Netsurfer Science 04.06

When Netsurfer Science was but young, in only our second issue, we directed you to the pages of Albert Richards, a University of Michigan Professor Emeritus, who has spent the past four decades perfecting his elegant art. A dental radiographer - an x-ray specialist - by training, Richards applied his professional skills to his avocation, rendering such fragile subjects as lilies, columbines, and irises even more fragile. The reward is art of the most delicate kind. Who could imagine that flowers, stripped of their color, visible only in shades of gray, could be this beautiful? His radiographs have graced the pages of National Geographic, Smithsonian, and United Nations publications, and even among the memorable images that we usually find there, they would stand out. If you don't remember these starkly beautiful photos, it's only because you haven't seen them yet. Richards, of course, isn't the only artist to turn his x-ray machine on botanical subjects. While Richards' art is characterized by uncluttered images, Steven Meyers' distinctively complex style sets his work apart. He also offers a little more technical insight than Richards does. Speaking of technical information, Kodak has a few words of wisdom for travelers whose luggage may contain unprocessed photographic film. In general, there's been little danger that airport security x-ray examinations will affect the film. However, some airports have introduced new security scanners capable of making more detailed examination of luggage. The x-rays in those new scanners do have the potential to damage your film. See Kodak's comments and advise about how to protect your film.
Richards: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~agrxray/
Meyers: http://www.xray-art.com/
Kodak: http://www.kodak.com/US/en/motion/support/technical/xray4.shtml

EARTH SYSTEMS
No matter where you go, there you are

Biodiversity and Conservation

By Peter Bryant, of the School of Biological Sciences at the University of California, this hypertext book in 16 chapters takes you many places to shape a robust exploration of the topics of biodiversity and conservation. Unlike so many hypertext books that are little more than text with a few hot links, Bryant has exploited the hypertext capability to jump forward, backward, and sideways to understand a concept or idea. Better even, used as a textbook in several college classes, this book is well laid out and attractively formatted. It's a great idea to assemble a text skeleton and flesh it out and clothe it with contributions from all over the Internet. With the human population continuing to increase and underdeveloped nations scrambling towards economic prosperity, biodiversity is threatened as never before (well, other than when those big rocks came screaming in). Some of the food for thought here it is junk food to be sure, although astute readers should be able to fire up their blather and cant filters to sift through anything grossly amiss. You'll encounter the usual heavy dose of unrealistic pious pleadings to stop consuming, stop spending money on the military, stop nuclear power. Yea, right! But you'll also encounter some solid science and clear outlines of why conservation and environmental protection are important and why in the end biodiversity really is worth struggling for. This site is a great notion, well executed, lacking only the critical overview that fuses all the disparate points of view into a cohesive whole.
http://darwin.bio.uci.edu/~sustain/bio65/Titlpage.htm#Table%20of%20contents#Table%20of%20contents

Latin Weather Maps

And lots of other languages too. Here be chartas of all kinds, index caloris, frigus in quo Ros, Frigus Venti, whatever. Maps to be precise, weather maps, just about any kind you could imagine, many of them expandable to twice the size or animated (great for those jet stream thingees). And if the lingua of Marcus Aurelius isn't quite your cup of tea, well there is some English on each map and besides there's a whole stable of other lingos jostling for your attention. Among them are Africaans, Albanian, Japanese, Arabic, Basque, Esperanto, Farsi, Finnish, French, Welsh, Swahili, Tagalog, Greek, Hebrew and on and on, and yes, even English - although not Cornish, we noted with a sniff. Once you've exhausted the weather and linguistic possibilities of your home city, state, or zip code, you can turn to the international scene, with its maps of America Centralis, Confoederatae, Europa, and scads of other places also. Frankly, we're not quite sure how providing weather in Latin does anything for the subject, but then who's asking?
http://latin.wunderground.com/

