Life Smarter tags for the animal underworld If conservationsist want to know what a wild animal is up to, they fit it with a radio tracker. That's fine if it stays out in the open – but not if it's a burrowing or diving kind of beast. The GPS radio tags currently used to track wild animals and monitor their behaviour don't … 51¶¯Âþ
Technology Armchair warlords and robot hordes IT SOUNDS like every general's dream: technology that allows a nation to fight a war with little or no loss of life on its side. It is also a peace-seeking citizen's nightmare. Without the politically embarrassing threat of soldiers returning home in flag-wrapped coffins, governments would find it far easier to commit to military action. … Opinion
Life Profile of a sexsomniac THE first time it happened, Lisa Mahoney woke up to her boyfriend trying to have sex with her. "What are you doing?" she said, pushing him off. "You started it," he said. A few years later, a friend of hers crashed in her bed one night. The next morning he told her that she had … Features
The word: Urban heat island When the group Lovin' Spoonful sang "hot town, summer in the city" 40 years ago, their lyrics about sidewalks hotter than match heads were particularly apt. Cities, especially in summer, are hotter than the surrounding countryside. They are urban heat islands. Why? Because bricks, concrete and asphalt absorb more heat than vegetation – and fewer … Regulars
Feedback Armpit art SEVERAL readers have written to us adding their own examples of what Colum Clarke called "apposite adjacents" at the top of the pages of dictionaries (7 October). Among our favourites are two that Jonathan Ormond found in his Reader's Digest Reverse Dictionary (1989 edition). "Armpit Art", he suggests, sounds like a plausible future … Regulars