Technology Merging photos could improve security screening Video: Watch a video of the new technique in action Watch a video of the new technique in action IMAGES made by merging several photos of the same face are easier for computer software to recognise than ordinary snapshots. This finding suggests that using "averaged" faces on passports might help security systems make better matches … 51¶¯Âþ
Space Commentary: Time to nail inflation IN THE beginning, there was inflation, or so we are told. I am not referring to American politics or the economy, but to a seemingly less contentious arena: the early universe. Inflation – a brief period during which the universe expanded faster than the speed of light – remains the dominant paradigm of cosmology. And … Opinion
Space Meteorites: How big is safe? IT WAS nearly noon, and the tropical sun was beating down on a rugged, remote expanse of Peruvian plains. Villagers from the settlements of Carancas and Desaguadero were going about their business when they suddenly saw a blazing light, as bright as the sun, streak across the sky from the Andes in the north-east towards … Features
Life Review: Irreligion by John Allen Paulos MATHEMATICIAN John Allen Paulos wades through the classical arguments for the existence of God and systematically refutes them. Much of the book echoes Richard Dawkins's The God Delusion , albeit a bit less impassioned. It is readable and concise, with moments of great logical rigour and dry wit, but I was hoping for a novel … Books & Arts
Feedback Magnets in underpants WE ARE surprised nobody thought of this before: a magnetic therapy for the world's most over-advertised dysfunction. The makers of Magnehance claim that if you are male you can enhance your organ's performance by wearing a flexible neodymium-iron-boron magnet in your underpants. If you are female, the Magnehance website promises that products … Regulars