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Shame on you. This article on the importance of fractals in earth sciences never mentioned the “father” of fractals, the Polish-French scientist Benoit Mandelbrot, nor Christopher Scholz, the solid-earth scientist of Columbia University who first recognized the importance of Mandelbrot’s mathematical genius. Eugene C. BoveeLawrence, Kan.
- Earth
It’s a Rough World
Scientists are using fractals, mathematical forms that can describe objects with fractional dimensions, to model phenomena such as wildfire propagation and the spread of toxic fluids through rocks and soil.
- Health & Medicine
Germs That Do a Body Good
Research on probiotic bacteria—living microbes that confer health benefits when introduced into the body—offers growing medical promise.
- Math
Sampling for Superclarity
An audio compact disc (CD) holds up to 74 minutes, 33 seconds of music, just enough for a complete recording of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony on one disc. Each second of music is stored as a string of about 1.5 million bits, represented as tiny, narrow pits on the disc’s surface. These pits range […]
- Astronomy
Seeing green: Color of the cosmos
We live in a pale-green universe, according to astronomers who analyzed the colors of some 200,000 galaxies as part of the largest galaxy survey completed to date.
- Astronomy
Are pictures of extrasolar planets in the offing?
The first image of a planet orbiting a star other than the sun may be only a year away.
- Materials Science
Metallic materials made to order
A new process for creating specifically patterned, three-dimensional microstructures could lead to new catalysts or optoelectronic devices.
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Nerve cells ring in the Winter Olympics
Scientists in Utah have sculpted living nerve cells into a microscopic version of the interlocking rings that symbolize the Olympic games.
- Health & Medicine
A new way to lower cholesterol
New agents lower cholesterol in a slightly different way than do statins, the most widely used cholesterol-lowering drugs.
- Earth
Algae do battle with bioweaponry
Beneath the frozen surface of Sweden's lakes, algae wage wars over nutrients, and one combatant apparently prevails by releasing chemicals toxic to its adversaries.
- Health & Medicine
The Persistent Problem of Cystic Fibrosis
Ten years after the discovery of the gene that, when mutated, causes cystic fibrosis, researchers are still struggling to understand why deadly lung infections are so common among people with the disease.
- Computing
Calculating Cartoons
Thanks to sophisticated computer simulations of the laws of physics, spectacular special effects—plus a zoo of strange but real-looking creatures—increasingly enliven movie screens and computer-game consoles.
