Why male orb spiders sacrifice all for love IT IS an unsavoury tale of sex, suicide, and self-sacrifice. For male orb-weaving spiders, the act of copulation leads to an immediate, certain death. To add to the indignity, their corpses then become entangled in the genitalia of their female partner. "Spiders are known for their bizarre mating, but even so this was surprising," says … 51¶¯Âþ
Humans Westminster diary BIG DAMS are back in the news. Press cameras are infatuated with the Three Gorges monster in China and, as Fred Pearce laments, governments and the World Bank "are back in love with dams" (51¶¯Âþ, 22 March, p 29) . Such megaprojects spell disaster for people who lack clean water, Pearce contends. And the … Opinion
Sun, sea and Sinatra The Salton Sea is a 98-year-old toxic drainage sump in the middle of the California desert. Nobody planned it. The largest lake in American west formed suddenly after over-enthusiastic irrigation engineers triggered a disastrous accident. Their company went bust as a result. Today, the sea is topped up with the run-off from farms that feed … Features
Stalking the enemy UNTIL recently, studying cancer was a frustrating line of work. Sure, researchers have learned a lot about how and why cancers form, but that has translated into very little improvement in hospital wards. "Patients keep dying at the same rate they did ten years ago," says Mariano Barbacid, director of the Spanish National Cancer Centre … Careers
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