音频当月有效 下载

Bach, the man

According to Wolff, musicians and even scholars have been too quick to rush to speculation, partly because of the sketchy materials that have formed our image of Bach.

"The Mozart family letters give us detailed information about every stage of that composer's life," Wolff said. "We don't have anything like that for Bach. He has been less accessible biographically as a human being because we have so little material on him."

The team recently uncovered two of the longest Bach letters still in existence, which, with other items, are helping fill in more about Bach's personality. Earlier documents have shown, for example, that Bach had a large dinner table with 12 chairs (only for adults), suggesting a vibrant social life.

"He was a gregarious person with an open house," Wolff said. "Emanuel Bach [his son] writes that every musician who was traveling through Leipzig wanted to see his father."

Bach, the musician

Musical materials are coming to light as well; most notably, a previously unknown celebratory {aria}, written in 1713 for the Duke of Weimar's 53rd birthday. It had remained hidden because it was field with a stash of {memorabilia} and birthday cards. The aria was revealed to the world immediately and has already been recorded twice.

Perhaps the most telling aspect of Bach's life coming into focus is the tension between workaday musicians and a composer pushing music into an unknown realm. There's a famous anecdote about Bach throwing his wig at an errant musician. Wolff said that might be an exaggeration, but it reinforces the real Bach we are starting to know. "He expected the utmost of his musicians, and that must have made it difficult for everyone around."

音频当月有效 下载

When he was thirteen years old, J.S. Bach copied out Dietrich Buxtehude's most complicated organ work in the same florid, sophisticated music script that we know from his adult years. But it took scholars nearly 250 years to rediscover the copy in an archive in Weimar, Germany, a few years ago. The work reveals that Bach was already an accomplished musician as he entered this teens. This is just one piece of a vast picture now forming of a composer whose life has remained frustratingly obscure. In fact, if Bach is the greatest composer Western civilization has produced, he is also the major figure we know least about. However, a new generation of scholars is changing that.

"Pulling Bach down to earth"

The driving force is Christoph Wolff, a German-born Harvard University professor whose writings devoted to Bach would fill a small library. Wolff's biography, Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician, was at once a capstone of 40 years of Bach research and a springboard for more. Wolff said that most Bach material resides in archives, which lay under East German rule after 1945. Only since the fall of communism in the 1990s have scholars had access to the archives. And many of the tools of modern scholarship were not available before World War II.

Now, thanks to a renewed push, beginning in 2002 by the Bach-Archiv in Leipzig, which Wolff heads, we are learning new things about Bach practically every week. In five years 120 Bach-related items have been discovered by a team of scholars that has spread out across Germany like a pack of FBI agents hunting a fugitive. "Some of the effect of this work is pulling Bach down to earth," Wolff said. "It makes him a more credible human being than the abstract composer close to heaven he is so often portrayed as."

音频当月有效 下载

New advances mean new uses

Companies began using UV light to cure coatings in the early 1990s, but it was the introduction of nano-sized particles that won Ramsey's work serious attention. As the UV light hits photoinitiators in the coatings, electrons are knocked loose, forcing the compounds to regroup and create new bonds. "It's serendipity that the chemistry and physics of ultraviolet light work differently on nanoparticles," she says. "In traditional coatings, the bonds are created in the beginning. But with nano and UV, it all comes together in the end."

Ramsey's research has yielded steel and brass coatings, as well as spray-on coatings that resist yellowing and flex without cracking. Now she's working on coatings that produce surfaces resistant to microbial growth, for medical uses.

In fact, DuPont licensed Ramsey's technology two years ago for its automotive coatings business. Technical manager Robert Matheson explains. "We were having a tough time getting coatings to work with ultraviolet light," in part because to cure completely, the light has to shine through the entire coating. "Sally's process worked. Plus, it cut down on material costs and the time it takes to coat products."

Taking care of business

In 2003, Ramsey met Richard D.Stromback, a young entrepreneur who subsequently bought a controlling interest in her company and took over as chairman. Now Stromback is in the middle of raising capital through an alternative public offering in which Ecology Coatings merges with OCIS, a publicly traded "shell" company. If it pans out, Ecology could shift from strictly research to the development of commercial applications. It could start manufacturing products based on the waterproof-paper technology.

"My dream is to have an inventor's workshop where we apply the technology to all kinds of products that have useful applications," Ramsey says. "And I certainly would hope it helps clean up our world."

音频当月有效 下载

Sally Ramsey's secret is an off-the-shelf $20 mini paint gun. Well, no: The secret is what's in the gun, a spray made up of nano-sized versions of commercially available chemical compounds. Exactly which chemicals they are, Ramsay declines to say. But when they're sprayed on paper, which then is run through a machine that zaps the surface with ultraviolet (UV) light, what you get isn't just waterproof paper. Anyone can do that. No, the real magic is waterproof paper that's durable, efficient to manufacture, and safe for the environment. The coating process doesn't corrode or pollute, and the paper itself can decompose in a landfill.

