August 2003
Scientific American Magazine

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Cover; August 2003; by Staff Editor; 1 Page(s)

Table of Contents; August 2003; by Staff Editor; 2 Page(s)

SA Perspectives: Houston, You Have a Problem; August 2003; by Staff Editor; 1 Page(s)

Making space safe from the ground up

How to Contact Us and On the Web; August 2003; by Staff Editor; 1 Page(s)

Letters to the Editors; August 2003; by Staff Editor; 2 Page(s)

50, 100 and 150 Years Ago; August 2003; by Staff Editor; 1 Page(s)

Fixing Dirt; Atomic Revision; Epidemic News

Hot Words; August 2003; by David Appell; 3 Page(s)

A claim of nonhuman-induced global warming sparks debate

Secret Ingredients; August 2003; by David J. Epstein; 2 Page(s)

"Inert" compounds may be chemically active - and toxic

Sourcing Sapiens; August 2003; by Kate Wong; 2 Page(s)

New fossils and DNA tests get to the roots of our species

Deep Thoughts; August 2003; by Sarah Simpson; 2 Page(s)

How to journey to the center of the earth - maybe

View from VIRGO; August 2003; by Alexander Hellemans; 2 Page(s)

A new gravity observatory comes online

By the Numbers: Energy Crunch; August 2003; by Rodger Doyle; 1 Page(s)

Avoiding future shortages demands crucial choices now

News Scan Briefs; August 2003; by JR Minkel, Charles Choi, Sarah Simpson, Philip Yam; 2 Page(s)

Buzz Off, Heat; Not So Friendly Hydrogen; If U Cn Rd Ths...; Fueling Predictions; Forced Attraction; See under the Sea; Data Points: Trigger Happy; Brief Points

Innovations: Hands of Light; August 2003; by Gary Stix; 2 Page(s)

Moving particles with photons leads to a new form of nanomanufacturing

Staking Claims: What a Little Limeade Can Do; August 2003; by Gary Stix; 1 Page(s)

Owning the rights for frozen juice to treat angina and for lunar birth control

Skeptic: The Ignoble Savage; August 2003; by Michael Shermer; 1 Page(s)

Science reveals humanity's heart of darkness

Censors of the Genome; August 2003; by Nelson C. Lau and David P. Bartel; 8 Page(s)

Biologists have been surprised to discover that most animal and plant cells contain a built-in system to silence individual genes by shredding the RNA they produce. Biotech companies are already working to exploit it

Demystifying the Digital Divide; August 2003; by Mark Warschauer; 6 Page(s)

The simple binary notion of technology haves and have-nots doesn't quite compute

Rethinking the "Lesser Brain"; August 2003; by James M. Bower and Lawrence M. Parsons; 8 Page(s)

Long thought to be solely the brain's coordinator of body movement, the cerebellum is now known to be active during a wide variety of cognitive and perceptual activities

Information in the Holographic Universe; August 2003; by Jacob D. Bekenstein; 8 Page(s)

Theoretical results about black holes suggest that the universe could be like a gigantic hologram

Questioning the Delphic Oracle; August 2003; by John R. Hale, Jelle Zeilinga de Boer, Jeffrey P. Chanton and Henry A. Spiller; 8 Page(s)

When science meets religion at this ancient Greek site, the two turn out to be on better terms than scholars had originally thought

Planet of the Apes; August 2003; by David R. Begun; 10 Page(s)

During the Miocene epoch, as many as 100 species of apes roamed throughout the Old World. New fossils suggest that the ones that gave rise to living great apes and humans evolved not in Africa but Eurasia

Insights: Keeper of the Objects; August 2003; by Steve Nadis; 2 Page(s)

With a shoestring budget, asteroid and comet watcher Brian Marsden looks out for Armageddon from the skies - and not without controversy

Working Knowledge: Seeing Green; August 2003; by Mark Fischetti; 2 Page(s)

Night vision

Technicalities: Converging on the Couch; August 2003; by W. Wayt Gibbs; 3 Page(s)

New devices connect the stereo and TV to the home data network

Reviews: Better Red Than Dead; August 2003; by George Musser; 2 Page(s)

A Traveler's Guide to Mars makes the case that the Red Planet remains geologically active. Also, The Editors Recommend

Puzzling Adventures: Short Taps; August 2003; by Dennis E. Shasha; 1 Page(s)

Outwitting spies

Anti Gravity: This Is Only a Test; August 2003; by Steve Mirsky; 1 Page(s)

An interactive look at some recent science stories in the news

Ask the Experts; August 2003; by Staff Editor; 1 Page(s)

Would you fall all the way through a hypothetical hole in the earth? How do manufacturers calculate calories for packages foods?

Fuzzy Logic; August 2003; by Roz Chast; 1 Page(s)

Ancient Egypt: The Rise of the Middle Class