Skip to Content

Biotech Goes Wild

July/August 1999

Genetic engineering will be essential to feed the world´s billions. But could it unleash a race of “superweeds”? No one seems to know. And nobody´s in charge of finding out.

Read the issue

Features

  • Categorized in 17036

    Into the Big Blue Yonder

    A few years ago, IBM’s vaunted Research division went through a stormy upheaval. But the labs have bounced back, and the future looks bright.
  • Jeff Hawkins, creator of the PalmPilot, has other, much larger ambitions. He wants to figure out how the brain does its thing.
  • What’s the difference between Chanel No. 5 and Chanel No. 19? Ask Cyranose 2000, an artificial proboscis that’s sniffing out the market.
  • Categorized in 17032

    The Virtual Alchemists

    After a decade of calculations, the first wave of materials designed from scratch on the computer are ready to be made and tested. On the horizon: new substrates for optics and electronics.
  • After 20 years of plodding development, the Global Positioning System remains a novelty for niche markets. The system’s future hinges less on technology than on politics, economics and human nature.

Past issues

    Updated