Industrial coatings---sprays, finishes, or plating designed to keep plastic from scratching or metal from rusting---have long been the domain of old-line companies that used time-consuming, corrosive, environmentally-unfriendly processes to make finishes stick. While more stringent environmental rules have driven the adoption of cleaner technologies, such as using water or heat to apply coatings, those can take an hour or longer to dry and often can't be used in fragile electronics.

Real-world solutions

Ramsey, 54, a chemist from a family of chemists, co-founded Ecology Coatings 17 years ago. The science spun out of her previous work for a small metal-finishing shop, which provided a defining experience: "It was a real-world place with people who needed to spray real coatings and make real products," she says. "It forced me to look at every part of the process."

Her most important insight: Most traditional coatings, like paints, are based in liquids, which dry via evaporation or with intense heat. That takes time, and the evaporation can send pollutants into the air. Ecology Coatings' products are actually liquid solids that don't evaporate, so curing takes a lot less time, and there are no emissions.

音频当月有效 下载

Berry business success

Globalization Chile has been the main source of winter berries for sale in the U.S. in recent years. Not only does its summer coincide with winter in the U.S., but also its lower land costs plus lower farm wages offset the added shipping costs. Mexico is gaining, however, mainly in raspberries, thanks to new heat-tolerant varieties and cheaper shipping.

Fast and reliable refrigerated transport Raspberries picked in Chile on Monday are airfreighted to the U.S. the next day. They'll be in shopping carts nationwide by late Thursday or Friday. Blueberries mostly come by ship from the Southern Hemisphere. They're cooled to virtual dormancy at 0 degrees Centigrade two hours off the bush and delivered in 20 to 30 days.

New varieties To survive shipping, a blueberry needs durable flavor and a strong outer skin, plus a dry, sealed scar at the point where it's picked. Raspberries are thinner-skinned and have tiny picking scars on each of their 100 to 150 little berry bubbles, or drupelets. In addition to addressing this problem, plant researchers came up with varieties that bear fruit earlier and later in the season and in warmer climates.

The plastic "clam" packaging Shoppers want to know about the condition of berries at the bottom of the box, which couldn't be easily inspected when the berries were packed in paper boxes. Enter the plastic clam, which even comes with a shelf life-extending "diaper" to sop up accidents.

Forgiving consumers Long-distance raspberries must be picked firm and orange if they're to arrive in supermarkets semi-firm and deep crimson. That entails a considerable taste tradeoff, said Chad Finn, a berry specialist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's research center in Oregon. Lost taste doesn't seem to matter to consumers, he said, as long as "the berry looks good."

音频当月有效 下载

Raspberries and blueberries are the bonanza fruit of the day, flying out of supermarkets in tiny boxes at super prices. The market for berries is so hot that U.S. domestic production and imports both are growing and---in defiance of usual market economics---supply, demand and price are all at record highs.

The popularity of berries is so intense that there's a two-year wait for plants from commercial nurseries. And consumer demand? It's so keen that when supplies run short, as they do in the spring when Southern Hemisphere production falls off, many supermarkets simply shift from 6-ounce boxes to 4.4-ounce boxes without changing their prices.

Delicious and healthful

"They're a splurge---a constant splurge," Carol Bleecker, a Maryland resident said, laughing, as she added a $3.99 half-pint of Chilean blueberries to her shopping cart. "I like how they taste, and I think they're good for me," she said.

That combination---and especially the fact that berries are healthful---is what increased the national appetite for them, industry leaders said. The health claim also desensitized people to price, overturning decades of experience among berry producers that a 10-cent price hike could drop demand by 40 percent.

"I wouldn't believe it if I weren't living through it," said John Shelford, the president of Naturipe Farms, a multinational berry grower and shipper based in Florida.

Boom in business

Observers cite several factors in addition to healthfulness to explain the boom in berries. Among them:

Year-round availability Berries available only in summer often took shoppers by surprise. Now that they're always in produce departments, Shelford said," consumers look for and plan to use them." So they buy more. And year-round crops need none of the promotional sales that supermarkets use to introduce and push seasonal crops, so they're more profitable.

音频当月有效 下载

Icebergs in blue

The boat motors along. From time to time, through the windows and the rain, we spot more icebergs, bigger now. Those of us with the proper outerwear tentatively move onto the deck. We take pictures while protecting our cameras from the rain as best we can, then step back inside.

"The water," Petri says into her microphone, "starts out gray, and as it moves, the sediment dissolves and settles. That's why these lakes—Lago Nordenskjold and Lago Pehoe—are bluer. They still contain sediments, but they've settle."

Glacier glory

Soon the rain lets up and more of us are on deck. The icebergs now are of a size and variable shape that makes everyone still using film cameras regret wasting shots on those relative ice cubes back by the hotel. Then we see and iceberg that makes all the rest look like spots!

And then, there is the glacier, which produces all the icebergs. It is impossible to adequately describe the scenic glory of this place: Glacier Grey up-close, the bergs, and the surrounding snow-and-black mountains.

