Scientific American Magazine Vol 241 Issue 5

Scientific American Magazine

Volume 241, Issue 5

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Features

Land-Based Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles

Accurate multiple-warhead missiles are beginning to make fixed ICBM's appear vulnerable to a surprise attack. The proposed U.s. mobile missile, the MX, is viewed as an inappropriate response to the perceived problem

Bernard T. Feld, Kosta Tsipis

The Causes of Diabetes

There are two major types of diabetes: the maturity-onset form and the juvenile-onset form. Juvenile-onset diabetes appears to develop from a complex interaction between genetic makeup and environment

Abner Louis Notkins

Shape-Memory Alloys

If one of these new alloys has been formed into a shape at a certain temperature and is then deformed at another temperature, it can "remember" the original shape. The effect has many applications

L. McDonald Schetky

The Neutral Theory of Molecular Evolution

It holds that at the molecular level most evolutionary change and most of the variability within a species are caused not by selection but by random drift of mutant genes that are selectively equivalent

Motoo Kimura

Primeval Galaxies

The first galaxies to form after the big bang have not been seen, but there is good reason to believe they could be. The characteristics of older galaxies suggest what those of younger ones would be like

David L. Meier, Rashid A. Sunyaev

The Ecology of the African Dung Beetle

Scarab beetles playa key ecological role in removing the dung left by herds of mammals. Success in the vigorous competition among such beetles depends in part on their body temperature

Bernd Heinrich, George A. Bartholomew

The Quantum Theory and Reality

The doctrine that the world is made up of objects whose existence is independent of human consciousness turns out to be in conflict with quantum mechanics and with facts established by experiment

Bernard d'Espagnat

A Neolithic and Iron Age Site on a Hilltop in Southern England

The Celts encountered by the Romans when they invaded Britain had built enormous fortifications on hilltops. On Crickley Hill such a fort is superposed on enigmatic works preceding the Celts by 2,000 years

P. W. Dixon

Departments

Letters to the Editors, November 1979

50 and 100 Years Ago, November 1979

The Authors, November 1979

Mathematical Games, November 1979

Books, November 1979

Science and the Citizen, November 1979

The Amateur Scientist, November 1979

Bibliography, November 1979