The microscopic theory of superconductivity

Key steps in the development of the microscopic understanding of superconductivity are discussed.     

Robert Louis Stevenson and the Portrait Photographers

This article is prompted by the remarkable characteristic of nineteenth-century Scotland that circumstances congregate to give an unprecedentedly generous or democratic view of life. Four forms of communication – the statistical accounts, which were followed by the British census records, the boom in publishing, especially in newspapers and journals, and inexpensive communication promoted by the penny post, even the information in street directories and advertisements – all combine with the exploitation of photography to give us insights, which can be disconcertingly specific, acting as occasional spotlights on the landscape. This article is prompted by one particular letter from Robert Louis Stevenson, written when he was a young man, and is followed through two lines of connected thought: the practice of studio photography in Scotland and Stevenson's continuing interest in the photographic portrait.     

A KU KLUX KLAN CIPHER

Discussion of a cipher system used by the Ku Klux Klan during the 1920's     

Un détail de ce qui change: Function of a Function

Why should computation be leading to a bifurcation in architectural detailing, resulting in a simultaneous, and opposing, tendency towards either greater precision in fabrication or increasing plasticity? Architectural designer and theorist Peter Macapia asks what is driving these propensities in computation, and what in turn historically might be the relation between the detail and force. What comes into play now, though, when architectural style is no longer identified by a taxonomy of parts, or a vocabulary of orders, but rather by a network of forces and functions correlating actions? How might economic and political power be interacting with force, the diagram and function in contemporary design?     

Returning Genius to the Place

Advocates of sustainable design since the early 1990s, HOK are intent on disseminating new research, resources and tools across their global design teams. Mary Ann Lazarus , Sustainable Design Director at HOK, and Chip Crawford , Planning Group Director at HOK, describe a particularly innovative project that the two groups have collaborated on with the essential input of the Biomimicry Guild (see p 44). Addressing critical environmental issues at the habitat scale and performance standards, they have developed ecological design tools that have been employed on masterplans for Lavasa, India, and Langfang, China. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Review of The Metaphysical Club: A story of ideas in America.

Reviews the book, The Metaphysical Club: A story of ideas in America by Louis Menand (2001). In this highly entertaining and readable history, Menand examines the lives and thinking of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., William James, Charles Sanders Peirce, and John Dewey, members of an informal (and short-lived) discussion group that met in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1872 that called itself the Metaphysical Club. Beginning with the Civil War and ending in 1919 with the Supreme Court decision in U.S. v. Abrams, this insightful and thought-provoking book tells a story of the creation of the ideas and values that have shaped how Americans think and how we live. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Pathology of Cryptology—A Current Survey

Abstract

“The Pathology of Cryptology” is the title of a chapter in David Kahn's book The Codebreakers. This chapter mainly deals with hidden messages, which amateur scientists claim to have discovered in the works of William Shakespeare and in other literary works. The present article picks up this subject and provides it with a theoretic framework under the name of “para-steganography.” Moreover, further case studies are added to those given by Kahn, including many examples that only became known after the publication of The Codebreakers. These considerations show that a hidden code can be found almost anywhere, provided that one looks for it in a suitable manner.