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...