rik@ucla-cs.UUCP (10/20/84)
Table of Contents
SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN
Volume 251 Number 4
October 1984
"COMPUTER RECREATIONS,"
Yank D. Weed, pp. 20-27.
[A computational garden sprouting anagrams, pangrams and few
weeds.]
"SPACE-BASED BALLISTIC-MISSILE DEFENSE,"
Hans A. Bethe (Cornell University), Richard L. Garwin (IBM
T.J. Watson Research Center), Kurt Gottfried (Cornell University)
and Henry W. Kendall (M.I.T.), pp. 39-49.
[It will set yet another heat in the arms race.]
"PRIONS,"
Stanley B. Prusiner (University of California, San Francisco),
pp. 50-59.
[A new variety of infectious agent, 100 times smaller than a
virus, appears to lack genetic material.]
"SEISMIC TOMOGRAPHY,"
Don L. Anderson and Adam M. Dziewonski (California Institute of
Technology), pp. 60-68.
[Geologists borrow an idea from medicine to make three-
dimensional images of the earth's mantle.]
"CARTILAGE,"
Arnold I. Caplan (Case Western University), pp. 84-94.
[The molecules that make up cartilage enable it to play key
structural roles in the human body.]
"EPSILON AURIGAE,"
Margherita Hack (Astronomical Observatory of Trieste),
pp. 98-105.
[For 163 years this binary star has puzzled astronomers; its
structure has now been clarified.]
"A LATE ICE-AGE SETTLEMENT IN SOUTHERN CHILE,"
Tom D. Dillehay (University of Kentucky), pp. 106-117.
[A forest site reveals that wood and plants were as important
to its inhabitants as stone and bone.]
"THE CONTINUOUS PROCESSING OF METALS IN THE U.S.S.R.,"
A.I. Tselikov (Moscow), pp. 120-129.
[A remarkable engineering institution has made major innovations
in this industrial technology.]
"THE CRYSTAL PALACE,"
Folke T. Kihlstedt (Franklin and Marshall College), pp. 132-143.
[Admired, yet not taken seriously as architecture, it heralded
contemporary method and aesthetic.]
"THE AMATEUR SCIENTIST,"
Jearl Walker, pp. 144-152.
[The troublesome teapot effect, or why a poured liquid clings
to the container.]
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Rik Verstraete.
rik@UCLA-CS.ARPA
...!{cepu,ihnp4,trwspp,ucbvax}!ucla-cs!rikrik@ucla-cs.UUCP (10/24/84)
Table of Contents
SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN
Volume 251 Number 5
November 1984
"COMPUTER RECREATIONS,"
A.K. Dewdney, pp. 19-28.
[Yin and yang: recursion and iteration, the Tower of Hanoi and
the Chinese rings.]
"THE VALUE OF FUNDAMENTAL SCIENCE,"
Leon M. Lederman (Fermilab, Batavia, Ill.; Columbia University),
pp. 40-47.
[Pure science deserves support for its own sake; the support
also yields handsome dividends.]
"THE INFRARED SKY,"
Harm J. Habing (University of Leiden) and Gerry Neugebauer
(Caltech), pp. 48-57.
[Comets, stars, galaxies, gas and dust clouds as seen by the
Infrared Astronomical Satellite.]
"HOW LDL RECEPTORS INFLUENCE CHOLESTEROL AND ATHEROSCLEROSIS,"
Michael S. Brown and Joseph Goldstein (University of Texas,
Dallas), pp. 58-66.
[Receptors maintain a literally vital balance.]
"MODERN BAKING TECHNOLOGY,"
Samuel A. Matz (consultant), pp. 122-134.
[This $30 billion-a-year industry relies on mass production to
meet demand for its varied product.]
"THE CANOPY OF THE TROPICAL RAIN FOREST,"
Donald R. Perry (pollination biologist), pp. 138-147.
[Once inaccessible, this aerial habitat has been opened to
exploration by the author's invention.]
"THE C3 LASER,"
W.T. Tsang (AT&T Bell Labs, Murray Hill, NJ), pp. 148-161.
[Its beam of infrared radiation is so pure that it can easily
transmit a billion bits per second.]
"MAMMOTH-BONE DWELLINGS ON THE RUSSIAN PLAIN,"
Mikhail I. Gladkih (Kiev State University), Ninelj L. Kornietz
(Institute of Zoology, Kiev) and Olga Soffer (University of
Wisconsin, Milwaukee), pp. 164-175.
[They reveal a new and rapidly developing social order.]
"GOTHIC STRUCTURAL EXPERIMENTATION,"
Robert Mark (Princeton University) and William W. Clark (Queens
College of the City University of New York), pp. 176-185.
[The builders of the cathedrals learned from experience; they
also learned from one another.]
"THE AMATEUR SCIENTIST,"
Jearl Walker, pp. 186-93.
[A ball bearing aids in the study of light and also serves as a
lens.]
-----
Rik Verstraete.
rik@UCLA-CS.ARPA
...!{cepu,ihnp4,trwspp,ucbvax}!ucla-cs!rik