MAGAZINE ISSUE DATE: 27 NOVEMBER 2004 (Vol. 184 No 2474)
NEWS:
THE PHONE THAT KNOWS YOU BETTER THAN YOU DOMost cellphones can already get you up in the morning with built-in alarms and tell you what appointments you have that day from a calendar. But a new smarter cellphone is on its way that can double as a personal assistant. The phones, developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, learns about its users' lifestyle by logging when they make voice and text calls or use other phone applications. Each piece of data is stored on the network's servers and software learns the things you do day to day, who you do them with, and where. Page 21
IS 'SUICIDE TREE' TOXIN A MURDER WEAPON?A plant called Cebera odollam, dubbed the suicide tree, could kill twice as many people in Indian communities than was previously thought. The plant contains a potent heart toxin and is used by more people to commit suicide than any other plant. But forensic toxicologists in India and France have estimated that the true number of deaths due to Cebera poisoning could be much higher because doctors and coroners are failing to detect how often it is used to murder people. Page 15
LASER CLEANS UP BAD BREATH BUGSBad breath is an embarrassing problem, but one that distresses many people. Now an Israel scientist has developed a laser procedure to treat one of the most persistent forms of halitosis, where anaerobic bacteria release foul-smelling gases from the tonsils. The laser, developed by an Israeli scientist, seals the crypts and grooves in the tonsils to prevent the bacteria from breeding. Page 12
FORENSIC CLOCK CALLS TIME ON CRIMESDNA profiling is a valuable forensic tool for linking a crime suspect to a sample of blood, hair or saliva. But until now, there was no way of knowing when the suspect was there. Now, a team in America who have developed a test that can measure how quickly genetic material breaks down could change that. The test is based on two forms of RNA and works with just one microlitre of blood, and can be used on samples up to 150 days old. Page 12
SPRAWLING SYSTEMS TEETER ON IT CHAOSThe UK government is spearheading a £10 million programme aimed at finding ways to avert catastrophic failures in large IT networks. The UK government ultimately wants a massive interconnected system linking all government departments, but experts say there's a danger that such a huge system could be increasingly difficult to predict. Part of the £10 million will be used to set up a national centre to study IT complexity. Page 23 A DAB OF GEL COULD DO AWAY WITH CERVICAL CANCERLast week, New Scientist reported on vaccines that could protect against cervical cancer. Now there is a team in the UK who is developing a gel that can be applied to a woman's cervix directly, to treat early-stage cervical cancer. The team have shown that the gel causes apoptosis in cancerous cervical cells in culture. Page 15
ENDURANCE RUNNING IS IN THE GENESFor the first time, genes have been linked to east Africans' outstanding ability for endurance running. While studying the Y chromosome of a population in the region of Ethiopia where runners originate, British researchers found four gene variants that were more common among athletes than non130-athletes. Page 16
TEXTING BY VOICE (SHORT STORY)If you want to thank a friend for a birthday present but don't want to get involved in a two-hour conversation, the perfect technology is on its way to mobile phones. A US cellular network has launched software that allows you to leave a voice message to another mobile phone without running the risk of someone actually answering it. Page 22
FEATURES:
SHADOW OVER GRAVITYLet go of a pendulum and it will start swinging as gravity tugs down on it. But let go of a pendulum during an eclipse of the sun and it goes berserk. Physicists noted this effect some 50 years ago, and some say the mysterious force at work hints that there's something up with Einstein's general theory of relativity. So now researchers are planning to pack up their pendulums and chase eclipses around the world in the hope of settling the debate once and for all. Page 28-31
PEAK FREEZEJust when glaciologists were facing up to the fact that glaciers are retreating as global warming sets in, along comes a unique opportunity to watch a glacier grow from scratch. North America's most famous volcano, Mount St Helens, has grown a spectacular glacier in its crater. Glaciologists can learn a lot from this new glacier, but they better be quick - the volcano could easily rumble back into life again. Pages 32-35
MASTER AND COMMANDERIn a land where DNA is king and proteins are at the centre of the biological universe, an unlikely and underestimated challenger may soon join them on their lofty pedestals. Some researchers believe that because a surprisingly large chunk of our genome appears to be dedicated to the manufacture of RNA, it could be that we have somehow missed half of the story of how life works. Pages 36-39
CHINESE WHISPERSIn 2003 an internet crackdown in China closed half of the country's internet cafes and saw the arrest of dozens of people who published politically provocative articles. But the bloggers have kept one step ahead of the censors. Not long after the crackdown the country saw a huge surge in online journals, or "blogs" . These websites set up by small companies and individuals have been able to create a "blogosphere" where information flows without censorship. Pages 40-43
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