Scientific American Magazine Vol 156 Issue 4

Scientific American Magazine

Volume 156, Issue 4

You are currently logged out. Please sign in to download the issue PDF.

Features

Immunity for the Witness

Immunology, a Science which Often Goes to Law, Identifying Blood Stains, Animal or Human, What the Bio-chemist Does in the Laboratory

Clennie E. Bailey

The Battleship Returns

Theoretically Obsolete a Few Years Ago, the Big Fellow is Back, All Powers are Building Battleships, New French Dunkerque Set the Pace

Walton L. Robinson

The Population of Interstellar Space

There is Evidence that Galactic Space Contains Extremely Tenuous Material--Scattered Atoms of Gas--and is not Wholly Empty, Its Source?

Henry Norris Russell

More Efficient Locomotives

Steam Locomotive Still Supreme . . . Fewer in Service . . . More Power . . . Greater Efficiency . . . Engineering Improvements . . . Newer Rail Power Units

Edward C. Schmidt

Unscientific Measurement In Athletics

Are Famous Track Records Inaccurate? . . . Effects of the Earth's Gravity and Rotation . . . Even the Latitude Has Effects That Alter the Records

Paul H. Kirkpatrick

Improved Shore Defenses

Permeable Jetties . . . Better Than Solid Ones . . . Trip Waves Without Stopping Them . . . When Water is Slowed Up, it Deposits Sand, Builds Beaches

R. G. Skerrett

Polygamous Molybdenum

Versatile Moly . . . Industrial Newcomer . . . Important for Alloying . . . Improves Physical Properties . . . Catalyst . . . Unusual Potentialities

Philip H. Smith

What Is Life?

The Greatest Puzzle of All Science Seems Today to Be Nearing a Solution . . . Yet, As it Breaks Up, its Parts in Turn Form Newer, Baffling Puzzles

T. Swann Harding

Snake Dance Secret Bared

Why Venomous Snakes Cannot Injure the Hopi Indian Priests . . . Explanation Is Simple

What Is Personality?

P. F. Valentine

Weather Data By Radio from Captive Balloons

Our Weather Influenced by the Stratosphere . . . Radio Transmitters Anchored at High Altitudes to Send Out Thermometer and Barometer Readings

Departments

50 Years Ago in Scientific American, April 1937

Rigging Out The Starboard Gangway

Our Point of View, April 1937

Smoke Out Thieves, Skin Writing and more

Current Bulletin Briefs, April 1937

Books Selected by the Editors, April 1937

Design for Dying, Sky High and more