Life Peahens may not prefer the flashiest peacocks tails WAS Darwin wrong about the sexual allure of the peacock's tail? A controversial study in Japan has found no evidence for the traditional view that peahens choose their partners based on the quality of the peacocks' tails. Mariko Takahashi at the University of Tokyo and her team studied peacocks and peahens in Izu Cactus Park, … 51¶¯Âþ
Life Editorial: Time to talk about race IT WAS inevitable that Barack Obama's speech on race, delivered on 18 March, would be dissected mainly in the context of another race – that for the US presidency. But whatever it means for his candidacy, the deeper significance of the speech is that it might just spark a mature dialogue on this most incendiary … Opinion
Earth Can coal live up to its clean promise? COAL is our cheapest and most abundant source of fossil-fuel energy. We probably have enough to keep the world powered for hundreds of years. Trouble is, the carbon emissions from burning it all would make the planet uninhabitable long before then. Is there a way to get the energy without the emissions? There certainly is, … Features
Review: Flatland: The movie edition EDWIN ABBOTT'S 1884 classic is billed here as a mathematical story, designed to stimulate young imaginations. But the tale of a two-dimensional "Flatland" and a visiting sphere, who introduces the Gospel of the Three Dimensions, is also a timeless satire on class privilege. A delightful piece of science fiction, it explores how a 2D world … Books & Arts
Feedback Unrecognised irises THE UK government remains hell-bent on introducing biometric identity cards. We have to wonder how many of the civil servants behind the scheme have tried using the iris-recognition technology the government introduced a year ago to make it quicker to get through passport control at UK airports and which Feedback reported on at … Regulars