Unusual shades RED eyes are often a sign of too many late nights, but one worm has another excuse. The grasshopper parasite Mermis nigrescens uses haemoglobin, the oxygen-carrying chemical that colours blood red, to absorb stray light in its eyes. Adult females emerge from the soil by crawling towards the light. To find the direction of the … News
Washington diary IN THE spirit of "if you want something done properly, do it yourself," your humble columnist would like to risk breaking his arms patting himself on the back for his incredible prescience. Faithful readers will recall that recently I boldly predicted that President Clinton was so smitten with a story he heard on CNN about … Opinion
Caught napping MIEKO had no quality of life any more, says her surgeon Ali Rezai from the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. For 15 years, she'd coped with Parkinson's disease, but then her medication began to fail her, and she found herself alternating between the uncontrollable wild movements created by her drugs and being locked motionless. For Antonia … Features
Star buy Jim Al-Khalili's Black Holes, Worm Holes and Time Machines is another of the many books about the wonders of the Universe and what we know about them. But with a difference, though. Enthusiasm to make everything understandable to the most untutored comes from every page. It's successful, it's humorous and it's up to date. A … Books & Arts
The Last Word Broken column Question : Why does smoke from a cigarette rise in a smooth, vertical column before it suddenly seems to scatter in a multitude of directions? Answer : Smoke rises from a cigarette because it is hot and lighter than air. The stream is smooth and shaped like a column because it is laminar, … Regulars