TESTS SHOW STEEL COLUMNS STRENGTHENED BY BRICK WALLSteel-frame buildings, from modest structures of just a few floors to the tallest skyscrapers, may be built more economically with the use of less steel as the result of facts discovered by research at the U.S. Bureau of Standards.This study, which was carried out in the Engineering and Mechanics section of the Bureau under the direction of Dr. A.H. Stang, consisted of tests in the world’s largest testing machine of the strength of vertical steel columns of the kind used in the steel skeletons of buildings. Its results have upset the basis of ...

EVERY SNOWFLAKE A UNIQUE JEWELUp in the mountains of Vermont, where the winters are long and the snow falls frequently, there died a few weeks ago a quiet, retiring man who was the world’s foremost snow artist. His name was Wilson Bentley. He was not one of the numerous tribe of Michelangelos of melting marble, whose snow sculptures get into the newsreels and rotogravure sections. His was a far more difficult art, for it dealt with single flakes rather than great lumps of matted snow; yet though it dealt with single flakes, it was a more permanent art than the efforts of these gravers of Earth...

MONTE ALBAN TREASURE MAY SET JEWELRY STYLEThe proud inhabitants of Oaxaca, in whose vicinity the Mixtec treasure tomb was found, think they are going to set the world’s jewelry styles. A casual glance at the ornaments and trinkets reveals that archaeology has already influenced modern jewelers.One of the most beautiful objects found in the Mixtec tomb of Monte Alban is a carved and filigreed breast ornament of gold. The human head with its enormous headdress represents a “tiger knight,” Senor Case, discoverer of the tomb, said. The fierce gold fangs of the animal are bared. Among the ancient M...

FLOODLIGHTS ILLUMINATE LONDON'S TOWER BRIDGELight from a new age is cast upon the pointed heights of London's Tower Bridge by floodlights turned on the structure during recent engineering and scientific celebrations in England. The Tower Bridge is just one of the many structures illuminated.This bridge across the Thames, one of the most famous in the world, was completed in 1894. Close by is the sinister and storied Tower of London, dating from the time of William the Conqueror. The old Tower has seen many famous people lose their heads and has served as a prison for many others, among them Si...

A PHARAOH'S RIGHTHAND MANAdd the name of Ken-Amun, ambitious Egyptian politician, a Pharaoh's righthand man, to the list of unusual personalities from ancient Egypt.Ken-Amun's tomb, cut into a rocky hillside in the Valley of the Kings, has been known for almost a century, but has been strangely neglected. Now, it has been thoroughly explored and studied by the Egyptian Expedition of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Norman de Garis Davies took charge of this part of the expedition's work.As a result, Ken-Amun, who in his busy lifetime rejoiced in the titles of Chief Steward of the King and Overs...

DR. ABEL OF JOHNS HOPKINS ELECTED NEW AAAS HEADDr. John J. Abel, professor of pharmacology at the Johns Hopkins Medical School, Baltimore, has been elected president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science for 1932. This action was taken at the annual meeting of the Association in New Orleans. Dr. Abel succeeds Dr. Franz Boas, noted anthropologist at Columbia University.ANIMAL IMMUNIZED AGAINST PARASITE FOR FIRST TIMESuccessful immunization of an animal against a many-celled parasite has been accomplished for the first time in history, and this feat may be the first step tow...

CONCRETE RIBBONS TO CARRY TRAFFIC OF GREAT HIGHWAYThin ribbons of concrete arching through the air, that will carry on a 42-foot wide pavement, traffic of one of the country’s chief east-west thoroughfares, the Lincoln highway, are skillfully depicted in this photograph of the George Westinghouse Memorial bridge nearing completion at East Pittsburgh.The arches are more than half again as thin as those usually used. Their width is fourteen feet, and they are five feet thick at the top or crown, and ten feet through at the ends, or springings.PREVENTION OF TOOTH DECAY ACCOMPLISHED FOR FIRST TIME...

SANTA CLAUS CAVALRYMEN BESTRIDE STRANGE STEEDSCaptain Jinks of the Horse Marines bestrode an unfamiliar steed; but the gentleman in the cover picture mounts one more unfamiliar still. He might qualify as a trooper in the Santa Claus Cavalry, for he is mounted on a reindeer. According to the U.S. Biological Survey, reindeer are used occasionally as saddle and pack animals in Siberia, whence the original stock of the great Alaskan herds was imported; but the animals are seldom used for these purposes on this continent.HYDROGEN ATOMS OF TWICE USUAL WEIGHT ARE DISCOVEREDHydrogen atoms twice as hea...

SCIENCE AT THE WORLD’S CROSSROADSEverybody has heard of Barro Colorado, the hill that was turned into an island, and was set aside as a great animal sanctuary; but only a few persons have ever set foot on it. In the nature of things, an animal sanctuary cannot be opened to crowds of visitors, so the only callers are the few scientists who have to meet the birds and beasts and plants “on business.”But strangely few have heard of two other more recent developments in the Canal Zone, which open to anybody who cares to come many of the privileges reserved to scientists alone on Barro Colorado.Thes...

PROTECTION EXTENDED NEARLY EXTINCT TEDDY BEARSKoalas, known colloquially in Australia as “native bears,” real, live teddy bears in soft, plushlike fur, have lately become the objects of special solicitude, both official and private, in the far island-continent that is their home. For several generations nobody paid any more attention to them than Americans pay to squirrels, for they were so numerous that it never occurred to Australians that they could ever become scarce. But a highly fatal epidemic got started among them some years ago, killing them by the thousands. Hunters also shot great n...