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This story is a supplement to the feature “Using Causality to Solve the Puzzle of Quantum Spacetime” which was printed in the July 2008 issue of Scientific American. Taking the Average Spacetime can take on a huge number of possible shapes. According to quantum theory, the shape we are most likely to observe is a superposition, or weighted average, of all these possibilities. When constructing shapes from triangles, theorists weight each shape depending on how exactly they glue together triangles to form it....

Part 3 of a 4-part series. GILGIT AND KOHISTAN DISTRICT, Pakistan – “They’ve been very grateful, from my experience.” Army Sgt. Jesus Ramos quickly dismisses concerns back home that he and other U.S. forces participating in flood relief operations in Pakistan are facing hostility in what is frequently depicted as an anti-American nation. “When we’re downloading, they come up to you, shake your hand, smiles on their faces,” he explains while resting before another full day of relief flights to the rugged north....

The U. S. Food and Drug Administration launched its first nationwide anti-tobacco campaign targeting youth in February. The “Real Cost” campaign targets the estimated 10 million 12- to 17-year-olds “who are open to trying cigarettes or who are already experimenting with them,” according to the FDA. But many public health advocates say it is “too little, too late” to address the popularity of highly addictive mentholated cigarettes among African-American youth. Some municipalities are taking matters into their own hands....

Students in classrooms with windows that open out to nature in all its glory may perform better on tests. This is not fully established science, but Heather Tallis, an ecologist at the Nature Conservancy, is testing the idea in California and other states. She is using satellite data to image the sweeping California landscapes—mountains to deserts to inner cities—in the backyards of randomly chosen schools. And she is correlating the presence of nature to standardized test results....

Singer Amy Winehouse’s fame and infamy have now been forever linked to one word: rehab. She is only one of many recent high-profile cases in which attempts at rehabilitation from substance abuse failed. Amidst strange public outbursts earlier this year, actor Charlie Sheen asserted that it was not rehab, but rather he, himself, that had been his secret weapon against abusing cocaine and booze. And celebrities are not the only ones with untreated substance abuse problems....

GENEVA (Reuters) - The death toll from the Ebola outbreak in West Africa’s three hardest-hit countries of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone has risen to 5,147 out of 14,068 cases at the end of Nov. 9, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday. A further 13 deaths and 30 cases have been recorded in five other countries - Nigeria and Senegal, which have stamped out the virus, as well as Mali, Spain and the United States, it said....

The Ebola virus outbreak entrenched in west Africa has become a real risk to the stability and security of society in the region, the top U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official said today after returning yesterday from a visit there. Failure to tamp down Ebola’s spread is stressing the infrastructure of countries stricken with the disease that must still continue to provide basic health and security services and promote routine commercial activity....

When mathematicians describe equations as beautiful, they are not lying. Brain scans show that their minds respond to beautiful equations in the same way other people respond to great paintings or masterful music. The finding could bring neuroscientists closer to understanding the neural basis of beauty, a concept that is surprisingly hard to define. In the study, researchers led by Semir Zeki of University College London asked 16 mathematicians to rate 60 equations on a scale ranging from “ugly” to “beautiful....

By Julia Fioretti BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission proposed on Friday an overall cut in quotas for deep sea fishing in the northeast Atlantic for the next two years, but environmental groups said it should have reduced some catch limits to zero to allow stocks to recover. In its proposal, to be discussed by member states in November, the Commission suggested increasing total allowable catches for four species, decreasing them for nine stocks and leaving them unchanged for five fish stocks, compared to 2014....

By zapping tiny water droplets with x-ray laser pulses, scientists have gotten their first glimpse into the behavior of supercooled water in a hard-to-reach “no man’s land” of temperatures below –41 degrees C. Understanding water below its normal freezing point of 0 degrees C has been a challenge because it must be handled with extreme care to keep it in liquid form. The resulting insights may help settle a debate among physicists over water’s fundamental properties, including whether it can take on a fourth state beyond the standard three of solid, liquid and gas....

