Netsurfer Science 03.02

As commercial gems go, the flashy diamond certainly catches our eye more than the elegant, less showy pearl. But dive into the Tahitian Pearl Museum Web site and you'll surface with a wealth of pleasures the pearl has long stirred in cultures around the world. Part of the mystique doubtless lies in the way that pearls were for so long harvested, one at a time, by divers, sometimes weighted down with stones so they could plumb the depths and find that one imperfect oyster. Read about the modern commercial farming industry, as well as the poetic, mythological and religious reveries this symbol of beauty and purity has inspired.
http://www.tahiti-perles.com/museum/The_Tahitian_Pearl.asp

Desert Fish

It doesn't take a vice-president to figure out that creatures classified as "desert fishes" are probably not among the most thriving or secure species that inhabit our globe; and, like many other endangered fauna, they have a group of concerned citizens dedicated to their preservation and the promulgation of their plight. The group known as Desert Fishes Council (DFC) seeks to preserve the desert aquatic ecosytems that may be found in parts of North America, Africa and Australia, and to consolidate and distribute research and management efforts directed toward saving such creatures as the Borax Lake Chub, the Devil's Hole Pupfish, and the Warner Sucker. Photos, videos, links, references, a bulletin board and even a listserv serve to keep the public aware of conservation efforts. Don't miss the photo of the DFC HQ & Exec. Sec. Edwin "Phil" Pister.
Desert fish: http://www.utexas.edu/depts/tnhc/.www/fish/dfc/
Phil: http://www.utexas.edu/depts/tnhc/.www/fish/dfc/general/headquar.jpg

You Chase the Storms, Not the Other Way 'Round

Storm chasing is a critical activity in the study of tornadoes, but it's also become something of an 'xtreme hobby for some people. Still, it's not an enterprise for the rash or the faint of heart. Forget movies like "Twister", and read the advice in this site. You'll find chasing safety rules, some obvious, some clearly borne of painful experience or observation. Storm chasers often end up traveling in packs, so the rules of the road for convoys in storms might be an eye-opener. Storm chaser Charles Doswell also has advice about approaching tornadoes and avoiding the thrill of being struck by lightning. The last section is dedicated to courtesy among storm chasers, and we're with him. When he's approaching a classical supercell, he says, the last thing he wants to hear from his companion is, "I'm bored". Charles, can we suggest how to spice up your friend's day?
http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/~doswell/Chasing2.html

Netsurfer Recommendations

Items our staff likes and you might too. Click on the cover or title to order the item at a hefty discount from Amazon.com and Beyond.com and send a few pennies our way as well.

Air Apparent: How Meteorologists Learned to Map, Predict, and Dramatize Weather
Mark Monmonier
Univ of Chicago Pr (Trd); ISBN: 0226534227

One of the reasons Mark Monmonier qualifies as our favorite geographer is his abiding love of the obscure and arcane. His recent but, sadly, out of print Drawing the Line: Tale of Maps and Cartocontroversy is a marvelous exploration of maps as tools of propaganda. In Air Apparent, Monmonier considers the most widely consulted and broadcast map of our day - the weather map. We take weather global forecasting for granted now, but it's a relatively new activity, tied in no small part to weather mapping. He addresses the maps' history and rationale, from their first appearance in 1819 to their status as the central character in 24-hour weather channels and Web sites. Monmonier and Edward Tufte are today's premier writers on practical graphical representation, largely because they make dry subjects spring to life. Consider Monmonier's assessment of a weather map "like a chessboard, with which the knowledgeable observer can speculate intelligently about the atmosphere's next few moves". Recommended.

COMPUTING AND ENGINEERING
Open the pod bay doors, Hal

The Recumbent Bike: Built for Comfort and Speed

For saddle sore bike riders with back and neck strain, consider the peddle pusher's alternative: the recumbent, or bent. This contraption, which lets the rider rest in a recumbent posture with the legs in front, has been around since the mid1800s, although the upright bike won the commercial production race. And perhaps partly because of its beautiful loser status, the bent has captured the imagination of many ingenious designers and engineers. An array of aluminum recumbents covered with lightweight aerodynamic bodies are on display at the this site. Many are racing models clocked at speeds as high at 65 mph. Links take you to vendors, in case you long to revolutionize your commute.
http://www.recumbents.com/Streamliners/default.htm

