December 2008
Scientific American Magazine

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Cover; December 2008; by Staff Editor; 1 Page(s)

Table of Contents; December 2008; by Staff Editor; 3 Page(s)

From the Editor - Beacons in the Night; December 2008; by John Rennie; 1 Page(s)

When this world has you down, try looking at it from another one

Letters; December 2008; by Staff Editor; 2 Page(s)

Water Cycle -- Fighting Hunger -- Migraine and Aura

50, 100 and 150 Years Ago; December 2008; by Daniel C. Schlenoff; 1 Page(s)

Universal Behavior -- Airplane for Enthusiasts -- Candle in the Dark

Updates; December 2008; by Philip Yam; 1 Page(s)

Transgenic Guidelines -- Midsize Black Holes -- HIV Century -- Neandertal Fishing

Turf Battles; December 2008; by Linda Baker; 2 Page(s)

As nations view their flora and fauna as commodities, science suffers

Into the Uncanny Valley; December 2008; by Gary Stix; 4 Page(s)

Researchers take a closer look at creepiness in the almost human

Stations in the Seas; December 2008; by Barbara Juncosa; 2 Page(s)

Taking shape: permanent underwater observatories

Quantum Brinkmanship; December 2008; by George Musser; 2 Page(s)

New quantum weirdness found: balls that don¿t roll off cliffs

Deeper into the Void; December 2008; by David Appell; 2 Page(s)

Planck mission promises to pierce inflation and other cosmic secrets

No Accounting in Iraq; December 2008; by Peter Brown; 3 Page(s)

How badly damaged are the archaeological remains of ancient Mesopotamia?

Patches for Faces; December 2008; by Lizzie Buchen; 1 Page(s)

Discrete brain sections form a dedicated network to recognize faces

News Scan Briefs; December 2008; by Charles Q. Choi; David Biello; Philip Yam; 2 Page(s)

Blocking Sound with Holes; More Fluid Mileage; Sacrificial Ants; Nobel Prizes; In Brief; Vanishing Act for Mammals; Explosive-Free Mix; Freudian Vindication; The Deadly Dozen; Successful Rock Tracking

SciAm Perspectives: After the Crash; December 2008; by The Editors; 1 Page(s)

Overreliance on financial software crafted by physics and math Ph.D.s helped to precipitate the Wall Street collapse

Sustainable Developments: Priorities for Fixing the Financial Crisis; December 2008; by Jeffrey D. Sachs; 1 Page(s)

Policies can avert disaster only if they interrupt the cascading threats to the U.S. economy

Skeptic: Patternicity; December 2008; by Michael Shermer; 1 Page(s)

Noun. The tendency to find meaningful patterns in meaningless noise

Anti Gravity: Tabula Non Rasa; December 2008; by Steve Mirsky; 1 Page(s)

Einstein asked, "If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, then what is an empty desk a sign of?"

The Restless World of Enceladus; December 2008; by Carolyn Porco; 10 Page(s)

Wrinkled landscapes and spouting jets on Saturn¿s sixth-largest moon hint at underground waters

A New Molecule of Life; December 2008; by Peter E. Nielsen; 8 Page(s)

Peptide nucleic acid, a synthetic hybrid of protein and DNA, could form the basis of a new class of drugs¿and of artificial life unlike anything found in nature

Magic and the Brain; December 2008; by Susana Martinez-Conde and Stephen L. Macknik; 8 Page(s)

Magicians have been testing and exploiting the limits of cognition and attention for hundreds of years. Neuroscientists are just beginning to catch up

The Light Fantastic; December 2008; by The Editors; 6 Page(s)

Biological specimens yield extraordinary images in the hands of talented light microscopists

Driving Toward Crashless Cars; December 2008; by Steven Ashley; 8 Page(s)

Next-generation automotive safety technology could give us vehicles that are difficult to crash¿and eventually may not need drivers at all

Taking Wing; December 2008; by Nancy B. Simmons; 8 Page(s)

At last, fossil and genetic findings elucidate the evolution of bats--and settle a long-standing debate over the origins of flight and echolocation

Can Phishing be Foiled?; December 2008; by Lorrie Faith Cranor; 6 Page(s)

Understanding the human factors that make people vulnerable to online criminals can improve both security training and technology

Insights: Turning Back the Cellular Clock; December 2008; by Tim Hornyak; 3 Page(s)

Shinya Yamanaka discovered how to revert adult cells to an embryonic state. These induced pluripotent stem cells might soon supplant their embryonic cousins in therapeutic promise

Working Knowledge: Global Positioning System; December 2008; by Mark Fischetti; 2 Page(s)

Where on Earth You Are

Reviews; December 2008; by Michelle Press; 1 Page(s)

Visual Science

Ask The Experts; December 2008; by Megan McPhee; 1 Page(s)

How do spawning fish navigate back to the very same stream where they were born?