Technology Flawed NASA survey worth a second look If you fly, you may have been disappointed on 31 December 2007 when NASA released 16,000 pages' worth of survey data on flight safety. Despite spending $11 million on gathering the data, which involved questioning 500 US commercial pilots every month for four years, NASA administrator Michael Griffin says the results are unusable because the … 51¶¯Âþ
Earth Comment: Polar power game reveals surprise winner WHEN Robert Scott and his men arrived at the South Pole on 17 January 1912 only to find another team had pipped them to the post, Scott pencilled an anguished line in his diary: "Great God! This is an awful place and terrible enough for us to have laboured to it without reward of priority." … Opinion
Life The great seed blitzkrieg A SHOT rang out across the foothills of the Andes. Heinz Brücher, 75, Adolf Hitler's top botanist, lay dead in his vineyard on the outskirts of Mendoza in Argentina. It was December 1991. Nobody was ever charged with the murder, but plenty of organisations had a motive, including drug cartels, the KGB and Mossad. In … Features
Life Review: Built by Animals by Mike Hansell HOW are tiny animals like termites able to build north-south-aligned mounds up to 7 metres high? From aardvarks and beavers to yellowjacket wasps, animal architects make remarkable constructions that require "decision". When, for instance, does a giant golden digger wasp stop digging its burrow and start excavating the terminal chamber? Is it when she feels … Books & Arts
Feedback Fear of repetitive websites LAST year Feedback noted the irony of a website offering help to people with a phobia of phones that advises sufferers to make a phone call (21 April 2007) . Kipp Lynch dug a little deeper. "While scrolling the alphabetical list of phobias in the 'p' section of changethatsrightnow.com ," he … Regulars