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Professional Association

History of the GARP Atlantic Tropical Experiment

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 11/08/2007 - 20:22.
  • Contemporary (Post-WWII)
  • Earth Sciences
  • Images
  • Primary Source
  • Professional Association
URL: 

http://www.ametsoc.org/ams/sloan/gate/index.html

Excerpt: 

The purpose of the GATE experiment was to understand the tropical atmosphere and its role in the global circulation of the atmosphere. It was the first major experiment of the Global Atmospheric Research program, whose goal was to understand the predictability of the atmosphere and extend the time range of daily weather forecasts to over two weeks.

Annotation: 

This site, produced by the American Meteorological Society, examines the early years of research by GARP, the Global Atmospheric Research Program. GARP's Atlantic Tropical Experiment, also known as GATE, was a preliminary attempt in the 1970s to understand how the atmospheric patterns of the tropics affect the entire world's weather. The site includes the original research proposals and reviews of the program from the 1970s and early 80s, as well as maps of the GATE experiment zone near the Cape Verde Islands to the west of Africa. Moreover, the site collects and presents the personal recollections of the scientists and engineers who worked on GATE, and includes links to research produced by the experiment and its ongoing importance in meteorological science.

A Place in History: A Guide to Using GIS in Historical Research

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 11/08/2007 - 20:22.
  • Computers/Information Technology
  • Contemporary (Post-WWII)
  • Earth Sciences
  • Modern (18th-20th Century)
  • Professional Association
  • Secondary Source
URL: 

http://hds.essex.ac.uk/g2gp/gis/

Author: 
Ian Gregory
Excerpt: 

This guide is intended for historians who want to use Geographical Information Systems (GIS). It describes how to create GIS databases and how to use GIS to perform historical research. Its aims are to:

Define GIS and outline how it can be used in historical research

Evaluate the way GIS models the world

Describe how to get data into a GIS

Demonstrate the basic operations that GIS offers to explore a database

Review how time is handled in GIS

Explain how GIS can be used for simple mapping and more advanced forms of visualisation

Discuss quantitative data analysis within GIS

Illustrate the use of GIS for qualitative analysis

Summarise documenting and preserving GIS datasets

The book provides a broad sweep of GIS knowledge relevant to historians without assuming prior knowledge. It includes case studies from a variety of historical projects that have used GIS and an extensive reading list of GIS texts relevant to historians.

X-ray Astronomy at Goddard Space Flight Center

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 11/08/2007 - 20:22.
  • Government
  • Modern (18th-20th Century)
  • Physical Sciences
  • Professional Association
  • Secondary Source
URL: 

http://lheawww.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/xray/history/xray_history.html

Author: 
Laboratory for High Energy Astro-Physics/ NASA
Excerpt: 

X-ray Astronomy at Goddard:
Early History

From 1965 to 1972 there were over a dozen balloon-borne experiments (mostly from New Mexico), including the first such to take place from Australia (1966), one in which hard X-ray emission was discovered (albeit with crude angular resolution) from a region towards the galactic center whose centroid is located among subsequently identified sources GX1+4, GX3+1, and GX5-1. A balloon-borne experiment in 1968 was based on the multi-anode multi-layer xenon gas proportional chamber that had recently been developed in our lab and represented the first use of such a high performance instrument for X-ray astronomy.

Making PCR (The History of Polymerase Chain Reaction)

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 11/08/2007 - 20:22.
  • Contemporary (Post-WWII)
  • Life Sciences
  • Primary Source
  • Professional Association
  • University
URL: 

http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/pcr/

Excerpt: 

What is a polymerase? A polymerase is a naturally occurring enzyme, a biological macromolecule that catalyzes the formation and repair of DNA (and RNA). The accurate replication of all living matter depends on this activity -- an activity scientists have learned to manipulate. In the 1980s, Kary Mullis at Cetus Corporation conceived of a way to start and stop a polymerase's action at specific points along a single strand of DNA.

Annotation: 

This site covers the history of a critical technology for modern genetic and biological research. Polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, is a method for manipulating, splicing and replicating, in vast amounts, sequences of DNA and RNA. The author of the site, a professor at UCLA, has written an overview essay on the history of PCR in which he points to a wide array of advances and scientists who contributed to its creation. Supporting this essay is a bibliography linked to many of the groundbreaking articles relating to PCR from the latter part of the twentieth century, as well as its first uses in genome mapping, evolutionary biology and medical treatments. The site also includes an interview with Arthur Kornberg, a key figure in the history of recombinant DNA and biotechnology, and it asks for additional recollections from those who have been a part of the development of PCR and its many applications.

