August 1997
Scientific American Magazine

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Cover; August 1997; by Staff Editor; 1 Page(s)

Table of Contents; August 1997; by Staff Editor; 2 Page(s)

From the Editors, including Masthead; August 1997; by Rennie; 1 Page(s)

Current Events

Letters To The Editors; August 1997; by Staff Editor; 1 Page(s)

50, 100 and 150 Years Ago; August 1997; by Staff Editor; 1 Page(s)

In Focus: Science's Survival Strategy; August 1997; by Beardsley; 2 Page(s)

Researchers are learning how to live in a new budgetary environment

A Blue Note; August 1997; by Schneider; 1 Page(s)

Seismologists find a mysteriously pure tone in the ocean

Return of the Space Snowballs; August 1997; by Powell; 2 Page(s)

Did a blizzard of icy comets give the earth its oceans?

In Brief; August 1997; by Leutwyler; 3 Page(s)

The Claim in Spain; Leaky Electricity; Believe It's Not Butter; Jurassic Gout; Crazy Glue, Stat; Flashy Mints; www.Rx or Not; Mon Appetit; Unbuckling the Kuiper Belt

Frankly, My Dear, I Don't Give A Dam; August 1997; by Nemecek; 2 Page(s)

How dams affect biodiversity

Play Time and Space; August 1997; by Stix; 3 Page(s)

New York Hall of Science builds Newtonian fun park

Anti Gravity: Space Invaders; August 1997; by Mirsky; 1 Page(s)

Discretion, rumor has it, is the better part of valor.

By the Numbers: Plants at Risk in the U.S.; August 1997; by Doyle; 1 Page(s)

Loss of plant species, even those that are rare, may lead to ecological imbalance.

Profile: Jeremy Rifkin; August 1997; by Stix; 2 Page(s)

Dark Prophet of Biogenetics

Command and Control; August 1997; by Gibbs; 2 Page(s)

Inside a hollowed-out mountain, software fiascoes - and a signal success

Making Light Work; August 1997; by Beardsley; 1 Page(s)

Blasting metal powder with lasers to make precision parts

Farming with Lint; August 1997; by DeKoker; 2 Page(s)

Lint from blue jeans as plant boosters and bricks

Getting the Dirt on Dirt; August 1997; by Zacks; 1 Page(s)

It may look like just a speck of dirt to the naked eye, but under an electron microscope this crumb of prairie soil is really a carefully constructed "apartment building," home to the small critters that recycle decaying organic matter into usable nutrients.

A Cold for Cancer; August 1997; by Gibbs; 2 Page(s)

Infection with a mutant virus makes some sick patients better

Cyber View; August 1997; by Wallich; 1 Page(s)

Parental Discretion Advised

Mitochondrial DNA in Aging and Disease; August 1997; by Wallace; 8 Page(s)

Defects in DNA outside the chromosomes - in cell structures called mitochondria - can cause an array of disorders, perhaps including many that debilitate the elderly

Lightning Control with Lasers; August 1997; by Diels, Bernstein, Stahlkopf, Zhao; 6 Page(s)

Scientists seek to deflect damaging lightning strikes using specially engineered lasers

Lightning between Earth and Space; August 1997; by Mende, Sentman, Wescott; 4 Page(s)

Scientists discover a curious variety of electrical activity going on above thunderstorms

Space Age Archaeology; August 1997; by El-Baz; 6 Page(s)

Remote-sensing techniques are transforming archaeology. Excavations may become less essential as researchers explore hidden sites and examine buried artifacts without unearthing them

Glandular Gifts; August 1997; by Gwynne; 6 Page(s)

The way to a katydid's heart is through her stomach

The Top-Secret Life of Lev Landau; August 1997; by Gorelik; 6 Page(s)

KGB archives reveal that the Soviet genius co-authored an anti-Stalin manifesto

The Machinery of Thought; August 1997; by Beardsley; 6 Page(s)

Studies of the brains of monkeys and, more recently, of humans are revealing the neural underpinnings of working memory, one of the mind's most crucial functions

The Amateur Scientist; August 1997; by Carlson; 2 Page(s)

Getting a Charge out of Rain

Mathematical Recreations; August 1997; by Stewart; 3 Page(s)

Empires on the Moon

Reviews; August 1997; by Davis, Powell; 4 Page(s)

Reviews

Commentary: Wonders - 1997: Subatomic Centenary; August 1997; by Morrison; 2 Page(s)

Around 1875 James Clerk Maxwell, on whose superb work our physics still rests, described atoms as "foundation stones of the mqaterial universe...unbroken and unworn.."

Commentary: Connections - Lucky He Missed; August 1997; by Burke; 2 Page(s)

I was at the London Zoo the other day staring at a buffalo and thinking about the fact that such places all started as a "get inside God's head" attempt to reproduce the two-by-two conditions on board Noah's Ark."

Working Knowledge; August 1997; by MacChesney; 1 Page(s)

Optical Fibers