21st CENTURY

AS HEALTHY AS AN ASTRONAUT'
The mission of space medicine is to study the effects of factors like wei
to prevent and treat diseases, and to create the conditions that will enhance
the functioning of man in space. However, as Wolfgang Lillge explains, one
spinoff of this intensive medical study is that everyone on Earth could be made
"as healthy as an astronaut": Resolving the problems identified by U.S. and
Soviet space scientists will require breakthroughs that touch on every aspect
of the body's functioning.
STEINER'S SYNTHETIC GEOMETRY
AND CREATIVE THINKING
Education reformers in 19th-century
Prussia designed a curriculum to
produce thinking citizens, in which
the synthetic geometry of Jacob
Steiner was a central feature. The
reformers threw out "drill and grill"
memorization of axioms and
substituted Steiner's curriculum of
constructions with a compass and
straightedge, taught using the Socratic
method. Robert Gallagher presents a
synthetic geometry curriculum based
on Steiner's work that is suitable for
beginners of all ages.
WHEN WILL THE LIGHTS GO ,
Electricity availability may soon havto
be rationed in the United States
as it is now in Third World countries
Marsha Freeman reports that the grin
state of the U.S. power grid is thi
predictable outcome of 10 years o
attacks on the electricity system b<
antinuclear extremists and austerity
minded regulators and financia
interests. Electricity demand i
projected to increase at double th
rate of the planned increase ii
capacity over the next decade. For th
first time in history, the United State
is headed for unpredictable powe
outages.
If the beleaguered Shoreham nuclear plant in
New York is demolished as the antinukes plan,
Long Island residents will pay more for electricity
and suffer guaranteed brownouts.