| Plate Tectonics |
| The Dirt on Dirt |
| Chernobyl and Three Mile Island |
| Pinhole Photography |
| New York's High Life |
| In the Tangled Web Department ... Mo' Better Mobile Viruses |
| Tethers in Space |
| Satellite Tracking for the Masses |
| A Succinct Piece on Kevlar |
| Dating Tips |
| Biographies of Great Female Mathematicians |
| Physics of Robin Hood |
| Neocatastrophism |
| Yes, Virginia, Scientists Do Investigate 1000-Year-Old Latrines |
| Sleep and Sleep Disorders |
| Bloodborne Pathogens |
| Biotechnology Patent Law |
| Bats Online |
| Useless Information |
| Fingerprinting |
| National Science Foundation Frontiers |
| Dragonfly, Wings for Elementary School Scientists |
| The History of Chocolate |
| MIT Eyeballs Innovation |
| Ice Cams |
| Brazilian Swan Songs |
| BOOK REVIEWS |
| LETTERS TO THE EDITOR |
| Contact and Subscription Information |
| Credits |
EARTH SYSTEMS
No matter where you go, there you are
http://www.scotese.com/
There's dirt - like the kind lurking under your bed or on page 6 of the New York Post - and then there's dirt - like the kind that sheathes the planet and underpins Earth's ecology. Jeff Wolt, an adjunct professor of agronomy at Purdue University, has thrown together Soil Solutions, a well organized collection of links to soil science resources on the Web. 'Though he offers no content of his own, the collection of links appears well researched and should prove useful to student and professional alike.
http://members.iquest.net/~jdwolt/
COMPUTING AND ENGINEERING
Open the pod bay doors, Hal
Chernobyl and Three Mile Island
If you're sure that you felt a vibration, and you live somewhere within the vicinity of a water-cooled, graphite-moderated nuclear reactor, it might be wise to find out what you could get for your house now (say, today), rather than waiting and risking a sudden drop in property values. Such was the unfortunate lot of the residents of Chernobyl and Three Mile Island (and surrounding areas) who chose to stay until they heard the fateful pronouncements of "faulty design", "mechanical failure", and "operator error". The simplified mechanics of these tragedies are documented at a site established by Ljubisa R. Radovic, Associate Professor of Fuel Science at Penn State. Learn how not to withdraw your control rods, and how to maintain proper coolant levels. The alternatives could be very costly (say, billions), and nuclear infamy has a very long half-life.Radovic's site: http://www.ems.psu.edu/~radovic/Chernobyl.html
Percepticon: http://www.percepticon.com/temporalimage/nuclear/index.html
Dr. Meshkati's Chernobyl page: http://www-bcf.usc.edu/~meshkati/chernobyl.html
Chernobyl liquidators: http://www.edvz.sbg.ac.at/~belyakov/lhp/ref.html
Chernobyl.com: http://www.chernobyl.com/chernobylphotos.htm
Accounts of Chernobyl effects: http://www.halcyon.com/blackbox/hw/accounts.html
Infocenter Chernobyl: http://www.ic-chernobyl.kiev.ua/
No, this has nothing to do with placing tiny cameras in the volleyball team's locker rooms. Pinhole photography is a particular breed of the art that uses no lens whatsoever; a tiny hole lets light in for the exposure. It seems that the early Chinese (500 BCE), Aristotle, da Vinci, and Kepler all knew that light could be passed through a small aperture to project an image onto a flat surface. English scientist Sir David Brewster was the first to produce photographs with the method in the 1850s. Once commercialized, the practice quickly spread; soon thousands of people all over the world were experimenting with the little boxes. The entire history is given at this site, as well as application to science (solar observation, nuclear physics, spacecraft, and so on), plans, exposure formulas, and links to other pinhole sites (some with images!). Exposure times can be quite long, and the images can come out a bit fuzzy, but won't you be proud to display the photos you took with your cardboard box?
http://www2.ari.net/glsmyth/articles/pinhole.htm
New York City is defined by its skyline, and skyscrapers define that skyline. E.T. Dankwa, a low-profile Finnish architect, has rendered his love of New York and architecture into a pleasant site that explores the Big Apple's skyscrapers. While the entrance to the tour may not be as smooth and elegant as the lobbies of some of New York's more notable high rises, once inside you'll find yourself wandering through an engaging narrative detailing the history of New York's biggest buildings. The skyscrapers are organized according to the style of the time (Early Century, Art Deco, and so on), which makes for leisurely browsing. All feature a thumbnail image and a short paragraph detailing the basic history of the building at hand. Maps, an alphabetical listing of the buildings reviewed and their architects, and a ranking of buildings according to height (size does matter, after all), round out the site.
