a cloud of orbiting elec- trons; when struck sunlight, the mole- cule resonates and one of the electrons is flipped out of orbit "along an electrical cir- cuit to drive the production of storable chemical power." Occasionally, however, there is a malfunction, and the electron es- capes and attaches itself to an oxygen mol- ecule. The result is an "oxygen radical," one of which, the hydroxyl radical (HO), is a kind of terrorist of the natural world. It "almost instantly abstracts...
"Reinventing the Wheels" Marcia D. Lowe, in Technology Review (May-June 1990), Building W59, MIT, Cambridge, Mass. 02 139.
America's first bicycle craze began in 1876. In 1884, a California steps: Bicycle parking
man even set off to cycle around the world; it took nearly three towers dot the cities of Ja-
years. Here, cyclists take a break near Tallahassee, Florida. pan; Swiss buses are
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equipped with bike racks to encourage "bike and ride" tra...
Bette Hileman, in Chemical & En-gineering News (Mar. 5, 1990), 1155 16th St. N.W., Washington,
D.C. 20036.
"Alternative agriculture" has been much in the news since the U.S. National Re- search Council CNRC't nublished a contro-
,A
versial report last fall hailing its promise. and large, says Hileman, a Chemical & Engineering News editor, it is not what its critics or its supporters claim.
Even the term "alternative" is a little misleading, since it conjures up images...
Ewa M. Thompson, in Slavic and East European Journal (Winter 1989), Dept. of Russian and East Eurooean Studies. Univ. of Minn.. Minneano- lis, Minn. 55455.
Who Speaks for Whom?
Do exiled Eastern European writers truly speak for (or to) their countrymen? In an interview with Philip Roth in the New York Review of Books (April 12, 1990), Czech novelist and playwright Ivan Klima suggests that one of the most prominent exiles, Milan Kundera, may not.
The reproach that he is writing for foreigners rat...
Arthur Steinberg and Jonathan Wy-Decline of Nations lie, in Comparative Studies in Society and History (Jan. 1990), 102 Rackham Bldg., Univ. of Mich., Ann Arbor, Mich. 48109-
How many times has the story been re-peated? A society slowly rises to greatness and then, just as it passes its peak, experi- ences a spectacular flowering of the arts.
Venice during the early 16th century was such a place. Exhausted decades of war with the Ottoman Empire, it then con- fronted the League of Cambrai-including F...
painting them in motion. The effect, paradoxically, was to set them apart.
Natural painting was a critical and com- mercial success, say the authors, because it "opened a fresh avenue of mediation be- tween God and men" in a city whose citi- zens feared that God had turned His back on them. One writer of the day said that Titian's pictures "have a touch of divinity in them . . . his colors are infused as though God has put the paradise of our bodies in them, not painted, but made...
"Democracy and Economic Crisis: The Latin American Experi- ence" Karen L. Remmer, in World Politics (April 1990), 17 Ivy Lane, Princeton. N.J. 08544.
Nobody ever seems to say anything about Latin America's new democracies without attaching warning words like "fragile," "fledgling," or "struggling." The assump- tion among academics and journalists ap- pears to be that the newly elected leaders of Brazil, Chile, and other nations will find it much harder t...
Debt and Democracy "Democracy and Economic Crisis: The Latin American Experi- ence" Karen L. Remmer, in World Politics (April 1990), 17 Ivy Lane, Princeton. N.J. 08544.
Nobody ever seems to say anything about Latin America's new democracies without attaching warning words like "fragile," "fledgling," or "struggling." The assump- tion among academics and journalists ap- pears to be that the newly elected leaders of Brazil, Chile, and other nations will f...
PERIODICALS
temporary visitors. Then, writes Begag, a researcher at the University of Lyon and himself an example of the phenomenon he describes, a second generation, largely born in France, appeared on the scene. These young "BeursJ'-the word rebeu (Arab) rendered in a slang called verlan- obviously are not going to return to North Africa. (Youngsters born of Algerian par- ents after 1963 even hold French citizen- ship.) Nor are they well prepared to make a place for themselves in France's h...
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. and "Race-Neutral Programs and the Democratic Coalition" Wil- liam Julius Wilson, in The American Prospect (Spring 1990),
P.O. Box 7645, Princeton, N.J. 08543-7645, and "The Life of the Party" by Rep. Newt Gingrich, in Policy Review (Winter 1990), 214 Mass. Ave. N.E. Washington, D.C. 20002.
Has. the United States become a one-party state? Judging by these essays, written by leading lights on opposites sides of the U.S. political spectrum, you might t...