Book

Infrastructure: A Field Guide to the Industrial Landscape. New York, London: W. W. Norton & Company. 2005. ISBN 0-393-05997-9. Publication date: October 19, 2005.

Computing Science columns

“Computing Science: Unwed Numbers.” American Scientist, Vol. 94, No. 1, January–February 2006, pages 12–15. [On Sudoku.]

“Computing Science: Group Theory in the Bedroom,” American Scientist, Vol. 93, No. 5, September-October 2005, pages 395-399.

“Computing Science: Life Cycles,” American Scientist, Vol. 93, No. 4, July-August 2005, pages 299-303.

“Computing Science: Rumours and Errours,” American Scientist, Vol. 93, No. 3, May-June 2005, pages 207-211. (Reprinted in Italian translation as “Errori e Dicerie,” Le Scienze, No. 446, ottobre 2005, pp. 86–92.) (Reprinted in German translation as “Gerüchte und Vehler,” Spektrum der Wissenschaft, Dezember 2005, pp. 116–121.)

“Computing Science: Why W?” American Scientist, Vol. 93, No. 2, March-April 2005, pages 104-108.

“Computing Science: Naming Names.” American Scientist, Vol. 93, No. 1, January-February 2005, pages 6-11.

“Computing Science: Ode to the Code.” American Scientist, Vol. 92, No. 6, November-December 2004, pages 494-499.

“Computing Science: Bugs That Count.” American Scientist, Vol. 92, No. 5, September-October 2004, pages 401-405.

“Computing Science: Undisciplined Science.” American Scientist, Vol. 92, No. 4, July-August 2004, pages 306-310.

“Computing Science: g-ology.” American Scientist, Vol. 92, No. 3, May-June 2004, pages 212-216.

“Computing Science: Small-Town Story.” American Scientist, Vol. 92, No. 2, March-April 2004, pages 115-119.

“Computing Science: Qwerks of History.” American Scientist, Vol. 92, No. 1, January-February 2004, pages 12-16.

“Computing Science: A Lucid Interval.” American Scientist, Vol. 91, No. 6, November-December 2003, pages 484-488.

“Computing Science: In Search of the Optimal Scumsucking Bottomfeeder.” American Scientist, Vol. 91, No. 5, September-October 2003, pages 392-396. [Reprinted in French translation as “Le parcours du ver,” Dossier Pour la Science, No. 44, July 2004.]

“Computing Science: The Spectrum of Reimannium.” American Scientist, Vol. 91, No. 4, July-August 2003, pages 296-300. [On random-matrix theory and the Riemann zeta function.] (Reprinted in French translation as “Le spectre du Riemannium” in Pour la science, No. 312, October 2003.) (Reprinted in Spanish translation as “El espectro di Riemannio” in Investigacion y Ciencia, January 2004, pp. 14–18.)

“Computing Science: Spam, Spam, Spam, Lovely Spam.” American Scientist, Vol. 91, No. 3, May-June 2003, pages 200-204.

“Computing Science: The post-OOP paradigm.” American Scientist, Vol. 91, No. 2, March-April 2003, pages 106-110.

“Computing Science: On the Threshold.” American Scientist, Vol. 91, No. 1, January-February 2003, pages 12-17. [On the survey-propagation algorithm.] (Reprinted in Italian translation as “Ai limiti del calcolo.” Le Scienze, Vol. 418, giugno 2003, pages 78–84.)

“Computing Science: Science on the Farther Shore.” American Scientist, Vol. 90, No. 6, November-December 2002, pages 499-502.

“Computing Science: Follow the Money.” American Scientist, Vol. 90, No. 5, September-October 2002, page 400-405.

“Computing Science: The World According to Wolfram.” American Scientist, Vol. 90, No. 4, July-August 2002, page 308-312.

“Computing Science: Terabyte Territory.” American Scientist, Vol. 90, No. 3, May-June 2002, page 212-216. (Reprinted in German translation as “Im Reich der Terabytes.” Spektrum der Wissenschaft, Spezial Omega, December 2003, pages 47–51.)

