PART I OF VI

introduction | part i | part ii | part iii | part iv | part v | part vi

GRIZZLY BEARS TAKE NORTHERN VACATION
by Bethany Lindsay
photographs by Mark Furze

A paw print, a hair, and a photograph are all clues that Canada’s grizzly bears are on the move.
Recently, Canadian scientists genetically confirmed the sighting of a grizzly bear more than 1000 kilometers north of the species’ known range, proving that Canadians still have a lot to learn about our northern-most animals.
Grizzlies seem to be encroaching on the territory of polar bears, a species already threatened by global warming. The two species previously met only on the sea ice near mainland Canada, where they both hunt seals. Though polar bears are generally larger, grizzlies have been spotted preying on polar bear cubs.
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SCIENCE GETS ITS FIRST SUPERMODEL
by David Secko

New discoveries that show evolution in action are causing some scientists to say that the first scientific supermodel has arrived.
Biology is normally carried out within isolated specializations. Ecologists study one organism, molecular biologists another, while evolutionary biologists look over hundreds without probing too deeply into any particular one.
But one tiny little fish, the threespine stickleback, proves that a combination of genetics, molecular biology, developmental biology and population studies, can bring insight into the fundamental question of how evolution occurs in nature.
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A DIALOGUE WITH SARAH, AGED 3: IN WHICH IT IS SHOWN THAT IF YOUR DAD IS A CHEMISTRY PROFESSOR, ASKING “WHY” CAN BE DANGEROUS
by W. Stephen McNeil

SARAH: Daddy, were you in the shower?

DAD: Yes, I was in the shower.

SARAH: Why?

DAD: I was dirty. The shower gets me clean.

SARAH: Why?

DAD: Why does the shower get me clean?
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WHAT IS BIOINFORMATICS?
by Joanne Fox
images by Jiang Long/Jen Philpot

Bioinformatics involves the integration of computers, software tools, and databases in an effort to address biological questions. Bioinformatics approaches are often used for major initiatives that generate large data sets. Two important large-scale activities that use bioinformatics are genomics and proteomics. Genomics refers to the analysis of genomes. A genome can be thought of as the complete set of DNA sequences that codes for the hereditary material that is passed on from generation to generation.
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PHOTO FEATURE: PHOTO OF A NICE SET OF BOOBIES WE SAW AT THE MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY
by Christopher Monks
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LOTIC
by Claire Salvador

In electric confrontations, the clouds gather, grow dark, and grumble their dissent. They lumber about like gravid beasts, heavy bellies aimed at the earth below; a slow dance that lasts for days.

Then, like a crescendo, it rains.

Not an unusual phenomenon in this urban area of the west coast trapped between the mountains and the sea. The geometric nature of the city provides a horizon of percussive surfaces in the form of concrete stalagmites that have colonized what once was a temperate rainforest. What trees remain have been landscaped into place. And water batters into the foliage, each leaf a splash, crash. It pounds into itself in tide pools of pavement, flows in tiny streams alongside curbs, gurgles in the subterranean catchments of the sewage system. These sounds weave into me, buffering sensitivities so that I don’t notice the distraction. A thousand choral fragments are dampened into a single sigh, a conch cupped to my ear. No one ever seems to notice how loud the rain is.
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PATENTS AND INNOVATIONS IN BIOTECHNOLOGY: FROM A SATELLITE LOOKING DOWN AT OUR USE OF PATENTS IN THE GREAT PLANETARY SCHEME OF THINGS
by Azar Mehrabadi

Patents allow inventors to have unique access to a market for a set period of time, giving the inventors monopoly control and/or market exclusivity on the sale of their innovation. The monopoly control provided by patents not only provides for a return on the relatively high cost of research and development that went into the innovation, but also provides rather high profits as a result of the monopoly and its duration. Excess profits serve to attract capital investors, who then create jobs in the biotechnology industry, increase the rate of research, and cause new innovations in drug treatments, tests and therapies to be undertaken, subsequently benefiting the people of the world. Well, except for...
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THE BESTEST, MOST KICK ASS, HUMAN GENOME PROJECT
by David Ng

Mondo-Genetic-Services is proud to announce its latest venture, “The Bestest, Most Kick Ass, Human Genome Project.” Hot on the tails of the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium and Celera Genomics, we present to you a novel approach in the elucidation of mankind’s blueprint of life. Rather than using the frequently studied yet boring human cell lines, or samples from a small group of ethnically diverse, anonymous, and likely dull individuals, we propose a completely different strategy – that is, we plan to use the genomes of individuals handpicked by the editorial staff of People magazine, a move we feel will cater to the desires of you and your friends. Currently our impressive roster of prospective subjects include the following:
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ELSEWHERE AND OVERHEARD
by Caitlin Dowling

“I really want to actually see the gun that's been supposedly aimed at my head for four years."
Jack Campbell, CEO of DVForge, who organized a contest to design a Mac Virus for his company’s computers, then cancelled it after realizing it might actually invite trouble.

“If some people decide that they want blind children and white rice, it's their choice. I'm offering the possibility of yellow rice and no blind children. But the decision what people want to eat is theirs."
Ingo Potrykus, the creator of controversial GM “golden rice”, in 2001. He launched the 2nd generation of the rice last week, which is suggested to contain more benefits than the last. (www.grain.com)
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EINSTEIN AT PRINCETON
by Jonathan Cohen

Einstein sits and thinks under the dark trees
surrounding a white cottage — where no war
came, even during the years when young men
flooded out from this campus, cold from tap
like the beer they’d drunk at the Tiger-
town Inn just before their first induction.
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