Netsurfer Science 03.03

Metamorphosis, it turns out, isn't just a way of turning creepy caterpillar into beautiful butterfly, but of opening a whole new evolutionary advantage, enabling juvenile and adult insects to use different food sources and thus avoid competition. As a result, about 60% of insects, including dragonflies, mosquitoes, butterflies, ants, bees, and flies of all kinds share in this miracle of transformation. This little essay explains the endocrinological underpinnings of the process including the role of juvenile hormones in suppressing the development of adult structures, and speculates on the significance of this understanding in deciphering other life processes and patterns.
http://www.washington.edu/newsroom/news/1999archive/09-99archive/k093099.html

Exploratorium Frogs

Here's another brilliant online exhibit from the folks at the Exploratorium Science Museum, this time about Netsurfer's favorite amphibians. Unlike most science sites, this is both an entertaining introduction for youngsters, as well as a comprehensive study of these beasts for the older, more serious pupil. Go to the feature articles for in-depth essays on frogs, the effect of hormones upon their growth, and how they interact with their environment. All the pages have enlargeable images; in fact, interactivity abounds. You can listen to frog calls on a "frog tracker" page, learn about camouflage in the "disappearing act" game, and even download rain forest sounds (with lots of frog sounds, of course). Tales and tours highlight the effect of frogs on human culture. The site is easy and even fun to browse. Upon finishing a section, the "next" icon (a hopping frog, of course) will take you back to the home page. If your interest in frogs is more anatomical (or less benign), then visit the Interactive Frog Dissection. Here you can perform a clickable dissection and/or download Quicktime movies to observe a real one.
Exploratorium frogs: http://www.exploratorium.edu/frogs/index.html
Frog dissection: http://curry.edschool.virginia.edu/go/frog/

Coral

To the sailor who has lost a ship, or the surfer who has lost some skin, coral reefs are not one of the friendlier aspects of the sea; yet live coral is a significant component of the ecosystem, without which production of foodstuffs from the sea would be seriously degraded. While currently suffering the effects of damaging starfish, global warming, sedimentation, pollution, and blast fishing, the historical health of coral and how it reflects the general state of past climates falls within the field known as paleoclimatology. This is the subject a site established in 1997 by NOAA in honor of the International Year of the Reef. Impressive graphs and charts will surely convince us of the seriousness of the problem, even if the accompanying text fails to convey many hard facts. Think twice before you go on that blast fishing charter cruise; future generations may have your picture hanging in the "Coral Reef Hall of Infamy".
http://www.ogp.noaa.gov/mpe/paleo/coral/coral_paleo/default.htm

COMPUTING AND ENGINEERING
Open the pod bay doors, Hal

How Stuff Works

How does a cell phone work? How do cruise missiles work? If you spend your down time pondering questions like these, you'll love How Stuff Works. Several sections (such as engines, electronics, around the house, the Internet, your body, and in the news) contain explanations, with diagrams when appropriate, about how common items work. And not all of the items are concrete objects; you'll find more abstract topics covered, too, such as how finances work and even how Christmas works. Because one explanation often links to an article on a related topic, it's easy to lose yourself in this extensive site. Most articles also include links to related Web material. The level of sophistication of the discussions is fairly high (although the cross-linkage helps explain complex concepts), so don't dismiss this wonderful site as fluff.
http://www.howstuffworks.com/index.htm

California State Railroad Museum

At what point does the casual "Star Trek" viewer turn into a Trekkie? It's an undefined point where a growing interest gradually builds, until the obsession becomes noticeable by relatives, (remaining) friends, and eventually, strangers. A similar condition can be found among those who find fascination in a more mundane technology: trains. In its nascent form, casually interested individuals will be drawn to places like the (Sacramento) California State Railroad Museum, where they can immerse themselves in the artifacts and lore of rail transportation. The museum's Web site presents an overview of the museum, a brief history of railroads, and a number of pictures of locomotives and railcars. The family planning a vacation to Sacramento will do well to visit this site in preparing their itinerary, but during their trip, let them take care to keep their distance from the holders of season passes to such destinations, some of whom could be classified as "railfans". So great is their interest these railroad aficionados will go to great lengths to slake their curiosity, including logging train schedules, "pacing", videotaping and photographing trains, and generally being a nuisance to the railroad and its employees. "A fascinating phenomenon" as Mr. Spock would say.
Museum: http://www.csrmf.org/
New York, Susquehanna & Western Technical & Historical Society: http://209.41.126.193/
Railfanning on the BNSF Stockton Subdivision: http://milepost1147.2.railfan.net/index.html
National Militant Railfan: http://www.turbont.net/nmro/history.htm
Ultimate railfan experience: http://overseasrailroad.railfan.net/flarrfan/cabride.htm
Iowa trainwatching excursion logs: http://storm.simpson.edu/~tinder/Excursions.html
Trains community - Trip reports: http://cmty.prodigy.net/trains/trips001.htm
Railfan rules: http://overseasrailroad.railfan.net/flarrfan/fanrules.htm
Railroading simulations: http://www.turbont.net/nmro/simulate.htm

