Scientific American Magazine

On the Freudian theory people laugh when they momentarily gratify a forbidden impulse. This view is now applied in a psychological test based on the reactions of the subject to a series of humorous cartoons

The hottest and most massive stars often occur in loose associations. If their movements are traced backward, it is found that some of them must have been born since the first mammals appeared on the earth

Both psychologists and farmers utilize the hierarchy formed in flocks of hens or roosters, in which the top-ranking bird pecks all the others and the bottom-ranking bird pecks none

In 1831 this gentle Englishman set forth on his famous voyage in the Beagle. After 28 years he published Origin of Species, which revolutionized man's view of nature and his place in it

What is it about simple melodies that makes them so widely appealing? By considering music as a form of communication such questions can now be discussed in mathematical terms

During the short summer of northern Greenland tiny blossoms emerge from crevices in bare rock. Some of these plants may survive from a time when hardwood forests covered the region

The walls of the blood vessels in the brain regulate the passage of substances which affect its metabolism. Brain disorders tend to make this barrier more permeable. Two red dyes curiously make it less so

The physiological mechanisms which maintain the internal environment of man operate in a limited range of external environment. This range is extended by the use of clothes