Organic life

by David Sims THIS contiguous region of spacetime, the universe, appeared from vacuum energy about 13.7 billion years ago. The solar nebula condensed into a central star and a planetary system about 5 billion years ago. Earth’s Life includes cellular organisms, viruses, and viroids. Biogenesis…

by Loren Eiseley (pictured) IF THERE is magic on this planet, it is contained in water. Its least stir even, as now in a rain pond on a flat roof opposite my office, is enough to bring me searching to the window. A wind ripple may be translating itself into life. I have a constant feeling that some time I may…

SCIENTISTS have discovered water flowing on the surface of Mars. (ILLUSTRATION: Mosaic of the Valles Marineris hemisphere of Mars projected into point perspective, a view similar to that which one would see from a spacecraft.) The discovery announced Monday raises the tantalizing possibility…

by Revilo P. Oliver THE PICTURE on the right is reproduced from the cover of Science News, 7 September 1991, where it appears without identification or explanation to call attention to an article about the effect of excessive use of cocaine on the foetus of pregnant women. It is obviously an advertisement…