CUREtoday.com: Cancer Updates, Research, and Education
CUREtoday.com is the online version of CURE: Cancer Updates, Research & Education. CURE provides individuals coping with cancer and blood disorders with "scientific information in an easy-to-understand format," published quarterly by the Cancer Information Group. The Web site now features the 5th issue of CURE -- this and all previous issues are available free of charge. The current issue discusses new drugs for breast cancer treatment, music therapy, cancer and genomics, and other topics. The s
AMS: Math in the Media
Math in the Media is a monthly publication of the American Mathematical Society. Writer Tony Phillips reviews and summarizes stories about math found in publications such as the New York Times and Time magazine. Another section includes reviews of books, plays, movies and television shows that are related to mathematics. Also featured is an image of the month and regular feature column from AMS, which at the time of this report addressed the topic Euler's Polyhedral Formula.
Nebraska Earth Science Education Network
The Nebraska Earth Science Education Network has as one of its objectives to promote and enhance K-12 earth science education. The Web site provides lesson plans on various subjects including astronomy, geology, mapping, soils, water, and weather. Each submitted lesson gives a recommended grade level and contains objectives, materials needed, procedures, and conclusions, depending on the activity. The site is a great resource that provides unique and original information from teachers for teache
Nuclear Physics Group
This website features the Nuclear Physics Group at the University of Birmingham's research related to understanding nuclei properties by studying the behavior of their constituents. Visitors can learn about the investigations undertaken by the five subgroups: Relativistic Heavy Ion Collisions, Exotic beams studies, Laser Spectroscopy of Unstable Isotopes, Positron Emission Tomography, and Nuclear Power Energy. Students and educators can discover how under high temperature and density a quark is
The Interactive Plasma Physics Education Experience
As part of Princeton University's Plasma Physics Laboratory, the Interactive Plasma Physics Education Experience Web site contains interactive plasma physics topics, ranging from electricity and magnetism to energy and fusion. Although some of the activities have difficulty running on old browsers and Macintosh computers, the interactive lessons give students a fun and engaging way to explore physics topics.
Drawing with the Hand in Free Space
Leonardo, a journal that focuses on applications of science and technology in art, included this paper in its second-to-last issue of 2002. The author discusses a fascinating method of creating three dimensional shapes in a semi-immersive virtual environment. Developed at Caltech, the technique tracks the motion of a user's hand, which is fitted with a special type of glove. With the help of an eyepiece viewing device, the user can see the corresponding surface drawing floating in midair. Severa
Protecting Applications against Malice Using Adaptive Middleware
Security in distributed computing systems is a very important area of research, especially as malicious behavior is a growing cause of concern for businesses and organizations. This paper addresses an emerging method of maintaining security in untrustworthy environments. Until recently, the operating system was the only means of protecting data; the authors discuss a more elaborate technique of using middleware as a second level of security. "When integrated effectively, this multi-level approac
Material World Modules
The Materials World Program is an educational program created at Northwestern University intended to teach kids about science, math, and social issues by letting them investigate the objects that surround them in their everyday lives. While traditional science teaching divides the sciences into various disciplines, each studied separately, this program shows students that science is more than a set of techniques as "students using MWM learn how principles of chemistry, physics, and mathematics r
What is Climate Change?
This site is offered by Canada's Natural Resources Department. The main page describes the basics of the phenomenon, while the links tell about the impact of climate change on health and safety, communities, land resources, water resources, and coastal regions. Although specific to Canadian regions, the site will give visitors from all over a good introduction to the potential problems of global warming.
Smart Base Isolation Systems
Published in the October 2002 issue of the Journal of Engineering Mechanics, this research paper proposes a novel method of seismic base isolation. This technique is used to mitigate "the effects of an earthquake by essentially isolating the structure and its contents from potentially dangerous ground motion." The authors compare their method to several established base isolation strategies by simulating each under varying conditions for historical earthquakes. They show that the derived system
National Marine Mammal Laboratory: Aerial and Land-based Surveys of Stellar Sea Lions
The National Marine Mammal Laboratory (NMML) conducts research on marine mammals for the National Marine Fisheries Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, with a particular focus on marine mammals in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. This Web site contains a report on Stellar sea lion survey research -- part of NMML's Alaska Ecosystem Program. The report may be viewed online or downloaded as a PDF file. The site also includes links to other NMML Web pages for more inform
IEEE History Center
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) History Center functions "to preserve, research and promote the history of information and electrical technologies." There are many resources on the center's Web site that provide an excellent perspective into some of the original breakthroughs in electrical design and the more recent advancements in computer technology. Historical articles and list of frequently asked questions are given on the site, as well as many transcripts of int
Insect Mouthparts
This Web site contains a pictorial guide to insect mouthparts, a complicated topic served well by this simple yet effective tutorial. Created by University of Ottawa entomology professor Dr. Houseman -- using material adapted from Digital Zoology (on CD from McGraw-Hill) -- this site provides labeled diagrams and high quality photos of chewing, siphoning, piercing, sponging, and combination mouthparts. Users may view images by category or click through the entire set in sequence. The photographs
Tales from the Underground
Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry Web site offers a very interesting interactive activity called Tales from the Underground. Kids get to explore an interactive map of Chicago neighborhoods to view the results of soil samples that were taken to determine the amounts of various pollutants they contain. Students are then able to conduct their own experiments (with help from their teacher or parent) to learn about the health of soils where they live. The site contains a wealth of additional a
The Grapes of Staph: Biology Tutorials
These online Biology Tutorials were created by Dr. Gary E. Kaiser, a Professor of Biological Science at The Community College of Baltimore County. The Tutorials are part of Kaiser's larger Microbiology Website, entitled The Grapes of Staph (reported on in the November 10, 1999, Scout Report for Science & Engineering). The Tutorials are organized into three sections under the headings of Eukaryotic Cell Structure, Metabolism, and Genetics. Tutorial titles include: Energy Conversions; Polypeptides
MathPlayer
Math Player is a browser plug-in that supports MathML, an XML-based language used to encode mathematical symbols and equations for displaying on the Web. Developed by Design Science, the software can be downloaded for free at this site.
MultiMedia Schools
"MultiMedia Schools (MMS) is a practical how-to magazine sharply focused on the needs of school practitioners." It is published six times a year, and roughly half of its articles are made available for free online. In the last issue of 2002, the editorial offers suggestions for how school media specialists can take advantage of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. Other articles discuss a proposed technology-integrated teaching system, tools and techniques to continuously improve and adapt to c
Australian Antarctic Data Centre
The Australian Antarctic Division is part of the Australian Government's Department of the Environment and Heritage. Within the department's Web site is the Australian Antarctic Data Centre, which makes all scientific observations and results freely available. Data topics include weather, GIS and mapping, marine science, flora and fauna, and many other topics related to the southern continent.
A Net Meltdown is Inevitable
On October 22, 2002, an attack on the thirteen servers that act as the backbone of the Internet was carried out, briefly disabling nine of them. This drew attention to the often criticized organization that operates these servers, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). This news article argues that bad practices and insufficient safety precautions of ICANN may soon lead to a more successful attack, one that could cripple the Net. It also stresses the importance of refor
The World Information Network on Biodiversity
The World Information Network on Biodiversity (REMIB) is organized and provided by Mexico's National Commission for the Knowledge and Use of the Biodiversity. REMIB is a network of shared biological information databases from research centers in Mexico, the US, Costa Rica, and Spain. The databases contain "curatorial, taxonomic, ecological, cartographic, bibliographic, ethno-biological type, use of catalogues on natural resources and other subject matters." Currently, REMIB gathers information o
