Notebook
- Math
Fractal World
Created by Michael Frame, Benoit Mandelbrot, and Nial Neger of Yale University, these Web pages serve as a remarkably comprehensive source of information on fractal geometry. The site offers basic definitions, many illustrations, and lots of mathematical details. Topics include natural fractals and dimensions, iterated function systems, the complex Newton’s method, fractals in art and […]
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From the November 18, 1933, issue
“ROSETTA STONE” OF PREHISTORIC AMERICA Frank M. Setzler of the Smithsonian Institution is shown pointing to a little pottery bowl which he likens to the Rosetta Stone of the Nile because it is decorated with two kinds of art design, one known and the other unknown. Together with other discoveries made under Mr. Setzlers direction […]
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Common Cold
This Web site offers a wide range of material concerning the common cold. The available information includes an overview of how the cold virus invades the human body and how cold symptoms are caused. The site also has pages on preventing colds and about some of the complications that can occur. Check out the special […]
- Humans
From the November 11, 1933, issue
RARE BIRD COURTSHIP SHOWN BY NEW MUSEUM GROUP Romantic squires and young knights of the sunset days of feudalism paid court to the lovely ladies of their fancy in elaborately built bowers set in corners of the castle grounds. Even in these livelier days, when troubadours carry saxophones and steel guitars instead of plaintive lutes […]
- Humans
Everyday Mysteries
Why do onions make you cry? What causes the noise when you crack a joint? How does sunscreen work? The Library of Congress offers “everyday mysteries” Web pages devoted to answering such questions. The archive includes responses to questions in a wide range of fields, from anthropology to zoology. Go to: http://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/mysteries/archive.html
- Humans
From the November 4, 1933, issue
WEIGHT LOSS FOUND TO BE CLUE TO PERSONALITY TYPE A new link between the mind and the body has been described to psychologists in a report by Dr. W.R. Miles and his wife, Dr. Catharine C. Miles, of the Institute of Human Relations, Yale University. The minute quantities of weight lost from your body when […]
- Tech
Craft Tech
The Craft Technology Group at the University of Colorado, Boulder, interweaves computation with craft materials both new and old. This Web site offers glimpses of innovative projects involving the use of software to design mechanical toys and paper sculptures, embedding computation and behavior in simple objects such as tacks and hinges, developing affordable three-dimensional printing, […]
- Humans
From the October 28, 1933, issue
WEATHERMEN UNWITTINGLY POSE HALLOWEEN PICTURE Not ancient warlocks making weather but modern scientists just making a record of it, unintentionally posed a good Halloween picture on the top of Mount Washington, with the aid of a cat that doesn’t like the wind. The photograph has nothing of the mellowness of autumn about it–quite naturally, since […]
- Physics
Shedding Light on the Infrared
For students and teachers, this NASA-sponsored Web site offers illuminating insights into infrared light. It explains the fundamentals of infrared astronomy, using animations, images, classroom lessons and activities, games, and more. Take a look at infrared views of familiar objects, from Yellowstone’s “Old Faithful” geyser to a pot-bellied pig. Go to: http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/
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From the October 21, 1933, issue
COULD YOU DO THIS AT 18 MONTHS? Could you climb a smooth slide as the baby on the front cover does when you were a year and a half old? Of course not. But perhaps you could have, had you been given the training that 18-month-old Johnny, pictured in one of his favorite exercises, has […]
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Loss of Smell
To many people, the ability to sense all sorts of odors is a normal occurrence and something that they take for granted. Some people, however, do suffer from a loss or disturbance of a sense of smell–a condition known as anosmia. Created by Helen Gatcum and Tim Jacob of Cambridge University, these Web pages provide […]
- Humans
Einstein’s Notes
Caltech and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have made available in an online archive thousands of handwritten notes scrawled by Albert Einstein. The digitized documents, some accompanied by translations, include a wide variety of items, such as a diary Einstein kept during a year-long stay in the United States in 1930 and 1931 and a […]
