When Methane Made Climate
Today methane-producing microbes are confined to oxygen-free settings, such as the guts of cows, but in Earth's distant past, they ruled the world
Features
Health
Gene Doping
Gene therapy for restoring muscle lost to age or disease is poised to enter the clinic, but elite athletes are eyeing it to enhance performance Can it be long before gene doping changes the nature of sport?
Magnetic Field Nanosensors
Tiny devices that take advantage of a recently discovered physical effect called extraordinary magnetoresistance could be used in blazingly fast computer disk drives with huge capacities and in dozens of other applications involving the sensing of magnetic fields
The Extraordinary Deaths of Ordinary Stars
The demise of the sun in five billion years will be a spectacular sight. Like other stars of its ilk, the sun will unfurl into nature's premier work of art: a planetary nebula
The Sciences
The Mystery of the Voynich Manuscript
New analysis of a famously cryptic medieval document suggests that it contains nothing but gibberish
Detecting Mad Cow Disease
New tests can rapidly identify the presence of dangerous prions--the agents responsible for the malady--and several compounds offer hope for treatment
The Shapes of Space
A Russian mathematician has proved the century-old Poincaré conjecture and completed the catalogue of three-dimensional spaces. He might earn a $1-million prize
Departments
- Letters
Letters
Erratum
- Advances
Leading to Lead
Magnetic Soot
Baby Talk Beginnings
Bugging for Guidance
Growing Pains
Mickey Has Two Moms
Hot Stuff Coming Through
When Air Quality Hits Mutant
Permian Percussion
Rover and Over
Beta from Beta
Mixing in Mitochondria
- Recommended
Where the Wild Things Were
- Skeptic
God's Number Is Up
- Anti Gravity
Einstein's Parrot
- 50, 100 & 150 Years Ago
Nobel Chemists -- Visionary Author -- Prescient (and Unlucky) Inventor
- In Brief
Data Points: July 2004
Brief Points: July 2004
- Voyages
Stars atop a Silent Volcano
- Staking Claims
If It's Broke, Fix It
- Innovations
Overcoming Self
- By the Numbers
Undercutting Fairness
- Working Knowledge
Big Air
- Insights
Doom and Gloom by 2100
- Ask the Experts
Ask the Experts: July 2004