Notebook

Faculty in Yale University's computer science department were greeted with a message from a familiar name on their E-mail early last month. Computer science professor David Gelernter, the victim of mail-bomb attack on June 24 (C. O'Kane, The Scientist, Aug. 23, 1993, page 1), was back at the keyboard. His cheery message--Gelernter jokingly referred to himself as "the department's very own official terrorist bomb victim"--was interspersed with information indicating the seriousness of the wounds he suffered. He wrote that he will need surgery to recover some degree of functionality in his right hand and hearing in his right ear. In addition he said, "I don't have much vision in my right eye at the moment, but that may improve." Nonetheless, Gelernter vowed to come back, on a limited basis, this fall. Summing up his perspective on the ordeal, Galernter wrote: "I am the luckiest man alive (emphasis on alive). Surviving ...