crop circle

A crop circle or crop formation is a pattern created by flattening a crop, usually a cereal. 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." Although obscure natural causes or alien origins of crop circles are suggested by fringe theorists, there is no scientific evidence for such explanations, and human causes are consistent for all crop circles. 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."