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| The Second Law of Thermodynamics |
| The Blue Marble - Images of Earth from Space |
| USGS National Geological Map Database |
| Diagnosing the Oceans |
| The Women of ENIAC: An Historical Study |
| Military Imagery Intelligence Satellites |
| Netsurfer Recommendations |
| Eclipse Home Page |
| The World of Numbers and its History |
| Aristotle |
| Math as Relevant |
| The Kurt Godel Society |
| Prime Numbers |
| Fusion Power |
| Stellar Evolution |
| Medical Antiques |
| Reports of the Surgeon General, National Library of Medicine |
| Joseph Lister: The Father of Medical Sterilization |
| Scope and History of Pathology |
| Primate Literature |
| Tadpoles: A Tutorial, a Key, and How to Raise Them |
| Moths of North America |
| Seahorses Endangered |
| The UN Report on World Hunger |
| Berkeley Mortality Database |
| Link Rot in Scientific Websites |
| BOOK REVIEWS |
| LETTERS TO THE EDITOR |
| Contact and Subscription Information |
| Credits |
| Netsurfer Digest |
REVIEWERS' CHOICE
Is there a Mrs. Swamp Thing?
The Second Law of Thermodynamics
Don't groan - we simply won't have that attitude around here. And there's no need for it, because Frank L. Lambert, Professor Emeritus at Occidental College, Los Angeles breaths fresh air into the stuffy confines of the dreaded second law, refreshing the physics with the lively forces of chemistry. This guy is a wonder, giving a brilliant and entertaining tour of the law and what it really means. You'll come out the other side of this with a radically different view point about its significance. As he says, life is hard; but it's harder if you don't know how the material world works. And in the twenty or so pages of these two sites he shows you how it works, in engaging Q and A fashion. He starts with the question of why things go wrong in our lives and turns it on its head by showing us we should really be asking why things don't go wrong more often. Look to activation energy for a key answer to that, and to chemical bonds, keeping the second law at bay. His examples and explanations are down to earth, practical and fun. Lambert, no spring chicken (read his vita at the end), teaches here with verve, imagination and enthusiasm. This is great stuff.The Second Law Part I: http://www.secondlaw.com/
The Second Law Part II: http://www.2ndlaw.com/entropy.html
EARTH SYSTEMS
No matter where you go, there you are
The Blue Marble - Images of Earth from Space
Who would have thought that some of the most beautiful sights on Earth would actually be taken from off Earth? Billed as "true-color global imagery at 1 Km resolution" these pictures are startlingly gorgeous. Using NASA's "Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer" and other sources, scientists "stitched together" months of observations to create comprehensive pictures of our globe with a number of nuances that hilight various aspects of Earth. These images are made available to the public, educators, and museums free of charge. You can see them here.http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/BlueMarble/
USGS National Geological Map Database
Catering for geology professionals and students, the US Geologic Survey offers this huge database of thousands of electronic and paper maps pertaining to geology, earth resources, hazards, paleontology, etc. of the United States. The search criteria of the main catalogue include geological themes, state or territory, scale, title, format, and bounding coordinates. There are also databases of geological names and terms, topographical maps, and new mappings in progress, in addition to links to other geological and environmental agencies. Please note that this is NOT a MapQuest-type viewing service but rather a vast searchable database for the dedicated professional or wannabe. You've been warned.http://ngmdb.usgs.gov/
Oceans, as are many natural environments these days, are ill. One way to view the world's oceans in order to understand them better consists in thinking of them as one big, complex organism. This approach isn't new, having been famously applied to the whole Earth as Gaia, but it is useful in organizing informations about the state of our oceans. For example, one can consider ocean related case studies as sort of special "pathologies", useful for teaching and learning much like the case histories used in medicine. The OceanRx website takes this approach to present case studies as individual Quicktime movies hilighting different sea "diseases". It's a reasonably good educational tool making the ultimate point that the health of our oceans ultimately depends upon all of us.
