April 1997
In This Issue
Robert D. King, “Should English Be the Law?”; Stephen S. Hall, “Vaccinating Against Cancer”; Toby Lester, “Secondhand Music”; Tom Mueller, “Underground Rome”; and much more.
Articles
Should English Be the Law?
Language is tearing apart countries around the world, and the proponents of "Official English" may be ready to add America to the list.
Vaccinating Against Cancer
For more than a century researchers have hoped to enlist the body's immune system in the fight against cancer, but the markers that identify a tumor as alien long eluded them. Now, by a combination of accident and relentless logic, several researchers are closing in on ways to force tumors to show their true colors to the body's immune system.
More Reefer Madness
Marijuana gives rise to insanity -- not in its users but in the policies directed against it. A nation that sentences the possessor of a single joint to life imprisonment without parole but sets a murderer free after perhaps six years is, the author writes, "in the grip of a deep psychosis".
Secondhand Music
The chance harmonies of everyday sounds may mean more than we think.
Citrus Preserved
Marmalade is a work of art that anyone can create—and with more ease than you may think.
How To Rewrite Economic History
The Boskin Commission's attack on the Consumer Price Index is weak on the merits and scary as policy.
This Side of Ultima Thule
A dispatch from eastern Siberia, a realm of steel-shattering cold, nullifying vastness, and withered hopes, which is sometimes called "the white hell."
Small Consolation
On Monday, if no one in the office seemed to be glancing at her guardedly, or whispering just out of her presence, he would hope she felt protected by her new and trusted friend
Underground Rome
A good way to study ancient Rome is to explore the cellars -- and subcellars -- of modern Rome.
Rough-Terrain Unicycling
Riding a unicycle up and down mountains requires the balance of a gymnast and the temperament of a teenager.
A Man From Mars
Fifty years ago John Gunther, a brilliant foreign correspondent, published a famous book about "the greatest, craziest, most dangerous ... most powerful and magnificent nation ever known."
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