Life Dying for some quiet: The truth about noise pollution FRANK PARDUSKI SENIOR could arguably qualify as the world's first anti-noise martyr. He died on 5 June in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, while attempting to slow down a 19-year-old motorcyclist who had been speeding back and forth outside Parduski's house. On impact, the 82-year-old was thrown 10 metres and died at the scene from multiple injuries. … News
Comment: Atheism à la carte SPARE a thought for atheists. In the centuries-old struggle for hearts and minds, atheism finds itself at a serious disadvantage compared with the world's organised religions. There are several reasons for this, but included among them, I would argue, are atheism's lack of deep emotional symbols, lack of a celebratory mythos based on oppression and … Opinion
Life Your body the powerplant IT'S one of those days. Your retinal implants say it's twilight, even though you've just finished lunch. Your heart has been skipping beats, yet the new love of your life is nowhere in sight. You've had three blood-sugar alerts and one heart-attack warning from your implanted sensors – all false alarms, as usual. Even that … Features
Life Science in Fiction: Pandora's Sisters by Michael Stephen Fuchs For much of this book, I felt like a goose being fattened to make foie gras: force-fed grains of science, philosophy and religion in a style that took some getting used to. The story, which revolves around a message encoded in our junk DNA, is told by Kate, a Ducati-riding programmer of ultra-violent video games. … Books & Arts
Feedback Clarins product: "scepticism abounds" COSMETIC advertisements remain a treasury of claims that get less precise the more closely you look. Three readers alerted us, however, to the way Clarins Cosmetique's blurb for its Expertise 3P product became very specific. Proclaimed benefits included a "Magnetic Defence Complex" that "protects skin from the ageing effects of Artificial … Regulars