Scientific American Magazine

In December 119 nations signed the Convention on the Law of the Sea. The U.s. was not among them, but development programs under the new law will nonetheless be proceeding

In most modern computers the routing of information is controlled at the lowest level by a microprogram: a set of stored instructions that functions in place of a completely "hard-wired" control system

One of the four earliest civilizations has a script that has long resisted decipherment. A start on deciphering it is now made on the basis of facts and inferences from the archaeological record

The cell's energy-generating organelle has its own genetic system. The organization of its genes and even its version of the "universal" genetic code are different from those of the nucleus and bacteria

A forecast for the expanding universe through the year 10¹⁰⁰: All protons will decay, galaxies will form black holes and black holes will "evaporate." If the universe collapses, it may cycle

Birds that hide seeds and later recover them appear to excel in spatial memory. One species evidently remembers where it has put thousands of caches for as long as several months

Once thought to violate natural law, reactions where concentrations of key substances periodically rise and fall have now been designed dehberately. They may illuminate simllar behavior in living systems

Postmortem examination contributes in many ways to medical knowledge and the planning of health care. Yet in recent years the rate of autopsy in the U.S. has declined to only 15 percent