May 2004
Scientific American Magazine

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

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

SA Perspectives: Bush-League Lysenkoism; May 2004; by Staff Editor; 1 Page(s)

The White House bends science to its will

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

Letters to the Editors; May 2004; by Staff Editor; 2 Page(s)

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

Deathly Dust; Living Clock; Killer Whale

Body Building; May 2004; by Christine Soares; 2 Page(s)

Growing replacement organs is still a long way off

Burning Down to Rock; May 2004; by Charles Choi; 2 Page(s)

Gas giants might get cooked clean to their solid cores

Downsized Target; May 2004; by Tom Valeo; 2 Page(s)

A tiny protein called ADDL could be the key to Alzheimer's

High-Temp Knockout; May 2004; by Graham P. Collins; 2 Page(s)

Gone: two possible superconducting "glues"

The Oil and the Otter; May 2004; by Sonya Senkowsky; 3 Page(s)

Sea otters clean up after the Exxon Valdez spill - and get sick doing so

Splash of Cold Water; May 2004; by Christina Reed; 2 Page(s)

Newfound eddy explains mysterious flows

By the Numbers: Blue-Collars in Eclipse; May 2004; by Rodger Doyle; 1 Page(s)

Productivity led to working-class decline

News Scan Briefs; May 2004; by Alexander Hellemans, Charles Choi, JR Minkel; Ian Steer; 2 Page(s)

Attosecond Laser Pulses; More Eggs in One Basket; Power Sludge; Foreshadowing Flashes in the Planum; Nonstick Sliding; Close Calls

Innovations: Making Drugs, Not Profits; May 2004; by Gary Stix; 2 Page(s)

A married couple attacks neglected diseases of the developing world

Skeptic: The Enchanted Glass; May 2004; by Michael Shermer; 1 Page(s)

Francis Bacon and experimental psychologists show why the facts in science never just speak for themselves

Staking Claims: Patents on Ice; May 2004; by Gary Stix; 1 Page(s)

Antarctica as a last frontier for bioprospectors - and their intellectual property

Insights: Science's Political Bulldog; May 2004; by Julie Wakefield; 2 Page(s)

Representative Henry A. Waxman blasts away at the White House for alleged abuse of science. Sure, it's politics - but it could restore confidence in the scientific process

The Myth of the Beginning of Time; May 2004; by Gabriele Veneziano; 10 Page(s)

String theory suggests that the big bang was not the origin of the universe but simply the outcome of a preexisting state

Questions about a Hydrogen Economy; May 2004; by Matthew L. Wald; 8 Page(s)

Much excitement surrounds the progress in fuel cells, but the quest for a hydrogen economy is no trivial pursuit

Synthetic Life; May 2004; by W. Wayt Gibbs; 8 Page(s)

Biologists are crafting libraries of interchangeable DNA parts and assembling them inside microbes to create programmable, living machines

Freud Returns; May 2004; by Mark Solms; 8 Page(s)

Neuroscientists are finding that their biological descriptions of the brain may fit together best when integrated by psychological theories Freud sketched a century ago. Also: Counterpoint from J. Allan Hobson, who argues that Freud's thinking is still highly suspect

Retooling the Global Positioning System; May 2004; by Per Enge; 8 Page(s)

From hikers navigating with handheld locators to pilots landing in zero-visibility conditions, the Global Positioning System now serves more than 30 million users. See what's coming next

The Transit of Venus; May 2004; by Steven J. Dick; 8 Page(s)

When Venus crosses the face of the sun this June, scientists will celebrate one of the greatest stories in the history of astonomy

Working Knowledge: Clear Favorite; May 2004; by Mark Fischetti; 2 Page(s)

Laser eye surgery

Voyages: In the Land of the Dreamtime; May 2004; by W. Wayt Gibbs; 3 Page(s)

Visiting petroglyphs, pristine marshes and the deep past in the vast wild of Australia's Kakadu National Park

Reviews: AI at the Inception; May 2004; by Henry Fountain, staff editors; 3 Page(s)

A 25th-anniversary special edition of Machines Who Think chronicles the fledgling science of artificial intelligence. Also, The Editors Recommend

Puzzling Adventures: Jump Snatch; May 2004; by Dennis E. Shasha; 1 Page(s)

Jumping to a conclusion

Anti Gravity: Television Coverage; May 2004; by Steve Mirsky; 1 Page(s)

A modest proposal for small screening in medicine

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

How are temperatures close to absolute zero achieved and measured? If heat rises, why is air cooler at higher elevations?