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On the Cover

November-December 2001 Volume 89, Number 6

In the early spring of 1991, a volcanic eruption 2,500 meters below the ocean surface on the East Pacific Rise destroyed a thriving community of organisms living around hydrothermal vents. Investigators aboard the deep submersible Alvin were fortunate enough to be on the scene at Nine North (named for the latitude) within days of the eruption. ...


FEATURE ARTICLES

The Formation and Evolution of the Milky Way *

Cristina Chiappini

The distribution of the chemical elements in our galaxy serves as a "fossil record" of its evolutionary history


Health and Human Society

Clyde Hertzman

Wealthier nations are not always healthier, and efforts to improve health can be swamped by the effects of inequality and conflict


Spintronics *

Sankar Das Sarma

A new class of device based on electron spin, rather than on charge, may yield the next generation of microelectronics


The Challenge of Siphonous Green Algae *

Peter Vroom, Celia Smith

One imagines that an organism composed of one big cell would prove quite fragile. Yet these single-celled marine plants are surprisingly robust


Chaos on the Quantum Scale *

Mason A. Porter, Richard Liboff

Simulations of atomic-scale billiards reveal chaotic phenomena that expand theory and applications, especially in nanotechnology


* access restricted to members and subscribers


DEPARTMENTS

COMPUTING SCIENCE

Third Base

Brian Hayes

Three cheers for base 3!

MACROSCOPE

On the Nature of Violence

Pat Shipman

An anthropologist's view of a dark human capacity

ENGINEERING

Everyday Design *

Henry Petroski

The challenge of designing everyday objects

SCIENCE OBSERVER

A Gene by Any Other Name

Marla Vacek Broadfoot

Whimsy and inspiration in the naming of genes

Getting More Stiffness with Less

Mike May

The curious property of negative stiffness

Fighting "Mad Leader Disease"

Rebecca Sloan Slotnick

Addressing mental illness in world leaders

The Scent of a Spider

Noah Eisenkraft

How does a male spider know when a female is in the mood?

Pole Vaulting

David Schneider

Modernizing a research station at the bottom of the world

FROM THE PRESIDENT


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