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

The Nine Planets

On a Web tour of the solar system, your chances of successfully navigating the planets and finding the desired images and information at the typical megasites (NASA, JPL, Caltech, et. al.) are about as good as NASA's own recent unmanned exploration attempts. Try this task-oriented site, instead. Hosted by the University of Arizona, it gives the explorer not only pictures and data, but history, mythology, sounds, movies, and prolific links as well. About 90 well-organized pages cover all the planets, significant satellites, and other miscellaneous objects. Carl Sagan would approve.
http://www.seds.org/nineplanets/nineplanets/nineplanets.html

Beyond Drake

For folks who wonder about intelligent life out there, the Drake equation is familiar territory. At this nifty site, the equation is laid out term by term for you to input your own values and then see the results. Playing around with the numbers and trying various assumptions is easy and fun. We suspect that reality is much more complicated than the equation allows. Even so it's depressingly impressive to discover how optimistic you have to be in your assumptions to get any kind of reasonable numbers out of the thing. Still, right now, somewhere out there, some clever creatures breathing ammonia or methane may be painstakingly deciphering a feeble intercepted message. "Seems to be an equation of some kind", they posit. "Maybe it will tell us the secret of their technology."
http://www.station1.net/DouglasJones/drake.htm

MATHEMATICS, PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY
42

How Things Work

Another place to find answers to your questions is How Things Work, run by Louis A. Bloomfield, professor of physics at the University of Virginia. Professor Bloomfield has written a textbook, "How Things Work: The Physics of Everyday Life", to accompany a course of the same name that he has created to introduce nonscience students to physics in the context of everyday objects. The Web site contains information about the course. (This material requires Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is available as a free download.) The site also invites visitors to submit questions for Professor Bloomfield to answer, and a lot of people have taken advantage of the opportunity. You can search the questions by date, by topic, or by keyword.
How things work: http://howthingswork.virginia.edu/
Adobe Acrobat Reader: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html

World Chemistry

This is a clean, well-organized site with lots of content suitable for 16- to 19-year-old students taking advanced chemistry courses. Netsurfer readers might find that level a useful resource. If you register (it's a model of non-intrusiveness), the computer will keep track of which tutorials you've taken and the results of your self-assessments. Physically located at the Leipzig International School, Germany, the Web site has interactive demonstrations on such topics as titration, the gas laws, and the concept of the mole, which we found effective and interesting. It also provides access to free structure drawing software, definitions, a collection of interactive 3-D molecular models, tutorials, a search tool, and links to other Web sites with a chemical theme. Well worth visiting.
http://www.intschool-leipzig.com/bailey/home/index.htm

ARCHEOLOGY AND PALEONTOLOGY
What is past is prologue

Trilobites

A Guide to the Orders of Trilobites is a veritable feast of trilobitic information, including links, pictures, fact sheets, a quiz, the applicable time scales explained, and more. The line drawings and illustrations are excellent and somewhere in there (you don't expect us to tell you everything, surely) is a picture of the cutest little trilobite you've ever seen! There's even a neat animation that shows continental drift over the time span of trilobite existence. If your notions of trilobites are fuzzy, the place will soon have you up to snuff on these creatures, which were common in ancient seas. A second site on trilobites and their evolution through time, is less successful at explaining things, and not as pretty, but it adds interesting information about why trilobite fossils are so useful to paleontologists.
Guide: http://www.aloha.net/~smgon/ordersoftrilobites.htm
Evolution: http://www.brookes.ac.uk/geology/8361/1998/kirsty/trilo.html

