- The Feather Cloak of Captain Cook (hakaimagazine.com)
On a cloudy afternoon in January 1779, British explorer Captain James Cook watched as the Hawaiian chief Kalaniʻopuʻu and his attendants arrived in outrigger canoes for a formal meeting at Kealakekua Bay. The chief, a man in his late 40s or early 50s, was dressed for the occasion in a spectacular cloak made of tiny scarlet- and saffron-colored bird feathers, a garment so soft and sumptuous that it seemed to be made of velvet. As Cook walked ashore to pay his respects, Kalaniʻopuʻu gracefully tossed the rich cloak over the explorer’s shoulders as a present. Then he placed a feather helmet on Cook’s head, and laid “5 or 6 other cloaks, all exceedingly beautiful,” at Cook’s feet, as one of the British officers later noted in a journal entry.
- Introductory Chemistry by Iwanami Shoten
A group of Japanese chemists launched a project to disseminate a series of “Introduction to Chemistry” by the Internet. As the representative of the group, the author wishes to introduce the purpose of this project, and the structure of the series, to the potential users of the textbooks. For this purpose, the author prepared two short articles, one is the Q&A on the project, and the other Preface to the series. We wish the series would be used by many young students and citizens who have some difficulty in purchasing textbooks though they are very much interested in chemistry