COMPUTING AND ENGINEERING
Open the pod bay doors, Hal

Climatic Design for Buildings

Basically, it comes down to this: you don't just dig a hole in the ground, put in a foundation and erect a building. Nope, you must first design the building in the context of the local climate, taking into account amount of sunshine, seasonality, humidity, wind speed and direction, and other climatic considerations. This particular site uses Hong Kong examples, presumably because it's Hong Kong based, but it's broad enough to give a good idea of how it works for just about any location. One unfamiliar term leaped out at us while we were examining the site: psychrometrics. Hmm, what's this we asked? Turns out to be the study of moist air and of changes in its conditions. We found the section on passive design in hot climates interesting as well. As the sign says, it's an overview, so don't expect a comprehensive treatise, but it's a convenient way of picking up a little learning about the subject, which will help you look at cities and buildings in a more informed way from now on.
http://arch.hku.hk/~cmhui/teach/65156-7.htm

The Early History of Data Networks

It is hard to imagine what daily life was like two centuries ago, without radios, movies, telephones, or electricity, not to mention the Internet, cell phones, optical networks, faxes, and so forth. Early on, without these technological benefits, humans found ways of moving messages, using runners, horses, and other ingenious methods for both short and long range communication. Sometimes the arrangements were elaborate. Long before trains, cars, and planes, mail moved quite readily between neighboring countries and within nations. Then we come to Abraham Niclas Edelcrantz and Claude Chappe. OK, they're not exactly household names alongside folks such as Marconi, Edison, Bell, and Maxwell, yet they really are just as important. Find out why in this frankly fascinating review that skips across the centuries with happy abandon, landing here and there to look around and marvel at what's going on, how people managed to get the word out, and coordinate what they were up to.
http://www.it.kth.se/docs/early_net/

Guide to Complex Systems

This Web site put up by the New England Complex Systems Institute demystifies the study of complex systems and shows its importance by relating it to concrete things we can all understand, such as basketball games and medical emergency room design. Social systems, the human brain, weather, the environment, and the economy are all examples of complex systems, characterized by a tendency for changes in one area to produce effects elsewhere, often unanticipated because of links and interdependencies that are unrecognized. The study of complexity transects all scientific disciplines as well as other fields such as management, engineering and medicine. Three approaches to the study of complex systems are described: how interactions generate patterns of behavior, understanding how to describe such systems, and the process of forming complex systems through pattern formation evolution. The concept map is an important idea as well. Interesting and not overwhelming.
http://necsi.org/guide/

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.

The Ansel Adams Guide: Book 1: Basic Techniques of Photography
Ansel Adams and John P. Shaefer
Little Brown & Company; ISBN: 0821225758

Few of us have access to x-ray machines, at least for producing botanical photographs. All's not lost, though. Black and white is, of course, the classic choice for field photography. In hundreds of familiar images, Ansel Adams, unquestionably, set the modern standard for nature photography of any hue. As well as being a passionate practitioner, Adams was a passionate teacher. As a teacher, he wrote classic texts on his art, several of which have been augmented and updated. Those books include this guide and its follow up volume, and the focused texts on the camera, the negative, and the print. So what if we know we'll never equal the master, even with his help? The love that Adams lavishes on every shadow and highlight can't help but make you a better photographer than you'd ever have thought possible.

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

Space Flight Now

Launches, technology, astronomy and news about sums it up. This site calls itself the leading source for online space news and it certainly has lots of launch info, with a month by month schedule and details of payload, launch vehicle, launch window and launch site. It also includes a roster of launchers with pictures and data. As well, it includes some interesting and different feature articles and videos of such things as onboard views from booster rockets as well as a special look back to the first 100 shuttle launches. Its a comprehensive, no-nonsense, and informative resource about space exploration with easy navigation and a clean, straightforward layout, nicely illustrated with images of a practical size.
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/index.html

Japanese Starlore and Astronomy

What is starlore and why would the Japanese include it in a site dedicated to astronomy? Well, Akemashite Omedetou Gozaimasu! No, that's not the explanation, it's a reference to The Sun, the Moon and Happy New Year in Japan. Like all cultures, Japan developed its own classic varieties of regard for the spectacular vistas of the heavens. Astronomy is a modern scientific approach to understanding the heavens which, in the modern culture of the world, is hailed as the correct approach. However, there were many correct approaches over the millennia, at least as appraised by the dominant culture of the time. What we find at this site is an appreciation for several perspectives.
http://www2.gol.com/users/stever/jastro.html

