William R. Corliss

William Roger Corliss (* August 28, 1926; † July 8, 2011 ) was an American physicist and nonfiction author who mainly through its extensive collections of material to anomalous phenomena. Became famous for. Arthur C. Clarke described him as " the fort today - and much more scientific - successor. " He is regarded as one of the outstanding personalities of the modern anomalistics.

Work

From 1974 to Corliss published under its " Sourcebook Project," an extensive series of manuals. Each volume in this series is a particular special science (archeology, astronomy, geology, etc) and presents articles, mostly from scientific journals. Corliss was inspired by Charles Fort, who had decades earlier also collected reports of unusual phenomena. In contrast to Fort however Corliss held back with personal expressions of opinion or editorial comments. He preferred to let the posts speak for themselves. All relevant parts of his articles in the " Sourcebooks " Corliss presented as direct quotations with precise references, and frequently he also gave complete article including illustrations again. He often resorted to even older material that had sometimes been found in Charles Fort works mention.

In his book " Unexplained! " Describes the ufologist Jerome Clark and Anomalistiker Corliss as " basically conservative in his views ." He points out, " Corliss [ was ] more interested in unusual weather, ball lightning, geophysical oddities, extraordinary mirages and the like; in short, to anomalies that [ ... ] much less [ suitable ] are mainstream scientists to revolt than those which delighted fort, like UFOs, monstrous creatures or other types of extraordinary events and entities. " Arthur C. Clarke also noticed: " Unlike Fort Corliss selects his material almost exclusively from scientific journals such as Nature and Science, not from newspapers, so it was already subjected to a filtering process, the most obvious hoaxes and reports nerds away. Nevertheless, there is in some of these reports of high reputierlichen sources much of what is quite puzzling. "

Corliss ' work as a science writer, however, by no means confined to the " Sourcebook Project". In total, he wrote next to a larger number of articles about 50 books, including in particular 13 textbooks on astronomy, the universe and space travel for NASA, as well as a similar number of works for the Atomic Energy Commission and the National Science Foundation.

Writings

  • Propulsion Systems for Space Flight ( 1960)
  • Radioisotopic Power Generation ( with DG Harvey, 1964)
  • Space Probes and Planetary Exploration ( 1965)
  • Scientific Satellites (1967 )
  • Mysteries of the Universe ( 1967)
  • Teleoperator Controls ( with E. G. Johnsen, 1968)
  • Mysteries Beneath the Sea (1970 )
  • Human Factors Applications in Teleoperator Design and Operation ( with Johnsen, 1971)
  • History of NASA Sounding Rockets (1971 )
  • Man and atom ( with Glenn T. Seaborg, 1971)
  • History of the Goddard Networks (1972 )
  • The Interplanetary Pioneers (1972 )
  • Strange Phenomena: A Sourcebook of Unusual Natural Phenomena (1974 )
  • Strange Artifacts: A Sourcebook on Ancient Man ( 1974)
  • The Unexplained (1976 )
  • Strange Life (1976 )
  • Strange Minds (1976 )
  • Strange Universe ( 1977)
  • Handbook of Unusual Natural Phenomena (1977 )
  • Strange Planet (1978 )
  • Ancient Man: A Handbook of Puzzling Artifacts (1978 )
  • Mysterious Universe: A Handbook of Astronomical Anomalies (1979 )
  • Unknown Earth: A Handbook of Geological Enigmas (1980 )
  • Wind Tunnels of NASA (1981 )
  • Incredible Life: A Handbook of Biological Mysteries ( 1981)
  • The unfathomed Mind: A Handbook of Unusual Mental Phenomena (1982 )
  • Lightning, Auroras, Nocturnal Lights, and Related Luminous Phenomena (1982 )
  • Tornados, Dark Days, Anomalous Precipitation, and Related Weather Phenomena (1983 )
  • Earthquakes, Tides, Unidentified Sounds and Related Phenomena (1983 )
  • Rare Halos, Mirages, Anomalous Rainbows and Related Electromagnetic Phenomena (1984 )
  • The Moon and the Planets (1985 )
  • The Sun and Solar System Debris (1986 )
  • Stars, Galaxies, Cosmos (1987 )
  • Carolina Bays, Mima Mounds, Submarine Canyons ( 1988)
  • Anomalies in Geology: Physical, Chemical, Biological ( 1989)
  • Neglected Geological Anomalies (1990 )
  • Inner Earth: A Search for Anomalies (1991 )
  • Biological Anomalies: Humans I ( 1992)
  • Biological Anomalies: Humans II ( 1993)
  • Biological Anomalies: Humans III (1994 )
  • Science Frontiers: Some Anomalies and Curiosities of Nature ( 1994)
  • Biological Anomalies: Mammals I ( 1995)
  • Biological Anomalies: Mammals II ( 1996)
  • Biological Anomalies: Birds ( 1998)
  • Ancient Infrastructure: Remarkable Roads, Mines, Walls, Mounds, Stone Circles: A Catalog of Archeological Anomalies (1999)
  • Ancient Structures: Remarkable Pyramids, Forts, Towers, Stone Chambers, Cities, Complexes: A Catalog of Archeological Anomalies (2001)
  • Remarkable Luminous Phenomena in Nature: A Catalog of Geophysical Anomalies (2001)
  • Scientific Anomalies and other Provocative Phenomena (2003)
  • Archeological Anomalies: Small Artifacts (2003)
  • Archeological Anomalies: Graphic Artifacts I ( 2005)
Compendium Discipline (academia) Unidentified flying object Science (journal) WorldCat The Baltimore Sun New Scientist
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