Features

• Crossbar Nanocomputers

  Crisscrossing assemblies of defect-prone nanowires could succeed today's silicon-based circuit

  Philip J. Kuekes, Gregory S. Snider and R. Stanley Williams   | November 1, 2005  |

• The Land of Milk and Money

  The first drug from a transgenic animal may be nearing approval

  Gary Stix   | November 1, 2005  |

• The Workings of an Ancient Nuclear Reactor

  Two billion years ago parts of an African uranium deposit spontaneously underwent nuclear fission. The details of this remarkable phenomenon are just now becoming clear

  Alex P. Meshik   | November 1, 2005  | 1

• Did Life Come from Another World?

  New research indicates that microorganisms could have survived a journey from Mars to Earth

  David Warmflash and Benjamin Weiss   | November 1, 2005  | 1

• Preparing for a Pandemic

  One day a highly contagious and lethal strain of influenza will sweep across all humanity, claiming millions of lives. It may arrive in months or not for years--but the next pandemic is inevitable. Are we ready?

  W. Wayt Gibbs and Christine Soares   | November 1, 2005  | 3

• The Illusion of Gravity

  The force of gravity and one of the dimensions of space might be generated out of the peculiar interactions of particles and fields existing in a lower-dimensional realm

  Juan Maldacena   | November 1, 2005  | 9

• The Neurobiology of the Self

  Biologists are beginning to tease out how the brain gives rise to a constant sense of being oneself

  Carl Zimmer   | November 1, 2005  |