MAGNIFYING EYE WOULD SEE STRANGE THINGSIf we could only convert our eyes into magnifying glasses at will, we would see a lot of astonishing things that escape us now because they are too small. The little walking gargoyle shown on the cover of Science News Letter, for example.It is a juvenile stage of a very common insect, which we ordinarily pass by as just another “bug.” But here he is, magnified only 16 times by Cornelia Clarke’s camera, and he assumes an appearance more bizarre than the imagination of a Persian artist, more impossible than the figures in a medieval bestiary.PICTURES OF SPI...

For chemistry students, Molecular Universe offers a host of images, explanations, and other resources concerning molecules and chemical systems. Developed by Richard Catlow of the Royal Institution of Great Britain, the site features lessons and material on protein folding, the molecular basis of taste, and many other topics.Go to: http://www.molecularuniverse.com/

LARGER MERCURY VAPOR ELECTRIC GENERATING UNIT BEING BUILTA new and larger turbine electric generator that will use mercury vapor instead of steam and will consume less fuel than corresponding modern steam plants is being constructed in the General Electric Company plant at Schenectady, N.Y.This 20,000-kilowatt turbine will have twice the output of the mercury vapor engine and generator that General Electric engineers claim has already proved its superior efficiency over steam turbines during a year’s test at Hartford, Conn. The new plant will be even more efficient than the Hartford station, i...

For anyone deeply interested in logic and the history and philosophy of zero, Hossein Arsham of the University of Baltimore offers an thought-provoking Web-based discussion of such topics as the meaning of division by zero, the role of zero in limits and divergent series, and the concept of zero as a void.Go to: http://ubmail.ubalt.edu/~harsham/zero/ZERO.HTM

HUGE ELETROMAGNET INSTALLED AT LEIDENA huge electromagnet weighing 14 tons, about two-thirds as much as a street car, just erected at Leiden, Holland, by the Siemens Halske Company of Berlin, will enable scientists to wrench atoms apart as never before. This marks the realization of a dream of the late Dr. H. Kammerlingh Onnes, the first man to liquefy helium, who designed the magnet.The joint action of intense magnetic force with intense cold is likely to yield new secrets about atoms, is the belief of Prof. Onnes’ successor, Prof. W.J. Haas, who completed the work. Dr. Peter Kapitza, of the ...

Is your name Bob? Want to see how many lakes in the United States are named after you? (Twelve in all, and four of them are in Michigan!) The U.S. Geological Survey's Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) contains data about nearly 2 million geographic features in the United States. Just enter a name or any other word to find out where it is "officially" honored.Go to: http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnis/web_query.gnis_web_query_form

TWIN ALBINO ROBINS HATCHED WITH NORMAL BIRDTwo albino robins, highly interesting and rather rare oddities in the bird world, have been watched from hatching to early maturity at the home of H.D. Shaw of Grinnell, Iowa, and had their pictures taken by Miss Cornelia Clarke, nature photographer.“The nest was built high up on the ledge of the porch where it wad sheltered and partly hidden by the vines,” Miss Clarke writes. “There were three eggs in the nest. Two hatched the albinos and the third an ordinary brown robin. The parents were normal in every respect except that the mother robin had two ...