October 2000
Scientific American Magazine

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Cover; October 2000; by Staff Editor; 1 Page(s)

Table of Contents; October 2000; by Staff Editor; 2 Page(s)

From the Editors, including Masthead; October 2000; by John Rennie; 1 Page(s)

Smart Choices

Letters to the Editors; October 2000; by Staff Editor; 2 Page(s)

50, 100 and 150 Years Ago; October 2000; by Staff Editor; 1 Page(s)

Galveston Hurricane, Bruno Bettelheim on Prejudice

Killer Waves on the East Coast?; October 2000; by Sarah Simpson; 2 Page(s)

Underwater landslides off the mid-Atlantic could trigger a tsunami, but the likelihood appears slim

Riding the Rumble; October 2000; by Simon LeVay; 2 Page(s)

A $400,000 house is given a good shaking in the name of science

The Hole Shebang; October 2000; by George Musser; 2 Page(s)

Black holes and galaxies may be entwined from birth

Science on the Canvas; October 2000; by Mark Alpert; 1 Page(s)

Ron Miller has made a career of unveiling the cosmos.

By the Numbers: The Roots of Homicide; October 2000; by Rodger Doyle; 1 Page(s)

The U.S. property crime rate matches those of most other industrialized countries, but its homicide rate exceeds western Europe's by 4 to 1 and Japan's by 7 to 1.

Schrödinger's SQUID; October 2000; by Graham P. Collins; 2 Page(s)

In superconducting loops, electric current flows both ways at once

Womb Wars; October 2000; by Lisa Melton; 2 Page(s)

New evidence that a mother's and father's "imprinted genes" battle to determine a baby's size

One-Hit Wonder; October 2000; by Rebecca Lipsitz; 2 Page(s)

Upending the model of how neurons die in degenerative brain diseases

News Briefs; October 2000; by Graham P. Collins, Steve Mirsky, Philip Yam, Julia Karow, Rebecca Lipsitz; 2 Page(s)

The Tau of Neutrinos; Sea of Troubles; Roadkill Genes; Down with E-Reading; The Sky's the Limit; Stressed for Life; Dingy Skies; Mr. Spock, Phone Home

Profile: Paul R. Ehrlich - Six Billion and Counting; October 2000; by Julie Lewis; 2 Page(s)

Overpopulation hasn't brought humanity to its knees, but that doesn't mean people aren't overburdening the earth

Speech without Accountability; October 2000; by W. Wayt Gibbs; 2 Page(s)

New software makes it nearly impossible to remove illegal material from the Web - or to find out who put it there

Cyber View: Octothorp Standard; October 2000; by Wendy M. Grossman; 1 Page(s)

Is a battle brewing between Sun's Java and Microsoft's C#?

The Wireless Web: Special Report/Introduction; October 2000; by Mark Alpert, George Musser; 1 Page(s)

The Internet has been the subject of more self-parodying hype than anything since 500-channel cable.

The Wireless Web: Special Report/The Internet in Your Hands; October 2000; by Fiona Harvey; 6 Page(s)

To spur the growth of the wireless Web, companies are developing networks that can handle huge amounts of data and handheld devices that can tap into all the Internet's resources

The Wireless Web: Special Report/The Promise and Perils of WAP; October 2000; by Karen J. Bannan, side bar by Mark Albert, George Musser; 4 Page(s)

The Wireless Application Protocol allows cell phone users to connect to the Internet, but the technology has serious limitations

The Wireless Web: Special Report/The Future is Here. Or Is It?; October 2000; by David Wilson; 2 Page(s)

How will Web phones ever become popular if it takes 10 minutes and costs $4 to send one e-mail?

The Wireless Web: Special Report/The Third-Generation Gap; October 2000; by Leander Kahney; 4 Page(s)

A revolution needs a plan. Which technology will provide it?

Operating on a Beating Heart; October 2000; by Cornelius Borst; 6 Page(s)

Coronary bypass surgery can be a lifesaving operation. Two new surgical techniques should make the procedure safer and less expensive

The Power of Memes; October 2000; by Susan Blackmore, with counterpoints by Lee Alan Dugatkin, Robert Boyd, Peter J. Richerson,; 10 Page(s)

Behaviors and ideas copied from person to person by imitation - memes - may have forced human genes to make us what we are today

Nabada: The Buried City; October 2000; by Joachim Bretschneider; 8 Page(s)

Excavations in northern Syria reveal the metropolis of Nabada, founded 4,500 years ago. Its elaborate administration and culture rivaled those of the fabled cities of southern Mesopotamia

Better Decisions through Science; October 2000; by John A. Swets, Robyn M. Dawes, John Monahan; 6 Page(s)

Math-based aids for making decisions in medicine and industry could improve many diagnoses - often saving lives in the process

Working Knowledge: The Hard and the Soft; October 2000; by Naomi Lubick; 2 Page(s)

Contact lenses: something in your eye?

The Amateur Scientist: Down among the Micrograms; October 2000; by Shawn Carlson; 2 Page(s)

High-precision scales bring balance to home labs.

Mathematical Recreations: Million-Dollar Minesweeper; October 2000; by Ian Stewart; 2 Page(s)

How a computer game can make you rich

Books; October 2000; by Vernor Vinge, staff editors; 3 Page(s)

A photographic exploration of Robo sapiens, the next step in machine (and human) evolution. Also, The Editors Recommend

Wonders: Hybrid Vigor!; October 2000; by Philip Morrison, Phylis Morrison; 2 Page(s)

A ride in a practical car that guzzles less gasoline

Connections: Getting High; October 2000; by James Burke; 2 Page(s)

Booze, dope, metaphysics and other rhapsodic matters - a few Renaissance thoughts

Anti-Gravity: Founding Father of Invention; October 2000; by Steve Mirsky; 1 Page(s)

Now is the time for all good men and women to reflect for a moment about one of the key figures in American inventiveness