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| Red Tide |
| Penguins |
| Crocodiles |
| Quaggas |
| History of Welding from Hephaestus to Apollo |
| Airship and Blimp Resources |
| Cool Site about Cooling Urban Heat Islands |
| De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium |
| Netsurfer Recommendations |
| Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter |
| Babylonian Cuneiform Tablet with Number Theory |
| Exhibition of Knots |
| Rare Archaeological Discovery on the Web |
| Historical Brass and Bronze |
| Mayan Epigraphic Database Project |
| Cyborg 1.0 |
| Trichotillomania |
| Studying the Living Evidence of Evolution |
| American Women in Uniform |
| Online Science Expo |
| BOOK REVIEWS |
| LETTERS TO THE EDITOR |
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EARTH SYSTEMS
No matter where you go, there you are
http://www.marinelab.sarasota.fl.us/~mhenry/WREDTIDE.phtml
Some things don't change over time. About one hundred years ago, humans were the greatest threat to penguins. People killed the birds for their fat to make oil and for their skins for a fashionable penguin trim on a favorite outfit. Sailors also ate their eggs. Now, humans are still the greatest threat to penguins, but it's not because we hunt them for that fashionable penguin trim. Oil pollution, commercial fisheries, and global warming are just three of the big threats to penguins. To find out more, point your browser to NWF International Wildlife Magazine.
http://www.nwf.org/nwf/intlwild/penguin.html
"Charles, bring the light around. I can't make out whether this is a black caiman or a spectacled caiman that's attached itself to my left leg." Many an intrepid adventurer must have risked limb and life to collect the information presented at this site. `Gators, crocs, and gavis can be found in full color here, along with a growing storehouse of articles on their biology, sociality, morphology, and lore. A brief, general FAQ and a longer captive-care FAQ will help these reptilian pets reach the maximum health and size before being released into the sewers. Audio files will prepare the explorer, poacher, or fisherman for that next trip through the swamp. Just don't lean over the edge of the boat or clean the chickens at the riverbank.
http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/natsci/herpetology/brittoncrocs/cbd.html
The quagga was a subspecies of zebra that inhabited parts of South Africa until about the mid-19th century. Black and white striped in front, tan in back, and with white legs, the coloration is the only physical characteristic that actually separates it from other zebras. The first site, hosted by the South African Museum, features a flow-through design with numerous photos; it documents efforts to restore the quagga through selective breeding. The second is a friendly synopsis of the project presented in a news-magazine style article. Cloners are probably working in some secret laboratory at this very moment on their own quagga restoration project. The next thing they'll have to do is bring back Marlin Perkins, too, so he can capture and tag them, once they've been released back onto the African plains.
South African Museum: http://www.museums.org.za/sam/quagga/quagga.htm
Project: http://www.nwf.org/nwf/intlwild/1998/quagga.html
COMPUTING AND ENGINEERING
Open the pod bay doors, Hal
History of Welding from Hephaestus to Apollo
While high tech hogs the glory, consider the 5000-year-old low tech back in the engine room, tending the turbines. Without breakthroughs in the science of metal welding, railroads, and later, highways, would not have been built as predecessors to the information superhighway. Air travel would be more dangerous and more limited. Heavy industry would be heavier and less industrious. "The History of Welding" site highlights advances from Hephaestus, ancient God of metal working, to Apollo (17, circa 1972) and beyond. The site itself, while offering great information, is written by an enthusiastic, seasoned welder who does not pretend to be a writer; at times, this limitation makes the information slightly difficult to understand.http://home.newbernnc.com/~sapp_m/wh_001.htm
Oh, the humanity! Imagine the fun of owning your own working scale model Hindenburg, or cruising across the countryside in your lawn chair suspended from a dozen helium-filled weather balloons. This site covers all the popular aspects of aerial adventures with airships and blimps, form commercial models to electric and gas-powered radio-controlled models, and even "solo balloons". At this home to the Experimental Balloon and Airship Association, visitors will also find a database of manufacturers, numerous photos, design regulations, instruments, materials, an FAQ, and news items. Suggestion: set up your own neighborhood Web-cam with a view from 500' in the air!
