8.0
SUMMARY REVIEW OF RECENT PRIVATE STUDIES
The summaries of two recent reports are included here as examples of serious thoughtful studies of the UFO phenomena. The first is the Sturrock/Rockefeller Report done in the United States and published in 1998. The second is the COMETA report done in France and published in 1999.
8.1
Sturrock/Rockefeller Report on Physical Evidence Related to UFO Reports
In 1997, a workshop was organized by Dr. Peter Sturrock and the Society of Scientific Exploration and funded by Mr. Laurance S. Rockefeller to review physical evidence purported to be associated with UFO events. This was the first major review of these issues by the scientific community in nearly 3 decades and the results were reported in the national media. The abstract of the workshop proceedings (which was published in the Journal of Scientific Exploration113) is reprinted below. This is followed by the Stanford University News Service Press release about the workshop proceedings. The full report of the proceedings is available from the Journal of Scientific Exploration and was later expanded in a book by Dr. Peter Sturrock in 1999114. Abstract: Physical Evidence Related to UFO Reports: The Proceedings of a Workshop Held at the Pocantico Conference center, Tarrytown, New York, September 29 – October 4, 1997 P. A. Sturrock, et al., Varian 302G, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-4060 The purpose of this four-day workshop was to review purported physical evidence associated with UFO reports, with a view to assessing whether the further acquisition and investigation of such evidence is likely to help solve the UFO problem, namely the determination of the cause or causes of these reports. Seven UFO investigators presented a variety of physical evidence that they claimed was associated with UFO reports: photographic evidence; luminosity estimates; radar evidence; interference with automobile functioning; interference with aircraft equipment; apparent gravitational or inertial effects; ground traces; injuries to vegetation; physiological effects on witnesses; and analysis of debris. There was in addition a presentation of investigations into recurrent phenomena that occur in the Hessdalen Valley in Norway. A review panel was composed of nine scientists of diverse expertise and interests. The panel offered comments and criticisms concerning the investigations that were presented, and also prepared a summary of their overall response, with the following key elements:
113
Sturrock, P. A. et al. (25 authors). 1998. Physical Evidence Related to UFO Reports: The Proceedings of a Workshop Held at the Pocantico Conference center, Tarrytown, New York, September 29 – October 4, 1997. Journal of Scientific Exploration 12 (2): 179-229. Web site at: http://www.scientificexploration.org/jse/articles/ufo_reports/sturrock/toc.html 114 Sturrock, Peter. A. The UFO Enigma: A New Review of the Physical Evidence. Warner Books, 1999. 416 pp.
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