The Gasification of Coal
This formerly widespread technology, which lost its markets to natural gas and petroleum, is now being reexamined. New methods promise an alternative source of fossil-fuel energy.
Features
A Dynamic Model of Cell Membranes
The envelopes that surround entire cells, cell nuclei and the various cell organelles are thin assemblies of lipid and protein molecules. Their functions depend on how the membrane proteins are linked...
The Neural Basis of Visually Guided Behavior
Techniques from ethology and neurophysiology are combined to show how an animal localizes a visual object, discriminates its significance and then makes the appropriate motor response...
The Chemistry of the Solar System
The sun, the planets and other bodies in the system formed out of a cloud of dust and gas. What processes in the cloud could account for the present composition of these objects?
Inorganic Polymers
Most commercial polymers are long-chain molecules with carbon atoms in their backbone. New families of polymers with backbones of atoms other than carbon are yielding materials with unusual characteristics...
Vortexes in Aircraft Wakes
The advent of the "jumbo" jets has turned the well-known aerodynamic phenomenon of trailing-vortex air turbulence into a potentially serious hazard to smaller following aircraft
The Cry of the Human Infant
The sound spectrograph reveals the clear-cut differences between the crying of normal infants and the crying of abnormal ones. Such analysis may be useful in the early detection of infant disorders...
Ferdinand Braun and the Cathode Ray Tube
The indicator tube developed by "Braun" in the 1890's leasured electrical quantities by the deflection of an electron beam. It was an ancestor of the oscilloscope and television picture tube...
Departments
50 and 100 Years Ago, March 1974
Science and the Citizen, March 1974
- Letters
Letters to the Editors, March 1974
- Recommended
Books, March 1974
- Mathematical Recreation
Mathematical Games, March 1974
- Amateur Scientist
The Amateur Scientist, March 1974
- Departments
The Authors, March 1974
Bibliography, March 1974
