
Helping Heartache
Surgeons blast holes through the heart to relieve chest pain
W. Wayt Gibbs is a contributing editor for Scientific American based in Seattle. He also works as a scientific editor at Intellectual Ventures.

Helping Heartache
Surgeons blast holes through the heart to relieve chest pain

The Infinitesimal Gets Smaller

Taking Computers to Task

World Wide Widgets

Taming Tremor
A pacemaker for the brain nears approval

Dredging The Digestive System
Polymer-based drugs sweep out cholesterol and other undesirables

From Satan to Zen

Peeking and Poking at DNA
New microscopy techniques observe life's molecules in action

LINGUISTICS
A MATTER
OF LANGUAGE

COMPUTER BOMBS

Beyond Modems
Entrepreneurs are extending the Internet to everyday appliances

Making Sense
Microsoft uses a dictionary to teach computers English

BANDWIDTH,
UNLIMITED
Optical devices moving to market
could boost telephone company
profits--or wipe them out

Jungle Medicine

Snap, Crunch or GigaPOP?

Where the Wind Blows

Snap, Crunch or GigaPOP?
Online traffic jams spur cries of doom--and plans for Internet II

Pressure to Change
Supercritical carbon dioxide to toughen common materials

The Price of Silence
Does profit-minded secrecy retard scientific progress?

Gene Therapy
Early trials encountered unforeseen complications. A new round of more sophisticated strategies may turn the tide

Programming with Primordial Ooze
Useful software begins to crawl out of digital gene pools

Bugs in the Data?
The controversy over Martian life is just beginning

Envisioning Speech

Artificial Blood Quickens
Several short-term substitutes approach final clinical trials