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Motorola 88000

The 88000 (m88k for short) is a RISC instruction set architecture developed by Motorola during the 1980s. The MC88100 arrived on the market in 1988, some two years after the competing SPARC and MIPS. Due to the late start and extensive delays releasing the second-generation MC88110, the m88k achieved very limited success outside of the MVME platform and embedded controller environments. When Motorola joined the AIM alliance in 1991 to develop the PowerPC, further development of the 88000 ended.

Background
Motorola entered the 1980s in a position of strength; their recently-introduced Motorola 68000 easily outperformed any other microprocessor on the market, and its 32-bit architecture was naturally suited to the emerging workstation market. Intel was not moving aggressively into the 32-bit space, and the companies that did, notably National Semiconductor, botched their releases and left Motorola in control of everything that was not Intel. At the time, Intel held about 80% of the overall computer market, while Motorola controlled 90% of the rest.

Into this came the early 1980's introduction of the RISC concept. At first, there was an intense debate within the industry whether the concept would actually improve performance, or if its longer machine language programs would actually slow the execution through additional memory accesses. All such debate was ended by the mid-1980s when the first RISC-based workstations emerged; the latest Sun-3/80 running on a 20 MHz Motorola 68030 delivered about 3 MIPS, whereas the first SPARC-based Sun-4/260 with a 16 MHz SPARC delivered 10 MIPS. Hewlett-Packard, DEC and other large vendors all began moving to RISC platforms.

This shift in the market had the potential to lock Motorola out of the workstation market, one of its only strongholds and among its most lucrative. Apple remained the company's only large vendor outside the workstation space; other users of the 68000, notably Atari Corporation and Commodore International, were floundering in a market that was rapidly standardizing on IBM PC compatibles.

Motorola's approach
RISC designs were a conscious effort to tailor the processor to the types of operations being called by the compilers on that platform, in the case of Unix workstations, the C programming language. The seminal IBM 801 project had noted that compilers generally did not use the vast majority of the instructions available to them, and instead used the simplest version of the instructions, often because these performed the fastest. Yet the circuitry providing the other versions of these instructions added overhead even to the simplest version. Removing these unused instructions from the CPU eliminated this overhead and freed up significant room on the chip. This gave room to increase the number of processor registers, which had a far greater impact on performance than the removed special-case instructions. For this reason, the RISC concept can be said to be driven by the real-world design of compilers.

Motorola's articles on the 88000 design speak of single-cycle instructions, large processor register files and other hallmarks of the RISC concept, but don't mention the word "RISC" even once. As existing RISC designs had entered the market already, the company decided that they would not attempt to compete with these and would instead produce the world's most powerful processor. To do this, they took design notes from one of the fastest computers of a previous era, the CDC 6600 supercomputer. In particular, they adopted the 6600's concept of a scoreboard. Scoreboarding allowed the CPU to examine the instruction's use of registers and immediately dispatch those that did not rely on previous calculations that were not yet complete; this allowed the instructions to be re-ordered to allow ones that had their required data to run while others had their data loaded from the cache or memory. This instruction reordering could improve usage by as much as 35%.

The design also used separate data and instruction address busses. This was costly in terms of pin count; both the instruction and data caches had 32 pins for their address and 32 pins for the data, meaning the complete system used 128 pins on the "P-bus". This design was based on the observation that only about one-third of operations were memory-related; the rest were operating on data already read. This strongly favored having a dedicated instruction pathway to an external instruction cache. The caches and associated memory management units (MMU) were initially external, a cache controller could be connected to either the data or instruction busses, and up to four controllers could be used on either bus. Internally there were three 32-bit busses, connected to the internal units in different ways as required for reading and writing data to the registers.

Another feature of the new design was its built-in support for specialized co-processors, or "special function units", or SFUs. In addition to the internal commands supported out of the box, it set aside blocks of 256 instructions that could be used by co-processors. This was aimed at designers who wished to customize the system; new functional units could be added without affecting the existing instruction set architecture, ensuring software compatibility for the main functionality. Every 88000 came with SFU1 already installed, the floating point unit (FPU). The branch and jump instructions incorporate a delayed branch option (.n), which can be specified to ensure that the subsequent sequential instruction is executed before the branch target instruction, irrespective of the branch condition. Placing branch instruction or other instruction which may change the instruction pointer, in the branch delay slot is deprecated to maintain future compatibility.

Release
By 1987 it was widely known that Motorola was designing its own RISC processor. Referred to by the computer industry as the "78000", an homage to the earlier 68000, it became the 88000 when it was released in April 1988.

As a side-effect of the complexity of the design, the CPU did not fit on a single chip. The 68030, released a year earlier, had 273,000 transistors, including the arithmetic logic unit (ALU) and memory management unit (MMU) on a single chip, with the optional floating point unit (FPU) as a separate chip. In contrast, the 88000 packaged the ALU and FPU together on the 750,000 transistor MC88100, and the memory management unit (MMU) and 16 KB static RAM cache in the 750,000 transistor MC88200. In contrast to the 68030 where the FPU was truly optional, a practical 88000 system could not be built without at least one MC88200. Systems could include more than one MC88200, producing larger caches and allowing multiple paths to main memory for improved performance.

Aimed at the high-end of the market, it was claimed to be the fastest 32-bit processor in the world when it was released. Running at 20 MHz, it reached 34,000 Dhrystones or 17 VUPS, compared to about 12 MIPS for a 12.5 MHz SPARC of the same vintage in the SPARCstation, or around 3.3 MIPS of the 20 MHz 68030. It was also available as a 25 MHz part at 21 MIPS, 48,387 Dhrystones.

At the time, Motorola marketed the 88000 strictly to the high-end of the market, including "telecommunications, artificial intelligence, graphics, three-dimensional animation, simulation, parallel processing and supercomputers", while they suggested the existing 68k series would continue to be used in the workstation market. Instead, most potential customers ignored the 88000, and the system saw little use.

Re-release
As the original release saw next to no use outside Motorola's own products, and those traditional customers were starting to move to other RISC designs, the company re-launched the design in a single-chip form, the MC88110. In the late 1980s, several companies were actively examining the 88000 series for future use, including NeXT, Apple Computer and Apollo Computer, but all had given up on the design by the time the 88110 was finally available in 1992.

There was an attempt to popularize the system with the 88open group, similar to what Sun Microsystems was attempting with their SPARC design. It appears to have failed in any practical sense.

Abandonment
In the early 1990s Motorola joined the AIM effort to create a new RISC architecture based on the IBM POWER architecture. They worked a few features of the 88000 (such as a compatible bus interface ) into the new PowerPC architecture to offer their customer base some sort of upgrade path. At that point the 88000 was dumped as soon as possible.

Architecture
Like the 68000 before it, the 88000 was considered to be a "clean" design. It is a pure 32-bit load/store architecture with separate instruction and data caches (Harvard architecture), and separate data and address buses. It has a small, powerful command set and uses a flat address space.

An unusual architectural feature is that both integer instructions and floating-point instructions use the same register file.

Implementations
The first implementation of the 88000 ISA was the MC88100 microprocessor, which included an integrated FPU. Mated to this was the MC88200 MMU and cache controller. The idea behind this splitting of duties was to allow multiprocessor systems to be built more easily; a single MC88200 could support up to four MC88100s. However, this also meant that building the most basic system, with a single processor, required both chips and considerable wiring between them, driving up costs. This was likely to be another major reason for the 88000's limited success.

This was later addressed by the superscalar MC88110, which combined the CPU, FPU, MMU, and L1 cache into a single package. An additional modification, made at the behest of MIT's *T project, resulted in the MC88110MP, including on-chip communications for use in multi-processor systems. A version capable of speeds up to 100 MHz was planned as the MC88120, but was never built.

An implementation for embedded applications, the MC88300, was under development during the early 1990s, but was eventually canceled. Ford Motor Company had planned to use the chips, so they were offered a PowerPC design as a replacement, which they accepted.

Products and applications
Motorola released a series of single-board computers, known as the MVME series, for building "out of the box" systems based on the 88000, as well as the Series 900 stackable computers employing these MVME boards. Unlike tower or rack mount systems, the Series 900 sat on top of each other and connected to one another with bus-like cabling. The concept never caught on.

Major 3rd party users were limited. The only widespread use would be in the Data General AViiON series. These were fairly popular, and remain in limited use today. For later models, DG moved to Intel. Encore Computer built their Encore-91 machine on the m88k, then introduced a completely ground-up redesign as the Infinity 90 series, but it is unclear how many of these machines were sold. Encore moved to the Alpha. Tektronix introduced their XD88 line of graphics workstations in April 1989.

GEC Computers used the MC88100 to build the GEC 4310, one of the GEC 4000 series computers, but issues with memory management meant it didn't perform as well as their earlier gate array based and Am2900 based GEC 4000 series computers. The BBN Butterfly model TC-2000 used the MC88100 processor, and scaled to 512 CPUs. Linotype-Hell used the 88110 in their "Power" workstations running the DaVinci raster graphics editor for image manipulation.

The MC88110 made it into some versions of a never released NeXT machine, the NeXT RISC Workstation, but the project was canceled along with all NeXT hardware projects in 1993. The 4-processor OMRON LUNA-88K machines from Japan used the m88k, and were used for a short time on the Mach kernel project at Carnegie Mellon University. In the early 1990s Northern Telecom used the MC88100 and MC88110 as the central processor in its DMS SuperNode family of telephone switches.

Most other users were much smaller. Alpha Microsystems originally planned to migrate to the 88K architecture from the Motorola 68000, and internally created a machine around it running UNIX System V, but it was later scrapped in favour of later 68K derivatives. NCD used the 88100 (without the 88200) in its 88K X-Terminals. Dolphin Server, a spin-off from the dying Norsk Data, built servers based on the 88k. Around 100 systems were shipped during 1988-1992.

Virtuality used the MC88110 in the SU2000 virtual reality arcade machine as a graphics processor, with one MC88110 per screen of each virtual reality headset.

In the embedded computer space, the "Tri-channel VMS Computer" in the F-15 S/MTD used three 88000s in a triply redundant computer.

