Eisen-Suppressed-Inventions-and-other-Discoveries-True-Stories-of ...

378 Suppressed Inventions and Other Discoveries
(Group for the Study of Unidentified Aerial and Space Phenomena),
which is a branch of CNRS (National Center of Space Research, the
French equivalent of NASA). GEPAN passed the samples on to INRA
(National Institute of Agricultural Research) and several other government
research institutes for analysis. GEPAN personnel visited the site to
take further samples on two other occasions. On June 7, 1983, after two
and a half years of analyses, a bulky preliminary report which assembled
data from the different laboratories was turned in. The government scientists
attributed the circular outline to a soil fracture caused by the combined
action of strong mechanical pressure and a heat of about 600°C,
which is about 1100°F. Dr. Bounias, who was the Director of the
Biochemical Laboratory at INRA, had personally taken charge of the
examination of the plant specimens. He carried out the analyses in the
most rigorous fashion possible. First he established samples from plants
of the same species (alfalfa), taken at different distances from the point of
impact. Then he and his assistants meticulously analyzed the photosynthetic
pigments (such as carotene, chlorophyll, and xantophyle), the glucides,
the amino acids and other constituents. He found differences sufficiently
important that the statistical significance of the results is
irrefutable. Certain substances that were present in the close-range samples
were not present in those taken further away, and vice versa. The biochemical
trauma revealed by examination of the leaves diminished as the
distance from the UFO impact site increased. Some of the plants had been
dehydrated, but were not burned or carbonized. The following year control
samples were taken from the site, which confirmed the changes made
in the vegetation. After completing the analyses, Dr. Bounias made the
following formal statement: "We worked on very young leaves. They all
had the anatomic and physiologic characteristics of their age. However,
they had the biochemical characteristics of advanced senescence, or old
age! This bears no resemblance to anything known to exist on our planet."
Dr. Bounias refused to speculate about the cause of the strange facts he
had established, or to propose any explanation at all for them.
Although neither Dr. Bounias nor the French government have followed
through on the implications of this evidence, or proceeded any further
with it, at least as far as the general public is concerned, the Trans-en-
Provence case remains one of the most strongly substantiated investigations
of landing traces in the history of UFO research.
Another aspect of UFO research which involves physical evidence is
the crop circles, though there has been much dispute over whether they are
caused by UFOs or by human hoaxers. I believe that some are made by
UFOs, and some are made by human hoaxers. Other theories have been
proposed, but at present these are the only ones that have retained their