Yirmiahu Yovel, in Cot*~n~ettfurv
(Nov. 1977), 165 E. 56th St., New ~oik,'N.Y. 10022.
In 1656, Amsterdam's Jewish Council of Elders excommunicated a 24-year-old member of their community. His offense: He had proclaimed his view that the Bible was full of contradictions; that the laws of the Torah were arbitrary; that nature and God were one; and that knowl- edge of nature was therefore knowledge of God. [Jndaunted, the youth, Benedict Spinoza (1637-77)) went on to formulate one of the most im-...
many Jews of later generations. "Perhaps we can see in him," writes Yovel, "the first 'secular Jew' at a time when this category did not exist." There is no longer one norm of Jewish existence, he adds, no single con~pulsory model: Judaism today is determined the way Jews live it.
"Religion and the American Future" by Peter L. Berger, in New Oxford Review (Nov. 19771, 6013 Lawton Ave., Oakland, Calif. 94618.
The current "orgiastic self-denigration" of American...
many Jews of later generations. "Perhaps we can see in him," writes Yovel, "the first 'secular Jew' at a time when this category did not exist." There is no longer one norm of Jewish existence, he adds, no single con~pulsory model: Judaism today is determined the way Jews live it.
"Religion and the American Future" by Peter L. Berger, in New Oxford Review (Nov. 19771, 6013 Lawton Ave., Oakland, Calif. 94618.
The current "orgiastic self-denigration" of American...
Mar-
The Cha~zging tin M. Kaplan and Robert G. Webster, in
Face of Flu Scientific American (Dec. 1977), 415
Madison Ave., New York, N.Y. 10017.
Influenza was reported Hippocrates in Greece as early as 412 B.C. In 1918-19, it reached pandemic proportions in Europe, Asia, and America, killing 20 to 40 million people. Until recently, however, little was known about the disease.
The influenza virus was isolated in pigs during the 1920s, in humans a decade later. Subsequently, the influenza A virus,...
an influenza virion (right), the body forms antibodies to prevent the hemagglutinin spike from combining with red blood cells. But rearrangement of ihe RNA, or genetic infonna- tion (red), can change the composition of the hemagglutinin, rendering antibodies ineffective and permitting reinfection.
tion. Since the influenza virus is continually changing, the human body's resistance to one strain may not be effective in resisting a de- viant strain appearing months later.
The authors' conclusions:...
furthering scholasticism (concerned with applying Aristotle's philosophy to the tenets of Christianity) rather than original inquiry.
"Emotional Causes of Sudden Death" Joel E. Din~sdale.in The American Journal of Psychiatry (Dec. 1977), 1700 18th St., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20009.
A 71-year-old woman arrived by ambulance at a hospital emergency room with her stricken 61-year-old sister, who was pronounced dead on arrival. The elder woman collapsed at the news, developed a heart attack,...
furthering scholasticism (concerned with applying Aristotle's philosophy to the tenets of Christianity) rather than original inquiry.
"Emotional Causes of Sudden Death" Joel E. Din~sdale.in The American Journal of Psychiatry (Dec. 1977), 1700 18th St., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20009.
A 71-year-old woman arrived by ambulance at a hospital emergency room with her stricken 61-year-old sister, who was pronounced dead on arrival. The elder woman collapsed at the news, developed a heart attack,...
blocking (or enhancing) enkephalin production, it may be possible to regulate emotional disorders. Tests are already being conducted with schizophrenic patients.
To Dea Now "How Artificial Is Intelligence?" William R. Bennet, Jr.,in American Scien-Nat To Be? tist (Nov.-Dec. 1977), 345 Whitney Ave.,
New Haven, Conn. 06511.
In 1927, physicist and mathematician Sir Arthur Eddington proposed a modern version of an ancient philosphical conundrum: Could an army of monkeys drumming on typewriters...
"weighting" a computer-typewiter to account for an author's most commonly used letters, the famous monkey problem can be applied to almost any field of literature. The examples above are based on Hamlet, A Farewell to Arms, and Roger Bacon's Secreturn Secretorurn.
Better-educated fourth-order computers yielded 90 percent words in their letter groups, but Hamlet's soliloquy remained elusive. Unfortu- nately, the biggest computers today are not capable of simulating cor- relations of a...
Thomas H. Maugh 11, in Sci-of Oil Shale ence (Dec. 9, 1977), 1515 Massachusetts Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20005.
The United States in the 1970s has become reliant on high-priced for- eign sources of petroleum. According to Maugh, a Science staff writer, this combination of inelastic demand and rising prices has made the development of domestic oil shale economically feasible.
Oil shale-oil locked tightly in solid shale formations-has been touted before as a solution to America's energy crisis,...