Articles
Fallacies of forensic science
The Innocence Project in the US has helped free 230 wrongly convicted people, including 17 on death row, largely by proving the evidence incorrect. Widely used forensic techniques have unfortunately high error rates.
Cause or coincidence?
A spike in cases of breast cancer among workers at one university is being blamed on electromagnetic fields from nearby equipment.
Here be monsters
Long a part of sailors' tales, massive waves that emerge from nowhere were thought to be just another part of seafaring lore until instruments in the North Sea recorded one. Finding an explanation for them could save lives.
Does mind affect matter?
Scientists are trying to use unusual electromagnetic activity at the time of disasters to prove the existence of psychokinesis. So far, their worldwide network of monitoring devices has found nearly 300 cases.
The game (theory) of love
New mathematics research indicates that a longer courtship can increase the chance of finding a partner worthy of your trust.
Celebrities are no Einsteins
Mariah Carey, Demi Moore and Barack Obama are taken to task by the organisation Sense About Science for views that hardly stand up to close scrutiny.
It takes two to tango ... but why?
Over the coming year, the organisers of the Year of Science 2009 are planning lectures and exhibitions on 12 monthly themes.
When animals fail the test
The tragedy of thalidomide might not have been averted even if the drug were tested under today's standards.
Nature's knotty problem
With more than a metre of DNA curled up in every cell of our bodies, the double-helix string will inevitably end up in a tangled mess. To enable the cells to 'read' the genetic sequences, nature has created its own solution.
Freud: he wasn't all wrong
Most of Sigmund Freud's theories were discredited long ago, but the role of the unconscious in human action has become irrefutable.
Suicidal lemmings and other scientific myths
So now we know: lemmings don't commit mass suicide after all. Contrary to popular belief, these furry inhabitants of the arctic tundra do not suddenly lose the will to live, head for the coast and hurl themselves into the sea
When hard-core numbers fall victim to human nature
Opinion pollsters will be nervously awaiting the final election result, hoping that the abstruse art of statistical sampling will have worked its magic again.
Bucking atomic theory
A revolutionary power generation source is met with scepticism but no one can say exactly why.
A genius who fed millions - and created horrific weapons
A century ago his invention saved the planet from mass starvation but there was a dark side to the German chemist Fritz Haber.
The perfect code?
To great fanfare, the ultimate means of keeping secrets was unveiled last week by an international team of scientists and engineers.
