The psychology instructor had just finished a lecture on mental health and was giving an oral test.
Speaking specifically about manic depression, she asked, "How would you diagnose a patient who walks back and forth screaming at the top of his lungs one minute, then sits in a chair weeping uncontrollably the next?"
A young man in the rear raised his hand and answered, "A basketball coach?"
Pulsar discoveryIn 1967, the first pulsating radio source (pulsar) was detected by an alert graduate student, Jocelyn Bell, then working under the direction of Prof. Anthony Hewish at the Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory, Cambridge, England. A special radio telescope was used, with 2,048 antennae arrayed across 4.4 acres. By 13 Nov 1998, one thousand had been found. The pulsing of the radiation has clock-like precision , up to 1,000 times per second. A pulsar is believed to be a neutron star with exceedingly rapid spin. Rotational periods range from 1.57 milliseconds to 5.1 sec. Pulsars prompted studies of quantum-degenerate fluids, relativistic gravity and interstellar magnetic fields. Similar behaviour of a star flashing in the optical spectrum was detected on 18 Jan 1968.Optical pulsars remain very rare.« |
