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On the Cover

January-February 2009
Volume 97, Number 1

On the cover: Colorful lights and clouds of steam make for an interesting predawn im...


FEATURE ARTICLES

Getting the Most from Energy *

Thomas R. Casten, Phillip F. Schewe

Recycling waste heat can keep carbon from going sky high


Healing Heat: Harnessing Infection to Fight Cancer

Uwe Hobohm

Experiments suggest a better way to gear up the human immune system


Kashmir Valley Megaearthquakes *

Susan Hough, Roger Bilham, Ismail Bhat

Historical accounts suggest a shaky future for this pastoral valley


The Bones of Copernicus *

Dennis Danielson

Twenty-first–century cosmologists, historians and archaeologists continue to seek a true portrait of the great astronomer and his contribution


SCIENTISTS’ BOOKSHELF

Hubble: Toil and Trouble

Michael J. Disney

A review of The Universe in a Mirror: The Saga of the Hubble Space Telescope and the Visionaries Who Built It, by Robert Zimmerman. Zimmerman’s blow-by-blow account of how the Hubble got built is a cracking good read, says Disney

See all book reviews for this issue


DEPARTMENTS

MACROSCOPE

The Herbal of Rumphius

A 17th-century Dutch naturalist established the botanical foundations of the flora of Indonesia

Lynn Margulis and Peter Raven

COMPUTING SCIENCE

Automation on the Job

Computers were supposed to be labor-saving devices. How come we're still working so hard?

Brian Hayes

ENGINEERING

Machu Picchu*

The engineering profession recognizes the prowess of the 15th-century Inca

Henry Petroski

MARGINALIA

Routes of Resistance

Adding to the world of known chemical structures is a wonderful mental experiment

Robert L. Dorit

SIGHTINGS

A Vennerable Challenge

The strengths and weaknesses of Venn diagrams

Robert Kosara

SCIENCE OBSERVER

What's All the Flap About?

Butterflies need their hind wings not to stay aloft but to evade predators

Fenella Saunders

Move Over, Flintstones

This human-electric hybrid car is powered by rowing, not running

Anna Lena Phillips

In the News

LETTERS TO THE EDITORS

Enlightening Work
Cold War Oeuvre
We Will Age
Let's Change Later

SIGMA XI TODAY (PDF)