Stress drives gas into a black hole.

Comments on measurements of inter-stellar magnetic fields in the bar region of the galaxy NGC1097, as presented by Beck et al in the January 28, 1999 issue of `Nature.' Focus on the direction of gas flow in the galaxy and the location of regions of gas compression; Belief that gas flows inward along lanes to fuel bursts of star formation in a ring of dense molecular gas known as the circumnuclear ring; Effects of gas inflow in barred galaxies; Measurement of polarized radio synchrotron emission.