19/09/2015
A crop circle or crop formation is a pattern created by flattening a crop, usually a cereal but incidents have been recorded for rapeseed, reeds, grass or vegetation such as fields of thistle, blackberries and reeds.[1][2] A commentary in The Guardian noted that "[i]t is still open to dispute whether some are caused by natural phenomena or all created by human hand,"[3] but crop circles, as Taner Edis, professor of physics at Truman State University puts it, "all fall within the range of the sort of thing done in hoaxes."[4] Although obscure natural causes or alien origins of crop circles are suggested by fringe theorists,[5] there is no scientific evidence for such explanations, and human causes are consistent for all crop circles.[6][7][8]
The number of crop circles has substantially increased from the 1970s to current times. There has been almost no serious scientific study of them. Circles in the United Kingdom are not spread randomly across the landscape but appear near roads, areas of medium to dense population, and cultural heritage monuments, such as Stonehenge or Avebury, and always in areas of easy access.[9] In 1991, two hoaxers, Bower and Chorley, admitted to creating many circles throughout England after one of their circles was publicly certified by a notable circle investigator, as impossible to be made by human hand.[10]