Science and Technology

Exploring Jupiter 18 September 2003

Magnifico!
The life and death of Galileo, America’s Jupiter probe.

Secrets 4 September 2003

Uncrackable beams of light
Quantum cryptography–—hailed by theoreticians as the ultimate of uncrackable codes—is finally going commercial.

Nanotechnology 4 September 2003

More light than heat
A new sort of nanoglass would allow offices to stay bright but remain cool.

Phrenology (but actually real) 4 September 2003


Shapely skulls

Geometry sheds new light on the first Americans

Infection! 28 August 2003

Re: That movie
The latest computer scourges, and their consequences–the significance and future of SoBig.F and the Blaster.

Wacky aeroplanes 7 August 2003

Wings of desire
New technology may change how people fly–a report from the Experimental Aircraft Association’s annual fly-in in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
Plus, ultralight aircraft in Oshkosh; their increasing usefullness.

Fail 17 July 2003

Shooting down the moon
Boost-phase missile-defence will not work

Dwelling above 3 July 2003

Suspended animation
Unmanned craft loitering in the stratosphere may soon supplant satellites.
Plus a box on a stealthy drone that flies like an aeroplane and takes off like a helicopter. >>>

Modern office 19 June 2003

Uncrossed wires
A better way to teleconference.

Can video games do good? 29 May 2003

Shoot ’em up
Playing action games improves visual skills.

Solar weather 22 May 2003

Staring at the sun
An explanation for the sunspot cycle.

Lightspeed champion 22 May 2003

There was a young fellow called Bright…
Light can travel faster than light. Sort of.

New chip flavour 8 May 2003

On the tube
A new type of computer memory uses carbon, rather than silicon.

What’s the universe made of? 10 April 2003

Seeing in the dark
A new computational model, unveiled at a meeting of the American Physical Society, finds that dark matter in the universe is highly organised.
Plus a box on the structure of the proton. >>

If and only if 3 April 2003

Dream code
Programming languages for quantum computers are now being written