杏吧原创

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Editor's picks

Movers and shakers – Can the sound of one snowflake stop a plane from crashing into a mountainside? Ian Stewart puts his ear to the ground

Let a thousand flowers bloom . . . – They’re heavy metal’s biggest fans鈥攁nd they hang out in the seediest of places. Amy Adams gets a lesson in 90s-style flower power

All God’s children got…

Palaces of memory – Poussin’s all over the place, the Mona Lisa’s probably a fake and they won’t let you into the caves at Vallon. Don’t worry, Bruce Durie has a cunning plan

Space attack! – There’s a war going on in Deep Space for the hearts and minds of Earth’s children . . . as they decide which space toy their poor parents will have to buy. Scott Lafee reports from the front line

Sleepy heads – There’s no better way of being out of it during the cruel winter months. Gail Vines lays down stores and prepares to turn into a dormouse

A mouldy old vintage – First lice, now black goo. Sounds like California’s vine growers should just jump in a vat of Chardonnay and pull the lid down, says Lewis Perdue

Stranger by the moment… – The kids are in a zero-calorie trance in front of the TV. Mum’s crawling with demodex mites. And baby’s eating chalk and wallpaper paste. Don’t you just love Christmas, says David Bodanis

Drunk as a skunk – If hangover research ends up with people falling over in the lab, how on earth can we ever find a cure? Our man down the pub, Andy Coghlan, forced himself to find out

Dying to know – Would you lay your life on the line for a theory? Marcus Chown meets a man who’s thinking about it

Knock knock who’s there? – Stephanie Pain. And has she got bad news for deathwatch beetles . . .

Christmas quiz

Reckless raccoon’s big day – It was just a lil ole piece of prairie before them there particle folk moved in. Now the critters are fighting back, says Marcus Chown

Decisions, decisions – Could it be wedding bells for Josie and Adam or has Hugh got his sums wrong? Robert Matthews hopes they do the right thing

Table of contents

News

The cold light of day – Britain’s culture of scientific secrecy could soon be swept away

Newswire : Bird flu spreads

Viral magic – Crops become biofactories

Newswire : Good blood

Newswire : Observatory doomed

How the ancient world came to a shaky end

The drying of a continent – Earthquakes devastated early civilisations, scientists told the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco鈥攂ut settlers elsewhere did some damage of their own. New 杏吧原创 reports

Germ warfare – Household cleaners help bugs dodge antibiotic weapons

Patents : Grab that tree

Patents : Novel or not

Patents : Food for fish

Will Europe let C5 pump up the power?

In mint condition . . . – Metallic mist saves Europe’s oldest treasure-trove

Whisky galore – Reconditioned casks are the key to a more mature flavour

Earth

Dirty dealings – A coup at Kyoto allows the US to buy the right to pollute

Wolves out

Peace in the forest – A remarkable discovery offers hope for the red squirrel

Herbal remedies win respect

Exotic planet is gone with the wind

A deadly passion – How to lure wood-crunching termites to their doom

Technofile : Babel fish

Technofile : Cancer crop

Technofile : Sun farm

Technofile : Life savers

Gut feeling – A stomach ulcer vaccine is on the cards

Where’s Rudolph? – The lichens have died back, so reindeer herds must be slashed

Tiger proxy

Too hot to handle – Just how dangerous are minute shards of radioactive metal?

Focus : Damage limitation – How can scientists work in sensitive ecosystems without harming them? A new set of Australian guidelines could help

Netropolitan :

Netropolitan :

Netropolitan :

Netropolitan : Festival fever

Comprenez?

Video for the People – Tit-for-tat royalties will help spread the word in China

Newswire : Killer scratch

Newswire : Cybercops unite

Newswire : AIDS behind bars

Nature’s way – Ancient inks will clean up desktop printers

Gel makes go-faster chips

Bolt from the blue – There are bigger hazards than noise for people living under a flight path

Beavers will be back, if Scots want them

In brief : Wet outlook for mutant salamander

In brief : Big freeze

In brief : Diabetes plant

In brief : Shaking all over

In brief : Death wish

In brief : Down, down 鈥�

Opinion

Editorial : Dear Santa, love Bill – Yet again, Microsoft has emerged unscathed from a legal tussle

Editorial : The roads to freedom

Features

Movers and shakers – Can the sound of one snowflake stop a plane from crashing into a mountainside? Ian Stewart puts his ear to the ground

Let a thousand flowers bloom . . . – They’re heavy metal’s biggest fans鈥攁nd they hang out in the seediest of places. Amy Adams gets a lesson in 90s-style flower power

All God’s children got…

Palaces of memory – Poussin’s all over the place, the Mona Lisa’s probably a fake and they won’t let you into the caves at Vallon. Don’t worry, Bruce Durie has a cunning plan

Space attack! – There’s a war going on in Deep Space for the hearts and minds of Earth’s children . . . as they decide which space toy their poor parents will have to buy. Scott Lafee reports from the front line

Sleepy heads – There’s no better way of being out of it during the cruel winter months. Gail Vines lays down stores and prepares to turn into a dormouse

A mouldy old vintage – First lice, now black goo. Sounds like California’s vine growers should just jump in a vat of Chardonnay and pull the lid down, says Lewis Perdue

Stranger by the moment… – The kids are in a zero-calorie trance in front of the TV. Mum’s crawling with demodex mites. And baby’s eating chalk and wallpaper paste. Don’t you just love Christmas, says David Bodanis

Drunk as a skunk – If hangover research ends up with people falling over in the lab, how on earth can we ever find a cure? Our man down the pub, Andy Coghlan, forced himself to find out

Dying to know – Would you lay your life on the line for a theory? Marcus Chown meets a man who’s thinking about it

Knock knock who’s there? – Stephanie Pain. And has she got bad news for deathwatch beetles . . .

Christmas quiz

Reckless raccoon’s big day – It was just a lil ole piece of prairie before them there particle folk moved in. Now the critters are fighting back, says Marcus Chown

Decisions, decisions – Could it be wedding bells for Josie and Adam or has Hugh got his sums wrong? Robert Matthews hopes they do the right thing

More

Review : Birth place of an idea

Review : Fowl play

Review : Ray van

Review : Seeds of destruction

Review : Soft bags of mortality

Review : A long walk

Review : Cultural deaths

Review : Confusion

Review : Places of delight

Review : The African rift

Review : Bright blooms

Review : Devious descent

Review : Collected works – Carole Stott is starry-eyed about the year ahead with the cosmos

Bestsellers : from Cape Town

Forum : A present for the future – Jon Noad offers a range of ways to cultivate Earthly perpetuity

Forum : In the realm of intangibles – Len Fisher probes the mystical entities of religion and science

Forum : Mendel in black – Could Hollywood be ready for the wilder shores of genetics, wonders Martin Brookes

Washington diary : – Andreas Frew reports from the heady heights of Capitol Hill

Regulars

The last word

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