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October 13, 2007

FEATURE ARTICLES


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Conservation for the People

October 2007 issue

Pitting nature and biodiversity against people makes little sense. Many conservationists now argue that human health and well-being should be central to conservation efforts

The Future of Space Exploration

October 2007 issue

The launch of the Soviet Sputnik satellite half a century ago inaugurated the Space Age. What comes next?

Big Lab on a Tiny Chip

October 2007 issue

Squeezing a chemistry lab down to fingernail size could provide instant medical tests at home and on the battlefield

Experimental Drugs on Trial

October 2007 issue

A controversial lawsuit challenges the FDA's system of controlling access to experimental drugs and, some say, the scientific basis of drug approval

The Diamond Age of Spintronics

October 2007 issue

Quantum electronic devices that harness the spins of electrons might one day enable room-temperature quantum computers—made of diamond

How Does Consciousness Happen

October 2007 issue

Two leading neuroscientists, Christof Koch and Susan Greenfield, disagree about the activity that takes place in the brain during subjective experience

5 Essential Things To Do In Space

October 2007 issue

Planetary scientists have articulated goals for exploring the solar system

To the Moon and Beyond

October 2007 issue

Humans are returning to the moon. This time the plan is to stay a while

A Question of Sustenance

September 2007 issue

Globalization ushered in a world in which more than a billion are overfed. Yet hundreds of millions still suffer from hunger's persistent scourge

Sowing a Gene Revolution

September 2007 issue

A new green revolution based on genetically modified crops can help reduce poverty and hungerbut only if formidable institutional challenges are met

The World Is Fat

September 2007 issue

More people in the developing world are now overweight than hungry. How can the poorest countries fight obesity?

Still Hungry

September 2007 issue

One eighth of the worlds people do not have enough to eat

This is Your Brain on Food

September 2007 issue

Neuroimaging reveals a shared basis for chocoholia and drug addiction

What Fuels Fat

September 2007 issue

The human bodys ability to store energy as fat seems haywire in a world full of food. Understanding how our complex energy-regulating systems can falter and lead to obesity is revealing new ways to fight excess weight

Is Your Food Contaminated

September 2007 issue

New approaches are needed to protect the food supply

Can Fat Be Fit?

September 2007 issue

A well-publicized study and a spate of popular books raise questions about the ill effects of being overweight. Their conclusions are probably wrong

This is Your Brain on Food (extended version)

September 2007 issue

Neuroimaging reveals a shared basis for chocoholia and drug addiction

Eating Made Simple

September 2007 issue

How do you cope with a mountain of conflicting diet advice?

Future Farming: A Return to Roots?

August 2007 issue

Large-scale agriculture would become more sustainable if major crop plants lived for years and built deep root systems

The Shark's Electric Sense

August 2007 issue

An astonishingly sensitive detector of electric fields helps sharks zero in on prey

The Physical Science behind Climate Change

August 2007 issue

Why are climatologists so highly confident that human activities are dangerously warming the earth?

Predicting Wildfires

August 2007 issue

Fires are burning more acres than ever. Where will the next blazes ignite? Can we prevent them? Should we?

Data Center in a Box

August 2007 issue

A shipping container stuffed with servers could usher in the era of cloud computing

Race in a Bottle

August 2007 issue

Drugmakers are eager to develop medicines targeted at ethnic groups, but so far they have made poor choices based on unsound science

Windows on the Mind

August 2007 issue

Once scorned as nervous tics, certain tiny, unconscious flicks of the eyes now turn out to underpin much of our ability to see. These movements may even re?veal subliminal thoughts

Broadband Room Service by Light

July 2007 issue

Encoded light transmissions can provide the wireless devices in a room with multimedia Web services such as videoconferencing, movies on demand and more

Should Science Speak to Faith?

July 2007 issue

Two prominent defenders of science exchange their views on how scientists ought to approach religion and its followers

An Earth Without People

July 2007 issue

A new way to examine humanity's impact on the environment is to consider how the world would fare if all the people disappeared

The Memory Code

July 2007 issue

Researchers are closing in on the rules that the brain uses to lay down memories. Discovery of this memory code could lead to the design of smarter computers and robots and even to new ways to peer into the human mind

Warmer Oceans, Stronger Hurricanes

July 2007 issue

Evidence is mounting that global warming enhances a cyclone's damaging winds and flooding rains

A Malignant Flame

July 2007 issue

Understanding chronic inflammation, which contributes to heart disease, Alzheimer's and a variety of other ailments, may be a key to unlocking the mysteries of cancer

The Evolution of Cats

July 2007 issue

Genomic paw prints in the DNA of the world's wild cats have clarified the cat family tree and uncovered several remarkable migrations in their past

Climate Change Refugees (extended version)

June 2007 issue

As global warming tightens the availability of water, prepare for a torrent of forced migrations

A Simpler Origin for Life

June 2007 issue

The sudden appearance of a large self-copying molecule such as RNA was exceedingly improbable. Energy-driven networks of small molecules afford better odds as the initiators of life

Breaking Network Logjams

June 2007 issue

An approach called network coding could dramatically enhance the efficiency and reliability of communications networks. At its core is the strange notion that transmitting evidence about messages can be more useful than conveying the messages themselves

When Fields Collide

June 2007 issue

The history of particle cosmology shows that science can benefit from wrenching changes

Restoring America's Big, Wild Animals

June 2007 issue

Pleistocene rewilding--a proposal to bring back animals that disappeared from North America 13,000 years ago--offers an optimistic agenda for 21st-century conservation

Seeing Triple

June 2007 issue

Anticipated for decades, machines are finally displaying real objects in three true dimensions

The Traveler's Dilemma

June 2007 issue

When playing this simple game, people consistently reject the rational choice. In fact, by acting illogically, they end up reaping a larger reward--an outcome that demands a new kind of for¿mal reasoning

