FEATURE ARTICLES
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Free preview. Full coverage available from Scientific American Digital |
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Conservation for the People
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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 |
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The Future of Space Exploration
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October 2007 issue |
The launch of the Soviet Sputnik satellite half a century ago inaugurated the Space Age. What comes next? |
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Big Lab on a Tiny Chip
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October 2007 issue |
Squeezing a chemistry lab down to fingernail size could provide instant medical tests at home and on the battlefield |
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Experimental Drugs on Trial
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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 |
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ADVERTISEMENT
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The Diamond Age of Spintronics
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October 2007 issue |
Quantum electronic devices that harness the spins of electrons might one day enable room-temperature quantum computers—made of diamond |
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How Does Consciousness Happen
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October 2007 issue |
Two leading neuroscientists, Christof Koch and Susan Greenfield, disagree about the activity that
takes place in the brain during subjective experience |
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5 Essential Things To Do In Space
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October 2007 issue |
Planetary scientists have articulated goals for exploring the solar system |
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To the Moon and Beyond
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October 2007 issue |
Humans are returning to the moon. This time the plan is to stay a while |
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A Question of Sustenance
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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 |
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Sowing a Gene Revolution
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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 |
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The World Is Fat
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September 2007 issue |
More people in the developing world are now overweight than hungry. How can the poorest countries fight obesity? |
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Still Hungry
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September 2007 issue |
One eighth of the worlds people do not have enough to eat |
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This is Your Brain on Food
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September 2007 issue |
Neuroimaging reveals a shared basis for chocoholia and drug addiction |
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What Fuels Fat
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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 |
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Is Your Food Contaminated
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September 2007 issue |
New approaches are needed to protect the food supply |
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Can Fat Be Fit?
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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 |
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This is Your Brain on Food (extended version)
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September 2007 issue |
Neuroimaging reveals a shared basis for chocoholia and drug addiction |
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Eating Made Simple
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September 2007 issue |
How do you cope with a mountain of conflicting diet advice? |
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Future Farming: A Return to Roots?
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August 2007 issue |
Large-scale agriculture would become more sustainable if major crop plants lived for years and built deep root systems |
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The Shark's Electric Sense
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August 2007 issue |
An astonishingly sensitive detector of electric fields helps sharks zero in on prey |
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The Physical Science behind Climate Change
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August 2007 issue |
Why are climatologists so highly confident that
human activities are dangerously warming the earth? |
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Predicting Wildfires
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August 2007 issue |
Fires are burning more acres than ever. Where will the next blazes ignite? Can we prevent them? Should we? |
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Data Center in a Box
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August 2007 issue |
A shipping container stuffed with servers could usher in the era of cloud computing |
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Race in a Bottle
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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 |
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Windows on the Mind
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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 |
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Broadband Room Service by Light
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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 |
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Should Science Speak to Faith?
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July 2007 issue |
Two prominent defenders of science exchange their views on how scientists ought to approach religion and its followers |
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An Earth Without People
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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 |
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The Memory Code
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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 |
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Warmer Oceans, Stronger Hurricanes
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July 2007 issue |
Evidence is mounting that global warming enhances a cyclone's damaging winds and flooding rains |
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A Malignant Flame
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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 |
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The Evolution of Cats
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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 |
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Climate Change Refugees (extended version)
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June 2007 issue |
As global warming tightens the availability of water, prepare for a torrent of forced migrations |
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A Simpler Origin for Life
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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 |
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Breaking Network Logjams
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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 |
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When Fields Collide
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June 2007 issue |
The history of particle cosmology shows that science can benefit from wrenching changes |
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Restoring America's Big, Wild Animals
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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 |
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Seeing Triple
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June 2007 issue |
Anticipated for decades, machines are finally displaying real objects in three true dimensions |
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The Traveler's Dilemma
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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 |
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Lifting the Fog around Anesthesia
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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 |
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Chromosomal Chaos and Cancer
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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 |
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Carbon Nanonets Spark New Electronics
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May 2007 issue |
Random networks of tiny carbon tubes could make possible low-cost, flexible devices such as "electronic paper" and printable solar cells |
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Eyes Open, Brain Shut
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May 2007 issue |
New brain-imaging techniques are giving researchers a better understanding of patients in the vegetative state |
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Preventing Blackouts
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May 2007 issue |
A smarter power grid that automatically responds to problems could reduce the rising number of debilitating blackouts |
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The Mystery of Methane on Mars and Titan
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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 |
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South America's Missing Mammals
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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 |
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A Do-It-Yourself Quantum Eraser
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May 2007 issue |
Using readily available equipment, you can carry out a home experiment that illustrates one of the weirdest effects in quantum mechanics |
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Just How Smart Are Ravens?
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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 |
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Seeking the Connections: Alcoholism and Our Genes
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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 |
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The Promise of Plasmonics
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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 |
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A Cure for Rabies?
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April 2007 issue |
The survival of a Wisconsin teenager who contracted rabies may point the way to a treatment for this horrifying disease |
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The Movies in Our Eyes
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April 2007 issue |
The retina processes information much morethan anyone has ever imagined, sending a dozen different movies to the brain |
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Gassing Up with Hydrogen
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April 2007 issue |
Researchers are working on ways for fuel-cell vehicles to hold the hydrogen gas they need for long-distance travel |
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The Ghosts of Galaxies Past
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April 2007 issue |
Strangely moving stars may be the remnants of past galaxies devoured by our Milky Way |
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Diesels Come Clean
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March 2007 issue |
Improved engines and exhaust scrubbers, combined with a new fuel, willmake energy-efficient diesels nearly as green as hybrids |
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A Digital Life
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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 |
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Down Go the Dams
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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? |
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Mapping the Cancer Genome
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March 2007 issue |
Pinpointing the genes involved in cancer will help chart a new course across the complex landscape of human malignancies |
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Illusory Color and the Brain
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March 2007 issue |
Novel illusions suggest that the brain does not separate perception of color from perception of form and depth |
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Black Hole Blowback
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March 2007 issue |
A single black hole, smaller than the solar system, can control the destiny of an entire cluster of galaxies |
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New Predictors of Disease
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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 |
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Tracking an Ancient Killer
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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 |
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Molecular Lego
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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 |
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Methane, Plants and Climate Change
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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 |
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Making Silicon Lase
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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 |
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Digital TV at Last?
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February 2007 issue |
Analog TV broadcasting is set to end in two years, but its legacy could make the digital transition anything but smooth |
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Spice Healer
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February 2007 issue |
An ingredient in curry shows promise for treating Alzheimer's, cancer and other diseases |
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The Universe's Invisible Hand
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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 |
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Is Ethanol for the Long Haul?
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January 2007 issue |
Ethanol could displace gasoline, but it won't pay off until we find a way to distill cornstalks, not corn |
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The Mississippi's Curious Origins
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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 |
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Better Ways to Target Pain
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January 2007 issue |
Improved understanding of the chemical pathway on which aspirin and Vioxx act may lead to analgesics with fewer side effects |
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The Power of Riboswitches
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January 2007 issue |
Discovering relics from a lost world run by RNA molecules may lead to modern tools for fighting disease |
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What Is a Planet?
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January 2007 issue |
The controversial new official definition of "planet," which banished Pluto, has its flaws but by and large captures essential scientific principles |
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A Robot in Every Home
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January 2007 issue |
The leader of the PC revolution predicts that the next hot field will be robotics |
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Evolved for Cancer?
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January 2007 issue |
Natural selection lacks the power to erase cancer from our species and, some scientists argue, may even have provided tools that help tumors grow |
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