Joel M. Weisberg, Joseph H.
Taylor, and Lee A. Fowler, in Scientific
American (Oct. 198 I), 415 Madison Ave.,
New York, N.Y. 10017.
An object 15,000 light-years from Earth has provided "the first strong evidence" for Albert Einstein's theory of gravity, a central component of his general theory of relativity. So report Weisberg and Taylor, physicists at Princeton, and Fowler, a physicist at Atmospheric and Environmental Research, Inc. of Cambridge, Mass.
Einstein (1879-1955) held...
measuring the intervals, astronomers can discern the orbits and gauge the two bodies' gravitational effects with great accuracy.
Relativity predicts that gravitational waves thrown off as the two stars whirl in space should reduce the total amount of energy in the system. The authors reasoned that this loss would slow PSR 1913+ 16's orbital speed and gradually shrink both the size of its orbit and the time it takes to circle its companion. Indeed, after six years, the deviation was more than one...
the need to keep everyone's interest up, says Richman, produced modern language's multifaceted structure. With- out it, human speech might have followed another course: the continu- ous gradings of voice and meaning found among most primates.
In the wild, such grading has certain advantages. It allows primates to shift quickly among social functions: from threatening to soliciting to submitting. But the range is limited. Choral music, on the other hand, cultivated an appreciation of "discrete...
1990. Meanwhile, Canada, Denmark, Great Britain, the Netherlands, the Soviet Union, Sweden, and West Germany are supporting similar research. "Few countries are completely windless," writes Flavin, "something that cannot be said for coal, oil, or uranium ."
"Water for the Third World" Asit K. Biswas, in Foreign Affairs (Fall 1981), hElusive God Foreign Affairs Readers Services, 58 East 68th St., New York, N.Y. 10021.
Besides food and energy shortages, many Third World...
Lawrence Mosher, in National Journal
(Oct. 10. 1981). 1730 M St. N.W.. Wash-
How much does clean air cost? A Business Roundtable study estimates that compliance with the Clean Air Act of 1970 alone could cost the nation $400 billion (in 1980 dollars), 1987. For the past several years, industry has been calling for modified air quality standards and for the abolition of needlessly complex rules. On the other side, environmen- talists have urged even stricter regulations to deal with an array of...
as Victim Morris Dickstein, in Sewanee Review (July-Sept. 1981), University of the South, Sewanee, Tenn. 37375.
Writer's block, book reviews, and negotiations with publishers-these matters have long concerned novelists. But, until recently, serious American authors, following the lead of Henry James and T. S. Eliot, kept them separate from their work. Now, however, writers like William Styron, Philip Roth, Bernard Malamud, and John Irving are relying on such details from their own lives for the...
Jack B. Oruch, in SpeculumValentine (JUI~1981), The Medieval Academy, 1430
Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, Mass.
02138.
Every February 14, candy and flower shops prosper as Valentine's Day sweethearts celebrate a love feast usually traced historians to pagan Roman traditions. But the shopkeepers should thank English poet Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?-1400) instead, asserts Omch, a University of Kansas English professor.
Modern academics believe that St. Valentine was a churchman who cured a crippled...
the end of the 14th century.
. A.Mozart, "Social and Philosophical Outlook in Mozart's Ooeras" bv Christooher Ball-
Democrat antine, in Musical Quarterly (Oct. 1981), Circulation Office, 48-02 48th Ave., Woodside. N.Y. 11377
The world's most sinful composer is how Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard once described Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-91). Yet in such comic operas as Don Giovanni and Cost fan Tutte, Mozart never exactly glorified evil, notes Ballantine, who teaches music...
Chris-
topher Lasch, in democracy (Oct. 1981),
43 West 61st St.,New York, N.Y. 10023.
Mass culture, from network television to potboiler novels, has thrown the American Left into a quandary. It seems to reflect popular tastes and therefore to qualify as "democratic" and praiseworthy. Yet even the most populist thinkers regard much of it as aesthetically dreadful, intellectually stultifying, and politically retrograde.
Lasch, a University of Rochester historian, argues that Marxists...
Chris-
topher Lasch, in democracy (Oct. 1981),
43 West 61st St.,New York, N.Y. 10023.
Mass culture, from network television to potboiler novels, has thrown the American Left into a quandary. It seems to reflect popular tastes and therefore to qualify as "democratic" and praiseworthy. Yet even the most populist thinkers regard much of it as aesthetically dreadful, intellectually stultifying, and politically retrograde.
Lasch, a University of Rochester historian, argues that Marxists...