25 June 2004

Wanderings
Number 72

Ralph J. Coppola

r_j_coppola@hotmail.com

SAS Disclaimer

Come join us on the Wanderings Chat Room. --- (See info and instructions)

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =====

Feature

Tim Berners-Lee, the farther of the World Wide Web, received the first Millennium Technology Prize on 22 June: "Berners-Lee first proposed the web in 1989 while developing ways to control computers remotely at CERN, the European nuclear research lab near Geneva. He never got the project formally approved, but his boss suggested he quietly tinker with it anyway."

Wanderings

21 June 2004 ---- Burt Rutan's SpaceShipOne is one step closer to claiming the $10 million X Prize with its 100 km altitude record.

A Surprise meteor shower may be possible on June 26-27.

"Beam me up Scotty" --- not quite --- but scientists report that they have performed successful teleportation.

One of astronomer Paul Hickson's main fields of interest is the construction and application of Liquid Mirror Telescopes. Here is a Real Audio clip of a CBC-TV interview with Dr. Hickson.

The Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research of the University of Arizona, Tucson has a detailed Java applet web presentation on cross dating tree rings by skeleton plotting .

Try your hand at Finding the Speed of Light with Marshmallows.

The humid summer months may not be the ideal time to look at static electricity, but the Electric Blue Sparks! Site will give some interesting reading while waiting for dryer times.

On the other hand, summer is the ideal time for those of you who are lucky enough to live in a part of the country that is favorable to fireflies to study these little wonders. Terry Lynch's Blinks and Links and Firefly Notebooks will give you an introduction to fireflies and related topics. You should also have a look at Donald Ray Burger's Fireflies in Houston Site.

Jim posted this link to the Manson Impact Structure on the Wanderings Chat Room

Comet Wild 2's jets and craters astound astronomers.

Fractals are not just pretty to look at. Patricia Mason has been able to turn fractals into music.

Martindale's Calculators On- Line Center offers a collection of over 18,000 on-line calculators covering almost every topic imaginable.

Paul Falstad has assembled a wide assortment of Math and Physics Java Applets.

The Kids Room

A number of months ago, I reported how 3 Halifax, Nova Scotia students used discarded scallop shells to improve the water quality of a river flowing through their school property. Today, I was pleased to find a link to the complete write up of their project --- McIntosh On The Run --- A New Approach To Water Purification.

JP Aerospace has set up the student PongSat program. These student designed experiments are then flown, free of charge, to the edge of space by either balloon or sounding rocket.

The GLOBE Water Vapor Project consists of the measuring of the total amount of water vapor in the atmosphere in a column between the instrument and the sun.

Have you ever wished that you could fly? This might not be flying, but try The Balducci Levitation and freak out your friends.

Bubbles. Who doesn't like blowing bubbles? Have a look at The Bubblesphere --- or --- Bubbles from the Exploratorium.

The U.S. Department Of Education has a nice site titled Helping Your Child Learn Science.

Bill Beaty's THE SCIENCE CLUB site has a large collection of kids' science projects.

GirlTECH --- Getting Girls Interested in Computers.

Cynthia Lanius has constructed A Fractals Unit for Elementary and Middle School Students.

Why are there 63360 inches per mile? Find out on John Baez's Fun Stuff page.

Why not try a run through Paul Falstad's Java Maze?

Coolmath and Sciencemonster offer a huge collection of student/teacher resources.

From The Far Side

Have a look at John Baez's answer to What's the Energy Density of the Vacuum?

Can Brown's Gas or a Caduceus Coil be used to reduce the radioactivity of a sample? See A. Michrowski's paper "Advanced Transmutation Processes And Their Application For The Decontamination Of Radioactive Nuclear Wastes"

Cold Fusion -- 15 Years and Heating Up --- An extensive collection of Cold Fusion links.

13 June 2004 --- Meteorite crashes through the roof of a house in Auckland, New Zealand.

See Walter Branch's Branch Meteorites for other meteorite strikes.