Scientific American Magazine

This essential raw material for fertilizer is widely distributed but unevenly mined and consumed. Now its geologic origins are becoming clearer, and more deposits are likely to be discovered

Observations made simultaneously by radio telescopes thousands of miles apart can be combined with the aid of atomic clocks. The resolution of the observations' is the highest ever achieved

Calcium ions are important intracellular messengers. Often their message is relayed by calmodulin, a ubiquitous protein that binds calcium ions and is thereby activated to regulate various enzymes

Structural properties of solids can be predicted by a theory in which electrons act like light beams in a box of partially slivered mirrors. The design of materials from first principles may now be in prospect

Forty years' work has revealed much about how the great Paleolithic paintings of Lascaux Cave were created. It has also focused attention on hundreds of engravings that rival the paintings in their import

Schooling serves to reduce the risk of being eaten. Each fish employs its eyes and lateral lines, which are sensitive to the displacement of water, to match the speed and the direction of all the other fish in the school

The process by which the brain decides that certain objects in the world are significant is studied by recording the activity of nerve cells in the brain of monkeys that are responding to visual stimuli

Science and technology in late 18th-century Britain were transformed by the activities of this provincial band of manufacturers, inventors and natural philosophers, who timed their meetings by the full moon