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The origins of selflessness Fair play (18 March 08:48) |
| It is not so much that cheats don’t prosper, but that prosperity does not cheatFOR the evolutionarily minded, the existence of fairness is a puzzle. What biological advantage accrues t... |
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The battle of the sexes Face off (18 March 05:12) |
| A disease-free society helps effeminate men attract womenIT IS not just a sense of fairness that seems to be calibrated to social circumstances (see article). Mating preferences, too, vary w... |
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Electric supercars Highly charged motoring (18 March 05:12) |
| Fast cars will go even faster with electric powerSOME people think sports cars are threatened with extinction by tightening restrictions on carbon-dioxide emissions and unacceptable fuel-guz... |
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Analysing the web Blog mining (11 March 04:13) |
| Scouring blogs for useful information“I NOTICED that the doormat was at a slightly crooked angle. I reached down and moved the mat back into its correct place.” Thus began a rece... |
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Connecting to the brain Thinking about it (11 March 04:13) |
| Advances in brain-to-machine connectionsTHE possibility of operating a machine using thought control has long fascinated researchers. It would be the ultimate video-game controller, for one ... |
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Advances in pain relief Agony column (11 March 04:13) |
| Body, mind and genes all play a role in influencing the perception of painPAIN, unfortunately, is a horrible necessity of life. It protects people by alerting them to things that might injur... |
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Metabolic syndrome A game of consequences (11 March 04:13) |
| One of the scourges of modern life may have been profoundly misunderstoodBEING fat is bad for you. On that, almost everyone agrees. It is just possible, though, that almost everyone is wrong... |
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Monitoring greenhouse gases Highs and lows (04 March 07:39) |
| You might think that measuring the levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere would be a priority. If you did think that, though, you would be wrongIN NEGOTIATIONS on nuclear weapons the p... |
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Weather forecasting Flaky science (04 March 04:47) |
| How to predict the consistency of snow“THE wrong type of snow” became famous as a lame excuse in Britain in February 1991 when, caught out by a cold snap, British Rail blamed sev... |
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Sexual selection Horny ladies (04 March 04:47) |
| If females must compete, evolution will furnish them with weapons to do soWHEN a species evolves traits that seem to have little to do with individual survival—bright colours, say, or ... |
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Palaeontology Do the locomotion (04 March 04:47) |
| The earliest animal tracks yet found have been unearthed in CanadaONE of the greatest mysteries of the history of life is the Cambrian explosion. Prior to 560m years ago, animal fossils are ... |
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Correction Alien life (04 March 04:47) |
| In "Signs of life" (February 27th) we said that the Square Kilometre Array radio-telescope collaboration planned to build its grid over a square kilometre of land. In fact, it is the combine... |
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Nuclear forensics A weighty matter (25 February 04:46) |
| How to analyse smuggled uraniumBETWEEN 1992 and 2007, according to Ian Hutcheon of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, in California, 17kg of highly enriched uranium was seized from ... |
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Looking for ET Signs of life (25 February 04:46) |
| As the search for alien life turns 50, its practitioners find new methodsHALF a century ago a radio astronomer called Frank Drake thought of a way to calculate the likelihood of establishing... |
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Climate and combustion Fired up (25 February 04:46) |
| This year’s meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science looked at, among other things, fire, siestas, alien life and nuclear forensicsCALIFORNIA, though regarded... |
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How siestas help memory Sleepy heads (25 February 04:46) |
| Researchers say an afternoon nap prepares the brain to learnMAD dogs and Englishmen, so the song has it, go out in the midday sun. And the business practices of England’s lineal descen... |
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Private-sector space flight Moon dreams (18 February 04:12) |
| The Americans may still go to the moon before the ChineseWHEN America’s space agency, NASA, announced its spending plans in February, some people worried that its cancellation of the C... |
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Lighting Printed circuit (18 February 04:12) |
| A way to turn out lighting by the metreTHE printing of body parts (see article) will probably remain a bespoke industry for ever. Printed lighting, though, might be mass produced. That, at l... |
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Printing body parts Making a bit of me (18 February 04:12) |
| A machine that prints organs is coming to marketTHE great hope of transplant surgeons is that they will, one day, be able to order replacement body parts on demand. At the moment, a patient ... |
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Polar ice shelves Breaking waves (18 February 04:12) |
| The coup de grace that shatters ice shelves is administered by ocean wavesIN 2008 part of the Wilkins ice shelf on the edge of the Antarctic peninsular suddenly disintegrated. It was seen by... |
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Drug-resistant bacteria A land apart (11 February 04:08) |
| Are the bugs in wild animals resistant to antibiotics?BACTERIA that are resistant to antibiotics are becoming disturbingly common in people. More worrying still is that the genes which confe... |
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Network theory Tree and leaf (11 February 04:08) |
| The study of living things may shed light on urban planning. And vice versaCITIES are often described as being alive. A nice metaphor, but does it mean anything? And, if it does, can town pl... |
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Clothes as batteries Plug-in garments (11 February 04:08) |
| Clothing could become a source of electrical powerPERSONAL electronic devices are becoming smaller and more ubiquitous every day, but no one has yet managed to realise the dream of incorpora... |
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Noise-cancelling technology Opting for the quiet life (11 February 04:08) |
| Tiny microphones provide a new way to eliminate background noiseMANY of those who talk loudly into their mobile phones are just inconsiderate show-offs for whom no punishment is too evil. So... |
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Correction laser-guided bombs (11 February 04:08) |
| In “The calibration of destruction” (January 30th) we stated that “during the first Gulf war, in 1991, American warplanes had to drop an average of six 450kg satellite-guid... |
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Rajendra Pachauri and the IPCC A time for introspection (04 February 04:11) |
