Survey of North American Science

This article describes both the state of geophysics research in the United States and some of the directions in which it is moving.

This article examines the factors which determine the amount of research and development undertaken in Canadian industry and suggests that the influence of multinational corporations must be carefully incorporated into future science policy.

On October 10, 1946, a V-2 rocket, instrumented by the Naval Research Laboratory, was launched from White Sands, New Mexico, and carried an ultraviolet spectrograph above the ozone layer to photograph the solar ultraviolet spectrum. After twenty-five years of rocket astronomy, it is therefore appropriate to trace some of the history of astronomy from space platforms.

The fruit fly Drosophila is being increasingly used in embryological experiments. Because of its well known genetics, and the ease with which the larvae can be manipulated in a variety of ways, it provides an ideal system for following such processes as cellular determination during differentiation, and cloning in morphogenesis.

The excitement aroused by the idea that transformation of cells by RNA tumour viruses might depend on the activity of a reverse transcriptase enzyme(s) specific to the virus has stimulated much research since the enzyme was discovered in 1970. But the questions of the physical identity and catalytic activities of the enzyme(s), its function in transformation and whether it is unique to RNA tumour viruses remain unanswered.