Operating system support
Motorola released its own UNIX System V derivative, System V/88, for its 88000-based systems. There were two major releases: Release 3.2 Version 3 and Release 4.0 Version 3. Data General AViiON systems ran DG/UX. OpenBSD ports exist for the MVME systems, LUNA-88K workstations, and Data General AViiON systems. At least one unofficial experimental NetBSD port exists for the MVME systems.

title: Motorola 88000


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Restionales

Restionales is an order of flowering plants. In the Cronquist system (of 1981) it is used for an order (in subclass Commelinidae) and circumscribed as:

 * order Restionales
 * family Flagellariaceae
 * family Joinvilleaceae
 * family Restionaceae
 * family Centrolepidaceae

The APG II system (2003) assigns the plants involved to the order Poales.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Restionales


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Staff

Staff may refer to:

Pole

 * Walking staff, an instrument used for balance when walking
 * Staff, a weapon used in stick-fighting
 * Quarterstaff, a European pole weapon
 * Staff of office, a pole that indicates a position
 * Staff (railway signalling), a token authorizing a locomotive driver to use a particular stretch of single track
 * Level staff, also called levelling rod, a graduated rod for comparing heights
 * Fire staff, a staff of wood or metal and Kevlar, used for fire dancing and performance
 * Flagstaff, on which a flag is flown
 * Scout staff, a shoulder-high pole traditionally carried by Boy Scouts, for various uses in emergencies
 * Pilgrim's staff, a walking stick used by pilgrims during their pilgrimages

Military

 * Staff (military), the organ of military command and planning
 * USS Staff (AM-114), a United States Navy minesweeper
 * Smart Target-Activated Fire and Forget (XM943 STAFF), an American-made experimental 120×570mm NATO tank gun shell

People

 * Staff (name), a list of people with either the surname or nickname

Other uses

 * People in employment within any organization
 * Staff (music), a set of five horizontal lines upon which notes are placed in written music notation
 * Staff (building material) (short for staffieren), an artificial stone product used as ornament
 * Jack Staff, British superhero
 * Staffordshire, a county in England
 * Staff, a nickname for the Staffordshire Bull Terrier

title: Staff


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Juncales

Juncales is an order of flowering plants. In the Engler system (update, of 1964) and in the Cronquist system (of 1981, which placed this order in subclass Commelinidae) it is circumscribed as:

 * order Juncales
 * family Juncaceae
 * family Thurniaceae

However, the Thorne system (1992) accepts it as consisting of :
 * order Juncales
 * family Prioniaceae
 * family Thurniaceae
 * family Juncaceae
 * family Cyperaceae

The APG II system, used here, assigns the plants involved to the order Poales.

title: Juncales


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Jakarta Project

The Jakarta Project created and maintained open source software for the Java platform. It operated as an umbrella project under the auspices of the Apache Software Foundation, and all Jakarta products are released under the Apache License. As of December 21, 2011 the Jakarta project was retired because no subprojects were remaining.

In 2018 Jakarta EE, a part of the Eclipse Enterprise for Java (EE4J) project, became the new name for the Java EE platform at the Eclipse Foundation.

Subprojects
Major contributions by the Jakarta Project include tools, libraries and frameworks such as:

 * BCEL - a Java byte code manipulation library
 * BSF - a scripting framework
 * Cactus - a unit testing framework for server-side Java classes
 * Apache JMeter - a load- and stress-testing tool.
 * Slide - a content repository primarily using WebDAV

The following projects were formerly part of Jakarta, but now form independent projects within the Apache Software Foundation:

 * Ant - a build tool
 * Commons - a collection of useful classes intended to complement Java's standard library.
 * HiveMind - a services and configuration microkernel
 * Maven - a project build and management tool
 * POI - a pure Java port of Microsoft's popular file formats.
 * Struts - a web application development framework
 * Tapestry - A component object model based on JavaBeans properties and strong specifications
 * Tomcat - a JSP/Servlet container
 * Turbine - a rapid development web application framework
 * Velocity - a template engine

Project name
Jakarta is named after the conference room at Sun Microsystems where the majority of discussions leading to the project's creation took place. At the time, Sun's Java software division was headquartered in a Cupertino building where the conference room names were all coffee references.

title: Jakarta Project


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Hydatellales

Hydatellales is a botanical name for an order of flowering plants. In the Cronquist system, 1981, the name was used for an order placed in the subclass Commelinidae in class Liliopsida [=monocotyledons]. The order consisted of one family only:

 * order Hydatellales
 * family Hydatellaceae

Similarly the Dahlgren system recognised this order (with the same circumscription and placed it in superorder Commelinanae in subclass Liliidae [=monocotyledons].

The APG II system assigns these plants to the order Poales, close to the grasses and sedges. Recent study by Saarela et al., however, suggests a position out of the Poales; here, the Hydatellaceae link with the waterlilies, the first time a plant has been ejected from the monocots. The Angiosperm Phylogeny Website had since updated the Nymphaeales page to include the family.

title: Hydatellales


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Hop (telecommunications)

In telecommunication, a hop is a portion of a signal's journey from source to receiver. Examples include:
 * 1) The excursion of a radio wave from the Earth to the ionosphere and back to the Earth. The number of hops indicates the number of reflections from the ionosphere.
 * 2) A similar excursion from an earth station to a communications satellite to another station, counted similarly except that if the return trip is not by satellite, then it is only a half hop.

In computer networks, a hop is the step from one network segment to the next.

title: Hop (telecommunications)


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Typhales

Typhales is a botanical name for an order of flowering plants. In the Cronquist system the name was used for an order placed in the subclass Commelinidae. The order consisted of (1981):

 * order Typhales
 * family Sparganiaceae
 * family Typhaceae

The APG IV system, used here, assigns the plants involved to the order Poales.

title: Typhales


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Barbara McClintock

Barbara McClintock (June 16, 1902 – September 2, 1992) was an American scientist and cytogeneticist who was awarded the 1983 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. McClintock received her PhD in botany from Cornell University in 1927. There she started her career as the leader of the development of maize cytogenetics, the focus of her research for the rest of her life. From the late 1920s, McClintock studied chromosomes and how they change during reproduction in maize. She developed the technique for visualizing maize chromosomes and used microscopic analysis to demonstrate many fundamental genetic ideas. One of those ideas was the notion of genetic recombination by crossing-over during meiosis—a mechanism by which chromosomes exchange information. She produced the first genetic map for maize, linking regions of the chromosome to physical traits. She demonstrated the role of the telomere and centromere, regions of the chromosome that are important in the conservation of genetic information. She was recognized as among the best in the field, awarded prestigious fellowships, and elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1944.

During the 1940s and 1950s, McClintock discovered transposons and used it to demonstrate that genes are responsible for turning physical characteristics on and off. She developed theories to explain the suppression and expression of genetic information from one generation of maize plants to the next. Due to skepticism of her research and its implications, she stopped publishing her data in 1953.

Later, she made an extensive study of the cytogenetics and ethnobotany of maize races from South America. McClintock's research became well understood in the 1960s and 1970s, as other scientists confirmed the mechanisms of genetic change and protein expression that she had demonstrated in her maize research in the 1940s and 1950s. Awards and recognition for her contributions to the field followed, including the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, awarded to her in 1983 for the discovery of genetic transposition; as of 2023, she remains the only woman who has received an unshared Nobel Prize in that category.

Early life
Barbara McClintock was born Eleanor McClintock on June 16, 1902, in Hartford, Connecticut, the third of four children born to homeopathic physician Thomas Henry McClintock and Sara Handy McClintock. Thomas McClintock was the child of British immigrants. Marjorie, the oldest child, was born in October 1898; Mignon, the second daughter, was born in November 1900. The youngest, Malcolm Rider (called Tom), was born 18 months after Barbara. When she was a young girl, her parents determined that Eleanor, a "feminine" and "delicate" name, was not appropriate for her, and chose Barbara instead. McClintock was an independent child beginning at a very young age, a trait she later identified as her "capacity to be alone". From the age of three until she began school, McClintock lived with an aunt and uncle in Brooklyn, New York, in order to reduce the financial burden on her parents while her father established his medical practice. She was described as a solitary and independent child. She was close to her father, but had a difficult relationship with her mother, tension that began when she was young.

The McClintock family moved to Brooklyn in 1908 and McClintock completed her secondary education there at Erasmus Hall High School; she graduated early in 1919. She discovered her love of science and reaffirmed her solitary personality during high school. She wanted to continue her studies at Cornell University's College of Agriculture. Her mother resisted sending McClintock to college for fear that she would be unmarriageable, a common attitude at the time. McClintock was almost prevented from starting college, but her father allowed her to just before registration began, and she matriculated at Cornell in 1919.

Education and research at Cornell
McClintock began her studies at Cornell's College of Agriculture in 1919. There, she participated in student government and was invited to join a sorority, though she soon realized that she preferred not to join formal organizations. Instead, McClintock took up music, specifically jazz. She studied botany, receiving a BSc in 1923. Her interest in genetics began when she took her first course in that field in 1921. The course was based on a similar one offered at Harvard University, and was taught by C. B. Hutchison, a plant breeder and geneticist. Hutchison was impressed by McClintock's interest, and telephoned to invite her to participate in the graduate genetics course at Cornell in 1922. McClintock pointed to Hutchison's invitation as a catalyst for her interest in genetics: "Obviously, this telephone call cast the die for my future. I remained with genetics thereafter." Although it has been reported that women could not major in genetics at Cornell, and therefore her MS and PhD—earned in 1925 and 1927, respectively—were officially awarded in botany, recent research has revealed that women were permitted to earn graduate degrees in Cornell's Plant Breeding Department during the time that McClintock was a student at Cornell.

During her graduate studies and postgraduate appointment as a botany instructor, McClintock was instrumental in assembling a group that studied the new field of cytogenetics in maize. This group brought together plant breeders and cytologists, and included Marcus Rhoades, future Nobel laureate George Beadle, and Harriet Creighton. Rollins A. Emerson, head of the Plant Breeding Department, supported these efforts, although he was not a cytologist himself.

She also worked as a research assistant for Lowell Fitz Randolph and then for Lester W. Sharp, both Cornell botanists.

McClintock's cytogenetic research focused on developing ways to visualize and characterize maize chromosomes. This particular part of her work influenced a generation of students, as it was included in most textbooks. She also developed a technique using carmine staining to visualize maize chromosomes, and showed for the first time the morphology of the 10 maize chromosomes. This discovery was made because she observed cells from the microspore as opposed to the root tip. By studying the morphology of the chromosomes, McClintock was able to link specific chromosome groups of traits that were inherited together. Marcus Rhoades noted that McClintock's 1929 Genetics paper on the characterization of triploid maize chromosomes triggered scientific interest in maize cytogenetics, and attributed to her 10 of the 17 significant advances in the field that were made by Cornell scientists between 1929 and 1935.