“Computing Science: The Easiest Hard Problem.” American Scientist, Vol. 90, No. 2, March-April 2002, pages 113-117.

“Computing Science: Statistics of Deadly Quarrels.” American Scientist, Vol. 90, No. 1, January-February 2002, pages 10-15. (Reprinted in Spanish translation as “Estadísticas de los conflictos bélicos.” Investigación y Ciencia, Mayo 2004, pages 8–14.) (Reprinted in French translation as “Les morts à la guerre” in Pour la Science, No. 310, August 2003.)

“Computing Science: Third Base.” American Scientist, Vol. 89, No. 6, November-December 2001, pages 488-492. [On the ternary number system.]

“Computing Science: The Computer and the Dynamo.” American Scientist, Vol. 89, No. 5, September-October 2001, pages 390-394. [On the power consumption of computers and the Internet.]

“Computing Science: Randomness as a Resource.” American Scientist, Vol. 89, No. 4, July-August 2001, pages 300-304.

“Computing Science: Computing Comes to Life.” American Scientist, Vol. 89, No. 3, May-June 2001, pages 204-208. [On biological computers.]

“Computing Science: How to Count.” American Scientist, Vol. 89, No. 2, March-April 2001, pages 110-114. [On errors in the counting process.]

“Computing Science: The Weatherman.” American Scientist, Vol. 89, No. 1, January-February 2001, pages 10-14. [On the pioneering weather forecast of Lewis Fry Richardson.]

“Computing Science: Dividing the Continent.” American Scientist, Vol. 88, No. 6, November-December 2000, pages 481-485. [On algorithms for identifying a continental divide.]

“Computing Science: The World in a Spin” American Scientist, Vol. 88, No. 5, September-October 2000, pages 384-388. [On the Ising model of ferromagnets and other physical systems.] (Reprinted in French translation as “Un monde de spins.” Pour la Science, No. 280, Février 2001, pages 86–91.)

“Computing Science: On the Teeth of Wheels” American Scientist, Vol. 88, No. 4, July-August 2000, pages 296-300. [On number theory and the history of gear trains.] (Reprinted in The Mart, National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors, Inc., Issue No. 314 (October 2003), pages 50–54.)

“Computing Science: ‘The Nerds Have Won.’” American Scientist, Vol. 88, No. 3, May-June 2000, pages 200-204. [On the commercialization of the Internet.]

“Computing Science: Graph Theory in Practice: Part II.” American Scientist, Vol. 88, No. 2, March-April 2000, pages 104-109. [Applications of mathematical graph theory to very large structures, especially the World Wide Web.]

“Computing Science: Graph Theory in Practice: Part I.” American Scientist, Vol. 88, No. 1, January-February 2000, pages 9-13. [Applications of mathematical graph theory to very large structures, especially the World Wide Web.]

“Computing Science: Experimental Lamarckism.” American Scientist, Vol. 87, No. 6, November-December 1999, pages 494-498. [If acquired traits could be inherited, would we be any better off?]

“Computing Science: Computational Creationism.” American Scientist, Vol. 87, No. 5, September-October 1999, pages 392-396. [Is the whole universe a computer?]

“Computing Science: The Vibonacci Numbers.” American Scientist, Vol. 87, No. 4, July-August 1999, pages 296-301. [On a randomized version of the Fibonacci sequence.]

“Computing Science: Seeing between the Pixels.” American Scientist, Vol. 87, No. 3, May-June 1999, pages 202-207. [On alternative ways of representing pictures.]

“Computing Science: The Web of Words.” American Scientist, Vol. 87, No. 2, March-April 1999, pages 108-112. [On WordNet.]

“Computing Science: E Pluribus Unum.” American Scientist, Vol. 87, No. 1, January-February 1999, pages 10-14. [On the StarLogo programming language.]