Look, Ma, No Cathode Ray Tube; Flat Screen TV Arrives

Finally, after years of promises, an affordable (sort of) flat screen TV has hit the stores. The world's largest electronics manufacturer, Philips, is reving the marketing blitz. There have been other technologies, but Philips' site describes the one they put their money on: plasma technology that generates light the same way a fluorescent lamp does, through gas discharge phosphor excitation. Each pixel comprising the screen is assigned a little gas chamber containing low-pressure neon and xenon gas. When stimulated by an electronic pulse, a plasma forms, which emits UV light. Read about how that light is modulated to make color and resolution precise enough for commercial broadcasting.
http://www-us.sv.philips.com/news/press/Flat_TV_Technical_Backgrounder.html

Wake Up, Time to Dye

You could tie dye a t-shirt with a pot of boiling water and a bouquet from your back yard. Until only about 150 years ago, all dyes used to color fabric, wallpapers, paints, and household products were made from things such as nuts, berries and other plant material, minerals, and even some insects and shellfish. The first synthetic dye was accidentally invented in 1856 by a man looking for a cure for malaria. Rivendell's Botany Page gives a nice summary of how humans have been adding color to their lives since ancient times. And get recipes to dye your own fabrics using onion skins, walnut hulls and turmeric.
http://www.watson.org/rivendell/botanynatdye.html

Film Sound Theory

Some of the amazing film effects of 1999 might have prompted us to forget that it wasn't all that long ago that film was a wholly silent medium. Hearing Al Jolson speak was, in its time, as groundbreaking as watching Keanu Reeves suspend disbelief in "The Matrix". Today, who's satisfied to watch a movie in a theater lacking THX, when your own humble PC has Dolby Surround in Half Life? If we all so fussy now, maybe we should find out what we're talking about. This site offers an in-depth view about sound, ranging from glossaries to terminology to bibliography to analysis of components of sound. Among the many topics, there's one about the sound design in Star Wars. Did you know that, in a return to purer times, most of the Episode One sound effects were created using real sounds, rather than electronic or artificial ones?
http://hem.passagen.se/filmljud/filmsound.htm

ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away

Phil Plait's Bad Astronomy

We've pointed you the Bad Science sites before, but the recent release of "Supernova" was just begging for someone to call up the issue of bad science yet again. Not that we're bitter about the bad science we see on TV and in the movies. OK, you're right ... sometimes we are. Rather than sit here and rant about it, though, we'll send you over to Bad Astronomy. Phil Plait uses examples of bad astronomy in the media, movies, and on TV as teaching tools for good astronomy. His explanations of good astronomy are clear, concise, and can, at time, be amusing. (Bad, bad, baaaad science is just such a comparative howler sometimes.) Best of all, Plait knows his astronomy. He hasn't done anything on the movie yet, but he does have information on supernovae. If you want to learn about supernovae on the Web, Bad Astronomy is a good starting point.
Supernovae http://www.badastronomy.com/info/prof.html

Center for Particle Astrophysics

So, maybe Supernova put you off supernovae? What about dark matter? It's exotic and the stuff of science fiction, not to mention the stuff of science research. The Center for Particle Astrophysics has information about dark matter, from what it is to the methods used to detect it. There is also a nice black hole FAQ, just in case you want to know what would happen to you if you fell into one, or what you'd see if your friend fell into one and you were sitting out in space at a safe distance. If dark matter is a little too exotic for you, there's always the cosmic microwave background. Some of the information gets rather technical in sections geared more toward researchers than laypeople, but it's a fun site to explore if you're interested in astrophysics.
http://cfpa.berkeley.edu/home.html

Hubble Service Flight

The latest service mission to the Hubble Space Telescope was a success! Want to know the details? Hop on over to this NASA site. Get to know Hubble's MOM (that's Mission Operations Manager) and the rest of the family at the telescope's operations control center. There's information about the latest service mission, including an introduction to the crew, and what it achieved. There's also a CosmicKids section, which does a very good job of explaining the parts and instruments of the Hubble, why NASA sends service flights, and why the Hubble went into sleep mode to an interested 10-year-old (though an interested adult may have fun acting like a CosmicKid. Go on! We won't tell if you don't). NASA produces some excellent space science Web sites that nonspecialists can comprehend, and this is one of them.
http://hubble.gsfc.nasa.gov/

Why Horizon Moons Appear Larger

When you look at the moon when it's on the horizon, it looks larger than it does high in the sky. But, no matter where the moon is, on the horizon, directly overhead, or anywhere in between, it's always the same size. You don't believe us, do you? But, it's true. So why does the moon seem so much bigger when it sits on the horizon? Is it because the "stuff" on the horizon (trees, houses) tricks our brains into thinking the horizon moon seems further away than the elevated moon? Or is it the other way around? A father-son team recently conducted a study to determine which theory is right. This page offers nice descriptions of the reasoning behind the competing theories as well as a good description of the study's procedure. Check it out.
http://www.research.ibm.com/news/detail/moon_illusion.html

