For a long time the scientific community dismissed reports of bright red streaks in the sky, even if reported by respectable witnesses such as pilots or scientists, including C.T.R. Wilson, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist. Then in 1989 scientists from the University of Minnesota actually captured pictures of the phenomenon, now known as red sprites. This latest image of red sprites, which appeared in the skies above Chile’s Atacama Desert, is quite striking. Another phenomenon that got the same early treatment from the scientific community is The Gorilla: The Original Cryptid. “For centuries,” writes Brent Swancer, “local tribes in Africa spoke of mysterious and primitive man-like creatures inhabiting the wilds that were variously known in the native tongues as ‘wild-men,’ ‘ape-men,’ ‘hairy men,’ or ‘forest people,’ as well as numerous other local names. The creatures were always described as enormous, powerful man-like beasts covered in hair…” It wasn’t until 1847 when Thomas Savage, an American missionary and doctor in what is now known as Liberia, found skulls of a totally new, very large species of ape did the scientific community come to accept the existence of the western lowland gorilla. And in 1902, the German explorer Captain Robert von Beringe brought back the body of another “wild man,” which was eventually recognized as yet another new gorilla. You might conclude that science is often slow to accept reality. (PH)
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