Departments

100 Years Ago: Punch Cards and the Census
Innovation and discovery as chronicled in past issues of Scientific American

Starter Menu--The Origins of the Origins Issue
Acting Editor in Chief Mariette DiChristina explains the September 2009 issue of Scientific American

Readers Respond on "Global Famine"
Letters to the editor on big government and big pharma

Recommended: The Philosophical Baby
Scientific American reviews Vesuvius and Naming Nature

• Gene therapy: An Interview with an Unfortunate Pioneer
• More Animals Seem to Have Some Ability to Count
• Airlines and Recycling: The Not-So-Green Skies
• Quantum Entanglement, Photosynthesis and Better Solar Cells
• Conflicted Conservation: When Restoration Efforts Are Pitted against Human Rights
• Radio for Responders: Public Safety Bandwidth Goes Unused
• Digging Up Valuable Fossils in Suburban New Jersey

• Cache and Carry: A Review of the Kindle

• Why People Believe in Conspiracies

• The U.S. Must Prioritize Its Carbon Strategy [Extended Version]

• An Update on C. P. Snow's "Two Cultures"

• Fossils for All: Science Suffers by Hoarding

 

Features

In the Beginning... Introducing the Origins Issue
A powerful urge to understand the emergence of the cosmos or even life itself fuels the scientific enterprise
By The Editors

Origins: The Start of Everything
Where do rainbows come from? What about flying cars, love and LSD?
By Davide Castelvecchi, Graham P. Collins, Bruce Grierson, Mara Hvistendahl, Jonathon Keats, Michael Moyer, George Musser, Christie Nicholson, Ricki Rusting, Jessica Snyder Sachs, Christine Soares, Gary Stix, Kate Wong, Melinda Wenner and Philip Yam

The Origin of the Universe
Cosmologists are closing in on the ultimate processes that created and shaped the universe
By Michael S. Turner

The Origin of Life on Earth
Fresh clues hint at how the first living organisms arose from inanimate matter
By Alonso Ricardo and Jack W. Szostak

The Origin of the Mind
The first step in figuring out how the human mind arose is determining what distinguishes our mental processes from those of other creatures
By Marc Hauser

The Origin of Computing
The information age began with the realization that machines could emulate the power of minds
By Martin Campbell-Kelly

Online Exclusives

The Origin of Cubicles and the Open-Plan Office
Wall-free office spaces did not quite work out the way their utopian inventors intended

The Origin of Fruit Ripening
A gaseous plant hormone turns off anti-ripening genes, enabling fruit to mellow--and taste good

The Origin of Scientific American
A week of origins, starting with our own back in the 19th century