Earth Mountaintop miners lose bank's backing If you're having trouble getting a bank loan, you have something in common with the US coal mining industry. The Bank of America has announced that it will refuse loans to mining companies that pursue the damaging practice of lopping off mountaintops to extract coal. The hope is that other banks will now do the … 51¶¯Âþ
Transsexual children deserve better THE idea of delaying puberty in children and teens who feel confused about their gender will make many parents deeply uneasy. Yet that's what the Endocrine Society, the world's oldest and largest society devoted to the study of hormones, is proposing in draft guidelines issued last week (see "Puberty blockers recommended for transsexual teens") . … Opinion
Space Did our cosmos exist before the big bang? Conceptual computer artwork representing the origin of the universe ABHAY ASHTEKAR remembers his reaction the first time he saw the universe bounce. "I was taken aback," he says. He was watching a simulation of the universe rewind towards the big bang. Mostly the universe behaved as expected, becoming smaller and denser as the galaxies converged. … Features
Review: Audubon: Early drawings IN 1803, a young Frenchman called Jean-Jacques Audubon sailed to America to avoid conscription into Napoleon's army. Thirty-five years later, he was the revered ornithological artist John James Audubon , "the American woodsman", author of the magnificent Birds of America . Before that book made him famous, he had spent decades trying to find a … Books & Arts
Chainsaw massacre Promised plant prose STUCK for a seasonal gift for the geek in your life? You could just visit www.botanicalls.com for a product that reader Iain Brassington describes as "um... odd". Feedback concurs: "There's a school of thought," the sales pitch runs, "that says that plants, like higher animals, have thoughts and feelings. They have an … Regulars