杏吧原创

View in the app Check out this magazine in our easy-to-navigate mobile app Find a previous edition online Search through our digital archive of over 30 years of magazines

Editor's picks

Let’s make nodules – Underground and in the dark, there’s a subtle chemistry that brings bacteria and plants together in the ultimate marriage of convenience. Rosie Mestel gets to the root of the seduction

An eye bigger than the Earth – Held together by a cat’s cradle of wire, an orbiting radio telescope is set to offer astronomers an unprecedented view of the most distant objects in the Universe, writes Marcus Chown

Batteries not included – They keep on working long after space batteries have conked out. Ben Iannotta discovers how NASA is putting a new spin on energy storage

Desert melting pots – Intriguing relics of a technique for making steel previously known only from early manuscripts have been found in Central Asia. Michael Bond reports

Table of contents

News

Sheep dips poison river life

Pregnant women get that shrinking feeling

Fresh alarm over threatened sperm

Research cuts may put reactor safety at risk

Land of the rising yen aims to catch up with the West

Dud drugs dumped in crisis zones

Trade `should be duty free’ on Net

Europe launches a licence to hard drive

Canadian law won’t help wanderers

Gas build-up fear puts pressure on Nirex鈥�

鈥s cracks show in plutonium disposal scheme

India saves forests

They like things big in Texas

Ten-year warning

Happy surfing

Broken hearts

Dusty lungs

The WHO strikes mid-life crisis – Next year, the World Health Organization is 50 years old. Unfortunately, there will be no shortage of party poopers at the birthday celebrations

Science : Dark matter blamed for mass extinctions on Earth

Science : When it’s better to build on the fault

Science : BSE protein could help fight disease

Science : A full Moon warms icy wastes

Science : Mongoose’s secret is to copy its prey

Science : Slimmed down diet is best for soil-cleaning bacteria

Life

Science : Twists of life written in the stars

Science : Buckytubes to be built to order

Technology

Technology : Coal power gets a good scrub

Technology

Technology : Spy stations catch the sound of falling space rocks

Technology

Technology : Britain banned from going wireless

Technology

Netropolitan :

Technology

Netropolitan :

Technology

Technology : Quantum key foils eavesdroppers

Technology

Technology : The art of elephant dung paper

Technology

Technology : Light turns into sounds for blind people

Opinion

Editorial : Who’s WHO’s real friend? – THE World Health Organization is in trouble. Its leader is accused of failing to lead, and as the organisation drifts, other bodies, particularly the World Bank, are setting the global health agenda. Western governme

Editorial : The lure of the East – JAPAN is supposed to be in the middle of a recession. The country is still reeling from the collapse of its “bubble economy”, when wild land speculation gave central Tokyo a paper value greater than the whole of Californ

Features

Let’s make nodules – Underground and in the dark, there’s a subtle chemistry that brings bacteria and plants together in the ultimate marriage of convenience. Rosie Mestel gets to the root of the seduction

An eye bigger than the Earth – Held together by a cat’s cradle of wire, an orbiting radio telescope is set to offer astronomers an unprecedented view of the most distant objects in the Universe, writes Marcus Chown

Batteries not included – They keep on working long after space batteries have conked out. Ben Iannotta discovers how NASA is putting a new spin on energy storage

Desert melting pots – Intriguing relics of a technique for making steel previously known only from early manuscripts have been found in Central Asia. Michael Bond reports

More

Antipodes : Motorists hold uncertain position on locating cars – Ian Lowe looks at taking computers to the road

Review : A very good place to start

Review : Work, rest and play

Review : Shaken and stirred

Review : Cyber_life@earth.com

Review : Third World War

Review : The killing couches

Review : The dammed

Review : Swapping seX-Files

Review : Name that disease

Review : Pillage holidays

Review : The Times it is a-changin’

Review : Collected works

Bestsellers : from Oxford

Forum : How green is my vall茅e?

Forum : Land of the rising concrete

Thistle Diary : Hot tips in a climate of fear – More comment from Westminster by Tam Dalyell

Regulars

Feedback

The Last Word

This Week鈥檚 Letters

Browse past issues

View all

21 December 1996

14 December 1996

7 December 1996

30 November 1996

23 November 1996