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- Sweet Confusion: Does high fructose corn syrup deserve such a bad rap?
- Closed Thinking: Without scientific competition and open debate, much psychology research goes nowhere
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- Teens take home science gold: A low-cost, self-driving vehicle; battery alternatives and analyses of galaxy clusters claim top prizes at a global high school science competition
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Web edition: November 18, 2011
Print edition: December 3, 2011; Vol.180 #12 (p. 4)
ELECTRONIC COIN TOSSING — An electronic method of tossing coins that determines “heads” or “tails” 200,000 times a second has been devised at the U.S. Navy Electronics Laboratory, San Diego, Calif. The new machine is not a gambling device but is being used to develop automatic signal detection methods for future Navy radar. It promises to have application in civilian communication systems and quality control. In the device, electrical circuits play the part of coins. These electrical circuits rest in either one of two states — these two states represent the heads and tails of the coin. Electronic noise generators are used to randomly change the circuit states or “toss the coin.”
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