May 2009
Scientific American Magazine

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Cover; May 2009; by Staff Editor; 1 Page(s)

Table of Contents; May 2009; by Staff Editor; 3 Page(s)

From the Editor - See No Evil; May 2009; by John Rennie; 1 Page(s)

Primates can be dangerously harmful, especially the human ones

Letters; May 2009; by Staff Editor; 2 Page(s)

Creationism -- NASA Budget -- Evolutionary Psychology

50, 100 and 150 Years Ago; May 2009; by Daniel C. Schlenoff; 1 Page(s)

Eye and Spectrum -- Calling Mars -- Ratwear

Updates; May 2009; by Philip Yam; 1 Page(s)

Mass Extinctions -- Stem Cell Ban Lifted -- Universal Flu Vaccine -- Free to Sue

Taming the Urge to War; May 2009; by John Horgan; 2 Page(s)

Must lethal conflict be an inevitable part of human culture?

Primal Programs; May 2009; by Christine Soares; 2 Page(s)

Rethinking cancer by seeing tumors as a cellular pregnancy

Don't Talk, Reproduce; May 2009; by Melinda Wenner; 2 Page(s)

Quiet bacteria devoted to growth could beat antibiotic resistance

Free Radical Shift; May 2009; by Kate Wilcox; 2 Page(s)

Antioxidants may not increase life span

Turn It Up, Dear; May 2009; by Gary Stix; 2 Page(s)

Could growing clinical use of brain electrodes lead to a sex chip?

Spectral Sensation; May 2009; by George Musser; 2 Page(s)

New way to squeeze information from the microwave background

Leapin' Lizards; May 2009; by Stuart Fox; 2 Page(s)

Biomechanics suggests how a giraffe-size pterosaur took flight

News Scan Briefs; May 2009; by Chalres Q. Choi; Coco Ballantyne; David Biello; Philip Yam; John Matson; 3 Page(s)

Logic That Feels The Noise; Bug Off; Planning of the Apes; Float Your Boat; Half Empty or Half Full; Who Wouldn't Love a Pony?; T Cell Booster; Supernovae in Ice

SciAm Perspectives: Designing Rules for Designer Babies; May 2009; by The Editors; 1 Page(s)

More oversight is needed to prevent misuse of new reproductive technologies

Sustainable Developments: Paying for What Government Should Do; May 2009; by Jeffrey D. Sachs; 1 Page(s)

Obama's reexpansion of the government's economic role is vital--and we will have to pay for it

Skeptic: Creationism in 3-D; May 2009; by Michael Shermer; 1 Page(s)

A skeptic engages three types of creationists who claim science supports their beliefs, yet they contradict one another

Anti Gravity: The Bradypus Bunch; May 2009; by Steve Mirsky; 1 Page(s)

A living Muppet among the tropical treetops

The Planetary Air Leak; May 2009; by David C. Catling and Kevin J. Zahnle; 8 Page(s)

As Earth's atmosphere slowly trickles away into space, will our planet come to look like Venus?

What Makes Us Human?; May 2009; by Katherine S. Pollard; 6 Page(s)

Comparisons of the genomes of humans and chimpanzees are revealing those rare stretches of DNA that are ours alone

Could Food Shortages Bring Down Civilization?; May 2009; by Lester R. Brown; 8 Page(s)

The biggest threat to global stability is the potential for food crises in poor countries to cause government collapse. Those crises are brought on by ever worsening environmental degradation

How to Steal Secrets; May 2009; by W. Wayt Gibbs; 6 Page(s)

Information thieves can now do an end run around encryption, networks and the operating system

Progress in Tissue Engineering; May 2009; by Ali Khademhosseini, Joseph P. Vacanti and Robert Langer; 8 Page(s)

Pioneers in building living tissue report important advances over the past decade

Powering Nanorobots; May 2009; by Thomas E. Mallouk and Ayusman Sen; 6 Page(s)

Catalytic engines enable tiny swimmers to harness fuel from their environment and overcome the weird physics of the microscopic world

Reviews; May 2009; by Michelle Press; 2 Page(s)

Dark Universe--Manhattan circa 1609--Human Understanding

Ask the Experts; May 2009; by Sam Beattie, Edgar Spalding; 1 Page(s)

How does food irradiation work? Is it safe? Indoor plants tend to grow toward the light, so why do trees outdoors grow straight instead of leaning toward the equator?