Lifting the Fog around Anesthesia

June 2007 issue

Learning why current anesthetics are so potent and sometimes dangerous will lead to a new generation of safer targeted drugs without unwanted side effects

Chromosomal Chaos and Cancer

May 2007 issue

Current wisdom on the role of genes in malignancy may not explain some features of cancer, but stepping back to look at the bigger picture inside cells reveals a view that just might

Carbon Nanonets Spark New Electronics

May 2007 issue

Random networks of tiny carbon tubes could make possible low-cost, flexible devices such as "electronic paper" and printable solar cells

Eyes Open, Brain Shut

May 2007 issue

New brain-imaging techniques are giving researchers a better understanding of patients in the vegetative state

Preventing Blackouts

May 2007 issue

A smarter power grid that automatically responds to problems could reduce the rising number of debilitating blackouts

The Mystery of Methane on Mars and Titan

May 2007 issue

It might mean life, it might mean unusual geologic activity; whichever it is, the presence of methane in the atmospheres of Mars and Titan is one of the most tantalizing puzzles in our solar system

South America's Missing Mammals

May 2007 issue

Startling fossil discoveries in the Chilean Andes reveal an unexpected menagerie of unique mammals that once roamed South America. The finds also overturn long-held wisdom about the continent's geologic history

A Do-It-Yourself Quantum Eraser

May 2007 issue

Using readily available equipment, you can carry out a home experiment that illustrates one of the weirdest effects in quantum mechanics

Just How Smart Are Ravens?

April 2007 issue

Recent experiments show that these birds use logic to solve problems and that some of their abilities approach or even surpass those of the great apes

Seeking the Connections: Alcoholism and Our Genes

April 2007 issue

Identifying genetic influences on vulnerability to alcohol addiction can lead to more targeted treatments and help those at risk to make informed choices about their own lives

The Promise of Plasmonics

April 2007 issue

A technology that squeezes electromagnetic waves into minuscule structures may yield a new generation of superfast computer chips and ultrasensitive molecular detectors

A Cure for Rabies?

April 2007 issue

The survival of a Wisconsin teenager who contracted rabies may point the way to a treatment for this horrifying disease

The Movies in Our Eyes

April 2007 issue

The retina processes information much morethan anyone has ever imagined, sending a dozen different movies to the brain

Gassing Up with Hydrogen

April 2007 issue

Researchers are working on ways for fuel-cell vehicles to hold the hydrogen gas they need for long-distance travel

The Ghosts of Galaxies Past

April 2007 issue

Strangely moving stars may be the remnants of past galaxies devoured by our Milky Way

Diesels Come Clean

March 2007 issue

Improved engines and exhaust scrubbers, combined with a new fuel, willmake energy-efficient diesels nearly as green as hybrids

A Digital Life

March 2007 issue

New systems may allow people to record everything they see and hear--and even things they cannot sense--and to store all these data in a personal digital archive

Down Go the Dams

March 2007 issue

Many dams are being torn down these days, allowing rivers and the ecosystems they support to rebound. But ecological risks abound as well. Can they be averted?

Mapping the Cancer Genome

March 2007 issue

Pinpointing the genes involved in cancer will help chart a new course across the complex landscape of human malignancies

Illusory Color and the Brain

March 2007 issue

Novel illusions suggest that the brain does not separate perception of color from perception of form and depth

Black Hole Blowback

March 2007 issue

A single black hole, smaller than the solar system, can control the destiny of an entire cluster of galaxies

New Predictors of Disease

March 2007 issue

Molecules called predictive autoantibodies appear in the blood years before people show symptoms of various disorders. Tests that detected these molecules could warn of the need to take preventive action

Tracking an Ancient Killer

February 2007 issue

The case was cold--the bones in the mass grave were 70 million years old. But critical clues pointed to the killer's identity

Molecular Lego

February 2007 issue

A modest collection of small building blocks enables the design and manufacture of nanometer-scale structures programmed to have virtually any shape desired

Methane, Plants and Climate Change

February 2007 issue

The surprising recent finding that living plants produce methane does not throw doubt on the cause of global warming. Human activities--not plants--are the source of the surge in this and other greenhouse gases

Making Silicon Lase

February 2007 issue

Scientists have at last persuaded silicon to emit laser beams. In a few years, computers and other devices will handle light as well as electrons

Digital TV at Last?

February 2007 issue

Analog TV broadcasting is set to end in two years, but its legacy could make the digital transition anything but smooth

Spice Healer

February 2007 issue

An ingredient in curry shows promise for treating Alzheimer's, cancer and other diseases

The Universe's Invisible Hand

February 2007 issue

Dark energy does more than hurry along the expansion of the universe. It also has a stranglehold on the shape and spacing of galaxies

Is Ethanol for the Long Haul?

January 2007 issue

Ethanol could displace gasoline, but it won't pay off until we find a way to distill cornstalks, not corn

The Mississippi's Curious Origins

January 2007 issue

A mountain range once separated the continental interior of the U.S. from the Gulf of Mexico. Some clever geologic sleuthing has revealed how that barrier was breached, allowing the river to reach the Gulf

Better Ways to Target Pain

January 2007 issue

Improved understanding of the chemical pathway on which aspirin and Vioxx act may lead to analgesics with fewer side effects

The Power of Riboswitches

January 2007 issue

Discovering relics from a lost world run by RNA molecules may lead to modern tools for fighting disease

What Is a Planet?

January 2007 issue

The controversial new official definition of "planet," which banished Pluto, has its flaws but by and large captures essential scientific principles

A Robot in Every Home

January 2007 issue

The leader of the PC revolution predicts that the next hot field will be robotics