Nanobacterias

Pushing Performance Boundaries

FUTURE MICROCHIPS

Real Cash from Fantasy Worlds

A VIRTUAL ECONOMY
How to Cure

1 BILLION PeOPLe
page 90
January 2010 $5.99 www.ScientificAmerican.com

Multiverse
Could the strange physics of other worlds breed life?
How Asteroids Built

Life in the

Continents

The Truth about Nanobacteria
© 20 09 SCIENTIFIC AMERIC AN, INC.

PLUS:CONTENTS fEaTurES ■
SCiENTifiC amEriCaN January 2010 Volume 302 Number 1
■

42  ookingforLife L intheMultiverse
BiOLOGY

COSmOLOGY

42

By Alejandro Jenkins and Gilad Perez
Universes with odd physics might still be habitable.

52  heRiseandFall T ofNanobacteria

By John D. Young and Jan Martel
Once believed to be the smallest pathogens known, nanobacteria have nowproved to be something almost as strange.

60  iolentOriginsofContinents V
By Sarah Simpson
Did asteroid strikes during the earth’s youth spawn the earliest fragments of today’s landmasses? iNfOrmaTiON TEChNOLOGY

EarTh SCiENCE

52

60

68  ealMoneyfrom R VirtualWorlds
By Richard Heeks

Online fantasy games enable developing world entrepreneurs to make a living by tradingstashes of make-believe gold for hard cash.

74  ocalNuclearWar, L GlobalSuffering
COmPuTErS

ENVirONmENT

By Alan Robock and Owen Brian Toon
A nuclear war between India and Pakistan could cool the globe and starve much of the human race.

82

82  heNext20Years T ofMicrochips
By the Editors
Designers are pushing all the boundaries to make integrated circuits smaller, fasterand cheaper. mEDiCiNE

74
ON ThE COVEr
Prevailing theory holds that multiple universes could pop out of a primordial vacuum within a wider expanse—the multiverse. Photography by Kazuo Kawai, Getty Images; galaxies by Jean-Francois Podevin.
J a n u a r y 2 0 10

90  PlantoDefeat A NeglectedTropicalDiseases
By Peter Jay Hotez
A new global initiative may break the cycle of povertyleading to sickness and more poverty.

2

SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN

© 20 09 SCIENTIFIC AMERIC AN, INC.

*Toyota vehicles and components are built using U.S. and globally sourced parts. © 2009

toyota.com/beyondcars

WE SEE BEYOND CARS.
WE SEE WAYS TO ENRICH THE COMMUNITY. At Toyota, building g reat partn erships AYS NRICH THE COMMUNIT Y. Toyota, building great par tnerships is a s important to u s as bui ding gre t ca rs. It ’s w hy we va lue being a pa rt of th e places importan us uilding grea cars It’s why valu e being part of the places where wh ere we work and live. We e mploy locally, pa rtne r wi th a rea ve ndors and su pplie s, ork a i e employ loca lly, partner with rea vendors and suppliers and collabora with ocal rganizati and collaborate wi th loc al org nizations tobe tter the com muni ty. Ca n a ca r company work better ommu nity. Can car company work in harmony with a commun t y? W hy not? To u s, it ’s a ll par t of the big pictu e. armony w h communit ? not? it’s art pic ture
Pictured: Antoni Spagnoli Pictured: An io Spa noli & Janai Grayson, Toyot Team Members anai rayson, T yota eam Members Toyota High ander uilt n Princeton, ndiana* Toyota H ghland r,built in Princeton, Indiana*

CONTENTS DEParTmENTS ■
6 8 12 14 FromtheEditor Letters 50,100&150YearsAgo NewsScan
EnErgy & EnvironmEnt
■

18 12

How much atmospheric carbon dioxide is safe?

mEdicinE & HEaltH
■ ■

AIDS vaccine: mixed result, possible future. Fetal cells return as a Parkinson’s cure.

26

tEcHnology
■ ■ ■

Using light and genes to probe the brain. U.S.slow in adopting helpful hearing induction loops. New quantum algorithm does algebra in a snap.

rEsEarcH & discovEry
■ ■

Voted for McCain? Your testosterone dipped. Earth-like planets may be made of carbon.

28

Perspectives
By the Editors
Is nanotechnology hazardous? No one can say. Can the EPA come to the rescue?

40

CriticalMass

By Lawrence M. Krauss
As long as...