Don't let new boundaries cut off UK science Many scientists in the UK could soon find themselves isolated from their colleagues in Europe and Scotland. That must not happen Opinion
Life Baby's first gut bacteria may come from mum's mouth The placenta's microbiome may hold surprising secrets Babies in the womb are not as sheltered from the outside world as you might think. The placenta harbours a unique ecosystem of bacteria which may have a surprising origin – the mother's mouth. Disturbances of the placenta's bacterial community may explain why some women give birth prematurely, … 51¶¯Âþ
Technology Low-cost production will mean the end of jobs The future is bright for Jeremy Rifkin Houses with their own solar panels are bringing down the cost of electricity in Germany The internet and low production costs will free us from work and want, says social theorist Jeremy Rifkin – but what will we do then? Stephen Jay Gould called an early book of … Opinion
Technology Curved screens make our brains light up with pleasure Why are ever more curved-screen gadgets being launched? It seems bendiness has deep aesthetic appeal and will spur new materials and manufacturing methods 51¶¯Âþ
Space See the Minecraft nebula that Twitter found (Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech) "CAPTURE & name your own NASA Spitzer space image! It's easier than you might think." With this tweet , the operators of the Spitzer Space Telescope invited people to roam around a gigantic mosaic of the Milky Way. Composed of more than 2 million infrared images taken by the telescope over the last … Regulars
Life Obsession engineers: Mind control the Candy Crush way Why are we addicted to games? (Image: Patrick George) How do you design a hit video game? Psychologists are diagnosing what gets us addicted – a recipe for obsession that could hurt or heal us IN APRIL, a landfill in New Mexico disgorged proof of a decades-old rumour. The story goes back to 1983, when … Features
Life All systems Tao: Holistic view of life's networks Causality works bottom-up and top-down at once (Image: David Maitland/Millennium Images) Fritjof Capra goes beyond The Tao of Physics with The Systems View of Life , a much-needed vision of biology with a dash of Eastern mysticism WHEN I was about 17, I was briefly transfixed by the teachings of Eastern mysticism. I read everything … CultureLab
Technology Scotland: Ape Israel to build a start-up nation On 18 September, the people of Scotland will vote on whether their country should become independent of the UK. This article is part of our "Four futures for an independent Scotland" special report, looking at the choices a newly independent Scotland could make Careers
Feedback: Mammoth tidings Feedback is our weekly column of bizarre stories, implausible advertising claims, confusing instructions and more Mammoth tidings GOOD news for South Carolina. Earlier, its House of Representatives opposed creationist references that the state Senate slipped in while enacting 8-year-old Olivia McConnell's proposal to name the Columbian mammoth as the state fossil (26 April) . Then … Regulars