Word: diagramer
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...dogs also yield another key bit of information: they tell theorists how the universe is curved, in the Einsteinian sense. There's no way to convey this concept to a nonphysicist except by two-dimensional analogy (see How Does the Universe Curve? diagram). The surface of a sphere has what's called positive curvature; if you go far enough in one direction, you will never get to the edge but you will eventually return to your starting point. An infinitely large sheet of paper is flat and, because it is infinite, also edgeless. And a saddle that extends forever...
...that simple. One especially telling case: Sister Bernadette (not her real name), who had shown no outward signs of Alzheimer's and whose youthful autobiography was rich with ideas and grammatical complexity, turned out at death to be riddled with the plaques and tangles of Alzheimer's (see diagram). Says Snowdon: "Lesson No. 1 in my epidemiology training is that there are hardly any diseases where one factor alone, even in infectious disease, will always cause illness...
...article "How Do You Junk Your Computer?" about ways to recycle computer parts [TECHNOLOGY, Feb. 12], included a diagram of a PC with a part identified as a "monitor yolk." I may not be a computer expert, but I do know the difference between the yoke on a cathode-ray tube and that of an egg, which is what's on your faces. HANNAH TANENBAUM Manlius...
...quite sure why. That's because much about the disease remains a mystery. Scientists like Scott are convinced it's carried not by a virus or a bacterium but by a rogue protein called a prion (see diagram). Unfortunately, prions can't be detected in a blood or tissue test; only their brain-riddling effect is apparent, and then usually just on autopsy. They can't be destroyed, moreover, by cooking or even by radiation. So if the BSE prion somehow did manage to enter the U.S. food supply, it might cause at least a few deaths before anyone could...
Finally, Schatten and his team were ready to try a DNA transfer (see diagram). This first effort was meant only to test the technique, so they decided to use a gene that occurs naturally in jellyfish, where it directs the production of a harmless protein that glows with a greenish light under the right illumination. Mice, rabbits and other creatures who have had the same gene inserted actually do shine dimly; while ANDi (his name is a backward acronym for "inserted DNA") does not, the scientists have detected traces of the gene in his muscle, hair, cheek and blood cells...