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Table of Contents October 2006

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Discover Magazine's mission is to enable readers to lead richer lives by explaining and expanding their universe.  Each month we bring you in depth information and analysis from various topics ranging from technology and space to the living world we live in.
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FEATURES

Seeds
by Sarah Richardson
How flowering plants beat out the competition on ancient earth
Mars Exposed
by Fred Guterl
With the new Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter zeroing in on its target, NASA scientists prepare for an unprecedented look at the Red Planet's ancient seas and modern ice fields—key sites in the ongoing search for life.
My Three Einsteins
by Corey S. Powell
He was a brilliant scientist, yes, but also a thoughtful philosopher and a master of his own celebrity.
Einstein's Theory of Fidelity
by Anne Casselman
A trove of letters reveals a man of worldly affairs. Yes, that kind of affair.
newt
Discover Interview: Newt Gingrich
by Francis Wilkinson, Grant Delin
The former Speaker—now a leading candidate for the Republican presidential nomination—talked to DISCOVER in 2006 about evolution, stem cells, Washington's two cultures, and why kids should be paid to take science and math.
Faster, Sleeker, Smaller
by Josie Glausiusz
A quarter century's worth of DISCOVER advertisements reveals a radically changing world.
Fuzzy Math... Almost Is Enough
by Alex Stone
A surprisingly simple manipulation shows how infinity can trick our intuition.
The Final Frontier
by John Horgan
Ten years after the publication of The End of Science, John Horgan says the limits of scientific inquiry are more visible than ever.

DEPARTMENTS

Jaron's World
Jaron's World: Raft to the Future
by Jaron Lanier
Does time come together like an island of boats floating on the open seas?
Blinded By Science
Blinded by Science: Who's Freaky Now?
by Bruno Maddox
How abhorrence and attraction affect our bioethical judgment.
Peer Review
Peer Review: Too Clear for Comfort
by Douglas Rushkoff
The increased detail of HDTV may decrease our viewing pleasure.
Reviews
Reviews
Midlife rebellion hits the subjects of the 7 Up film series. Plus: why Edison electrocuted an elephant named Topsy, a chance to commune with Mendel's peas, and how cartoons taught adults good hygiene.
Letters
Letters
Readers slash and burn the enthusiasm for corn ethanol, and more.
20 Things You Didn't Know About...
20 Things You Didn't Know About... The Nobel Prizes
by Jessica Ruvinsky, Jason Stahl
The king who tried to kill the prizes, what goes through the minds of cockroaches as they watch Star Wars, and more.
Raw Data
Raw Data: Do Magic Mushrooms Make You Mystical?
by Jessica Ruvinsky
Apparently, yes. Most volunteers say psilocybin experiences are spiritually significant.
Natural Selections
Natural Selections: Brazilian Rendezvous
by Mary C. Pearl
Primatologists devise ways for critically threatened monkeys to meet and mate.
Map
Map: What Does the Internet Look Like?
by Stephen Ornes
Why China has as many IP addresses as an American university, which ISP should be called "Spamalot," and more.
Vital Signs
Vital Signs: Why Is He Limping?
by H. Lee Kagan
The injury seemed recent, but its origins were not.

DATA

Oddities of the Outback
by Anne Wootton
Platypuses are peculiar, but 20 million years ago, Australia was home to even weirder wildlife.
Why We Sleep
by Anne Wootton
Does sleep allow us to cull out and delete the throngs of ordinary, unimportant memories from each day?
Your Genome Is Biased
by Anne Wootton
Researchers find a full 12,000 genes that act differently in male and female mice, a finding that could lead to sex-specific medicine.
The First Computer
by Stephen Ornes
A mysterious device found in Greek waters was used by ancient Greeks to track distant stars.
Swimming in the Sahara
by Alex Stone
The world's largest desert was once a green Eden. One day it will be again.
A Turbulent Mind
by Kathryn Garfield
Vincent van Gogh's work is more likely to jostle your plane flight than other artists'—and bees prefer it, too.
Just in Time for Halloween
by Britt Peterson
Researchers say 4,500 years ago, some Mexicans hacked off their own teeth to the gum line and plugged in jaguar dentures.
Immortality, One Cell at a Time
by JR Minkel
Can a chemical cocktail turn any old adult cell into a stem cell?
Meet the New Continent
by Jessica Ruvinsky
In only a million years we'll have an eighth: East Africa.
World's Smallest GPS System
by Jessica Ruvinsky
Using pig hairs as stilts may give ants impressively long strides, but it throws off their step-counting navigational technique.
Brain Damage Can Make You Brilliant
by JR Minkel
Strap on your iron helmet: Zapping your brain with magnetic flux makes you (temporarily) smarter.
Extinction—It's What's for Dinner
by Jennifer Barone
A tip-off from a taxi driver reveals how bush meat gets to Brooklyn.
The Grapes of Warmth
by Michael McRae
Bye-bye, Bordeaux: Global warming threatens the world's best vineyards.
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