http://www.oceanrx.org/
COMPUTING AND ENGINEERING
Open the pod bay doors, Hal
The Women of ENIAC: An Historical Study
Hold your hand up if you use a computer. Now put your hand back on your mouse and click on the link below to learn about women who contributed to the success of the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer ENIAC. Although much has been written about the ground breaking room-sized behemoth designed to calculate tactical trajectories during World War II and the men who made her, little has been written about the women who helped make it possible. At a time when few women chose the field of mathematics, six women were selected to design and build the trajectory program for the machine. Yet they were given a lower classification than male counterparts with the same education and experience. Moreover, they were not even, at first, allowed in the room with the ENIAC. Complete with citations and links to other sites featuring womens contributions to computing, this site brings real appreciation for their ordeals.http://www.gecdsb.on.ca/d&g/women/women.htm
Military Imagery Intelligence Satellites
Once top secret - it seems that nowadays one can hardly watch a TV news program or surf the web without viewing their images - US "spy" satellites have been in use since the early 1960's and are a vital (if not the main) tool of the America's intelligence community. Utilizing enhanced photography, radars, and special spectrum imaging, satellites help analysts determine the capabilities and intentions of other nations and for targeting and battle damage assessment in wartime, and the generally excellent, while somewhat dated (based on 1990's sources) Military Analysis Network from the Federation of American Scientists provides a solid overview of US reconnaissance satellite forces, as well as the dozens of systems used for imagery analysis and dissemination - a real boon for acronym fans. The meat of the site are the illustrated pages on individual space recon vehicles, and there are useful links to the National Reconnaissance Office and introductions to imagery intelligence and remote sensing. Check out the Imagery Intelligence Gallery with up to date photos from Afghanistan.http://www.fas.org/spp/military/program/imint/index.html
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The Structure of Evolutionary Theory
It Must Be Beautiful: Great Equations of Modern ScienceASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away
http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/eclipse.html
MATHEMATICS
Beauty in mathematics is seeing the truth without effort
The World of Numbers and its History
What is the "Poincare Conjecture" and why did it take 98 years for someone to solve the problem - with a 5-page proof? This and other issues of perhaps wider interest are presented in a comprehensive format at the Wolfram Research Mathworld website. From the foundations of mathematics through algebra to number theory and calculus, this site is a convenient resource for achieving an understanding of the rich mosaic of mathematical knowledge. While your interest in math is piqued, take a trip to the second website below and learn about the history of mathematics from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. Biographies of mathematicians share these archives with accounts of ancient Babylonian mathematics, ancient Egyptian mathematics, and, of course, mathematics in Scotland.Mathworld: http://mathworld.wolfram.com/
History of Math: http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/
Perhaps the first name that comes to mind when we contemplate the culture of the classical Greeks, Aristotle's contributions to science and philosophy are profound. The History of Mathematics archive from the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Saint Andrews, Scotland presents this long, single-page, extensively hyperlinked biography of the great man, illustrated with maps and images and expounding upon his ideas and techniques. While not primarily a mathematician, his scientific systems and observations have become firmly embedded in the bedrock of Western culture, and though he is most famous for his political and philosophical subjects, his studies on the structure of animals laid the foundations of the biological sciences. If this whets your appetite, his 28 known works are available online at the Internet Classics Archive at MIT.
Aristotle Biography: http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Aristotle.html
Aristotle's Works: http://classics.mit.edu/Browse/browse-Aristotle.html
The ages old argument about whether math, particularly higher math, makes any difference in the world may be getting resolved in math's favor. As the world has gone hi-tech, the formerly pristine area of higher math has become startlingly relevant. For instance, shortly after 9-11, mathematicians convened a two-day workshop on "The Mathematical Sciences' Role in Homeland Security" and, amazingly enough, there was a lot to talk about: from the math of "data mining" and pattern recognition to mathematical methods for distinguishing whether a sudden outbreak of disease was "natural" or terrorist-induced. Then there is the mathematics that makes music compression possible or the mathematical modeling of animal and plant movement critical to genetics. And that is only a taste of the articles on this site. Math teacher Keith Devlin pushes hard on the site for changes in the standard high school math courses, just the ones that turn so many people off to math, so that the curriculum is both more understandable and more relevant.
