March 1996

Empire of Uniformity

With its vast area and long history of settlement, China ought to have hundreds of distinct languages and cultures. In fact, all the evidence indicates that it once did. So what happened to them all?

by Jared Diamond

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Data



March

Departments

Life on Lobster Lips

Rock-Eating Slime

Whence the Rays? Thence the Rays

A source of mysterious cosmic rays is found at last.

Blasting Off on Plumes of Actin

Whither the Whales? Thither the Whales

Bad Air Gets Worse

Ludwig in the Sky With Diamonds

Pressure in the Bat Cave

Conceptual Shift

The Answer in the Voids

by Jeffrey Winters

Trees of Salt

by Josie Glausiusz

Death From the Pleistocene Sky

by Carl Zimmer

A Capella

by Bob Berman

The Breath of Life

by Norman T. Berlinger

Love by the Line

by Jeffrey Kluger

The Graying of the Troops

Baboons who live to a ripe old age are the ones who know what friends are for.
by Robert Sapolsky

The Benefits of Virgin Birth

by Sarah Richardson