The National Science Foundation Takes Stock
Some $16 million in funds over three years and a mass of new statistics showing the need for more sum up the short, spartan history of the first U. S. agency for basic science
Volume 190, Issue 3
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Features
The Life Cycle of a Virus
What happens in the time between the infection of a cell and the appearance of new viruses? The behavior of bacteriophages suggests that this stage involves a new concept: the provirus
The Epidemiology of Mental Disease
The methods of investigating infectious disease in populations have recently been turned to the question of whether one group has a pattern of mental illness differing from that of another
Modern Cosmology
Its theories utilize evidence from such things as the decay of atoms, the metabolism of stars and the flight of galaxies to describe the structure of the Universe in space and time
The Peru Current
Although it flows through tropical waters, this oceanic stream is cool and rich in life. Sometimes it vanishes, a curious phenomenon investigated by a recent expedition
Muscle as a Machine
The contractile tissue converts chemical into mechanical energy with remarkable efficiency. The authors study this significant process by making gels with similar properties
Bird Sonar
How the great Humboldt, by describing the melancholy shriek of strange nocturnal birds called guacharos, brought a modern naturalist to a cavern in Venezuela to study their navigation
The Klystron
Long overshadowed by the famous magnetron, this ingenious radio tube has now come into its own as a broadly useful means of generating, receiving and amplifying microwaves