MAQzine

Crop circles are patterns created by the flattening of crops such as wheat , barley , rapeseed (also called "canola"), rye , corn , linseed , rice paddies and soy . The term was first used by paranormal researcher Colin Andrews to describe simple circles he was researching. While patterns involving complex geometries have been observed, the term circle has stuck as a generic term for crop patterns. Many circles are known to be man-made, such as those created by Doug Bower, Dave Chorley, and John Lundberg . Bower and Chorley started the crop circle phenomenon in 1978 and were awarded an Ig Nobel Prize in 1992 for their crop circle hoaxing. Various hypotheses have been offered to explain the formation of crop circles of unknown origin, ranging from the naturalistic to the paranormal . The main naturalistic explanation suggests that all crop circles are man-made, primarily as a hoax. Another naturalistic explanation is that they are caused by ball lightning . Paranorma...