Notebook
- Astronomy
Eye on the Universe
For more than a decade, the Hubble Space Telescope has provided astronomers with astonishing views of the universe. This week, the Exploratorium in San Francisco hosts a series of Webcasts from the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore to present a behind-the-scenes peek at how the space telescope is managed. Also check out several collections […]
-
Caving in Comfort
Explore the wonders of solution caves, lava tubes, sea caves, and other underground realms at this beautifully illustrated Web site, developed by caver and photographer Dave Bunnell. The site features photographs of caves throughout the world and maps of idealized “virtual” caves, which explain and illustrate examples of nature’s handiwork. Go to: http://www.goodearthgraphics.com/virtcave.html
-
From the April 11, 1931, issue
THE PRECIOUS JEWELS IN HIS HEAD ARE TWAIN Did you ever stop to take a really good look at a toads eyes? Just as many a plain-faced person is redeemed from ugliness by having fine eyes, so also does the toad find salvation from his ungraceful form, his abysmal mouth, his warty skin. His eyes […]
-
Quantum Art
Quantum physicist Eric J. Heller of Harvard University writes computer algorithms to convert scientific data into brilliantly colorful images. A selection of the resulting graphic images is now featured in an art exhibition titled Approaching Chaos. These Web links to Harvard Magazine and to Heller’s own Web page highlight several of these intriguing artworks. Go […]
-
From the April 4, 1931 issue
PASCHAL FLOWERS BLOOM ON PRAIRIES OF THE WEST Easter-Tide is remembered in America by two names, one of a place, the other of a flower. When the youth-seeking Ponce de Leon sighted the coast of the New World it was on Easter morning, and accordingly he named the place he had found Pascua Florida, or […]
-
From the March 28, 1931 issue
PRINCE LION-CUB SPEAKS A WORD FOR HIMSELF Milk-teeth are all he has as yet, and most of his active hours are spent in kittenish play; but let something happen to displease him, and for a moment the lion cub gives a hint of the royal terror that will clothe him when he reaches maturity. The […]
- Computing
Automatic Professor Machine
Check out an amazing, new information-dispensing device at the Web site of technology critic Langdon Winner of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Winner’s Automatic Professor Machine delivers online doctoral degrees without the student ever having to set foot on a college campus. A spoof of the distance-learning craze, the site features a news report, radio interview […]
-
From the March 21, 1931 issue
MUSHROOMS SUDDEN GROWTH FOLLOWS LONG PREPARATION Quick as a mushrooms growth, is the phrase we like to apply to sudden and unexpected developments. An oil town, a stock-market fortune, the reputation of the writer of a hit, are all referred to the mushroom standard of comparison. Yet the mushroom is no creature of magic, not-here […]
- Computing
Making the Macintosh
Interested in computer history? Alex S. Pang of the Stanford University Library has assembled fascinating material from a variety of sources, including papers donated to the university from Apple’s corporate library, to portray the invention and emergence of the Macintosh personal computer. The evolving Web site includes sections on counterculture and computing, the early Macintosh, […]
-
From the March 14, 1931, issue
NEW WELDED PIPE LINE CARRIES WATER TO SAN DIEGO On the front cover of this weeks SCIENCE NEWS LETTER, the cameraman has caught two electric arc welders tying in an important section of a 19-mile-long steel serpent, 40 inches in diameter in some places and 36 inches in others, that will carry water from reservoirs […]
-
Urchins of the Seas
If you haven’t really been paying attention for the last 450 million years or so of Earth’s history, London’s Natural History Museum offers a tidy way to catch up with a diverse, venerable group of marine invertebrates known as echinoids. Spectacular color images highlight important distinguishing characteristics of each type of sea urchin. Find out […]
-
From the March 7, 1931, issue
CANYON DE CHELLY NOW NATIONAL MONUMENT A famous canyon of the West, with ancient Indian ruins under the shelter of its thousand-foot red walls, has been given the status of a National Monument, by an act of Congress recently signed by the President. This is the Canyon de Chelly in Arizona, with its tributaries, Canyon […]
