Sightings

Tam Gray writes: I first became truly aware of Richard Feynman when he testified in front of the Rogers Commission as to the possible cause of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. I had witnessed the explosion on television while a News Desk Editor at Time magazine; no other televised incident had to that point, and now after it, affected me with that level of sadness. more »

Set in London in 1961, "Breathless" follows the exploits of doctors, nurses, and spouses connected with a busy obstetrics ward at a National Health Service hospital. It's a time when gynecologists are all men and nurses aspire to a trip down the aisle with a good-looking doctor. Abortion is illegal, the Beatles are still nobodies, and society is on the cusp of profound change. more »

Hongjie Dai and colleagues have developed a cheap, emissions-free device that uses a 1.5-volt battery to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen gas could be used to power fuel cells in zero-emissions vehicles."Using nickel and iron, which are cheap materials, we were able to make the electrocatalysts active enough to split water at room temperature with a single 1.5-volt battery," says Dai. By Mark Shwartz Stanford… more »

"In late August 2001, Air Transat flight 236 departed Toronto for Lisbon, Portugal with 306 passengers and crew on board. Midway over the Atlantic Ocean, the plane suddenly ran out of fuel. Everyone on board was instructed to prepare for an ocean ditching, which included a countdown to impact, loss of on-board lighting, and cabin de-pressurization." more »