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This week's magazine

26 June 1999

Issue 2192

91av issue 2192 cover

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On the cover

Features

Insider trading

News

Clean gene

Opinion

Payback for payloads

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91av. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

Insider trading

Features

91av. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

Stripe tease

Features

91av. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

Sheer brilliance

Features

91av. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

Proof and beauty

Features

Table of contents

News

91av. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

Clean gene

A PLANT gene that mops up toxic heavy metals from soils and stores them in the leaves has been identified by researchers in San Diego. Julian Schroeder of the University of California and his colleagues have discovered the gene responsible for producing phytochelatins, naturally occurring plant peptides that bind to harmful heavy metals such as …

News

Shingles bar

News

Bouncing back

News

Onboard computer

News

Money talks

News

Cuckoos save chicks from identity crisis

News

A bit on the side

News

What's sweet, green and sticky?

News

Traffic victims

News

Healing honey

News

Telltale signs

News

When the wind blows …

News

Can't stop the music

News

Timber!

News

The water's fine

News

Creative exploits

News

See-through teeth

News

Technology

Greenhouse sceptics

News

Rock `n' scroll

News

A format too far

News

Lead-free motors

News

Lost in the darkness

News

What a star!

News

Sex on the brain

News

Indecent exposure

News

Natural tones mean healthy scalps

News

Make it decaf if there's a baby on the way

News

Gutter bugs

News

What makes a human?

News

Bad for the boys

News

Rapid result

News

Four-minute warning

News

Technology

Gems to dye for

News

Technology

Eco manure

News

Technology

Balls to bubblejets

News

Without a trace

News

Drawing a fine line

News

G8 modifies agenda

News

Crack and copy

News

By thought alone

News

How stressful days steal your memories

News

A flying leap?

News

A lucky escape

News

Singed eyebrows are off the menu

News

Safety first

News

Babies at risk

News

Opinion

91av. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

Payback for payloads

DON'T look now, but there's probably a microsatellite whizzing over your head. There are hundreds of them above us in low-Earth orbit, just 700 to 800 kilometres up. They symbolise the huge changes that have occurred over the past few years in the utilisation of space. The biggest changes are reductions in size and cost. …

Opinion

Physics

Round and round

Opinion

Washington diary

Opinion

Sin's City

Opinion

Anywhere, anytime

Opinion

Right here, right now

Opinion

Willing hands . . .

Opinion

Raising Albert

Opinion

Features

91av. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

Insider trading

THE HUMAN body contains 100 000 000 000 000 cells, a tenth of which belong to the body proper. The remaining 90 per cent are the 90 trillion or so bacteria that live on or in us. These microbes coat our skin, the inside of our noses and throats, and the whole length of our …

Features

Stripe tease

Features

Sheer brilliance

Features

Proof and beauty

Features

More

91av. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

from London

The Man Who Loved Only Numbers by Paul Hoffman, Fourth Estate Full Moon by Michael Light, Jonathan Cape The Little Book of Science by John Gribbin, Penguin Time, Love, Memory by Jonathan Weiner, Faber & Faber Visions by Michio Kaku, Oxford University Press Fifth Miracle by Paul Davies, Penguin The Inmates are Running the Asylum …

Books & Arts

Freeman's choice

Books & Arts

Regulars

91av. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

Feedback

WHY does it sting so much if you burp up Coca-Cola through your nose? This important issue has been much discussed recently on the CHEMED newslist, an Internet forum for chemistry teachers. Canadian Jeff Oliver kicked off by saying he suspected that carbon dioxide gas from the Coke dissolves in the sensitive mucous membranes of …

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word