The Ice of Life

Ice in its earthly guise is hostile to living things. But an exotic form of space ice can actually promote the creation of organic molecules--and may have seeded life on Earth

Taming the Killing Fields of Laos

Live bombs from the Vietnam war continue to kill people and hamper agricultural development in Laos. The cleanup project required deciphering decades-old computer files

Once were Cannibals

Clear evidence of cannibalism in the human fossil record has been rare, but it is now becoming apparent that the practice is deeply rooted in our history

Go Forth and Replicate

Birds do it, bees do it, but could machines do it? New computer simulations suggest that the answer is yes

End Points

Cybernetic Cells

THE SIMPLEST LIVING CELL IS SO COMPLEX THAT SUPERCOMPUTER MODELS MAY NEVER SIMULATE ITS BEHAVIOR PERFECTLY. BUT EVEN IMPERFECT MODELS COULD SHAKE THE FOUNDATIONS OF BIOLOGY

The Trouble with Turtles

Despite heroic efforts to protect the nesting beaches of green turtles, fewer and fewer of these endangered creatures reappear every year.Researchers have been stunned to discover that shielding young turtles is only half the battle

The Do-It-Yourself Supercomputer

Scientists have found a cheaper way to solve tremendously difficult computational problems: connect ordinary PCs so that they can work together

- This article is the second in a two-part series.
The first part, "How to Build a Hypercomputer," by Thomas Sterling, appeared in the July 2001 issue.