The Perception of Pain
Pain is not a fixed response to a hurtful stimulus. Its perception is modified by our past experiences, our expectations and, more subtly, by our culture
Features
Peculiar Galaxies
Most galaxies are spiral, spherical or ellipsoidal aggregations of stars, but some have irregular configurations. These unusual objects may very well be galaxies in an early stage of evolution...
Blood Platelets
These minute disks of protoplasm circulate in the bloodstream along with red and white cells. When a blood vessel is broken, platelets plug the break. They also play a key role in the formation of clots...
The Chemical Structure of Proteins
The atom-by-atom structural formulas of three proteins have now been worked out. This knowledge should help in understanding how the structures of proteins are related to their biological activity...
Experimental Geology
An account of Soviet work on the use of scale models to visualize tectonic processes. Because rigidity must be scaled down with time and space, rocks are represented by such materials as clay and syrup...
Cilia
In a wide variety of organisms from both the plant and animal kingdoms these tiny hairlike projections have the same basic structural plan: two long filaments surrounded by nine others
The Celestial Palace of Tycho Brahe
In the late 16th century a Danish nobleman built on the island of Hven the most ambitious astronomical observatory the world had yet seen. Its precise instruments created modern astronomy...
The Teredo
Otherwise known as the shipworm, this distant relative of the clam destroys submerged wood by honeycombing it with burrows. Its way of life is predicated on its unusual ability to digest cellulose...
Departments
50 and 100 Years Ago: February 1961
Science and the Citizen: February 1961
- Letters
Letters to the Editors, February 1961
- Recommended
Books
- Mathematical Recreation
Mathematical Games
- Amateur Scientist
The Amateur Scientist
- Departments
The Authors
Bibliography
