Editor's Letter
With the approach of the year 2000 and the
accompanying trepidations about hardware and software, all eyes have
turned to the computers. These machines suddenly have formed three
completely separate classes: those new enough to be Y2K compliant, those
that can be upgraded to limp into next year, and those so old that they
will never work after Dec. 31. The questions confronted by all users: What
files are on those aged computers, and will anyone miss them when they're
gone?
Here at Science News, we made a startling
discovery when we revved up some ancient computers abandoned in dark
corners, covered with yellowed press releases, take-out menus, and dusty
umbrellas dating back to days of yore. Among the files were stories
written in the distant past. They date back to centuries before the
earliest known issues of Science News, yet the writers of those
pieces had the same, or almost the same, names as members of our current
staff. Strange.
Since it's so difficult to get a feel for the real
advances in science from history books, we decided to share with you a
portion of these manuscripts—and book recommendations, too. This special
section of the final 1999 issue of Science News contains a more or
less random selection of science news stories written on the scene during
earlier periods of the millennium.
We feel obliged to point out that some of those
early journalists took a few more liberties than professional science
writers do today. Although they wouldn't have dreamed of fabricating data,
some turned a bit fanciful when it came to quotations. Others tended to
rearrange the timing of events for the betterment of the story line.
Luckily, however, these writers left notes to guide the reader through the
forgotten narratives.
Bringing the past into the present, this issue
also contains a rare interview with the 2-Million-Year-Old Man. Behavioral
science writer Bruce Bower, armed with his trusty tape recorder, goes head
to head with a walking, talking, wise-cracking ancient hominid.
So, take your mind off your own computer worries
and enjoy these pages. Whatever else happens, the printed word will
survive well into the next millennium.
Myriad Monsters Confirmed in Water
Droplets
The Royal Society of London verifies claims by a Dutch merchant that
thousands of tiny animacules swim in a single water drop.
With new vaccine, scientist
prevents rabies in boys
Using dried nerve tissue from rabid rabbits, Louis Pasteur has cured
rabies in two boys before the disease could take hold.
Gravity tugs at the center of a
priority battle
A bitter dispute between Isaac Newton and Robert Hooke over who came up
with a fundamental rule of gravity threatens the publication of a sweeping
new theory on the nature of planetary motion.
A million healing words flow from
compendium
Abu Ali ibn Sina—a Middle Eastern physicist-cum-physician—has codified
medical science and practice in a monumental encyclopedia.
Messy pilgrims blamed for puzzling
fossils
Voltaire proposes that fossilized bones found today in the mountains
represent picnic remains left by passing crusaders centuries ago.
Danish astronomer argues for a
changing cosmos
Contradicting the learned pronouncements of Aristotle and other scholars,
a brash young Danish astronomer has found evidence that the cosmos is
chaotic and variable.
Weights make haste: Lighter linger
Philosophers recently dropped objects from the Leaning Tower of Pisa and
found that heavy weights fall faster than light ones, just as Aristotle
said they would.
Imagine that: Animal magnetism
exposed
A French royal commission reports that the wildly popular practice of
mesmerism, or hypnosis, exploits the unhinged imaginations of people eager
for miracle cures and mystical visions.
Monk learns secrets of heredity
from pea plants
By cross-breeding pea plants and documenting the physical features of each
offspring, a monk has developed simple rules of heredity.
The 2-Million-Year-Old Man Speaks
A Stone Age survivor ponders Y2K and more
Antiseptic Principle of the
Practice of Surgery
Joseph Lister
Elements
Euclid
Lectures on the Forces of
Matter
Michael Faraday
The Mathematical Principles
of Natural Philosophy (The Principia)
Isaac Newton
On the Revolutions of the
Celestial Orbs
Nicholas Copernicus
Observations on the Gastric
Juice and the Physiology of Digestion
William Beaumont
The Origin of Species
Charles Darwin
Natural Magick
Giambattista della Porta
The Fabric of the Human Body
Andreas Vesalius
The Sceptical Chymist
Robert Boyle
Also in this issue:
Science News of the
Week
Science News of
the Year
