Magazine

September-October 1998

Current Issue

September-October 1998

Volume: 86 Number: 5

Tens of thousands of journals now transmit new knowledge at steeply rising costs, belying predictions that the Internet would allow great economies in scientific publishing. In "Free Internet Access to Traditional Journals," Thomas J. Walker draws on the experience of a small disciplinary society in considering ways that the Internet might allow investigators to make the literature of science open and accessible—without reliance on "toll booths." On the cover, collage artist Tom Sullivan ponders alternative futures.

In This Issue

  • Astronomy
  • Biology
  • Communications
  • Computer
  • Engineering
  • Evolution
  • Mathematics
  • Physics
  • Policy
  • Psychology
  • Sociology
  • Technology

Reproductive Thermoregulation in Marine Mammals

Sentiel Rommel, William McLellan

Biology

Free Internet Access to Traditional Journals

Thomas J. Walker

Communications

Can scientists find ways to share published research without high cost? The experiences of one society suggest it can be done cheaply, even profitably

From Society to Genes with the Honey Bee

Gene Robinson

Biology

A combination of environmental, genetic, hormonal and neurobiological factors determine a bee's progression through a series of life stages

How the Ribosome Works

Joachim Frank

Biology

For over 40 years, scientists have studied the machine that synthesizes proteins. Yet, until recently, no one had "seen" the ribosome with any great clarity

How to Boil a Nucleus

Vic Viola, Kris Kwiatkowski

Astronomy Physics

Striving to understand the nuclear "liquid" formed in the core of a neutron star, experimenters use "soft explosions" to induce phase transitions in atomic nuclei

Scientists' Nightstand

Departments