Managing Solid Waste
Poor disposal practices have taxed the U.S. economy and environment. Municipalities should construct better incinerators and landfills and support active resource-conservation and recycling programs...
Features
The Geometric Phase
A circuit tracing a closed curve in an abstract space can explain both a curious shift in the wave function of a particle and an apparent rotation of a pendulum's plane of oscillation
Plasticity in Brain Development
The final wiring of the brain occurs after birth and is governed by early experience. A protein called MAP2 seems to take part in the molecular events that underlie the brain's ability to change...
Science in Pictures: Patterned Ground
A common physical phenomenon shapes these uncommon manifestations of natural geometry
Fertilization in Mammals
The events that immediately precede and follow the fusion of sperm and egg must occur in a precise sequence. Surprisingly, a single molecule seems to have a crucial role at many points along the way...
Soft-X-Ray Lasers
A quarter of a century after the appearance of the optical laser, experimental X-ray lasers have begun to produce beams with wavelengths 100 times shorter than those of visible light
Snakes, Blood Circulation and Gravity
When a snake climbs or rears up, its cardiovascular system must resist strong pressure gradients. These effects of gravity explain why the circulatory system of a tree snake differs from that of a sea snake...
Canal Builders of Pre-Inca Peru
The engineers of Chimor built canals to carry water from rivers to fields as much as 70 kilometers away. In the end they were defeated by relentless geologie forces
Departments
50 and 100 Years Ago: December 1988
After Discovery ...
Fertility Rites
Radon Retried
The Cygnet Turns Phoenix
Theory-Resistant
Factoring Googols
High Rate of Return
Electronic Ark
Unscientific Americans
Embryonic Questions
Memories of Mother
Physics
Ghost in the Machine
Chemistry
Physiology or Medicine
Disequilibrium
One for the Road
A Different Engine?
Tropical-forest species: going, going, going ...
- Letters
Letters to the Editors, December 1988
- Recommended
Books, December 1988
- Amateur Scientist
The Amateur Scientist, December 1988
- Departments
Computer Recreations, December 1988
Annual Index, 1988