Now, everyone—cold rain or not-is on deck. Petri's words, in English, for all this: "Wow.' That's the only word I can say . . ."

A final surprise

On my final morning, my guide and driver were at the hotel. It was time for me to leave Torres del Paine. As we drove one last time along the gravel road, winding between mountains and hills, I noticed a small lake to the left in a shallow valley. In that lake, framed by mountains newly dusted with snow were hundreds of pink flamingos, bathed in brilliant sunshine.

Flamingos! Here, nothing, nothing is normal.

音频当月有效 下载

Patience pays off

There are defined circuits—trail routes—that trekkers use to explore Torres del Paine. Trekking for kilometers on rugged trails is about the only way to see the actual torres—the towers—of the Rio Paine. Odds are fair to good, however, that when you get to the point when you can see them in their entirety, they'll be enveloped in cloud or you'll be battling rain, or the sun will frustrate photographers by being in precisely the wrong position.

This park yields all its charms only to those with patience and strong, steady legs. There are trails, and there are lakes; there are rivers and meadows and wildflowers. There are even llama-like animals that practically pose. It's even possible to spot a huemul, an endangered deer that's as elusive as the puma.

A gray lake

An excursion boat at Lago Grey loads outside the Hosteria Lago Grey. The lake is, indeed, gray. Icebergs float near the dock, and the 50 passengers who paid $73 for this experience—virtually all with cameras—take pictures of these blue bergs even before the boat sails.

The day, too, is gray, and squalls frustrate those who dare walk onto the deck as the boat eases from the landing. Sara Petri, the boat's naturalist-guide, is 34, from Sweden, and brightens the grayness. She had arrived in the country only months earlier with a tour group, went home, then came back.

"I fell in love with a Chilean guide. When he proposed, I said 'yes' in all the languages I know."

I asked about the rain: "Normal weather here?"

She flashed a half-smile: "Nothing is normal in this park."

音频当月有效 下载

Torres del Paine National Park, near the southernmost tip of South America, astounds those who venture into its range. It is challenging, baffling and constantly changing.

On my visit, the morning rain was horizontal when I asked Claudio, manager at Hosteria Las Torres, if he knew the next day's forecast. His reply: "Nobody knows."

"Nothing is normal"

Later the same day, there was bright sunshine. At my hotel's front desk, I asked Marco, the clerk on duty, if days here normally started out cloudy, then cleared in the afternoon. His reply: "Nothing is normal."

It may not be normal—this expansive national park in Chilean Patagonia—but it is spectacularly beautiful.

Winds create wonder

The large windows of the Hosteria Pehoe dining room overlook Lake Pehoe. Beyond this impossibly blue lake, the blueness broken only by whitecaps raised by the park's infamous winds, are the Cuernos del Paine (the Horns of Paine). To photograph these peaks, which rise 2,600 meters, is to take hundreds of photographs knowing that no two photos of these same mountains taken from the same place will be alike. This is not hyperbole. It is fact.

Clouds drape them, frame them, envelop them, expose them—the changes happening as fast as you just read. It's the winds. You'll be eating your eggs at breakfast, camera by your side, and all at once the sun will catch a particular peak just right, and you'll grab the camera and race outside and snap that photo and stand there in the wind and watch in awe, knowing the moment was, indeed, a moment.

音频当月有效 下载

Honda Motors announced that it will put a sleek hydrogen fuel-cell sedan into limited production next year and also will sell a unique hybrid car in the U.S.A. within two years.  The new sedan represents a continued effort to move hybrid auto mobiles into the mainstream market.  The new car will be priced even less than their current $25,000 Civic hybrid.

General Motors (GM) also has promised some time this year to produce 100 Chevrolet Equinox SUVs modified to run on fuel-cell power. GM and Honda say their fuel-cell vehicles meet U.S. safety standards and have the same features as gasoline models.

Fuel-cell vehicles are electric-powered.  The electricity is generated by a fuel-cell stack in the car.  The stack mixes hydrogen and oxygen in a process that produces electricity and emits water.  Nearly all hydrogen is made from natural gas, abundant in North America.

Hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles are seen as far-horizon solutions to U.S. dependence on oil.  The feed-back that Honda and GM would get from individual users could help tailor fuel-cell cars to mainstream tastes and thus speed development of the pollution-free vehicles.

"The consumer focus is where we need to put more attention," says Steve Ellis, Honda fuel-cell marketing manager.  "We started with fleets, added a few consumers, now we're going to swing the pendulum."

Only about a dozen states have hydrogen fueling stations.  If big oil companies are slow to add hydrogen to their offerings, industrial-gas suppliers could step in.

Honda expects the 2008 model will get the gasoline equivalent of 68 miles per gallon in the federal city-highway-combined-driving cycle. Hydrogen with the same amount of energy as a gallon of gasoline sells for $3 to $6. Because fuel-cell cars are much more efficient, the cost per mile is much less than with gasoline.