Health Power of the mind can lessen chronic pain PATIENTS could suppress chronic pain by learning to control the activity of certain areas of their brains. Christopher deCharms of imaging technology firm Omneuron in California and his colleagues at Stanford University showed eight patients suffering from chronic pain feedback from real-time functional magnetic resonance images of the rostral anterior cingulate cortex (rACC), one of … 51¶¯Âþ
Life Safety-testing of non-lethal weapons must be tightened IT SOUNDS like the screenplay for a tawdry horror flick – corpses shot with plastic bullets, people zapped with microwave beams and others knocked out with volatile narcotic gels. But this is not Hollywood fiction. This is the reality of non-lethal weapons research. At first glance, developing weapons that incapacitate without killing seems a worthy … Opinion
Technology Busted! A crisis in cryptography "LAST year, I walked away saying thank God she didn't get a break in SHA-1," says William Burr. "Well, now she has." Burr, a cryptographer at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, Maryland, is talking about Xiaoyun Wang, a Chinese cryptographer with a formidable knack for breaking things. Last year Wang, now … Features
Earth story MARTIN RUDWICK offers unusual advice in his introduction: the picture captions in Bursting the Limits of Time effectively summarise this superb account of the debate over the history of the Earth. It would be a pity to take him at his word, though, because this is a vigorous tale of the gradual realisation and proof … Books & Arts
Feedback Vibrating algae BET you didn't know this about algae. Gillian McKeith in her book Miracle Superfood: Wild blue-green algae tells us: "Some algae enthusiasts believe that if you eat blue-green algae on a regular basis, you will connect with something essential and ancient. Richard France, a macrobiotic counselor, states it is not inconceivable that on … Regulars