Space Telescope Science Institute

Many are, no doubt, aware of this site; it averages about a half a million hits a day. Others who remain unaware of the official site for the Hubble Space Telescope will have to settle for using the standard Windows wallpaper or some company logo instead of cool images of extra-galactic bodies. HST has been used to photograph and analyze every planet but Mercury, as well as comets, asteroids, stars, nebulae, galaxies and a veritable universe of objects within the range of about seven billion light-years. Current HST news, technical data, maintenance schedule and history are available at this site, which updated on about a weekly basis. Those who have outgrown their own Edmund Scientific model may wish to submit a proposal for use of the HST (note: targets on Earth are excluded from consideration).
http://www.stsci.edu/top.html

MATHEMATICS, PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY
42

109 - Elements to Take Your Breath Away

Here is one of the most visually stunning sites we've ever come across, bar none. And what's it built around? Why that oh-so sensual periodic table to the elements, of course! Navigation by icons seems a bit obscure at first, but when you do clue in, it's oh-so self-evident. (We'll save you the time. Reach the site's heart by clicking on the oversized icon, the one that looks like a silhouette of the periodic table.) Each element has been interpreted artistically. Pass your cursor over the artwork, et voila, you've named the element. Click on the artwork, and you find more than just the beautiful face. You have full details about the element, including its history, uses, cautions, ground state electron configuration, key isotope details, and more, and more, and more. The Chemical Societies Network even offers a surprising history of the table itself, right from the time of alchemy, plus free downloads. A caveat, though: You'll need Shockwave and Acrobat Reader to get everything from the site, and slower connections will put some demands on your patience. We say it's worth the time.
http://www.chemsoc.org/viselements/pages/page3.html

Voices - Girls in Science, Math, and Technology

Voices is a three-year program in West Virginia designed to encourage and help girls do well in science, mathematics, and technology. Three urban and three rural schools participated in the first year of the program, and another one of the program's goals is to determine if science, mathematics, and technology should be taught differently in rural and urban areas because of the different perspectives students may bring to the classroom might bring to the classroom. In the first and second years of the program, the girls participate in workshops that put science and math in an Appalachian context. For example, one workshop focused in the chemistry of folk medicine, another on the mathematics of quilt patterns, and another on food preservation. Maybe you're not an Appalachian parent or teacher, but you may find some ideas at Voices to help your daughter(s) take an interest in science and math.
http://www.ael.org/nsf/voices/index.htm

ARCHEOLOGY AND PALEONTOLOGY
What is past is prologue

Mesoamerican Civilizations

Most people are aware that recent scholarship shows the great Mesoamerican civilizations were much more violent than previously thought. In the declining years of the Aztec empire, 20,000 lives a year were sacrificed either in warfare or religious ritual. But new findings show much more than blood and guts. Exciting developments in decoding the Maya, Mixtec, Zapotec, and Aztec languages show distinctive political, economic, scientific, and religious cultures. The University of Minnesota Department of Anthropology shares tremendous resources - including a translator that lets you see your name in Mayan glyphs, and even order a custom t-shirt.
http://www.angelfire.com/ca/humanorigins/index.html

SCIENCE AND ART
Puttin' on the Ritz

Cel Care and Restoration

Hmmm what's this manila envelope in the back of the old encyclopedia that came from the garage sale? Two sheets of cardboard and between them it looks like a transparency with a scene from "Snow White." The one where the witch offers her the apple. Too bad the edges are cracked and turning brown. Go ahead and throw it away, along with that box of old baseball cards. But wait, say aficionados. With a bit of attention, that original cel could be worth a fair bit of cash. little diminished from a mint-condition examplar. Restoration can enhance the value of a cel, so feel no compunction about replacing paint, ink and even cel material when striving to restore the original intent of the designer. Cleaning, preserving, storing and restoring are all described on this page, so that you can properly care for that stack of genuine "Toy Story" cels purchased from that guy in the parking lot last week.
http://db.animanga.com/lemnear/Animation/production.html

Exploring the Sistine Chapel Ceiling

And you thought painting the living room ceiling was a big job. Imagine four year of painting a ceiling, and not just plain white with a 12" roller, but intricate Biblical scenes with tiny brushes. Or consider the 14 years that was spent on the restoration effort, using not the power sander, but moist towlettes to carefully daub away varnishes, grime, wax, and various layers of the paint from previous "restoration" efforts. The Humanities Department at Wayne State University (Michigan) will permit you to reflect on the enormity of both Michelangelo's original work and the restoration completed in 1994. A clickable image map of the entire ceiling reveals the master's handiwork before and after the cleaning effort. Let's just hope that the same attention has been paid to the condition of the roof.
Wayne State: http://www.science.wayne.edu/~mcogan/Humanities/Sistine/
Chapel restoration: http://www.etrav.net/pathways/html/sistinechapel.htm
Conservation technology: http://www.wengraf.com/tina3.htm
Last Supper: http://www.chicagomaroon.com/articles/a885313235.shtml

MEDICINE, BIOLOGY AND ZOOLOGY
It's alive! It's alive!

