This week 45 years ago The first human in space On the day after Major Yuri Gagarin was borne around the Earth in 108 minutes, the Duke of Edinburgh, speaking to a meeting of the Institutions of Civil, Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, surveyed the tasks awaiting engineers in the development of the world's resources. There is irony in the fact … News
Earth The value of trees OF ALL the ideas about how to tackle climate change, paying countries in the tropics not to cut down their trees has always been one of the most controversial. First suggested in the 1990s as part of the negotiations over the UN climate change convention, the scheme was considered dead in the water when governments … Opinion
Technology Quantum computing: When photons go AWOL JAMES Franson is no stranger to strange things. He has done plenty of experiments showing, for example, that quantum entanglement really is as spooky as it seems. Einstein hated the idea, but Franson has seen at first hand that two quantum particles, such as photons, can affect each other's properties no matter how far apart … Features
Technology The word: Common sense SOME things are just obvious. We all know that people don't walk on their heads, for example, or that if you go out in the rain you're likely to get wet. It's common sense. But some things that seem obvious to one person may seem obscure to another if they are from another culture, religion … Regulars
Feedback Clothing for the paranoid TINFOIL hats may protect the brain from dangerous radio frequencies and mind-control rays. Or they may not, according to a group of students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who tested three standard designs with equipment costing $250,000. They found the foil actually amplified some radio signals – especially those on … Regulars