Technology Robot infantry get ready for the battlefield Sword totes a standard machine gun "Please put down your weapon. You have 20 seconds to comply." So said the armed robot in Paul Verhoeven's 1987 movie RoboCop . The suspect drops his weapon but a fault in the robot's software means it opens fire anyway. Nearly two decades later, such fictional weapon-toting robots are … 51¶¯Âþ
Life Biotechnology – is it moving too fast? David Suzuki Imagine bacteria that could spread through our bodies to scavenge mercury or other pollutants and then extrude them from a pimple. Or plants that continue to photosynthesise under very low light conditions, or food crops that can survive in highly salinated soils. Such boons are the promise of biotechnology. We expect to be … Opinion
Life Revival of the fittest The seeds waited comfortably for 200 years In March 1803, the Henriette anchored off Cape Town, near Africa's southern tip. Homeward bound from China with a cargo of tea, porcelain and silks, the ship had stopped to take on supplies for the final leg of its voyage. For two weeks, Dutch merchant Jan Teerlink toured … Features
Life The word: Qiviut GO TO Alaska in tourist season and someone might ask "wanna buy some qiviut?" They're not trying to sell you something that will make the tundra appear full of purple poppies; what you are being offered is the wool of the musk ox. What makes qiviut (pronounced "kiv-ee-ute") special? The musk ox (which isn't actually … Regulars
Feedback Magnetic Super Food? AFTER all the quantum wonders we've been offered, we feel a twinge of nostalgia on encountering dear old magnetic miracle cures. Oak-panelled Victorian seance chambers come to mind... but never fear, whoever is responsible for Magneurol, at www.magneurol.com , has found a 21st-century "scientific" twist. "Use This Discovery," they exhort us, "to … Regulars