Scientific American Magazine

An interview with Robert E. Marshak and Robert R. Wilson, two of the U. S. physicists who were invited to attend the recent meetings in Moscow and to visit Russian physical laboratories

Many theories have been proposed to account for these rugged features of the earth's crust. It now seems that they are cut by streams of turbid water which flow along the ocean bottom

If a man sees six marbles, he can usually name their number without counting. With more marbles, he often makes mistakes. This indicates a limitation of perception that is overcome by resourceful stratagems

Where did the romantic inhabitants of these Pacific islands come from? The answer to the question begins to emerge from variations in their tools, their physique and, most important, their language

The orderly atomic arrangement characteristic of metals and other crystals determines many of their properties. Energetic radiation disturbs the order and thus can drastically alter the properties

Why has the hereditary trait in which the red blood cells are sickle-shaped persisted for so many generations? The surprising answer is that under some conditions it is actually beneficial

For almost a century entomology has sought to control harmful insects with their own infectious diseases. This dream is now being realized, notably in the artificial infection of a caterpillar that eats alfalfa leaves

Nothing in the laws of physics prevents time from running backward as well as forward, in microscopic events. But the law of averages is against it in the macroscopic world