. Rain, or the absence of rain, can have very serious consequences. As rain comes and goes of its own accord, beyond human control, it can be frustrating. Societies in many parts of…

Church to promote spiritual growth founded by the late science fiction writer F. Ron Hubbard in 1954. The Church of Scientology is currently headquartered in Los Angeles and has a combined membership of about 8 million in 70 countries around the world. The basic tenets of the faith, as set forth in the Church’s book…

Supposedly spurious devices used to prevent infidelity and for birth control. The first chastity belts were developed and used in Italy in the 14th century, and the custom spread across Europe. Attempts to use such devices made them the object of satirical stories and obscene jokes throughout the 15th and 16th centuries. In 1889, however,…

Lake monster allegedly living in Lake Champlain. The Iroquois Indians called the monster chaoussarou. The Iroquois believed it had mystical qualities, including the ability to put observers into a hypnotic trance. Their stories, formed long before white settlers came to the region, told of herds of chaoussarous frolicking in the lake. In modern times only…

A center to facilitate communication between scholars and researchers concerned with scientific inquiry into the anomalous and the paranormal. The center was founded in 1981 by Marcello Truzzi and Ron Westrum, both sociologists at Eastern Michigan University at Ypsilanti, Michigan. In the early 1970s Truzzi had published a newsletter, The Zetetic, which opened a discussion…

An 1889 social survey inquiring into the frequency and nature of reported contacts with the dead. The census grew out of an early interest of the society for psychical research (SPR) in ghosts and apparitions. Among the first important works of the SPR was Phantasms of the Living (1886) by Edmond Gurney, Frederick William Henry…