Every issue of the Nexus Network Journal is exciting for me, but I think that this last issue of our second year is particularly so. In addition to the rich array of featured articles, book reviews and conference report that this issue contains, it also brings us two new, exciting collaborations. Michael Ostwald of the University of Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia, has joined the NNJ as Book Review Editor. NNJ readers are already familiar with Michael's work on fractals and architecture, presented at Nexus '98 in Mantua ("Aperiodic Tiling, Penrose Tiling and the Generation of Architectural Forms") and with his entry into the debate about the Golden Section, "Under Siege: The Golden Mean in Architecture". Michael will be looking for the latest books on architecture and mathematics to review for the NNJ. If you are thinking of submitting a review for publication here, be sure to e-mail Michael Ostwald.

The second collaboration brings to our pages a column on geometry that will appear in every issue. Artist and geometer Mark A. Reynolds (aka Marcus the Marinite) is contributing the Geometer's Angle. Mark brings to this column all his experience both as a teacher and as a user of geometry to offer online lessons in geometrical constructions, their procedures, background, symbolism and meaning. This performs a very valuable service for our community in architecture and mathematics, especially so because descriptive geometry isn't being taught in all schools anymore.Mark has already shared his knowledge of geometry with NNJ readers in "A Comparative Geometric Analysis of the Heights and Bases of the Great Pyramid of Khufu and the Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan" and in his presentation at Nexus 2000, "A New Geometric Analysis of the Pazzi Chapel in Santa Croce, Florence". (By the way, doesn't this all make you think you shouldn't miss out on Nexus 2002?)

There are so many good featured articles in this issue of the NNJ, it is hard to know where to begin. Jay Kappraff, known to many of you as the author of the book Connections: The Geometric Bridge Between Art and Science, has contributed "The Arithmetic of Nicomachus of Gerasa and its Applications to Systems of Architectural Proportion". The theories of this ancient author traveled across the centuries to surface in the architecture of Leon Battista Alberti and Le Corbusier. Slavik Jablan, editor of the electronic journal VisMath, has contributed an interactive game about tiling called "Modular Games". The program, which is witty and graphically sophisticated as well as instructive, is designed to let you create patterns while teaching you how they work. Donald W. Crowe, who with Dorothy Washburn co-authored Symmetries of Culture: Theory and Practice of Plane Pattern Analysis has written an "Introduction to Slavik Jablan's "Modular Games", providing us with a background of information about Slavik's program. Nancy Wu originally published "Hugues Libergier and His Instruments" in the AVISTA FORUM, the Journal of The Association Villard de Honnecourt for the Interdisciplinary Study of Medieval Technology, Science and Art. I am very pleased to reprint this paper here, so that NNJ readers who aren't medievalists will be able to learn from it. I am always reminded of the story about how the earliest paper on chaos theory didn't find its way to mathematicians because it was originally published in a journal for meteorologists. In spite of the new interdisciplinarity that is popular today, many papers such as Dr. Wu's still may not find their way to all interested readers. Finally in Featured articles, we have the Nexus 2000 Round Table Discussion: Methodology in Architecture and Mathematics, which was moderated by Carol Martin Watts, and in which participated Rachel Fletcher, Paul Calter, William (Bill) Sapp and Mark Reynolds. This is the transcripts of tapes recorded during the Round Table (remember the Watergate tapes?) and has been divided into three parts according to the three main themes of the discussion. Carol did a great job of moderating the discussion, and I hope that the Round Table becomes a fixed part of future Nexus conferences.

Summertime is conference time for many of us. This year was no exception and we have four conference reports in this issue. Yvonne Dold Samplonius, who gave a talk entitled "Calculation of Arches and Domes in 15th Century Samarkand" at Nexus 2000, was one of the organizers of 2000 Years Transmission of Mathematical Ideas, about which she reports in this issue. Vera W. de Spinadel of the The International Association for Mathematics and Design traveled from Argentina all the way to Japan and reports on the 9th International Congress on Mathematical Education. Ivars Peterson of the electronic journal Science News reports on ISAMA 2000 held in Albany in July. Dr. Peterson has put so many hyperlinks in his paper that you will feel as though you have "virtually" attended the conference! Engineer Holger Falter reports on the IASS- International Association for Shell and Spatial Structures conference held in Turkey. Holger presented "The Influence of Mathematics on the Development of Structural Form" at Nexus '98.

And we have new book reviews! Abdul Karim Bangura, currently Director of the African Institution in Washington, DC, reviews Ron Eglash's African Fractals: Modern Computing and Indigenous Design. Alessandra Capanna, who presented "Conoids and Hyperbolic Paraboloids in Le Corbusier's Philips Pavilion", reviews Manfredi Nicoletti's Sergio Musmeci: Organicità di forme e forze nello spazio, which we publish here in both an English version and an Italian version. Musmeci's search for form is very much like that of Buckminster Fuller, the subject of the book that I review this month, Your Private Sky. Buckminster Fuller.

In addition to our regular features, the Bulletin Board, Virtual Library and Submission Guidelines, we have another new regular feature, the Nexus Network Journal Bookshop. This is another exciting development of the NNJ, where you are now able to buy the Nexus books and the NNJ in print directly through the NNJ, using your Visa or Mastercard. Remember, book sales provide support for the next publications, so help us keep going!

Enjoy this new issue, and please e-mail me with questions or comments.

Kim Williams, Editor-in-Chief