In 1930, McClintock was the first person to describe the cross-shaped interaction of homologous chromosomes during meiosis. The following year, McClintock and Creighton proved the link between chromosomal crossover during meiosis and the recombination of genetic traits. They observed how the recombination of chromosomes seen under a microscope correlated with new traits. Until this point, it had only been hypothesized that genetic recombination could occur during meiosis, although it had not been shown genetically. McClintock published the first genetic map for maize in 1931, showing the order of three genes on maize chromosome 9. This information provided necessary data for the crossing-over study she published with Creighton; they also showed that crossing-over occurs in sister chromatids as well as homologous chromosomes. In 1938, she produced a cytogenetic analysis of the centromere, describing the organization and function of the centromere, as well as the fact that it can divide.

McClintock's breakthrough publications, and support from her colleagues, led to her being awarded several postdoctoral fellowships from the National Research Council. This funding allowed her to continue to study genetics at Cornell, the University of Missouri, and the California Institute of Technology, where she worked with E. G. Anderson. During the summers of 1931 and 1932, she worked at the University of Missouri with geneticist Lewis Stadler, who introduced her to the use of X-rays as a mutagen. Exposure to X-rays can increase the rate of mutation above the natural background level, making it a powerful research tool for genetics. Through her work with X-ray-mutagenized maize, she identified ring chromosomes, which form when the ends of a single chromosome fuse together after radiation damage. From this evidence, McClintock hypothesized that there must be a structure on the chromosome tip that would normally ensure stability. She showed that the loss of ring-chromosomes at meiosis caused variegation in maize foliage in generations subsequent to irradiation resulting from chromosomal deletion. During this period, she demonstrated the presence of the nucleolus organizer region on a region on maize chromosome 6, which is required for the assembly of the nucleolus. In 1933, she established that cells can be damaged when nonhomologous recombination occurs. During this same period, McClintock hypothesized that the tips of chromosomes are protected by telomeres.

McClintock received a fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation that made possible six months of training in Germany during 1933 and 1934. She had planned to work with Curt Stern, who had demonstrated crossing-over in Drosophila just weeks after McClintock and Creighton had done so; however, Stern emigrated to the United States. Instead, she worked with geneticist Richard B. Goldschmidt, who was a director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Biology in Berlin. She left Germany early amidst mounting political tension in Europe, returned to Cornell, but found that the university would not hire a woman professor. In 1936, she accepted an Assistant Professorship offered to her by Lewis Stadler in the Department of Botany at the University of Missouri in Columbia. While still at Cornell, she was supported by a two-year Rockefeller Foundation grant obtained for her through Emerson's efforts.

University of Missouri
During her time at Missouri, McClintock expanded her research on the effect of X-rays on maize cytogenetics. McClintock observed the breakage and fusion of chromosomes in irradiated maize cells. She was also able to show that, in some plants, spontaneous chromosome breakage occurred in the cells of the endosperm. Over the course of mitosis, she observed that the ends of broken chromatids were rejoined after the chromosome replication. In the anaphase of mitosis, the broken chromosomes formed a chromatid bridge, which was broken when the chromatids moved towards the cell poles. The broken ends were rejoined in the interphase of the next mitosis, and the cycle was repeated, causing massive mutation, which she could detect as variegation in the endosperm. This breakage–rejoining–bridge cycle was a key cytogenetic discovery for several reasons. First, it showed that the rejoining of chromosomes was not a random event, and second, it demonstrated a source of large-scale mutation. For this reason, it remains an area of interest in cancer research today.

Although her research was progressing at Missouri, McClintock was not satisfied with her position at the university. She recalled being excluded from faculty meetings, and was not made aware of positions available at other institutions. In 1940, she wrote to Charles Burnham, "I have decided that I must look for another job. As far as I can make out, there is nothing more for me here. I am an assistant professor at $3,000 and I feel sure that that is the limit for me." Initially, McClintock's position was created especially for her by Stadler, and might have depended on his presence at the university. McClintock believed she would not gain tenure at Missouri, even though according to some accounts, she knew she would be offered a promotion from Missouri in the spring of 1942. Recent evidence reveals that McClintock more likely decided to leave Missouri because she had lost trust in her employer and in the university administration, after discovering that her job would be in jeopardy if Stadler were to leave for Caltech, as he had considered doing. The university's retaliation against Stadler amplified her sentiments.

In early 1941, she took a leave of absence from Missouri in hopes of finding a position elsewhere. She accepted a visiting Professorship at Columbia University, where her former Cornell colleague Marcus Rhoades was a professor. Rhoades also offered to share his research field at Cold Spring Harbor on Long Island. In December 1941, she was offered a research position by Milislav Demerec, the newly appointed acting director of the Carnegie Institution of Washington's Department of Genetics Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory; McClintock accepted his invitation despite her qualms and became a permanent member of the faculty.

Cold Spring Harbor
After her year-long temporary appointment, McClintock accepted a full-time research position at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. There, she was highly productive and continued her work with the breakage-fusion-bridge cycle, using it to substitute for X-rays as a tool for mapping new genes. In 1944, in recognition of her prominence in the field of genetics during this period, McClintock was elected to the National Academy of Sciences—only the third woman to be elected. The following year she became the first female president of the Genetics Society of America; she had been elected its vice-president in 1939. In 1944 she undertook a cytogenetic analysis of Neurospora crassa at the suggestion of George Beadle, who used the fungus to demonstrate the one gene–one enzyme relationship. He invited her to Stanford to undertake the study. She successfully described the number of chromosomes, or karyotype, of N. crassa and described the entire life cycle of the species. Beadle said, "Barbara, in two months at Stanford, did more to clean up the cytology of Neurospora than all other cytological geneticists had done in all previous time on all forms of mold." N. crassa has since become a model species for classical genetic analysis.

Discovery of controlling elements

In the summer of 1944 at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, McClintock began systematic studies on the mechanisms of the mosaic color patterns of maize seed and the unstable inheritance of this mosaicism. She identified two new dominant and interacting genetic loci that she named Dissociation (Ds) and Activator (Ac). She found that the Dissociation did not just dissociate or cause the chromosome to break, it also had a variety of effects on neighboring genes when the Activator was also present, which included making certain stable mutations unstable. In early 1948, she made the surprising discovery that both Dissociation and Activator could transpose, or change position, on the chromosome.

She observed the effects of the transposition of Ac and Ds by the changing patterns of coloration in maize kernels over generations of controlled crosses, and described the relationship between the two loci through intricate microscopic analysis. She concluded that Ac controls the transposition of the Ds from chromosome 9, and that the movement of Ds is accompanied by the breakage of the chromosome. When Ds moves, the aleurone-color gene is released from the suppressing effect of the Ds and transformed into the active form, which initiates the pigment synthesis in cells. The transposition of Ds in different cells is random, it may move in some but not others, which causes color mosaicism. The size of the colored spot on the seed is determined by stage of the seed development during dissociation. McClintock also found that the transposition of Ds is determined by the number of Ac copies in the cell.

Between 1948 and 1950, she developed a theory by which these mobile elements regulated the genes by inhibiting or modulating their action. She referred to Dissociation and Activator as "controlling units"—later, as "controlling elements"—to distinguish them from genes. She hypothesized that gene regulation could explain how complex multicellular organisms made of cells with identical genomes have cells of different function. McClintock's discovery challenged the concept of the genome as a static set of instructions passed between generations. In 1950, she reported her work on Ac/Ds and her ideas about gene regulation in a paper entitled "The origin and behavior of mutable loci in maize" published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In summer 1951, she reported her work on the origin and behavior of mutable loci in maize at the annual symposium at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, presenting a paper of the same name. The paper delved into the instability caused by Ds and Ac or just Ac in four genes, along with the tendency of those genes to unpredictably revert to the wild phenotype. She also identified "families" of transposons, which did not interact with one another.

Her work on controlling elements and gene regulation was conceptually difficult and was not immediately understood or accepted by her contemporaries; she described the reception of her research as "puzzlement, even hostility". Nevertheless, McClintock continued to develop her ideas on controlling elements. She published a paper in Genetics in 1953, where she presented all her statistical data, and undertook lecture tours to universities throughout the 1950s to speak about her work. She continued to investigate the problem and identified a new element that she called Suppressor-mutator (Spm), which, although similar to Ac/Ds, acts in a more complex manner. Like Ac/Ds, some versions could transpose on their own and some could not; unlike Ac/Ds, when present, it fully suppressed the expression of mutant genes when they normally would not be entirely suppressed. Based on the reactions of other scientists to her work, McClintock felt she risked alienating the scientific mainstream, and from 1953 was forced to stop publishing accounts of her research on controlling elements.

The origins of maize

In 1957, McClintock received funding from the National Academy of Sciences to start research on indigenous strains of maize in Central America and South America. She was interested in studying the evolution of maize through chromosomal changes, and being in South America would allow her to work on a larger scale. McClintock explored the chromosomal, morphological, and evolutionary characteristics of various races of maize. After extensive work in the 1960s and 1970s, McClintock and her collaborators published the seminal study The Chromosomal Constitution of Races of Maize, leaving their mark on paleobotany, ethnobotany, and evolutionary biology.

Rediscovery
McClintock officially retired from her position at the Carnegie Institution in 1967, and was made a Distinguished Service Member of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. This honor allowed her to continue working with graduate students and colleagues in the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory as scientist emerita; she lived in the town. In reference to her decision 20 years earlier to stop publishing detailed accounts of her work on controlling elements, she wrote in 1973:

"Over the years I have found that it is difficult if not impossible to bring to consciousness of another person the nature of his tacit assumptions when, by some special experiences, I have been made aware of them. This became painfully evident to me in my attempts during the 1950s to convince geneticists that the action of genes had to be and was controlled. It is now equally painful to recognize the fixity of assumptions that many persons hold on the nature of controlling elements in maize and the manners of their operation. One must await the right time for conceptual change."

The importance of McClintock's contributions was revealed in the 1960s, when the work of French geneticists François Jacob and Jacques Monod described the genetic regulation of the lac operon, a concept she had demonstrated with Ac/Ds in 1951. Following Jacob and Monod's 1961 Journal of Molecular Biology paper "Genetic regulatory mechanisms in the synthesis of proteins", McClintock wrote an article for American Naturalist comparing the lac operon and her work on controlling elements in maize. Even late in the twentieth century, McClintock's contribution to biology was still not widely acknowledged as amounting to the discovery of genetic regulation.

McClintock was widely credited with discovering transposition after other researchers finally discovered the process in bacteria, yeast, and bacteriophages in the late 1960s and early 1970s. During this period, molecular biology had developed significant new technology, and scientists were able to show the molecular basis for transposition. In the 1970s, Ac and Ds were cloned by other scientists and were shown to be class II transposons. Ac is a complete transposon that can produce a functional transposase, which is required for the element to move within the genome. Ds has a mutation in its transposase gene, which means that it cannot move without another source of transposase. Thus, as McClintock observed, Ds cannot move in the absence of Ac. Spm has also been characterized as a transposon. Subsequent research has shown that transposons typically do not move unless the cell is placed under stress, such as by irradiation or the breakage-fusion-bridge cycle, and thus their activation during stress can serve as a source of genetic variation for evolution. McClintock understood the role of transposons in evolution and genome change well before other researchers grasped the concept. Nowadays, Ac/Ds is used as a tool in plant biology to generate mutant plants used for the characterization of gene function.

