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This week and those immediately ahead should see at least some decisions made, or alternatively taken by default, about the future of the Soviet Union and its leader, Mr Mikhail Gorbachev.
We may be discovering climate as it becomes less important to well-being. A range of technologies appears to have lessened the vulnerability of human societies to climate variation.
The concept of fitness has helped evolutionists avoid the accusation of tautology, but there is a case for asking that the notion should be defined in operational terms as well as by its consequences.
