Scientific American Magazine Vol 249 Issue 4

Scientific American Magazine

Volume 249, Issue 4

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Features

Labor-Intensive Agriculture

The $18-billion U.S. fruit and vegetable industry is increasingly reliant on illegal-immigrant labor. By postponing mechanization it is becoming vulnerable to cheaper produce from other countries

Philip L. Martin

The Engineering of Magnetic Fusion Reactors

Design projects under way and experimental reactors now being built will test the practicality of schemes for generating power from the thermonuclear fusion of ions trapped by magnetic fields

Robert W. Conn

The Large-Scale Structure of the Universe

Across blllions of light-years space is a honeycomb of galactic superclusters and huge voids. The structure may result from perturbations in the density of matter early in the big bang

Joseph Silk, Alexander S. Szalay, Yakov B. Zel'dovich

The Processing of RNA

DNA is transcribed into messenger RNA, which is then translated into protein. In cells that have a nucleus, including human cells, a lot happens to the RNA between transcription and translation

James E. Darnell Jr.

The Dead Sea

Five years ago the world's most hypersaline lake "turned over" dissipating a dense body of fossil brine that had been isolated from any contact with the atmosphere by fresher water above it

Joel R. Gat, Ilana Steinhorn

Six Millenniums of Buffalo Kills

At a site in western Canada named Head-Smashed-In, Indian hunters slaughtered buffalo by stampeding the herd over a cliff. They started in 3700 B. C. and continued until well after the white men had come

B. O. K. Reeves

The Extinction of the Ammonites

Changes in the shells of these nautliuslike marine animals at the end of their long history suggest they were fighting a losing battle against more mobIle, shell-crushing predators

Peter Ward

Bilateral Negotiations and the Arms Race

A historical review of the negotiating positions of the U.S and the U.S.S.R. in several major arms-control talks suggests that each side has special problems in dealing with the other

Herbert F. York

Departments

Letters to the Editors, October 1983

50 and 100 Years Ago: October 1983

The Authors, October 1983

Computer Recreations, October 1983

Books, October 1983

Science and the Citizen, October 1983

The Amateur Scientist, October 1983

Bibliography, October 1983