麻豆传媒

Circles in the corn: Now is the season for crops to be flattened into strange patterns in fields across southern Britain. Far from being the work of devils or aliens, the circles seem to arise from a combination of atmospheric physics and the local lands

Will taxonomy go the way of the dinosaurs?: Plans to drop research in some areas of science at the Natural History Museum in London have led to protests from scientists across the world

When scorpions ruled the world: Scorpions took the big step onto solid ground about 300 million years ago. Scottish fossils reveal how they evolved to leave the seas and become the first predators on land

Earth

The race to heal the ozone hole

Ancestral voices at war: Linguists in the US are engaged in a bloody battle over the origins of American Indian languages – and the ancestry of the people who speak them. The science of archaeology and molecular biology may settle the dispute

Earth

Last days of the old night bird

China’s silent summer: Many scientists are leaving China in the aftermath of the massacre in June last year in Tiananmen Square. Those that remain face cuts in student numbers and funding – not to mention political re-education and military service

Greening of Industry: The Consumers are not so Green – Last year many people said they would buy environmentally friendly goods. This year, such products are left on the shelves. What went wrong?

Greening of Industry: Checks on environmental pollution

Greening of Industry: A chip off the old expert – People with the expertise to manage the environment are in short supply. Computers, equipped with the experts’ know-how, can act as stand-ins

Greening of Industry: The Green Wave Heads East – Large areas of Eastern Europe are heavily polluted from antiquated, badly run factories. How much will increased trade with the West change that?

Designer drugs head for the marketplace: Pharmaceuticals companies spend millions searching for new drugs; some chemists prefer to design them. Their approach could help us to fight AIDS, diabetes and high blood pressure

Breaking the mould: Strong engineering plastics are one of the fastest-growing parts of the world’s chemicals business. They are also forcing suppliers and customers into closer relationships to develop new manufacturing technologies

The turn of the screw worm