reader feedback
You talk, we listen! Here’s what you had to say about previous issues of id. Thanks for your feedback and suggestions. Keep ’em coming.
KEEPING ART IN GOOD SHAPE
I want to share my appreciation of an article in the science section of your magazine, “How Do You Earthquake-proof an Icon of Art History?” in the May issue. I have always been fascinated by the great works of the Renaissance period—leonardo, Michelangelo, and many others. When I read this article, I felt a sense of admiration for all those professionals who have the task of preserving the cultural wonders of our planet. I wish all of them many successes, and I know that thanks to their painstaking restoration work and perseverance in obtaining funds to carry out this hard work, our future generations will continue to admire these works. I don’t know at this time if even the restorers will be able to continue their efforts with David or if the “Fates of Greek Mythology” will continue spinning his end. Oraldo Cruz, Miami, FL
The works of the Renaissance masters are so tremendous in scope and talent, it would be much more than a mere shame to allow them to succumb to the passage of time. Indeed just like anything humans have built, works of art will eventually require care so they can be protected from the ravages of decay and preserved for posterity, and those who render this care are to be lauded. But such efforts do not always work out as intended. Recently a failed preservation effort in Spain made the news after a Baroque painting of the Immaculate Conception became a casualty of botched conservation work. The Virgin Mary’s face in the painting is now horrendously unrecognizable. Sadly there are plenty of other examples of art that’s been ruined by shoddy care. Such non-professional interventions can result in damage that’s irreversible.
id UPDATE: PULSATING STARS
The Q&A of the July issue discussed stars that periodically fluctuate in size, causing a change in their brightness. They pulsate across time scales ranging from less than a minute to several years, and the newest addition to this pantheon is a small number of blue stars that pulsate during a period of 40 to 70 minutes, a cycle that had been unknown until now. Pulsating stars have long been known to astronomers, and the rhythmic pulsations of a star’s surface can occur in stars of any age and may be due to a variety of causes. But so far all these stars had this much in common: The pulsations are visible on all sides of the star. Recently a tear-shaped star that pulsates largely on one side has been identified: HD74423, which has nearly twice the mass of our Sun and is located 1,500 light-years away. It makes up a binary system with a red dwarf, which researchers suspect is the cause of the shape and unusual pulsations. “We’ve known theoretically that stars like this should exist since the 1980s, and now we have finally found one,” says astronomer Donald Kurtz. He and his team have been observing light variations in stars that are caused by sound waves within the stars. “This makes the stars very similar to musical instruments, so this is the real Music of the Spheres,” says Kurtz. “We can then ‘see with sound’—just as a bat echolocates to see its environment, or as technicians in a hospital can image the face of a fetus using ultrasound.”
OUT TO SEA AND UNAWARES
In this issue there’s an article about the people aboard a nuclear submarine being the last to know if the world ended. In the September issue we talked about another vessel, the Avontuur, which has undergone comparable circumstances. While the world hasn’t ended per se (though some would argue it’s the end of the world as we know it), the crew of the Avontuur was unaware of the pandemic conditions unfolding around the globe. A crew that set out in February received a message from the ship’s owner, Cornelius Bockerman, via satellite phone in mid-march: “Dramatic times! You will not find the world the way it was before you set sail.” Crew member Christiaan De Beukelaer’s view: “We are so disconnected. It’s like the pandemic is happening in a distant galaxy.”