We trace the history of atmospheric refraction from the ancient Greeks up to the time of Kepler. The concept that the atmosphere could refract light entered Western science in the second century B.C. Ptolemy, 300 years later, produced the first clearly defined atmospheric model, containing air of uniform density up to a sharp upper transition to the ether, at which the refraction occurred. Alha...

We use compact D = 4, N = 1, Type IIB orientifolds as a testing ground for recent ideas about precocious gauge coupling unification and a low energy string scale. We find that certain such orientifolds have the interesting property that gauge couplings receive moduli-dependent corrections which mimic the effect of field theoretical logarithmic running. The effective cut-off scale for the logari...

Critical Reflection in a Digital Media Artwork Playas: Homeland Mirage. (August 2007) Jack Eric Stenner, B.E.D.; M.S., Texas A&M University Co-chairs of Advisory Committee: Prof. Carol LaFayette, MFA Dr. Andruid Kerne The introduction of digital media into the working practice of artists has produced challenges previously unknown to the field of art. This inquiry follows an atypical model of ar...