Notebook
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Leonardo’s Bridge
In 1502, Leonardo da Vinci made a simple drawing of a great, 240-meter bridge that was to span an inlet at the mouth of the Bosporus River in what is now Turkey. The bridge was never built, but Leonardo’s design has been reproduced in a wooden bridge for pedestrians over a highway in Norway. Artist […]
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Dazzling Shooting Stars
The impending encounter between Earth and a cloud of particles ejected from comet Tempel-Tuttle is likely to produce a dazzling meteor shower, visible over North America in the early morning hours of Nov. 18. Bill Cooke of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center provides forecasts and viewing conditions for this year’s Leonid storm. Go to: http://see.msfc.nasa.gov/see/Leonid_Forecast_2001.html […]
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From the November 7, 1931, issue
HUDSON RIVER BRIDGE RIVALED FOR FAME BY NEW ARCHES While the completion of the great George Washington suspension bridge, which has hurled itself in one bold leap across 3,500 feet of the Hudson River from Manhattan to the New Jersey shore, is being celebrated, two other bridges, likewise the largest in the world of their […]
- Earth
Photo Treasures
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration offers an amazing library of more than 16,000 spectacular images, organized into a variety of topical sets. You can browse image collections devoted to coastlines, fisheries, ships, polar regions, severe storms, undersea research, nature reserves, flight, geodesy, coral reefs, and many other subjects. Go to: http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/ .
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From the October 31, 1931, issue
CATS WERE WILD IN ANCIENT SOUTHWEST In ancient America, it was bad luck to meet a cat on a dark night. All the cats that the Indians knew were wildcats. Dogs were tamed and learned to follow Indian hunters and Indian children around, but cats walked by themselves, very wild and alone. The Indian pottery […]
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From the October 24, 1931, issue
GLACIERS CAUSED GEOLOGICAL MOVING DAYS Evolution, not revolution is a nice-sounding catchword used on all sorts of occasions by all sorts of people, especially by conservative politicians posing as liberals. But a broad view of the evolutionary stage, recorded by a leading scientist who has just left it, indicates that evolution has often proceeded by […]
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Anthrax and Other Bioterrors
There are reasons that terrorists have been sending anthrax–and threatening anthrax exposure–to people around the United States: Its scary (and deadly). Understanding that, the Medical Library Association has put together a Web page to help physicians, parents, teachers, and others learn more about anthrax, smallpox, botulinum toxin, plague, and other bioterrors–and the extent to which […]
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From the October 17, 1931, issue
MATERNAL CARES MULTIPLY WITH COMING OF COLD Winter has breathed a hint of its coming already, in puffs of frosty air that make us forget the heat of summer that is gone, even of the unseasonable hot spell of early September. But the coming of the cold bodes only ill for the cold-blooded creatures of […]
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Celebrating Mole Day
Ready to party? If you’re familiar with Avogadro’s number, 6.02 x 1023, you can join the celebration of Mole Day on Oct. 23 from 6:02 a.m. to 6:02 p.m. Check out the Web site of the National Mole Day Foundation for a history of this event and other tidbits from the not-so-furry realm of chemistry, […]
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Red, White, and Algal
Once you’ve seen the White House and the Washington Monument, either in person or virtually, spare a minute for another national treasure: the United States Algal Collection. The Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History offers a bite-size introduction to the collection’s tens of thousands of specimens. The Web site describes each of the major […]
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From the October 10, 1931, issue
X-RAYS FIND NEW BEAUTIES FOR STUDENTS OF FLOWERS Searching the secrets of a flowers heart acquires new esthetic significance at least, and may become of importance in plant physiology and anatomy, too, through an X-ray technique developed by Mrs. Hazel Engelbrecht of Des Moines. It is not the first time that X rays have been […]
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From the October 3, 1931 issue
A SEA-GOING LIZARD FROM GALAPAGOS When Darwin, as a young naturalist just out of school, visited the Galpagos islands, he saw a number of things that helped to crystallize and precipitate in his mind the concept, already seeded there, that later revolutionized all biology and much of philosophy. Not the least provocative of speculation was […]