Honors and recognition
In 1947, McClintock received the Achievement Award from the American Association of University Women. She was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1959. In 1967, McClintock was awarded the Kimber Genetics Award; three years later, she was given the National Medal of Science by Richard Nixon in 1970. She was the first woman to be awarded the National Medal of Science. Cold Spring Harbor named a building in her honor in 1973. She received the Louis and Bert Freedman Foundation Award and the Lewis S. Rosensteil Award in 1978. In 1981, she became the first recipient of the MacArthur Foundation Grant, and was awarded the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research, the Wolf Prize in Medicine and the Thomas Hunt Morgan Medal by the Genetics Society of America. In 1982, she was awarded the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize from Columbia University for her research in the "evolution of genetic information and the control of its expression."

Most notably, she received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1983, the first woman to win that prize unshared, and the first American woman to win any unshared Nobel Prize in the sciences. It was given to her by the Nobel Foundation for discovering "mobile genetic elements"; this was more than 30 years after she initially described the phenomenon of controlling elements. She was compared to Gregor Mendel in terms of her scientific career by the Swedish Academy of Sciences when she was awarded the Prize.

She was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in 1989. McClintock received the Benjamin Franklin Medal for Distinguished Achievement in the Sciences of the American Philosophical Society in 1993. She had been previously elected to the APS in 1946. She was awarded 14 Honorary Doctor of Science degrees and an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters. In 1986 she was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame. During her final years, McClintock led a more public life, especially after Evelyn Fox Keller's 1983 biography of her, A Feeling for the Organism, brought McClintock's story to the public. She remained a regular presence in the Cold Spring Harbor community, and gave talks on mobile genetic elements and the history of genetics research for the benefit of junior scientists. An anthology of her 43 publications The Discovery and Characterization of Transposable Elements: The Collected Papers of Barbara McClintock was published in 1987.

The McClintock Prize is named in her honor. Laureates of the award include David Baulcombe, Detlef Weigel, Robert A. Martienssen, Jeffrey D. Palmer and Susan R. Wessler.

In May 2005 the U.S. Postal Service issued a panel of first-class stamps honoring Barbara McClintock, along with Richard Feynman, Josiah Willard Gibbs, and John von Neumann.

Later years
McClintock spent her later years, post Nobel Prize, as a key leader and researcher in the field at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on Long Island, New York. McClintock died of natural causes in Huntington, New York, on September 2, 1992, at the age of 90; she never married or had children.

Legacy
McClintock was the subject of a 1983 biography by physicist Evelyn Fox Keller, titled A Feeling for the Organism. Keller argued that because McClintock felt like an outsider within her field, (in part, because of her sex) she was able to look at her scientific subjects from a perspective different from the dominant one, leading to several important insights. Keller shows how this led many of her colleagues to reject her ideas and undermine her abilities for many years. For example, when McClintock presented her findings that the genetics of maize did not conform to Mendelian distributions, geneticist Sewall Wright expressed the belief that she did not understand the underlying mathematics of her work, a belief he had also expressed towards other women at the time. In addition, geneticist Lotte Auerbach recounted that Joshua Lederberg returned from a visit to McClintock's lab with the remark: 'By God, that woman is either crazy or a genius.' " As Auerbach recounts, McClintock had thrown Lederberg and his colleagues out after half an hour 'because of their arrogance. She was intolerant of arrogance ... She felt she had crossed a desert alone and no one had followed her.'"

In 2001, a second biography by science historian Nathaniel C. Comfort's The Tangled Field: Barbara McClintock's Search for the Patterns of Genetic Control challenged this narrative. Comfort's biography contests the claim that McClintock was marginalized by other scientists, which he calls the "McClintock Myth" and argues was perpetuated both by McClintock herself as well as in the earlier biography by Keller. Comfort, however, asserts that McClintock was not discriminated against because of her gender, citing that she was well regarded by her professional peers, even in the early years of her career.

Many recent biographical works on women in science feature accounts of McClintock's work and experience. She is held up as a role model for girls in such works of children's literature as Edith Hope Fine's Barbara McClintock, Nobel Prize Geneticist, Deborah Heiligman's Barbara McClintock: Alone in Her Field and Mary Kittredge's Barbara McClintock. A recent biography for young adults by Naomi Pasachoff, Barbara McClintock, Genius of Genetics, provides a new perspective, based on the current literature.

On May 4, 2005, the United States Postal Service issued the "American Scientists" commemorative postage stamp series, a set of four 37-cent self-adhesive stamps in several configurations. The scientists depicted were Barbara McClintock, John von Neumann, Josiah Willard Gibbs, and Richard Feynman. McClintock was also featured in a 1989 four-stamp issue from Sweden which illustrated the work of eight Nobel Prize-winning geneticists. A laboratory building at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory were named for her. A street has been named after her in the new "Adlershof Development Society" science park in Berlin. A 103,835 square-foot residence hall at Cornell University was named for McClintock in 2022.

Some of McClintock's personality and scientific achievements were referred to in Jeffrey Eugenides's 2011 novel The Marriage Plot, which tells the story of a yeast geneticist named Leonard who has bipolar disorder. He works at a laboratory loosely based on Cold Spring Harbor. The character reminiscent of McClintock is a reclusive geneticist at the fictional laboratory, who makes the same discoveries as her factual counterpart.

Judith Pratt wrote a play about McClintock, called MAIZE, which was read at Artemesia Theatre in Chicago in 2015, and was produced in Ithaca NY, the home of Cornell University, in February–March 2018.

Key publications

 * McClintock, B., Kato Yamakake, T. A. & Blumenschein, A. (1981). Chromosome constitution of races of maize. Its significance in the interpretation of relationships between races and varieties in the Americas. Chapingo, Mexico: Escuela de Nacional de Agricultura, Colegio de Postgraduados.
 * McClintock, B., Kato Yamakake, T. A. & Blumenschein, A. (1981). Chromosome constitution of races of maize. Its significance in the interpretation of relationships between races and varieties in the Americas. Chapingo, Mexico: Escuela de Nacional de Agricultura, Colegio de Postgraduados.
 * McClintock, B., Kato Yamakake, T. A. & Blumenschein, A. (1981). Chromosome constitution of races of maize. Its significance in the interpretation of relationships between races and varieties in the Americas. Chapingo, Mexico: Escuela de Nacional de Agricultura, Colegio de Postgraduados.
 * McClintock, B., Kato Yamakake, T. A. & Blumenschein, A. (1981). Chromosome constitution of races of maize. Its significance in the interpretation of relationships between races and varieties in the Americas. Chapingo, Mexico: Escuela de Nacional de Agricultura, Colegio de Postgraduados.
 * McClintock, B., Kato Yamakake, T. A. & Blumenschein, A. (1981). Chromosome constitution of races of maize. Its significance in the interpretation of relationships between races and varieties in the Americas. Chapingo, Mexico: Escuela de Nacional de Agricultura, Colegio de Postgraduados.
 * McClintock, B., Kato Yamakake, T. A. & Blumenschein, A. (1981). Chromosome constitution of races of maize. Its significance in the interpretation of relationships between races and varieties in the Americas. Chapingo, Mexico: Escuela de Nacional de Agricultura, Colegio de Postgraduados.
 * McClintock, B., Kato Yamakake, T. A. & Blumenschein, A. (1981). Chromosome constitution of races of maize. Its significance in the interpretation of relationships between races and varieties in the Americas. Chapingo, Mexico: Escuela de Nacional de Agricultura, Colegio de Postgraduados.
 * McClintock, B., Kato Yamakake, T. A. & Blumenschein, A. (1981). Chromosome constitution of races of maize. Its significance in the interpretation of relationships between races and varieties in the Americas. Chapingo, Mexico: Escuela de Nacional de Agricultura, Colegio de Postgraduados.
 * McClintock, B., Kato Yamakake, T. A. & Blumenschein, A. (1981). Chromosome constitution of races of maize. Its significance in the interpretation of relationships between races and varieties in the Americas. Chapingo, Mexico: Escuela de Nacional de Agricultura, Colegio de Postgraduados.

Archives and research collections

 * The Barbara McClintock Papers – Profiles in Science, National Library of Medicine.
 * Barbara McClintock Papers, 1927–1991 at the American Philosophical Society

title: Barbara McClintock


text:
Habitat (disambiguation)

A habitat is the type of natural environment in which a particular species of organism lives.

Habitat may also refer to:

Living environments

 * Human habitat, a place where humans live, work or play
 * Habitat 67, a housing complex in Montreal, Quebec, Canada
 * Space habitat, a space station intended as a permanent settlement
 * Space habitat (facility), a habitation module
 * Underwater habitat, a fixed underwater structure in which people can live for extended periods

Arts and media

 * Habitat (film), a 1997 movie directed by Rene Daalder
 * Habitat (magazine), an ongoing real-estate magazine founded in 1982
 * Habitat (video game), a massively multiplayer online role-playing game
 * Habitat, a Canadian alt pop band made up of duo John O'Regan and Sylvie Smith

Organisations

 * Habitat (retailer), a British home furnishings brand owned by J Sainsbury plc
 * Groupe Habitat, an international home furnishings retailer owned by Thierry Le Guénic
 * Habitat for Humanity, a non-profit organization devoted to building affordable housing
 * United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT), a United Nations agency

Other uses

 * Habitat (horse), an American-bred, British-trained Thoroughbred racehorse
 * Habitat, a trade name for a positive pressure enclosure used to provide a safe environment for those doing hot work on offshore oil platforms

title: Habitat (disambiguation)


text:
Wikipedia talk:How to be neutral when taking sides

Suggestion:

It is possible to maintain a neutral point of view while taking a specific side of an argument. Simply write more information and more detailed arguments for one side, while clearly stating that those ideas belong to one side. For an example of this technique, see the "opponents' arguments" section of the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act article.

(I posted this content for discussion on this talk page because I've been told not to be as bold when significantly changing an article in the wikipedia: namespace. --Damian Yerrick)


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Albula Alps

The Albula Alps are a mountain range in the Alps of eastern Switzerland. They are considered to be part of the Central Eastern Alps, more specifically the Western Rhaetian Alps. They are named after the river Albula. According to AVE (see map), the Albula Alps are separated from the Oberhalbstein Alps in the west by the Septimer Pass and the valley of the Sursés; from the Plessur Alps in the north-west by the Landwasser valley; from the Silvretta group in the north-east by the Flüela Pass; from the Sesvenna Alps in the east by the Inn valley (Engadine); from the Livigno Alps in the south-east by the Inn valley; from the Bernina Range in the south by the Maloja Pass and the Inn valley.

