January 1994
Scientific American Magazine

Digital subscribers-sign in for full access

Cover; January 1994; by Staff Editor; 1 Page(s)

Table of Contents; January 1994; by Staff Editor; 2 Page(s)

Masthead; January 1994; by Staff Editor; 1 Page(s)

Letters to the Editors; January 1994; by Staff Editor; 1 Page(s)

50 And 100 Years Ago; January 1994; by Staff Editor; 1 Page(s)

Joe Btfsplk; January 1994; by Powell; 2 Page(s)

NASA's big-science projects find themselves on a rocky course

Getting a New Rise out of Superconductors; January 1994; by Yam; 1 Page(s)

Avoiding pressure is usually good advice - but not for scientists trying to get ceramics to become superconducting at higher temperatures.

"EQ, Phone Home"; January 1994; by Powell; 1 Page(s)

Undersea telephone cables could serve as seismic detectors

A Dark Matter; January 1994; by Powell; 1 Page(s)

Astronomers may be closing in on the invisible cosmic majority

Biowarfare Wars; January 1994; by Horgan; 1 Page(s)

Critics ask whether the army can manage the program

Chiller Thriller; January 1994; by Leutwyler; 2 Page(s)

Workers achieve temperatures below absolute zero

Something to Chew on; January 1994; by Leutwyler; 1 Page(s)

By chewing on the bark of a white willow tree, Edmund Stone, an 18th-century Anglican clergyman, discovered the analgesic merits of salicylic acid, the active ingredient in aspirin.

Dioxin Indictment; January 1994; by Holloway; 1 Page(s)

A growing body of research links the compound to cancer

Keyhole View of a Genius; January 1994; by Guterl; 2 Page(s)

Keyhole View of a Genius

Wetlands; January 1994; by Kusler, Mitsch, Larson; 7 Page(s)

These havens of biodiversity are often endangered because they can be hard to identify. Understanding their variable characteristics can lead to more successful conservation efforts

The Search for Strange Matter; January 1994; by Crawford, Greiner; 6 Page(s)

Between nucleus and neutron star stretches a desert devoid of nuclear matter. Could strange quark matter fill the gap?

The Toxins of Cyanobacteria; January 1994; by Carmichael; 8 Page(s)

These poisons, which periodically and fatally contaminate the water supplies of wild and domestic animals, can also harm humans. But they are being coaxed into doing good

Breaking Intractability; January 1994; by Traub, Wozniakowski; 6 Page(s)

Problems that would otherwise be impossible to solve can now be computed, as long as one settles for what happens on the average

Animal Sexuality; January 1994; by Crews; 7 Page(s)

Animals have evolved a range of mechanisms to determine whether an individual takes on masculine or feminine traits. Cross-species comparisons offer some surprising insights into the nature of sexuality

World Linguistic Diversity; January 1994; by Colin Renfrew; 7 Page(s)

The ancestor of each language was taken to its current territory by pioneers, farmers, traders or a conquering elite. Multidisciplinary studies are clarifying their respective roles

The First Data Networks; January 1994; by Holzmann, Pehrson; 6 Page(s)

The optical telegraph is almost forgotten. Two centuries ago it moved messages over hundreds of kilometers in a few minutes

Trends: A War Not Won; January 1994; by Beardsley; 9 Page(s)

Despite dramatic scientific gains, cancer remains an undaunted killer

RoboTuna; January 1994; by Stix; 1 Page(s)

Seaborg may show the way to hydrodynamic efficiency

Survival Tactics; January 1994; by Patton; 3 Page(s)

Japanese research managers huddle closer to the market

Material Advantage; January 1994; by Stix; 2 Page(s)

IBM pushes silicon-germanium chips into the marketplace

Optical Tomography; January 1994; by Leutwyler; 3 Page(s)

Light begins to shine as a noninvasive imaging tool

Gene Readers; January 1994; by Stix; 2 Page(s)

Microelectronics has begun to merge with biotechnology

Lies, Damned Lies and Models; January 1994; by Wallich; 1 Page(s)

Lies, Damned Lies and Models

Mathematical Recreations; January 1994; by Stewart; 3 Page(s)

Knots, Links and Videotape

Book Review; January 1994; by Morrison; 4 Page(s)

Reviews

Essay:The Tragedy of Enclosure; January 1994; by Monbiot; 1 Page(s)

During the dry seasons in the far northwest of Kenya, the people of the Turkwel River keep themselves alive by feeding their goats on the pods of the acacia trees growing on the river's banks.