Scientific American Magazine

It is now clear that smog is not only annoying but also injurious to health. Los Angeles is a leading example of a city that has analyzed the sources of its smog and taken steps to bring them under control

One of a pair of small galaxies visible only in the Southern Hemisphere, it is so near our own galaxy that it is a unique laboratory for the study of the birth and evolution of stars

This broad nerve cable and lesser bridges connect the two halves of the mammalian brain. If the connections are cut, the organism functions quite well but behaves much as though it had two brains

This small body within the living cell is the site of the chemical events that supply energy to the cell. The molecular architecture that underlies this function has recently been revealed in detail

This blinding eye disease afflicts nearly 500 million people in poorer parts of the world. Its virus-like agent was found only six years ago; today a practical vaccine is being sought

Although first identified as an element more than 150 years ago, boron has only recently come to be appreciated for its many useful properties, Several of its prospective applications are outlined

Fifty years before James Watt came on the scene Thomas Newcomen built practical steam engines to pump water out of mines. What is known of these engines and how did they influence later ones?

A needle-shaped cold cathode in an electric field can emit a beam of electrons. The large current density and high power available from a small field emitter hare many applications in electronics