February 1996
Scientific American Magazine

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

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

Letter from the Editor; February 1996; by Rennie; 1 Page(s)

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

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

Keeping Vaccines Cold; February 1996; by Stix; 2 Page(s)

Travails of immunizing the world's children

Field Notes: Bose Knows P.R.; February 1996; by Yam; 1 Page(s)

Quantum mechanics rarely makes the morning headlines.

Frozen Assets; February 1996; by Horgan; 2 Page(s)

U.S. offiials question the value of Antarctic science programs

Radar Range; February 1996; by Powell; 2 Page(s)

There are more to these pictures of the earth than meets the eye - literally - because they were taken with radar, not visable light

Floridation; February 1996; by Doyle; 1 Page(s)

Percent of Population with Floridated Public Water Supply

The Doctor Glut; February 1996; by Schneider; 2 Page(s)

Experts debate predictions of a physician surplus

Schizophrenia Revisited; February 1996; by Leutwyler; 2 Page(s)

New Studies focus on malfunctions in the brain

The Rainbow Majority; February 1996; by Stix; 1 Page(s)

The conservative tide that has gripped America derides programs intended to foster ethnic or racial understanding as a threat to core social values

Going Out with a Bang; February 1996; by Zorpette; 1 Page(s)

When the French government resumed testing nuclear weapons last September below the South Pacific atolls of Mururoa and Fangataufa, it provoked an international uproar of surprising intensity.

A Harebrained Scheme; February 1996; by Seife; 2 Page(s)

Experimental rabbit-killing virus runs amok in Australia

Anti-Gravity: Sinister Movements; February 1996; by Mirsky; 1 Page(s)

The difference between a violin and a viola, a disgruntled musician once noted, is that a viola burns longer

The Analytical Economist: Reaching an Economic Event Horizon; February 1996; by Wallach; 1 Page(s)

A communist government facing economic ruin makes deals with Western businesses, promising market reforms and a docile workforce to attract investment

Green Policies; February 1996; by Stix; 2 Page(s)

Insurers warm to climate change

A New Way to Spell Relief: V-e-n-o-m; February 1996; by E Gibbs; 2 Page(s)

E A toxin from killer sea snails promises a better painkiller

Teleconomics; February 1996; by Browning; 3 Page(s)

Information marketeers focus on content rather than access

More Rules of the Road; February 1996; by Wallich; 1 Page(s)

You can listen to it on the radio or watch it on television late at night, but you may not be allowed to read, see or hear "indecency" on the Internet if congressional censors have their way.

Bill Gates's Apocryphal History; February 1996; by Horgan; 1 Page(s)

"The Road Ahead" perpetuates a myth about the road behind

Profile: Daniel C. Dennett; February 1996; by Beardsley; 2 Page(s)

Dennett's Dangerous Idea

Malnutrition, Poverty and Intellectual Development; February 1996; by Brown, Pollitt; 6 Page(s)

Research into childhood nutrition reveals that a poor diet influences mental development in more ways than expected. Other aspects of poverty exacerbate the effects

The Global Positioning System; February 1996; by Herring; 7 Page(s)

Two dozen satellites hovering thousands of miles out in space are allowing people to locate themselves on the earth's surface with remarkable precision

Seeing Underwater with Background Noise; February 1996; by Buckingham, Potter, Epifanio; 5 Page(s)

With a technique called acoustic-daylight imaging, sounds in the sea can "illuminate" submerged objects, thereby creating moving color pictures without sonar

Telomeres, Telomerase and Cancer; February 1996; by Greider, Blackburn; 6 Page(s)

An unusual enzyme called telomerase acts on parts of chromosomes known as telomeres. The enzyme has recently been found in many human tumors and is being eyed as a new target for cancer therapy

Colossal Galactic Explosions; February 1996; by Veilleux, Cecil, Bland-Hawthorn; 6 Page(s)

Enormous outpourings of gas from the centers of nearby galaxies may ultimately help explain both star formation and the intergalactic medium

The Bacteria behind Ulcers; February 1996; by Blaser; 6 Page(s)

One half to one third of the world's population harbors "Helicobacter pylori", "slow" bacteria that infect the stomach and can cause ulcers and cancer there

The Loves of the Plants; February 1996; by Schiebinger; 6 Page(s)

Carl Linnaeus classified plants according to their reproductive parts, endowing them as well with sex lives reflecting 18th-century values and controversies

Quarks by Computer; February 1996; by Weingarten; 5 Page(s)

Yearlong computations have helped to confirm the fundamental theory behind quarks - and, using its principles, even to identify a new particle

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

Growing Seedlings at Less Than 1 G

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

Proof of Purchase on the Internet

Reviews; February 1996; by Ferris, Lovejoy; 4 Page(s)

Reviews

Commentaries: Wonders - The Physics of Binary Numbers; February 1996; by Morrison, Morrison; 2 Page(s)

The label we give the millenial turn of the calender looming ahead is a string of digits, written as 2000 in the everyday convention of number base 10 (of course the true new millenium begins a year later on January 1, 2001 - fine for purists, but a less aesthetically pleasing number).

Commentary : Connections - Show time!; February 1996; by Burke; 2 Page(s)

Even though I've spent most of my adult life working for the small screen (television, that is), I can't resist that magic moment in the cinema theater when the lights go down, the pictures come up in total-everyting-scope, and I am enveloped in Surround-sound.

Essay; February 1996; by Randi; 1 Page(s)

Investigating Miracles, Italian-Style