Commentary

A British researcher and a barrister argue the need for clarification of the role of genetic parents in the determination of the use made of fertilized embryos in research and medical practice.

Nuclear-pumped X-ray laser weapons are constrained to have an output beam divergence that is at least as great as a certain minimum value. Because this value is large, such weapons used for ballistic missile defence will require disturbingly high megatonnages in space: for example, a total of ≥ 73 megatons within range of 1,000 attacking missiles, with individual warheads up to 3.7 megatons or higher.

A report last year, based on a study of a British population, that A blood groups are significantly more common among members of the higher socio-economic groups (classes I and II) has generated a wealth of correspondence, some of which appears in what follows together with a reply from the original authors. The general conclusion seems to be that there can be no general conclusion.

Mr Jeremy Rifkin's assault on genetic manipulation seems to be succeeding. The danger is that he will not be taken seriously.

The chaos as formulated for physical dynamic systems is applied to a very simple nonlinear model of the arms race. The transition, from stability to instability, from arms race to war, could be analogous to the transition from a laminar to a turbulent (or chaotic) flow.

Yellow rain, purported to be an agent of toxin warfare in South-East Asia, contains a high percentage of pollen. Analysis of this pollen in yellow rain samples suggests that they are the faeces of honey bees.

The creationists want equal time for nonsense, and also want to eliminate current methods of teaching evolution and other sciences.

The newly-appointed Labour opposition spokesman on science and technology in the British House of Commons argues that scientific method itself is the most important contribution that the science of economics has to make to government.

The polygraph (“lie detector”) test is wrong one-third of the time overall, biased against innocent and conscientious persons, and can be “beaten” by sophisticated liars. Increasing use of this technique, in the United States and soon in Britain, is a cause for alarm.

In Washington next week Antarctic Treaty members will wrestle with mineral exploitation. Their task would be easier if territorial claims were subsumed in a wider framework.

The supposed objectivity of science has come into question. Recent historical studies reveal instances in which scientific knowledge has not been strictly controlled by observation statements in turn established beyond reasonable doubt by rigorous scientific method. The scientific method has not always proven adequate; scientific observations have, at times, reflected personal biases.

What is it about society in the United States that led to such complete polarization between the creationists and evolutionists?

Darwin's views on the ‘tempo and mode’ of evolution are examined through six successive editions of the Origin of Species and through unpublished manuscript material. Although Darwin was a gradualist, there was a significant overlap between his views and those of the proponents of the current theory of punctuated equilibrium.