A wet prehistory THE Chinese call the Yellow River their "joy and sorrow" because its life-giving waters so easily turn to killer floods. But the floods were once much worse, says Ge Yu of the Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology. He compared the sediments left by recent floods with those laid down over the past 9000 years. … News
The daily grind pays off THE claim by American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson that, `If you build a better mousetrap, the world will beat a path to your door' was always pretty dubious. But for an Australian company which used the Internet to publicise its wares, it has turned out to be accurate. Eighteen months ago Advanced Powder Technology (APT), … Opinion
Odds on winner If you've ever been bothered by the weight of that laptop you lug about on your travels, spare a thought for George Julius. In 1912, he left Australia in search of buyers for his brilliant new invention-a device that would transform a day at the races by taking betting out of the hands of the … Features
Engines of Tomorrow by Robert Buderi Engines of Tomorrow by Robert Buderi, Simon & Schuster, $27.50, ISBN 0684839008 XEROX's Mark Yim is building modular robots that shape-shift. A curious ambition, you might think. But Yim sees his creations as rescue robots, able to go anywhere. They assemble their modules into a wheel to roll swiftly over flat ground, shape-shift into a … Books & Arts
The Last Word Cold start Question : Although this sounds counter-intuitive, I find that my car (a Ford Mondeo, if that is relevant) always seems to perform better on a damp, cold day rather than on a dry, warm one. Why should this be? Answer : There are several ways of improving the power produced by an internal … Regulars