Scientific American Magazine Vol 238 Issue 2

Scientific American Magazine

Volume 238, Issue 2

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Features

Deinstitutionalization and Mental Health Services

The resident population of large mental hospitals has been reduced by two-thirds in 20 years, but chronic patients are being discharged to a lonely existence in hostile communities without adequate care

Ellen L. Bassuk, Samuel Gerson

The Origin of Metal Deposits in the Oceanic Lithosphere

The geochemical processes that give rise to metal-rich minerals are largely localized in mid-ocean ridges: "spreading centers" where new material is added to the plates of the earth's crust

Enrico Bonatti

Computer-controlled Assembly

High-volume products are assembled by people or by special-purpose machines. An experimental programmable robot suggests that robots would be cost-effective for the assembly of products in lower volumes

Daniel E. Whitney, James L. Nevins

Microcircuits in the Nervous System

Nerve circuits are usually analyzed in terms of the axon, the long fiber of the nerve cell. It now appears that there are many circuits involving only the nerve cell's shorter extensions, the dendrites

Gordon M. Shepherd

Carnivorous Plants

The luring, capturing and digesting mechanisms they have evolved to devour insects augment their supply of mineral nutrients and enable them to survive in habitats where few other plants can live

Yolande Heslop-Harrison

The Genetics of Human Cancer

A new experimental approach makes it possible in certain cases to identify the specific human chromosome involved in the transformation of a normal cell into a tumor cell

Carlo M. Croce, Hilary Koprowski

Supergravity and the Unification of the Laws of Physics

In this new theory the gravitational force arises from a symmetry relating particles with vastly different properties. The ultimate result may be a unified theory of all the basic forces in nature

Daniel Z. Freedman, Peter van Nieuwenhuizen

Passive Cooling Systems in Iranian Architecture

They have no energy sources other than the sun and wind, and yet they circulate cool air through buildings and traditionally provided cold water and ice for the hot summer of the country's arid regions

Mehdi N. Bahadori

Departments

Letters to the Editors, February 1978

50 and 100 Years Ago, February 1978

The Authors, February 1978

Mathematical Games, February 1978

Books, February 1978

Science and the Citizen, February 1978

The Amateur Scientist, February 1978

Bibliography, February 1978