8/11/2005:

Intermediate Word:  hetaera-  (a) ballet skirt  (b) Roman wine shop waitress  (c) lace-up corset  (d)  ancient Greek geisha
Difficult Word: - faience  (a) ceramic lace  (b) fated to die soon  (c) colorfully glazed earthenware  (d) graceful ways

Natural Nuclear Reaction Powered Ancient Geyser - Space.com  With all the complicated engineering and physics needed to build a nuclear reactor, it is rather remarkable that one turned on spontaneously two billion years ago. Evidence for this natural reactor was found in 1972 at the Oklo mine in the West African country of Gabon. New research confirms that water regulated the nuclear reactions in a cyclic pattern similar to that in a geyser.     
Palmtop Nuclear Fusion Device Invented - Space.com  The latest invention is not in the same league as efforts to build complex commercial reactors. The new device creates a relatively small number of reactions, and requires more energy to operate than it produces.  "I certainly find it interesting that you can heat a cubic centimeter crystal in your hand, then plunge it in cold water and it will cause nuclear fusion," Seth Putterman from the University of California Los Angeles told LiveScience.     

Networking: 'Smart Highways' Emerging - Science Daily  Commuters cruise down Interstate 95 from New York City to Washington, D.C., bumper to bumper, at a speed of 120 miles per hour - about a two-hour trip at that speed. Do they worry about collisions? Not at all. They can even check the Dow Jones industrial average or browse new books on Amazon.com while they motor. Those commuters, sometime in the not-so-distant future, will be traveling along smart highways: networks of sensors connected to satellite links controlling collision-detection computers onboard the vehicles. 




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