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On the Cover

May-June 2006 Volume 94, Number 3

On the cover:

Continually changing scenes can keep a child (or adult) riveted to a t...

FEATURE ARTICLES

Genetic Strategies for Controlling Mosquito-Borne Diseases

Engineered genes that block the transmission of malaria and dengue can hitch a ride on selfish DNA and spread into wild populations

Perceptual Pleasure and the Brain *

Irving Biederman, Edward Vessel

A novel theory explains why the brain craves information and seeks it through the senses

The Interplanetary Transport Network *

Shane Ross

Some mathematical sophistication allows spacecraft to be maneuvered over large distances using little or no fuel

Group Decision Making in Honey Bee Swarms *

P. Kirk Visscher, Thomas Seeley, Kevin Passino

When 10,000 bees go house hunting, how do they cooperatively choose their new nesting site?

A Coprological View of Ancestral Pueblo Cannibalism *

Karl Reinhard

Debate over a single fecal fossil offers a cautionary tale of the interplay between science and culture

* access restricted to members and subscribers

SCIENTISTS’ BOOKSHELF

What Became of the Megafauna?

Robert Feranec

A review of Twilight of the Mammoths: Ice Age Extinctions and the Rewilding of America, by Paul S. Martin. Were the world's megafauna hunted to extinction by humans?

See all book reviews for this issue.

DEPARTMENTS

COMPUTING SCIENCE

Gauss's Day of Reckoning

Brian Hayes

A famous story about the boy wonder of mathematics has taken on a life of its own

MACROSCOPE

The Toxicity of Recreational Drugs

Robert S. Gable

Alcohol is more lethal than many other commonly abused substances

SIGHTINGS

When Less Might Be More

Felice Frankel

An aquatic protozoan yields its secrets under a polarized-light microscope

ENGINEERING

Things Small and Large *

Henry Petroski

"Testing" designs of different sizes poses varied challenges, but failure analysis remains key

SCIENCE OBSERVER

A Helix with a Handle

Fenella Saunders

Mathematicians prove the existence of a new class of minimal surfaces

Sunshine on a Cloudy Day

David Schoonmaker

Clouds sometime increase, rather than reduce, levels of ultraviolet radiation

Watch and Learn

Christopher R. Brodie

Benchwarming pays off for the archer fish

In the News

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Comings and Goings

Statistically Significant

IN THIS SECTION

American Scientist Classics

Authors

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