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TIME: Almanac 1990
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1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso
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time
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070389
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07038900.044
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1990-09-22
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FROM THE PUBLISHER, Page 6
SUNSPOT, N. MEX.: senior correspondent J. Madeleine Nash has
been eager to report a story from that intriguing dateline since
she learned of its existence at a gathering of astronomers last
year. For this week's cover, Nash finally got her wish. "Sunspot
isn't properly a town," she says, but a "singularly beautiful
place, high on a mountain peak, that is one of the world's most
important centers of solar research." The day after her arrival,
Nash looked through a telescope "longer than a football field" to
view the rising sun. She glimpsed a stunning, white-hot world swept
by turbulence that made it look "grainy, as if sprinkled with
sand." At the same time, she saw that "gargantuan sunspots had
erupted like a rash" on either side of the solar equator.
This week's story may be the hottest Nash has ever covered, but
as a reporter specializing in science and technology, she has
contributed to covers on subjects, ranging from supercomputers to
supernovas, that have proved as challenging as the sun. A "lopsided
liberal-arts graduate" of Bryn Mawr College who joined TIME in
1965, Nash credits her fascination with such topics to a firm
belief that "nothing is so difficult that it can't be understood
with a little effort." Her marriage to a physicist helps, allowing
her "to absorb a feel for how scientists think and operate,
virtually by osmosis."
As the sun story unfolded, it made for some odd conversations
among staffers in the San Francisco bureau, where Nash is currently
based. Office manager Olivia Stewart found herself fielding
enigmatic tips about solar activity. Many came from Patrick
McIntosh, a solar physicist in Boulder. As Nash tells it, "Olivia
would say with mock concern that `Pat McIntosh called again to say
the sun was acting kind of strange.' Then she would burst out
laughing." Last week, as the story was going to press, the sun
graciously cooperated by ejecting a huge arch of gas that some
astronomers pronounced the largest explosion they have ever
witnessed. That's the kind of message Nash appreciates.