http://www.hotairship.com/ebaa/
Cool Site about Cooling Urban Heat Islands
Right now, reading this page, you're contributing to the 6 billion kilowatt electric bill the computer revolution in the US runs up every year. The Energy Analysis Department at University of California at Berkeley points out that widespread use of computer energy saver settings could save 1 billion dollars in electricity each year. Simple. Another simple way to conserve and to cut the rising temperature of "urban heat islands" is to paint your house and roof white, or a reflective color. At the "Buildings and Their Environment" page, read papers reporting on how better design and management of homes and commercial buildings can significantly cut heat, energy consumption, and smog.http://eande.lbl.gov/EAP/1995_Ann_Rpt/contents.html#buildings#buildings
ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away
De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium
Copernicus' seminal work, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, exists now in only about 270 original copies worldwide. Three of them have gone missing in the past year or so; the latest disappearance was discovered just last month, but the book might have been gone for more than a year from the Russian Science Academy's St. Petersburg library where only staff have access to the treatise. It was a report of a copy being offered for sale in the United States that prompted Academy officials to launch a search. Just three months ago, Christie's London house postponed sale of a manuscript that was thought for a time to have been stolen property. However long Copernicus labored over his revolutionary theory, it's still more a work of philosophy than science, an exercise in logic well in advance of science's ability to prove or disprove his these, and an argument predicated on the belief that the elegance of its theory makes it persuasive. Jagiellonian University of Krakow, where Copernicus studied, offers images of the beautiful cask and golden-hued parchment pages of the autograph version. It was from this library that one of the copies went missing in 1998. Patience is the watchword, though. The images are beautiful - even moving in their significance - but they are extremely slow loading.Original images: http://www.bj.uj.edu.pl/bjmanus/revol/titlpg_e.html
Biography: http://www.polishnews.com/fulltext/essay/essay34_1.shtml
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De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium 
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http://ltpwww.gsfc.nasa.gov/tharsis/mola.html
MATHEMATICS, PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY
42
Babylonian Cuneiform Tablet with Number Theory
The content of this page are scanned notes of a lecture presented by E.C. Zeeman at the University of Texas, San Antonio in 1995. The notes load quickly, but they are hard to read. The scan quality of page 4, for example, makes the left half of the image almost unreadable. However, reading the notes made our reviewer wish she'd been there for the lecture. Zeeman discussed a Babylonian tablet that lists some Pythagorean triplets. The lecture explains what Pythagorean triplets are, how the Babylonians recorded numbers, and how we can be sure the tablet is what we think it is. It makes for fascinating reading if you enjoy number theory.http://www.math.utsa.edu/ecz/l_p.html
We'll try to resist the knot jokes. The Exhibition of Knots is a very nice introduction to knots in mathematics, and explains the terminology, rules for knot addition, and the applications of knot theory using helpful and fast-loading diagrams. The content is aimed at a beginner. Some of the discussions introduce equations, but they do not get too complicated. It may help to have some string handy during your visit. Your inner mathematician will probably want to play.
http://www.bangor.ac.uk/ma/CPM/exhibit/images/menu.htm
ARCHEOLOGY AND PALEONTOLOGY
What is past is prologue
Rare Archaeological Discovery on the Web
Many expensive scientific journals only let you read one or two articles online to tease you into subscribing to the print edition, but the bi-monthly British Archaeology Magazine has a more humane approach. Read the whole edition online - only you've got to wait two months after it hits the news stand. By Jove, this is a rare and remarkable find! 50 perfectly preserved editorial specimens dating back to February 1995 CE.http://www.britarch.ac.uk/ba/ba.html
Whether you're dredging up relics from the sea floor, digging around at a Roman burial site, or browsing through the local flea market, you're likely to, at some point, come across some metallic relic with a copper-based alloy, and wonder how to properly clean it up. The grinding wheel, acid bath and steel wool might not be the right thing for the innards of that old pocket watch or even the encrusted bookends. Best to get some advice from the conservation staff at the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village, who have plenty of experience restoring such artifacts. Learn how not to handle and when not to polish such items, and how to preserve the sheen (when appropriate) with lacquer or wax. A little bit of manual labor could turn that hunk of greenish-brown metal into a museum-quality artifact from which you could spin all sorts of tales.
http://www.hfmgv.org/histories/cis/brass.html
Mayan Epigraphic Database Project
You'll probably have to be a Mayan scholar and/or very enthusiastic about glyphs to fully appreciate everything at the Mayan Epigraphic Database Project, but that doesn't mean the curious can't immerse themselves in the site. The frames based catalog is particularly fun.http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/med/home.html
MEDICINE, BIOLOGY AND ZOOLOGY
It's alive! It's alive!
Johns Hopkins/North Carolina: http://www.ece.ncsu.edu/erl/erl_eye.html
Dobelle: http://www.dobelle.com/index.html
The next time that you hear someone say, "I could pull my hair out", you should inform that that they may be in need of professional help. They could be suffering from trichotillomania, the uncontrollable desire to pull out one's own hair. Be it scalp, eyebrows, eyelashes or other body hair, victims of this impulse control disorder find relief of tension or even a sense of gratification from plucking their hair out by the roots. The Trichotillomania Learning Center, founded by a sufferer of the ailment, is a national nonprofit organization devoted to advancing understanding of same. It offers a mailing list, referrals to support groups and treatment centers, and other related resources. Memberships are offered in hopes of raising funds to support research toward finding a cure for the illness. Moe probably suffered from a variant of this malady, wherein he couldn't control his desire to pull someone else's hair, namely Larry's. (Can you tell the reviewer who wrote this was a man?)
http://www.unfilteredonline.com/frames/hair.htm
Studying the Living Evidence of Evolution
Our DNA, the human OS, is 98.4% identical to chimpanzee DNA. Surprised? Nevermore, after visiting this site, where apes are studied to better know ourselves, from the neuroanatomical (strictly noninvasively) to the behavioral to the cognitive points of view. Studying differences between us and our closest relatives, the chimpanzees, helps us answer some central questions about our evolution. All these studies are made without doing any harm to the primates, and sometimes include human volunteers. Want more? You can hear vocalizations of apes if you wish, but if they're too difficult to understand there are always interviews with humans.http://www.emory.edu/LIVING_LINKS/
ANTHROPOLOGY, SOCIOLOGY, ECONOMICS, AND GEOGRAPHY
All that we see or seem
http://userpages.aug.com/captbarb/
RESIDUE
We can't be sure what else is out there
http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Cyberia/Expo/