Some Web Resources on Cosmic Rays
Jim Linnemann
MSU, Oct 16, 2003
My home page:
My presentations from Frontiers of Science:
*.ppt (includes some bibliography)
Web Browsing suggestions:
Use this Word document as a web log:
When you find an interesting site or page, highlight the link in the Address bar of Internet Explorer, type Ctrl-C to copy it, return to the Word document and type Ctrl-V to paste it into the word document. Then add your description of the site and what it would be useful for. In this way you will be building an annotated resource list.
It may be possible to email yourself this file, and to me—first choice.
If you have a floppy, you can take a copy with you—but leave one for me.
I will collect the files from each participant and email the concatenated file to all of you.
- Or at a minimum, place them in a folder … FrontiersOfScience/WebLogs
Starting Sites for Browsing
these include materials on which I based my presentation:
Both sites have further links to the home pages of their projects with many more resources
on cosmic rays, particle physics (and experiments in these fields), and on physics in general
CROP: Cosmic Ray Observatory Project (summer institute program)
QUARKNET: University of Maryland
Further web resources:
Be sure to look for the educational resources on the CROP and QUARKNET sites, and the project home pages. For example, try Inquiring Minds at
look at Physics and Space (Death Star and Runaway Universe are quite interesting)
Shop Nova sells videos
Try also some searches by
Cosmic Ray
Cosmic Ray Carbon 14Carbon Dating
Gamma Ray BurstActive Galactic NucleiHypernova
Below I’ve added some tips on using Google you might find useful
The Mossberg Report (from SmartMoney Magazine)
Google-Eyed
By Walter S. Mossberg
November 12, 2002
BY NOW, NEARLY every Internet user knows that Google is the best search site on the Web, an essential part of every surfer's arsenal. Not only is it uncannily accurate and blazingly fast, but Google is one of the few truly honest search sites, one of a handful that don't mix in paid search results with the real results. Its sponsored links are clearly identified and carefully designed so they look nothing like real search results.
But even many frequent Google users aren't aware that the search site is bristling with special features-ways to make searching quicker and more accurate, to find special or specific information, and to call up different sorts of results.
So here's a quick guide to things you may not know about Google. Even if you're a regular visitor, some of this might surprise you.
First of all, Google is really five different search sites in one. The vast majority of people use the Google Web search engine, which is the one that presents itself first when you go to But if you click on the tabs at the top of the screen, you can reach the Other Googles.
One of these is a truly excellent image-search service, which finds only photos and other graphics. Another searches for terms within postings made in discussion groups on the Web. A third searches within a structured directory of Web topics, looking only within sites related to a subject you select. And the fourth alternate search system within Google is a new one, still in beta, that searches only news sites on the Web. With this last one, if you don't enter any search term, you get a computer-generated news front page.
Any term you type into one of the five Google modules is automatically used by the others. For instance, if you type "Volkswagen" into the main Google Web search page, you get a list of Web sites about the car company and its cars. If you then click on the Images tab, you see a bunch of pictures of Volkswagens that Google has fetched. Click on the Groups tab to see discussions about the cars, and on the Directory tab to see a different list of Web sites. The News tab will yield headlines about the company.
But wait, there's more. Google has a number of "special" search engines that just drill down into selected subject areas. These can be reached by going to options/specialsearches.html. They include search engines focusing on Apple and the Macintosh; Microsoft; Linux and BSD operating systems; and the U.S. government. There's also a search engine devoted to the Web sites of colleges and universities. You click on one of hundreds of schools, then search away.
How about a Google search engine dedicated to shoppers? There's one that combs through only online catalogs. You can find it at catalogs.google.com.
Google also provides a way to learn which search terms are most popular, and a host of other information about the aggregate behavior of all the people that patronize its site. The company posts a special page called "Zeitgeist," buried deep within its site, that contains this data ( press/zeitgeist.html).
If you go to Google's Preferences page, you can enable or disable a filter that blocks out pornographic results. On this page, you can also limit Google to searches in particular languages.
Speaking of languages, when Google finds a Web page in Italian, French, Spanish, German or Portuguese, it can provide a rough translation in English if you click on the phrase "Translate this page," which is included in the search result. And if you click on "Language Tools," at the top of Google's home page, you can type any text into a blank box and get a rough translation, or ask Google to translate a Web page of your choice.
And there's much, much more hidden in those search results. For instance, each result typically includes the phrases "Cached" and "Similar pages" in gray type at the end of the listing. If you click on "Cached," you will see the Web page as it appeared when Google's automated Web indexing system last captured it. This is very helpful if a page has become inaccessible or has changed in a way that obliterates the information you wanted. If you click on "Similar pages," you get a list of pages relevant to that result that the main search may have missed.
Google can also find your search term inside documents posted on the Web in various formats, such as Microsoft Word or other Office documents, or Adobe Acrobat PDF files. These documents are indicated by a term in brackets at the beginning of the result, such as "[PDF]" or "[DOC]". If you click on the link, the document will open, provided you own the application required to open it. If you don't have that program, Google will let you view the document in HTML, the universal language of Web pages.
And you can use all sorts of tricks when typing search terms into Google's regular box. For instance:
If you type in a business name and its city and state, or zip code, Google finds its street address and phone number and provides a link to a map of its location.
If you type in a person's first and last name, followed by a city, state, area code or zip code, in most cases you get a street address and phone number and a link to a map.
If you type in a listed phone number, Google gives you the name and address that goes with it, plus a link to a map.
If you type in a street address, Google provides a link to a map.
If you type in one or more stock symbols, Google provides a link to a current quote.
You can get a dictionary definition of any search term by clicking on the underlined version of the term that appears in the dark blue header under the search box.
If you press the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button after typing a search term, Google takes you directly to the first listing in its search results, without showing you the list itself.
And Google can search in only a certain site; just type in your term, then the word "site:" followed by a Web address.
Finally, I must mention one of the best features of Google: the Google Toolbar. This is a free piece of software that alters your Web browser so a Google search box appears at the top of the browser window, no matter what page you're on. It spares you the need to navigate to the Google site when you want to do a search. You just type your search term into the ever-present box and a Google search results page appears. It even allows you to conduct a search within a single site.
The Google Toolbar is available at toolbar.google. com. But it works only with Internet Explorer for Windows, so Mac users and users of alternative browsers are out of luck.
So the next time you visit Google, remember: As great as you thought it was, there's even more to like than you knew.