April 1996
Scientific American Magazine

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Cover; April 1996; by Staff Editor; 1 Page(s)

Table of Contents; April 1996; by Staff Editor; 2 Page(s)

From the Editors; April 1996; by Rennie; 1 Page(s)

Changing to Stay the Same

Letters to the Editors; April 1996; by Staff Editor; 1 Page(s)

50, 100 and 150 Years Ago.; April 1996; by Staff Editor; 1 Page(s)

Embryo Overpopulation; April 1996; by Maranto; 2 Page(s)

Born into controversy, cryopreservation again stirs debate as thousands of frozen embryos grow old

Out of Food?; April 1996; by Beardsley; 2 Page(s)

Hominids, and cannibalistic ones at that, may have reached Europe almost a million years ago

Anti Gravity: Attack of the Killer Neutrinos; April 1996; by Yam; 1 Page(s)

Incoming asteroids, nuclear war, deadly viruses - how many ways are there to destroy life on Earth?

The Berry and the Parasite; April 1996; by Mukerjee; 4 Page(s)

A 30-year struggle to control schistosomiasis has revealed much about patents and profits

In Brief; April 1996; by Leutwyler; 3 Page(s)

Quarks Have Parts?; A Public Display of Plutonium; Not a Potto; Tool Time; Bacteria behind Clogged Arteries; Lead and Delinquency; Re-creating a Dinoroar; The Monsoon Method; E-Epidemic; At Home with Buddha; New Drugs to Combat HIV; Second Breast Cancer Gene Found

By the Numbers: Low-Birth-Weight Babies; April 1996; by Doyle; 2 Page(s)

Low birth weight, which is defined as under 2,500 grams (or 5.5 pounds), is the chief contributor to infant illness and mortality.

A Smattering of Antimatter; April 1996; by Yam; 2 Page(s)

Physicists hope to get antihydrogen to live longer than 40 nanoseconds

Field Notes: Interview with a Parrot; April 1996; by Mukerjee; 1 Page(s)

For months, I have been waiting to meet Alex, the celebrity African gray parrot who has given new meaning to the epithet "birdbrain."

The not so Enormous; April 1996; by Horgan; 1 Page(s)

Mathematicians are attempting to make the world's longest proof shorter

Rocking Rocks; April 1996; by Schneider; 2 Page(s)

Well-balanced boulders may mark earthquake-free locales

Engendering Faces; April 1996; by Mukerjee; 1 Page(s)

The difference between male and female faces can largely be captured by a single variable, state Alice J. O'Toole of the University of Texas at Dallas and Thomas Vetter of the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tübingen, Germany.

Cyber View; April 1996; by Browning; 1 Page(s)

The Perils of an Irregular Deregulation

Battling the Enemy Within; April 1996; by Gibbs; 3 Page(s)

A billion-dollar fiasco is just the tip of the military's software problems

When Novelty Is Not New; April 1996; by Aharonian; 1 Page(s)

From 1994 to 1996, more than 17,000 software patents will be issued, implying that thousands of novel and "un-obvious" software ideas arose in the 1990s.

Augmenting Discord; April 1996; by Nemecek; 2 Page(s)

The real science of silicone breast implants is hard to see

A Discerning Eye; April 1996; by Harby; 1 Page(s)

In the James Bond movie "Never Say Never Again", a camera zooms up to a character to identify him by the unique appearance of his eye.

Profile: Margie Profet; April 1996; by Holloway; 2 Page(s)

Evolutionary Theories for Everyday Life

Ten Years of the Chornobyl Era; April 1996; by Shcherbak; 6 Page(s)

The environmental and health effects of nuclear power's greatest calamity will last for generations

The Birth of Complex Cells; April 1996; by de Duve; 8 Page(s)

Humans, together with all other animals, plants and fungi, owe their existence to the momentous transformation of tiny, primitive bacteria into large, intricately organized cells

Searching for Life on Other Planets; April 1996; by Angel, Woolf, sidebar by Powell; 7 Page(s)

Life remains a phenomenon we know only on Earth. But an innovative telescope in space could change that by detecting signs of life on distant planets

Smart Rooms; April 1996; by Pentland; 9 Page(s)

In creating computer systems that can identify people and interpret their actions, researchers have come one step closer to building helpful home and work environments

Alcohol in American History; April 1996; by Musto; 6 Page(s)

National binges have alternated with enforced abstinence for 200 years, but there may be hope for moderation

Captured in Amber; April 1996; by Grimaldi; 8 Page(s)

The exquisitely preserved tissues of insects in amber reveal some genetic secrets of evolution

Waiting for Breakthroughs; April 1996; by Stix; 6 Page(s)

"Nanoists" envision global abundance emerging from the manipulation of single atoms and molecules. But this prophecy has been challenged by researchers who work at a scale of billionths of a meter

The Amateur Scientist; April 1996; by Carlson; 2 Page(s)

The New Backyard Seismology

Mathematical Recreations; April 1996; by Stewart; 2 Page(s)

How Fair Is Monopoly?

Reviews; April 1996; by Norman, Powell, Rucker; 4 Page(s)

Reviews

Commentary: Wonders - Symmetries and Civilizations; April 1996; by Morrison, Morrison; 2 Page(s)

This is the second half of our report on our sabbatical in South Africa.

Commentary: Connections - What's in a Name?; April 1996; by Burke; 2 Page(s)

Not long ago, while I was wandering through that treasure-house of technological history, the Smithonian Institution in Washington, D.C., I was reminded that evolution seems to have made us the only animal on the planet with a conscious appreciation of its own past.

Working Knowledge; April 1996; by Jacobs; 1 Page(s)

Unzipping Velcro