Analog Science Fiction and Fact, March 2010

I really enjoyed Narrow World, and the fact article about isotopes. This might be my favorite science fact article I've ever read in Analog. The other stories are OK but unremarkable, except Encounter in a Yellow Wood which is nothing but an infodump without any attempt at a story.

• Novella: Of One Mind, by Shane Tourtellotte - Trapped and forced to work on a government mind-readjustment project, Lucinda Peale tries to sabotage the project from the inside.
• Novelette: The Hub of the Matter, by Christopher L. Bennett - A plucky young human decides that he will be the one to discover how the Hub works--but not everybody wants him to succeed.
• Novelette: Narrow World, by Carl Frederick - A college student studying high median ecology gets stranded in the median of superhighway 81X, where he comes face to face with strangely evolved dwarf cats and dwarf rats.
• Short story: Encounter in a Yellow Wood, by Bud Sparhawk - A man argues with his ex girlfriend about cutting down an engineered grove of trees that has been processing a 20th century landfill.
• Short story: Locked In, by Brad Aiken - A corporate tycoon suffers a stroke and loses most of his mobility; his computer-aided voicebox becomes a liability when somebody hacks into it at a board meeting.
• Short story: Dr. Skenner.s Special Animals, by David A. Simons - A kindly vet treats genetically engineered animals (including a dragon) instead of turning them in to be put down like the law requires.
• Short-short: Ten Thousand Monkeys, by Tocho Ligon - Tom Ligon's cat writes a humorous short about the infinite monkeys conjecture.
• Science Fact: Isotopy, by Stephen L. Gillett, Ph.D. - Isotopes of chemical elements are not quite chemically identical, which means that tracking the various ratios of isotopes can help us do things like distinguish fresh rainwater (low H-2 content) from lake water (higher H-2, because it's heavier and thus evaporates slower, leaving more heavy water behind.)