Technology Cutting edge THIS ONE GOES UP TO ELEVEN Anyone buying Denon's new 1700-watt home-cinema amplifier will need deep pockets and a strong shelf. The Behemoth, as it is known, costs a cool £4000 ($7200) and weighs 41 kilograms, mainly because of the huge transformers needed to power its 10 surround-sound channels, each delivering 170 watts. Some of … News
Bird traffic controller Yossi Leshem has been providing the Israeli air force with maps and forecasts of bird migration through Israeli airspace since 1983. He was the director of the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel from 1991 to 1995. In 1996, he set up the International Center for the Study of Bird Migration at Latrun … Opinion
Bad medicine THERE are certain bars and restaurants around the law courts of Charleston, South Carolina, that local surgeon Chris Hawk would be ill-advised to enter. Among lawyers, his name is mud. That's because at the South Carolina Medical Association's annual get-together this year Hawk proposed a motion that doctors should be able to refuse to treat … Features
Superweed dreams MORE than 20 years ago, ecologists and even genetic engineers began to express concerns that genes from engineered crops could "escape" into populations of wild relatives, possibly with damaging consequences for the environment. Since then, dozens of research projects have attempted to discover whether there are natural barriers to prevent genes in conventionally bred crops … Books & Arts
Yadvinder Malhi, Royal Society university research fellow, school of geosciences, University of Edinburgh Books & Arts
Feedback THE festive season approaches, and for many of us this means the annual ordeal of finding presents for loved ones. We all want to be regarded as great gift givers, but as panic sets in it's all too easy to fall back on old staples like slippers, scarves or socks. So this year, New Scientist … Regulars