Science: Ghosts

When an amateur astronomer, sitting in his cornfield observatory and sweeping the skies with his little telescope, discovers a comet or a nova (exploding star), he telegraphs his find to Harvard Observatory, which checks it if possible and then notifies the big Western Hemisphere observatories. Professional astronomers do the same, but, concentrating on fixed research programs, they are less likely to make lucky discoveries than the sky-roving freelancers. Harvard not only notifies Western Hemisphere astronomical centres of new finds, but cables to Copenhagen, which performs the same service for observatories in...