杏吧原创

Radar explorers of the Solar System: What are asteroids made of? Is there ice on Mercury? Astronomers are turning to a technique devised to locate objects on Earth to find out more about the Solar System

Raising a stink in Boston: One of the biggest civil engineering projects in America aims to stop Bostonians polluting their harbour. But the scheme could simply create a problem for someone else

A sticky end for disease: While sticky molecules help hold our bodies together that may not be all they are good for. By manipulating their stickiness, scientists are hoping to develop new treatments for illnesses

Time to shelve the library?: Who needs libraries now that the world’s information is accessible through computer networks? Soon only historians may be interested in these shrines to learning

Back to the days of deadly smogs: Forty years ago this week, four thousand Londoners died in the worst air-pollution disaster on record. London has cleaned up its act, but smog is killing again in other cities

Obscure origins of desire: As researchers chart the links between brain and behaviour, they have stirred up a fierce debate over whether the roots of homosexuality lie in the womb

Can nuclear power ever pay its way?: Postwar pioneers were convinced they could generate electricity cheaply. But nearly 40 years later, nuclear power is still struggling to survive without subsidies

Fears, fantasies and fallout: Fuelled by images from science fiction and startling claims from scientists, our perception of nuclear energy has run out of control. But, with some respect, not irreversibly so

Arms and the ban: The world has failed to halt the spread of nuclear weapons. Total disarmament may now be the only way of insuring stability and averting disaster

The day Chicago went critical

On 2 December 1942, some of the world's leading scientists crowded into a disused squash court to stage the first controlled nuclear chain reaction

Technology

In good conscience

Recovering from the Cold War: Now that old adversaries are gone, Britain should consider how military research could help the nonmilitary sector

These cells were made for learning

Shaking the foundations of mathematics: There are many interpretations of mathematics. The one we use has proved itself. But what would happen to our view of the Universe if we experimented with another?