Features

• A Simpler Origin for Life

  The sudden appearance of a large self-copying molecule such as RNA was exceedingly improbable. Energy-driven networks of small molecules afford better odds as the initiators of life

  Robert Shapiro   | June 1, 2007  | 5

• The Traveler's Dilemma

  When playing this simple game, people consistently reject the rational choice. In fact, by acting illogically, they end up reaping a larger reward--an outcome that demands a new kind of for¿mal reasoning

  Kaushik Basu   | June 1, 2007  | 11

• Breaking Network Logjams

  An approach called network coding could dramatically enhance the efficiency and reliability of communications networks. At its core is the strange notion that transmitting evidence about messages can be more useful than conveying the messages themselves

  MICHELLE EFFROS, RALF KOETTER and MURIEL MÉDARD   | June 1, 2007  | 1

• Restoring America's Big, Wild Animals

  Pleistocene rewilding--a proposal to bring back animals that disappeared from North America 13,000 years ago--offers an optimistic agenda for 21st-century conservation

  C. Josh Donlan   | June 1, 2007  |

• When Fields Collide

  The history of particle cosmology shows that science can benefit from wrenching changes

  David Kaiser   | June 1, 2007  |

• Seeing Triple

  Anticipated for decades, machines are finally displaying real objects in three true dimensions

  Stuart F. Brown   | June 1, 2007  |

• Lifting the Fog around Anesthesia

  Learning why current anesthetics are so potent and sometimes dangerous will lead to a new generation of safer targeted drugs without unwanted side effects

  Beverley A. Orser   | June 1, 2007  |