Signs - A Story of Crop Circles

W.C. Levengood, professor emeritus of the University of Michigan, and his investigative team have examined plant tissues taken from crop formations around the world. After studying at least eighty samples from five countries, Levengood concluded that something besides hoaxers were behind some of the circles. (Note that others, in the scientific community, disagree with his findings.)

In 1994, Levengood found certain Anatomical Anomalies in Crop Formation Plants which he published, with pictures and graphics, in Physiologia Plantarum. The following year, Levengood reported (in the Journal of Scientific Exploration) that he had found Semi-Molten Meteoric Iron Associated with a Crop Formation:

We report the unusual discovery of a natural iron "glaze" composed of fused particles of meteoric origin, concentrated entirely within a crop formation in England, appearing shortly after the intense Perseid meteor shower in August, 1993.

Other scientific research into the crop phenomenon continues. So do the efforts by "croppies," those believers in the paranormal who scour crop formations looking for evidence to back their claims (even as "circle makers" continue to create elaborate formations, especially in the UK).

The debate - over which circles (if any) are natural and which are manmade - will likely continue for decades to come.

On the popular-culture front ... Mel Gibson shares star billing with crop circles in the movie "Signs." Much of the movie (including the Graham Hess farmhouse) was shot on location at Delaware Valley College (in Pennsylvania) as well as in the historic town of Newtown, in Bucks County.