OIL AND DIAMONDS FROM WATER?
IT SOUNDS like a geological magic trick: creating oil and diamonds from water. Aren’t diamonds pure carbon that has been squeezed by enormous pressures in deep Earth? Isn’t oil the result … Continue reading
THE WEATHER, DAWN AND A BUTTERFLY’S FLUTTER
“EVERYBODY TALKS about the weather…” is sometimes attributed to Mark Twain, though just as nobody does anything about it, nor has this quote ever been verified as Twain’s. No matter, … Continue reading
A PERPETUAL CALENDAR
AMONG MY many ornamental objects of questionable modern utility is a perpetual calendar. After all, there’s always the Calendar icon on my smart phone. Also, complete data are displayed, to … Continue reading
LITHIUM-AIR—THE BEST OF BATTERIES, THEORETICALLY
LITHIUM-AIR TECHNOLOGY comes as close as possible to the theoretical limits of battery energy density; this, according to Science, the weekly magazine published by the American Association for the Advancement … Continue reading
TRACK TESTING, POST-TAPLEY METER, PRE-WHIZBANG
I CAME upon some photos summarizing automotive testing as practiced when I arrived at R&T in the late 1970s. One photo brought back memories of the excitement, the technical expertise, … Continue reading
ARITHMETIC CAN BE MOD
MODULAR ARITHMETIC made a brief appearance in “Edo Toggles and Models”: In particular, 2010 was a Year of the Tiger. What’s more, modular arithmetic shows up on clock faces, in … Continue reading
VIRTUAL REALITY—30 YEARS ON
CYBERSPACE HAS attracted me since I first heard of it in William Gibson’s 1984 novel Neuromancer. The concept gained academic cred in another book, Cyberspace: First Steps, a 1991 collection … Continue reading
DIFFERENT HORSES—BUT FOR DIFFERENT ERAS?
A COLLEAGUE asked about horsepower measurement, specifically for classic cars like the Duesenberg Model J built between 1928 and 1937. As I happen not to have a Model J in … Continue reading
CAN YOU SEE ME NOW?
SCIENCE IS moving forward to match fiction. In Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, J.K. Rowling’s hero receives an invisibility cloak, a silky garment that makes him disappear. Now, Science … Continue reading
AN EXCESS OF RESOURCE
THE WATER MAINS of Paris burst in August. This sounds like the title of a Hemingway pastiche, but actually it’s a truism of infrastructure. What’s more, it has implications in … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 