A Photoguide of Megaliths

Megaliths are prehistoric standing stones, and stone circles and rows that represent one of the most intriguing features of the British landscape. Thousands of years after they were put in place, we're left to wonder who, how, and why. This photoguide to megaliths limits itself to British examples, offering maps, links, books, sounds, and photos about all megalithic sites scattered around Great Britain. There are so many of these sites, of course, that Stonehenge, the one we all know, has to elbow its way in. (Look under Wiltshire, coded dark blue.) All the photos are thumbnailed, so you don't have to wait a dog's age to for downloads, and they are freely distributed for noncommercial use. A good place for time travelers.
http://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/~aburnham/stones.htm

SCIENCE AND ART
Puttin' on the Ritz

The Art of Stop Motion Animation

The special effects of "The Matrix" might dazzle us, but we're still moved to tears by the sight of King Kong, lovelorn and homesick, fending off the bi-planes strafing him atop the Empire State Building. And, "The Phantom Menace" notwithstanding, one of our favorite films is "Balance", Christophe and Wolfgang Lauenstein's 1990 Oscar-winning, haunting, allegorical, stop-action short. Computer-generated special effects and cartoons may be the wave of the present, but we still hold a special place in our hearts for stop-motion animation, the process by which puppets and clay figures are brought to life on screen. At this site, you'll find 'most everything you need to know about stop motion, including a do-it-yourself section for readers who want to experiment with stop motion animation in home videos. We're also pointing you to a fine little article from the Skeptical Beliefs newsletter in which author Tom Flynn describes how stop motion's precision and clarity can also be its undoing.
Stop motion 1: http://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/~aburnham/stones.htm
Stop motion 2: http://stopmotion.dhs.org/
Curse of clarity: http://www.csicop.org/sb/9503/curse.html

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

A New Germ Theory

Here Judith Hooper gives Paul Ewald's ideas the Atlantic treatment: in-depth and fascinating. Ewald believes that heart disease, arthritis, and many forms of cancer are likely the result of infection. Of course, that's certainly not the prevailing view, but the fairly recent discovery that ulcers result from bacterial infection does add weight to the idea. Particularly telling is the use of evolutionary theory in arriving at these notions of disease. As usual with the online version of this venerable magazine, there are links to other articles from the Atlantic archives and a few judicious ones to other relevant sites, as well as the post and riposte feature. Well, you weren't planning to do anything for the next half hour or so were you? So dial it up, print it out, and immerse yourself in the subject. Fascinating stuff.
http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/99feb/germs.htm

Bare Bones Radiology Page: Explaining X-rays to You

Radiologic technologist Carl Kurtz wants people to know what to expect when they need a diagnostic radiologic procedure. Using a conversational tone and everyday language, he explains the most common reasons why physicians order particular tests, how the tests are done, and what patients should do to prepare for the tests. (Remove those nipple rings before having a chest x-ray.) There's a lot of information about anatomy in his explanations of procedures such as a barium enema and IVP (intravenous pyelogram, an x-ray of the urinary system). And his discussion of what a radiologic technologist is should interest anyone exploring career options in health care.
http://www.geocities.com/HotSprings/1368

Health Watchdog

Quackery and fraud are unfortunately common in health care, and it's not hard to understand why. Like Mulder, we want to believe, especially when it will save our own lives or the alleviate the suffering of those we love. Charlatans use these feelings for personal profit; other people are true believers in their own brand of care. Skeptics look on helplessly while people decline or delay proven conventional therapies, sometimes with irreversible effect. HealthWatcher is a site targeting Canadian consumers, but its information has value for everybody on the planet. Even if it's a little confusing from a graphical point of view, the amount of information about quackery, false cures for cancer, diets, miraculous remedies, and more is massive and current, offering a scientific point of view about these "esoteric" topics. Can shark cartilage cure cancer? We wish! And, why ever would conventional medicine and pharmacy be trying to keep a lid on any "cures" if they could be marketing them, too?
http://www.healthwatcher.net/

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.

A Plague of Frogs: The Horrifying True Story
William Souder
Hyperion; ISBN: 0786863609

This new books tells the story of scientific investigation into the recent wave of frog abnormalities and extinctions around the world. This is as much a story of science as it is the story of environmental politics. The frogs are widely considered sensative indicators of environmental degredation, and consequently their plight caught the attention of environmentalists, politicians, and anybody with an ax to grind in the global environmental debate.

