Nov/Dec 1999 Table of Contents

View Articles
NOTE: Fine art illustrations are viewable only in the PDF of the full issue(downloadable at right).

COLUMNS
The Information Age • Clock of Ages
When one millennium's bright ideas become inscrutable legacies for the next
BRIAN HAYES

Field Notes • Ingenuity in the Moon's Shadow
Intrepid nineteenth-century astronomers relied on mulish strength, native wit and blind luck to observe the sun in total eclipse
TRUDY E. BELL

ESSAYS & COMMENT
Cover Story • Dose Response
Intelligent rationing by physicians is the first step to a health-care system that society can afford
PETER A. UBEL

FEATURES
RAIN OF FIRE
Cosmic rays, spewed in all directions by cataclysmic stellar explosions, encode rich information about the violent history of the Milky Way
REUVEN RAMATY, JAMES C. HIGDON, RICHARD E. LINGENFELTER AND BENZION KOZLOVSKY

On Common Ground • Transform or Perish
With the century's passing, some humble mice shed light on the mysteries of change
PHOTOGRAPH BY ROSAMOND PURCELL
TEXT BY STEPHEN JAY GOULD

Signal to Noise
Can high-tech analysis discover a language hidden amidst the bleats and whistles of dolphins
JIM G. MASTRO

REVIEWS
Fits and Starts
New studies suggest that strep infection could trigger Tourette syndrome in children with a genetic predisposition to the ailment
STEVEN C. SCHLOZMAN

Books in Brief • Parting the Waters
PLUS: Fossil hunters' war; raving about ravens

DEPARTMENTS
Initial Conditions • Editor's Notebook
The Time Machine
PETER G. BROWN

Peer Review
Letters from Readers

Working Hypotheses • Human Capital
RODNEY W. NICHOLS

Quanta
Dung Deal, Aromagraphy, Taken with a Grain of Salt, Q-bits

Nov/Dec 1999

Download Issue

(PDF 2Mb)