Scientific American Magazine

The Japanese economy is now the third largest, and its growth rate approaches 15 percent per year. If present trends continue, Japan will be the world's most affluent nation by the end of the century

A reflector array placed on the moon by its first visitors returns pulses of light emitted by lasers on the earth. The round-trip travel time yields the distance to the moon with an accuracy of six inches

Çayönü Tepesi, a site in a little-studied part of Asia Minor, adds to the growing record of man's agricultural origins. Also revealed there is the earliest evidence of man's use of metal

The sensory and motor functions of the human brain are well localized, but more complex functions such as speech and writing remain obscure. Injuries to the brain provide clues to how such systems are organized

This highly precise and automatic system of navigation, developed originally for military applications and space flight, is now being introduced to commercial aviation

Eggshell is largely crystalline calcium carbonate. The calcium comes partly from the hen's bones, and when necessary the hen can mobilize 10 percent of her bone for this purpose in a day

The term refers to the accumulated mutations in the gene pool of an entire species. Part of the load reduces the viability of the species; the rest may be a priceless genetic resource

Multilayer systems of long-chain fatty-acid molecules and fluorescent dye molecules are used to study the structure of light waves, revealing a close analogy between a radio antenna and a light-emitting molecule