Not Just Fun and Games

Best known for inventing the game of Life, John H. Conway is adept at finding the theorems hidden in simple puzzles

Is Space Finite?

Conventional wisdom says the universe is infinite. But it could be finite, merely giving the illusion of infinity. Upcoming measurements may finally answer this ancient question

Embryonic Stem Cells for Medicine

Cells able to generate virtually all other cell types have recently been isolated. One day they could help repair a wide variety of damaged tissues

Encapsulated Cells as Therapy

An emerging approach to treating disease combines living cells with plastic membranes that shield the cells from immune attack

Skin: The First Tissue-Engineered Products

Last year the first living, tissue-engineered skin product became commercially available--and a second is expected to be on the market within a few months. Top researchers from each of the two companies involved tell how their products came to be...

Tissue Engineering: The Challenges Ahead

The obstacles to building new organs from cells and synthetic polymers are daunting but surmountable

Alan Turing's Forgotten Ideas in Computer Science

Well known for the machine, test and thesis that bear his name, the British genius also anticipated neural-network computers and "hypercomputation"

The Revival of Colored Cotton