“Looking at the Caribbean as a region, it’s an arc of
island.... And what those represent is a boundary
between two large tectonic plates, those of the
Caribbean and the North American.... We talk
frequently about a ring of fire around the Pacific,
due to the plate boundaries there. Well this is a
little ring of fire located just to the southeast of the
United States. So every one of these countries has
a certain degree of seismic hazard, and looking
forward, now that this earthquake [in Haiti on
www.sciencenews.org
ATOM & COSMOS
The world’s largest pan-
oramic telescope has
homed in on the constel-
lation Orion, producing
a new infrared view of its
star birth area (false color
shown). See “A new VISTA
on stellar birthplace.”
January 12] has highlighted so dramatically for us that there are these large
risks, it’s really incumbent upon everyone to make sure that earthquake safety
policy is founded on a really good understanding that there is a seismic hazard
and a good assessment about what that hazard is.” — MICHAEL BLANPIED, USGS
ASSOCIATE EARTHQUAKES HAZARD PROGRAM COORDINATOR, IN A PODCAS T POSTED JANUARY 21
Science Past | FROM THE ISSUE OF MARCH 12, 1960
NEW WEIGHT FOR SILVER WILL NOT AFFECT DIMES — An
atom of silver weighs less than previously thought, but this
new finding of the National Bureau of Standards will not
affect the silver dimes in your pockets. A
dime will still be worth ten cents. The new
atomic weight of silver was set at 107.873
through accurate measurements with a
mass spectrometer. The atomic weight
currently used is 107.880. The more precise atomic weight of silver may mean
that the atomic weights of other elements may have to be
adjusted.… What makes the new measurement significant
is the fact that the mass spectrometer was calibrated to
extraordinary accuracy through use of known mixtures of
the two highly purified silver isotopes.
The (-est)
The fastest wind gust
unrelated to a tornado
occurred at Barrow Island,
Australia, in 1996, a panel
announced January 22. The
World Meteorological Organization’s Commission for
Climatology analyzed statistics, observations and recorded
data from 1932 to the present. A wind gust at the island was
clocked at 408 kilometers per hour on April 10, 1996, during tropical cyclone Olivia (satellite image shown). This
blew past the previous record holder, a gust of 372 km/h
observed at Mount Washington, N. H., in April 1934.
Science Future
EARTH
March 19
Hubble 3D, an IMAX lm about
the telescope’s history and
highlights, premiers nationwide.
See www.imax.com/hubble
March 21–25
The American Chemical Society
holds its spring meeting in San
Francisco. See www.acs.org
Sea levels rose unexpectedly more than 80,000
years ago, a new study of
cave formations in the
Mediterranean shows.
Read “Sea levels erratic
during latest ice age.”
April 18–20
In uenza experts meet in
Atlanta to discuss the latest
ndings on the H1N1 virus and
their implications. See web.
mac.com/tcassin/iWeb/IPIRC
MOLECULES
A manmade molecule has
taken its very first steps,
blazing a trail for other
artificial walkers to follow.
See “Tiny molecules walk
the track.”
Science Stats | GLOBAL TRENDS IN RESEARCH PAPERS
The United States publishes more scienti c papers than any other country. In 2007, over half of U.S. papers were in life and medical sciences.
Science and engineering articles by country/region, 1995 – 2007
Published papers (thousands)
250
200
150
100
50
EU-27
U.S.
Japan
China
India
Asia total
Other
countries
0
1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007
