MAGAZINE ISSUE DATE: 12 MARCH 2005 (Vol. 185 No 2490)
NEWS:
NOBBLED BY A NIBBLERemains of half-eaten food discarded by burglars could go a long way towards putting them behind bars. It seems burglars can't resist munching on food they find on the premises they enter illegally " and often leave remains behind. Scientists in America found that traces of saliva left on anything from carrots to cheese hold enough DNA to identify the perpetrator. Page 9
3D ANIMATION GIVES EVIDENCE MORE BITEBite marks can be vital evidence in assaults and homicides, but using forensic bite-marks to match a criminal has come in for severe criticism. Now, Australian researchers hope to make the technique more accurate with animated 3D reconstructions matching a crime suspect's teeth to a bite. Page 8
THERE'S ONE RULE FOR THE RICH"¦It is well known that the world's wealth is shared out unfairly. But is there an underlying law that governs this inequality? Physicists in America are using models based on simple laws of physics to understand the distribution of wealth. They found that 3% of the population follow one law where the extremely rich hogged most of the wealth. And incomes for the remaining 97% follow a completely different law, where people exchanging money can be treated in the same way as the energy of atoms in a gas. Pages 6-7
COLOUR PROFILE EXPOSES FAKED OR STOLEN GEMSThe jewellery industry may soon be able to recover stolen gems or spot fake ones, with a technique which can identify individual stones. The technique called "Microspectrometry" , developed by a company in California, can map the unique colour patterns of each gem. The researchers claim that each stone, even those of the same type, has a different spectrum.Page 23
LIGHTING THE WAY TO A NANOWORLDResearchers in the UK have developed a device which when attached to any conventional microscope can view moving nanoparticles as small as 10 nanometres. The device, called Halo, offers a cheap alternative to electron microscopes, and could have applications from a bioweapons detector to measuring nanoparticles used for sunblocks. Page 21
DID WE MISS DARK ENERGY THE FIRST TIME ROUND?The discovery in the 1990s that there is some kind of mysterious dark energy accelerating the expansion of the universe, could have been spotted nearly 30 years ago. A team of astronomers say that the evidence for the idea of dark energy was there in observations made in the 1970s by an American cosmologist. Page 14
BANKNOTES GRUBBY SECRETA new technique to lift fingerprints from well-used banknotes works even on difficult Australian banknotes, which are notoriously difficult to lift prints from because they are made from polymer. Australian researchers used a form of infrared imaging to scan notes and record characteristic spectra produced from chemicals. Information was then fed into a software package to reconstruct an image of a fingerprint. Page 22
PREHISTORIC FARMERS FELLED FORESTS AFTER ALLPrehistoric Europe was covered in thick, closed-canopy forests, not open woods and grassland, according to an analysis of pollen records. The findings undermine a controversial hypothesis that large extinct herbivores limited tree growth. Page 11
FEATURES:
LOOKING FOR TROUBLEA growing number of private clinics are offering whole-body CT scans to the worried to tell them in minutes if they have any serious health problems. But are they really such a good idea? According to some doctors, CT scans can lead to "false positives" , leading to unnecessary worry, and even surgery. Pages 42-45
CHARITY BEGINS AT HOMO SAPIENSAfter the Indian Ocean tsunami we saw acts of selfless generosity as people were falling over each other to donate enormous amounts of money to help people they'd never met before. Humans aren't the only species to bestow acts of kindness to other individuals, but they are the only species who cooperate with complete genetic strangers " neighbours, friends and people from far flung countries. How did this true altruism evolve? Pages 33-37
WRITTEN ALL OVER YOUR FACEThe anxiety of being hooked up to all the rubber tubes and wires of a standard lie detector, or "polygraph" , is enough to make even the truthful appear guilty. Now, a new generation of lie detectors could succeed where the polygraph failed. A thermal camera can detect a " face of fear" by measuring heat changes in minute areas of the face, while the eye-tracker can easily tell if you recognise a person or place. Pages 39-41
A BUBBLE ATE THE UNIVERSEA frothy universe with bubbles popping in and out of existence across the cosmos is a controversial idea. But one physicist believes that bubbles of true vacuums are ripping stars apart on a daily basis. If he's right the universe is a far more dangerous place than you might think. Pages 29-32
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