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A new form of title for scientific reports, one which confidently asserts a conclusion rather than implying it, is becoming more prevalent. That's a bad thing.
There's nothing new m worries about man's effect on the natural world Indeed, that history runs deeper (and wider) than latter-day environmentalists would have it.
All being well, the Hubble Space Telescope will now be in orbit. The achievement is the culmination of 20 years of politicking and caps a triumph for astronomers over bureaucrats.
Self-reliant defensive missiles for boost-phase interception seem to be cost-effective. Deployment would benefit all nations by decreasing the danger of rocket attack.
The variable and transient claims of experimental evidence for cold fusion made a moving target which attracted too much enthusiasm and too little derision.
Commercial whaling by Japan, the Soviet Union and Iceland has been widely condemned. But until scientific studies of whale populations are carried out, an informed decision about commercial whaling cannot be made.
The concept of Gaia, a self-regulating Earth, excites both admiration and obloquy. Its inventor (or rather re-discoverer) describes the genesis and evolution of the hypothesis.
Few people have had such wide and deep influence as Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov. Here E. L. Feinberg reflects on Sakharov's life and work. On page 13 Maxim Frank-Kamenetskii recounts the circumstances of a first encounter with 'a man to remember', and on page 14 Valery Soyfer tel Is of Sakharov's battle against lysenkoism.
Protein crystallography is an exacting trade, and the results may contain errors that are difficult to identify. It is the crystallographer's responsibility to make sure that incorrect protein structures do not reach the literature.
Many Japanese companies are keen to recruit foreign scientists, and as employers they have much to offer. More researchers should take up the opportunities available for work in Japan.
How can the international academic community contribute to the demise of apartheid?academic boycott is a political strategy of doubtful ethical basis, and should be replaced with a policy of selective support.
Replyingto articles published in last week's Nature, Talent re-asserts that V. J. Gupta is responsible for corrupting the palaeontological literature on the Himalayas.
These two articles are the latest round In exchanges over the charge that Professor VJ. Gupta is responsible for corruption of the palaeontological literature on the Himalayas. Gupta (p. 307) responds to the allegations of four co-authors of papers with him. Professor J.B. Waterhouse, another co-author, comments below both on those allegations and on the articles by Dr John Talent in which the issue was raised originally. Talent will reply in next week'sNature.
Australia's universities begin this month an academic year that will see them well on the way towards a unified system of higher education. Hopes that an election later in the year will bring a change of course, probably misplaced, are unlikely to be fulfilled. But nobody can guess what the consequences will be except that they will be profound.
Biologists in Japanese universities are hamstrung by an obscure and unfair system of allocating grants. Reform is needed if Japan's scientists are to compete with first-class international research groups.
Up for commemoration this year are anniversaries of the death of Benjamin Franklin and the births of H. J. Muller, August Möbius and (perhaps) Dom Perignon. There is, too, the advent of the electric chair to 'celebrate'.
