Octopussy isn't choosy THE deadly blue-ringed octopuses of Octopussy fame aren't very discriminating when it comes to certain pursuits. The males try to mate with either sex, say Mary Cheng and Roy Caldwell of the University of California at Berkeley. However, encounters between males do not last as long as those involving a female, and no sperm appears … News
Driving us to drink? AUSTRALIAN drinking water standards are arbitrary and not well enforced, according to a recent report by the Productivity Commission. Every one of us drinks water and almost all are at the mercy of a monopoly supplier who decides just how pure our water will be. So it is hard to understand why the report, entitled … Opinion
Pot of gold What's a smashed and burnt piece of pot doing in the company of the world's most ancient gold coins? This fragment of coarse, gritty earthenware, on display in the British Museum's coins and medals room, is more valuable than the fabulous golden treasures. It may be a bit of old rubbish retrieved from a dump … Features
Whole Earth book Geologists, says John McPhee, are like dermatologists: "They crowd around like fleas on the world's tough hide, exploring every wrinkle and crease, and try to figure out what makes the animal move." He has, you'll agree, a way with words. In Annals of the Former World, now a thumping 696-page paperback, he turns his travels … Books & Arts
Feedback TRAINS in Britain may be halted because of leaves on the track or the wrong kind of snow, but surely nothing like that could interrupt the clockwork precision of Japanese railways, could it? Well, yes, it could. According to a report in the Yomiuri newspaper, an express train north of Tokyo was brought to a … Regulars