The Ethics of Giving Placebos
Ethical issues are raised when a treatment is prescribed that, unknown to the patient, cannot have any specific effect on his condition. The practice is often deceptive, the author finds, and should be restricted...
Features
Gravitation Theory
The general theory of relativity has many competing successors. For such theories to be viable they have to meet observational and theoretical criteria that are steadily becoming more rigorous...
Computer Control of Electric-Power Systems
After a cautious introduction, computers now play a critical role in ensuring the security and economy of the large networks that distribute electric power
The Development of the Immune System
The highly diversified cells that defend the body against foreign substances derive from a single kind of precursor. Differentiation of the cells is controlled by the environment in which they mature...
Musical Dynamics
Contrasts in loudness make music exciting. Many performers do not, however, produce the variations composers expect from them
The Physiology of the Giraffe
The head of the animal is so far above the heart and the lungs that the task of supplying it with oxygenated blood calls for a remarkably high blood pressure and unusually deep breathing...
Contrast and Spatial Frequency
The visible details of an object often consist of contrasting areas with a regular spacing, or spatial frequency. The visual system is more sensitive to certain of these frequencies than it is to others...
Time Spent in Housework
As one might expect, working women spend less time in housework than their mothers and grandmothers did some 50 years ago. Women who are not in the labor force, however, spend just as much time...
Departments
50 and 100 Years Ago, November 1974
Science and the Citizen, November 1974
- Letters
Letters to the Editors, November 1974
- Recommended
Books, November 1974
- Mathematical Recreation
Mathematical Games
- Amateur Scientist
The Amateur Scientist, November 1974
- Departments
The Authors, November 1974
Bibliography, November 1974
