Scientific American Magazine Vol 201 Issue 5

Scientific American Magazine

Volume 201, Issue 5

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Features

Ultrahigh Pressures

Laboratory apparatus is now capable of maintaining steady pressures of more than two million pounds per square inch. Under such extreme conditions matter exhibits new properties

H. Tracy Hall

The Growth of Nerve Circuits

Recent studies of the process of nerve repair have led to a new theory of how the complex networks and pathways of the central nervous system are formed in the embryo

R. W. Sperry

Poisons

What is the molecular mechanism by which a toxic substance produces its effect? In seeking the answer for various poisons, investigators have found invaluable tools for the study of normal cell physiology

Elijah Adams

The Invention of the Electric Light

It is generally assumed that Thomas Edison's incandescent lamp was the product of inspired tinkering. Actually it was but one element in a much deeper invention: an entire system of electric lighting

Matthew Josephson

The Language of Crows

One group of American eastern crows responds to recorded distress calls of French jackdaws, but another group does not. The more cosmopolitan life of the former may account for this difference

Hubert, Mable Frings

High-Energy Cosmic Rays

Coming from outer space with energies greater than a billion billion electron volts, they provide a clue to the origin of cosmic radiation and suggest a new picture of our galaxy

Bruno Rossi

Insects and Plant Galls

Certain Insects lay their eggs in specific plant tissues, causing the formation of a protuberance that nourishes the insect larva. How does the insect induce the plant to grow this abnormal tissue?

William Hovanitz

The Idea of Man's Antiquity

When Father MacEnery found flint implements in the same stratum with the fossils of extinct animals, he pushed human history far beyond 4004 B.C., the date most people took as man's beginning

Glyn E. Daniel

Departments

Letters to the Editors, November 1959

50 and 100 Years Ago: November 1959

The Authors

Science and the Citizen: November 1959

Mathematical Games

The Amateur Scientist

Books

Bibliography