http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/3366/nyc1.html
In the Tangled Web Department ... Mo' Better Mobile Viruses
Should we be afraid, be very afraid? Naw. But arm yourself. Among the ways to contract computer viruses is through Web site applets. New Scientist magazine warns us to be on the lookout for intruders we unwittingly download with pages containing Java, Javascript and ActiveX-written applets. They'll hurt you to varying degrees. Some just slow your browser down, others destroy your stuff.New Scientist: http://www.newscientist.com/ns/980718/nvirus.html
Princeton University Secure Internet Programming: http://www.cs.princeton.edu/sip/
DigiCrime http://www.digicrime.com/dc.html
ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away
http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/academy/TETHER/TETHERS.HTML
Satellite Tracking for the Masses
The originators of the J-Track Satellite Tracking page allow that they created the site so that "you could quickly and easily keep track of your favorite orbiting objects". Well, even if you don't have a favorite orbiting object, the J-Track site is well worth a visit, offering a number of Java applets that put you at the console of your own mini-Mission Control. J-Track itself plots the ground track of selected satellites. The site offers preconfigured suites of satellites (weather sats, spacecraft, search and rescue sats, and amateur radio sats), but, if you wish, you can come up with your own suite of birds to watch. Tracking is real time, which may require a bit of synchronization (check the "synch clock" button under configuration options), but, once you're set, it's simple to see what satellites may be passing overhead. Also check out J-Pass, a program that allows you to plot the overhead transit of specific satellites (if, say, you want to view the Mir space station as it passes through your skies) and J-Track 3-D. While the site's authors advise that J-Pass 3-D may give poky machines the horrors, it ran superbly on a 100 MHz Power PC. The 3-D version of J-Pass shows the swarm of satellites currently in orbit and allows you to zoom in/out, rotate the perspective, and view the orbit and ground track of any of the satellites. Once again, excellent stuff from NASA.http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/realtime/jtrack/
MATHEMATICS, PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY
42
http://www.lbl.gov/MicroWorlds/Kevlar/KevlarIntro.html
If you're the kind of person who discriminates between aerobic and histic soils, a person with a penchant for pedogenic pursuits (you're simply fascinated with soil), a hapless archeologist just looking for another way to carbon-date your latest find, then perhaps OCR carbon dating is for you. An "inexpensive, accurate, and precise dating procedure", the Oxidizable Carbon Ratio method complements the well known "nuclear-based radiocarbon procedure" (familiar to us as C14 dating). By analyzing charcoal samples and other select organic matter for ratios of oxidizable carbon (thus the name), OCR provides a technique that helps archeologists get a better fix on the relative age of some of their excavations. Be warned, though - you might want to bring a dictionary; some of the papers here use vocabulary that's not exactly the vernacular of your neighborhood Cracker Barrel. Then again, what do you expect from a group whose very logo alludes to Lorentz attractors and early Taoist literature?
http://members.aol.com/dsfrink/ocr/ocrpage.htm
Biographies of Great Female Mathematicians
Whether you're a mathematician or not, this site, sponsored by Agnes Scott College of Atlanta, lets you marvel at the creative impact of a great mind. For example, back in 1987, before she became Princeton's first female mathematics professor, Ingrid Daubechies constructed a new class of "wavelets" which have become the most commonly used variety in software applications. For that she won one of the highest awards in her field. Young women with such aspirations may find inspiration and practical ideas about which awards and grants to shoot for. And remember: no woman has yet won what is considered the Nobel Prize of mathematics, the Fields Medal. Good luck.http://www.scottlan.edu/lriddle/women/women.htm
We never knew the flight of an arrow could seem so complicated. Basten Hoope offers up some Physics of Archery, covering recurve and compound bows and the flight of arrows. It's all very technical, except for his wise admonition that it's technique that makes the arrow fly. For archers who happen to be physics majors (or vice versa). PALEONTOLOGY AND ARCHEOLOGY
http://snt.student.utwente.nl/campus/sagi/artikel/bas/archghh.html
Once upon a time, geologists used the word catastrophism to imply global change effected through a series of disasters of literally Biblical proportions. As geology matured and measured the age of the Earth in billions rather than thousands of years, scientists dismissed catastrophism in favor of a strict uniformitarianism: the notion that geologic processes have always acted at the same constant rate. Now, conventional science again recognizes the role of spectacular events - such as the Chicxulub impact - played out on a background of uniform geological processes. Pib Burns has posted a superb page of resources that cover everything you need or want to know about catastrophism. Read all about meteorites, volcanoes, and planets causing the destruction of taxa, airplanes, and entire civilizations.
