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On the Cover

March-April 2005 Volume 93, Number 2

On the cover:

As this long-exposure photograph of a Los Angeles freeway reminds us, ...

FEATURE ARTICLES

Physics and Feynman's Diagrams *

In the hands of a postwar generation, a tool intended to lead quantum electrodynamics out of a decades-long morass helped transform physics

The Ecology and Evolution of Hawaiian Spider Communities *

Rosemary Gillespie

The diversification of Hawaiian spiders illustrates universal principles behind community assembly on evolutionary and ecological scales

Monitoring Elusive Mammals *

James Sanderson, Mogens Trolle

Unattended cameras reveal secrets of some of the world's wildest places

Fuel Efficiency and the Economy *

Roger H. Bezdec, Robert Wendling

Input-output analysis shows how proposed changes to automotive fuel-efficiency standards would propagate through the economy

Predicting Addiction

Lisa Legrand, William Iacono, Matt McGue

Behavioral genetics uses twins and time to decipher the origins of addiction and learn who is most vulnerable

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SCIENTISTS’ BOOKSHELF

Serving a Silicon Master

Doron Zeilberger

Thanks to "Its Omnipotence the Computer," math is becoming experimental, a posteriori and even contingent, says reviewer Doron Zeilberger

See all book reviews for this issue.

DEPARTMENTS

COMPUTING SCIENCE

Why W?

Brian Hayes

Should Lambert W be added to the canon of standard textbook functions?

IN MEMORIAM

Dennis Flanagan, 1919-2005

Brian Hayes

Remembering the Scientific American editor.

MACROSCOPE

The Soul of Science

Michael Shermer

The purposes we create in life are no less meaningful for their impermanence

SIGHTINGS

Up Close with a Squash Bug

Felice Frankel

Maria Eisner explains how she uses electron microscopy to take a closer look at insects

MARGINALIA

The Near-Destruction of Giza

Jean-Daniel Stanley

How a 19th-century French engineer saved the Egyptian pyramids from being dismantled

ENGINEERING

Painful Design *

Henry Petroski

Designing easy-to-open but safe medicine bottles has proved to be quite a challenge

SCIENCE OBSERVER

Looking for Dr. Pangloss

David Schneider

Might coastal residents around the globe one day receive effective warnings before a destructive tsunami strikes? Or is that too optimistic?

Can You Count Your Chickens?

Roger Harris

Studies of Amazonian Indians pose questions about how words bestow the faculty to count

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Zipping Along

Taste Test

From the President

IN THIS SECTION

American Scientist Classics

Authors

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