Cycling across Mars A robot made out of old bicycle parts is to be tested in the Canadian Arctic in July as a prototype for a new breed of Sun-worshipping Mars rovers. If it is successful, Hyperion, a 3-metre-tall solar cell on wheels developed at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, will attempt to stay active on Mars 24 … News
Westminster Diary ALL CREDIT to any MP not afraid of being laughed at. Step forward Lembit Opik, Liberal Democrat MP for Montgomeryshire, whose famous grandfather Ernst pioneered the study of comets back in the 1930s. Opik secured an end-of-day adjournment debate on potentially hazardous near-Earth objects (NEOs) in March 1999. Unlike many similar debates, it achieved a … Opinion
The ant and the mandarin In 1476, the farmers of Berne in Switzerland decided there was only one way to rid their fields of the cutworms attacking their crops. They took the pests to court. The worms were tried, found guilty and excommunicated by the archbishop. In China, farmers had a more practical approach to pest control. Rather than rely … Features
Keeping in Touch Access Denied in the Information Age edited by Stephen Lax, Palgrave/St Martins, $65, ISBN 0333920198 WHAT are the effects of the "communications revolution"—not just the notorious Internet, but pagers and mobiles and wiredness in all its forms? And how would we cope without wiredness? Imagine the global mobile phone network crashes. Would you rejoice at … Books & Arts
The Last Word Soggy pud Question : The traditional way to cook a boiled pudding is to tie it in a cotton or linen cloth and immerse it in boiling water. If the water goes off the boil, water gets into the pudding and it goes soggy. What prevents the simmering water—undoubtedly a liquid— penetrating the cloth, when … Regulars