41–47 of 47 posts
These remind me of the "Devils Stomping Ground" circle in NC. http://www.hauntspot.com/haunt/usa/north-carolina/devils-sto...
I'd like to go visit this for a few reasons, not the least of which is that one of my favorite NC beers is named after it.
“There is a tremendous sense of excitement that there is something really interesting going on and we want to know what that is,” says Professor Don Cowan, director of the Centre for Microbial Ecology and Genomics at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. “It is a desire to understand the system. What is going there? What is happening?” Can't think of a better summary of science!
The notion that these circles are the result of large-scale self-organization on the part of the grasses (and maybe other creatures) is an intriguing one. I have a very speculative novel that plays around with the idea of evolution operating on all scales: http://www.amazon.com/Darwins-Theorem-TJ-Radcliffe-ebook/dp/...
While Newtonian physics was the go-to explanatory metaphor for several centuries, it's plausible that in the 21st century we'll start to see metaphorical evolutionary explanations become more common. If we can encourage that habit in ourselves and others it may help us see more creative, non-linear solutions to our problems, rather than the simple Newtonian action/reaction, force/motion model.
Maybe it's the Magarathean equivalent of the EURion constellation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EURion_constellation
It seems the rocks-sliding-across-the-desert mystery could have been solved the same way many years ago.