Cerebrospinal Meningitis Epidemics

A debilitating and often deadly disease, meningitis remains common in many developing countries. New insights may soon enable us to predict and control outbreaks

The Self-Reproducing Inflationary Universe

Recent versions of the inflationary scenario describe the universe as a self-generating fractal that sprouts other inflationary universes

The Genetics of Flower Development

Flower cells learn which organs to become from genes that convey positional information. A model based on just half a dozen such genes can predict how mutations will affect floral structure...

Escher's Metaphors

The prints and drawings of M. C. Escher give expression to abstract concepts of mathematics and science

Secure Distributed Computing

Networks and computer security often do not go well together, but the developers of the Athena ystem have yet to see their protocols fail

Why Children Talk to Themselves

Although children are often rebuked for talking to themselves out loud, doing so helps them control their behavior and master new skills

Resolving Zeno's Paradoxes

For millennia, mathematicians and philosophers have tried to refute Zeno's paradoxes, a set of riddles suggesting that motion is inherently impossible. At last, a solution has been found...

Big-Time Biology