In the late 1950s, he used measurements from the Vanguard 1 satellite to show that Earth is pear-shaped, slightly more bulgy south of the equator than it is to the north. In 1961 Bascom led a deep-sea drilling effort that reached farther into Earth's crust than ever before. He also gathered evidence supporting the theory of plate tectonics. This rundown of anniversaries, spacecraft launches, and notable celestial alignments testifies to our amazing progress in exploring the universe. There are 10 items listed just for December 1, among them the 40th anniversary of Sputnik 6, a Soviet satellite that carried two dogs into orbit.
Every event is linked to animations or to useful additional information.
He explains the inner workings of familiar technologies, ranging from diesel engines to Web servers. The new Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider on Long Island accelerates atomic nuclei to 99.95 percent the speed of light and smashes them into one another. RHIC's site explains the how and why behind this nuclear commotion. The writing evokes the earnest enthusiasm of researchers working on cutting-edge problems. Ocean tides occur because the water is pulled toward the moon.