Europe’s farmers plough a new furrow: The farming community in Europe is bracing itself for the end of the subsidies that have resulted in unmanageable food surpluses. Should we start to use the land for different purposes?
Features
This week's magazine
8 December 1990
Issue 1746
On the cover
Editor's picks
Survivors from the primordial soup: Living stromatolites bear witness to the life their fossil forebears led 3500 million years ago. But the attention lavished on these fragile ecosystems could be their downfall
Features
Inquest on Soviet computing: In the mid 1960s, Soviet planners promised computers for everyone and a new era of wealth and efficiency. Now, the Gorbachev reforms have revealed the crippling inadequacy of these claims
Features
The universal constructer set: A new era in applied molecular biology has begun. Researchers have discovered a way of generating novel biopolymers with virtually unlimited potential
Features
The sugar coating on the protein: For years, biochemists looked on carbohydrate molecules as inert and insignificant. But these complex sugars play a crucial role in the activity of many proteins. They could be the key to new drugs for treating arthritis
Features
China’s long march to longevity: An ambitious epidemiological study, charting the life and death of thousands of Chinese, has just been published. It holds many lessons for both East and West
Features
Table of contents
News
Lethal paint makes for the open sea
News
Science: Possible brown dwarf in southern skies
News
Science: Honeycomb crystals could lead to cleaner fuel
News
Science: Neutrino ‘correlations’ tantalise astronomers
News
Science: A white Christmas on Mars
News
Science: Supernova remnant shows up at new wavelength
News
Health
Science: Deadly toxin calms excited muscles
News
Science: Can monkeys read each others’ minds?
News
Technology
Technology: German robot tackles first reactor core
News
Technology
Technology: ‘Killer cheeses’ primed to fight listeria
News
Technology
Technology: Record industry faces up to sticky tape problem
News
Humans
A word in your ear, Prime Minister
News
Cure for sleeping sickness receives all-clear
News
Third World AIDS programme short on funds
News
Sterile screw worms fly in to save Africa’s livestock
News
Arabs united
News
Europe’s car makers unite to face Japan
News
Controversial cancer therapy discredited
News
‘Time-bomb’ town planned for Thames refinery
News
Sky’s the limit, says Philips
News
Americans set the table for engineered food
News
Caught short in the Channel Tunnel
News
Environment
‘Cuddly’ orang-utans threatened by traders
News
Brazil and Argentina open up nuclear sites
News
Pollutants on tap for Berlin’s growing population
News
Astro loses its sense of direction
News
An end to chemical fertilisers?
News
Technology
Technology: Robots and fibres catch the spectra of galaxies
News
Technology
Technology: Cartons counterattack in battle of the bottle
News
Technology
Technology: Metal gears shift down a size
News
Technology
Technology: Six weeks of loneliness in simulated space
News
Green money
News
IBM joins Jessi
News
Making a meal of extinction
News
City supports R&D
News
Poultry protected
News
Women’s hearts
News
Opinion
Features
Europe’s farmers plough a new furrow: The farming community in Europe is bracing itself for the end of the subsidies that have resulted in unmanageable food surpluses. Should we start to use the land for different purposes?
Features
Survivors from the primordial soup: Living stromatolites bear witness to the life their fossil forebears led 3500 million years ago. But the attention lavished on these fragile ecosystems could be their downfall
Features
Inquest on Soviet computing: In the mid 1960s, Soviet planners promised computers for everyone and a new era of wealth and efficiency. Now, the Gorbachev reforms have revealed the crippling inadequacy of these claims
Features
The universal constructer set: A new era in applied molecular biology has begun. Researchers have discovered a way of generating novel biopolymers with virtually unlimited potential
Features
The sugar coating on the protein: For years, biochemists looked on carbohydrate molecules as inert and insignificant. But these complex sugars play a crucial role in the activity of many proteins. They could be the key to new drugs for treating arthritis
Features
China’s long march to longevity: An ambitious epidemiological study, charting the life and death of thousands of Chinese, has just been published. It holds many lessons for both East and West
Features
More
Forum: Vanishing point – An end to decimal dubiety
Correction
Regulars
Review: Extinction for the coffee table
Books & Arts
Computers: Management for the memory
Books & Arts
Forum: Pollution in the modern market – Adam Smith would have little time for his latter-day disciples
Forum: A letter from the chairperson – Thoroughly institutionalised
Forum: The wages of science – Pay and the jobs pages
Forum: Time to see the light – Street lighting can dim our prospects
Review: To follow what is out of reach
Books & Arts
Review: Mount St Helens eruption
Books & Arts
Review: Science and its strange bedfellows
Books & Arts
Arts: A case for display
Books & Arts
Review: Cosmic rays, Italy and a life in exile
Books & Arts
