Sheila Prakash Staffwriter

Class of 2007

Articles

  • The Triple Helix

    At first glance, the latest issue of The Triple Helix — with its glossy cover, fluorescent graphics, and impressive subheads — looks like it belongs on a shelf somewhere between the Columbia Law Review, the New England Journal of Medicine, and Discover magazine. The cover feature, set in stark white letters against a backdrop of prismatic nucleotides and eerily lit fingers holding a vial, reads “P...

    SciTech | December 5, 2005
  • SciTech Briefs

    Dakosaurus stumps the Crocodile Hunter

    SciTech | November 14, 2005
  • Entertainment Technology Center

    Sitting on the bank of the Monongahela River, the five-story gridiron structure housing Carnegie Mellon?s Entertainment Technology Center is hardly suggestive of entertainment ? or technology. With its lattice beams and looming gray facade, the building is every inch a ho-hum corporate headquarters.

    Ride the elevator to the fifth floor, however, and something remarkable happens.

    Special | October 26, 2005
  • How Things Work: Mathematical Knots

    A knot, in the conventional sense, is an intertwining rope or string usually designed to tie objects (or shoelaces) together. Take a piece of rope, twist, pull, and loop it a few times and you get a hitch knot. Loop it again and you get a half hitch knot. Loop it some more and you get a cow hitch knot. Glue those ends of the rope together, however, and you get a mathematical knot.

    SciTech | October 17, 2005
  • How Things Work: The Abacus

    This week, How Things Work is going to set the record straight on how to operate an abacus in the unfortunate event that your graphing calculator dies during your mathematics exam.
    An abacus is a calculation tool that was commonly used by the Chinese as early as the year 3000 BCE and the Babylonians in 2400 BCE. The concept of a mechanistic counting device gained widespread appeal, giving rise to...

    SciTech | October 3, 2005