Features

• Viral Nanoelectronics

  M.I.T. breeds viruses that coat themselves in selected substances, then self-assemble into such devices as liquid crystals, nanowires and electrodes

  Philip E. Ross   | October 1, 2006  |

• Hydraulic Engineering in Prehistoric Mexico

  Three thousand years ago precursors of the Aztecs built the first large-scale water management systems in the New World

  S. Christopher Caran and James A. Neely   | October 1, 2006  |

• Ballbots

  A new mode of locomotion will enable mobile robots to stand tall and move gracefully through busy everyday environments

  Ralph Hollis   | October 1, 2006  |

• The Promise of Molecular Imprinting

  Tiny plastic imprints and mimics of biological molecules are poised to speed drug discovery, warn of bioterror attacks and remove toxins from the environment, among other applications

  Klaus Mosbach   | October 1, 2006  |

• Impact from the Deep

  Strangling heat and gases emanating from the earth and sea, not asteroids, most likely caused several ancient mass extinctions. Could the same killer-greenhouse conditions build once again?

  Peter D. Ward   | October 1, 2006  |

• How to Blow Up a Star

  It is not as easy as you would think. Models of supernovae have failed to reproduce these explosions--until recently

  Wolfgang Hillebrandt, Hans-Thomas Janka and Ewald Müller   | October 1, 2006  | 2

• Peacekeepers of the Immune System

  Regulatory T cells, only recently proven to exist, keep the body's defenses from attacking the body itself. Manipulations of these cells could offer new treatments for conditions ranging from diabetes to organ rejection

  Zoltan Fehervari and Shimon Sakaguchi   | October 1, 2006  |