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Editor's picks

Counting the cost of catastrophe: April’s cyclone brought havoc to vast areas of Bangladesh. Government and individuals are now starting to rebuild the economy and pick up the pieces of shattered lives

The life and times of a computing pioneer: Charles Babbage invented all sorts of things besides automatic calculating machines, including ‘cow catchers’, flashing lighthouses and speedometers. Did he spread his talents too thinly?

Creating Babbage’s dream machine: How we built the Difference Engine

The bulging biosphere: Most of the species that inhabit our planet live around the equator, giving the diversity of the biosphere a distinct bulge. Why do most species prefer life at low latitudes?

Culture clash: children and science – Children have their own common-sense view of how the physical world works. Teachers need to understand these ideas before they can challenge them effectively

Recycling in Cairo: a tale of rags to riches – Cairo’s ‘unofficial’ refuse collectors, the Zabbaleen, are more efficient at recycling rubbish than anyone in the West. Their industry has brought some wealth but what is their future?

Table of contents

News

Defector exposes Saddam’s nuclear secrets

America backtracks on Antarctic mining ban

Targets for training science teachers ‘set too low’

Government cash U-turn

‘Bureaucracy’ may compromise embryo watchdog

Scotland fuels debate over nuclear storage

Conservation plan tipped to rescue London’s Zoo

Radioactive atoll

Chin joins AIDS exodus

Bush faces ultimatum on immigration ban

Researchers take step towards gene therapy

Virus may thrive in lining of sex organs

Natural protein provides clue in the hunt for drugs to combat AIDS

Nuclear power

Unbearable behaviour in France

Collision course

Russian rethink

River boss quits

Forensic inquiry

Package deal

Britain backs its PAL

Science: Quasar hides its light under a dusty doughnut

Science: Synchrotron reveals structure of superconducting fullerene

Science: Missing chaos challenges rule of quantum mechanics

Science: Watery microbes fuel fresh fears over genetic release

Science: One in the eye for plants

Science: Unusual gene makes some men less vulnerable to blood clots

Science: How a parasitic fly can fool bumble bee studies

Technology

Technology: Computers face up to ‘Grand Challenges’

Technology

Technology: Cocktail of viruses finger the filthiest farms

Technology

Technology: Computers hot up with cooler chips

Technology

Technology: Converted motors shed light on rural homes

Technology

Technology: Arresting a fiery attack of the vapours as oil terminals are made safer

Technology

Technology: Hydrogen-powered electric car sets sceptics wondering

Patents: Hotol plans

Patents: A sound view

Patents: TV standard protects chip makers

Patents: Theft protection

Patents: Talking pipes

Patents: Patent information

Opinion

Comment: Out of step on AIDS

Comment: Singing in the rain

Features

Counting the cost of catastrophe: April’s cyclone brought havoc to vast areas of Bangladesh. Government and individuals are now starting to rebuild the economy and pick up the pieces of shattered lives

The life and times of a computing pioneer: Charles Babbage invented all sorts of things besides automatic calculating machines, including ‘cow catchers’, flashing lighthouses and speedometers. Did he spread his talents too thinly?

Creating Babbage’s dream machine: How we built the Difference Engine

The bulging biosphere: Most of the species that inhabit our planet live around the equator, giving the diversity of the biosphere a distinct bulge. Why do most species prefer life at low latitudes?

Culture clash: children and science – Children have their own common-sense view of how the physical world works. Teachers need to understand these ideas before they can challenge them effectively

Recycling in Cairo: a tale of rags to riches – Cairo’s ‘unofficial’ refuse collectors, the Zabbaleen, are more efficient at recycling rubbish than anyone in the West. Their industry has brought some wealth but what is their future?

More

Ionic channels in cell membranes

Talking Point: Reading the biotechnology barometer

Review: The roots of the electrical industry

Review: It is all in the mind

Review: ‘Energy for Planet Earth’ by Robert Malpas

Review: The length of memory

Review: Eye on the heavens

Review: Questions of life and death

Forum: Stress? Who needs it? – Bruce Charlton finds that the concept of stress is getting on his nerves

Forum: The mystery of the musical box – Ian Cross tries to find out what makes music what it is

Forum: They don’t eat people in Somerset – Leastways, not any longer, says Ralph Estling

Forum: Death by natural causes – John Timson wonders whether it is always right to save the doomed

Thistle Diary: Fish and the Falklands factor – Comment from Westminster

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