http://pibweb.it.nwu.edu/pib/catastro.htm
Yes, Virginia, Scientists Do Investigate 1000-Year-Old Latrines
Ever had the extreme desire to smell a 1,000-year-old latrine? Such attention to long-forgotten historical detail seems to be the hallmark of the Jorvik Viking Museum. What other museum invites you to wander through its exhibits in full period costume? What other museum uses state-of-the-art police technology to scan skulls of ancient Vikings found at Jorvik's mud-pit-preserved archeology site and use them to recreate composite sculptures of what the person looked like in the flesh? What other museum sells scratch-n-sniff postcards in its gift shop to let you savor authentic Viking smells? None that this netsurfer is aware of. (And your Editor is eternally grateful that the Web isn't entirely interactive!)http://www.jorvik-viking-centre.co.uk/
MEDICINE, BIOLOGY AND ZOOLOGY
It's alive! It's alive!
http://www.proaxis.com/~iris/sleep.html
Needles poking out through garbage bags, broken glass with blood on it, body fluids left on the telephone handset, rabid rodents, and vaporized plasma are hazards in many of today's work environments. Malaria, syphilis, HIV, and Hepatitis B (the last of which can survive in dried blood for up to seven days) are among the many viruses and bacteria that are carried in blood and which desire entrance to your body! Oklahoma State University tells you how to properly protect yourself by modifying your behavior and wearing the proper protective equipment, such as gloves, goggles, face shields, and aprons. Remember to treat all body fluids as if they are contaminated; wash frequently with antibacterial soap and, when near potentially infectious materials, avoid eating, drinking, smoking, applying cosmetics or lip balm, or handling contact lenses. Never siphon blood with your mouth! Emergency procedures are detailed, as well as information on Hepatitis B vaccinations. P.S.: Avoid ingesting cerebrospinal fluid.
http://www.pp.okstate.edu/ehs/modules/BBP.HTM
Modern biological experimentation produces many perplexing questions. If I use human genetic material to develop a cure for some disease, do I owe royalties to the person from whom the material was extracted? If I clone Cindy Crawford, can I keep her? Do biological computers have rights? If I secure a patent in this country for a microorganism that converts cheese into construction-grade adhesive, will France honor that patent? Do you forfeit rights over your genetic material when you go to the barbershop? Faced with such difficult questions, it's always best to enlist the aid of professional legal counsel. Attorney William Warren offers a summary of biotechnology patent law in the international community, including discussions on the implications of the NAFTA and GATT treaties and the European Directive on Patents in Biotechnology. So, if I insert human genes into a mouse, do I owe money to Disney?
http://www.jonesaskew.com/articles/296devbiopat.html
You do know, don't you, that bats don't actually get tangled in your hair? Nor do they attack people or have an unusually high incidence of rabies. The Bat Conservation International site dispels such myths in caverns full of information about bats of all kinds and the benefits that they provide to humans and the ecosystem. For example, a common North American brown bat can eat 600 mosquitoes per hour, far exceeding the capability of our NSS corporate bug zapper (which looks suspiciously like Arthur wielding an old 5 1/4" floppy disk). From the tiny bumblebee bat of Thailand, weighing less than a penny, to the giant flying foxes of Indonesia, possessed of six-foot wingspans, over 1000 different species cover the globe, playing a role in pollination, seed dispersal, or night-flying insect control. This site contains bat facts, bat workshops, bat excursions, bat magazines, bat detectors, bat distribution, bat bridges, bat girls (sorry, wrong site), bat earrings, bat kites, and even a bat condo that you can build yourself! Holy hypertext! There's a lot here!
