Discover Chimpanzees!
Meet the chimps of Tanzania's Gombe National Park at this entertaining Web site from the Jane Goodall Institute's Center for Primate Studies. With colorful photos on every page, this site offers biographies about specific chimpanzees written by the researchers who study them, a virtual tour of the park, recorded chimp calls, interactive games, relevant links, and more. Users can download over a dozen documents for additional information and activities, such as a guide to chimpanzee territorial b
Geology in North Dakota
The Department of Geosciences at North Dakota State University educates visitors about the geologic features and landforms of North Dakota through clear text and astonishing images at this website. In the Glacial Features of North Dakota link, visitors can learn about end moraines, eskers, kettle lakes, and kames. Educators can find amazing photographs of mass wasting including creep, slope failure, and slumps. Users can also find materials on stream features and satellite imagery of North Dakot
Distributed Energy Resources
Distributed Energy Resources (DER) is a term used to describe a general class of "small, modular power-generating technologies" that can be used in conjunction with a power grid or as a standalone method of electricity generation. This Web site of the U.S. Department of Energy provides an overview of DER systems and their applications, but it also has a very informative description of the nation's electricity grid. The structure of the grid is illustrated, and the basics of how it is controlled
Educator's Corner: Engineering and the Guitar, Part I
This series of five introductory modules comes from Agilent Technologies' massive Educator's Corner Web site. It is mainly intended to teach high school students about some of the most fundamental principles of engineering, using a guitar to demonstrate concepts like frequency and tensile strength. At the same time, the material stresses the importance of critical thinking and taking an analytical approach to problems -- characteristics that are the sign of a good engineer. To encourage this men
ALICE: A Large Ion Collider Experiment at CERN LHC
This website features the ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) collaboration's aim to "study the physics of strongly interacting matter at extreme energy densities, where the formation of a new phase of matter, the quark-gluon plasma, is expected." The Public section of the website features the construction plan for the detector located at CERN, which will be optimized for heavy-ion physics. Visitors can learn how the collaboration, consisting of one-thousand members from twenty-seven countri
Exploring the Nanoworld
From the Materials Research Science and Engineering Center on Nanostructured Materials and Interfaces at the University of Wisconsin-Madison comes this dynamic site. At its core, the site introduces visitors to the tools that allow us to "see" atoms, play with them, and create a variety of "nano-architectural wonders." The site offers a substantial amount of information that supports the user's understanding of how customization of materials can create everything from "atomic trampolines to DNA
Human Identification at a Distance
The Georgia Institute of Technology is conducting research on Human Identification at a Distance, with an emphasis on gait recognition. Supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the project's development of gait recognition systems and algorithms is "an example of an activity-specific biometric: a method of extracting some identifying properties of an individual or of an individual's behavior that is only applicable when a person is performing that specific action." Sev
Earthguide
Earthguide is an educational resource for students and teachers developed by the California Space Institute at Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the University of California San Diego. Features include in-depth stories, brief topics, and news -- all related to a variety of oceanic and atmospheric science subjects. The section of links and resources is quite valuable, with a large number of links organized by topic, many with brief descriptions.
Transportation Research Circular: Future Aviation Activities
The 12th International Workshop on Future Aviation Activities was held in September 2002, and this collection of presentation transcripts was released the following January. Many references to the September 11 terrorist attacks are made, especially concerning airport security measures and changes in the public's views of flying. Speakers also addressed long-term trends in air transportation, such as airspace capacity and general aviation growth. Nearly every kind of aviation was discussed; rangi
Two on Powered Flight
Although the centennial anniversary of the Wright Brothers' groundbreaking achievement has come and gone, these two sites provide a unique glimpse into past events and future prospects. First, the companion website to a December 16, 2003 NOVA episode offers a retrospective on the Wright Brothers' Flying Machine. Several interactive features and picture galleries are provided. Additionally, the site includes a description of the first media coverage of the historic flight and an interview with th
Salamander Feeding Movies
This Web site is compiled by salamander biologist Stephan Deban, who offers a look at a number of different feeding strategies used by salamanders. High-speed video clips of twelve different salamander species are available for viewing, accompanied by brief descriptions of each species and their particular feeding behavior. This Web site is easy to navigate and interesting to visit, even for those unfamiliar with the field of salamander biology.