Forget banking and the automotive industry. Earth is the one system that is truly “too big to fail.” For centuries humans have used up the planet’s resources, saddled it with our waste and simply moved on when a wellspring dried up or the back forty became polluted. But now we’ve exhausted that strategy. Scientists, social thinkers and the global public are realizing that humankind has transformed the natural planet into an industrialized one, and we must transition again to a sustainable planet if we are to survive....

Key concepts Physics Weather Air Atmospheric pressure Introduction Have you ever watched a weather forecast on TV? If so, you might have noticed the letters “H” and “L” moving around on the weather map. They are often referred to as zones of “high pressure” (H) and “low pressure” (L). The pressure they are talking about is the atmospheric pressure. Changes in air pressure can forecast short-term changes in the weather. But how do you know if the air pressure changes—or if it is high or low?...

NEW YORK – Japanese automaker Nissan will replace Ford as supplier of New York City’s iconic yellow taxicabs as this city abandons its earlier goal of having an all-hybrid cab fleet, after being twice thwarted by federal courts. But the deal with Nissan will allow the city to launch a pilot test next year to determine whether having all cabs as electric vehicles at some point in the future is an option it could pursue instead....

BATTER UP Your Brain on Cubs: Inside the Heads of Players and Fans Edited by Dan Gordon. Dana Press, 2008 ($19.95) This slim volume on the neuroscience of our national pastime, with different experts penning various chapters, offers an experience much like a good day at the ballpark: perhaps slow in a couple of spots but predictably satisfying in others and ultimately marked by improbable pleasures that come to define the whole experience....

On a summer day in 2013, psychologist Steven Kurtz is preparing one of his clients, Maria, for a therapy session. A calm, cheerful woman with long, dark hair, Maria has been in training at the Child Mind Institute in New York City with her six-year-old son, Ryan (not his real name), for months to ready him for this day. Her goal seems simple: to coax Ryan to obey a simple command....

Key concepts Biology Zoology Nutrients Plants Introduction Have you ever dug a hole in the soil and noticed earthworms wriggling out of your way? Not only are earthworms good for birds and fish to eat, but these little animals actually work hard to help put food on your table, too. By adding nutrients to the soil they live in, earthworms are continually working to keep soil healthy so that most plants can grow well in it....

The African island of Madagascar, situated some 430 kilometers off the coast of Mozambique, is famous for its unique fauna, particularly its charismatic primates, the lemurs. But how the lemurs and other land mammals got there has proved an enduring mystery. To that end, new evidence supports a theory that some experts once considered unlikely: namely, that the forerunners of Madagascar’s modern mammals reached the island millions of years ago by drifting from the African mainland across the Mozambique Channel on giant rafts of vegetation ripped from the shore and launched out to sea by violent storms....

Electronics companies sometimes seem like a pack of overcaffeinated lemmings. They all bolt as a herd, en masse, without realizing that nobody is leading them. That’s why the industry keeps spending so many billions on tech products that nobody buys. We were supposed to want to surf the Web on our TV sets. We were supposed to want our refrigerators connected to the Internet. Apparently “if you build it, they will come” doesn’t always apply to gadgets....

The ongoing disruption of the earth’s climate by man-made greenhouse gases is already well beyond dangerous and is careening toward completely unmanageable. Under midrange projections for economic growth and technological change, the planet’s average surface temperature in 2050 will be about two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) higher than its preindustrial value. The last time the earth was that warm was 130,000 years ago, and sea level was four to six meters higher than today....

NEW YORK CITY—Here is how climate change could shut down a city: On the morning of August 8, 2007, a thunderstorm paralyzed the largest rail transit system in the U.S.—New York City’s subway—during morning rush hour. Flash floods deposited more than 7,000 kilograms of dirt and debris on tracks that stretch more than 1,350 kilometers and carry 1.5 billion passengers annually. A December 1992 storm had a similar impact, including flooding portions of Lower Manhattan and the East River Drive....