| The unhappy confluence of birds and buildings |
| Night creatures of the Kalahari |
| Arcosanti |
| Build a bridge |
| n-dimensional cubes |
| All kinds of important stuff from Marshall Space Flight Centre |
| Memphis on Memphis |
| Anti-archeology |
| The science of cycling |
| A walk through time |
| Knotty mathematics |
| Atomic structure and bonding |
| You didn't seriously fall for that old massless subatomic particle gag, did you? |
| Society for Philosophy and Technology |
| Renaissance and Baroque architecture |
| Autopsy |
| Making quacks quake |
| New bricks and mortar Women's Health Centre at UCLA |
| Don't say "Gypsy", say "Rom" |
| Ethnomathematics |
| There once was a man from Niagara |
| Science Notes from science lovers |
| Helping girls develop careers in science |
| BOOK REVIEWS |
| LETTERS TO THE EDITOR |
| Contact and Subscription Information |
| Credits |
EARTH SCIENCES
No matter where you go, there you are
The unhappy confluence of birds and buildings
Flying back to your summer home, one late spring night, navigating by stars under clear sky, you see a bank of lights. Mesmerized, you draw closer, wondering if it's a misplaced constellation, a place to rest, or even, perhaps, that fabled place where your mother now lives! Closer yet, you see structures within the light, bright colors, a place to land, and THWACK! The world spins end-over-end as you fall, fall, fall into unconsciousness. You've joined the ranks of thousands of North American birds killed or injured each year as the result of night-time collisions with man-made lighted structures projecting into the domain of avian creatures. A group of concerned Canadians in Toronto has formed an alliance known as the Fatal Light Awareness Program (FLAP), hoping to find a solution to this inter-species conflict. Volunteers patrol city centers to rescue survivors and administer first aid, and, sadly, to collect the remains or those mortally injured. Visit their Web site to learn how you can aid their cause and reach the goal of "all lights out, all night, all year." Enter your reports of bird/building accidents through their online form, and view statistics for the past year. Learn which are the hardiest species (the winter wren) and which are the frailest (the ruby-throated hummingbird). Learn how to help right the wrong which has been done to our feathered friends.http://www.flap.org/
Night creatures of the Kalahari
Africa's Kalahari represents one of the last great ecosystems on Earth that zoologists can use as a pristine research lab. The Night Creatures of the Kalahari site, created to accompany the January Nova documentary of the same name, surprisingly supplies only a smattering of images and information beyond which you'll find a teacher's guide that for some reason focuses on fruit flies and spiders. A link leads to the site's fullest page, with the show's transcript. Somebody should mail these people a few carriage returns. Night Creatures of the Kalahari can make a pleasant little day trip on your next Net voyage, but don't plan on staying overnight.http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/kalahari/
http://www.arcosanti.org/
COMPUTING AND ENGINEERING
Open the pod bay doors, Hal
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/bridge/build.html
Einstein may have popularized the scientific idea of time being the fourth dimension, but H.G. Wells preceded him, using the same notion to lend plausibility to his science fiction work, "The Time Machine". Before such learned speculation, dimensions beyond our own three (height, width, depth) were considered to be at least conceptual realities, directions in which we could neither see nor move. We may imagine two points defining a line, three lines defining a plane (a triangle), four planes defining a platonic solid (a tetragon), but who could imagine five polyhedrons defining a polytope? Johnathan Bowen's "Hypercubes" Web page gives such mental musings further consideration in this reprint of a an October 1981 "Practical Computing" article. Readers get an introduction, and instructions for projecting n-dimensional models onto 2- or 3-dimensional space, or generating n-dimensional cubes. A BASIC program is also provided, albeit written for a "Research Machines 380Z" computer (looks easily adaptable, but there are a bunch of GOTOs). Next time you see a sphere of ball lightning, consider that it might actually be a hypercylinder (maybe a flaming hyper-hotdog) passing through our universe, perpendicular to each of the three dimensions that we occupy.
http://www.comlab.ox.ac.uk/oucl/users/jonathan.bowen/publications/ndcubes.html
ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away
All kinds of important stuff from Marshall Space Flight Centre
Here's another site with the NetSurfer Digest attitude: a Web site for you from the Marshall Space Flight Centre. It's the Center's front page, but it's also a lively, e-news site about astrophysics, earth science, solar physics, space plasmas, and microgravity. Not only is it fun and educational about its topic matter, but you'll leave amazed that one place/organization can be responsible for so much important stuff. Did you know that research indicates that as much of 98% of lightning strikes land instead of water? (See a worldwide map of lightning strikes during last December-January!) That a magnestar is a neutron star with a super-strong magnetic field a thousand trillion times stronger than Earth's? (Watch a video interview of the lead researcher on this project.) Now, even you math mavens have to be impressed by a thousand trillion! ARCHEOLOGY AND PALEONTOLOGY The Rex Files (dinos from The New Scientist) Here's a great use of legacy data: Vignettes taken from multiple issues of "The New Scientist" and elegantly linked together as ... The Rex Files! Read about pink lizards and males whipping their tails around to get a date. Get yourself up to date on chromatophores and gastroliths - surprising remnants of dinosaurs which tell a lot about dinosaur appearance and behavior. The site has surprising depth - about 10 categories with multiple link lists for each one.http://www.spacesciences.com/se/01feb98/isknye/
http://rexfiles.newscientist.com/
Yum! A 4,000 year-old loaf of bread -- against a background gif reminiscent of a mummy's wrappings. Maybe it's the wrappings from Iret-iruw -- he died of an ear infection which invaded his brain. This University of Memphis Web site might have you thinking you're at a site in Egypt, but it's really coming from Tennessee. In fact it is a certified Tennessee Centre of Excellence. If you're disappointed that the URL didn't take you to Africa, then you will enjoy the Color Tour of Egypt. The ruins you tour are no more or less colorful than you could probably find in some areas of Memphis (Tennessee), but they're a lot older.
