Scientific American Magazine

Many of the homeless people wandering the streets of American cities and crowding into emergency shelters are mentally ill. They require adequate housing and appropriate psychiatric care

New techniques for exploring the ocean floor are yielding a remarkably detailed picture of the volcanic processes responsible for generating the bulk of the earth's crust

The idea is to link a toxic agent to a monoclonal antibody binding to a particular tumor antigen, thus fashioning a "magic bullet" that will destroy targeted cancer cells but leave normal cells unharmed

Some fishes are specialized for cruising, accelerating or maneuvering, but most are generalists with a combination of locomotor qualities. Recent work correlates each fish's form with its habit of swimming

Satellite observations have revealed that certain celestial objects with a peculiar spectrum consist of a red-giant star surrounded by a small dense nebula heated by a compact hot companion star

The advantages of computerized typing and editing are now being extended to all the living languages of the world. Even a complex script such as Japanese or Arabic can be processed

Topological study of these higher-dimensional analogues of a surface suggests the universe may be as convoluted as a tangled loop of string. It now appears most of the manifolds can be analyzed geometrically

The revolution is generally dated to the arrival of steam power in the 18th and 19th centuries. It is now clear that long before then a significant role was played by water-powered machines