MATHEMATICS, PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY
42

Prime Curios

Almost 20 years ago, our reviewer wrote a BASIC program for the Commodore 64 that generated prime numbers, so it's hardly surprising that this site caught his attention. We suspect these people have never met a number they don't like, but they definitely reserve their special favor for primes. You'll need at least some mathematical or numerical skill to get the most fun from this place, although its not strictly necessary, we suspect. Turn to a number, almost any number, for a whole pile of, um well, stuff, information, mathematical facts, and other observations involving that particular number. A curiosity about the prime number 5, for example, is that it is simultaneously the first prime that is the sum of two previous primes (2+3) and the first prime that is the sum of two previous nonprimes (1+4). You never truly know what you're going to run into here, which is part of its charm and allure. Of course, primes are numero uno here but lots of other numbers receive the fascinating treatment. After 100, however, the going gets a little thinner, not surprisingly or unreasonably, but the place goes all the way up to the largest prime number known - so far. They're on the watch for interesting numbers too, so if you have a candidate let them know. Oh, and the site has a special challenge: can you find the first missing curio? Heh, heh, heh.
http://www.utm.edu/research/primes/curios/index.html

ARCHEOLOGY AND PALEONTOLOGY
What is past is prologue

Digital Stones

"Stone technology can be defined as the manipulation of specific materials with particular physical properties by application of a specific strategy." Yes, there is more than one way to make a stone tool. Although early stone toolmakers probably didn't give it much thought, they were employing technologies that can be analyzed today to include flake selection and use, fracture mechanics, propagation, and termination, among others. Funded by the Idaho State University Research Committee, this site includes technological analyses, functional analyses, and digital imagery. All this would, of course, be news to the early toolmaker who probably taught his craft to his children by saying, "Just chip stuff away until it looks sharp".
http://imnh.isu.edu/DigitalStones/

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

Six Billion and Counting

This is an engaging, thought provoking, and interactive online version of a museum exhibit. Currently the world's population is doubling every 40 years, although this is expected to slow (we hope!). There's a counter here moving, always moving, relentlessly telling the toll. By selecting your sex, age, and location the site provides data germane to your own situation. Unless you're a lot younger than this reviewer, it's interesting but also terrifying to plug your age in and find out how many - or should we say how few - people there were the year you were born. Yikes! It's also pretty scary to see the percentage of people who are younger than you. Overall the place is clever, disarmingly entertaining, and dangerously informative. With the ongoing explosion in population the world is heading towards a human global load of staggering size, for which we seem ill prepared. Some potent questions expose any dismissal of the need for conservation as so much long-term stupidity and ignorance. A clever, entertaining place, very nicely done.
http://www.popexpo.net/english.html

NBII FrogWeb: Amphibian Declines and Deformities

Amphibians are known for their occasional deformities. It's become all too frequent to see a frog with an extra leg or a co-joined pair of frogs. The continental United States is home to at least 230 amphibian species. The National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII) tracks incidents of malformed frogs, salamanders, and so forth as a means of indicating changing biological climates and possible contamination of the environment. NBII has powerful partners too, in the form of state, federal, and international agencies. The second website we're pointing you to here is one of the partners, the Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center, a division of the US Geological Survey. This vast information sharing network can serve as an early warning instrument to forecast issues of biodiversity, pollinator declines, and the incursion of exotic species into natural habitats.
NBII: http://www.frogweb.gov/index.html
Northern Prairie: http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/narcam/

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

Maps of Native American Nations

Relying on geographical information systems, this site graphs complex cultural and political data into maps, creating at-a-glance, smart, and surprisingly informative images. This site uses GIS to portray such complex information as what dwelling construction techniques were used by Native American nations and in which sections of the country. For the student of First Nations cultures, the information here can be a decent point of departure in conducting a serious study. For those of us who have Native American blood in our veins, it can be a glimpse backward to the days of our forebears.
http://www.kstrom.net/isk/maps/mapmenu.html

