Technology Collapsible space telescope The US Air Force lab in Albuquerque, New Mexico, is patenting a new way of designing folding parabolic mirrors for space telescopes (US 2003/223135.) The new mirror can be collapsed for launch, and unpacked and expanded at its destination. To make the mirror, water is spun rapidly in a vertical cylinder to form a concave … 51¶¯Âþ
Humans Westminster diary CHEAP eco-friendly alternatives to pesticides are much needed and greatly to be encouraged. I asked Gareth Thomas, junior minister for international development, for his views on recent biopesticide research at the University of Greenwich (51¶¯Âþ, 13 December 2003, p 12) . Its aim is to control plagues of the African army worm caterpillar in … Opinion
Last days of the locust In the summer of 1873, black clouds drifted east from the foothills of the Rocky Mountains towards the newly settled farms of Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota and the Dakotas. The pioneer families had no warning: the sky went dark at midday, the air filled with a sound like a thousand scissors. Then the clouds fragmented and … Features
Gaia may not save us Global Change and the Earth System by W. Steffen and others, Springer-Verlag, £77/$129, ISBN 3540408002 Reviewed by Fred Pearce THERE are two sorts of concern for the environment. There is all that touchy-feely stuff about saving cuddly animals, and there is saving the planet from humanity's mega-depredations. Earth-system science deals with the latter. It deals … Books & Arts
Feedback AS a hint of spring starts to penetrate the bleakness of the northern winter, strange creatures emerge blinking into the sunlight, making odd noises. And, if you are a writer on medical issues, even stranger things clamber into your email inbox. "Every April," one of these vernal harbingers proclaims, "a self-serving advocacy group masquerading as … Regulars