Scientific American Magazine

Nuclear weapons and strategic policy attract increasing public concern, but systems for command, control, communications and intelligence may be just as important in deterring nuclear attack and preventing escalation

Hidden from observation, this process can nonetheless be modeled on high-speed computers. Pictures that emerge yield insight into the formation of our own solar system

In perceiving speech human beings detect discrete phonemic categories and ignore much of the acoustic variation in the speech signal. Research with infants suggests the underlying perceptual mechanisms are innate

It brings dementia and slow death to more than 100,000 Americans a year. No one knows its cause or how to stay its inexorable course. Investigators are focusing on six conceptual models of the disease

Ordinarily the nucleus of an atom is rather like a droplet of liquid. High-speed collisions that heat and compress it can give rise to new phases of nuclear matter: a vapor and perhaps a solid and a plasma

Large ones consisting of hundreds of silicon chips are inherently liable to fail unless steps are taken. The steps are mathematical, based not on preventing errors but on correcting them afterward

A swimming squid takes up and expels water by contracting radial and circular muscles in its boneless mantle wall. Elastic collagen springs in the muscle increase the power of the jet

This formidable weapon, invented 2,400 years ago, became popular in the 11 th century. For 500 years, untill the advent of eficient firearms, it was preponderant in defensive situations