Controlling Indoor Air Pollution
Airborne combustion products, toxic chemicals and radioactivity are more abundant indoors than outdoors. Should indoor air be regulated? If so, how? Putting risks in perspective helps to answer both questions...
Features
Squeezed Light
Quantum noise, or fluctuation, in light waves limits the precision of measurements. A solution is to make part of a wave quieter by making another part noisier
Tumor Necrosis Factor
First identified because of its anticancer activity, the factor is now recognized to be one of a family of proteins that orchestrate the body's remarkably complex response to injury and infection...
Ancient Magnetic Reversals: Clues to the Geodynamo
Is the earth headed for a reversal of its magnetic field? No one can answer this question yet, but rocks magnetized by ancient fields offer clues to the underlying reversal mechanism in the earth's core...
The Platypus
This ancient mammal is surprisingly specialized. It has mechano and electroreceptors on its beak for detecting prey and is better than many placental mammals at regulating its body temperature...
Aerogels
As the name implies, these unusual solids are remarkably light and porous, made more of air than of gel. Their structure endows them with intriguing properties that science has only begun to exploit...
The Indian Neck Ossuary
A 1,000-year-old group burial on Cape Cod is the first clue on a trail of evidence implying that the southern New England coast had a settled population centuries before the Pilgrims
The Mystery of the Cosmological Constant
According to theory, the constant, which measures the energy of the vacuum, should be much greater than it is. An understanding of the disagreement could revolutionize fundamental physics...
Departments
50 and 100 Years Ago: May 1988
The Violent Yanomamö
Star Games
Shear Magic
Embarrassment of Riches
Dark Solitons
Ultraviolet Verdict
Built for Speed
Have you Heard DAT?
ISDN: Betting Billions
Patented Remedy
Malaria Vaccines
Fetal Fossils
Cause and Affect
Heartening News
- Letters
Letters to the Editors, May 1988
- Recommended
Books, May 1988
- Amateur Scientist
The Amateur Scientist, May 1988
- Departments
The Authors, May 1988
Computer Recreations, May 1988
Bibliography, May 1988
