Much of our knowledge of cellular organization has been made possi¬ble by the development of better and more powerful compound microscopes. In the detailed analysis of subcellular structure, three attributes of certain microscopes like compound microscopes are of particular importance: magnification, resolution, and contrast. Magnification of the microscope is a means of increasing the apparent […]

THE NUCLEUS
Within the cells of most organisms (though not of bacteria and Cyano¬bacteria), the largest and one of the most conspicuous structural areas is the membrane-bounded nucleus. The nucleus plays the central role in cellular reproduction, the process by which a single cell divides and forms two new cells, as seen under a compound microscope. […]

Organisms are composed of a great variety of chemicals, some simple and some complex. But these chemicals do not of themselves possess the properties we recognize as life. This scientific fact strongly suggests that some kind of order is imposed on them, that they are not simply dispersed in random fashion in an aqueous medium. […]

There is a group of beneficial soil microbes, which are undesirable in water. These are the iron bacteria, which tend to become so numerous that they are called water-pest bacteria. Iron bacteria are a natural part of the environment. These microorganisms, when examined under a compound microscope, mix dissolved iron or manganese with oxygen and […]

Franklin P. Adams, of Conning Tower fame, has two active indignations. If he is violent in the matter of numbering houses invisibly, he is still more so in the matter of dry sweeping. And those who follow his column closely may have noticed that his antipathy to the broom has increased markedly since the birth […]

AIR
In the light of present knowledge, we may be tempted to laugh at the old beliefs concerning the dangers lurking in air. Hippocrates tells us that the Athenians, believing that the plague derived from impure air, fought it by lighting huge bonfires. And Defoe, in his Journal of the Plague Year, tells us that the […]