From cosmic ray physics to cosmic ray astronomy: Bruno Rossi and the opening of new windows on the universe

Bruno Rossi is considered one of the fathers of modern physics, being also a pioneer in virtually every aspect of what is today called high-energy astrophysics. At the beginning of 1930s he was the pioneer of cosmic ray research in Italy, and, as one of the leading actors in the study of the nature and behavior of the cosmic radiation, he witnessed the birth of particle physics and was one of the main investigators in this fields for many years. While cosmic ray physics moved more and more towards astrophysics, Rossi continued to be one of the inspirers of this line of research. When outer space became a reality, he did not hesitate to leap into this new scientific dimension. Rossi’s intuition on the importance of exploiting new technological windows to look at the universe with new eyes, is a fundamental key to understand the profound unity which guided his scientific research path up to its culminating moments at the beginning of 1960s, when his group at MIT performed the first in situ measurements of the density, speed and direction of the solar wind at the boundary of Earth’s magnetosphere, and when he promoted the search for extra-solar sources of X rays. A visionary idea which eventually led to the breakthrough experiment which discovered Scorpius X-1 in 1962, and inaugurated X-ray astronomy.     

基于离散余弦变换的集合Kalman滤波方法对河流相油藏渗透率场的反演

针对河流相油藏参数场的非高斯性及油藏生产数据与地质模型之间的非线性关系,提出了耦合离散余弦变换的半迭代集合Kalman滤波方法对河流相油藏进行生产历史拟合及反演.将河流相油藏非高斯渗透率场利用离散余弦变换变为类似高斯分布的DCT(Discrete cosine transform)系数,利用能量压缩特性对DCT系数进行截断,使得反演渗透率场的分布变得光滑,较好地解决了河流相油藏的非高斯分布问题.半迭代集合Kalman滤波法很好地解决了油藏生产数据与地质模型之间的非线性问题.理论证明了半迭代集合Kalman滤波与EnRML方法的等效性.比较了标准EnKF、耦合DCT的EnKF及耦合DCT的半迭代EnKF法对河流相油藏渗透率场的反演.讨论了DCT系数保留模式及系数保留数量对耦合DCT的半迭代集合Kalman滤波方法反演结果的影响,结果表明三角形系数保留模式可以用更少的系数保留参数场的地质特征,当保留2.5%的DCT系数时,反演结果已经充分反映了河流相油藏的地质特征.     

