Scientific American Magazine

The U. S. government is relying on ambitious research projects to spur commercial competitiveness. Instead it should speed the commercialization of new technologies wherever they may be developed

Just how this spindle-shaped biological machine parcels the DNA of a dividing cell into two equal clusters is only now becoming clear. The spindle turns out to be as dynamic as it is accurate

The world's first linear collider is up and running. Stanford's "Z° factory" allows physicists to measure the mass and lifetime of the Z° mediator of the electroweak force with unprecedented precision

The concentration of calcium in a cell has generally been portrayed as a switch turning cellular processes on and off. But the ion's role in prolonged responses belies the traditional model

Measurements of atmospheric carbon monoxide from space have found large amounts of the gas in unexpected places. Tropical burning rivals transportation and industry as a source of carbon monoxide

Vast vegetative mats of the two most noxious aquatic weeds plague the world's waterways. Investigations of the water hyacinth and the kariba weed are leading to new programs for weed control

By examining a surface at very close range with a probe that may be just a single atom across, they can resolve features and properties on a scale that eludes other microscopes

Almost all European languages are members of a single family. The author contends that they spread not by conquest, as has been thought, but along with the peaceful diffusion of agriculture