Enigma: No. 825 The long silence A FEW years ago I was given a novelty digital clock which displays the date and time in a ten-digit display (for example 25.12.89/05.08 and 17.02.90/17.57). The clock has an unusual feature: it buzzes whenever the ten displayed digits are all different. This took me by surprise the first time it happened shortly after I … News
Apocalypse tomorrow … LADIES and gentlemen. In the red corner, we have the Environmental Angel of Doom, Paul Ehrlich, and his sidekick, Mr Climatic Catastrophe, Stephen Schneider. And in the blue corner, on his own but not lonely, Julian Simon, the Apostle of Infinitely Expanding Wealth. Place your bets for the future: ruin or riches, annihilation or affluence, … Opinion
Bacteria rule OK? MOST people, if they think of evolution at all, see it as a neat progression from spineless blobs in the primeval soup to that most sophisticated of creatures – ourselves. The notion that bacteria might in some way be more advanced than us seems absurd. Yet this is exactly what a small band of molecular … Features
Worldwide scourges of our time THIS month, I hear, the government will receive the first report of the UK Inter-Departmental Working Group on Tuberculosis, a body it set up last year. The group's remit is to examine further ways in which Britain can prevent and control the disease and maintain its hitherto excellent record. Phyllida Brown reported (This Week, 25 … Forum
Feedback BEAUTIFUL people, as we reported here on 29 April, are better than the rest of us at coping with lower back pain – one of many ways in which the "halo effect" ensures that those who are born with good looks accumulate other advantages as they go through life. A study published by the US … Regulars