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Contemplating the Optiverse
October 10, 1998 | Volume 154 | Number 15
Cover: Mathematicians have worked out a new, elegant
solution to the problem of turning a sphere inside out. That optimal sphere eversion, or
optiverse, is now the star of a computer-generated video. (Image: John Sullivan et
al./University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) |
 Click on this icon listed by each article to get
full references and sources. |
News of the Week:
Infrared
Camera Goes the Distance
Peering deeper into space and farther back in time than ever before, the
Hubble Space Telescope has discovered several galaxies that may be the most distant known
in the universe.
RNA folding process reveals a new twist
RNA molecules can rearrange their internal structures even as they fold into
their final, three-dimensional shapes.
Fossil
jaw tells tale of whale evolution
Paleontologists claim to have found the oldest and most primitive whale
fossil.
Epstein-Barr deaths tied to faulty protein
A rare, deadly complication of Epstein-Barr virus is caused by a defective
immune-system protein.
Stopgap
measure could limit stroke damage
The puzzling brain damage that continues for days after a stroke may depend
on conduits between brain cells called gap junctions.
Orphanages improve image in child care
Children raised in two African orphanages show good emotional adjustment,
challenging traditional developmental theories.
Pfiesteria blamed unfairly for fish sores?
Bloody sores emblematic of fish kills may have been unfairly blamed on Pfiesteria
toxins when the real culprits could be fungi.
Tabulating an enormous assortment of knots
Two teams of mathematicians have tabulated all knotted loops having 16 or
fewer crossings, coming up with 1,701,936 different knots.
Anthropology
Ancient child’s burial on the Nile
A child’s skeleton discovered in a Stone Age rock quarry in Egypt may
represent the oldest known human burial in Africa.
Astronomy
Two stars, two planetary embryos
Although theorists have reasoned that stars that occur in pairs are less
likely to be surrounded by disks of gas and dust—the embryonic material from which
planets arise—new observations reveal that a close stellar partnership may actually
hasten the birth of planets.
More water on the moon
The Lunar Prospector, the tiny robot that has been orbiting the moon since
January, may have discovered much more water buried beneath the lunar poles than
researchers originally believed.
Biomedicine
Gene interplay may govern spread of cancer
A well-known cancer gene may control other genes that determine if the cancer
can spread.
The human genome race heats up
The Human Genome Project has moved up, by 2 years, its schedule to decipher
the whole human genome to 2003.
War on drugs enlists an antibody
Antibodies that chew up cocaine are tested in mice.
Surreal Films
A soapy solution to the math puzzle of turning a sphere
inside out
Mathematicians have worked out a geometrically optimal transformation that
minimizes the energy required to exchange a sphere's inside and outside surfaces.
Musical Metal
Science catches up with the shimmering sound of steel drums
Scientists are using metallurgy research to divine the secrets of the
Caribbean steel drum's celestial sound.
Letters: A
Selection from Letters to the Editor
