Life Physics tool makes students miss the point Software designed to help physicists tackle complicated mathematics seems to be encouraging students to focus on the wrong aspects of scientific problems. Interested in how students use computer programs to solve problems, physicists Thomas Bing and Edward Redish of the University of Maryland, College Park, analysed videos of teams of students as they worked on … 51¶¯Âþ
Earth Editorial: Testing the new GM generation MORE than a decade after the first commercial plantings of genetically modified crops, the same old disagreement rumbles on. On one side stand agribiotech companies, arguing that crops engineered to produce insecticidal proteins or resist herbicides boost yields in an environmentally friendly way. Opposing them are advocacy groups who charge that these crops, or the … Opinion
Earth Could new GM crops please the greens? PAUSE for a moment the next time you pass a farm. It looks pretty green on the surface, doesn't it? Take away the diesel-guzzling machinery and pesticides, and farms would be green in every sense, you might think. No wonder some see agriculture as the answer to global warming, as the rush to produce biofuels … Features
Review: Censoring Science by Mark Bowen IN THE saga of global warming – the warnings, the growing danger, the politics, the failure to act – one researcher has perhaps played a more prominent role than any other, on both scientific and political fronts. From creating some of the earliest climate models to articulating his growing fear about their results, from speaking … Books & Arts
Feedback "Flirt with science" competition: the runners up WE PROMISED in our last issue to publish the top 10 runners-up in our "Flirt with science" competition, in which readers were invited to seduce the person of their dreams with a science-related chat-up line. In the event we have decided to give you not just 10 but … Regulars