E-Book Content
Surprisingly Modern Neandertals • National Medal of Technology
QUARK SOUP CERN cooks up a
new state of matter see page 16 APRIL 2000
$4.95
www.sciam.com
QUANTUM
Teleportation The Future of Travel? Or of Computing? Of Mice and Mensa Genetic formula for a smarter mouse
Brown Dwarfs Stars that fizzled fill the galaxy
Copyright 2000 Scientific American, Inc.
Volume 282
Contents
April 2000
Number 4
C O V E R S T O RY
50
Quantum Teleportation Anton Zeilinger SPACE CHANNEL/PHILIP SAUNDERS
The “spooky action at a distance” of quantum mechanics makes possible the science-fiction dream of teleportation—a way to make objects disappear from one place and reappear at another. It has already been demonstrated with photons. Yet the greatest application of teleportation may be in computing.
62
Building a Brainier Mouse Joe Z. Tsien
To genetically engineer a smarter mouse, scientists assembled some of the molecular components of learning and memory.
Understanding Clinical Trials
69
Justin A. Zivin The journey from initial medical research to the bottle in your family’s medicine cabinet is complex, time-consuming and expensive. Can the clinical trial process be refined?
Monitoring Earth’s Vital Signs
92
Michael D. King and David D. Herring A new NASA satellite— one of a fleet called the Earth Observing System— uses five state-ofthe-art sensors to better diagnose the planet’s health from the sky.
The Discovery of Brown Dwarfs 76 Gibor Basri Less massive than stars but more massive than planets, brown dwarfs were long assumed to be rare. New sky surveys, however, show that in our galaxy the objects may be as common80 as stars.
The Aleutian Kayak George B. Dyson The Aleuts built these small boats for hunters on the open ocean. The sophisticated design is still not entirely understood.
Copyright 2000 Scientific American, Inc.
TRENDS IN PALEOANTHROPOLOGY
98
Who Were the Neandertals?
84
Kate Wong, staff writer Controversies rage over how much they were like us behaviorally and biologically. With contributions by Erik Trinkaus, Cidália Duarte, João Zilhão, Francesco d’Errico and Fred H. Smith.
3
Contents
April 2000
Volume 282
Number 4
46 T H E N AT I O N A L M E D A L O F T E C H N O L O G Y A r e p o r t o n t h e w i n n e r s o f t h e n a t i o n’s h i g h e s t a w a r d f o r i n n o v a t i o n
RAY KURZWEIL
ROBERT A. SWANSON
FROM THE EDITORS
ROBERT W. TAYLOR
8
LETTERS TO THE EDITORS
10
50, 100 & 150 YEARS AGO
14
PROFILE
36
String theorist and physics star Brian Greene.
TECHNOLOGY & B USINESS
42
114
BOOKS
Matt Ridley’s Genome offers a celebrity tour of human DNA, according to Dean H. Hamer. With more from The Editors Recommend.
WONDERS, by the Morrisons
117
The long-lost lions of Los Angeles.
CONNECTIONS, by James Burke
118
ANTI GRAVITY, by Steve Mirsky
120
END POINT
120
N E W S & A N A LY S I S
What the “Frankenfoods” deal means for biotech.
CYBER VIEW
GLEN JACOB CULLER
16
CERN’s little piece of the big bang. 16
44
How deadly viruses enter the U.S.
20
16
Who wants privacy?
Refrigerating that leftover mammoth. 24 WORKING KNOWLEDGE
108
How soap and detergents work.
THE AMATEUR SCIENTIST by Shawn Carlson A furnace in a thermos.
MATHEMATICAL RECREATIONS