The chief summit of the Albula Alps is Piz Kesch, which is also the highest summit of the Eastern Alps north of the Inn. Other mountains with both a high elevation and a high prominence are Piz Calderas, Piz Ela, Piz Ot and Piz Vadret. The Albula Alps are drained by the rivers Albula, Gelgia, Landwasser and Inn and Mera. Near the Lunghin Pass is the tripoint between the Gelgia, Inn and Mera. This is the tripoint between the basins of the North Sea, Black Sea and Mediterranean Sea.

The main road passes crossing the Albula Alps (from central Graubünden to Engadin) are the Julier Pass and the Albula Pass. On the margin are also the Flüela Pass and the Septimer Pass (bridle path only). The Albula Pass, in the middle of the range, is also an important axis of the Rhaetian Railway, connecting Chur to St. Moritz through the Albula Tunnel. Both pass road and railway traverse the locality of Bergün on the river Albula, the most central town within the Albula Alps.

Peaks
The main peaks of the Albula Alps are:

Passes
The Albula Alps are crossed by one railway tunnel, under the Albula Pass. The main mountain passes of the Albula Alps are:

title: Albula Alps


text:
Lepontine Alps

The Lepontine Alps (Lepontinische Alpen, Alpes lépontines, Alpi Lepontine) are a mountain range in the north-western part of the Alps. They are located in Switzerland (Valais, Ticino, Uri and Graubünden) and Italy (Piedmont and Lombardy).

The Simplon rail tunnel (from Brig to Domodossola), the Gotthard rail (from Erstfeld to Bodio) and Gotthard road tunnels (from Andermatt to Airolo) and the San Bernardino road tunnel are important transport arteries.

The eastern portion of the Lepontine Alps, from the St Gotthard Pass to the Splügen Pass, is named the Adula Alps, while the western part is historically referred to as the Ticino Alps.

Etymology
The designation Lepontine Alps, derived from the Latin name of the Valle Leventina, has long been somewhat vaguely applied to the Alpine ranges that enclose it, before being used for the whole range.

Geography
Following the line marking the division of the waters that flow into the Po from those that feed the Rhone or the Rhine, the main ridge of the Lepontine Alps describes a somewhat irregular curve, convex to the north, from the Simplon Pass to the Splügen Pass. With the single exception of the Monte Leone, overlooking the Simplon Pass, the summits of this portion of the chain are much inferior in height to those of the neighbouring chains; but two peaks of the Adula group, culminating at the Rheinwaldhorn, exceed 11000 ft in height.

The extensive region lying south of the main ridge is occupied by mountain ranges whose summits sometimes rival in height those of the dividing ridge, and which are cut through by deep valleys, three of which converge in the basins of Lake Maggiore and Lake Como, the deepest of all the lakes on the south side of the Alps. The most important of these valleys is the Valle Leventina, or the upper valley of the Ticino. This has been known from a remote antiquity because it leads to the St Gotthard Pass, one of the easiest lines of communication between northern and southern Europe.

The Lepontine Alps are drained by the rivers Rhône in the west, Reuss in the north, Rhine (Anterior and Posterior Rhine) in the east and Ticino and Toce in the south.

List of peaks
The chief peaks of the Lepontine Alps are:

Glaciers
Main glaciers :

 * Gries Glacier
 * Paradies Glacier
 * Basòdino Glacier

List of passes
The chief passes of the Lepontine Alps are:

title: Lepontine Alps


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Adula Alps

The Adula Alps, also known as the West Graubünden and Misox Alps, are a western Alpine mountain group, the part of the Lepontine Alps from the Lukmanier and St Gotthard Passes to the Splügen Pass.

They lie mostly in Switzerland, in the Cantons of Ticino, Graubünden, and Uri, and partly in Italy, in the province of Sondrio in Lombardy, stretching south to Lake Como. They form subsection 10B of the Alps, according to the Partizione delle Alpi, and subsection 10 III, according to the unified orographic classification of the Alps by Sergio Marazzi (SOIUSA).

A string of mountains of the Adula stand on the international border between Switzerland and Italy, including Pizzo Tambò, Piz di Pian, Cima de Pian Guarnei (Pizzo Quadro), Cime di Val Loga, Piz Tamborello, Piz della Forcola, Pizzaccio, and Cima dello Stagn, while Pizzo Ferré is near the border on the Italian side.

The mountain guides of the Swiss Alpine Club do not lead climbers in groups for the Adula Alps, but attach parts of them to other sections.

The highest peak is the Rheinwaldhorn (3402 m), which in Italian is called the Adula, giving the range its name.

The main valleys are Val Malvaglia, which drains into the lower Blenio Valley, and three others draining south out of the Adula Alps, which are, from west to east, Val Calanca, Valle Mesolcina, and Valle Spluga (or San Giacomo).

The creation of an Adula National Park was planned by Switzerland for sixteen years, from 2000. It would have become only the second in the country, after the Swiss National Park, but in November 2016 the inhabitants voted against it.

Towns and villages

 * In Uri
 * Andermatt

 * In Graubünden
 * Disentis or Mustér
 * Trun or Truns
 * Ilanz
 * Bonaduz
 * Thusis
 * Andeer
 * Splügen or Spluga
 * Hinterrhein
 * San Bernardino
 * Mesocco
 * Obersaxen
 * Rossa
 * Roveredo

 * Arbedo-Castione
 * Vrin
 * Vals
 * Thalkirch
 * Safien

 * In Ticino
 * Osogna
 * Biasca
 * Malvaglia
 * Olivone
 * Lumino
 * In Lombardy
 * Livo

Peaks
The following peaks of the Adela Alps are sorted by height in metres (m) above sea level, called Meter über Meer (m ü. M.) in Switzerland:

 * Rheinwaldhorn (3,402 m)
 * Güferhorn (3,379 m)
 * Pizzo Tambò (3,279 m)
 * Grauhorn (3,260 m)
 * Läntahorn (3,237 m)
 * Vogelberg (3,218 m)
 * Piz Medel (3,210 m)
 * Pizzo di Cassimoi (3,129 m)
 * Scopi (3,190 m)
 * Cima di Camadra (3,172 m)
 * Cima Rossa (3,161 m)
 * Piz di Pian (3,158 m)
 * Zapporthorn (3,152 m)
 * Piz Terri (3,149 m)
 * Fanellhorn (3,124 m)
 * Piz Scharboda (3,122 m)
 * Pizzo Ferré (3,103 m)
 * Bruschghorn (3,056 m)
 * Furggeltihorn (3,043 m)
 * Plattenberg (3,041 m)
 * Alperschällihorn (3,036 m)
 * Frunthorn (3,030 m)
 * Piz Corbet (3,025 m)
 * Cima de Pian Guarnei (3,015 m)
 * Piz Uffiern (Tujetsch) (3,013 m)
 * Cime di Val Loga (3,004 m)
 * Piz Beverin (2,997 m)
 * Piz de la Lumbreida (2,983 m)
 * Teurihorn (2,973 m)
 * Torent Alto (2,948 m)
 * Piz Tomül (2,946 m)
 * Einshorn (2,944 m)
 * Zervreilahorn (2,898 m)
 * Pizzo Tamborello (2,858 m)
 * Pizzo di Claro (2,727 m)
 * Pizzo Paglia (2,593 m)
 * Piz Titschal (2,550 m)
 * Pizzo Cavregasco (2,535 m)
 * Cima dello Stagn (2,380 m)
 * Sosto (2,221 m)

Lakes

 * In Switzerland
 * Sufnersee, reservoir dating from 1962, surface area 0.94 km2
 * Zervreilasee, reservoir dating from 1957
 * Lago di Luzzone, reservoir dating from 1963, surface area 1.27 km2
 * In Italy
 * Lake Como, a glacial lake with an area of 146 km2.

Mountain huts

 * Camona da Medel, 2524 m
 * Capanna Adula of the UTOE, 2393 m
 * Zapporthütte, at 2276 m on the Zapporthorn
 * Capanna Scaletta, Blenio, 2,205 m
 * Capanna Scaradra, Blenio, 2,173 m
 * Capanna Motterascio, Ghirone, 2,172 m
 * Camona da Terri, 2,170 m
 * Capanna Quarnei, Malvaglia, 2,107 m
 * Adulahuette of the SAC, 2,012 m
 * Länta-Hütte, at 2,090 m on the Läntahorn
 * Medelserhütte, on the Piz Medel
 * Capanna Buffalora, Rossa, 2,078 m
 * Capanna di Cava, Biasca, 2,066 m
 * Rifugio Biasagn, Biasca, 2,023 m
 * Capanna Brogoldone, Lumino, 1,904 m
 * Capanna Bovarina, Campo Blenio, 1,870 m
 * Capanna Como, at Livo, Lombardy, 1,790 m
 * Capanna Dötra, 1,748 m, on Sosto

title: Adula Alps


text:
Mössbauer effect

The Mössbauer effect, or recoilless nuclear resonance fluorescence, is a physical phenomenon discovered by Rudolf Mössbauer in 1958. It involves the resonant and recoil-free emission and absorption of gamma radiation by atomic nuclei bound in a solid. Its main application is in Mössbauer spectroscopy.

In the Mössbauer effect, a narrow resonance for nuclear gamma emission and absorption results from the momentum of recoil being delivered to a surrounding crystal lattice rather than to the emitting or absorbing nucleus alone. When this occurs, no gamma energy is lost to the kinetic energy of recoiling nuclei at either the emitting or absorbing end of a gamma transition: emission and absorption occur at the same energy, resulting in strong, resonant absorption.

History
The emission and absorption of X-rays by gases had been observed previously, and it was expected that a similar phenomenon would be found for gamma rays, which are created by nuclear transitions (as opposed to X-rays, which are typically produced by electronic transitions). However, attempts to observe nuclear resonance produced by gamma-rays in gases failed due to energy being lost to recoil, preventing resonance (the Doppler effect also broadens the gamma-ray spectrum). Mössbauer was able to observe resonance in nuclei of solid iridium, which raised the question of why gamma-ray resonance was possible in solids, but not in gases. Mössbauer proposed that, for the case of atoms bound into a solid, under certain circumstances a fraction of the nuclear events could occur essentially without recoil. He attributed the observed resonance to this recoil-free fraction of nuclear events.

The Mössbauer effect was one of the last major discoveries in physics to be originally reported in the German language. The first reports in English were a pair of letters describing independent repetitions of the experiment.