http://www.maa.org/news/columns.html
Kurt Godel was a mathematician whose biggest contribution was in the field of logic. Thus the "Kurt Godel Society" is an international organization, based in Vienna, Austria, for the promotion of research in logic philosophy and the history of mathematics. Apart from the obvious news about the activities of the society, its home page is worth visiting for another reason - the large number of first rate math and logic related links. The site hosts five major link collections on the themes of computer science, logic, and mathematics: a conference calendar, a list of related online resources, a list of search engines, a directory of researchers, and a list of specific research groups in the field. There are hours of great netsurfing here for the math inclined, and a fine collection for math and computer science educators.
http://www.logic.at/kgs/home.html
Analyzing whether a small number is a prime number is easy; large numbers seeming impossible. This page helps. The site covers everything about prime numbers from determining the probability that a number is prime or changes in the gaps between prime numbers to calculating the probability of finding twin primes. Though you do not need to be Andrew Wiles (who solved Fermat's Last Theorem), this site is not for the math-challenged.
http://www.danesoft.com/primes.htm
PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY
E = mc2
PPPL: http://www.pppl.gov/
Most stars fall on a set diagonal when graphed by brightness (luminosity) and temperature (the so-called Hertzsprung-Russell, HR, diagram), demonstrating that set laws govern how stars burn their nuclear fuel and evolve over time. But not all stars "stay on the line", especially those with high mass. These stars burn through the usual hydrogen nuclear fuel and move on to hotter fuels like helium, all the way up to iron. They become supergiants, no longer fitting on the diagram. This Java applet lets you watch the evolution of a star over millions of years, all done in 10 seconds, and, by changing the mass of the star, watch their dramatic move off the HR diagonal.
http://instruct1.cit.cornell.edu/courses/astro101/java/evolve/evolve.htm
MEDICINE
It's alive! It's alive!
http://www.collectmedicalantiques.com
Reports of the Surgeon General, National Library of Medicine
Originally the director of the Public Health Service, the U.S. Surgeon General has evolved into the federal government's principal spokesperson on public health. The National Library of Medicine has digitized the Surgeon General's reports, which document the changing role of this government official since the first Surgeon General was appointed in 1871. A good place to begin exploring this site is the Exhibit, whose various sections focus on the Surgeon General's impact on the health of the American public. From the seminal 1964 Report on Smoking and Health to the politically delayed 1986 Report on Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome through the recent reports on a National Strategy for Suicide Prevention (2001) and on Youth Violence (2001), this site features all the major work to come out of the Office of the U.S. Surgeon General. Many of the reports from before 2000 require Adobe Acrobat Reader, while reports issued after 2000 are available in HTML format. For some of the reports issued after 2000, the site also contains links to related items such as clinical practice guidelines and consumer health brochures.Reports: http://sgreports.nlm.nih.gov/NN/
Joseph Lister: The Father of Medical Sterilization
No, we aren't talking about a method of birth control, but the means of keeping a wound, an operating room, and surgical instruments clean. In brief, we are talking about one of the biggest revolutions in medical science, one which along with anesthesia allowed the success of modern surgery. Lister was the first to connect bacteria (discovered by Pasteur) and wound infections, and the first to develop a method to keep wounds and operating rooms clean. This paper, first published in 1867 is the seminal work which outlined Lister's then revolutionary ideas to the rest of the medical establishment. Read it to find out how modern antiseptic medicine got started.http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1867lister.html
Scope and History of Pathology
Dr. William Crawford, D.D.S., M.S, teaches a three-part course in pathology, the study of disease, at the University of Southern California School of Dentistry. The Scope and History of Pathology is the first chapter of the online course materials Dr. Crawford has developed; supplementary materials, also available on the Web, include learning guides, images, study questions, and flash cards. This site will interest two categories of people: those wanting to learn about pathology, and those interested in seeing how the Internet can be used for instruction. The first group will find in this chapter (which requires Adobe Acrobat Reader, available as a free download) a definition of pathology and related terms such as "lesion", "etiology", and "pathogenesis" as well as the history and development of pathology from ancient times to the present. The second group will appreciate the presentation and layout of the online course materials, which use sidebars to highlight definitions and to summarize key points.Scope and History of Pathology: http://www.usc.edu/hsc/dental/PTHL312abc/312a/01/chapter.pdf
Three-part course: http://www.usc.edu/hsc/dental/PTHL312abc/index.html
BIOLOGY AND ZOOLOGY
Oh Kong, can't you see this is never going to work?
