Launch under Attack
This strategy calls for launching nuclear weapons on warning that attacking weapons are on their way. Pressures for its adoption are symptomatic of an increasing instability in the nuclear balance...
Features
The Atmospheric Effects of El Chichón
This relatively small but sulfur-rich eruption in 1982 injected into the stratosphere a fine mist of sulfuric acid droplets denser than any volcanic cloud since the great 1883 eruption of Krakatau...
High-Energy Collisions between Atomic Nuclei
Heavy nuclei traveling at 95 percent of the speed of light are now made to collide with target nuclei. The debris includes anomalons, mysterious fragments that collide again much sooner than expected...
Rice
This member of the grass family, along with wheat and maize, is one of the three on which the human species largely subsists. Advances in the genetics of the plant have greatly increased its yields per acre...
Unisexual Lizards
Populations of whiptail lizards in the southwestern U.S., Mexico and South America consist of females only. The animals are unusual among vertebrates in reproducing by parthenogenesis: virgin birth...
The Control of Ribosome Synthesis
The particle of the living cell that translates RNA's into protein is itself made up of three RNA's and 52 proteins. How is the assembly of ribosomes from these molecules adapted to the needs of the cell?...
The Packing of Spheres
What is the densest way to arrange identical spheres in space? There has been much progress on the problem, particularly in 24 dimensions, and the results can be applied to digital signaling...
The Invention of the Balloon and the Birth of Modern Chemistry
The first manned balloon flights in France 200 years ago were inspired by basic research into the nature of gases by some of the leading chemical investigators of the day
Departments
50 and 100 Years Ago: January 1984
Science and the Citizen, January 1984
- Letters
Letters to the Editors, January 1984
- Recommended
Books, January 1984
- Amateur Scientist
The Amateur Scientist, January 1984
- Departments
The Authors, January 1984
Computer Recreations, January 1984
Bibliography, January 1984