“Computing Science: Identity Crisis.” American Scientist, Vol. 86, No. 6, November-December 1998, pages 508-512. [On the various meanings assigned to “=”.]

“Computing Science: Bit Rot.” American Scientist, Vol. 86, No. 5, September-October 1998, pages 410-415. [On the evanescence of digital information.]

“Computing Science: How to Avoid Yourself.” American Scientist, Vol. 86, No. 4, July-August 1998, pages 314-319. [On self-avoiding walks.]

“Computing Science: Prototeins.” American Scientist, Vol. 86, No. 3, May-June 1998, pages 216-221. [On lattice models of protein folding.]

“Computing Science: Collective Wisdom.” American Scientist, Vol. 86, No. 2, March-April 1998, pages 118-122. [On cooperative computing over the Internet.]

“Computing Science: The Invention of the Genetic Code.” American Scientist, Vol. 86, No. 1, January-February 1998, pages 9-14. [What mathematicians and physicists thought the code ought to be, before biologists deciphered the real one.] (Reprinted in French translation as “L’invention du code génétique,” Dossier Pour la Science, No. 46, janvier 2005.)

“Computing Science: Square Knots.” American Scientist, Vol. 85, No. 6, November-December 1997, pages 506-510. [On lattice knot theory.]

“Computing Science: CAFEBABE.” American Scientist, Vol. 85, No. 4, July-August 1997, pages 304-308. [On the programming language Java.]

“Computing Science: The Infrastructure of the Information Infrastructure.” American Scientist, Vol. 85, No. 3, May-June 1997, pages 214-218. [On the physical layer of the Internet.]

“Computing Science: Can’t Get No Satisfaction.” American Scientist, Vol. 85, No. 2, March-April 1997, pages 108-112. [On the observation of phase transitions in the NP-complete problem called SAT, or satisfiability.]

“Computing Science: Reinventing the Computer.” American Scientist, Vol. 85, No. 1, January-February 1997, pages 16-20. [On notions of computing that go beyond the concepts of files, programs and the desktop metaphor.]

“Computing Science: Machine Politics.” American Scientist, Vol. 84, No. 6, November-December 1996, pages 522-526. [On manual and automated procedures for Congressional redistricting.]

“Computing Science: The Way the Ball Bounces.” American Scientist, Vol. 84, No. 4, July-August 1996, pages 331-335. [On some conceptual difficulties of simulating classical physics.]

“Computing Science: Digital Diffraction.” American Scientist, Vol. 84, No. 3, May-June 1996, pages 210-214. [On a program for simulating optical diffraction.]

“Computing Science: Speaking of Mathematics.” American Scientist, Vol. 84, No. 2, March-April 1996, pages 110-113. [On T. V. Raman’s AsTeR system for audio formatting of mathematical writing.]

“Computing Science: A Question of Numbers.” American Scientist, Vol. 84, No. 1, January-February 1996, pages 10-14. [On Neil Sloane’s sequence server and Simon Plouffe’s Inverse Symbolic Calculator.]

“Computing Science: Pleasures of Plication.” American Scientist, Vol. 83, No. 6, November-December 1995, pages 504-509. [On the paper-folding program of Michael Eisenberg and Ann Nishioka.]

“Computing Science: Debugging Myself.” American Scientist, Vol. 83, No. 5, September-October 1995, pages 404-408. [On how people respond when computers misbehave.] (Reprinted in Here and Now: Current Readings for Writers. By Gilbert H. Muller. Boston: McGraw-Hill. 1998. Pages 90–99.)

“Computing Science: The Square Root of NOT.” American Scientist, Vol. 83, No. 4, July-August 1995, pages 304-308. [On quantum computers.]

“Computing Science: Space-Time on a Seashell.” American Scientist, Vol. 83, No. 3, May-June 1995, pages 214-218. [On Hans Meinhardt’s simulations of seashell patterns.]