Journal of Memetics

What is memetics? It's OK to ask, honestly it is. Around here no subject of curiosity is taboo, you know that. So, we boldly took the plunge and confess we found it is a slippery concept. Dawkins coined the term in 1976 to name nongenetic means of inheritance in the evolution of nonbiological systems, such as economies, human culture - secular or theistic, and patterns of thought. In fact, evolution is so potent a concept that it enriches all fields of science and many different disciplines, so memes are invoked in explaining change in all manner of fields. Intrigued? Want to learn more? Then have we got the site for you! Yes, folks it's the one and only Journal of Memetics, evolutionary models of information transmission. It's a serious, refereed journal that was started in 1997, is online only and complete and free. The articles are long, involved and fascinating. If the concept intrigues you and you haven't stumbled across this little gold mine yet you are in for many hours of enriching, thought provoking reading. The site also provides links to a bibliography, other memetics sites, a lexicon and other goodies. It's a self styled place for quality academic debate, not polished final answers.
http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit/

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

Economic Cost Models of Scientific Scholarly Journals

Originally presented at a 1998 workshop, in Oxford, UK, this paper models and summarizes the costs and activities in publishing a scientific journal using a sample of scientific scholarly journals and cost elements reported in the literature. Based on a sample of several journals, the paper estimates an annual cost per journal article/page and extrapolates the estimated cost per subscription necessary to at least break even. It did an admirable job of breaking down component costs of scientific publishing, but the quantitatively inclined will notice that the model assumes a linear relationship between input costs and the cost of publishing. Hence, economies - or diseconomies, for that matter - of scale don't figure into the model. The statistical significance (or, in lay terms, the merit of including the actual variables used in modeling the overall cost) is not tested anywhere, so it is taken for granted. The paper is notable for its careful organization, thorough description of input cost categories, and literature review. Our reviewer, an economist and statistician of no mean skill - cautions that the derived results are not gospel but, rather, subject to statistical analysis and alternative modeling to properly determine the relationship between independent and dependent variable(s).
http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/icsu/kingppr.htm

PSEUDOSCIENCE, BAD SCIENCE, AND WORSE
I rarely use it myself, Sir. It promotes rust.

The Power of Yogic Flying

Demonstrating just a small fraction of the wonderful power of yogic flying, the Natural Law Party of Canada recently announced that Canada's armed forces have no need to team with the US to study how to wage war in space. Nope, Canada can be invincible, with no need to toady to those swaggering Yanks any more. Well, so long as they follow the natural laws working harmoniously without a problem throughout the universe. And that's not all. A crime-free society, pollution-free economy, harmonious self-fulfillment: all are within our reach through the influence of coherence and mysterious natural law forces expressed through yogic flying. We're very excited about that as it is evidently just about the closest thing to a cure-all we've ever encountered, next to those green guys in the shiny round flying thing (maybe it was yogic powered) we came across, fresh from their latest crop circle mission. We thought you should know.
http://www.natural-law.ca/media_releases/spacewars.html

Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization

Described as a "real but unacknowledged specie that is still occasionally observed," Bigfoot gets the star treatment, including the etymology of the name. The Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization is a "unique all-volunteer scientific and investigative organization focused on the bigfoot/sasquatch mystery". Rational we may be, but it doesn't prevent us from wishing that these bad boys really were out there wandering around, eluding us all. Check this site out if you are wondering how these huge creatures can remain undocumented after all this time.
http://www.bfro.net/

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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 Jonathan Baum Davide di Lazzaro Craig Kott Michael Luke Bruce Rappaport Elizabeth Rollins Roy J. Winkler
NETSURFER SCIENCE © 2001 Netsurfer Communications, Inc. All rights reserved. NETSURFER SCIENCE is a trademark of Netsurfer Communications, Inc.