Health Radio-wave treatment cuts high blood pressure Zapping a nerve with radio waves could soon be used routinely to reduce blood pressure in people whose hypertension fails to respond to drugs. This would cut the risk of stroke and heart disease for hundreds of thousands of people. The procedure targets nerves surrounding the kidney, which are housed within the wall of the … 51¶¯Âþ
Space Gravitational waves: Inside the Equinox Event If Einstein is right, the collision of two massive objects causes ripples in space-time A potential breakthrough in one of the longest-running projects in physics showed how science really works, says sociologist Harry Collins THE two huge interferometers belonging to one of the world's biggest physics experiments, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), experience a … Opinion
Life In our own image: Why we treat things like people One step closer to being human-like Editorial: How community spirit can backfire Cursing computers, talking to plants, even putting pigs on trial: anthropomorphism may be irrational, but it's how we cope with an indifferent world IT WAS a classic open-and-shut case. As Jehan Martin slept in his bed an intruder crept in, killed him and … Features
Humans Mapping the mind to the body – a little too easily Antonio Damasio's Self Comes to Mind has some intriguing new ideas based on solid science and makes a grand claim, but won't get its hands dirty WHEN combining neuroscience and philosophy, one popular strategy is to present many surprising neuroscientific results and then breathlessly assemble them into a grand speculative claim about "what it all … CultureLab
Enigma Number 1623 Over the edge To design a book of road maps the publisher took a huge square map of the total area covered. He then drew some vertical lines right down the map and some horizontal lines right across the map, thus dividing it into between 50 and 150 identical rectangles. Each rectangle was a whole … Regulars
Feedback: Reflecting on vampires Reflecting on Dracula DRACULA dust. "Does this class as fruitloopery or just insanity?" wonders Bob Sunman. By "this" he means the opportunity to purchase a sample of dust from Bran Castle in the Romanian province of Transylvania, home to Vlad the Impaler, inspiration for Count Dracula. To be more precise, the dust is said at … Regulars