“Computing Science: A Computer with Its Head Cut Off.” American Scientist, Vol. 83, No. 2, March-April 1995, pages 116-120. [On the computer architecture called VLIW.]

“Computing Science: Waiting for 01-01-00.” American Scientist, Vol. 83, No. 1, January-February 1995, pages 12-15. [What happens January 1, 2000.]

“Computing Science: Scanning the Heavens.” American Scientist, Vol. 82, No. 6, November-December 1994, pages 512-516. [On the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.]

“Computing Science: The World Wide Web.” American Scientist, Vol. 82, No. 5, September-October 1994, pages 416-420.

“Computing Science: The Magic Words Are Squeamish Ossifrage.” American Scientist, Vol. 82, No. 4, July-August 1994, pages 312-316. [On the factoring of RSA-129.]

“Computing Science: Nature’s Algorithms.” American Scientist, Vol. 82, No. 3, May-June 1994, pages 206-210. [On algorithms for studying aggregation and similar forms of growth.]

“Computing Science: The Network Newsstand.” American cientist, Vol. 82, No. 2, March-April 1994, pages 108-112. [On electronic publications.]

“Computing Science: The Counting House.” American Scientist, Vol. 82, No. 1, January-February 1994, pages 10-14. [On computing at Fermilab.]

“Computing Science: Balanced on a Pencil Point.” American Scientist, Vol. 81, No. 6, November-December 1993, pages 510-516. [On system dynamics and The Limits to Growth].

Other writings

“Technopuzzlers.” Muse, Vol. 10, No. 1, January 2006, pp. 20–28.

Review of Selfish Routing and the Price of Anarchy, by Tim Roughgarden, American Scientist, Vol. 93, No. 6, November–December 2005, pages 567–568.

“Natural and Unnatural Disasters.” American Scientist, Vol. 93, No. 6, November–December 2005, pages 496–499. [On the flooding of New Orleans]

“Scientist’s Nightstand.” Interview. American Scientist online, November–December 2005. Link

“The Ghosts in the Machines.” Natural History, Vol. 114, No. 7, September 2005, pages 36–41.

“Dennis Flanagan, 1919-2005″ (obituary). American Scientist, Vol. 93, No. 2, March-April 2005, page 109.

“Anthropology for Mathematicians” A review of Symmetry Comes of Age: The Role of Pattern in Culture, Dorothy K. Washburn and Donald W. Crowe, editors, and Embedded Symmetries, Natural and Cultural, Dorothy K. Washburn, editor. American Scientist, Vol. 93, No. 2, March-April 2005, pages 180-192.

“Structures.” A review of Typologies by Bernd Becher and Hilla Becher. American Scientist, Vol. 92, No. 6, November-December 2004, pages 572-573.

“It or Bit?” A review of Information: The New Language of Science by Hans Christian von Baeyer. Natural History, Vol. 113, No. 8, October 2004, pages 60-66.

“Science Observer: Viva la Ciencia” (with Rosalind Reid). American Scientist, Vol. 92, No. 5, September-October 2004, pages 416-418.

Review of Fibonacci’s Liber Abici: A Translation into Modern English of Leonardo Pisano’s Book of Calculation. American Scientist, Vol. 91, No. 4, July–August 2003, page 361.

“Resistance is feudal.” A review of Against the Machine: The Hidden Luddite Tradition in Literature, Art, and Individual Lives by Nicols Fox. American Scientist, Vol. 91, No. 3, May-June 2003, pages 261-264.

Review of Knots, by Alexei Sossinsky. American Scientist, Vol. 91, No. 2, March–April 2003, page 170.

Review of Indra’s Pearls: The Vision of Felix Klein, by David Mumford, Caroline Series and David Wright. American Scientist, Vol. 91, No. 2, March–April 2003, page 182.

“Debugging the Universe.” International Journal of Theoretical Physics, Vol. 42, No. 2, February 2003, pages 277–295.

Review of Mechanizing Proof: Computing, Risk, and Trust. American Scientist, Vol. 90, No. 4, July–August 2002, pages 382–384.

