Scientific American Magazine

Requirements for cleaner and more efficient engines have stimulated a search for alternatives to the conventional spark-ignition engine. So far the defects of the alternative engines are clearer than the virtues

The development of the intricate network of nerve cells that makes up the nervous system requires each cell to "choose" a transmitter substance appropriate to its specific connections with other cells

A small number of fast particles from space are more energetic than the particles produced by the largest man-made accelerators. They are revealed by the showers of other particles they create in the air

An unusual aspect of the earth is revealed in pictures recorded at midnight by U.S. Air Force weather satellites. The brightest lights on the dark side of the planet are giant waste-gas flares

A bee is able to learn quickly and to remember for long periods the color and the odor of flowers that yield nectar or pollen. Now the neural basis of this programmed behavior is being elucidated

Thin films of cross-linked polymers can separate molecules according to size, charge or other properties. The synthetic membranes can be applied to such industrial tasks as waste treatment and desalination

New Zealand, where this flightless bird lives today, had no mammals for 80 million years. In filling ecological niches that would have been occupied by the mammals the bird evolved mammalian characteristics

The familiar card game has interested mathematicians, economists and psychologists as a model of decision-making in the real world. It is now serving as a vehicle for investigations in computer science