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Worlds Beyond the Sun
What once seemed heretical is now
known: there are planets out there, beyond our tiny solar
system. Could there also be life? And if so . . . how do we find
it? While NASA works on a telescope strong enough to see distant
bodies directly, astronomer Darren Williams is busy pinpointing
the likeliest places to look.
COVER STORY
Keepers of the Seeds
For the Quechua of Peru, the link
between people and plants is as ancient as the Incan Empire.
Along with the potato, oca, ulluco, and mashua,
the so-called "Andean minor tubers," once fed a
civilization of 12 million. But pressures to modernize are
changing the face of agriculture in the Andean highlands.
Sociologist Mariela Bianco joined an international team working
to preserve the diversity of the culture -- and the crop.
Pigs in Paradise
In the New Hebrides, 500 miles
west of Fiji, intersex pigs once stood at the very apex of a
culture: James Michener mentions their sacred tusks in his Tales
of the South Pacific. Today the same islands are independent
Vanuatu, where endocrinologist Douglas Greger has searched out
these unusual animals for their value to science.
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