| Increasing scrutiny of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and, in particular, its chairman, should lead to reformsTHE past month has not been a good one for Rajendra Pachauri (pic... |
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NASAs new mission Space to thrive (04 February 04:11) |
| A long-overdue overhaul of America’s space agency has been announcedIN 2004 George Bush announced a plan for America’s space agency, NASA, to return to the moon by 2020, land the... |
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Psychiatric diagnosis That way madness lies (04 February 04:11) |
| A new manual for diagnosing diseases of the psyche is about to be unveiledON FEBRUARY 10th the world of psychiatry will be asked, metaphorically, to lie on the couch and answer questions abo... |
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Breeding better oysters Shelling out (28 January 04:10) |
| A new breed of oyster may encourage aquacultureMUCH of the bounty of the ocean is, these days, far less plentiful than it used to be. Scarcity has made oysters expensive, turning this unattr... |
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Freezing amphibian eggs Frog preserves (28 January 04:10) |
| Trying to save a frog from extinctionTHE idea of saving for a rainy day originated with farm hands whose work depended on the weather. Conservationists are thinking similarly about climate c... |
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Chemical pollution and fertility Flame wars (28 January 04:10) |
| Fire retardants may affect female reproductionIN MANY ways DDT was a miracle chemical when its efficacy against biting insects was discovered at the start of the second world war. Its widesp... |
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Aerial bombardment The calibration of destruction (28 January 04:10) |
| Smaller, cleverer and more accurate munitions are changing warfareTHE Perseus, a 900kg (2,000lb) bomb made in Greece, incinerates almost everything in an area larger than a dozen football fi... |
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Railways and slime moulds A life of slime (21 January 08:27) |
| Network-engineering problems can be solved by surprisingly simple creaturesFROM adhesives that mimic the feet of geckos to swimsuits modelled on shark skin, biologically inspired design has ... |
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The psychology of power Absolutely (21 January 04:07) |
| Power corrupts, but it corrupts only those who think they deserve itREPORTS of politicians who have extramarital affairs while complaining about the death of family values, or who use public... |
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Glaciers and the IPCC Off-base camp (21 January 04:07) |
| A mistaken claim about glaciers raises questions about the UN’s climate panelTHE idea that the Himalaya could lose its glaciers by 2035—glaciers which feed rivers across South an... |
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Science correspondents job (21 January 04:07) |
| The Economist is looking for a Science and Technology correspondent to work at its headquarters in London. Knowledge of the field, an ability to write informatively, succinctly and wittily, ... |
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Stem cells in China Wild East or scientific feast (14 January 04:15) |
| In the field of stem cells, China is showing that it can do world-class science. It is a shame, then, that so many fraudsters operate and that officialdom turns a blind eyeIN THE West, and p... |
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Cancer and stem cells A strand apart (14 January 04:15) |
| More evidence that tumours, like healthy organs, grow from stem cellsTHE notion that tumours are chaotic masses of anarchic cells has been falling by the wayside recently. Many researchers n... |
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Electromagnetic manufacturing Its a knockout (14 January 04:15) |
| Engineers find a new way to punch holes through steelELECTROMAGNETIC pulses (EMPs) are usually associated with warfare. The idea is to use a blast of energy to fry the enemy’s computer... |
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Susan Greenfield The end of an institution (14 January 04:15) |
| Hard times for the Royal Institution—and its former directorSUSAN, Baroness Greenfield, is a British institution. In a country that perceives its scientists as white-coated geeks, prob... |
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Chronic fatigue syndrome Seconds out (07 January 04:12) |
| A fight over the cause of a mysterious diseaseLAST October a discovery was made that brought hope to millions of sufferers from chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). A group of researchers found a... |
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Climate change No hiding place (07 January 04:12) |
| The betting is that 2010 will be the hottest year on record. But understanding how the planet’s temperature changes is still a challenge to scienceIT MAY seem implausible at the moment... |
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Planet hunting Looking for life in the shadows (07 January 04:12) |
| The search for a second Earth gets seriousIN THE 19th century astronomers spent a lot of time seeking shadows crossing the sun. They were searching for Vulcan, a putative planet inside the o... |
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Influenza and wildlife Mix and match (07 January 04:12) |
| Which animal species are most likely to get flu?THE scientific value of zoos is sometimes called into question, but Mark Schrenzel and Bruce Rideout, two experts on wildlife diseases who wor... |
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Genetics Monogamouse (30 December 04:09) |
| Genetically modified prairie voles may illuminate the human conditionLOVE, of course, is what makes the world go round, but what makes love go round? To aesthetes, such a question is imponde... |
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Flood defences Dambusterbusters (30 December 04:09) |
| Some clever, new ways of stopping rivers floodingTHE destruction of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 showed the importance of keeping levees—the artificial banks that contain t... |
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Renewable energy The seat of power (30 December 04:09) |
| Better sewage treatment is the latest thing in clean energyWHERE there’s muck, there’s brass—or so the old saying has it. The cynical may suggest this refers to the questio... |
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New sources of rubber Blow out (30 December 04:09) |
| The tyres of the future may be made from dandelionsOTHER than being an ingredient of the more recherche sorts of salad, herbal tea or wine, dandelions are pretty useless plants. Or, at least... |
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The search for dark matter An early Christmas present (17 December 04:32) |
| Wild rumours are circulating of the discovery of one of physics’s great unknowns: dark matterAS The Economist went to press this week, physicists were aflutter about an expected announ... |
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Reproductive biology Girls on top (17 December 04:32) |
| Stressed mothers spontaneously abort male fetusesIT HAS been known for a while that stressful conditions such as famine result in more girls being born than happens in good times. The shift ... |
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