Science & Technology

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews the novel "A Scientific Romance" (Picador) by Ronald Wright

Linguist Geoffrey Nunberg comments on the popularity of e-mail. Noting that in this "age of banter" e-mail suits us well.

Linguist Geoff Nunberg on the problems of navigating the internet.

Film critic John Powers reviews "Contact" starring Jodie Foster.

Science writer Timothy Ferris. He's the author of the bestseller "Coming of Age in the Milky Way." His new book is "The Whole Shebang: A State-of-the Universe(s) Report" (Simon & Schuster). Ferris is an emeritus professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

Chess master Garry Kasparov may have lost to Deep Blue, but linguist Geoff Nunberg says there are some areas where humans will beat computers -- at least for now.

Yang is co-founder of YAHOO, a directory to the World Wide Web. YAHOO has an online site, as well as a companion book. YAHOO is one of the most popular sites on the Web. Users can access YAHOO, once in the Web at http://www.yahoo.com. Yahoo's book is YAHOO! Unplugged.

The Head of MIT's Laboratory for Computer Science, Michael Dertouzos. Fifteen years ago he predicted an "Information Marketplace" like that of the Internet. In his new book, he continues to look ahead to the future of the information age, and how it will affect our lives: "What Will be: How the New World Information Will Change Our Lives."

Astronomer and Pulitzer Prize winner Carl Sagan died today at the age of 62. A spokesman for the Cancer Research Center says Sagan died from pneumonia after suffering from bone marrow disease for two years.

An excerpt from a recent panel discussion in Philadelphia on the future on the Internet. It was moderated by Terry Gross and took place November 1, 1996 at the University of Pennsylvania. The guests include James Gleick, who writes about technology for the New York Times Sunday Magazine; Paul Ginsparg, a theoretical physicist in Los Alamos; Sherry Turkle, author of "Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet"; and Paul Evan Peters, the Executive Director of the Coalition for Networked Information. Peters died a few days after participating in this panel.

Linguist Geoffrey Nunberg looks at how email technology is altering the way we write letters.

Book Critic Maureen Corrigan reviews the new book by Mona Simpson, about a troubled family living on a commune.

Scientists Dr. Joseph B. McCormick and Dr. Susan Fisher-Hoch. Their book, in collaboration with Leslie Alan Horvitz, is "Level 4: Virus Hunters of the CDC." It's a personal account of this husband/wife team's work with the world's most horrible diseases: Ebola, Lassa fever, Crimean Congo Hemorrhagic Fever, and AIDS. McCormick was instrumental in the creation of the high-tech "hot zone" lab at the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta. Fisher-Hoch was a pioneer in research on Legionnaire's Disease, Ebola and Lassa Fever.

Edward Tenner is author of "Why Things Bite Back" from Knopf. It's about the unintended effects that new technological breakthroughs bring. Tenner is also a researcher at Princeton University in the Department of Geological and Geophysical Sciences.

Science writer David Quammen's new book is "The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinctions" (Scribner). During his eight years of research, Quammen studied the biogeography of islands around the world. His travels introduced him to plants and animals previously unimagined. Quammen is a two-time recipient of the National Magazine Award for his science essays and other work in Outside magazine.

Actor David Morse. He's best known for his role in the 1980's hospital TV series "St Elsewhere" as Dr. "Boomer" Morrison. Last year he costarred with Jack Nicholson in "The Crossing Guard" which was directed and written by Sean Penn. Most recently Morse can be seen in the film "12 Monkeys."

John Perry Barlow is the co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which defends civil liberties in cyberspace. Barlow is also a former cattle rancher in Wyoming, and a former lyricist for the Grateful Dead. The Electronic Frontier Foundation is located at 1667 K St. NW, Suite 801, Washington, D.C. 20006-1605.

Bruce Taylor, President and Chief Counsel of the National Law Center for Children and Families. His organization is a resource and education center which assists law enforcement and prosecutors in the enforcement of obscenity and child exploitation laws. He helped draft the legislation in the Communications Decency Act. (The National Law Center Children and Families is located in Fairfax, VA, (703) 691-4626.)