Author: Ong Willie
Institution: repsm
Date: August 2007
A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. This issue is devoted to the very big; our authors guide us into realms ranging from the environment to the search for dark energy. Whilst pollution indexes globally provide figures on net air pollution levels, Wagner et. al. have investigated the composition of that pollution and the effect of weather conditions in Claremont, California. They conclude that the one factor which significantly affects pollution levels is wind speed. Interestingly, other weather factors like temperature and humidity do not play as crucial a role.
As part of the search for dark energy, Williamson et al report on the development of a novel technique for improving the performance of LBNL charge coupled displays used in the Supernova Acceleration Probe (SNAP), a space-based telescope that will be used to identify and measure *supernovae*, the candles of our universe. Enjoy!
Willie Ong
Physical Sciences and Mathematics Division Research Editor