Sep/Oct 2000 Table of Contents

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COLUMNS
Physica • Power Tool
Thinking with logarithms offers mainline access to the worlds of the very large and the very small
HANS CHRISTIAN VON BAEYER

Field Notes • Lost City
Preservationists stalled excavations at Jamestown for a century. Ironically, they proved to be the archaeologists' best friends
ROBERT ZIMMERMAN

ESSAYS & COMMENT
Variations on a Gene
As the human genome is decoded, artists are seizing the stuff of the genetic revolution and grappling with its dilemmas
EMILY LABER

FEATURES
Toy Stories
The ubiquitous Furby and other interactive playthings offer a window into the digital environment of the near future, dense with intelligent machines
MARK PESCE

Cover Story • Speed Limits
The 2000 Olympic Games will test the mettle of every competitor. But are the bounds of human athletic performance anywhere in sight?
GUY C. BROWN

REVIEWS
Race Counts
The refined list of racial categories on the 2000 U.S. census form belies the fluidity and deep ambiguity that attend any attempt to classify human groups
DAVID BERREBY

Books in Brief • Free Lunch
PLUS: The lure of the antiworld; fossil hunting in ancient Greece and Rome
LAURENCE A. MARSCHALL

DEPARTMENTS
Initial Conditions • Editor's Notebook
Power Bars
PETER G. BROWN

Peer Review
Letters from Readers

Working Hypotheses • Biotech in the Clinic
RODNEY W. NICHOLS

Quanta
Public understanding of science; water on Mars; attacking malaria in the genes of mosquitoes; a vision thing

Sep/Oct 2000

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