Technology Nanoscale robots built from DNA NANO-FACTORIES of the future could be equipped with DNA strands acting as nanoscale robot arms that will pick up and assemble molecular-scale objects. Such long-sought nanorobots are now a step closer thanks to a team led by Nadrian Seeman of New York University in New York City, which has built a machine in which a … 51¶¯Âþ
Health Our futile war on cancer NEXT week will mark the 35th anniversary of the National Cancer Act, the opening salvo of the US government's battle to eradicate cancer. In those 35 years, the US has spent tens of billions of dollars on cancer research, and we are frequently told that this has won us significant progress. Look at the data, … Opinion
Earth The ice age that never was There was a chill across the world, and it wasn't just the cold war. From the 1940s to the mid-70s, the planet seemed to be in the grip of a global cooling. For a while, almost every outbreak of extreme weather was blamed on it. Some members of a new scientific discipline, climatology, predicted a … Features
Life Extinction and Biogeography of Tropical Pacific Birds, by David W Steadman WHEN I was a kid, everyone thought that the Pacific Ocean islands had never had many bird species, and that those that had been lost died at the hands of European sailors and their cats, rats and goats. This book shows how wrong we were. The islands once abounded with birds, and their extinction was … Books & Arts
Feedback Devil of a disclaimer LEGAL warnings and disclaimers on web pages must be among the most widely ignored texts in the history of human communication – which gives their composers a certain creative freedom. We particularly like the one that Dik Allison found at www.derbyshireguide.co.uk , which reads as follows: This information is provided to … Regulars