Arthur F. Scott, in Scientific American (Jan. 1984),
Man's First Flight P.0.Box 5969, New York, N.Y. 10017.
On November 21, 1783, the first men ever to fly without tethers to the ground went aloft in a hot-air balloon over Paris. The featwas the work of two paper manufacturers, Joseph-Michel and Jacques-Etienne Mont- golfier, who were encouraged by-and woefully misinformed about -recent breakthroughs in chemistry.
The two revolutionary developments of the day were the overthrow of the phlogiston...
burning straw to inflate their balloon, they were creating a light gas. Actually, all they got was hot air. But it was good enough. Anybody could have launched a hot-air balloon years before. It took a revolution in chemistry to give somebody the courage to try.
"Reinventing the Computer" TomAnother Computer Alexander, in Fortune (Mar. 5, 1984), 541 'Revolution'? North Fairbanks Ct., Chicago, 111.6061 1.
The computer industry seems to go through more revolutions than a long-playing record....
using many "parallel" processors. Each will work independently on one part of a given problem and exchange its findings with other processors.
simple-as it seems, parallel processing poses daunting technical challenges. Scientists must figure out how to break complex problems into manageable bites that can be worked on "in parallel" rather than sequentially, as in today's computers. And they must develop computer programs that will allow the processors to "talk" to...
the federal government years ago," Sun believes. Twenty
countries now permit some use of the process, developed during the
1950s; several international agencies, including the World Health Or-
ganization, have certified the safety of medium-energy irradiation. But
in this country, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has
barred all but a few uses. Food prepared for U.S. astronauts in space
and for people suffering from immune system deficiencies, for example,
is sterilized irradiation....
about seven percent; those who received the utility's version, not at all. A 1979 U.S. Department of Energy mailing to every household in New England achieved sig- nificant results including a plastic showerhead flow restrictor with each pamphlet. Apparently, Stern says, the flow restrictors were like a "foot in the door." Once people used them, they were more receptive to other conservation measures.
Consumers also seem to be willing to conserve as long as they feel that they are not...
another 44 to 67 percent. An alternative is to require industrial smokestack "scrubbers" to remove sulfur oxides in existing plants (fed- eral law already mandates them for big new ones). But a single scrub- ber can cost $200 million. A reduction of eight million tons in annual sulfur oxide emissions would cost $40 billion 1995.
Krohe doubts that scientists or politicians will be able to agree on what to do about acid rain any time soon. In the meantime, low-cost re- ductions of acid...
JosephThe Secret of Alper, in Science 84 (Mar. 1984), P.O. Box Stradivarius 10790,Des Moines, Iowa 50340.
For nearly 200 years, no one has been able to duplicate the sound of the stringed musical instruments made during the Renaissance Antonio Stradivari and by later Italian masters. But the work of a chemist in Texas could change all that, says Alper, a freelance writer.
From the mid-1500s to the late 1700s, a colony of uniquely skilled musical craftsmen flourished in the northern Italian town...
Anna Kisselgoff, in
The New York Times Magazine (Feb. 19,
1984), 229 West 43rd St., New York, N.Y.
Of Modem Dance ,0036.
Martha Graham, at age 90 "the most famous dancer and choreographer in the world," is still going strong. Though Graham herself stopped per- forming in 1969, she continues to choreograph startling new works for the New York dance company that bears her name.
Graham virtually created American modern dance in the late 1920s. Along with Picasso and Joyce, declares Kis...
the dances of American Indians and other primitive peo- ples, Graham stressed constant motion in her performances and avoided the fixed positions and poses of classical ballet. Standardizing her repertoire of movements in a training regimen (the "Graham tech- nique") allowed her to pass on her style to disciples, establishing a per- manent alternative to ballet.
"I don't want to be understandable, I want to be felt," Graham de- clares. Her chief principle is that dancing expresses...
"Report from Afghanistan" Claude
- Malhuret. in Foreien Affairs (Winter 1983/84), Reader .Services',' 58 ~ast 68th St., New York, N.Y. 10021.
Four years after invading Afghanistan, the Soviet Army is still bogged down in an inconclusive war. Yet Malhuret, head of the Paris-based vol- unteer group, Mkdecins sans Frontikres (Doctors without Borders), which operates six hospitals in Afghanistan, writes that the conflict is not, as it has been called, "Moscow's Vietnam."
American...