About the Melphysica Server
If you are currently on the Duke University network, Melphysica is the name of the server from which this site is now being viewed. It is a personal graphics workstation-turned-into-a-server, connected to a 10/100baseT Ethernet network currently located at Duke University. Melphysica also contains a Pentium III processor and 384 megabytes of RAM for your convenience while viewing this site from within the Duke network.
The name "Melphysica" was derived from this computer's first intended purpose, to serve as a "Master Electronic Library for Physics." While Melphysica continues to fulfill this original purpose in a way, it now hosts a website that lets visitors see connections between physics, science, and the rest of life.
If you are currently not on the Duke network, then you are viewing a mirror site on Tripod, a free web hosting organization based in Massachusetts. This site has a maximum of 12 MB of space on Tripod, and should load quite rapidly even from a 28.8 K modem. The URL for the mirror site is https://members.tripod.com/Cautagen .
Melphysica at Duke is not continuously on like most servers. It is turned on only from 4:00-8:00 p.m. EST, 7 days a week. At all other times, the server is off. The Melphysica mirror site on Tripod is available 24 hours a day everyday.
One last important thing to remember--when accessing Melphysica (done only from the Duke network), use this URL (no .com, .net, or .edu extension):
