[Image] 


Microprocessors Deliver Teraflops
Intel showed parts of modules from TFLOPS : A massively
parallel computer that will perform math operation at a peak 
rate of 1.8 trillion/second - teraflops.  An order of 
magnitude faster than any existing computer.
  $45.5 million project funded by DOE.
Specialty chips to handle volume of data flashing between
the P6s.  
  Tackle complex problems w/ a "Russian doll" strategy
centered on the P6 processors.  Grouped in pairs
that share a common memory, forming nodes or computation units;
pairs of nodes share communication pathways on a single CPU.
Arrays of boards fit into 80 cabinets .
   Coordinating 50 billion bytes of data each second
are special purpose network chips, one for each board.  It
uses a lightweight kernet.  SToring a complete copy of the processors' UNIX
O/S on every node. .  The lightweight kernel reduces 
the burden by limiting the full operating system to only a handful of nodes, leaving the rest
to subsist on a minimum set of instructions.  Other areas of parallel computing are likely
to benefit from these innovations.

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[Image] 
The Future of The Behavioral And Social Sciences
1. Integrate current data sets
2. Improve the coverage of longitudinal surveys.
3. Experiment with new methodologies to study nonlinear, dynamic
systems.
4 Develop comparable international research to determine both
the incidence and prevalence of behavioral and social phenomena.
5 Integrate quantitative and qualitative research methods more systematically to advance new theory.


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[Image] 
Negative Viscosity in a Magnetic Fluid

Magnetic fuild in a colloidal dispersion of a single-domain magnetic particles of 
about 10 nanometers.

Ultrastable magnetic fluids remain liquid
wehn highly magnetized, even in the most intense
applied magnetic fields.  MFs (magnetic fluids)
are distinguished from ordinary fluids by the body and surface
forces that arise yielding new fluid mechanical phenomena.
Magnetic fluids are colloidal solutions of
manetic nanoparticles suspended ina  fluid carrier.
Each particle is a parmanent magnetic dipole, and
when the particle is not too small, the orientation of the dipole
is locked into the crystal axis of the
particle.  A repulsive
force acts as an elastic cushion.
preventing the particles from sticking to each other.
Thanks to Brownian translational motion, the
particles do not settle in gravitational
or magnetic fields.

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[Image] 
Surprises on the Way from 1 - 2D quantum Magnets : The ladder
Matterials 

To make the transition from the quasi-long range order in a chain of antiferromagnetically
coupled S=1/2 spins to the true long-range order that occurs in a plane,
one can assemble chains to make ladders of increasing width.  Surprisingly, this crossover between one and two
dimensions is not at all smooth.  Ladders with an even number of legs have
purely short-range magnetic order
and a finite energy gap to all magnetic excitations.  Predictions of
this ground state have now been verified experientally.  
Holes doped into these ladders are predicted to pair and possibly superconduct.

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[Image] 
Group velocity in strongly scattering Media
Investigation of the ballistic propagation of acoustic
waves through a resonantly scattering, inhomogeneous
medium indicates that although the ballistic
signal remains conherent with the incident pulse, it is nevertheless strongly
affected by scattering resonances.  These resonances
cause considerable frequency dispersion and substantially 
reduce the phase and group velocities.  The experiemntal data are
quantitateively describbed by a theoretical
model that correctly accounts for the coupling between the
resonant scatterres, leading to a n effective renormalization
of the scattering within the medium.  This
approach resolves a long-standing problem in the 
definition of the group velocity in strongly scattering materials.


--fin
S S