Since we were talking about Schrodinger's cat yesterday...

Does God play dice?
Physics World, December 2005

Einstein was one of the founders of quantum mechanics, yet he disliked the randomness that lies at the heart of the theory. God does not, he famously said, play dice. However, quantum theory has survived a century of experimental tests, although it has yet to be reconciled with another of Einstein's great discoveries - the general theory of relativity. Below four theorists - Gerard 't Hooft, Edward Witten, Fay Dowker and Paul Davies- outline their views on the current status of quantum theory and the way forward.

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Comic Books on the brain...

Why Have There Been No Great Women Comic-Book Artists?
With a dual-venue exhibition in Los Angeles, comics by masters such as Winsor McCay, Chris Ware, and Charles Schulz have been elevated from pop culture to fine art. But as these artists receive their due, the show has sparked debate over the rightful place of women in the comic canon
By Carly Berwick, Art News Online, November 2005

In case anyone still doubted it, comics are now officially an art form, with the opening this month of “Masters of American Comics” in Los Angeles. The first exhibition in an American art museum to set forth a canon of graphic masters, it is on display at the Museum of Contemporary Art and the University of California’s Hammer Museum from the 20th of this month to March 12, 2006. The 15 masters, selected by independent curators John Carlin and Brian Walker with input from Art Spiegelman, include Lyonel Feininger (“The Kin-der-Kids”), George Herriman (“Krazy Kat”), Winsor McCay (“Little Nemo”), Milton Caniff (“Steve Canyon”), Charles Schulz (“Peanuts”), Jack Kirby (“Fantastic Four,” “X-Men”), Harvey Kurtzman (MAD), R. Crumb, Spiegelman (Maus), Chris Ware (Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth), and Gary Panter (“Jimbo”).

Fans may note the exclusion of a favorite or two. But how about half the population? There are no women in the show. With apologies to Linda Nochlin, why have there been no great women comic-book artists? Nochlin wrote in her famous essay “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?” published in this magazine in January 1971, that in fact there are no woman Michelangelos or Warhols, and that elevating “forgotten flower painters” didn’t make those artists any better. True female genius, Nochlin noted, had been curtailed by social conditions—the “overwhelming odds” against it—for want, as Virginia Woolf so succinctly put it, of a room of one’s own: a studio, some time, a helpmate, some ready admiration, all the factors that helped Pollock be Pollock and Picasso be Picasso.
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A History of Dental Floss. Yes, you heard me...

Our Daily Thread
Dental floss is a great underappreciated invention
by Malvin E. Ring, Invention and Technology, Winter 2006

Every year more than three million miles of dental floss are sold in the United States. That’s a lot, but the total should be much higher, since that amount works out to only about one flossing per week for the average American. Dentists recommend flossing at least once a day to prevent gum disease, which robs more adults of their teeth than all other oral problems combined. A recent study reported that almost half of Americans feel guilty because they don’t floss their teeth, and 32 percent feel even more guilty for lying to their dentists about it.

Dental floss is a newcomer compared with the toothbrush. The modern-style toothbrush was first mentioned in a Chinese encyclopedia of 1498. It was made with hog bristles perpendicular to a handle of bone. Floss was the invention of an American dentist, Levi Spear Parmly, who was born in Braintree, Vermont, on August 29, 1790. A member of a prominent family of dentists, he first practiced in New York City but soon moved to New Orleans.
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Emerging Infectious Diseases

January Emerging Infectious Diseases (Special Issue: Influenza) history articles:

• Influenza Pandemics of the 20th Century, E.D. Kilbourne
  
• 1918 Influenza: the Mother of All Pandemics, J.K. Taubenberger and D.M. Morens
  
• Swine Influenza A Outbreak, Fort Dix, New Jersey, 1976, J.C. Gaydos et al.
  
• Reflections on the 1976 Swine Flu Vaccination Program, D.J. Sencer and J.D. Millar
  
• Influenza Pandemic Periodicity, Virus Recycling, and the Art of Risk Assessment, W.R. Dowdle
  
• The Swine Flu Episode and the Fog of Epidemics, R. Krause