FROM THE EDITOR

Small World

Old acquaintances revisited

David Schoonmaker

MACROSCOPE

Science Needs More Moneyball

Baseball’s data-mining methods are starting a similar revolution in research

Frederick M. Cohan

COMPUTING SCIENCE

Computation and the Human Predicament

The Limits to Growth and the limits to computer modeling

Brian Hayes

ENGINEERING

Backseat Designers*

Safety came to automotive design under considerable pressure

Henry Petroski

SLIDE SHOW

Science Light

American Scientist has run cartoons in its pages since the 1970s. Here we offer a selection of our favorites.

MARGINALIA

Do the Eyes Have It?

Dog domestication may have helped humans thrive while Neandertals declined

Pat Shipman

SIGHTINGS

Social Needs Help Sculpt Primate Faces

When University of California at Los Angeles researchers analyzed the faces of Central and South American primates, they found a pattern suggesting that differences in social behavior have an influence on facial features.

Catherine Clabby

SCIENCE OBSERVER

A Limited-Edition Report from the Field

From an evolutionary biologist’s year in Kenya’s Amboseli basin, both research and a fine-press book are emerging

Anna Lena Phillips

Microrockets Fizz Along

Tiny devices push themselves forward on a stream of hydrogen bubbles

Fenella Saunders

In the News

LETTERS TO THE EDITORS

Venus's Clockwork Contribution

Climate Versus Land Management

Behaviorology in Context

SIGMA XI TODAY (PDF)