Review of How the Other Half Thinks: Adventures in Mathematical Reasoning, by Sherman Stein. American Scientist, Vol. 90, No. 3, May–June 2002, page 271.

Review of Things a Computer Scientist Rarely Talks About, by Donald E. Knuth. American Scientist, Vol. 90, No. 3, May–June 2002, page 271.

Review of Structure and Interpretation of Classical Mechanics, by Gerald Jay Sussman and Jack Wisdom with Meinhard E. Meyer. American Scientist, Vol. 90, No. 3, May–June 2002, pages 278–279.

“Make the Data Sweat.” CIO Insight, October 2001, pages 4–9. [On the LEO computer.]

“From Motricity to Mentality.” A review of I of the Vortex, by Rodolfo Llinás. American Scientist, Vol. 89, No. 4, July-August 2001, page 370.

Review of The 85 Ways to Tie a Tie: The Science and Aesthetics of Tie Knots, by Thomas Fink and Yong Mao. American Scientist, Vol. 89, No. 2, March-April 2001, page 170.

“Eureka!” The Sciences, Vol.40, No. 6, November-December 2000, pages 11-15. [On search algorithms and search engines.]

“Aftermath.” Emissary, Fall 1999, pages 12-13.

“Clock of Ages.” The Sciences, Vol. 39, No. 6, November-December 1999, pages 9-13. (Received National Magazine Award for Best Essay of 1999.) Reprinted in The Best American Magazine Writing 2000, edited by Clay Felker. New York: American Society of Magazine Editors, 2000, pages 98-112.) (Reprinted in The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2000, edited by David Quammen; Burkhard Bilger, series editor. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2000, pages 97-108.)

“Garbage.” Muse, Vol. 3, No. 2, February 1999, pages 10-16. [A visit to the Fresh Kills landfill.]

“Odd Numbers.” A review of A Beautiful Mind, by Sylvia Nasar; The Man Who Loved Only Numbers, by Paul Hoffman; and My Brain Is Open, by Bruce Schechter. The Sciences, Vol. 38, No. 5, September-October 1998, pages 35-40.

Sequence A037245 in the On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences.

“Turing’s Test.” Muse, Vol. 2, No. 2, April 1998.

“The End of Science Writing?” A review of The End of Science: Facing the Limits of Knowledge in the Twilight of the Scientific Age, by John Horgan. American Scientist, Vol. 84, No. 5, September-October 1996, pages 495-496.

“Fermat’s Last Theorem and Modern Arithmetic.” (With Kenneth A. Ribet). American Scientist, Vol. 82, No. 3, March-April 1994, pages 144-156.

“The Information Age: The Electronic Palimpsest.” The Sciences, Vol. 33, No. 5, September-October 1993, pages 10-13. [Some thoughts on the ease of erasing and altering computer documents.] (Reprinted as “The Electronic Palimpsest: Digital Documents for All Occasions,” in The Norton Reader: An Anthology of Expository Prose. Ninth edition. pp. 1065–1073. W. W. Norton 1996.) (Reprinted in The Uses of Language, Oxford University Press, 1999.)

“The Information Age: The Discovery of Debugging.” The Sciences, Vol. 33, No. 4, July-August 1993, pages 10-13. [On Martin Campbell-Kelly’s simulator for the Edsac computer.]

“The Science of Computing: The Wheel of Fortune.” American Scientist, Vol. 81, No. 2, March-April 1993, pages 114-118. [On random-number generators.]

“The Information Age: The Numbering Crisis in World Zone 1.” The Sciences, Vol. 32, No. 6, November-December 1992, pages 12-15. [On the impending shortage of telephone numbers.]

“The Information Age: Reassembly Required.” The Sciences, Vol. 32, No. 3, May-June 1992, pages 12-15. [On inverse mappings.]

