Gregory Bearman

The dark writing blended illegibly into the small, blackened piece of parchment from the Dead Sea Scrolls, the timeworn texts that are giving scholars new insight into religion in the era when Christianity and Judaism were born. But techniques of space-age science revealed a phrase in the ancient Aramaic language: "He wrote the words of Noah." That discovery of the ark builder's name was a victory for Jet Propulsion Laboratory physicist Gregory Bearman.

The dark writing blended illegibly into the small, blackened piece of parchment from the Dead Sea Scrolls, the timeworn texts that are giving scholars new insight into religion in the era when Christianity and Judaism were born. But techniques of space-age science revealed a phrase in the ancient Aramaic language: "He wrote the words of Noah." That discovery of the ark builder's name was a victory for Jet Propulsion Laboratory physicist Gregory Bearman.

The article on owner-sold residences ("FSBO Can Spell Success" by Ilyce R. Glink, Oct. 29) advised homeowners to obtain a market price of their house by asking real estate agents to prepare a marketing plan and comparison pricing data without telling them they intended to sell the house themselves. This practice, similar to the ethic that leads people to shop at high-end computer or electronics stores and then purchase items at discount or by mail order, is unethical and immoral. In rabbinical tradition, one is forbidden to ask a shopkeeper for prices if he does not plan to buy or is not in the market for the item.

The physics behind those whispers Regarding "Royal View" by Christopher Reynolds [April 3]: The Whispering Gallery [in St. Paul's Cathedral] is a version of a now-famous physics phenomena, whispering gallery wave modes. They also exist with light and have been used recently to make sensitive medical diagnostics devices and to detect trace explosives. It is not that it "is said to make whispers audible. " It does make them audible by conducting the sound wave in a way that does not let it disperse or fade.

The dark writing blended illegibly into the small, blackened piece of parchment from the Dead Sea Scrolls, the timeworn texts that are giving scholars new insight into religion in the era when Christianity and rabbinical Judaism were born. But a little Space Age science revealed a phrase in ancient Aramaic: "He wrote the words of Noah." That discovery of the ark builder's name was a victory for physicist Gregory Bearman of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.