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The article reports on the progress of the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study conducted by physician and economist Doctor Christopher Murray and his team at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington in Seattle. Topics discussed include the development of a comprehensive macroscope and efforts to rank the comparative performance of health care systems around the world. Philanthropic support is mentioned.

BACK TO NATURE: If all human beings vanished, Manhattan would eventually revert to a forested island. Many skyscrapers would topple within decades, undermined by waterlogged foundations; stone buildings such as St. Patrick’s Cathedral (at right in artist’s rendering) would survive longer. Weeds and colonizing trees would take root in the cracked pavement, while raptors nested in the ruins and foxes roamed the streets. ENVIRONMENT

F or more than two decades, researchers have presented evidence for biological mechanisms underlying male homosexuality. Simon LeVay of the Institute of Gay and Lesbian Education and Dean H. Hamer of the National Institutes of Health summarize their work in the first of the following two articles. William Byne of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine argues that current data lack substance. LeVay, Hamer and Byne join distinguished company. Almost 2,400 years ago Plato told in his Symposium how humanity once consisted of three sexes rather than two: its members were joined in pairs consisting of two men, two women, or a man and a woman. Zeus cut each pair apart to diminish their power and to teach them to fear the gods. Humans thus spend their time on the earth searching for their other half, with whom they can merge in love. The disposition of these people differed, Plato wrote, according to original pairing: those whose sex had once been mixed were obsessed by coupling and often became adulterers, whereas people sprung from single-sex pairs were more fitted for the everyday business of the world. In particular, men whose bond was with another man were most suited for government and leadership. This story is perhaps the earliest “biological” explanation of sexual orientation; it also demonstrates how attitudes toward homosexual behavior vary from culture to culture. Plato’s myth furnishes the theme and text for the photographs by Joyce Tenneson that accompany the two articles.

The article discusses the survival of human ancestors after facing possible extinction due to adverse climate conditions. The article describes the Earth's glacial stage known as Marine Isotope Stage 6 (MIS6) that rendered vast areas of land uninhabitable and left a human population that numbered only in the hundreds. The southern coast of Africa is said to have provided a haven for mankind's survival, owing to the ambient temperature of the region and year-round access to shellfish and edible plants. Archaeological research in the area has yielded items thought to be from humans that survived MIS6.

The article examines how continued excuses for the nuclear aggression of some countries, such as Iran, make the world an unsafe place. An overview of a meeting hosted by the “Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists” on January 13-14, 2010 is presented. The author discusses why he feels that ridding the world of nuclear weapons is the most important issue regarding the long- and short-term health and security of humanity.

Discusses humanity in the twenty-first century and how our actions will affect the future. Analysis of demographic, economical and environmental factors and their importance in transforming everything; Assertion that the population is growing at a slow rate; Thoughts on carbon dioxide emissions; Way that the world's myriad problems can be put into perspective by looking at the present era in historical context; Action plan for the 21st century. INSET: ACTION PLAN FOR THE 21ST CENTURY.

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on the human evolution including "One for All" by Frans de Waal and "Still Evolving (After All These Years)" by John Hawks.

In this article the author discusses aspects of human space exploration. He notes several pioneering events in space exploration history, such as the first man ever to travel into space, Yuri Gagarin, and the possibilities of space travel that each event promised. He questions what happened to humanity's dream of unlimited manned space travel, the economic aspects of human space travel, and finding creative ways that continue to inspire space exploration during tough economic times.

This study examines the global phenomenon of demographic aging. "For the first time in the history of humanity our species as a whole is growing older. Toward the middle of the next century the population will stabilize near the practical limit of human longevity. Instead of focusing only on explosive growth as in the past policymakers must also rethink many social and economic institutions so that they will address the needs of an older population." (EXCERPT)

Humanity is a favorite theme of poet and philosopher, novelist and historian, dramatist and moralist. The changes rung on the theme run the entire gamut of human feeling and thinking; its burden is caught in song and story and crystallized in books; and no sweeter strains have ever been sung, no grander scenes enacted, no nobler lines penned, than those fertilized by the touch of human (and solely human) nature that makes the whole world kin.