his new image.
Thoreau's contemporaries surely would have been. They knew Tho- reau as a troubled, terminally dyspeptic soul, a lifelong bachelor and curmudgeon. Robert Louis Stevenson dismissed him as a near-hermit devoid of sympathy for others; James Russell Lowell wrote that he was selfish andconceited.
Thoreau's rehabilitation in America began with the publication in 1931 of Henry Seidel Canby's Classic Americans, which hailed the Wal- den recluse as "an individualist citizen of the universe."...
IODICALS
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
matical equations that produced orderly strings of numbers that gradu- ally gave way to disorderly ones. He noticed that certain patterns began to emerge in the breakdown. Describing them in mathematical terms consistently produced certain numbers-now known as "Feigenbaum numbers." The physicist even discovered a new universal constant (like pi): 4.669201609 . .. ,which expresses how rapidly all systems undergo something called "period doubling" o...
the technology and afraid of being left behind, Noble says, too many Americans fail to recognize a pernicious fad for what it is.
Futuristic 'High-Tech Ceramics" Howard J. San-
ders, Chemical and Engineering News Ceramics (July 9, 1984), American Chemical Soci-
ety, 1155 16th St. N.W., Washington, D.C.
20036.
Ceramics is a pleasant hobby, a nice way to make personalized gifts such as ashtrays, coffee cups, and vases. Ceramics is also a rapidly ex- panding $4-billion high-technology industry,...
Richard J. Wurt-man, in Technology Review (July 1984),
P.O. Box 978, Farmingdale, N.Y. 11737.
The human body's production of the chemical messengers that govern its internal affairs is largely unaffected what nutrients are avail- able. However, recent evidence suggests that some foods do trigger the release of such messages, according to Wurtman, a medical re-searcher at MIT.
Along with other researchers, he has conducted experiments with serotonin, a "neurotransmitter" that carries...
research doctors in humans. Sero-
tonin, Wurtman says, "provides the brain with telltale information on
the body's nutritional state. This information then helps the brain de-
cide what and when to eat next, and whether to be sleepy or responsive
to the environment."
About half of all obese people are "carbohydrate cravers," and Wurt-
man believes that most of them suffer from a short circuit somewhere
in their serotonin-producing systems. Indeed, the drug d-fenfluramine,
which...
ship captains and Peruvian fishermen for centuries, reports Glantz, a National Center for Atmospheric Re- search scientist.
After El Nifio recurred during 1972-73, scientists began putting to- gether a picture of its worldwide effects. Some were obvious. Global food production dropped in 1972 for the first time since the late 1940s. El Nifio's abnormally warm waters altered wind and barometric pres- sure patterns on a massive scale, producing droughts in Africa, Austra- lia, Central America, and...
Charlie "Bird" Parker in the 1940s gave way to the more digestible "cool" sound in the 1950s; John Coltrane's avant-garde saxophone work of the 1960s was followed popular jazz-rock fusion. If the cycle stays true to form, a new crea- tive outburst is now due.
Giddins sees "an astonishing array of talent" in jazz today. But, so far, no leader with the stature of an Armstrong or Coltrane has emerged to lead a breakthrough. Even so, many of today's jazzmen are virtuosos,...
IODICALS
ARTS & LETTERS
microcosms" of the United States, Levine says. The gentry occupied the boxes, in the "pit" were middle-class patrons, and the gallery was the preserve of the common people. Shakespeare's plays served as the centerpiece of programs that included minstrel shows, acro- bats, and other entertainments; and the shows traveled far and wide. Makeshift stages in Western outposts such as Red Dog, Rattle- snake, and Hangtown drew some of the best Shakespearean a...
Merry I. White, in The Public In-terest (Summer 1984), 20th & Northamp-
Public Schools ton Sts., Easton, Pa. 18042.
In education, as in business, Americans are studying the "Japanese edge." If there is a "secret" to Japan's educational success, writes White, a Harvard sociologist, it is that the Japanese believe even more than Americans do in the importance of schooling.
The Japanese spare no effort to achieve educational excellence. Their school year is 60 days longer...
Edward Democracy Schumacher, in Foreign Affairs (Summer 1984), P.O. Box 2615, Boulder, Colo.
In Argentina 8032 1.
In October 1983, Argentinians surprised themselves when they made mod- erate Raul Alfonsin their president. That historic election marked the end of a seven-year military dictatorship and, possibly, the long domination of Argentinian politics Juan Peron and his followers.
Can Argentina finally shed its 50-year-old reputation as "the bad boy of the Western Hemisphere"? ask...