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On the Cover

November-December 2003 Volume 91, Number 6

On the cover:

Specialized Strepomyces bacteria, similar to these S. coelicolor mutan...

FEATURE ARTICLES

The Centers of Planets *

Sandro Scandolo, Raymond Jeanloz

In laboratories and computers, shocked and squeezed matter turns metallic, coughs up diamonds and reveals Earth's white-hot center

Aging: A Biological Perspective

A variety of techniques extend the lives of model organisms, and similar approaches might help human beings stay healthy longer

Survival of the Fittest Molecule *

Willem Stemmer, Brett Holland

Biochemists harness a novel form of evolution to sculpt new compounds for the fight against dengue fever, cancer and other modern plagues

The Origin of Gold in South Africa *

Jason Kirk, Joaquin Ruiz, John Chesley, Spencer Titley

Ancient rivers filled with gold, a spectacular upwelling of magma and a colossal meteor impact combined to make the Witwatersrand basin a very special place

Moving Up in the World *

Mark Aldenderfer

Archaeologists seek to understand how and when people came to occupy the Andean and Tibetan plateaus

* access restricted to members and subscribers

SCIENTISTS’ BOOKSHELF

Synchrony and Simultaneity

In Einstein's Clocks, Poincaré's Maps, Peter Galison deftly weaves physics, technology, philosophy and politics into a multilayered account of the development of space-time physics in connection with the invention of the mechanisms of clock synchronization and time-zone division.

See all book reviews for this issue.

DEPARTMENTS

COMPUTING SCIENCE

A Lucid Interval

Brian Hayes on the pluses and minuses of interval arithmetic, an error-controlling alternative to familiar floating-point computation

SIGHTINGS

Felice Frankel on a historic glimpse of life's machinery in action—the first electron micrograph of genes during transcription

MARGINALIA

We Are All Africans

Pat Shipman reviews the mounting evidence that the first modern humans evolved in Africa

ENGINEERING

Henry Petroski explores the inevitable compromises of design, using Edinburgh's Point Hotel as an example

SCIENCE OBSERVER

First in Flight?

David Schneider

Were the Wright brothers really the first human beings to fly?

Gaul in the Family

An English geneticist constructs an evolutionary "tree" of European languages

"Black" and "White" Not Quite Right

Christopher R. Brodie

In Brazil, racial appearances can be deceiving

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Suspension of Belief

Political Science

Timely Argument

Set Photons for 'Mail'

Worm's-Eye View

From the President

IN THIS SECTION

American Scientist Classics

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