The first hint of this scheme came out in official Chinese newspapers in the 1990s, confirming its intent. A Chinese-inspired paper in Scientific American in June 1996 also confirmed it.

SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN
Table of Contents: June 1996 Volume 274 Number 6

FROM THE EDITORS

LETTERS TO THE EDITORS

50, 100 AND 150 YEARS AGO

NEWS AND ANALYSIS

IN FOCUS
China's plans for "peaceful" atomic tests inspire unease.

SCIENCE AND THE CITIZEN
Downtown on the farm.... Life on the Unabomber's list.... Galileo at Jupiter.... Lizard kings.... Forecasting Alzheimer's.

CYBER VIEW
Keeping databases under lock and key.

TECHNOLOGY AND BUSINESS
Mind reading for movement.... Cruising by balloon.... Super-ultrasound.

PROFILE
Demographic criminologist James Alan Fox braces for a crime wave.

Semiconductor Subsidies
Lucien P. Randazzese
The federally funded research consortium SEMATECH is often credited with restoring vigor to the U.S. semiconductor industry. The ability of such cooperative efforts to foster competitive technology can be severely limited, however, as illustrated by the noteworthy failure of GCA Corporation. A once successful manufacturer of microlithography tools, GCA hit hard times during the 1980s. SEMATECH tried to resuscitate GCA's business but could not. That experience holds lessons for other public and private policymakers.

Training the Olympic Athlete
Jay T. Kearney
In competitions that push the limits of human performance, victory can hinge on scant centimeters or hundredths of a second. To get the edge they need, modern Olympians and their coaches turn to science and technology. A sports scientist for the U.S. Olympic Committee describes how training programs drawing on physiology, psychology, aerodynamics and other disciplines are boosting the performance of athletes in four events: bicycling, weight lifting, rowing and shooting.

Trends in Space Science
Science in the Sky
Tim Beardsley, staff writer
The $27-billion International Space Station will not do many of the jobs once conceived for it. Industrial interest in it has ebbed. Uncertainties about Russia's commitment jeopardize its mission. Next year NASA will start building it anyway.

Confronting the Nuclear Legacy
Can Nuclear Waste Be Stored Safely
Chris G. Whipple
Controversy surrounds U.S. government hopes to dispose of high-level radioactive waste in Nevada. Unanswered technical and geological questions leave it unclear how safe this plan may be. Last in a series.

The Reluctant Father of Black Holes
Jeremy Bernstein
Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity and his invention of quantum-statistical mechanics are the foundation for all speculations about the reality of black holes. Yet Einstein rejected the idea of such bizarre singularities and repeatedly argued against their existence.

Science in Pictures
The Art of Charles R. Knight
Gregory S. Paul
The conception of dinosaurs as sluggish, pea-brained giants owes as much to art as to science--specifically, the work of this painter, whose murals of the distant past shaped the thinking of paleontologists and the public throughout this century.

Taxoids: New Weapons against Cancer
K. C. Nicolaou, Rodney K. Guy and Pierre Potier
The bark of the Pacific yew tree contains a chemical, taxol, with remarkable anticancer potency. Early problems with scarcity and side effects have recently been overcome. Now chemists are synthesizing a family of related drugs, called taxoids, that may turn out to be even better than the original.

THE AMATEUR SCIENTIST
A professional-quality balance without a heavy price tag.

MATHEMATICAL RECREATIONS
An overlooked numerical series spins out things of beauty.

REVIEWS AND COMMENTARIES
Amazonian riches.... The haunting lure of pseudoscience.... On-line onstage.... Chemistry's yin and yang.
WONDERS, by Philip Morrison: The intense science of creating high pressures.
CONNECTIONS, by James Burke: From galvanized Frankenstein to atomized gasoline.

WORKING KNOWLEDGE
The fleet inflation of air bags.

SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN June 1996 Volume 274 Number 6 Pages 4-5

Scientific American (ISSN 0036-8733), published monthly by Scientific American, Inc., 415 Madison Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10017-1111. Copyright 1996 by Scientific American, Inc. All rights reserved. Except for one-time personal use, no part of any issue may be reproduced by any mechanical, photographic or electronic process, or in the form of a phonographic recording, nor may it be stored in a retrieval system, transmitted or otherwise copied for public or private use without written permission of the publisher. For information regarding back issues, reprints or permissions, E-mail SCAinquiry@aol.com.