August 2000
Volume 6, Number 4

Features

New tools for imaging the brain
The latest models of the human brain, drawing on chaos theory and nonlinear dynamics, focus on how the brain functions as a whole, giving clues to the physical nature of consciousness for the first time. Sophisticated instruments can map the functioning brain in three dimensions, showing which regions are stimulated by different mental processes---Eric Lerner

Radio on a chip will revolutionize communications
Technology based on microelectromechanical systems will lead us away from our home PCs, through the wireless Web and cell-phone/Internet services, to such exotic applications as human implants for medical diagnostics and remote environmental and seismic monitoring--Jennifer Ouellette

News

Briefs
Polymers speed electro-optical conversion; three-dimensional lithography; femtosecond X-ray pulses; molecular printing

Departments

Letters
Left-handed radiation; Moore's law; diamond; energy rolls on

Corporate Associates
Agilent Labs takes off--Cynthia Smith

Forum
The transition to high-tech management--Cynthia Hipwell

Business
Do you need to patent it?--William Borchard

Technology
Cryptography and the new economy--Tom Lee

Books

New Products