Rare Earth: Why Complex Life Is Uncommon in the Universe
Peter Douglas Ward, Donald Brownlee
Copernicus Books; ISBN: 0387987010

This important book in the ongoing debate about the prevalance of extraterrestrial life comes from two scientists with impeccable credentials. The authors hold that while the Universe may teem with simple microbial life, complex forms - including intelligent beings - are rare. They make their case based on a variety of recent discoveries in astronomy and life sciences. Anybody interested in the topic of extraterriestal life will find this a worthwhile read.

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

Economic and Game Theory

If you are used to thinking of games as only child's play, think again. For economists and psychologists, the fun of games is a very serious matter. This site explains game theory clearly as a study of interactions between groups and people. Better, it deals with how intelligent individuals interact with one another in an effort to achieve their own goals. Put in these terms, game theory embraces many aspects of our life, and of our nations' interactions, ranging from choosing between alternatives and considering the consequences, to trade and manufacturing, to seeing what happens when you play the same game, but with different rules. Had Shakespeare been an economist, he might have written that all the world's a game board.
http://levine.sscnet.ucla.edu/

Borders

In 'Fraid at the Edges, Stephen E. DeLong examines borders and their significance in an essay that starts with the northwest angle, that awkward border oddity between Manitoba and Minnesota. From there he goes on to explore other border things in a nicely illustrated way and eventually circles back to the starting point, having covered considerable interesting territory in between. The text is linked to other places, providing some depth and diversion along the way. Quite what its purpose is, other than just to exist, isn't entirely clear; but hey, who cares? Borders and Territory is a very different animal, a repository of links divided into three sections. Here the emphasis is on borders in general and a great many of them in particular.
'Fraid: http://hawk.fab2.albany.edu/fraid/fraid.htm
Borders: http://garnet.acns.fsu.edu/~phensel/territory.html

Mappa Mundi

What, you ask, is Mappa Mundi? Well one of the advantages of subscribing to NSS is that you get to learn things like that, and we do too! Briefly, it's an online magazine with the theme of maps and information. It explores, reveals, stimulates, and exposes in a pretty and fascinating way. The current issue has explorations of the practical and wonderful, the new and the old, with features on missile tracks, knowing the rules (technology and economics), getting Internet access when you travel, and a feature on "memory palaces" an ancient technique used as an aid to memorization that turns out to mirror cognition processes. Let's see: Mundi, Tuesdi, Wednesdi...
http://mappa.mundi.net/

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

On Being A Scientist - Responsible Conduct In Research

The scientist usually doesn't bear a very positive image in either film or television. He (or she) is usually either a megalomaniacal genius bent on taking over the world, or a weak tool of the greedy industrialist. The media rarely portray scientists as giving consideration to of matters of ethics; rather, scientists are exposed to be blindly propelling us toward a future with a poisoned biosphere, mutant creatures, and horrific weapons. The National Academy of Sciences steps forward at this point to offer its vision of ethics within the scientific community. Citing the dangers to science presented by the bias of personal beliefs and individual experience, the NSA lifts up a model of collective validation and "shared knowledge based on a common understanding of some aspect of the physical or social world". The ethical scientist will follow the "conventions that have served science well", and not "bypass quality control mechanisms" (a.k.a. peer review) when attempting to publish research, lest the credibility of science (and the staid funding mechanisms) be disrupted. Historical examples serve as empirical validation of the hypotheses, and role-playing-type examples will provoke discussion and lead the reader to the popular conclusions. Pay attention, young scientist, lest you become the role model for future James Bond villains. Mutant, stinging sea-monkeys:
NSA: http://books.nap.edu/html/obas/
http://olive.live.advance.net/news/99/12/st122304.html

Science as Culture

The Science as Culture publication seeks to examine how the propagation of science affects society (and, possibly, how that examination affects society, as well). Papers, lecture transcripts, and book reviews cover the gamut of the sciences and humanities, giving heady consideration to the interplay of forces between the two realms. The most recent issue compares such topics as Mormon polygamy and inherited genetic defects, chaos theory and management, color science and perception, capitalism and Darwinism, evolutionary psychology and creationism, and even a Freudian analysis of two philosophy professors. Consider it to be the accredited version of "contemplation of the navel". Chant with us: "Ohm, Ohm, Ohm, Eee, Eee, Qalzayar, Eee, Eee, Qalzayar�"
http://www.human-nature.com/science-as-culture/contents.html

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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.