The First Scientific American: Benjamin Franklin And the Pursuit of Genius

Justin McHenry, Research Director for IndexCreditCards.com

I've always been a Benjamin Franklin fan, but I guess I've always admired the caricature of Franklin: from the rags-to-riches Poor Richard writing witty sayings in his almanacs to the benevolent old founding father who charmed the ladies in France.

Update and Comments about An Experiment to Measure The Absolute Motion of the Earth

Lance Osadchey

I was asked to respond to reader inquiries and to provide more details on the velador setup described in An Experiment to Measure The Absolute Motion of the Earth (The Citizen Scientist, 2 March 2007).

First, I wish to caution everyone to be careful with the components. A responsible adult should be in charge of the construction and use of the velador. In particular, the laser and camera are potentially hazardous.

An Inside Look at Hard Drives

Mike Dziekan
VP Engineering
Connecticut Analytical Corporation

Everyone reading this article is viewing a stored representation located on the SAS server through an Internet connection via the World Wide Web. We know how to store and read files, such as this article, family pictures, favorite songs, and a plethora of other programs and data. But have you ever wondered how all this information is stored?

Hugo Gernsback, a Man Well Ahead of His Time

Part 1. Introduction and Chapter 1

By Hugo Gernsback
Introduced and edited by Larry Steckler
Copyright 2007, Poptronix Inc.

It was not a wonderful day. No, it wasn't raining. It wasn't even the slightest bit cloudy, but it was the day that Gernsback Publications Inc. was closing its doors forever.

This Week at Hilton Pond

Bill Hilton Jr.
Executive Director
Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History
York, South Carolina 29745 USA

A Swarm Of . . . TermiteRoaches? (22-31 April 2007)

Due to travel and illness, we've fallen 'way behind on "This Week at Hilton Pond," but we still wanted to document an interesting phenomenon we observed the last week in April when a swarm of “Termiteroaches” filled the air in York, South Carolina.

Quantum Mechanics Mini-Lesson

Shawn Carlson
Executive Director, Society for Amateur Scientists

Recently the following letter arrived at SAS:

Dr. Shawn,

I’m very confused about the properties of photons. When I used de Broglie’s equation, I found that a photon would have a mass inversely proportional to its wavelength, which I can’t understand because I thought photons were not supposed to have mass.