Scientific American Magazine Vol 243 Issue 2

Scientific American Magazine

Volume 243, Issue 2

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Features

The Changing Demography of the Central City

Since World War II the suburbs and exurbs of most U.S. cities have grown faster than the cities themselves. Today the decline of population in the central cities is not relative but absolute

George Sternlieb, James W. Hughes

The Surface of Venus

Shrouded by clouds, it has now been mapped by radar from the earth and from a spacecraft in orbit around Venus. The images suggest a geology intermediate between that of the earth and that of Mars

Gordon H. Pettengill, Donald B. Campbell, Harold Masursky

Microtubules

They are structural organelles that are found in all nucleated cells. Assembled like scaffolding ftom protein subunits, they participate in cell division, cell movement and the maintenance of cell shape

Pierre Dustin

The Placenta

This remarkable organ is the intermediary between two different individuals: the fetus and the mother. After delivery it can also serve as an "experimental animal" for a wide variety of studies

Peter Beaconsfield, George Birdwood, Rebecca Beaconsfield

The Isolated Electron

From a single electron trapped in an artificial atom of macroscopic size a property of the electron called the g factor can be measured with unexcelled accuracy

David Wineland, Philip Ekstrom

The Antecedents of Civilization in the Indus Valley

One of the three earliest civilizations was that of the Indus. Excavations at Mehrgarh in Pakistan have uncovered farming settlements that flourished in the region 3,000 years earlier

Jean-François Jarrige, Richard H. Meadow

Disk-Storage Technology

On the surface of a spinning disk the data for a computer are stored as minute magnetic regions. In devices being developed the data will be "written" and "read" by a laser

Robert M. White

Newton's Apple and Galileo's Dialogue

Newton did see the apple fall, but what was it that inspired him to link the apple's descent to the moon in orbit and arrive at the law of universal gravitation? It may have been a diagram in the "Dialogue"

Stillman Drake

Departments

Letters to the Editors, August 1980

50 and 100 Years Ago, August 1980

The Authors, August 1980

Mathematical Games, August 1980

Books, August 1980

Science and the Citizen, August 1980

The Amateur Scientist, August 1980

Bibliography, August 1980