MAGAZINE ISSUE DATE: 30 APRIL 2005 (Vol. 186 No 2497)
NEWS:
POLICE TOY WITH 'LESS LETHAL' GUNSNew Scientist has learned that the US National Institute of Justice (NIJ) is funding research into three "less lethal" weapons, intended to be used by the nation's police forces to bring down suspects and control crowds. The NIJ claim this new breed of stun guns will be safer than existing weapons. But the information provided by the NIJ has given so little detail, it is impossible to work out how the weapons work or to judge how safe they might be. Page 23-24
GOOGLE SEARCHES FOR QUALITY NOT QUANTITYGoogle has ambitious plans to improve the results of any news search, by ranking them according to quality rather than simply in order of date or relevance to search terms. The company plans to build a database that will compare the credibility and authority of news sources around the world, and adjust the ranking of search results accordingly. Page 24
VR HEADSET SPOTS CONCUSSION IN MINUTESA virtual-reality headset is being designed that can detect even mild concussion or early dementia in minutes. The person who has suffered the blow wears a VR headset and is given a device similar to a video game console to operate. The wearer responds to commands while the device picks up any reduced reaction times or conditions that would indicate injuries to the brain. Page 25
SQUEAKY CLEAN FOSSIL FUELSCan we continue to burn fossil fuels and still hope to halt global warming? Europe's new commissioner for energy thinks so. Big money and big politics are lining up behind the development of "zero-emission" power plants that burn coal or gas but release no carbon dioxide. One way to do this is to embrace clean coal technologies. The other is to store CO2 by capturing it before it leaves the plant and burying it safely underground. Page 26
SWAP SHOP EMPOWERS VOTERSOnline vote-swapping was first used in the US presidential election of 2000, but has had more of an impact in British elections, and could do so again next week. For those stuck in a position of not being able to cast a meaningful vote in their local constituency, vote-swapping websites have sprung up to help you trade your vote tactically with someone you meet online in a different constituency. Pages 16-17
FEATURES:
IT'S BACK"¦In as little as three weeks time, if all goes to plan, we could be watching with bated breath as the space shuttle Discovery roars into space with its seven-person crew. It will be the first launch since the shuttle Columbia disintegrated during re-entry on 1 February 2003. And this time NASA has even more riding on the shuttle's success. Pages 38-41
THROW ME A ROPEAn automated trailing cable system for fixed-wing aircraft could allow pilots to transfer cargo or rescue people far quicker, safer, and without a jolt. The trick is to find the best set of factors including cable length, thickness and aircraft speed " a task managed by fuzzy logic.Pages 35-37
ARE WE NEARLY THERE YET?The road to find the all-powerful "theory of everything" has been a long one, and physicists are not even sure they're going in the right direction. Some suspect that only radical new ideas will get us closer, and better still some actual evidence from experiments could give a hint at what path to take towards a theory of everything. Pages 30-34
KILLER IN THE FOLDAs recently as 20 years ago, cattle plague wrecked havoc across huge areas of Africa and Asia. A global eradication campaign has now all but succeeded. The only area where the virus that causes cattle plague could be holed up is a pocket of land in southern Somalia. But with civil war, disagreements between experts, funding crises, not to mention the problems of working in one of the hottest, poorest countries on Earth, the programme is faltering. Pages 42-45
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