Too wet to woo TAWNY owls don't bother singing in the rain, having learned that wet weather drowns out their calls. Thierry Lengagne of the Maison de la Recherche, Boult aux Bois and Peter Slater of the University of St Andrews found that in dry conditions, owl calls could be heard by other owls over an area of almost … 51¶¯Âþ
The word the old man Only a handful of people know the identity of The Old Man, and they aren't talking. But we can be reasonably sure that at 4767 years old, The Old Man is the world's oldest living tree. It is one of 17 ancient bristlecone pines (Pinus longaeva) growing in the White Mountains of California. Exactly which … Opinion
The chunkiest chip Today they are everywhere. Production lines controlled by computers and operated by robots. There's no chatter of assembly workers, just the whirr and click of machines. In the mid-1940s, the workerless factory was still the stuff of science fiction. There were no computers to speak of and electronics was primitive. Yet hidden away in the … Features
What's in a name? Human Evolutionary Psychology by Louise Barrett, Robin Dunbar and John Lycett, Princeton, $29.95, ISBN 0691096228 Reviewed by Kate Douglas SITTING in Robin Dunbar's office at the University of Liverpool earlier this year, I couldn't resist asking him whether he had considered changing the name of his department from "Evolutionary Psychology" to something that might be … Books & Arts
Feedback A BRITISH passenger was recently jailed for refusing to turn off his cellphone during a flight. The judge suggested that airlines should now confiscate all passengers' phones before take-off, switch them off and return them on landing. This prompted warnings from the airlines industry that some phones may have timers which could switch themselves on … Regulars