Scientific American Magazine

They have been generally overestimated. Recalculated yield estimates of Soviet weapon tests indicate that U.S.S.R. compliance with treaty limits has restrained its development of strategic nuclear warheads

The giant blue-green planet visited last January by Voyager 2 has one pole pointing toward the sun, and its magnetic field is askew. Its atmosphere is dense and icy, yet its winds resemble the earth's

Part II of a two-part article on the human retroviruses. In 1984 the cause of AIDS was shown to be the third human retrovirus. Although knowledge of the virus was rapidly obtained, its toll will be heavy

Usually seen as diametric opposites, learning and instinct are partners: the process of learning, in creatures at all levels of mental complexity, is often initiated and controlled by instinct

Electricity can be generated by exploiting the temperature difference between warm surface water and cold bottom water. The technology will be useful when oil supplies become scarce

Growth in nature can produce the sprawling, tenuous patterns called fractals. One kind of fractal growth explains such diverse phenomena as how some solids crystallize and how air bubbles move in fluids

These lipid spheres may offer a novel way to deliver medicines to diseased tissues. Instead of being diluted in the blood, drugs put in the vesicles would reach target sites in concentrated doses

Features of the sheep's coat and the rise of textile crafts in teracted to motivate the thousands of years of selective breeding that led to modern fleece types