PERIODIC HONOR
"Circaseptennian [about 7-year] periodicity in the distribution of
birth years of Nobel laureates for physics," J. Verhulst, and P.
Onghena, Psychological Reports, vol. 82, no. 1, February 1998, pp.
127-30. (Thanks to Carole Wilcox for bringing this to our
attention.) The authors, who are at the Louis Bolk Institute in
The Netherlands, report that:
The distribution of birth years for Nobel physicists shows a
circaseptennian (about 7-year) periodicity. This observation
extends an earlier observation of a circaseptennian pattern
in the distribution of birth years for early quantum
physicists. In both categories, birth rate tends to maximize
in years belonging to the (7n + 4) phase.
"Apples and Oranges: A Comparison," by Scott Sandford. It is generally understood that apples and oranges cannot be compared. However, spectrographic analysis of a Granny Smith apple and a Sunkist navel orange reveals that apples and oranges are in fact quite similar. [Includes chart of infrared transmission spectra, and a photograph.]
"Evolutionary Relationships Among Cheeses," by Benjamin Waggoner. Cladistic analysis of modern cheeses shows a close affinity between velveetids and cheddaroids, with mozzarelloids as a sister taxon to both. Careful application of these and other techniques makes it possible, even with limited fossil data, to fill in basic patterns of cheese evolution through time. [Includes a table of cheeses and their characteristics, and a two-dimensional cladogram of eight cheese taxa.]
"Xerox Enlargement Microscopy (XEM)," by David P. Cann and Phillip Pruna. A revolutionary new microscopy technique makes it possible to achieve subatomic resolution levels by using standard copying machines. The process consists of iterative enlargements of enlargements. The authors present several examples, including a 15,392 magnification image of ferroelectric barium titanate and a 1,367,481 X image of a deuterium ion.
"The Dead in the Classroom," by Stephen Rushen. To an early morning freshman economics class of thirty live students, fifteen dead students were added. Performance of both live and dead students was observed through the course of the semester. Data are presented in the categories of: attendance; behavior; participation; and exam scores. In three of the four areas, the dead students' performance was the equal of, if not superior to, that of their living peers.