Scientific American Magazine Vol 259 Issue 5

Scientific American Magazine

Volume 259, Issue 5

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Features

Educating Poor Minority Children

Schools must win the support of parents and learn to respond flexibly and creatively to students' needs. A successful program developed in New Haven points the way

James P. Comer

Quasi-Periodic Oscillations in Celestial X-Ray Sources

Not quite periodic, not quite random fluctuations in X-ray intensity provide clues to the nature of extremely bright X-ray sources loosely clustered near the center of our galaxy

Michiel van der Klis

What Makes a Tumor Cell Metastatic?

The cells that spread cancer throughout the body have distinctive molecular traits. Already cancer researchers know enough about those traits to convert malignant cells into benign ones

Lea Eisenbach, Michael Feldman

The Electrification of Thunderstorms

Although it has been known for two centuries that lightning is a form of electricity, the exact microphysical processes responsible for the charging of storm clouds remain in dispute

Earle R. Williams

Superfluid Turbulence

Liquid helium cooled to within 2.172 degrees of absolute zero can flow without viscosity or friction, but seldom without turbulence. The odd form of turbulence that arises is quantum-mechanical in nature

Russell J. Donnelly

Infrared Optical Fibers

New glass and crystalline fibers, promising greater transparency and transmitting longer wavelengths than silica fibers, have been applied to communication systems, medical diagnostics and optical-fiber lasers

Martin G. Drexhage, Cornelius T. Moynihan

Evolution of Human Walking

Features of her pelvis show that a three-million-year-old hominid, Lucy, was as adept at upright walking as we are. Bipedality could date from the earliest phase of human evolution

C. Owen Lovejoy

Obstacles to Developing Vaccines for the Third World

Six vaccines are already in use there. Many others could be produced within 10 years. Yet those who have the know-how to make the needed vaccines have lacked incentives to apply it

Anthony Robbins, Phyllis Freeman

Departments

Letters to the Editors, November 1988

50 and 100 Years Ago: November 1988

Reactors Redux

Ignorance in Action

The Shroud of Turin

Why Warfare?

Plus Ça Change...

Ice House

Wobbly Evidence

Holochrome

Living with your Self

Acquired Taste

Masters of Mutation

All in the Family

Starvaholics?

Developmental Dialectics

Neural Networks at Work

Gene Therapy in Gestation

Disappearing Act

Body Shop?

The Amateur Scientist, November 1988

Computer Recreations, November 1988

Books, November 1988

To sequence or not to sequence