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March-April 2006 Volume 94, Number 2

Seen from the underside, a tokay gecko displays its unique feet to goo...

FEATURE ARTICLES

How Gecko Toes Stick *

The powerful, fantastic adhesive used by geckos is made of nanoscale hairs that engage tiny forces, inspiring envy among human imitators

Winning the Accuracy Game *

Hugh G. Gauch, Jr.

Three statistical strategies—replicating, blocking and modeling—can help scientists improve accuracy and accelerate progress

The Cognitive Psychology of Belief in the Supernatural *

Belief in a deity or an afterlife could be an evolutionarily advantageous by-product of people's ability to reason about the minds of others

Filaments of Light

Jérôme Kasparian

Pulsed terawatt lasers create some surprising effects when shone through the air—including the channeling of light

Knot Theory's Odd Origins *

The modern study of knots grew out of an attempt by three 19th-century Scottish physicists to apply knot theory to fundamental questions about the universe

* access restricted to members and subscribers

SCIENTISTS’ BOOKSHELF

Evo Devo Psych

A review of Origins of the Social Mind: Evolutionary Psychology and Child Development, edited by Bruce J. Ellis and David F. Bjorklund. Evolutionary developmental psychology is a new subfield that attempts to integrate developmental and evolutionary thinking—something easier said than done

See all book reviews for this issue.

DEPARTMENTS

ENGINEERING

Bridges of Charleston *

The Cooper River has repeatedly challenged engineers' resourcefulness

COMPUTING SCIENCE

Reverse Engineering

backward and forward both run to need may they ,faster run to are computers If

MACROSCOPE

Liberating Science from Politics

Daniel Sarewitz

The notion that science can be used to reconcile political disputes is fundamentally flawed

SIGHTINGS

Metaphorically Speaking

Artist Viktor Koen explains how he creates visual representations of complex ideas

MARGINALIA

American Dinosaurs: Who and What Was First

Keith Stewart Thomson

Who gets credit for the first dinosaur in North America depends on one's definition of a description and a fossil

SCIENCE OBSERVER

Geological and biological processes observed on Earth provide hunky-dory explanations for methane on Mars

Can't Log the Forest for the Trees?

Newly revealed effects of selective logging emphasize the need to enforce best management practices

Christopher R. Brodie

Lupus antibodies in mice alter memory and emotion

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Ruminating on Films

To Pine or Not?

Does This Compute?

From the President

SIGMA XI TODAY (PDF)

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American Scientist Classics

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