The discovery was rewarded with the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1961 together with Robert Hofstadter's research of electron scattering in atomic nuclei.

Description
In general, gamma rays are produced by nuclear transitions from an unstable high-energy state to a stable low-energy state. The energy of the emitted gamma ray corresponds to the energy of the nuclear transition, minus an amount of energy that is lost as recoil to the emitting atom. If the lost recoil energy is small compared with the energy linewidth of the nuclear transition, then the gamma ray energy still corresponds to the energy of the nuclear transition, and the gamma ray can be absorbed by a second atom of the same type as the first. This emission and subsequent absorption is called resonant fluorescence. Additional recoil energy is also lost during absorption, so in order for resonance to occur the recoil energy must actually be less than half the linewidth for the corresponding nuclear transition.

The amount of energy in the recoiling body ($E R$) can be found from momentum conservation:

 * $$|P_\mathrm{R}| = |P_\mathrm{\gamma}| \,$$

where $P R$ is the momentum of the recoiling matter, and $Pγ$ the momentum of the gamma ray. Substituting energy into the equation gives:

 * $$E_\mathrm{R} = \frac{E_\mathrm{\gamma}^2}{2Mc^2}$$

where $E R$ ($0.002 eV$ for 57Fe) is the energy lost as recoil, $Eγ$ is the energy of the gamma ray ($14.4 keV$ for 57Fe), $M$ ($56.935 u$ for 57Fe) is the mass of the emitting or absorbing body, and c is the speed of light. In the case of a gas the emitting and absorbing bodies are atoms, so the mass is relatively small, resulting in a large recoil energy, which prevents resonance. (Note that the same equation applies for recoil energy losses in x-rays, but the photon energy is much less, resulting in a lower energy loss, which is why gas-phase resonance could be observed with x-rays.)

In a solid, the nuclei are bound to the lattice and do not recoil in the same way as in a gas. The lattice as a whole recoils but the recoil energy is negligible because the $M$ in the above equation is the mass of the whole lattice. However, the energy in a decay can be taken up or supplied by lattice vibrations. The energy of these vibrations is quantised in units known as phonons. The Mössbauer effect occurs because there is a finite probability of a decay occurring involving no phonons. Thus in a fraction of the nuclear events (the recoil-free fraction, given by the Lamb–Mössbauer factor), the entire crystal acts as the recoiling body, and these events are essentially recoil-free. In these cases, since the recoil energy is negligible, the emitted gamma rays have the appropriate energy and resonance can occur.

In general (depending on the half-life of the decay), gamma rays have very narrow linewidths. This means they are very sensitive to small changes in the energies of nuclear transitions. In fact, gamma rays can be used as a probe to observe the effects of interactions between a nucleus and its electrons and those of its neighbors. This is the basis for Mössbauer spectroscopy, which combines the Mössbauer effect with the Doppler effect to monitor such interactions.

Zero-phonon optical transitions, a process closely analogous to the Mössbauer effect, can be observed in lattice-bound chromophores at low temperatures.

title: Mössbauer effect


text:
Passes of the Silvretta and Rätikon Ranges

The chief passes of the Silvretta and Rhatikon Ranges, from the Fuela Pass to the Reschen Scheideck and the Arlberg Pass, are:

 * Note: road status .


text:
Dolomites

The Dolomites (Dolomiti ), also known as the Dolomite Mountains, Dolomite Alps or Dolomitic Alps, are a mountain range in northeastern Italy. They form part of the Southern Limestone Alps and extend from the River Adige in the west to the Piave Valley (Pieve di Cadore) in the east. The northern and southern borders are defined by the Puster Valley and the Sugana Valley (Valsugana). The Dolomites are in the regions of Veneto, Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol and Friuli-Venezia Giulia, covering an area shared between the provinces of Belluno, Vicenza, Verona, Trentino, South Tyrol, Udine and Pordenone.

Other mountain groups of similar geological structure are spread along the River Piave to the east—Dolomiti d'Oltrepiave; and far away over the Adige River to the west—Dolomiti di Brenta (Western Dolomites). A smaller group is called Piccole Dolomiti (Little Dolomites), between the provinces of Trentino, Verona and Vicenza.

The Dolomiti Bellunesi National Park and many other regional parks are in the Dolomites. On 26 June 2009, the Dolomites were declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Adamello-Brenta UNESCO Global Geopark is also in the Dolomites. The Geological Museum of the Dolomites (in Italian Museo Geologico delle Dolomiti) is located in Predazzo, Fiemme Valley..

Etymology
The Dolomites, also known as the "Pale Mountains", take their name from the carbonate rock dolomite. This was named after the 18th-century French mineralogist Déodat Gratet de Dolomieu (1750–1801), who was the first to describe the mineral.

History
For millennia, hunters and gatherers had advanced into the highest rocky regions and had probably also climbed some peaks. There is evidence that the Jesuit priest Franz von Wulfen from Klagenfurt climbed the Lungkofel and the Dürrenstein in the 1790s. In 1857 Irishman John Ball was the first known person to climb Monte Pelmo. Paul Grohmann later climbed numerous peaks such as the Antelao, Marmolada, Tofana, Monte Cristallo and the Boè. Around 1860 the Agordin mountaineer Simone de Silvestro was the first person to stand on the Civetta. Michael Innerkofler was one of the climbers of the Tre Cime di Lavaredo. Later very important local mountaineers, known for many first ascents, were Angelo Dibona and Giovanni Piaz.

During the First World War, the front line between the Italian and Austro-Hungarian Army ran through the Dolomites, where both sides used mines extensively. Open-air war museums are at Cinque Torri (Five Towers), Monte Piana and Mount Lagazuoi. Many people visit the Dolomites to climb the vie ferrate, protected paths through the rock walls that were created during the war.

A number of long-distance footpaths traverse the Dolomites. They are called alte vie (Dolomiten Höhenwege – high paths), and are numbered 1 to 10. The trails take about a week to walk, and are served by numerous rifugi (huts). The first and the most renowned is the Alta Via 1. Radiocarbon dating has been used in the Alta Badia region to demonstrate a connection between landslide activity and climate change.

Geography
The region is commonly divided into the Western and Eastern Dolomites, separated by a line following the Val Badia–Campolongo Pass–Cordevole Valley (Agordino) axis.

Current classification
The Dolomites may be divided into the following ranges:

 * Sella
 * Marmolada
 * Tofane
 * Langkofel Group
 * Geisler Group
 * Peitlerkofel Group
 * Puez Group
 * Fanes Group
 * Schlern Group
 * Rosengarten
 * Latemar
 * Pala
 * Lüsen Mountains
 * Civetta
 * Pelmo
 * Marmarole
 * Cadini Group
 * Cristallo Group
 * Sorapiss
 * Antelao
 * Bosconero
 * Vette Feltrine
 * Schiara
 * Prags Dolomites
 * Sexten Dolomites
 * Friulian Dolomites

Tourism and sports
The Dolomites are renowned for skiing in the winter months and mountain climbing, hiking, cycling and BASE jumping, as well as paragliding and hang gliding in summer and late spring/early autumn. Free climbing has been a tradition in the Dolomites since 1887, when 17-year-old Georg Winkler soloed the first ascent of the pinnacle of the Vajolet Towers. The main centres include: Rocca Pietore alongside the Marmolada Glacier, which lies on the border of Trentino and Veneto, the small towns of Alleghe, Falcade, Auronzo, Cortina d'Ampezzo and the villages of Arabba, Urtijëi and San Martino di Castrozza, as well as the whole of the Fassa, Gardena and Badia valleys.

The Maratona dles Dolomites, an annual single-day road bicycle race covering seven mountain passes of the Dolomites, occurs in the first week of July.

Other characteristic places are:
 * Mount Pasubio and Strada delle 52 Gallerie (a military mule road built during World War I with 52 tunnels)
 * Altopiano di Asiago and Calà del Sasso, with 4,444 steps, the world's longest staircase open to the public.

Major parks

 * Dolomiti Bellunesi National Park 3200 ha
 * Ampezzo Dolomites Natural Park 11200 ha
 * Naturpark Fanes-Sennes-Prags 25485 ha

 * Paneveggio-Pale di San Martino Natural Park 19726.09 ha
 * Schlern-Rosengarten Nature Park 6796 ha
 * Naturpark Sextener Dolomiten 11600 ha

 * Puez-Geisler Nature Park 10196 ha
 * Adamello Brenta Natural Park 62051 ha
 * Friulian Dolomites Natural Park 36950 ha

title: Dolomites


text:
Dauphiné Alps

The Dauphiné Alps (Alpes du Dauphiné) are a group of mountain ranges in Southeastern France, west of the main chain of the Alps. Mountain ranges within the Dauphiné Alps include the Massif des Écrins in Écrins National Park, Belledonne, Le Taillefer range and the mountains of Matheysine.

Etymology
The Dauphiné is a former French province whose area roughly corresponded to that of the present departments of Isère, Drôme, and Hautes-Alpes.

Geography
They are separated from the Cottian Alps in the east by the Col du Galibier and the upper Durance valley; from the western Graian Alps (Vanoise Massif) in the north-east by the river Arc; from the lower ranges Vercors Plateau and Chartreuse Mountains in the west by the rivers Drac and Isère. Many peaks rise to more than 10,000 ft, with Barre des Écrins (4,102 m) the highest.

Administratively the French part of the range belongs to the French departments of Isère, Hautes-Alpes and Savoie.

The whole range is drained by the Rhone through its tributaries.

It has been proposed that the height of mountains in the Dauphiné Alps is limited by the erosion caused by small glaciers, causing a topographic effect called the glacial buzzsaw.

Peaks
The chief peaks of the Dauphiné Alps are:

Passes
The chief passes of the Dauphiné Alps are:

Maps

 * French official cartography (Institut Géographique National - IGN); on-line version: www.geoportail.fr

title: Dauphiné Alps


text:
Swiss Alps

The Alpine region of Switzerland, conventionally referred to as the Swiss Alps, represents a major natural feature of the country and is, along with the Swiss Plateau and the Swiss portion of the Jura Mountains, one of its three main physiographic regions. The Swiss Alps extend over both the Western Alps and the Eastern Alps, encompassing an area sometimes called Central Alps. While the northern ranges from the Bernese Alps to the Appenzell Alps are entirely in Switzerland, the southern ranges from the Mont Blanc massif to the Bernina massif are shared with other countries such as France, Italy, Austria and Liechtenstein.

The Swiss Alps comprise almost all the highest mountains of the Alps, such as Dufourspitze (4,634 m), the Dom (4,545 m), the Liskamm (4,527 m), the Weisshorn (4,506 m) and the Matterhorn (4,478 m). The other following major summits can be found in this list of mountains of Switzerland.

