Technology Brain stimulation gives you will to persevere Video: Brain zapping gives you the will to persevere Perseverance in the face of adversity is an admirable character trait – now it turns out you can conjure it up with a quick zap to a tiny spot in the brain. The discovery in two people with epilepsy was accidental but it is the first … 51¶¯Âþ
Life What should we do about pornography? The long-term effects of sexually explicit material on young people are unclear, but there are still steps we can and should take, say a forensic psychologist and a public health lecturer Opinion
Technology Police could use radio waves to bring cars to a halt Devices that fire microwave blasts, scrambling cars' onboard computers, could soon allow the authorities to rein in suspect vehicles 51¶¯Âþ
Technology Enter a monster wind tunnel used to test jet engines (Image: Noah Kalina/noahkalina.com) TO CHECK whether jet engines can survive a bird strike , manufacturers famously fire oven-ready chickens into them. But it doesn't end there: aircraft also have to be able to cope with the freezing conditions that can hit at any stage of a flight. And that's where this massive wind tunnel in … Regulars
Health Fresh air and sunshine: The forgotten antibiotics Florence Nightingale knew about them. Your grandparents might have known about them. So why have doctors turned their backs on these two potent germ killers? Features
Earth Look to complexity theory to solve the aid problem Humanitarian aid was distributed in Haiti after an earthquake hit in 2010 (Image: Logan Abassi/MINUSTAH/Getty) We need to consider poverty as a complex situation if aid is to save lives in the 21st century, says Ben Ramalingam in Aid on the Edge of Chaos "EXCUSE me friends I must catch my jet, I'm off to … CultureLab
Earth Species are being lost in a sea of sand (Image: Thomas Rabeil/Sahara Conservation Fund) The Sahara desert is looking ever more like its nickname, the sea of sands, and its native wildlife populations are in catastrophic decline. The wild addax pictured above are some of only 200 left in the world. Faring even worse than the addax, the scimitar horned oryx – pictured below … Regulars
Feedback: What would quantum agriculture be? Feedback is our weekly column of bizarre stories, implausible advertising claims, confusing instructions and more Quantum agriculture? INCREDULITY followed Ruby Hills's alert on a course in New South Wales. The organisers proudly announced in March that "Dr Patrick MacManaway... will be conducting a Quantum Leap Level 1 workshop at Dubbo." Regular readers will know that … Regulars