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MALAYSIA’S MYSTERY VIRUS: an eyewitness report from the plague zone AUGUST 1999 $4.95 www.sciam.com Copyright 1999 Scientific American, Inc. August 1999 Vo l u m e 2 8 1 Numb e r 2 FROM THE EDITORS 4 LETTERS TO THE EDITORS 6 50, 100 AND 150 YEARS AGO 10 NEWS AND ANALYSIS Everglades at risk (page 16) IN FOCUS Did modern humans evolve only in Africa? New results cast doubts. 13 SCIENCE AND THE CITIZEN Cooling conflicts over the earth’s mantle. . . . Patching parrots. . . . Prison populations. . . . Solid footing for quantum computing. The M.I.T. Laboratory for Computer Science has a plan called Oxygen: to design a more efficient, more helpful computing environment in which electronic information processing is ever present and as unseen as the air. Here insiders offer a preview of how Oxygen would work. 52 52 58 The Future of Computing Communications Chameleons Michael L. Dertouzos The director of the lab outlines how computers can help people accomplish more while doing less. John V. Guttag Multipurpose communications systems will be the links of tomorrow’s wireless computer networks. 56 60 Talking with Your Computer Raw Computation Victor Zue Sophisticated speech-based interfaces will allow users to command computers without lifting a finger. Anant Agarwal The Raw microchip can reconfigure its own wires to optimize devices for an endless variety of tasks. 16 PROFILE Geneticist Mario R. Capecchi, a heavyweight among “knockout” mice. 26 TECHNOLOGY AND BUSINESS New worries over genetically modified crops. . . . Protecting the blood supply. . . . Calculating pie. 28 CYBER VIEW Scamming the surfers: Internet confidence games.