Web Watch

http://cnls.lanl.gov/~aric/Simulations/Simulations.html

Aric Hagberg, an applied mathematician at Los Alamos National Laboratory, has created animations from his numerical simulations of Reaction—Diffusion Patterns. One of the featured animations follows the fragmentation of a single, initially stable spiral into lots of little spirals.

http://www.astrosociety.org/education/resources/scifiprint.html

Andrew Fraknoi of Foothill College is devoted to teaching astronomy. To that end, he has compiled Science Fiction Stories With Good Astronomy & Physics: A Topical Index. The list has nearly 200 entries and is divided into 40 topics, from antimatter to Venus. Fraknoi hopes that teachers can use the more-or-less accurate science in the stories to reinforce astronomy or physics concepts.

http://www.sfu.ca/physics/funstuff/java

If you’ve ever tried to picture how charged particles interact in a confined space, visit the physics department Web site at Simon Fraser University. By running the department’s Java-based particle simulator, you can introduce an arbitrary number of charged particles into a two-dimensional box. The particles bounce elastically off the box’s walls and interact with each other through the Coulomb force.

To suggest topics or sites for Web Watch, please phone the editor at (301) 209–3036.