Recollections of max born

This article is essentially the text of lectures presented September 7, 1982 at the Max Born Centenary Conference held in Edinburgh, Scotland and October 21, 1982 at the Max Born Symposium held during the Annual Meeting of the Optical Society of America.Emil Wolf is Wilson Professor of Optical Physics at the University of Rochester. Reprinted fromOptics News, November/December 1983 with permisssion from the author and the Optical Society of America     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book Reviewed in this article: Women, Work, and Ideology in the Third World . Haleh Afshar, ed. The Birth of the National Park Service. The Founding Years 1913–33 . Horace M. Albright Theatres of Accumulation: Studies in Asian and Latin American Urbanization . Warwick Armstrong and T.G. McGee. New Tools for Social Scientists, Advances and Applications in Research Methods . William D. Berry and Michael S. Lewis -Beck , eds . Uncertain Dimensions: Western Overseas Empires in the Twentieth Century . Raymond F. Betts. Geography of Sugar Cane . Helmut Blume. The Mines of Neptune: Minerals and Metals from the Sea . Elisabeth Mann Borgese. Geographical Dimensions of Energy . F.J. Calzonetti and B.D. Solomon, eds. Statistical Methods for Geographers . W. A. V. Clark and P. L. Hosking. In The Wake of Columbus, Islands and Controversy . John DeVorsey, Jr., and John Parker, eds. Housing, States and Localities . Peter Dickens, Simon Duncan, Mark Goodwin and Fred Gray. Physician Location and Specialty Choice . Richard L. Ernst and Donald E. Yett. Practical Ecology for Geography and Biology: Survey, Mapping, and Data Analysis . D.D. Gilbertson , M. Kent and F.B. Pyatt Large Scale Water Transfers: Emerging Environmental and Social Experiences . Genady N. Golubev and Asit K. Biswas, eds. The Nature of the Environment . Andrew Goudie. Planning for Population Change . W.T.S. Gould and R. Lawton. The Niger and its Neighbors: Environmental History and Hydrobiology. Human Use and Health Hazards of the Major West African Rivers . A.T. Grove, ed. Remote Sensing of Ice and Snow . Dorothy K. Hall and Jaroslav Martinec. Atlas of Antebellum Southern Agriculture . Sam Bowers Hilliard. Galilee Divided; The Israel-Lebanon Frontier, 1916-1984 . Frederic C. Hor . Plains Country Towns . John C. Hudson. Agricultural Geography: A Social and Economic Analysis . Brian W. Ilbery. Industry in the 1980s: Structural Change and Interdependence . U.N. Industrial Development Organization. Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States . Kenneth T. Jackson. The Industrial Geography of Italy . Russell King. Studies in Linguistic Geography: The Dialects of English in Britain and Ireland . John M. Kirk, Stewart Sanderson, J.D.A. Widdowson, eds. Tourism: A Community Approach . Peter E. Murphy. Cities and Services: The Geography of Collective Consumption . Steven Pinch. An Historical Geography of Europe 1800–1914 . Norman J. G. Pounds. An Introduction to Human Ecology Research on Agricultural Systems in Southeast Asia . A. Terry Rambo and Percy E. Sajise, eds. Discovering Past Landscapes . Michael Reed, ed. Managing the Ocean: Resources, Research, Law . Jacques G. Richardson, ed. Carta fitosociologica de la transecta botanica de la Patagonia Austral . F.A. Roig , Juan Anchorema , Orlando Dollenz , A.M. Faggi and Eduardo Mandez Intermetropolitan Migration in Canada: Changing Determinants over Three Decades . R. Paul Shaw. Chinese Cities—The Growth of the Metropolis since 1949 . Victor F. Sit, ed. Urbanization in the World-Economy . Michael Timberlake, ed. The Al Business: Commercial Uses of Artificial Intelligence . Patrick H. Winston and Karen A. Prendergast, eds.     

西南边陲的天文学

简要回顾了我国西南地区天文发展的历史，并对该地区现代天文学的发展作出了评论与展望。     

A history of the global understanding of the Earth

The author contributes to the development of a history of the global understanding of the Earth. He summarizes the main steps in the knowledge of the Earth's interior from antiquity to the present time and draws some lessons from this history.     

Dimorphodon and the Reverend George Howman's noctivagous flying dragon: the earliest restoration of a pterosaur in its natural habitat

A framed water colour of a noctivagous pterosaur by the Reverend G. E. Howman displayed on a wall on the first floor of the Philpot Museum, Lyme Regis, Dorset is the earliest depiction of a restored pterosaur in its life environment. The image is a naïve effort based more on mythology than on fact, but its haunting mood was a harbinger of antediluvian depictions by artists that were to become icons of prehistoric restoration. It predates Henry de la Beche's famous Duria Antiquior by just one year.     

《授时历》预报2012年日食

元代郭守敬等1280年编制的《授时历》是中国本土科学家研制的最后一部历法,具有极高的精度。采用其仍可预报2012年5月21日发生的日食,其预报北京地区的见食情况时食甚时刻误差4 min,食分误差为0.04。给出了《授时历》推步的1990～2050年北京的见食情况及精度,其中食甚时刻的标准偏差为103.04 min,食分的标准偏差则不低于0.33。通过考察1280～2050年间186个日食计算结果,可得出《授时历》自行用以来推步日食的误差,考虑到存在错报(不可见)和漏报因素的影响,其食甚时刻和食分的标准偏差分别不低于50.65 min和0.19;同时指出,随着行用时间的延长其推时误差也逐步放大。     

Fifty Years of the British Cartographic Society, 1963–2013

The British Cartographic Society has been in existence for 50 years. During that time it has sought to pursue its central aim of promoting the art and science of cartography through a variety of publications and events to its members and beyond. The Society has been on a journey of continual development in response to the way maps are created and used. In this short history we touch on some of the factors that have influenced its evolution and what the future may hold.