Map History/History of Cartography

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 11/08/2007 - 20:22.
  • Artifacts
  • Contemporary (Post-WWII)
  • Early Modern (15th-18th Century)
  • Earth Sciences
  • Images
  • Links
  • Middle Ages (5th-15th Century)
  • Modern (18th-20th Century)
  • Professional Association
URL: 

http://ihr.sas.ac.uk/maps/

Excerpt: 

Whether you are an academic, family historian, collector, teacher or parent - welcome! All the worthwhile information about old maps can be found here, or from here. The 100 'pages' of this carefully organised site offer comment and guidance, and many, many links - selected for relevance and quality

Boston Central Artery/Tunnel History

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 11/08/2007 - 20:22.
  • Contemporary (Post-WWII)
  • Engineering
  • Images
  • Links
  • Primary Source
  • Professional Association
URL: 

http://libraries.mit.edu/rotch/artery/

Excerpt: 

This website contains material useful to people studying the history of the CA/T highway, especially the Charles River crossing part of the project. During 1998, we operated an interactive website for the purpose of collecting original material from people who were involved in planning the crossing. Some comments and articles contributed by people involved in the crossing design process are available on-line. Other material at this website includes a chronology of planning the crossing, a chronological bibliography of important transportation documents with links to some of these, and images. Hardcopy material pertaining to the crossing is available in the vertical file collection at M.I.T.'s Rotch Library.

Annotation: 

This site presents a historical overview of the Massachusetts Highway Department's Central Artery/Tunnel Project for downtown Boston, known commonly as the "Big Dig." In particular, the site focuses on the northern part of the project linking Cambridge and Charlestown with Boston over the Charles River. Documents surrounding the planning, testing, legal wrangling and execution of the project are listed chronologically. The site also includes maps and other images relating to the project's development, and several recollections by transportation engineers, civil engineers and others who worked on the project and had to accommodate the conflicting interests of residents, builders and government planners.

MAA History List

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 11/08/2007 - 20:22.
  • Contemporary (Post-WWII)
  • Physical Sciences
  • Primary Source
  • Professional Association
URL: 

http://www.maa.org/features/history_list.html

Author: 
V. Frederick Rickey
Excerpt: 

This is an unmoderated mailing group for individuals with a serious interest in the history of mathematics. It deals with all aspects of the history of mathematics, including the following:
* Announcements of meetings on the history of mathematics.
* Information on new books and interesting journal articles.
* Discussion of the teaching of the history of mathematics.
* Using history in the classroom.
* Questions that you would like the answer to.
* and, hopefully, answers to those questions.
* Discussion of questions unsettled in the literature.

History of Mount Wilson Observatory

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 11/08/2007 - 20:22.
  • Contemporary (Post-WWII)
  • Exhibit
  • Images
  • Modern (18th-20th Century)
  • Physical Sciences
  • Professional Association
URL: 

http://www.mtwilson.edu/

Excerpt: 

Founded in December 1904 by George Ellery Hale as one of the original scientific enterprises of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, Mt. Wilson Observatory is completing its first century as one of the world’s premier astronomical observatories. During the first half of the twentieth century Mt. Wilson was successively home to the world’s two largest telescopes as well as the most powerful facilities in existence for studying the sun

Hungarian Academy of Sciences

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 11/08/2007 - 20:22.
  • Aviation/Space Exploration
  • Computers/Information Technology
  • Consumer Technology
  • Contemporary (Post-WWII)
  • Earth Sciences
  • Engineering
  • Industrial/Military Technology
  • Life Sciences
  • Medicine/Behavioral Science
  • Physical Sciences
  • Primary Source
  • Professional Association
  • Secondary Source
URL: 

http://www.mta.hu

Author: 
Hungarian Academy of Sciences
Excerpt: 

The Hungarian Academy of Sciences (HAS) is an independent public body based on the principle of self-government.
It is constituted by the members of the Academy - ordinary and corresponding as well as external and honorary members - and by those active representatives of science who hold a scientific degree (Ph.D. or D.Sc.).
At present the number of the ordinary members is 214, while the number of the corresponding members is 86. Academicians are elected by ordinary and corresponding members. The number of public body-members at present - with academicians - is 7030. They - other than academicians - exercise their rights through representation, electing 200 non-academician representatives to the General Assembly, the main organ of the Academy, for three years.

Japanese Society for Science and Technology Studies (JSSTS)

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 11/08/2007 - 20:22.
  • Aviation/Space Exploration
  • Computers/Information Technology
  • Consumer Technology
  • Contemporary (Post-WWII)
  • Earth Sciences
  • Educational
  • Engineering
  • Exhibit
  • Industrial/Military Technology
  • Life Sciences
  • Medicine/Behavioral Science
  • Physical Sciences
  • Professional Association
  • Secondary Source
URL: 

http://www.cs.kyoto-wu.ac.jp/jssts/english/index.html

Excerpt: 

The twentieth century has seen an unprecedented development and global expansion in Western science and its accompanying technological advances, stimulated in part by two world wars. This wedding of science and technology-or "technoscience" as it is sometimes called-has spelled great prosperity for some and a radical change in lifestyle for most. The enormous range of products and services it has produced has profoundly affected ways of thinking and social structures across the world. But it has also left its scars in the form of environmental pollution, harmful medications, technological accidents, and weaponry of unprecedented destructiveness.

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