Educators, generals, dieticians, psychologists, and parents program. Armies, students, and some societies are programmed. An assault on large problems employs a succession of programs, most of which spring into existence en route. These programs are rife with issues that appear to be particular to the problem at hand. To appreciate programming as an intellectual activity […]
Perhaps the best way to introduce this novel — which on my third reading of it astounds me even more than the first — is to tell of my first encounter with it. While I was teaching at Loyola in 1976 I began to get telephone calls from a lady unknown to me. What she […]
Every day, more bits of data flow across the Internet than there are grains of sand on all the beaches in the world. According to the Cisco Visual Networking Index, the total global IP traffic for 2011 was forecast to be approximately 8.4 * 1018 bits per day. Meanwhile, mathematicians at the University of Hawaii […]
The first time I heard the word “engine†applied to a black hole system was in a talk at the Santa CruzWorkshop on Quasars and Active Galaxies in the summer of 1978. The late Donald Osterbrock, then at UCSC, was explaining how the ionizing ultraviolet continuum from a “central engine†was responsible for producing the […]
Ghosts are everywhere. Every town has its buildings, houses, and cemeteries about which locals whisper and which school children hurry past when walking by. Ghost legends are powerful—they’re one of the few events today that still survive mainly by oral tradition. The tales of ghost encounters get retold, and soon certain locations get a “haunted†[…]
Even though research and development related to the electrospinning process and the electrospun nanofibers has increased in recent years, the availability of the corresponding literature is mainly confined to research journals. As a consequence, information on electrospinning process and electrospun nanofibers is comprehensible only for the highly specialized readers. The situation is further compounded as […]
Over the last 25 years or so, molecular cloning and DNA-based analysis have become part of every molecular life science laboratory. The rapid adoption of DNA-based techniques has been facilitated by the introduction of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) over 20 years ago, which has made cloning and characterization of DNA quick and relatively simple. […]
Andrew Yancy—late of the Miami Police and soon-to-be-late of the Monroe County sheriff’s office—has a human arm in his freezer. There’s a logical (Hiaasenian) explanation for that, but not for how and why it parted from its shadowy owner. Yancy thinks the boating-accident/shark-luncheon explanation is full of holes, and if he can prove murder, the […]
In chemical engineering physical operations such as fluid flow, heat transfer, mass transfer and separation processes play a very large part; these have been discussed in Volumes 1 and 2. In any manufacturing process where there is a chemical change taking place, however, the chemical reactor is at the heart of the plant. In size […]
Viewed from far enough away to see an entire hemisphere, Earth is both beautiful and intriguing—a life-giving planetary oasis. From this perspective we can begin to appreciate “the big picture,†a global view of our planet’s physical geography through its display of environmental diversity. Characteristics of the oceans, the atmosphere, the landmasses, and evidence of […]
I magine your students during a writing lesson. Some are working in pairs, earnestly discussing their topic and using an acrostic-type planning sheet to list strong Vocabulary words for their story. In one corner a student rifles through file folders filled with various graphic organizers, chooses one, and starts mapping out her story. In another […]
The concept of using exercise as a therapeutic tool is by no means a new one. As far back as the early nineteenth century, structured exercise was being used for the treatment of sedentary lifestyles, in the form of group gymnastics. By the turn of the twentieth century, the forward-thinking work of Eustace Miles and […]