杏吧原创

The white heat of laser dentistry: Dentists in the US are not allowed to use lasers to drill their patients’ teeth. But in Britain they are, even though researchers are still evaluating the technique

Careers: Come on in, the salary’s lovely – Technical skills continue to attract the highest salaries in the industrial sector

Careers: Why graduates won’t wear science – A strong science and engineering base is vital to a strong economy. But many graduates with the right degrees shun their chosen subject. New 杏吧原创 spoke to some and asked where the fault lies – with them, w

The Universe through gamma ray eyes: Some of the Universe’s most vital statistics can only be discovered by decoding cosmic gamma rays – an enormous job for NASA’s giant space observatory

Hi-fi cells at the heart of the ear

I process therefore I am: Artifical intelligence researchers are still divided over the best way to build machines that think. But two of the field’s leading players at least agree that machines could soon be conscious of their thoughts and actions

Fear and laughter in the Kremlin: Soviet strategists dismissed Star Wars as technical nonsense, but they knew it could undermine delicate negotiations to control the spread of nuclear weapons

The man who promised the earth: James Ionson set out to persuade the world that the biggest ever military research project would deliver enormous commercial benefits. He now admits he was exaggerating

Blinded by the light: Because lasers were at the heart of the plan to build an impregnable shield for the planet, billions of dollars were thrown at the technology over a short period. Could that windfall have been better spent?

What’s harder than diamond?: Burgeoning research effortsshow that the potential rewards for making a ‘superhard’ substance are huge- but attempts to win carbon’s crown have met some setbacks

Careers: In waters deep and shallow – As an island, Britain has a special interest in what inhabits its coastal, territorial and inland waters

Why must I be a teenager at all?: No one knows for sure why adolescence is unique to humans. But it could buy teenagers time to practise the complex social skills we need to become effective parents

2010: America’s nuclear waste odyssey – The US has spent billions of dollars studying a site planned to be the permanent home for its nuclear waste. As the deadline for a decision approaches, supporters and opponents are still wrangling about what the da

Watch out for the videophones: After 30 years of promises, we can now buy telephones that transmit pictures. But the problems caused by out-of-date technology may put us off them for life