COVER STORY
Lost City By Jack McClintock
For 30 years, archaeologist Mark Lehner has labored to answer a perplexing question: Where did the 20,000 people who built Egypt's pyramids live? Now he believes he has unearthed a palace that anchored their city in 2500 B.C.

FEATURES
Rat Dreams By Bruce McCall
Recent research suggests that rats replay the mundane events of their daily lives in surprising detail while they are asleep, confirming they have much more in common with humans than we'd like to admit. What's next? Rodent therapists?

Kosmos Text by Svetlana Boym
Once the Soviet space program seemed a bright symbol of a nation's future. Now that technology looks terribly retro. A photographic essay by Adam Bartos of a secret world in a state of decline.

Flesh-eating Plants By Eric Hansen
An intrepid pair of flora hunters venture deep into the jungles of Borneo in search of Nepenthes campanulata, the world's rarest carnivorous pitcher plant, and encounter strange diving ants en route.

The Future of Wireless
Technological visionaries offer a glimpse of a world with phone-free and lightning-fast Internet access, wireless appliances that schedule their own service calls, and clothes that can instruct your washing machine how to wash them.

One of Our Planets is Missing By Kathy A. Svitil
Maybe astronomers are just chasing shadows. Or maybe they're on the trail of something really big and powerful, a planet 10 times heavier than Jupiter that keeps flinging comets our way.

DEPARTMENTS

Letters

R&D
BREAKING NEWS: Public schools get a lift from acoustic research; race-car drivers don intelligent vests; engineers finally find a good use for airplane food; doctors give Abraham Lincoln a belated diagnosis; a satellite shows where global warming begins; a computer model explains why shower curtains billow; and more.

Future Tech By Charles Platt
If your heart stops, a breathable liquid could save your brain — and your life.

Vital Signs By Claire Panosian Dunavan
Fiery blotches covered the girl's body and baffled the admitting physician.

Works in Progress By Karen Wright
Forget about dinosaurs. An earlier extinction is even more mysterious.

The Biology of . . . Schizophrenia By Josie Glausiusz
Scientists have long puzzled over the origins of schizophrenia. Evidence now suggests one culprit is mutant sperm.

Sky Lights By Bob Berman
Black holes are full of bizzare surprises. They spin, they blow bubbles — and by the way, they really don't exist.

Reviews
Museums: A display of rare maps traces our scientific awakening.
Toys: Assemble your own dinosaur in the comfort of your home.
Books: A lavish deconstruction of the dreams and realities of space exploration.

Bogglers By Scott Kim
It's just a numbers game.

NeuroQuest By Eric Haseltine
Is your brain showing its age?