Up in smoke Brush fires in Western Australia have raised air pollution in the outback to ten times its normal level. The plume of smoke can be seen in satellite images and was confirmed by the observatory at Lake Argyle in Western Australia. Researchers think heavy rain last summer caused rapid plant growth in areas that are often … News
Don't buy this WOULD you want to see Prozac advertised routinely in Britain's newspapers, magazines or on TV? For more than two years, the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) has been pushing to change the law to allow "direct-to-consumer advertising". In other words, marketing to the public what are currently prescription-only medicines. And with scarcely a … Opinion
Radio days In the league table of unsung heroes of science, Stanley Hey, who died earlier this year, must rank near the top. Little known to the outside world-or even to today's astronomers-this unassuming physicist made the next three important discoveries in radio astronomy after the initial detection of cosmic radio waves. His story begins in the … Features
Just drugs Drugs, poisons and the contents of your doctor's bag: they're all the same brew. John Mann's wonderfully readable Murder, Magic and Medicine, now out in a revised edition, tracks the substances from shaman to pharmacy, and poisoned arrow to junkie's hypodermic. Published by Oxford University Press, £9.99, ISBN 0198507445. Books & Arts
Feedback SEX , as everyone knows, can be quite a complicated matter for us humans. But the uncertain and confused among us can at least take comfort that we are not Diaprepes abbreviatus beetles. Feedback's attention has been drawn to a study conducted last year for the US Department of Agriculture Research Service in Florida by … Regulars