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COLUMNS
Works in Progress • Rhythm Section
The pulse of planetary cycles, recorded deep in New Jersey shale
LARRY KRUMENAKER
ESSAYS & COMMENT
How Many People Can the Earth Support?
The answers depend as much on social, cultural, economic and political choices as they do on constraints imposed by nature
JOEL E. COHEN
The Medieval Consolations of Cyberspace
The electronic quest for an alternate reality, prefigured in the thirteenth-century cathedral
MARGARET WERTHEIM
FEATURES
How Insects Learned to Fly
Childhood memories of skimming across a frozen lake help a biologist solve an evolutionary riddle
JAMES H. MARDEN
Lowering the Boom
To muffle the effects of their explosions, blasters are learning to fight fire with fire
DOUGLAS A. ANDERSON
On Common Ground • Report to the Librarian
Pockets of order amid the ruins of entropy
PHOTOGRAPH BY ROSAMOND PURCELL
TEXT BY STEPHEN JAY GOULD
Cover Story • Ghosts in the Machine
The cast of characters on the Internet now includes robotic impersonators as well as the multiple personalities of its human users
SHERRY TURKLE
REVIEWS
Stealth Science
The study of ordinary solid matter may be the most useful and beautiful discipline in physics. So why have so few people heard of it?
SIDNEY PERKOWITZ
Books in Brief • Contraceptive Chronicles
PLUS: A guide to Newton's masterwork; the early history of life
LAURENCE A. MARSCHALL
DEPARTMENTS
Initial Conditions • Editor's Notebook
Peer Review
Letters from Readers
Working Hypotheses • The Three Cs
RODNEY W. NICHOLS
Quanta
A protein for birdsong and Alzheimer's; origin of feces; world's smallest pump; virtual reality for insects; acne remedy
Strange Matter
Actual Questions Asked By a Seven-Year
ROZ CHAST
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