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July-August Cover

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July-August 2011 Volume 99, Number 4

In the past few years, virologists have discovered and characterized several families of giant viruses called, collectively, nucleo-cyto-plasmic large DNA viruses ...

FEATURE ARTICLES

Giant Viruses

James L. Van Etten

The recent discovery of really, really big viruses is changing views about the nature of viruses and the history of life

The Future of Time: UTC and the Leap Second *

David Finkleman, Steve Allen, John Seago, Rob Seaman, Ken Seidelmann

Earth’s clocks have always provided Sun time. But will that continue?

Alone in the Universe *

Howard A. Smith

Despite the growing catalog of extrasolar planets, data so far do not alter estimates that we are effectively on our own

* access restricted to members and subscribers

SCIENTISTS’ BOOKSHELF

A Life of Serial Self-Invention

A review of The Price of Altruism: George Price and the Search for the Origins of Kindness, by Oren Harman. George Price, “a real-life Forrest Gump,” was present at the making of the bomb and the development of the transistor but is best known for reformulating the idea of kin selection in evolution

See all book reviews for this issue.

DEPARTMENTS

MACROSCOPE

Aging: To Treat, or Not to Treat?

The possibility of treating aging is not just an idle fantasy

COMPUTING SCIENCE

Quasirandom Ramblings

Random numbers have a peculiar power, even when they are only pseudo- or quasirandom

ENGINEERING

A Round Pie in a Square Box*

Mismatched pairs of simple things can inspire ingenious solutions

MARGINALIA

The Humpty-Dumpty Problem

Even when we understand their parts, living things are hard to put back together

Robert L. Dorit

SLIDE SHOW

Feynman: An Excerpt from a New Comic Biography

Read an excerpt from the new graphic-novel-style biography of Richard Feynman in this slide show

Jim Ottaviani, Leland Myrick, Hilary Sycamore

ETHICS

Making Ethical Guidelines Matter

Professional societies are uniquely positioned to develop effective codes of conduct

Michael J. Zigmond

SIGHTINGS

Turning the Lights Down Low at Galaxy M51

Telescope observations reveal the most detailed view yet of the Whirlpool Galaxy

Catherine Clabby

SCIENCE OBSERVER

Minuscule Speed Traps

Rotating molecules experience the Doppler effect

Fenella Saunders

A Walk in the Woods

Evidence builds that time spent in the natural world benefits human health

Anna Lena Phillips

LETTERS TO THE EDITORS

Physical Imperfections

Energy and Population

Authorship Solutions

SIGMA XI TODAY (PDF)

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American Scientist Classics

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