http://www.memst.edu/egypt/main.html
What do "German Native Americans" and "Pelli People" have in common? They're linked to the Anti-Archeology site, along with as eclectic a collection of somewhat archeologically related Internet resources as you probably could not imagine without help. This is sort of a meta page on weird archeology, including what some people think is archeology … or not. Even the author admits up front that some of the linked pages should commit webicide, that is, "Kevork" or "Cobain." Frankly, we had a tremendously difficult time not lifting some of the Pelli-People and weren't the least bit tempted to purchase items from the traitor (sic) of Indian artifacts. And we might plan our next vacation around the Tyopa Treasure.
http://seamonkey.ed.asu.edu/swa/anti.html
MATHEMATICS, PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY
42
http://www.exploratorium.edu/cycling/index.html
One would never think that an adaptation of a US Department of Commerce publication might make a fascinating Web page, but this history of time-measuring devices covers all the bases. With simple prose and an appealing design that disguises its true origins, AWTT takes the reader on a tour of obelisks, water clocks, mechanical watches, quartz timekeepers, and the satellite-relayed times of atomic clocks of today. Learn how time zones came about, and check your clocks with the cesium clock of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, creators of the first atomic clock. You'll be surprised at how interesting and informative a government publication can be.
http://physics.nist.gov/GenInt/Time/time.html
Attention all Boy Scouts -- the mathematics of knots can be more interesting than memorizing how to tie them. "A knotted loop of string has essentially the same kind of `knottiness', however it is pulled, twisted or crumpled." A novice might well be "twisted and crumpled" unless he/she follows the contents in order and pays close attention. This online exhibition at the University of Bangor, Wales is sponsored by the London Mathematical Society. It's well worth the mind-pain to complete this "adventure in unlimited space" to its practical end, where it ties in such disparate interests as atmospheric flow and string theory. Nifty graphics.
http://www.bangor.ac.uk/ma/CPM/exhibit/welcome.htm
For those of you who thought that covalent bonding happens at family get-togethers, that an octet rule has something to do with square dancing, or that atomic properties are available cheap in Nevada, this smart page explains the mysteries of atomic structure and bonding. Sponsored by Advanced Network & Services, Inc. (providers of the NSFnet backbone), this site has a wealth of information that will soon have you talking like a real scientist. Refresh your hazy memory about the concepts of electron configurations, atomic orbitals, ionic and covalent compounds, electronegativity, molecular shape and polarity, valence bond theory, and more. The site also gets points for having nice graphics, a hyperglossary, and proper use of super- and subscripts.
http://library.advanced.org/3659/structures/
You didn't seriously fall for that old massless subatomic particle gag, did you?
We fell for it, too. By now you may have heard that neutrinos are even lighter than Martha Stewart’s biscuits - but that ain’t the same as having no mass, as scientists had previously thought. The massive neutrino announcement on June 5th blew current particle physics theory to bits. How did the Japanese-American team nail down that well-nigh incorporeal subatomic, neutral-charged particle, known for floating right through the earth without getting tangled up in matter? Why, in a tank filled with 50,000 tons of water buried 1,000 meters underground, of course. For pictures see Louisiana State University’s Web site. The University of California at Irvine, another participant, offers a walk-through for physics novices, and Boston University, the lead American institution, has a summary of the two-year project.UC Irvine: http://www.ps.uci.edu/~superk/
Louisiana State: http://beavis.phys.lsu.edu/superk/
Boston University: http://hep.bu.edu/~superk/
SCIENCE AND ART
Puttin' on the Ritz
Society for Philosophy and Technology
Philosophy was actually Dutch philosopher Spinoza's avocation. He was employed as a technician, grinding lenses. Proof positive that there's no inevitable disharmony between philosophy and technology. Some of the issues raised at this site seem subtly obvious: The major benefit of an axe is that it cuts wood, and the major benefit of an automobile is that it transports people from one location to another. What is the immediate benefit of digital networked information technology? If such questions make you pause, and you can wade through some pretty dense writing, you may truly enjoy this Web resource. Some sample article titles: “Biological Diversity and Political Equality: The Social Impact of Genetic Tests”, “Scientific Instrument Making, Epistemology, and the Conflict between Gift and Commodity Economics”, and “Biotechnology and the Creation of Health Care Needs”.http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/SPT/
Renaissance and Baroque architecture
Photographs tell the story of astonishing Renaissance and Baroque feats performed with stone: lofty naves, entablatures light as lace, massive chateaux. But there’s no text here, so if you’re the verbal type, your right-brain may go into a skid. Maybe it feels like half-a-site, but the pure pix approach does have the effect of pulling you in to see for yourself how 15th century European architects interpreted classical ideals, how the Renaissance gained momentum, topped out, then produced the Baroque - and how so many American buildings and monuments came to mirror these ideals. It’s the careful way the pictures are organized that lets you feel these progressions; they form the backbone of a survey course in the History of Architecture at The University of Virginia. If nothing else, spend a few moments contemplating Rome’s Arch of Constantine, which is holding up fairly well after 1,686 years.http://www.lib.virginia.edu/dic/colls/arh102/index.html
MEDICINE, BIOLOGY AND ZOOLOGY
It's alive! It's alive!