Animal Training at SeaWorld

At Netsurfer World Headquarters, we're still trying to teach our doofus canine mascot the stay command and the please-don't-my-patella-with-your-bony-skull plea. We stand in awe of SeaWorld's dolphins and their trained antics, and now we know how they do it. SeaWorld opens its gates to everyone interested in how marine mammals are trained. The site introduces all the methods used to teach an animal a specific behavior, and traces how trainers converse with killer-whales using their own language and a keyboard. As with even our fool, animal training it isn't only for the amusement of the audience. It's also a valuable tool for the animals veterinary care and to help researchers learn more about these mammals who decided to live in the sea.
http://www.seaworld.org/animal_training/atcontents.html

ANTHROPOLOGY, SOCIOLOGY, ECONOMICS, AND GEOGRAPHY
All that we see or seem

ParaScope

Sociology is a science, right? Well, an affirmative answer will enable you to visit this page of the paranormal in the name of science with a clear conscience. The Web is full of such things as UFOs, Chupacabras, ghosts, conspiratorial Bildeburgers, and psychic friends, but nowhere else is the presentation so thorough, yet concise. Numerous photo galleries, articles and decent navigation push this site far out in front of a muddled pack. A Fortean approach shows that even things that might have a reasonable explanation can still be interesting. Special features include the game, "Where's Oswaldo?" and an FOIA wizard so visitors can fire off requests for those secret government documents detailing the big Y2k/Nazi/biotech/William Cooper conspiracy. Just pray that they aren't monitoring your keystrokes.
http://www.parascope.com/

RESIDUE
We can't be sure what else is out there

Fraud in the Science Establishment

Scientists aren't like ambulance chasing lawyers or if-it-bleeds-it-leads journalists, right? They're methodical, precise, thorough, and honest. And all the papers you read in the big journals are absolutely reliable. Not according to the article "Scientific Fraud and the Power Structure of Science" first published in 1992 in Prometheus magazine. Brian Martin boldly deconstructs the myth of correctness in the mainstream scientific machine. This analysis casts an anthropological eye on the systems which produce today's science - the journals, universities, the grant-writing and granting institutions and many other pillars of the scientific establishment.
http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/pubs/92prom.html

Marxism and Modern Science

Even if Berlin's Wall has fallen, and China and Cuba are the last Marxist nations, the Web certainly isn't short on sites devoted to communism and Marxism. This site treats the relationship between Marxism and science, as seen from the purely material side of Marx' and Engels' thinking. The essay is huge, analyzing every facet of modern science, ranging from physics to mathematics, to evolution, all dissected by the sharp beam of Marxism. Even if some statements are perhaps too categorical (for example, the opening statement that western capitalist economies are falling without hope is a little too pessimistic - or optimistic depending from your point of view), the essay is worth the reading, at least to learn what they thought over the wall.
http://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/~zac/maindex.htm

CONTACT AND SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION

Netsurfer Science Home Page:
Subscribe, Unsubscribe:
Frequently Asked Questions:
Submission of Newsworthy Items:
Letters to the Editor:
Advertiser and Sponsor Inquiries:
Netsurfer Communications:

http://www.netsurf.com/nss/
http://www.netsurf.com/nss/subscribe.html
http://www.netsurf.com/nss/nsfaq.html
sci-pressroom@netsurf.com
sci-editor@netsurf.com
sales@netsurf.com
http://www.netsurf.com/

CREDITS

Publisher: Arthur Bebak Editor: Judith David Contributing Editor: Production Manager: Bill Woodcock Netsurfer Communications, Inc. President: Arthur Bebak Vice President: S.M. Lieu	Writers and Netsurfers: Jason Alderman Kate Brown Davide di Lazzaro Jeff Foust Craig Kott Michael Luke Elizabeth Rollins
NETSURFER SCIENCE © 2000 Netsurfer Communications, Inc. All rights reserved. NETSURFER SCIENCE is a trademark of Netsurfer Communications, Inc.