Scientific American Magazine Vol 203 Issue 5

Scientific American Magazine

Volume 203, Issue 5

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Features

The Polyoma Virus

This recently discovered organism causes a variety of malignant tumors in laboratory animals. Studies of its action lend weight to the idea that viruses may be responsible for human cancers

Sarah E. Stewart

Fiber Optics

If light is directed into one end of a glass fiber, it will emerge at the other end. Bundles of such fibers can be used to conduct images over a tortuous path and to transform them in various ways

Narinder S. Kapany

Patterns of Dreaming

Dreams are accompanied by certain characteristic types of brain wave and eye movement. This discovery has enabled investigators to answer several of the long-standing questions about dreaming

Nathaniel Kleitman

The Role of Light in Photosynthesis

The primary photosynthetic act, it now appears, is not to make carbohydrates from carbon dioxide, but to convert light energy into chemical energy, which the cell then uses in various ways

Daniel I. Arnon

Wildlife Husbandry in Africa

It is often assumed that vast areas of Africa can be farmed whenever man chooses. There is reason to believe, however, that the best use to which most of this land can be put is to crop its native animals

F. Fraser Darling

Superfluidity and "Quasi-Particles"

The curious properties of liquid helium are explained by regarding it as a gas of hypothetical particles in a similarly hypothetical background fluid. Recent experiments strikingly confirm the model

F. Reif

The Treasure of St. Ninian's

On this tiny island in the Shetland group archeologists recently discovered a hoard of silver objects. The discovery reveals that Christians inhabited the island before the end of the eighth century

R. L. S. Bruce-Mitford

The Age of the Elements in the Solar System

Studies of the inert gases found in meteorites have confirmed estimates that the earth is 4.6 billion years old and provide evidence that the elements in the solar system, are not much older

John H. Reynolds

Departments

Letters to the Editors, November 1960

50 and 100 Years Ago: November 1960

The Authors

Science and the Citizen: November 1960

Mathematical Games

The Amateur Scientist

Books

Bibliography