http://worldmall.com/erf/autopsy.htm
If you know and love James Randi the way we do, we think you'll also appreciate Stephen Barrett and his Quackwatch Web site. Barrett dissects dubious health practices. Everything from homeopathy to chiropractors to multilevel marketing scams wilt before his analysis. If it fails - or more likely has never faced - a double blind study, Barrett will hold its faults up to the light of logic. Quackwatch seems to focus slightly more on the marketing of dubious claims than the claims themselves, but that won't keep us from ranking this page as a must-see.
http://www.quackwatch.com/
New bricks and mortar Women's Health Centre at UCLA
From oncology to osteoporosis, this new cluster of buildings on the UCLA campus exemplifies a comprehensive approach to women's health that was unknown a generation ago. It offers preventative disease counselling, diagnosis and treatment, literature, birth control, psychiatric care, support groups, and more. The Web site itself is a little short on research and links - but it's still young. More than information, the site has the gentle touch which can be so welcome when contemplating issues of health andmortality. A room of one's own. http://www.med.ucla.edu/womens/
ANTHROPOLOGY, SOCIOLOGY, ECONOMICS, AND GEOGRAPHY
All that we see or seem
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/5121/about.htm
Numbers are the universal language, right? Yes and no, according to ethnomathematics, which "takes into consideration the culture in which mathematics arises". The introduction goes on to say, "If we think of mathematics as the development of structures and systems of ideas involving number, pattern, logic, and spatial configuration and then examine how mathematics arises and is used in various cultures, we can gain a much deeper understanding of mathematics". This site, sponsored by the Los Alamos National Laboratory, recommends books on nonwestern systems: African, Incan, Babylonian, and others. Dozens of games and puzzles emphasize math not as merely a "subject" but as a verb - a daily activity for playing, competing, and simply relating to the world in a symbolic way.
http://www.cs.uidaho.edu/~casey931/seminar/ethno.html
SCIENCE LITE
Where are you, Mulder?
There once was a man from Niagara
When we heard about an "American Physical Society" limerick contest, we kinda thought the little ditties would be dirty. Our initial disappointment faded quickly upon seeing that some of these physics limericks are positively smashing:"And Then There Were Photons"
An electron, while trav'ling in space,
Met a positron there "face-to-face."
The electron then sighed,
At the sight of his bride
And they "died" in a loving embrace.
Others, negatively smashing ...
"Desperately Surfing for Science"
Who needs the balance and check?
Screw peer review - what the heck!
Send all of your crap
To the internet -zap!
Who cares if it's nothing but dreck!
http://www.aps.org/apsnews/limericks.html
RESIDUE
We can't be sure what else is out there
Science Notes from science lovers
The Science Notes audience includes "California high school teachers and students, UCSC alumni and campus community, and a small national audience of science writers and other interested readers". In case you missed it, that's you in the category of "other interested readers". This irregularly published e-mag is the product of students in the University of California-Santa Cruz Science Communication Program. Each issue reflects a love of the subject matter, research done by people for whom the grades matter, and the eagerness of writers yearning to communicate about the science they love - in text, html with graphics, and pdf formats. Take the Summer 1997 issue: "How to Eavesdrop at a Cosmological Waterhole" (Areicebo on the moon) is right up there with "Real Seals Wear Helmets" (not Navy SEALs, of course) and "Medicinal Toxins" (sponge defense chemicals). If there's a "scholarly journal" version of NetSurfer Science, this is it!http://natsci.ucsc.edu/acad/scicom/SciNotes/BackIssues.html
Helping girls develop careers in science
The National Science Foundation says fewer university women are entering engineering and computer majors even as demand for those graduates rises. It's a backslide concerned educators, social agencies, publishers, and female scientists are trying to stanch. You'll find a lot of them at this site. Called "WattWorks", the name plays on "what works" for helping girls realize untapped science potential. Parents and professionals can read about techniques and programs other groups are experimenting with. Girls may like reading accounts scientist have written about their work - intended to bolster confidence, give practical guidance, and fire curious minds. The site, which has a fun graphic look, is sponsored by Tomorrow's Girl, a publisher of books for girls age 6-12.http://www.tomorrows-girl.com/wattworks.htm