Uncategorized
- Math
Prepping for Calculus
The “Calculus Page” Web site provides links to a variety of resources for calculus students and teachers, from problem sets with step-by-step solutions to tips on preparing for exams. Linked sites offer online tutorials and courses, sample exams, animated examples, mathematical software, and information on calculus competitions and the history of calculus. Go to: http://www.calculus.org/
- Earth
El Niño: It’s back!
An increase in ocean temperatures in the central Pacific heralds the onset of El Niño, whose effects should show up in the United States this fall.
-
Malaria parasite reveals old age
The DNA of a malaria-causing parasite suggests it is at least 100,000 years old.
-
19102
We’ve seen many expositions about the risk and danger of radiofrequency emissions from cell-phone antennae. As a bystander to the whole issue, I don’t understand why the manufacturers don’t design the phones so the antenna comes out by the mouthpiece. First, it would be a more natural location for grabbing and extending, and second, it […]
-
From the February 8, 1930, issue
VOLCANO WATCHERS BRAVE DRAGONS’ BREATH Regularly established and equipped volcano observatories are relatively few, for the business of watching volcanoes, unlike the related business of watching the weather, is a comparatively new science and has yet not developed a large trained personnel. The United States has only one volcano station, in spite of the fact […]
-
Explore Antarctica with Nomad
Follow the daily activities of Nomad, a roving robot searching for meteorites in Antarctica, at the Big Signal interactive Web site, developed by Peter Coppin of the STUDIO for Creative Inquiry in Carnegie Mellon’s College of Fine Arts. Check out daily progress reports, obtain background information, learn about telerobotics, and get a hint of what […]
- Math
Jazzing Up Euclid’s Algorithm
Earlier this year, the journal Computing in Science & Engineering (CISE) published a list of the top 10 algorithms of the century (see http://computer.org/cise/articles/Top_Algorithms.htm). “Computational algorithms are probably as old as civilization,” Francis Sullivan of the Institute for Defense Analyses’ Center for Computing Sciences in Bowie, Md. noted in an editorial in the January/February issue […]
-
Biological clock study challenged
A report disputes the controversial notion that bright light applied to skin can reset a person's biological clock.
- Health & Medicine
Worm genes take on bacterial foes
Creatures as simple as worms have an effective immune defense.
- Archaeology
Ancient birth brick emerges in Egypt
Investigations at a 3,700-year-old Egyptian town have yielded a painted brick that was used in childbirth rituals.
-
19101
Hickling and Lee, whose work was described in this article, might consider a piezoelectric crystal as a point-source speaker. One would need to figure out a proper coupling-to-substrate scheme to separate the acoustic and substrate vibrational pathways. Yves KrausMansfield Center, Conn.
- Chemistry
Questions of Origin
Two new studies renew controversy about the authenticity of a map that may be the first depiction of North America.
