Summer 1985

Behind Jonas Salk’s triumph lay the work of hundreds of doctors and scientists over several decades—and considerable controversy

Digging anew through the voluminous papers of Thomas Edison, scholars are constructing a fresh, more accurate and revealing understanding of his greatest invention

The great Hale Telescope, with its 200-inch mirror, is still the masterpiece of American astronomical engineering

A distinguished historian discusses America’s inventive past—a past that has created “not only new machinery but a sort of new world”—and ponders how we might benefit from understanding it better

An insightful book shows just how eloquent graphs and charts can be