In a 2,000-kilometer swath along the western edge of the Namib Desert in southwestern Africa, patches of barren, sandy Soil three meters in diameter dot the landscape. Each patch is girded with a ring of tall grass. To some visitors the ring looks like terrestial chicken pox or splash marks made by giant raindrops. Local tradition has it that these circles posses magical powers. Some tribes believe that each circle surrounds the grave of Bushman who died in one of the many conflicts between Bushmen and colonialists over the centuries. scientists too have long sought to explain the rings. In 1978, assuming that over time the circles would shift position, researchers marked the centers of some with metal stakes. Twenty-six years later, the circles had not moved. There have been abundant theories on the origin of the circles, reports London's newspaper The Daily Telegraph, including "termite activity, poisoning from toxic indegenious plants, contaminating from radioactive minerals and even ostrich dust baths." According to professor of botany Gretel van Rooyen of the University of Pretoria, South Africa, who led a research effort to try to understand the circles, all the theories tested were disproved one by one. Perhaps signifcantly, the reseachers did find that grass withered when planted in soil takene from inside the circles. But it grew well in soil taken from the rings, confirming that there is a difference between the soil in the two areas. Although initial soil testing failed to provide any explanation, Van Rooyen hopes that analysis using a mass spectrometer will turn up further information. She wonders if there are toxic elements in the soil of the circles. "But even if we find them," Van Rooyen says in the New Scientist, "how they came to be there is the next problem." No doubt, the circle remain one of earths many fascinating mysteries. What do you think? Was it designed or?..