Pets train your kids' immune system HAVING two or more pets may protect infants against allergies, a study of 474 American children suggests. After monitoring the children from birth to the age of six or seven, Dennis Ownby's team at the Medical College of Georgia found that infants in homes with at least two animals were up to 77 per cent … News
Humans Westminster dairy IN RESPONSE to Prime Minister Tony Blair's recent speech on science at the Royal Society, a New Scientist Editorial suggested that to get a handle on public concerns over issues such as the acceptability of genetically modified crops or work on stem cells, Britain should consider setting up "citizens' juries" along the lines of those … Opinion
The trial of little owl In the 1930s, as Europe stood on the brink of war, British landowners were poised to launch their own offensive. Their target was a foreign invader from Europe, the little owl, Athene noctua. Half a century earlier, a few pairs had been released in England. Several decades on, these diminutive birds of prey, source of … Features
The Blank Slate: The modern denial of human nature by Steven Pinker The Blank Slate: The modern denial of human nature by Steven Pinker, Allen Lane/The Penguin Press, £25, ISBN 0713992565 THE blank slate of Steven Pinker's title is the "white paper void of all characters, without any ideas" to which philosopher John Locke compares the original state of the mind, as it passively waits for experience … Books & Arts
Feedback SINCE we last touched on the topic (23 March) , readers have continued to tell us of their disorientating experiences of semiopathy – otherwise known as "sign empathy" or, as a BBC Radio 4 presenter apparently termed it, "semantic vertigo" (thanks to Steven Rogers for telling us this). Here's a selection. Jim Keilthy reports being … Regulars