Life Digital critters shed light on human sleep DIGITAL "organisms" that learn to sleep when energy is scarce and harvest it when it's abundant could help explain why sleep evolved in animals. The lifelike programs might also make gadgets more energy efficient. To simulate early life forms, Benjamin Beckman and colleagues at Michigan State University in East Lansing created 3600 self-replicating digital organisms … News
Earth Comment: Unwitting accomplices in interrogation abuse AT ITS annual meeting last month, the American Psychological Association (APA) adopted a resolution reaffirming its position against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Among those whom psychologists must protect, the organisation included "enemy combatants" – the term the US administration uses for suspected terrorists. It said that neither war, political … Opinion
Earth Rocks could be novel store for wind energy JUST A SHORT drive west out of Des Moines, Iowa, amid fields of corn and soya, there's a dip in Route 44. Here, near the small community of Dallas Center, a short gravel road runs north to a cluster of houses and across the street there's a farm machinery dealer's yard. It seems to be … Features
Review: Sex, Sleep, Eat, Drink, Dream by Jennifer Ackerman MOST of us are far too busy racing through life to pay much attention to what our bodies are up to. Jennifer Ackerman has paused to take a closer look and charts the journey of your body – an "ark of skin and blood and bones" – as it ferries you through a typical day. … Books & Arts
Feedback Fantasy "facts" ON opening his bottle of Snapple, Ben Haller discovered the following "Real Fact" on the inside of the cap: "Broccoli is the only vegetable that is a flower." "Cauliflower?" Haller thought. "Artichoke?" In a spirit of outrage that any Feedback reader would share, he went to snapple.com , where his bottle cap proclaimed … Regulars