Science News, vol. 144, #2,24 (1993)
When the Galileo spacecraft swung by Venus in February 1990, it was just for kicks. The encounter gave the spacecraft part of the gravitational boost it needed for its future appointment, a 1995 rendezvous with Jupiter. But the Venus flyby had an additional bonus. It marked the first time any spacecraft had imaged the cloud-shrouded surface of Venus in the infrared, recording the heat emitted by the surface.
For two 45-minute intervals near the craft's closest approach to the planet, an imaging spectrometer designed to study the atmosphere of Jupiter and its large satellites sampled the temperature on the nightside of Venus. Just as on Earth, higher elevations on Venus are colder than low-lying regions. Thus, the temperatures measured by Galileo's Near-Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (NJMS) indicate the altitude of different parts of the planet's surface.
While the Magellan spacecraft recently used radar to compile a far more detailed topographic map of Venus, Galileo's infrared instruments may provide new information to help determine the surface composition. Also, notes Kevin H. Baines of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., the thermal mapping of Venus previews studies that Galileo will do when it arrives at Jupi-ter. The measurements also foreshadow studies with a newer generation spectrometer, now scheduled to fly on the Cassini mission to Saturn's methane-cloaked moon, Titan.
These introductory paragraphs are taken from an article about space exploration in an issue of Science News. This weekly periodical contains a variety of science-related articles describing the latest developments in medicine, pharmacology, and the natural sciences. The articles vary in length from a single paragraph to several pages. The subscribers are primarily scientists who want a quick overview of what is occurring in other sciences. However, many nonscientists are also regular readers, because the articles are well written and understandable to the layman.
Chemical and Engineering News, vol. 71, #343 "Synthesized Carbon Nitride Film"
Chemists at Harvard University have prepared carbon-nitrogen thin-films that appear to consist primarily of beta carbon nitride, a material that theory predicts could be harder than diamond. The synthesis represents a significant achievement in basic materials research and could have important engineering applications.
"If beta carbon nitride is harder than diamond, it could have a wide range of uses," says Charles M. Lieber, the Harvard chemistry professor who directed the research. "Making this compound also was a test of our synthetic skill. It is very challenging to prepare what is very likely a metastable material from components-in this case graphite and nitrogen- that are themselves very stable."
Lieber points out that nitride compounds are, in general, difficult to produce because of the stability of molecular nitrogen. "You cannot simply heat graphite and nitrogen together and expect to get carbon nitride," he says. "We had to design a strategy to generate species and trap them kinetically. Organic chemists routinely use kinetic versus thermodynamic control to carry out elegant syntheses of complex molecules, but solid-state chemists have relied almost entirely on thermodynamic control."
This article describing the synthesis, properties, and potential uses of carbon nitride is an example of a highly technical article. The writer is giving an account of a breakthrough in solid-state chemistry. Carbon nitride, whose properties are widely known, is a rare compound because it is so difficult to synthesize. The author must be able to handle highly complex ideas and terms and still be able to write an interesting story that is easy to understand. He does have one advantage: most of his readers are chemists. Nevertheless, few of them will have detailed knowledge about the field of work described.
Chicago Tribune, Discovery Section, July 18,1993 "Fossilized Dinosaur Egg Gets Some X-Ray Attention"
Some of America's most sophisticated X-ray technology is being trained upon a fossilized dinosaur egg scientists say is about 65 million years old.
The egg was dug up in Southern China and is now at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California where scientists are using computerized tomographic X-ray equipment to make 3-D images.
The California researchers, who are working in conjunction with Chinese scholars and those at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, also are applying high-energy X-rays to make two-dimensional images of the egg, which is cracked at one end and contains an embryo.
J. Keith Rigby Jr., a Notre Dame paleontologist, said that because the fossil comes from an area of China where few dinosaur remains have been found, the scientists hope this find may cast new light on a type of dinosaur they know very little about.
This article was written by two science writers for the Chicago Tribune who regularly prepare a variety of feature articles for the paper about scientific topics of current interest. They are expected to write articles for the public explaining the latest developments in the particular field of science they have selected for their subject. They must be very careful not to appear condescending to their lay readers, who often have little or no scientific knowledge. Yet, the readers must be able to understand what they read. Many major newspapers such as the New York Times, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times pride themselves in having similar staff writers.
Sargent-Welch '93-95Catalog,page586
"Suspension Galvanometer 2690A.
Galvanometer, Student, Mirror Type"
Provides experience in manipulating and reading a mirror and scale system. With scale removed, it may be used in demonstrations to indicate current by deflection of a light beam. Sensitivity is about one microamp/div.; coil resistance, 80 ohms. Coil and attached plane mirror are suspended by phosphor-bronze ribbon between poles of a strong permanent magnet. Zero and coil elevation adjustments are at top coil clamp and binding posts at rear. Glass front of case is removable for access to all parts. Leveling screws are located in two legs of tripod; third leg is longer and supports scale and eye aperture. Silvered area on glass plate near mirror superimposes a fixed vertical reference line of image of scale, providing an index for reading the scale. Height, 27 cm. With instructions.
Here we have a paragraph taken from a scientific catalog. The catalog is intended to take the place of a salesperson by giving a prospective buyer a brief, concise, and accurate description of a scientific apparatus under consideration for purchase. The catalog must give potential customers complete information on all its items so that they will be able to order precisely what they want. The emphasis in this type of writing is to provide necessary information using a minimum number of words. For this reason, complete sentences are not always used.
As you can see from the above examples, the field is very broad and may cover everything from the preparation of an article in a specialized journal to a syndicated story in a large, influential newspaper.