Laboratory of Michael Blades
Located within the Chemistry Department at the University of British Columbia, the Laboratory of Michael Blades studies the "development, characterization, and application of optical and mass spectroscopic methods for chemical analysis." Visitors can download posters to learn about the group's work involving two and three laser ion trap mass spectrometry and fluorescence spectroscopy. The website discusses the group's creation of atmospheric pressure plasma on a chip as a new way of forming an a
Integrating Content Management with Digital Rights Management
This white paper, published in May 2003, explores the task of effectively managing digital content while incorporating and protecting the digital rights associated with the content. The authors begin by defining a content management system as it is discussed in their paper and outline the key components and capabilities of such a system. After touching on the foundations of digital rights, the paper then argues for the adoption of a "Rights Expression Language" to integrate digital rights inform
Two on Powered Flight (DUPLICATE)
Although the centennial anniversary of the Wright Brothers' groundbreaking achievement has come and gone, these two sites provide a unique glimpse into past events and future prospects. First, the companion website to a December 16, 2003 NOVA episode offers a retrospective on the Wright Brothers' Flying Machine. Several interactive features and picture galleries are provided. Additionally, the site includes a description of the first media coverage of the historic flight and an interview with th
Automated Manufacturing Systems: PLCs
An engineering professor at Grand Valley State University has made available his book on programmable logic controllers (PLC's), which are widely used to control all kinds of electrical devices. The 800+ page book is presented free of charge and can be downloaded in one large file or in individual chapters. Readers can learn everything from high-level concepts, like Boolean logic and operational design planning, to physical details such as PLC specifications and connectivity. The author explains
US Water News
This is the home page of the monthly publication US Water News. Most online content is news coverage of water supply and quality, legislation, water rights, conservation, and the global waterfront. The collection of links is quite impressive, with state, federal, international, nonprofit, and many other resources listed. Assorted buyer's guides for a wide variety of water products are given with links to online catalogs. For people that want to stay current on new developments and technologies,
Cornell University: Biozon
Developed by Professor Golan Yona and his colleagues at Cornell University, the Biozon database aids in the analysis of biological entities. The "database relies on an extensive database schema that integrates information at the macro-molecular level as well as at the cellular level, from a variety of resources to create a unified biological knowledge resource with emphasis on protein and DNA characterization and classification." Biozon builds on data from a number of preexisting databases inclu
Dartmouth Symposium on the Future of Computer Music Software: A Panel Discussion
This article, which appeared in the winter 2002 issue of the Computer Music Journal, is an edited transcript of the Dartmouth Symposium on the Future of Computer Music Software. The topics discussed at the event varied widely, but most were centered on experimental software as opposed to normative utilities like mixers and virtual studios. By following this subject track for the symposium, participants shared their viewpoints about the evolution of computer music software and highlighted current
Squeak Programming System
Squeak is a programming system that is offered under an open source license, which makes it free to download. The website describes Squeak as "an open, highly-portable Smalltalk-80 implementation whose virtual machine is written entirely in Smalltalk, making it easy to debug, analyze, and change." The programming system can be used to create images, graphics, sound, games and websites. For example, the drawing function includes the ability to scale and rotate bitmap images at any color depth, an
Mount Sinai Hospital: Blueprint
Led by Dr. Christopher Hogue of the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute at Mount Sinai Hospital the Blueprint Initiative "develops, hosts and maintains public biological databases and Bioinformatics software tools such as BIND, SeqHound and Distributed Folding." The Blueprint research program also has a sister node located at the National University of Singapore. In addition to providing access to a variety of databases and software, the Blueprint website offers links to a number of downloadable
