July 2000
Scientific American Magazine

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

Table of Contents; July 2000; by Staff Editor; 3 Page(s)

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

Bracing for the Imminent

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

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

Smoking and Cancer, Pioneers of Flight (or Fright)

Boomerang Effect; July 2000; by Musser; 2 Page(s)

Balloon data confirm the big bang - and challenge it, too

AGE Breakers; July 2000; by Melton; 1 Page(s)

Rupturing the body's sugar-protein bonds might turn back the clock

Reengineering the Radio; July 2000; by Dupont; 1 Page(s)

The Pentagon and industry plan for software-based transceivers that combine voice, video and data

Fire in the Sky; July 2000; by Alpert; 1 Page(s)

Space weather turns gusty as solar activity approaches its peak

By the Numbers: The Geography of Death; July 2000; by Doyle; 1 Page(s)

The maps summarize information on more than 9.3 million white Americans whose deaths were recorded from 1988 to 1992.

Diseased Passage; July 2000; by Niiler; 2 Page(s)

Crossing the sewage-filled New River, migrants risk their health - and others'

Raging Rivers of Rock; July 2000; by Simpson; 2 Page(s)

New ways of predicting the disastrous flows of volcanic ash known as lahars

News Briefs; July 2000; by Martindale, Ezzell, Karow, Collins, Musser; 2 Page(s)

Beetle to Bee; Age of the Clones; Nanobending; Einstein's Constant; Do You Want Fries with That?; Droids versus Fires

Profile: Baruch S. Blumberg, The Search for Extreme Life; July 2000; by Wakefield; 2 Page(s)

If microorganisms exist on other worlds, the head of NASA's fledgling Astrobiology Institute plans to find them

From Vitamin E to Z-Plasty; July 2000; by Diane Martindale; 1 Page(s)

Plastic surgeons have more than one trick to remove a scar

Scar No More; July 2000; by Martindale; 3 Page(s)

Biodegradable scaffolds give skin cells a better road map for self-repair

Cyber View; July 2000; by Wallich; 1 Page(s)

Unplugged but Unbowed

Where Are They?; July 2000; by Crawford, side bar by LePage; 6 Page(s)

Maybe we are alone in the galaxy after all

Intergalactically Speaking; July 2000; by Swenson, Jr.; 3 Page(s)

The vastness and vagaries of space will force interstellar correspondents into extreme measures

Special Industry Report: The Business of the Human Genome (Introduction); July 2000; by Ezzel; 2 Page(s)

The task of sequencing all human DNA is all but done, but mining the mountains of genetic information for pay dirt is just beginning

Special Industry Report: The Human Genome Business Today; July 2000; by Brown, side bar by Karow; 6 Page(s)

It's been a wild ride for the corporate and government parties who have deciphered the human genetic code. The fun has just begun

Special Industry Report: The Bioinformatics Gold Rush; July 2000; by Howard; 6 Page(s)

A $300-million industry has emerged around turning raw genome data into knowledge for making new drugs

Special Industry Report: Beyond the Human Genome; July 2000; by Ezzell; 6 Page(s)

With all of the DNA that codes for a human in hand, the challenge then becomes what to make of it. Some of the first fruits will come from a new field called proteomics

The Large Hadron Collider; July 2000; by Smith, side bar by Collins; 6 Page(s)

The Large Hadron Collider will be a particle accelerator of unprecedented energy and complexity, a global collaboration to uncover an exotic new layer of reality

Darwin's Influence on Modern Thought; July 2000; by Mayr; 6 Page(s)

Great minds shape the thinking of successive historical periods. Luther and Calvin inspired the Reformation; Locke, Leibnitz, Voltaire and Rousseau, the Enlightenment. Modern thought is most dependent on the influence of Charles Darwin

The Revolutionary Bridges of Robert Maillart; July 2000; by Billington; 8 Page(s)

Swiss engineer Robert Maillart built some of the greatest bridges of the 20th century. His designs elegantly solved a basic engineering problem: how to support enormous weights using a slender arch

The Killing Lakes; July 2000; by Holloway; 8 Page(s)

Two lakes in Cameroon are poised to release lethal gas, as they did in the 1980s. Writer Marguerite Holloway reports on scientists' efforts to prevent another tragedy

Working Knowledge: Escape and Survival; July 2000; by Simpson; 2 Page(s)

With luck, the unnecessary space suit.

The Amateur Scientist: PCR at Home; July 2000; by Carlson; 2 Page(s)

Copying DNA in your kitchen.

Mathematical Recreations: Knotting Ventured...; July 2000; by Stewart; 2 Page(s)

How pieces of string can illustrate the principles of symmetry

Books; July 2000; by Edgar, Staff Editors; 3 Page(s)

Skull Wars asks whether archaeologists could do more to avoid conflicts with native peoples. Also, The Editors Recommend.

Wonders: Time Exposures; July 2000; by Morrison, Morrison; 2 Page(s)

All photography needs time to collect an image, and over very long times, nearly invisible marvels can appear

Connections: Not What It Seems; July 2000; by Burke; 2 Page(s)

Crystals, sheepish matters, monster chicks, poets and other smoke-and-mirrors stuff

Anti Gravity: Alcohol, Tobacco and Soy Alarms; July 2000; by Mirsky; 1 Page(s)

Analysis of large numbers of people can turn up some surprising insights about the things we put in our mouths