Q&A

Not really. Magma is the molten rock that lies several kilometres below the Earth's surface. It contains many minerals that we want, but in very dilute form. It's better to let nature concentrate...

Why do we think bad things really happen in threes?

Humans are very adept at spotting patterns in the world around us, and reading significance in them – even when they’re meaningless. When one bad event occurs, we may dismiss it as...

Why are particle physicists so keen to find the Higgs boson?

Particle physicists are just eager to find out whether the Higgs boson actually exists or not. We now know where to look and, if it does exist, the Large Hadron Collider project at the European...

Blog

Especially for you

05/03/2010 - 14:39

The news that Google "personalises" up to one in five web searches using our web history, location and online contacts is a rare insight into the mighty search engine’s mysterious...

House made from recycled rubbish

04/03/2010 - 15:57

As I drove the last car load of old kitchen units and various other bits of junk to the tip the other day, I couldn't help wondering where all that waste would actually end up. The local tip is...

Hangover-free alcohol?

04/03/2010 - 09:53

Hangover-free booze – the holy grail of the drinks industry – may have been discovered by researchers from South Korea. The body uses oxygen to metabolise alcohol. The researchers at...

Features

The science of sin

25/02/2010

We now have the technology to reveal the root of our darkest impulses, deep within our brains. And, says Andy Ridgway, the evidence is clear: nature wants us to be bad