July 2004
Scientific American Magazine

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Cover; July 2004; by Staff Editor; 1 Page(s)

Table of Contents; July 2004; by Staff Editor; 2 Page(s)

SA Perspectives: Testing Madness; July 2004; by Staff Editor; 1 Page(s)

More testing for mad cow disease is not necessarily better testing

How to Contact Us and On the Web; July 2004; by Staff Editor; 1 Page(s)

Letters to the Editors; July 2004; by Staff Editor; 3 Page(s)

50, 100 and 150 Years Ago; July 2004; by Staff Editor; 1 Page(s)

Nobel Chemists; Visionary Author; Prescient (and Unlucky) Inventor

Leading to Lead; July 2004; by Rebecca Renner; 2 Page(s)

Conflicting rules may put lead in tap water

Mickey Has Two Moms; July 2004; by Diane Martindale; 2 Page(s)

No sperm needed: mice are born from two eggs

Magnetic Soot; July 2004; by Graham P. Collins; 2 Page(s)

Carbon nanofoam is found to be ferromagnetic

Baby Talk Beginnings; July 2004; by Kate Wong; 2 Page(s)

Infant pacification may have led to the origin of language

Growing Pains; July 2004; by George Musser; 2 Page(s)

Old, massive galaxies when none should be

Bugging for Guidance; July 2004; by JR Minkel; 1 Page(s)

No one is sure who regulates genetically modified insects

By the Numbers: Undercutting Fairness; July 2004; by Rodger Doyle; 1 Page(s)

States and localities undermine tax progressiveness

News Scan Briefs; July 2004; by Charles Choi, JR Minkel; 2 Page(s)

Permian Percussion; Hot Stuff Coming Through; When Air Quality Hits "Mutant"; Rover and Over; Mixing in Mitochondria; Beta from Beta

Innovations: Overcoming Self; July 2004; by Gary Stix; 2 Page(s)

A company tries to turn the immune system against cancer

Staking Claims: If It's Broke, Fix It; July 2004; by Gary Stix; 1 Page(s)

Two economists propose solutions for patent system reform

Skeptic: God's Number Is Up; July 2004; by Michael Shermer; 1 Page(s)

Among a heap of books claiming that science proves God's existence emerges one that computes a probability of 67 percent

Insights: Doom and Gloom by 2100; July 2004; by Julie Wakefield; 2 Page(s)

Unleashed viruses, environmental disaster, gray goo - astronomer Sir Martin Rees calculates that civilization has only a 50-50 chance of making it to the 22nd century

The Extraordinary Deaths of Ordinary Stars; July 2004; by Bruce Balick and Adam Frank; 10 Page(s)

The demise of the sun in five billion years will be a spectacular sight. Like other stars of its ilk, the sun will unfurl into nature's premier work of art: a planetary nebula

Gene Doping; July 2004; by H. Lee Sweeney; 8 Page(s)

Gene therapy for restoring muscle lost to age or disease is poised to enter the clinic, but elite athletes are eyeing it to enhance performance. Can it be long before gene doping changes the nature of sport?

Magnetic Field Nanosensors; July 2004; by Stuart A. Solin; 8 Page(s)

Tiny devices that take advantage of a recently discovered physical effect called extraordinary magnetoresistance could be used in blazingly fast computer disk drives with huge capacities and in dozens of other applications involving the sensing of magnetic fields

When Methane Made Climate; July 2004; by James F. Kasting; 8 Page(s)

Today methane-producing microbes are confined to oxygen-free settings, such as the guts of cows, but in Earth's distant past, they ruled the world

Detecting Mad Cow Disease; July 2004; by Stanley B. Prusiner; 8 Page(s)

New tests can rapidly identify the presence of dangerous prions - the agents responsible for the malady - and several compounds offer hope for treatment

The Shapes of Space; July 2004; by Graham P. Collins; 10 Page(s)

A Russian mathematician has proved the century-old Poincaré conjecture and completed the catalogue of three-dimensional spaces. He might earn a $1-million prize

The Mystery of the Voynich Manuscript; July 2004; by Gordon Rugg; 6 Page(s)

New analysis of a famously cryptic medieval document suggests that it contains nothing but gibberish

Working Knowledge: Big Air; July 2004; by Mark Fischetti; 2 Page(s)

Pipe organs

Voyages: Stars atop a Silent Volcano; July 2004; by Marguerite Holloway; 2 Page(s)

The largest astronomical observatory in the world sits on Mauna Kea in Hawaii. The views, up or down, are spectacular

Reviews: Where the Wild Things Were; July 2004; by Nicholas D. Kristoff, Staff Editors; 2 Page(s)

The Retreat of the Elephants tells the complex tale of China's environmental history. Also, The Editors Recommend

Anti Gravity: Einstein's Parrot; July 2004; by Steve Mirsky; 1 Page(s)

A great brain and a bird spend time together

Ask the Experts; July 2004; by Staff Editor; 1 Page(s)

Why do people snore? What kind of patterns does the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) look for?