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In Nature of 16 August (Vol. 346, 602; 1990), H. T. Clifford, R. W. Rogers and M. E. Dettmann argued that taxonomists might usefully dispense with the existing massive herbarium collections. We have received many letters criticizing this view. Here we publish those received first; the remainder make many of the points below.
A theory advanced in 1987 as an explanation of the ubiquitous character of noise power-spectra has been partly confirmed by sophisticated measurements of a pile of sand.
Sequencing DNA is a labour intensive and expensive process. At an estimated cost of $3–5 (US) per base pair, it would require about $25 million (US) to complete the sequence of Escherichia coli1.
New lines in laboratory hardware, including a video image recorder and a low-volume evaporator, will be on display at next week's British Laboratory Week exhibition to be held in London.
