August 2007
Scientific American Magazine

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Cover; August 2007; by Staff Editor; 1 Page(s)

Table of Contents; August 2007; by Staff Editor; 3 Page(s)

From the Editor; August 2007; by John Rennie; 1 Page(s)

Little Black Pills

Letters; August 2007; by Staff Editor; 2 Page(s)

Price of the Pump; Eye Scheme; Clever Birdies

50, 100 and 150 Years Ago; August 2007; by Daniel C. Schlenoff; 1 Page(s)

Accident Epidemiology; An Unsinkable Ship; Truth Serum

Updates; August 2007; by Philip Yam; 1 Page(s)

Diabetes; Quantum Wiretap; No Prostrate Help from Lycopene; Iceman Death

Protein Pretense; August 2007; by Alison Snyder; 2 Page(s)

Cheating the standard protein tests is easy, but industry hesitates on alternatives

Laboratory Letdowns; August 2007; by John Dudley Miller; 2 Page(s)

Accidental infections in biosafety labs go unreported

A Return on Redwoods; August 2007; by Mark Fischetti; 3 Page(s)

A novel deal may save forests and recoup investors

On the Rebound; August 2007; by Linda Baker; 1 Page(s)

Discouraging people from using more energy just because it costs less

Attitude Screen; August 2007; by Christine Soares; 2 Page(s)

Seeing if the public is ready for personal genetic information

Dimensional Shortcuts; August 2007; by Mark Alpert; 1 Page(s)

Is there evidence for string theory in a neutrino experiment?

Playing It by Ear; August 2007; by Tim Hornyak; 1 Page(s)

A machine-listening system that understands three speakers at once

News Scan Briefs; August 2007; by Charles Q. Choi, JR Minkel, Nikhil Swaminathan; 2 Page(s)

Roots of Science Hatred; Quantum Photosynthesis; Data Points: Healthy Investing; Upright Behavior; Soaking the Mantle; Parlez-Vous English, Baby?; New Ways for More Stem Cells; Catch the Laser Rainbow

SciAm Perspectives: Worse Than Gasoline; August 2007; by the Editors; 1 Page(s)

Liquid coal would produce roughly twice the global warming emissions of gasoline

Sustainable Developments: Making Development Less Risky; August 2007; by Jeffrey D. Sachs; 2 Page(s)

Innovative forms of insurance could unshackle a green revolution in Africa and other poor nations

Skeptic: Bad Apples and Bad Barrels; August 2007; by Michael Shermer; 3 Page(s)

Lessons in Evil from Stanford to Abu Ghraib

Forum: Have Brain, Must Travel; August 2007; by Jim Bell; 2 Page(s)

A successful space exploration program requires astronauts as well as robots

Anti Gravity: Floral Derangement; August 2007; by Steve Mirsky; 1 Page(s)

Some of these vegetables are minerals

Race in a Bottle; August 2007; by Jonathan Kahn; 6 Page(s)

Drugmakers are eager to develop medicines targeted at ethnic groups, but so far they have made poor choices based on unsound science

Predicting Wildfires; August 2007; by Patricia Andrews, Mark Finney and Mark Fischetti; 8 Page(s)

Fires are burning more acres than ever. Where will the next blazes ignite? Can we prevent them? Should we?

Windows on the Mind; August 2007; by Susana Martinez-Conde and Stephen L. Macknik; 8 Page(s)

Tiny flicks of the eyes underpin much of our ability to see. They may also reveal subliminal thoughts

The Physical Science behind Climate Change; August 2007; by William Collins, Robert Colman, James Haywood, Martin R. Manning and Philip Mote; 10 Page(s)

Why climatologists are now so confident that human activity is to blame for a warming world

The Shark's Electric Sense; August 2007; by R. Douglas Fields; 8 Page(s)

An astonishingly sensitive detector of electric fields helps sharks zero in on prey

Future Farming: A Return to Roots?; August 2007; by Jerry D. Glover, Cindy M. Cox and John P. Reganold; 8 Page(s)

Agriculture would become more sustainable if major crop plants built deep, lasting root systems

Data Center in a Box; August 2007; by M. Mitchell Waldrop; 4 Page(s)

A shipping container stuffed with servers could usher in the era of cloud computing

Insights: The Gedanken Experimenter; August 2007; by JR Minkel; 2 Page(s)

Physicist Anton Zeilinger puts teleportation, entanglement and other quantum oddities to the test

Working Knowledge: Blu-ray vs. HD DVD; August 2007; by Mark Fischetti; 2 Page(s)

High-definition video

Reviews; August 2007; by Michelle Press; 1 Page(s)

Cosmic Questions; Baboon Melodrama; Cold Coors

Ask the Experts; August 2007; by Ross J. Salawitch, Ramona Turner; 1 Page(s)

Why is there an ozone hole in the atmosphere but too much at ground level? How does catnip work its magic on cats?

Fact or Fiction?; August 2007; by Ciara Curtin; 1 Page(s)

Did NASA spend millions on a pen able to write in space?