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Scientific American Magazine
October 2008
FEATURES

Feature Searching for Intelligence in Our Genes
IQ is easy to measure and reflects something real. But scientists hunting among our genes for the factors that shape intelligence are discovering they are more elusive than expected
By Carl Zimmer

Feature Big Bang or Big Bounce?: New Theory on the Universe's Birth
Our universe may have started not with a big bang but with a big bounce—an implosion that triggered an explosion, all driven by exotic quantum-gravitational effects
By Martin Bojowald


Feature Bar Code of Life: DNA Tags Help Classify Animals
Inspired by commercial bar codes, DNA tags could provide a quick, inexpensive way to identify species
By Mark Y. Stoeckle and Paul D. N. Hebert


Feature Birth of an Ocean: The Evolution of Ethiopia's Afar Depression
Formation of an ocean is a rare event, one few scientists have ever witnessed. Yet this geophysical nativity is unfolding today in one of the hottest and most inhospitable corners of the globe. Visit the site in safety through this extraordinary photographic essay
By Eitan Haddok


Feature Neural Light Show: Scientists Use Genetics to Map and Control Brain Functions
A clever combination of optics and genetics is allowing neuroscientists to identify and control brain circuits with unprecedented precision
By Gero Miesenböck


Feature Open-Source Thinking Revolutionizes Prosthetic Limbs
A community of engineers, designers and innovators is collaborating online to make better prosthetic hands and arms for amputees. One of the lead engineers lost his own arm in Iraq
By Sam Boykin


Feature Web Science: Studying the Internet to Protect Our Future
Studying the Web will reveal better ways to exploit information, prevent identity theft, revolutionize industry and manage our ever growing online lives
By Nigel Shadbolt and Tim Berners-Lee



Departments


50, 100 and 150 years ago

100 Years Ago: Egyptian Fossil Discovery
Stories from past issues of Scientific American


From the Editors

All Together Now: Unleashing the Web's Synergistic Possibilities
Understanding how novelty emerges from complex systems is a new frontier


In Brief

News Scan Briefs: Eel Model for Body Armor; Great Green Wall
Also: Perchlorate on Mars; AIDS/HIV Infection Rates; Microscope on a Dime


Insights

Using Math to Explain How Life on Earth Began
How did self-replicating molecules come to dominate the early Earth? Using the mathematics of evolutionary dynamics, Martin A. Nowak can explain the change from no life to life


Letters to the Editors

Readers Respond on "The Ethics of Climate Change"--And More...
Letters to the editor on climate change ethics, trust and baby universes


Reviews

Reviews: Human: The Science behind What Makes Us Unique
SciAm reviews The Complete Idiot's Guide to String Theory and Human: The Science behind What Makes Us Unique


Updates

Updates: Whatever Happened to LED Lightbulbs?
Also Updates on Bubbles Producing Light, Virus-Infecting Viruses and Galapagos Tortoise Breeding


Working Knowledge

How Voting Machines Work
Taking apart the various voting machines used in the U.S.


News Scan
Opinion

SciAm.com

News
Hydrogen Power on the Cheap—Or, at Least, Cheaper
Chemists have devised less expensive ways to tap the energy potential of this ubiquitous element.

Podcast
Outsmarting Bombers and a Warless Future?
We discuss high-tech attempts to battle improvised explosive devices (IEDs), and journalist John Horgan talks about the possibility of eliminating war.

News
How the Seeds of the First Stars Formed
Simulations reveal that the cosmic dark ages ended when protostars coalesced from primordial clouds of hydrogen gas.

Video
Instant Egghead
From dark matter to synthetic biology, SciAm editors show how to explain complicated concepts simply, using the everyday stuff on their desks.

News
Could a Pill Replace Exercise?
A drug improves physical endurance in mice, but don’t throw away your treadmill quite yet.

 
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