What boys and girls are made of
SUGAR and spice motivated many an explorer, and the voyages of discovery that resulted from European demand for these products were the basis for building powerful empires. Today, the same resources are still stimulating the development of new trading societies--but now those societies are growing inside computers, rather than overseas. And in watching these artificial societies grow, their inventors are starting their own voyage of discovery--one they hope will provide insights into real societies that have thus far been denied to conventional social science.
This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline “What boys and girls are made of”
From the March 8th 1997 edition
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Deforestation is costing Brazilian farmers millions
Without trees to circulate moisture, the land is getting hotter and drier
Robots can learn new actions faster thanks to AI techniques
They could soon show their moves in settings from car factories to care homes
Scientists are learning why ultra-processed foods are bad for you
A mystery is finally being solved
Scientific publishers are producing more papers than ever
Concerns about some of their business models are building
The two types of human laugh
One is caused by tickling; the other by everything else
Scientists are building a catalogue of every type of cell in our bodies
It has thus far shed light on everything from organ formation to the causes of inflammation