The Fuel Economy of Light Vehicles
As domestic oil production decreases, cars with better fuel economy become more attractive. By 1995 it should be possible without major innovations to have fuel economies of more than 60 miles per gallon...
Features
Split Genes
Most genes in higher organisms are discontinuous. The DNA that codes for protein is interrupted by noncoding sequences, whose transcripts are excised to make the messenger RNA that is translated into protein...
The Sources of Celestial X-Ray Bursts
They are probably caused by thermonuclear flashes on neutron stars In old binary systems. A single burst emits as much X-ray energy in a few seconds as the sun radiates at all wavelengths in two weeks...
The Crest of the East Pacific Rise
At a site on a mid-ocean ridge, where hot springs on the sea floor nourish a bizarre biological community, undersea exploration has revealed much about how new segments of the earth's crust emerge...
Countercurrent Systems in Animals
Exchanges between two fluids moving in opposite directions are the basis for a variety of stratagems that enable many species of animal to survive comfortably in an inhospitable environment...
Highly Excited Atoms
They are floppy, fragile and huge. Some of them have been found to have a diameter of almost a hundredth of a millimeter which is 1,000,000 times the diameter of an atom in its lowest energy state...
The Sunflower Crop
In the past decade the sunflower, grown mainly for the oil in its seeds, has become a major factor in U.S. agriculture. Worldwide it ranks second only to the soybean as a source of vegetable oil...
Chinese Building Standards in the 12th Century
In the Sung period the emperors promulgated a code for all public buildings. It standardized features of the traditional architecture that were bnlliantly adapted to Chinese environmental conditions...
Departments
50 and 100 Years Ago, June 1981
Science and the Citizen, June 1981
- Letters
Letters to the Editors, June 1981
- Recommended
Books, June 1981
- Amateur Scientist
The Amateur Scientist, June 1981
- Departments
The Authors, June 1981
Metamagical Themas, June 1981
Bibliography, June 1981
