The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood Pantheon Books, New York, 2011, 526 pp, Hardcover, $29.95, ISBN-978-0375-42372-7 Joseph Galarneau Published online: 11 August 2011 Springer ...Science+Business Media, LLC 2011 Attention spans are shortening due to text messaging and Twitter. Gleick, whose facility with explaining complex scientic concepts is clear from his award-winning books on topics ranging from chaos theory to Isaac Newton, turns his skills on exploring the evolution of human communication from cuneiform tablets to the Wikipedia. The error correction techniques that enable high-speed Internet lines have their roots in African drummers, who introduced extra notes to ensure the words encoded in their drumbeats would not be misunderstood.
While women have had a profound impact in the world of science, they struggle to gain an equal foothold in many science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields today. This has led to ...considerable public and private sector efforts to recruit women into these arenas. In order to understand how schools and nonprofits engage today’s young women in STEM studies, this account includes time spent both in high school science classrooms and with ChickTech—a Portland-based organization that works to provide a pathway into tech careers for high school-aged girls. A historical perspective reveals that modern women aren’t treading into completely uncharted territory, in spite of the current disparity of representation in today’s STEM arenas. This perspective is offered via an examination of the lives of a group of extraordinary women who worked in astronomy at Harvard College Observatory from the late 1800s into the 1960s. While several noteworthy women are discussed, the focus here is on Cecilia Payne, the first person to earn a Ph.D. in astronomy at Harvard, and one of the 20th century’s greatest astronomers. A great many people have never heard of her…yet.
Over the course of the last century, literature for the solo marimba has been greatly expanded by a wide variety of composers to include nearly every contemporary style and genre. One such area of ...expansion is the use of electronic effect, defined as the augmentation of the acoustic marimba using looping and delay technologies in live performance. This study illuminates the history of electronic effect technology and briefly describes the technological options employed in the genre of marimba with electronic effect. Concepts specific to the genre are also addressed; specifically, the terminology of rhythmic delay and harmonic delay. To introduce these concepts, two works by Australian composer Nigel Westlake are discussed: Fabian Theory (1987) and The Hinchinbrook Riffs (2003). A brief analysis of these works illustrates the concepts of rhythmic and harmonic delay in action. In addition to these works, two compositions commissioned as a part of this study are also analyzed to show the structural importance of rhythmic and harmonic delay: chasing the mania (2015) by Brett William Dietz and Plasma Trails (2015) by George Fetner. Finally, the study of two areas of potential growth in the genre – the transcription of music for acoustic guitar and electronic effect, as well as the application of delay and looping technologies to music not originally composed for these technologies – helps to bolster and sustain the genre of marimba with electronic effect for the foreseeable future.