Since the Middle Ages, transit across the Alps played an important role in history. The region north of St Gotthard Pass became the nucleus of the Swiss Confederacy in the early 14th century.

Geography
The Alps cover 60% of Switzerland's total 41285 km2 surface area, making it one of the most alpine countries. Despite the fact that Switzerland covers only 14% of the Alps total 192753 km2 area, 48 out of 82 alpine four-thousanders are located in the Swiss Alps and practically all of the remaining 34 are within 20 km of the country's border.

The glaciers of the Swiss Alps cover an area of 1220 km2 — 3% of the Swiss territory, representing 44% of the total glaciated area in the Alps i.e. 2800 km2.

The Swiss Alps are situated south of the Swiss Plateau and north of the national border. The limit between the Alps and the plateau runs from Vevey on the shores of Lake Geneva to Rorschach on the shores of Lake Constance, passing close to the cities of Thun and Lucerne. The not well defined regions in Switzerland that lie on the margin of the Alps, especially those on the north side, are called the Swiss Prealps (Préalpes in French, Voralpen in German, Prealpi in Italian). The Swiss Prealps are mainly made of limestone and they generally do not exceed 2500 m.

The Alpine cantons (from highest to lowest) are Valais, Bern, Graubünden, Uri, Glarus, Ticino, St. Gallen, Vaud, Obwalden, Nidwalden, Schwyz, Appenzell Innerrhoden, Appenzell Ausserrhoden, Fribourg, Lucerne and Zug. The countries with which Switzerland shares mountain ranges of the Alps are (from west to east): France, Italy, Austria and Liechtenstein.

Ranges
The Alps are usually divided into two main parts, the Western Alps and Eastern Alps, whose division is along the Rhine from Lake Constance to the Splügen Pass. The western ranges occupy the greatest part of Switzerland while the more numerous eastern ranges are much smaller and are all situated in the canton of Graubünden. The latter is part of the Central Eastern Alps, except the Ortler Alps which belong to the Southern Limestone Alps. The Pennine, Bernese and Bernina Range are the highest ranges of the country, they contain respectively 38, 9 and 1 summit over 4000 meters. The lowest range is the Appenzell Alps culminating at 2,500 meters.

Western Alps

Eastern Alps

Rivers
The north side of the Swiss Alps is drained by the Rhône, Rhine and Inn (which is part of the Danube basin) while the south side is mainly drained by the Ticino (Po basin). The rivers on the north empty into the Mediterranean, North and Black Sea, on the south the Po empty in the Adriatic Sea. The major triple watersheds in the Alps are located within the country, they are: Piz Lunghin, Witenwasserenstock and Monte Forcola. Between the Witenwasserenstock and Piz Lunghin runs the European Watershed separating the basin of the Atlantic (the North Sea) and the Mediterranean Sea (Adriatic and the Black Sea). The European watershed lies only partially on the main chain. Switzerland possesses 6% of Europe's freshwater, and is sometimes referred to as the "water tower of Europe".

Lakes
Since the highest dams are located in Alpine regions, many large mountain lakes are artificial and are used as hydroelectric reservoirs. Some large artificial lakes can be found above 2,300 m, but natural lakes larger than 1 km2 are generally below 1,000 m (with the exceptions of lakes in the Engadin such as Lake Sils, and Oeschinen in the Bernese Oberland). The melting of low-altitude glaciers can generate new lakes, such as the 0.25 km2 large Triftsee which formed between 2002 and 2003.

Hydroelectricity Impacts due to Glacial Melting
Switzerland has been using this concerning transition in climate as a positive opportunity to develop new innovations and to change the ways that energy is being produced in the country. Switzerland depends on the use of hydroelectricity to power nearby communities, but as glaciers melt and stop refreezing, the melting that creates the energy ceases to exist. Researchers have been evaluating how the topography will change as the glaciers begin to decrease and they are looking more deeply into potential construction costs, energy production, and future problems they might encounter with these new developments. Switzerland is one of many countries that need to begin to think about the future of energy production in response to climate change. Switzerland is paving the way for a new wave of innovation and creative problem solving that the rest of the world will eventually need to follow.

Land elevation
The following table gives the surface area above 2000 m and 3000 m and the respective percentage on the total area of each canton whose high point is above 2000 metres.

Monitoring glacial changes over time
PERMOS (The Swiss Permafrost Monitoring Network) is an operational monitoring service, and its main goal is to create long-term scientific documentation of the permafrost changes in the Swiss Alps. To accurately represent the current conditions of the Alps, the network records permafrost temperatures and thermal changes in boreholes, the bottom temperature of the snow cover, ground surface temperature, and the development of snow cover. The network additionally takes air photos periodically from selected areas. These monitoring strategies continue to develop as new research and data are recorded over time. The glaciers in the Swiss Alps have lost around half their volume during the last 90–120 years.

Geology

The composition of the great tectonic units reflects the history of the formation of the Alps. The rocks from the Helvetic zone on the north and the Austroalpine nappes – Southern Alps on the south come originally from the European and African continent respectively. The rocks of the Penninic nappes belong to the former area of the Briançonnais microcontinent and the Tethys Ocean. The closure of the latter by subduction under the African plate (Piemont Ocean first and Valais Ocean later) preceded the collision between the two plates and the so-called alpine orogeny. The major thrust fault of the Tectonic Arena Sardona in the eastern Glarus Alps gives a visible illustration of mountain-building processes and was therefore declared a UNESCO World Heritage. Another fine example gives the Alpstein area with several visible upfolds of Helvetic zone material.

With some exceptions, the Alps north of Rhône and Rhine are part of the Helvetic Zone and those on the south side are part of the Penninic nappes. The Austroalpine zone concerns almost only the Eastern Alps, with the notable exception of the Matterhorn.

The last glaciations greatly transformed Switzerland's landscape. Many valleys of the Swiss Alps are U-shaped due to glacial erosion. During the maximum extension of the Würm glaciation (18,000 years ago) the glaciers completely covered the Swiss Plateau, before retreating and leaving remnants only in high mountain areas. In modern times the Aletsch Glacier in the western Bernese Alps is the largest and longest in the Alps, reaching a maximum depth of 900 meters at Konkordiaplatz. Along with the Fiescher and Aar Glaciers, the region became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2001. An effect of the retreat of the Rhine Glacier some 10,000 years ago was the Flims Rockslide, the biggest still visible landslide worldwide.

Environment and climate
To protect endangered species some sites have been brought under protection. The Swiss National Park in Graubünden was established in 1914 as the first alpine national park. The Entlebuch area was designated a biosphere reserve in 2001. The largest protected area in the country is the Parc Ela, opened in 2006, which covers an area of 600 square kilometres. The Jungfrau-Aletsch Protected Area is the first World Heritage Site in the Alps.

Climate zones
As the temperature decreases with altitude (0.56 °C per 100 meters on yearly average), three different altitudinal zones, each having distinct climate, are found in the Swiss Alps:

The Subalpine zone is the region that lies below the tree line. It is the most important region as it is the largest of the three and contains almost all human settlements as well as the productive areas. The forests are mainly composed of conifers above 1,200–1,400 meters, the deciduous tree forest is confined to lower elevations. The upper limit of the Subalpine zone is located at about 1,800 meters on the north side of the Alps and about 2,000 meters on the south side. It can, however, differ in some regions such as the Appenzell Alps (1,600 meters) or the Engadin valley (2,300 meters).
 * Subalpine zone

The Alpine zone is situated above the tree line and is clear of trees due to low average temperatures. It contains mostly grass and small plants along with mountain flowers. Below the permafrost limit (at about 2,600 meters), the alpine meadows are often used as pastures. Some villages can still be found on the lowest altitudes such as Riederalp (1,940 m) or Juf (2,130 m). The extent of the Alpine zone is limited by the first permanent snow, its altitude greatly varies depending on the location (and orientation), it comprises between 2,800 and 3,200 meters.
 * Alpine zone

The glacial zone is the area of permanent snow and ice. When the steepness of the slope is not too high it results in an accumulation and compaction of snow, which transforms into ice. The glacier-formed then flows down the valley and can reach as far down as 1,500 meters (the Upper Grindelwald Glacier). Where the slopes are too steep, the snow accumulates to form overhanging seracs, which periodically fall off due to the downward movement of the glacier and cause ice avalanches. The Bernese Alps, Pennine Alps, and Mont Blanc Massif contain most of the glaciated areas in the Alps. Except for research stations such as the Sphinx Observatory, no settlements are to be found in those regions.
 * Glacial zone

Impact of glacial melting
Due to the change in weather patterns, the summers are expected to continue getting warmer and drier, while the winters are expected to become moister. This change in the weather increases the chances of flooding with heavier rainfall, the melting of permafrost zones, a change in the geography and wildlife, and the occurrence of more deadly rock slides. Furthermore, natural hazards are occurring more frequently, such as floods, avalanches, and landslides. Additionally, the water supply that the glaciers originally provided is on the decline, which is problematic for producing energy, agricultural practices, and other human use. Finally, the glacial melting puts the economy at risk because there will be less incoming financial revenue from the tourism and recreation services that these glaciers and ecosystems typically provide. All of these impacts will disrupt the nearby communities and require that updated infrastructure and safety measures be put into place to prevent mass destruction.

Travel and tourism

Tourism in the Swiss Alps began with the first ascents of the main peaks of the Alps (Jungfrau in 1811, Piz Bernina in 1850, Monte Rosa in 1855, Matterhorn in 1856, Dom in 1858, Weisshorn in 1861) mostly by British mountain climbers accompanied by the local guides. The construction of facilities for tourists started in the mid-nineteenth century with the building of hotels and mountain huts (creation of the Swiss Alpine Club in 1863) and the opening of mountain train lines (Rigi in 1873, Pilatus in 1889, Gornergrat in 1898). The Jungfraubahn opened in 1912; it leads to the highest railway station in Europe, the Jungfraujoch.

Summer tourism
Switzerland enjoys a 62,000-km network of well-maintained trails, of which 23,000 are located in mountainous areas. Many mountains attract a large number of alpinists from around the world, especially the 4000-meter summits and the great north faces (Eiger, Matterhorn and Piz Badile). The large winter resorts are also popular destinations in summer, as most of aerial tramways operate through the year, enabling hikers and mountaineers to reach high altitudes without much effort. The Klein Matterhorn is the highest summit of the European continent to be served by cable car.

