The Nerve Channel What really happens when nerve cells communicate? Jody Mesaros built an apparatus to find out - one cell at a time. The Stories We Must Tell To whom shall I tell my sorrow? Recovery from trauma requires, among other things, the sharing of what Ray Simmers-Wolpow calls "acts of literacy": the reading and telling of stories. Teaching a Computer to Read Communicating with machines in human, or natural, language has been a dream of computer programmers and science-fiction buffs since the late 1940s. Dan Heinze and Soundar Kumara may be a step closer with their Computational Cognitive Linguistics. Messengers from the Mantle Chuma Mbalu-Keswa's kimberlites, rescued from a Pennsylvania coal mine, may not look like much at first. But These unusual rocks provide a window into Earth's interior. From the Editor: Graduate Interests Outlook: "English" Lit Encyclopedia:       Insect Immunity       Do the Bug Walk       Your Brain On Drugs       AC-CEN-TU-ATE the Negative?       Acid Frogs       American Modern       Earth Waves       Roots Biotech       Cold-Cracked Eggs       Pseudorabies in PA Pigs Notebook: Bugman's Progress

COVER PHOTO The face of a flame, as computed by chemical engineering students Ajit Dandekar and Mark Ulitsky. Says Dandekar, "Computer-generated flame surfaces can be used to improve our understanding of how turbulence enhances the mean rate of combustion in an internal combustion engine."