March 2004
Scientific American Magazine

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Cover; March 2004; by Staff Editor; 1 Page(s)

Table of Contents; March 2004; by Staff Editor; 2 Page(s)

SA Perspectives: The Climate Leadership Vacuum; March 2004; by Staff Editor; 1 Page(s)

The lack of leadership on climate policy

How to Contact Us and On the Web; March 2004; by Staff Editor; 1 Page(s)

Letters to the Editors; March 2004; by Staff Editor; 3 Page(s)

50, 100 and 150 Years Ago; March 2004; by Staff Editor; 1 Page(s)

Gamow; Darwin; Faraday

Egg Beaters; March 2004; by Karen Hopkin; 2 Page(s)

Flu vaccine makers look beyond the chicken egg

Dream Machine; March 2004; by David Appell; 2 Page(s)

Hopes for a giant collider lie in a worldwide appeal

The Fog of War; March 2004; by Mark Alpert; 1 Page(s)

Can high-tech sensors fight the insurgency in Iraq?

Drawing the Lines; March 2004; by Charles Choi; 2 Page(s)

Is a pre-Columbus map of North America truly a hoax?

Storm Spotting; March 2004; by Krista West; 3 Page(s)

A step closer to forecasting disruptive solar activity

Cryogenic Cutting; March 2004; by Steven Ashley; 1 Page(s)

Liquid-nitrogen jet slices and scours almost anything

By the Numbers: Rise of the Black Ghetto; March 2004; by Rodger Doyle; 1 Page(s)

How to create an American version of apartheid

News Scan Briefs; March 2004; by Charles Choi, JR Minkel; 2 Page(s)

Getting into the Swing; Making and Unmaking Memories; Strangeness in Our Midst?; A Super Superstar; Turning Back the Clock; All Gassed Up

Staking Claims: Working the System II; March 2004; by Gary Stix; 1 Page(s)

Corporate greed no longer remains the sole domain of the corporation

Skeptic: None So Blind; March 2004; by Michael Shermer; 1 Page(s)

Perceptual-blindness experiments challenge the validity of eyewitness testimony and the metaphor of memory as a video recording

Innovations: Nano Patterning; March 2004; by Gary Stix; 2 Page(s)

IBM brings closer to reality chips that put themselves together

Insights: A Strategy of Containment; March 2004; by Christine Soares; 2 Page(s)

Pathogens take windows of opportunity, and so must humans, says David L. Heymann, who helped to create a global early-warning and response network

The Spirit of Exploration; March 2004; by George Musser; 6 Page(s)

NASA's rover fights the curse of the Angry Red Planet

A New Race of Robots; March 2004; by W. Wayt Gibbs; 10 Page(s)

Around the U.S., engineers are finishing one-year crash projects to create robots able to dash 200 miles through the Mojave Desert in a day, unaided by humans. Scientific American tailed the odds-on favorite team for 10 months and found that major innovations in robotics are not enough to win such a contest. Obsession is also required

Defusing the Global Warming Time Bomb; March 2004; by James Hansen; 10 Page(s)

Global warming is real, and the consequences are potentially disastrous. Nevertheless, practical actions, which would also yield a cleaner, healthier atmosphere, could slow, and eventually stop, the process

The Addicted Brain; March 2004; by Eric J. Nestler and Robert C. Malenka; 8 Page(s)

Drug abuse produces long-term changes in the reward circuitry of the brain. Knowledge of the cellular and molecular details of these adaptations could lead to new treatments for the compulsive behaviors that underlie addiction

The Threat of Silent Earthquakes; March 2004; by Peter Cervelli; 6 Page(s)

A lack of rumbling does not necessarily make an earthquake harmless. Some of the quiet types could presage devasting tsunamis or larger, ground-shaking shocks

The Fairest Vote of All; March 2004; by Partha Dasgupta and Eric Maskin; 6 Page(s)

All voting systems have drawbacks. But by taking into account how voters rank candidates, one system gives the truest reflection of the electorate's views

Working Knowledge: Rock Clock; March 2004; by Mark Fischetti; 2 Page(s)

Quartz watches

Voyages: Passport in Time; March 2004; by Marguerite Holloway; 3 Page(s)

Volunteers join archaeological and historical Forest Service projects around the country, learning field techniques

Reviews: The Major Unsolved Problem in Biology; March 2004; by Michael Shermer, Staff Editors; 3 Page(s)

Three new books by brain researchers tackle the hard problem of explaining consciousness. Also, The Editors Recommend

Puzzling Adventures: Grid Speed; March 2004; by Dennis E. Shasha; 1 Page(s)

Traffic on the grid

Anti Gravity: Regulation Rag; March 2004; by Steve Mirsky; 1 Page(s)

Red tape can be a pain, until you actually need tape

Ask the Experts; March 2004; by Staff Editor; 1 Page(s)

Why are blood transfusions not rejected, as can happen with organs? How can deleted computer files be retrieved at a later date?

Fuzzy Logic; March 2004; by Roz Chast; 1 Page(s)