Notebook
- Physics
Interacting with Physics
Drag an electric charge to see how it affects a nearby water molecule. Fool around with a laser to cool an atom. The University of Colorado’s Physics 2000 Web site relies heavily on interactive animations to demonstrate important concepts and discoveries in modern physics. Topics range from X rays and CAT scans to the quantum […]
- Humans
From the April 5, 1930, issue
SPARROW-SIZE KINGFISHER The Celebes Wood Kingfisher (Ceycopsis fallax), shown on the cover of this week’s SCIENCE NEWSLETTER, is a bird scarcely as large as an English Sparrow. Similar kingfishers of tiny dimensions are found in various tropical countries. They are hunters as well as fishers and feed on insects and other life as well as […]
- Paleontology
Trilobites to Go
Extinct even before dinosaurs existed on Earth but extensively preserved in the fossil record, the eight orders of trilobites (more than 15,000 species) live on via this large, informative Web site, created by zoologist and amateur trilobite enthusiast Sam Gon III. The site provides a gallery of images, a glossary of terms, and much more. […]
- Humans
From the September 24, 1932, issue
PREHISTORIC ROCK FORTS FOUND ON BARREN ARCTIC ISLAND Reports of finding inaccessible rock fortresses in the sea, used by people of the Far North many centuries ago, are brought back from Kodiak Island, Alaska, by Dr. Ales Hrdlicka of the U.S. National Museum. Dr. Hrdlickas discovery reveals for the first time that inhabitants of the […]
- Plants
Fungus of the Month
Wisconsin botanist Tom Volk’s smorgasbord of a mycology Web site offers a variety of enticing distractions. You can find morel mushrooms dressed in their holiday best, fungi that ought to be avoided at a Thanksgiving feast, and much more. Be sure to check out the fungus of the month, then browse the archive of fungal […]
- Humans
From the March 29, 1930, issue
WANTED: EARLY PLANET PHOTOGRAPHS With the discovery of the planet beyond Neptune, by Lowell Observatory astronomers, many months of observation will be needed before even an approximate idea can be obtained of the orbit in which it is moving. A planet like this moves in the ecliptic, the plane in which Earth itself revolves around […]
- Tech
Ear to Traffic
Listen to the sounds of Web site activity, as massaged by statistician Mark Hansen of Lucent Technologies and translated into musical tones by audio artist Ben Rubin of the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Intriguing audio samples offer hints of how aural cues might complement visualization techniques in data mining. Requires a Web browser with RealPlayer […]
- Humans
From the March 22, 1930, issue
THE SUN’S NEW TRANS-NEPTUNIAN PLANET The Lowell Observatory has made the discovery of a celestial body whose rate of motion and path among the stars indicate that it is a new member of the sun’s family of planets out beyond Neptune. Twenty-five years ago, Dr. Percival Lowell, director and founder of the Observatory at Flagstaff, […]
- Archaeology
Visit Ancient Corinth
Hosted at the University of Pennsylvania, this elaborate, regularly updated Web site features historical, literary, and archaeological information about the ancient Roman colony of Corinth in Greece. Browser plug-ins allow you to fly through the city, traverse digital maps, and view three-dimensional models of various structures. Go to: http://corinth.sas.upenn.edu
- Humans
From the September 17, 1932, issue
ANOTHER GREAT WALL The Great Wall of China, winding like a mighty, protecting serpent along the old northern boundary of the Celestial Kingdom– Hadrian’s Wall, the Great Wall of Britain, built and fortified to shut the barbarians of the north out of southern Britain in Roman days– And now, added to this small, select list […]
- Health & Medicine
Conquering Surgical Pain
Created by the Neurosurgical Service at the Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), these fascinating Web pages chronicle the introduction of ether as an anesthetic in 1846 at MGH and subsequent developments in anesthesiology. Go to: http://neurosurgery.mgh.harvard.edu/History/ether1.htm
- Humans
From the March 15, 1930, issue
LARGEST BOILER One of the three largest boilers in the world is shown on the front cover. The boilers were recently installed in the East River station of the New York Edison Company to run the largest single-unit electric generator in the world. If this 215,000-horsepower turbo-generator had been developed in 1906, it could have […]
