麻豆传媒

Family feuds – Reconstructing life’s evolutionary tree is tough enough without warring researchers trying to cut the branches away from under each other, says Roger Lewin

There’s an ant in my phone鈥� – Would you let ants run the digital superhighways of the future? Even if they were smart little programs and getting smarter all the time? Mark Ward wonders

Boiling fridges – Forget heavy compressors and noxious gases. New-generation fridges may use hot chips that only need electrons to keep them cool, says Michelle Knott

Far from the madding cows . . . – Don’t throw away that gunk at the bottom of the tube鈥攊t could turn prions into the good guys after all. Jonathan Knight reports

The legend of big G – Measuring gravity may be more than an intellectual exercise for trainspotters, says David Kestenbaum. It could be the loose thread that unravels the whole of modern physics

Praying for Silence – Imagine living with deafening noises that only you can hear. Fortunately the hell of tinnitus is finally getting the research attention it needs, says Saffron Davies

Pastures new – The crops that feed us today give up their grain and die, leaving the soil exposed to wind and rain. But what if the plants lived on from one year to the next, asks Meg Gordon

That’s amazing, isn’t it ? – Why is intuition worse than useless when it comes to spotting real coincidences? Jack Cohen and Ian Stewart investigate

See how they glow – What do you get if you cross a jellyfish, a human and a caterpillar? Bright green creepy crawlies stuffed full of life-giving drugs, says Eric Baehrecke

On wings of light – Tiny spacecraft are flying through the atmosphere on beams of laser light. Leonard David reports on the start of a new age of cleaner, cheaper space flight

Let me out – It’s the fetus that decides when it’s time to be born. The mother is just obeying orders from her insatiable unborn baby. Garry Hamilton finds out how

Health

David Jane: Inner visions

Sniff ‘n’ shake – How do we distinguish between the sweet smell of a rose and the reek of rotten eggs? One man thinks it comes down to picking up good vibrations, says Stephen Hill

Thumbing a ride into space