http://primatelit.library.wisc.edu/
Tadpoles: A Tutorial, a Key, and How to Raise Them
Several major scientific organizations lend their credibility to a tour of the taxonomy and morphology of North American tadpoles. Written in scientific paper format, the first tutorial website does little to dazzle but much to inform with a concise presentation of facts about our wriggling friends, including how to identify species. The second website from Frogland takes a practical and lighthearted approach to how to raise the little critters. From where to find them to what food they eat and how to house them, this is a pre-packaged science project for anyone from scouts to biology students. A treat to frogsurfers everywhere.Tadpole Tutorial: http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/tadpole/default.htm
Frogland: http://allaboutfrogs.org/info/tadpoles/
Most of us don't give moths a second glance. But the folks at the Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center, located near Jamestown, North Dakota, put these less glamorous relatives of butterflies in the spotlight. Operated by the Biological Resources Division of the U.S. Geological Survey, the NPWRC offers all kinds of information on the moths of North America. Visitors to the site can see photos of moths - including the caterpillar stage - common in their area by clicking the site's distribution map. And, for those completely in the dark about moths, there's the Identification of Moths and Butterflies FAQ and Common Questions about Moths and Butterflies. The site also contains a list of references, links to related other sites about moths and butterflies, and pages of photos that budding lepidopterists can browse. After a visit here, moths won't seem quite so insignificant anymore.
http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/distr/lepid/moths/mothsusa.htm
No seahorses are not mythical but all too real: they are an endangered species. The threats come from home aquarium collectors and more important, their use in Asian medicine especially by the Chinese. As China's population increases and economic status improves, this threat grows more ominous. Like an increasing number of ecology organizations, the Sea Horse Project uses a non-confrontational approach. They recognize the importance and legitimacy of Chinese medicine and even the need of aquarium hobbyists, but work for agreements on the nest way to meet these needs, but still preserve the species. The information on the site is fascinating and their concrete demonstration and research projects are impressive.
http://www.seahorse.mcgill.ca/
ANTHROPOLOGY, SOCIOLOGY, ECONOMICS, AND GEOGRAPHY
All that we see or seem
http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/Y1500E/Y1500E00.htm
Concerned with "the enormous increase in human longevity that has occurred during the past 250 years", John R. Wilmoth, associate professor in the Department of Demography of the University of California at Berkeley and a researcher at Berkeley's Center on the Economics and Demography of Aging, began this database in 1997. The database, now funded by a grant from the National Institute on Aging, uses raw data of birth and death counts from vital statistics along with census counts to produce mortality data for national populations. Researchers may freely download and analyze the data, which currently include information from France, Japan, Sweden, and the United States. One word of warning: even though the pages contain no graphics, some of the data lists are huge and may take a while to load.
http://www.demog.berkeley.edu/wilmoth/mortality/
RESIDUE
We can't be sure what else is out there
Link Rot in Scientific Websites
Relying on information in Web sites is great in terms of ease of access and 24/7 availability but how likely is it the site you want will still be there when you need it? That's what John Markwell and David W. Brooks wanted to know after developing three biochemistry courses for high school teachers that rely heavily on Web content. Altogether, the courses have links to 515 unique URLs, so the two professors decided to monitor these links each month. As they report in this brief item, they found that the half life of the links they used is 55 months. Yep, there's an equation. The decay rate is linear and relentless. The forest endures but no tree lasts forever.http://www-class.unl.edu/biochem/url/broken_links.html