Son of Hubble – NASA’s replacement for its hugely successful space telescope will have to weigh less, cost less and peer deeper into the Universe than ever before.
Leonard David looks at the options
NEXT WEEK, the space shuttle Discovery is due to begin a 10-day mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope. After seven years in space, Hubble is beginning to wear out. Radiation has degraded some of the spacecraft’s electronics, while micrometeoroids have occasionally slammed into its mirror, damaging the surface. The craft also suffers from the […]
TO NORTHERN Europeans shivering in the grip of an unusually icy winter, global warming might suddenly seem an attractive proposition. How pleasant to bask in a balmy Mediterranean climate without ever leaving home. Dream on. Evidence now emerging reveals a risk that global warming could plunge most of Europe into a big chill lasting hundreds […]
Brain boosters – Could middle-aged people soon be popping pills to help them learn new skills as easily as children do?
David Concar reports
IN ONE of Jorge Luis Borges’s bleaker short stories, a young man called Funes is cursed with perfect recall. Remembering every wrinkle in every face he sees and the shape of every cloud he looks at, Funes sinks into a pit of madness and despair as his mind fills up with garbage. Gary Lynch’s rodents […]
Editorial : The tenth circle of hell – EVERYONE wants to be cleverer, think faster, remember more. Thus the endless appeal of advertisements that promise to boost your brainpower and provide total recall.
EVERYONE wants to be cleverer, think faster, remember more. Thus the endless appeal of advertisements that promise to boost your brainpower and provide total recall. By the next century—which isn’t far off—they might also sit alongside ads for drugs that have been “scientifically proven”. Progress towards drugs that boost memory is finally being made (see […]