Winter tourism
The major destinations for skiing and other winter sports are located in Valais, Bernese Oberland and Graubünden. Some villages are car-free and can be accessed only with public transports such as Riederalp and Bettmeralp. Zermatt and Saas-Fee have both summer ski areas. The ski season starts from as early as November and runs to as late as May; however, the majority of ski resorts in Switzerland tend to open in December and run through to April. The most visited places are:

 * Davos – Klosters GR
 * Zermatt VS (car-free village)
 * Engadin – St. Moritz GR
 * Lenzerheide – Arosa GR
 * Jungfrauregion: Grindelwald – Mürren – Wengen BE (car-free villages)
 * Les quatre vallées: Verbier – Nendaz VS
 * LAAX: Flims – Laax GR
 * Aletsch Arena: Riederalp – Bettmeralp – Fiesch VS (car-free villages)
 * Les Portes du Soleil: Champéry – Morgins – Les Crosets VS and Avoriaz in France
 * Adelboden – Lenk BE
 * Val d'Anniviers: Grimentz – Zinal – Vercorin – St-Luc – Chandolin VS
 * Gstaad: Gstaad – Saanen – Saanenmöser – Zweisimmen BE – Rougemont – Chateau-d'Oex VD
 * Silvretta Arena: Samnaun GR and Ischgl in Austria
 * Crans Montana VS
 * Saas-Fee VS

Other important destinations on the regional level are Engelberg-Titlis (Central Switzerland / OW) and Gotthard Oberalp Arena with Andermatt (Central Switzerland / UR) and Sedrun (GR), Leysin-Les Mosses, Villars-sur-Ollon, Les Diablerets-Glacier 3000 (all VD), Leukerbad (VS), Savognin, Scuol, Obersaxen, Breil/Brigels (all GR), Meiringen – Hasliberg (BE), Sörenberg (LU), Klewenalp with Beckenried and Emmetten (both NW), Melchsee-Frutt (OW), Flumserberg and Pizol (both Sarganserland in SG), Toggenburg with Wildhaus – Unterwasser – Alt St. Johann (SG), Hoch-Ybrig and Stoos (all SZ), Braunwald and Elm (GL), Airolo and Bosco/Gurin (TI) and many more.

The first person to ski in Grindelwald, Switzerland was Englishmen Gerald Fox (a resident of Tone Dale House in England) who put his skis on in his hotel bedroom in 1881 and walked out through the hotel Bar to the slopes wearing them.

Snow activities
Some major sporting activities include:
 * Skiing
 * Snowboarding
 * Snow sled-biking
 * Downhill snow Mountain Biking
 * Snowmobiling (as well as snowmobile tours and rides)

Climate change
Climate change is impacting European Alpine tourism due to the increasing number and intensity of natural hazards, and it is endangering the accessibility and infrastructure of tourism destinations. Melting glaciers are affecting the attractiveness of the Alpine landscape, increasing winter temperatures will result in a shorter skiing season, and these climate changes are limiting the amount of snow coverage produced. All of these climate and geographical factors are leading to a smaller number of visitors and reduced revenues which can have an intense economic impact on winter tourism. In response to these changes, Switzerland has turned to the production of artificial snow to match the demand for these tourist destinations and to uphold the structure and well-being of the economy.

Transport

The Swiss Alps and Switzerland enjoy an extensive transport network. Virtually every mountain village can be reached by public transport, either by rail, bus, funicular, cable car, or usually a combination of them. The main companies of the coherently integrated public transport system are:

 * Swiss Federal Railways (SBB CFF FFS)
 * Rhaetian Railway (RhB)
 * Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn (MGB)
 * GoldenPass Line
 * PostBus (PostAuto / CarPostal / AutoPostale / Auto da Posta)

Most of the mountain regions are within 1 to 3 hours travel of Switzerland's main cities and their respective airport. The Engadine in Graubünden is between 3 and 6 hours away from the large cities; the train journey itself, with the panoramic Glacier Express or Bernina Express, is popular with tourists.

The Engadin Airport near St. Moritz at an altitude of 1,704 meters is the highest in Europe.

The crossing of the Alps is a key issue at national and international levels, as the European continent is at places divided by the range. Since the beginning of industrialisation Switzerland has improved its transalpine network; it began in 1882, by building the Gotthard Rail Tunnel, followed in 1906 by the Simplon Tunnel and 1913 by the Lötschberg Tunnel, and more recently, in 2007, by the Lötschberg Base Tunnel. The 57.1-km long Gotthard Base Tunnel, the longest railway tunnel of the world, opened in 2016 and provides a direct flat rail link through the Alps.

Toponymy
The different names of the mountains and other landforms are named in the four national languages. The table below gives the most recurrent names.

Also, a large number of peaks outside the Alps were named or nicknamed after Swiss mountains, such as the Wetterhorn Peak in Colorado or the Matterhorn Peak in California (see the Matterhorn article for a list of Matterhorns in the world).

The confluence of the Baltoro Glacier and the Godwin-Austen Glacier south of K2 in the Karakoram range was named after the Konkordiaplatz by European explorers.

Notes and references

 * Glaciers of the Alps, USGS
 * Encyclopædia Britannica, Alps

title: Swiss Alps


text:
Maritime Alps

The Maritime Alps (Alpes Maritimes ; Alpi Marittime ) are a mountain range in the southwestern part of the Alps. They form the border between the French region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur and the Italian regions of Piedmont and Liguria. They are the southernmost part of the Alps.

Geography
Administratively the range is divided between the Italian provinces of Cuneo and Imperia (eastern slopes) and the French department of Alpes-Maritimes (western slopes).

The Maritime Alps are drained by the rivers Roya, Var and Verdon and their tributaries on the French side; by the Stura di Demonte and other tributaries of the Tanaro and Po on the Italian side. There are many attractive perched villages, such as Belvédère at the entrance to the spectacular Gordolasque valley, some concealing unexpected architectural riches (for example in the south there are numerous churches decorated with murals and altarpieces by primitive Niçois painters).

Borders
The borders of the Maritime Alps are as follows (clockwise):
 * Vermenagna creek, Col de Tende - which connects them with the Ligurian Alps - and Roya (east);
 * Mediterranean Sea and Var valley (south)
 * Verdon, Col d'Allos - which connects them with Provence Alps and Prealps - and Ubaye (west);
 * Maddalena Pass (which connects them with the Cottian Alps) and Stura di Demonte (north).

Peaks
The main peaks of the Maritime Alps are:

Mountain passes
The chief passes of the Maritime Alps are:

Nature conservation
The French Mercantour National Park (central area:68,500 ha + peripheral area:140,000 ha) is part of the Maritime Alps as well as the Maritime Alps Natural Park, an Italian regional nature park of 28,455 ha.

Maps

 * Italian official cartography (Istituto Geografico Militare - IGM); on-line version: www.pcn.minambiente.it
 * French official cartography (Institut Géographique National - IGN); on-line version: www.geoportail.fr

Alpes Marítimos y prealpes de Niza Alpi Marittime e Prealpi di Nizza

title: Maritime Alps


text:
Glarus Alps

The Glarus Alps (Glarner Alpen) are a mountain range in central Switzerland. They are bordered by the Uri Alps and the Schwyz Alps to the west, the Lepontine Alps to the south, the Appenzell Alps to the northeast. The eastern part of the Glarus Alps contains a major thrust fault that was declared a geologic UNESCO World Heritage Site (the Swiss Tectonic Arena Sardona).

The Glarus Alps extend well beyond the canton of Glarus, including parts of the cantons of Uri, Graubünden, and St Gallen. Conversely, not all the mountains in the canton of Glarus are part of the Glarus Alps, with those to the north of the Urner Boden and to the west of the valley of the river Linth considered to be part of the Schwyz Alps.

Geography
The main chain of the Glarus Alps can be divided into six minor groups, separated from each other by passes, the lowest of which exceeds 7,500 ft. The westernmost of these is the Crispalt, a rugged range including many peaks of nearly equal height. The highest of these are the Piz Giuv (3,096 m) and Piz Nair. The name Crispalt is given to a southern, but secondary, peak of Piz Giuv, measuring 3,070 m. West of the main group is the Rienzenstock, while a northern outlier culminates in the Bristen. East of the Crispalt, the Chrüzli Pass separates this from the rather higher mass of the Oberalpstock (3,328 m).

Here occurs a partial break in the continuity of the chain. The crest of the snowy range connecting the Oberalpstock with the Tödi nowhere sinks to 9,000 feet, but makes a sweep convex to the north, forming a semicircular recess, whose numerous torrents are all poured into the Rhine through the Val Russein below Disentis. Two glacier passes lead over this part of the chain — one to west, over the Brunnigletscher to the Maderanertal; the other to the north-east, over the Sand Glacier, to the Linthal.

The Tödi, the highest of the range and of north-eastern Switzerland (3,614 m), is attended by numerous secondary peaks that arise from the extensive snow-fields surrounding the central mountain. A very considerable outlyer, whose chief summits are the Schärhorn and the Gross Windgällen, belonging to the canton of Uri, is connected with the Tödi by the range of the Clariden Grat, north to the Hüfi Glacier. A less important branch encloses the Biferten Glacier, and terminates in the Selbsanft, south of Tierfehd. Towards the valley of the Vorderrhein a high promontory stretches nearly due south from the central peaks of the Tödi, and is crowned by the summit of the Piz Posta Biala. Another considerable ramification of the same mass terminates farther to the east in the peak of the Cavistrau.

The Kisten Pass separates the Tödi group from the Hausstock, whose summit attains 3,158 m; a branch of this latter group forms the range of the Kärpf in the canton of Glarus. The Hausstock is cut off from the rather lower but more extended mass of the Vorab by the Panixer Pass (7,907 ft). Numerous summits, of which the Vorab proper and Piz Grisch are the most important, approach very near, but do not quite attain to 10,000 feet.

The eastern limit of the latter group is marked by the Segnas Pass — the most frequented of those connecting the Canton Glarus with the Vorderrhein — beyond which arises a wide-stretching mass of rock and glacier, which is part of the Glarus thrust and culminates at Piz Sardona. This mass is cleft by a deep valley — the Calfeisental: one branch, culminating in the Pizol (2,844 m), extends east over Pfäfers, while another, including the highest peak of the canton of St. Gallen, the Ringelspitz (3,247 m), runs due east to the low Kunkels Pass (1,357 m), separating this range from the Calanda.

Glaciers
Main glaciers :

 * Hüfi Glacier
 * Limmern Glacier
 * Biferten Glacier
 * Vorab Glacier

Passes
The chief passes of the Tödi Range, from the Oberalp Pass to the Klausen Pass, are:

 * Note: road status .

Maps

 * Swiss official cartography (Swiss Federal Office of Topography - Swisstopo); on-line version: map.geo.admin.ch

title: Glarus Alps