Scientific American - Full Year 2013 Issues (February)

FEATURES
NEUROSCIENCE
30  Brain Cells for Grandmother
Each person or thing in our everyday life may exist in
our brain with its own corresponding set of neurons
assigned to it. By Rodrigo Quian Quiroga, Itzhak Fried
and Christof Koch
SPACE
 36  Secrets of Primitive Meteorites
Microscopic analyses of the oldest rocks in the solar
system hint at what our corner of space was like shortly
before the planets formed. By Alan E. Rubin
HUMAN EVOLUTION
 42  Shattered Ancestry
Recent fossil fi nds have made identifying our ancient
progenitors even more di cult. By Katherine Harmon
CLIMATE
50  Rethinking the Gulf Stream
The warm fl ow of ocean water from the Gulf of Mexico
keeps European winters mild, right? Maybe not.
By Stephen C. Riser and M. Susan Lozier
ENGINEERING
 56  The Battery-Powered Bullet
Few gas-powered cars have surpassed 400 miles
per hour. Now an industrious group of students
plans to break this barrier in an electric vehicle.
By Gregory Mone
MEDICINE
62  The Myth of Antioxidants
Do vitamins keep us young? Growing evidence
has cast doubt on the popular belief that oxidative
damage causes aging.
By Melinda Wenner Moyer
CITIZEN SCIENCE
68  Data on Wings
A modest e ort to enlist amateur bird-watchers
in the cause of ornithology has produced a trove
of valuable data and helped to set the standard for
“citizen science” to grow into a fi eld in its own right.
Plus: How you can become a citizen scientist.

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