EDITORIAL

edu-ca-tion

by Ilse Genovese

According to a 2008 report on education, "The Condition of Education 2000-2008," released by the National Center on Education Statistics, enrollment in America's public schools has risen to an all-time high, and the Nation's student body is becoming more diverse. more >>

EDUCATION

From the Hill to the Valley

by Jose Antonio Vargas

Here in Silicon Valley, David Kralik, a Washington fan for ten years, is, let's face it, a strange import. He is here to learn how to take government into the twenty-first centur. Kralik is a probe of sorts, a vanguard of a small but growing Washington consensus that the federal government--not just its elected officials but also its middle bureaucrats--can learn from Silicon Valley's ethos. more >>

GEOSCIENCE

Mapping Puerto Rico & U.S. Virgin Islands

by Peter R. Briere and James L. Suggs

Puerto Rico is an island of physiographic and ecological diversity. The central mountains, coastal lowlands, and karst region provide settings for rainforest (up to 240 inches of rain per year at El Yunque), beaches, caves, rivers, and deserts. more>>

Old Brass Brains

by Todd Ehret

Today, predictions of tides and tidal currents are generated by computer. The prediction of the periodic tides is the oldest form of oceanic prediction. How were such predictions made before the electronic age? more>>

Using the past to predict the future

by Todd Ehret and Peter Stone

Everyone living or working in the coastal areas of the world has taken notice of the periodic rise and fall of water levels in the oceans--the curents. more>>

EXPLORATION

An American cartographer in Egypt

by David Miller

Egypt! As a cartographer at National Geographic, in Washington, D.C., I have worked on countless maps of Egypt, yet I never thought that I would look upon the timeless landscape of the pyramids. But it happened! On Christmas Day in 2007, my family flew on an EgyptAir flight from New York to Cairo. more>>