“The Information Age: Paradox Lost.” The Sciences, Vol. 31, No. 5, September-October 1991, pages 12-15. [Musings on how computer programs ought to respond when they are asked questions that have no answers.]

“The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematica.” Review of Mathematica version 2.0. American Scientist, Vol. 79, No. 5, September-October 1991, pages 474-475.

“Mr. Wizard’s Workshop.” Review of Exploring Mathematics with Mathematica, by Theodore W. Gray and Jerry Glynn; and Mathematica for the Sciences, by Richard E. Crandall. The Mathematica Journal. Vol. 1, No. 4, Spring 1991.

“The Information Age: Do It Yourself.” The Sciences, Vol. 31, No. 2, March-April 1991, pages 13-15. [On computer-aided artisanship.]

“The Information Age: No Forwarding Address.” The Sciences, Vol. 30, No. 5, September-October 1990, pages 8-11. [On the concept of indirect addressing.]

“40,000 Points of Light.” Pixel, Vol. 1, No. 2, May-June 1990, pages 36-41. [On a graphics language in which an image is a locus of points.]

“Thoughts on Mathematica.” Pixel, Vol. 1, No. 1, January-February 1990, pages 28-35.

“Machine Dreams.” Discover, Vol. 10, No. 10, October 1989, pages 82-87. [On computing as a third way of doing science.]

Review of The Dreams of Reason: The Computer and the Rise of the Sciences of Complexity, by Heinz Pagels. The New York Times Book Review, August 14, 1988, page 18.

“PC Scheme Tutorial.” Texas Instruments, Inc. July 1987.

“Theory & Practice: Mutant languages from the LISP lab.” Computer Language, April 1987, pages 23-26. [On innovations in formal languages derived from Lisp.]

“Theory & Practice: Eight diversions to keep your Cray out of mischief on a cold winter’s night.” Computer Language, February 1987, pages 21-26. [On some computationally hard problems.]

“Theory & Practice: Scissors, paper, stone: a tournament of Schemes.” Computer Language, December 1986, pages 19-29. [On a game in which random play is ideal. Also discusses first-class procedures in Scheme.]

“Theory & Practice: On the bathtub algorithm for dot-matrix holograms.” Computer Language, October 1986, pages 21-32. [On patterns generated by severely oversampled signals.]

“Theory & Practice: Tag–You’re It.” Computer Language, August 1986, pages 21-28. [On Emil Post’s tag systems.]

“My Life as a Forth Interpreter.” em>Computer Language, April 1986, pages. 27-33.

“A Mechanic’s Guide to Grammar: Part III: A Homemade Compiler.” Computer Language, December 1985, pages 49-64.

“A Mechanic’s Guide to Grammar: Part II: Climbing the Tower of Babel.” Computer Language, November 1985, pages 51-60.

“A Mechanic’s Guide to Grammar: Part I: Language in Man and Machine.” Computer Language, October 1985, pages 27-35.

“Rank-and-File Thinking.” Lotus, June 1985, pages 73-77.

“Computer Recreations: The cellular automaton offers a model of the world and a world unto itself.” Scientific American, March 1984, pages 12-21.

“Computer Recreations: Turning turtle gives one a view of geometry from the inside out.” Scientific American, February 1984, pages 14-20. [On turtle graphics and turtle geometry.]

“Computer Recreations: On the ups and downs of hailstone numbers.” Scientific American, January 1984, pages 10-16. [On the 3X+1 problem.]

“Computer Recreations: On the finite-state machine, a minimal model of mousetraps, ribosomes and the human soul.” Scientific American, December 1983, pages 19-28.

“Computer Recreations: A progress report on the fine art of turning literature into drivel.” Scientific American, November 1983, pages 18-28. [On randomly generated text.] (Reprinted in German translation as “Leere Phrasen,” Spektrum Der Wissenschaft, February 1984.

“Computer Recreations: Introducing a department concerned with the pleasures of computation.” Scientific American, October 1983, pages 22-36. [On novel applications of spreadsheet programs.]