Departments

50 Years Ago: Greatest Scientific Discovery is Science Itself
Stories from past issues of Scientific American

Big Brother Sees All in the Technological Fishbowl
How much do technologies that affect privacy also influence freedom?

News Scan Briefs: Eyes on the Tops of Their Heads; Play Dates for Germ Sharing; Another Gene for Alzheimer's
Also: The New Stone Age; Mountain Climbing Trees; Location Influences Voters; and Martian Hit-and-Run

Just How Harmful Are Bisphenol-A Plastics?
Patricia Hunt, who helped to bring the issue to light a decade ago, is still trying to sort it all out

Readers Respond on Nuclear Recycling--And more...
Letters to the editor on the snow line and dark energy

Reviews: Math Fix for Unfair Elections
SciAm reviews Math Fix for Unfair Elections and Physics Fix for Uninformed Voters

Updates: Whatever Happened to Anesthesia and Pain?
Also updates on Planetary Protection from Jupiter; Personal Gene Tests; Valdez Payout

How Instant Photo Development Works
Taking apart the digital photo printer

• Digital Upgrades for a Radio Astronomy Revolution
• Fermilab Looks for Visitors from Another Dimension
• Swiss Primate Legislation Could End Some Brain Research
• The Sun Will Eventually Engulf Earth--Maybe
• Seismic "Noise"--Oil Prospecting Data Could Decipher Ocean Mixing
• Mammoth Sequences: A Hunt for DNA from the Extinct Titans of the Klondike
• Nicotine Replacement Drug's Bad Trip

• Why Our Brains Do Not Intuitively Grasp Probabilities

• Pigeons as Pilots?

• Are Malthus's Predicted 1798 Food Shortages Coming True? (Extended version)

• Seven Paths to Regulating Privacy

 

Features

Privacy in an Age of Terabytes and Terror
Introduction to SciAm's issue on Privacy. Our jittery state since 9/11, coupled with the Internet revolution, is shifting the boundaries between public interest and "the right to be let alone"
By Peter Brown

How Loss of Privacy May Mean Loss of Security
Many issues posing as questions of privacy can turn out to be matters of security, health policy, insurance or self-presentation. It is useful to clarify those issues before focusing on privacy itself
By Esther Dyson

Do Social Networks Bring the End of Privacy?
Young people share the most intimate details of personal life on social-networking Web sites, such as MySpace and Facebook, portending a realignment of the public and the private
By Daniel J. Solove

Tougher Laws Needed to Protect Your Genetic Privacy
In spite of recent legislation, tougher laws are needed to prevent insurers and employers from discriminating on the basis of genetic tests
By Mark A. Rothstein

Beyond Fingerprinting: Is Biometrics the Best Bet for Fighting Identity Theft?
Security systems based on anatomical and behavioral characteristics may offer the best defense against identity theft
By Anil K. Jain and Sharath Pankanti

Data Fusion: The Ups and Downs of All-Encompassing Digital Profiles
Mashing everyone's personal data, from credit card bills to cell phone logs, into one all-encompassing digital dossier is the stuff of an Orwellian nightmare. But it is not as easy as most people assume
By Simson L. Garfinkel

Cryptography: How to Keep Your Secrets Safe
A versatile assortment of computational techniques can protect the privacy of your information and online activities to essentially any degree and nuance you desire
By Anna Lysyanskaya

Digital Surveillance: Tools of the Spy Trade
Night-vision cameras, biometric sensors and other gadgets already give snoops access to private spaces. Coming soon: palm-size "bug-bots"
By Steven Ashley

How RFID Tags Could Be Used to Track Unsuspecting People
A privacy activist argues that the devices pose new security risks to those who carry them, often unwittingly
By Katherine Albrecht

Internet Eavesdropping: A Brave New World of Wiretapping
As telephone conversations have moved to the Internet, so have those who want to listen in. But the technology needed to do so would entail a dangerous expansion of the government's surveillance powers
By Whitfield Diffie and Susan Landau

Industry Roundtable: Experts Discuss Improving Online Security
Experts from Sun, Adobe, Microsoft and MacAfee discuss how to protect against more numerous and sophisticated attacks by hackers; security professionals call for upgraded technology, along with more attention to human and legal factors

Online Exclusives

In-Depth Report: Focus on China
China, the Olympics, and the Environment
Our multimedia coverage looks at the country that now leads the world in emitting greenhouse gases. With reports on Yangtze River power, China’s first carbon-neutral city, and more.
Also: Doping at the Olympics.

In-Depth Report: Technology and Privacy
Cyberterrorism, Online Predators, Electronic Voting, and More
Read, listen to and interact with exclusive digital features complementing this print issue on "The Future of Privacy."

Feature
Musicophobia: When Your Favorite Song Gives You Seizures
A woman exhibits a rare kind of epilepsy triggered by music.

Fact or Fiction
Men Have a Biological Clock
Does male fertility have an expiration date?

Podcast
Astrophysicist J. Richard Gott on Time Travel
The Princeton University scientist discusses the realities and speculations of voyaging through the fourth dimension.