Enigma: No 805 A prime year I WAS recently filling in a passport application for my family and in writing down a particular year of birth for one of them I included an extra digit in error. The passport officer rejected the form but the quick-witted clerk noted that the five-figure "year" which I had written was a palindromic prime. Interestingly, … News
The Universe we deserve? WHEN many of the world's astronomers gather this week in Tucson, Arizona for the meeting of the American Astronomical Society, one topic is sure to dominate: the measurement of the Hubble constant by Wendy Freedman and her colleagues and the shock it has given cosmologists. Using the Hubble Space Telescope to make observations of Cepheid … Opinion
Robots: the next generation THE setting is simple: a rectangular room with its walls painted black except for one white square and one white triangle. In the centre of the room, a video camera hangs from a shaft connected to an overhead gantry. Below it is a plastic disc connected to a circle of eight, touch-sensitive bumpers. Motors on … Features
Get under your skin OUR BIRTHDAY suit is in many ways the, original "amazing technicolour dreamcoat". Far more versatile than any clothing yet devised, skin keeps out the rain and the germs, protects us from the sun and helps to keep our bodies at the right temperature. What's more, it monitors its own state of repair with pain receptors … Inside Science
Feedback A SMALL question: When are researchers not researchers? Answer: When they're suppliers. That, at least, is the view of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), which is fast becoming overwhelmed by a tide of US-style management-speak. At a recent conference in London, held to explain EPSRC policies to universities and industry, its chairman … Regulars