Six 'X-Files' that sparked real-life debates

Courtesy of Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council Introduction FBI agents Dana Scully and Fox Mulder return to the big screen in "The X-Files: I Want to Believe," the second cinematic offshoot of the sci-fi TV series that ran on Fox from 1993 through 2003. Audiences can expect a supernatural thriller that might leave them questioning the line between scientific fact and fiction. Click the "Next" arrow above to examine six “X-Files” that skeptics and believers have debated in real life. — John Roach

Courtesy of Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council

1943: The Philadelphia Experiment
The story sounds bizarre: On Oct. 28, 1943, the U.S. Navy purportedly teleported the USS Eldridge, shown in this image, from Philadelphia to Norfolk, Va., and back again during an invisibility test that went awry. Participants in the so-called "Philadelphia Experiment" were subsequently brainwashed to keep the details of the mishap fuzzy. The military denies the allegations - but for some, that only serves to validate the conspiracy. The Skeptics Dictionary did some sleuthing and found the account "a mixture of fact, fiction, speculation and madness." A kernel of truth about the U.S. Navy experimenting with ways to make their ships invisible to magnetic field mines seems to have been twisted, spun and embellished to the tale of teleportation. The ship, however, may have sailed between Philadelphia and Norfolk via an inland channel, cutting a two-day journey to just six hours, according to a source. That supposedly explains the near-simultaneous sightings in both ports of call.

Courtesy Frank Fish/West Chester University

1947: The Roswell Incident
On July 7, 1947, strange, unidentifiable material was recovered by a rancher outside the city of Roswell, N.M. Was it debris from a crashed spaceship or a top-secret military experiment gone sour? The debate has waxed and waned for more than 60 years. In the process, Roswell has become synonymous with all things UFO and attracts thousands of tourists and millions of their dollars each year. The U.S. government considers the "Roswell Incident" a closed case – saying the debris was from a wrecked high-altitude balloon launched to spy on the Soviets. Subsequent reports of alien bodies are attributed to a combination of bad wartime memories, hoaxes and humanlike test dummies dropped from planes. UFO enthusiasts, however, remain unconvinced. The unquestionably fake "alien" in this picture is the most popular exhibit at a UFO museum in Roswell.

Courtesy Frank Fish/West Chester University

1962: A real-life zombie?
Zombies, such as the one in the photo here from "Diary of the Dead," are fixtures in the movies. But are there real ones, too? Yes, according to ethnobotanist Wade Davis. In his 1985 book "The Serpent and the Rainbow," he investigates zombification and vodoun culture in Haiti and uncovers the strange tale of Clairvius Narcisse. The man was pronounced dead on May 2, 1962, three days after he had checked into a hospital complaining of flulike symptoms and coughing up blood. Eighteen years later, Narcisse presented himself to his long-lost sister with a boyhood nickname that only family knew. His said he had been drugged, recovered by a zombie master and forced to work alongside other zombies on a sugar plantation. When his master died, Narcisse escaped and wandered the countryside for 16 years, eventually stumbling into his sister at a market. Skeptics question the scientific rigor behind the Davis' investigation, however, casting a shadow of doubt on the tale.

E. Paterson

1977: The Wow Signal
On Aug. 15, 1977, astronomer Jerry Ehman circled a string of code on a printout of radio data from Ohio State University's Big Ear Radio Observatory, shown here, and scribbled "Wow!" in the margin. The code – "6EQUJ5" – bears the hallmarks of an alien broadcast. But whether the string, known as the "Wow Signal," is E.T.'s calling card or human-made interference remains unknown. Repeated attempts to detect the signal again have failed. Nor has a terrestrial source been identified. In a 2007 interview with msnbc.com's Alan Boyle, Ehman said, "We can't draw any conclusion other than it still allows for the possibility that it was a signal from an extraterrestrial civilization."

E. Paterson

2002: 'Signs' and crop circles
In August 2002, M. Knight Shyamalan's movie "Signs" brought crop circles to the big screen and fueled the debate over whether all the artistic formations that appear in the dark of night are the work of tricksters. Some people believe that some of the designs pressed into fields of wheat, barley and other grains are imprints from spaceships or other phenomena such as ionized plasma whirlwinds. Though circle makers have been caught plank-footed, and others have admitted to their deeds after the fact, believers in the paranormal are convinced that humans are not the only forces at work in the fields.

2007: Is Bigfoot back?
On Sept. 16, 2007, a camera snapped the latest in a decades-long string of well-publicized images supposedly showing the hairy, towering apelike creature known as "Bigfoot." The picture, shown here, was made with a hunter's automatic camera that he set up in the Pennsylvania woods to snap photos of deer. Wildlife experts identified the furry thing as a bear with a bad case of mange, but the sighting allowed the Bigfoot story to live for another day. While skeptics largely dismiss tales of the hairy beast as hoaxes and misinterpretations, hundreds of people are dedicated to finding hard proof that the mysterious creature exists. Among their ranks is Jeffry Meldrum, a tenured anatomy professor at Idaho State University who spends many of his days studying alleged plaster casts of Bigfoot footprints.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25802950?pg=7#Tech_Wierd_Science_Xfiles_080725

Cool. I've read about all of those before, but it's still fun to read about them again. :)

the wow signal interests me more than the rest.

I don't really understand the wow signal and its significance...