BCI: http://www.batcon.org/index.html
Bat house: http://www.alaskaoutdoorjournal.com/Ecology/bathouse.html
RESIDUE
We can't be sure what else is out there
http://home.nycap.rr.com/useless/contents.html
Most forensic science pages on the Net provide rudimentary definitions of the process and science behind a criminal investigation. The Latent Fingerprinting Home Page gives much more. By focusing on only the field of fingerprinting, Ed German, a print examiner with 25 years of experience in US Army criminal investigations, offers a very thorough site that explains almost every aspect of being a fingerprint expert. German was partially responsible for bringing the forensic technique of "superglue fuming" to the US from Japan, and his expertise shines through in pages that describe the particulars of his profession in terms separately suited for elementary schoolers, adults, law enforcement officials and criminals. If you're looking for any information at all on the science of fingerprinting, this is the place to go.
http://www.randomc.com/~german/homepro.html
National Science Foundation Frontiers
The National Science Foundation gets the word out on its good deeds through the electronic version of its newsletter, Frontiers. The publication focuses on research funded by the NSF as well as public policy issues that might affect the Foundation and the research community. Frontiers resides under the Web wing of NSF's Office of Legislative and Public Affairs, so, as one might imagine, you won't necessarily be reading about the horrors of technology here. Rather, as the editor put it in a special three-year anniversary issue, you'll find out how "NSF-funded projects are delivering results to create new knowledge, increase our understanding of the world around us, and improve the quality of our daily lives". No flash here, just straight up news from an organization that believes in science and technology as the right road to the future.http://www.nsf.gov/od/lpa/news/publicat/frontier/
Dragonfly, Wings for Elementary School Scientists
Dragonfly notes that its pages are for "investigators of all ages", but, truth be told, they're probably best for those who measure their age in the single digits or the very low doubles. The Web companion to Dragonfly Magazine, a bimonthly published by the National Science Teachers Association, Dragonfly online is a treat for the elementary school scientist. Themed issues - trees, animal communication, webs of life among other subjects - offer up engaging instruction on a myriad of subjects. Some bits are interactive, some simply interesting (check the zoom on a crab embryo eyeball or the 5-second morph of a 5-year-old into a 17-year-old in the current Small and Tall issue). Extremely kid-friendly without being condescending or simply moronic, Dragonfly is a great example of approachable science on the Web.http://miavx1.muohio.edu/~dragonfly/index.htmlx
"The Land of Chocolate" is Homer Simpson's idea of heaven. Willy Wonka's factory can engender a fascination more enthralling than Oz. With over three billion pounds of the stuff consumed annually in the United States, it seems that more than a few of us could be considered "chocaholic". Thanks to the generosity(!) of Emperor Montezuma (who drank 50 glasses of the stuff each day in warm, liquid form), who shared with Cortez the wonders of the cacao tree (and you thought Cortez was after gold!), we partake of the food of the gods (at only around 210 calories per candy bar). Discover the food that uses 8% of the world's sugar production. Trace the preparation of the product from tree to candy aisle, and examine the evidence that chocolate isn't linked to headaches, obesity, acne, addictions, heart disease, elevated cholesterol, diabetes, tooth decay, hyperactivity or other undesirable side effects. (Some may dispute these findings, but they're probably fanatics who don't want you to have any kind of fun, right?)
http://www.candyusa.org/chocstry.html
Bursting with the most challenging issues in modern technology, MIT’s “Technology Review" has long been one of the most engaging, intelligent, and well written science mags on the market. The electronic edition of Tech Review is, like many other paper-to-Web magazines, more of a tease than the full treat. Freeloaders can’t download every feature from each print edition. But the e-edition still covers vast expanses of human endeavor in medicine, biotechnology, energy, outer space, and computers, of course. The current cover story examines extremely controversial human embryo cell research and the biotech industry's hunt for what's dubbed the "tabla rasa of human cells". Back issues include such topics as food irradiation, the dilemmas of experimenting on people, to Mac or not to Mac, and a profile of Vint Cerf. And don’t miss the wonderful “Trailing Edge” feature, which each month tells the history of a different technological innovation. Tech Review covers both the leading and bleeding edge of technology with style and substance.
http://www.techreview.com/
Has the summer heat got you down? Cool off at the Discovery Channel's "Antarctica" site, with live (at least during daylight hours) cams at three Australian research stations. Looks mighty cold.
http://www.discovery.com/exp/antarctica/cam.html
CORRECTIONS AND UPDATES
Make it so
Bird songs: http://www.mma.gov.br/ingles/CGMI/cantoave/cantoi.html
Evora: http://www.there1.com/cesaria.html