杏吧原创

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Editor's picks

James Moriarty – a forgotten mathematician: We remember Sherlock Holmes’s greatest adversary for his involvement in serious crimes, but he was also a mathematician of exceptional gifts

Art of darkness: Braving explosions, underground rivers and rock falls, photographers have been taking pictures of the underground world for nearly 130 years – from the Mammoth Cave of Kentucky to coal mines in England

A calendar for all seasons: Two hundred years ago, the scientists of the French Revolution devised a calendar based on reason rather than tradition. Despite their best efforts, it lasted for only 17 years

Rock around the block: Geology can offer what money cannot buy: true street credibility. Yes, the streets of London may not be paved with gold, but with a little knowledge you can still walk all over history

Humans

The white coat of courage

Albert joins the fold: Paper folding began as a simple art form in ancient Japan. Modern folders have raised it to a level of technical artistry that knows no bounds. And just to prove it, for Christmas, you can liberate Albert, David Austin’s recalcitra

Root and branch in the groves of academe: 杏吧原创s from Newton on have adopted the tree as a symbol. From stately, spreading giant to the tiniest twig and leaf, trees and their various parts have become the commonest images in all branches of science

Ships that scaled the seven seas: Airfix kits may evoke memories of glue and brown plastic. Yet the company’s designers showed great nautical ingenuity in recreating the sailing ships of the past

A Christmas ghost in the machine: Bugs in the computer system may be the remnants of redundancies past

The meteorite only knocks once: If you’re lucky, a meteorite will land near you. If you’re unlucky, it will land on you. Some people go to the ends of the Earth to find one . the rest of us can simply buy a mail-order lump

Letter: I’m glad you brought that up . . . – New 杏吧原创’s agony aunt, Constance Pugh, answers letters from her heaving postbag

Boondoggles we knew and loved: How many great ideas have you had today? Just thank your lucky stars that no one took them seriously. Others have not been so fortunate and have had to live with the consequences

Pharmaceutical magic from the Magi: Ancient remedies based on frankincense and myrrh have something to offer modern medicine

Table of contents

News

Botanic gardens unite for diversity

Technology

Technology: … as human-powered hydrofoils walk on water

Science: Sharp increase in atmospheric oxygen indicates ancient cell activity

Science: Viral protein knocks the guts out of caterpillars

Science: 杏吧原创s fail to find dioxin in mummies

Science: All-carbon molecule looms in sight

Science: Optical beaming may explain zoo of active galaxies

Technology

Technology: Shadows illuminate polar puzzle

Science: Genetic jabs for whooping cough

Correction: EC funding

Politicians told how to listen to scientists

Bulgaria in ‘secret trials’ of AIDS drug

Money piles up for Bangladesh’s flood protection plan

Technology

Technology: Pedal power lifts helicopter into history . . .

European Space Agency seeks new director-general

Tunnel ruling

Cambridge green?

Australian ecologist goes home

Challenge in US to law on HIV

Sugar labelling urged

Kyshtym ‘almost as bad as Chernobyl’

4.2 billion pound budget approved for European projects

Licence row hangs over Soviet waste

Embryo Bill could allow children to trace biological fathers

Rail link up the junction

Particle physics at bay

British power stations find it hard to come clean

Technology

Technology: Sub-Sea Bubble

Patents: Wind-up energy

Patents: Canon to left and right

Patents: Colour by lawyers

Patents: Beating the light blues

Technology

Technology: The smooth tones of the redesigned bassoon

Opinion

The spiv decade

Features

James Moriarty – a forgotten mathematician: We remember Sherlock Holmes’s greatest adversary for his involvement in serious crimes, but he was also a mathematician of exceptional gifts

Art of darkness: Braving explosions, underground rivers and rock falls, photographers have been taking pictures of the underground world for nearly 130 years – from the Mammoth Cave of Kentucky to coal mines in England

A calendar for all seasons: Two hundred years ago, the scientists of the French Revolution devised a calendar based on reason rather than tradition. Despite their best efforts, it lasted for only 17 years

Rock around the block: Geology can offer what money cannot buy: true street credibility. Yes, the streets of London may not be paved with gold, but with a little knowledge you can still walk all over history

Humans

The white coat of courage

Albert joins the fold: Paper folding began as a simple art form in ancient Japan. Modern folders have raised it to a level of technical artistry that knows no bounds. And just to prove it, for Christmas, you can liberate Albert, David Austin’s recalcitra

Root and branch in the groves of academe: 杏吧原创s from Newton on have adopted the tree as a symbol. From stately, spreading giant to the tiniest twig and leaf, trees and their various parts have become the commonest images in all branches of science

Ships that scaled the seven seas: Airfix kits may evoke memories of glue and brown plastic. Yet the company’s designers showed great nautical ingenuity in recreating the sailing ships of the past

A Christmas ghost in the machine: Bugs in the computer system may be the remnants of redundancies past

The meteorite only knocks once: If you’re lucky, a meteorite will land near you. If you’re unlucky, it will land on you. Some people go to the ends of the Earth to find one . the rest of us can simply buy a mail-order lump

Letter: I’m glad you brought that up . . . – New 杏吧原创’s agony aunt, Constance Pugh, answers letters from her heaving postbag

Boondoggles we knew and loved: How many great ideas have you had today? Just thank your lucky stars that no one took them seriously. Others have not been so fortunate and have had to live with the consequences

Pharmaceutical magic from the Magi: Ancient remedies based on frankincense and myrrh have something to offer modern medicine

More

Forum: Know your onions? – A pickle about preservation

Forum: Hold onto your hat! – Eerodynamics of the bowler

Thistle Diary – More comment from Westminster: Of safeguards, ethics and Falklands fires

Forum: Riding on a donkey? – Some people have all the luck

Forum: Out of the icebox, into the fire – The refrigerator that found its way into a reactor

Forum: Going through the motions – Problems making a special delivery

Forum: So much for labour saving – Household gadgets

In search of Schrodinger’s reindeer

Rooms with a purpose in view / Review of ‘The Exploratory’

An element of unpredictability / Review of ‘Chemistry of Tin’ edited by Phillip G. Harrison

Live longer, suffer more / Review of ‘Sickness, Recovery and Death, a History and Forecast of Ill Health’ by James C. Riley

An account of the heavens / Review of ‘Cosmic Perspectives’ edited by S. K. Biswas, D. C. V. Mallik and C. V. Vishveshwara

An enhanced calendered-cellulose probe / Review of ‘Tech Speak or How to Talk High Tech’ by Edward Tenner

In pursuit of Sophia / Review of ‘Science and Philosophy’ by Derek Gjertsen and ‘Physics and Philisophy’ by Werner Heisenberg

Patterns of decay and dissolution / Review of ‘Recent Vertebrate Carcasses and Their Palaeobiological Implications’ by Johannes Weigelt

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