Magazine
May-June 2004
May-June 2004
Volume: 92 Number: 3
Southeast Asia's Mekong River hosts about a dozen catfish species in the family Pangasiidae. Overfishing threatens some of these species, including the Mekong giant catfish (Pangasianodon gigas), which the World Conservation Union recently ranked as critically endangered. Efforts to save the Mekong giant catfish from extinction include a program to purchase specimens caught live so that they can be returned to the wild. Before their release, the fish are weighed and tagged, which requires that they be temporarily removed from the river and transported short distances. In "The Imperiled Giants of the Mekong," Zeb. S. Hogan and his colleagues describe their attempts to chart the migrations of the Mekong giant catfish and its cousins and to aid in their conservation. (Photograph by Zeb. S. Hogan.)
In This Issue
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The Structure of the Human Brain
John Allen, Joel Bruss, Hanna Damasio
Evolution Psychology Sociology Technology
Precise studies of the size and shape of the brain have yielded fresh insights into neural development, differences between the sexes and human evolution
The Shadow Effect and the Case of Félix Tisserand
William McLaughlin, Sylvia Miller
Astronomy Psychology
The most eminent astronomer who never came to popular attention was lost in the shadow of his countryman, Pierre-Simon Laplace
Leaves, Flowers and Garbage Bags: Making Waves
Eran Sharon, Michael Marder, Harry Swinney
Biology Mathematics Physics
Rippled fractal patterns on thin plastic sheets and biological membranes offer elegant examples of the spontaneous breaking of symmetry
Optically Trapped Fermi Gases
John Edward Thomas, Michael Gehm
Physics
A few hundred thousand atoms, chilled to near absolute zero, mimic the physics of other extreme systems, including neutron stars and superconductors
Scientists' Nightstand
Energy Policy in the 21st Century
Peter Blair
Policy Human Ecology Review Scientists Nightstand
Short takes on three books