ORDER #1: JURASSIC PINK?
If you've ever wondered what color the dinosaurs were, you won't have much longer to wait. Researchers in Australia have reconstructed skin colors of ancient fish from fossils and say the technique will help to inject a ittle reality into reconstructions of other extinct animals. Page 11
ORDER #2: ROBOTS LEAD THE BLIND
An intelligent white cane that blind people can use to find their way has been developed by American researchers. The cane is a robot that will gently lead them around any obstacles in their path. Page 12
ORDER #3: LOOK, I CAN SPEAK PROPERLY
When children who stutter are shown a video that has been doctored to remove their speech impediment they are able to imitate their screen persona and speak more fluently, American scientists report. Page 20
ORDER #4: A MONKEY COULD MAKE IT
Some monkeys try their hand at a bit of 'artwork' given the chance - at least in captivity. American researchers have found that the animals can model and decorate clay, and suggest their exploits may highlight the way artistic skills evolved in humans. Page 19 ORDER #5: VOLCANIC SNEEZES
If Montserrat blows, Edinburgh is likely to catch a cold. A new study suggests that the Scottish capital suffers its worst winter storms in the wake of catastrophic tropical eruptions. Page 10.
ORDER #6: BUST TO BOOM
Ethiopia, for so long the land of famine, has turned itself into an exporter of grain. A combination of good rains and economic liberalisation have doubled the country's grain crop since 1990, transforming the country from a basket case into a bread basket for East Africa. Page 15
ORDER #7: PROMISING THE EARTH
Bureaucrats at the UN Environment Programme this week stand accused of censoring vital scientific advice to governments on how to save the ozone layer. Angry scientists say that a study on the practicalities of banning methyl bromide, a pesticide that destroys ozone, has been rewritten to present a dishonestly rosy picture of the potential for introducing substitutes. Page 4.
ORDER #8: ENDANGERED OR MINKE, SIR?
A significant part of the whale meat eaten in Japan and South Korea comes from animals that have been killed illegally, many of them endangered. The two countries are allowed to sell meat from minke whales for domestic consumption, provided they were killed as part of Japan's scientific whaling programme. Page 14.
ORDER #9: NECTAR LOVERS
It's hard to imagine two animals more different than a bumblebee and a lizard. But now it turns out that some lizards share with bees a taste for nectar. Spanish researchers have found that the Balearic lizard pollinates and drinks the nectar of the sea fern, a Mediterranean relative of the familiar roadside plant Queen Anne's lace. Page 21.
ORDER #10: GREAT BALLS OF POWER
An unlimited source of energy may one day be available if physicists can make tiny clumps of particles called Q-balls, say researchers. The exotic Q-balls would also make it possible to explore a new world of physics. Page 18.
ORDER #11: DEEP WATERS
Scientists have discovered enough water in the Earth's core to replace surface oceans ten times over. But the water is not in the form of immense oceans but droplets scattered throughout the interior, they say. Pages 22-26
ORDER #12: BREAKING THE HEAT BARRIER
A long-forgotten ceramic could prevent the radio black-out that spacecraft experience as they re-enter the Earth's atmosphere, say NASA engineers. Pages 28-31
ORDER #13: CRACKS OF DOOM
Researchers are designing a new generation of materials that can defeat cracks. Buildings made from these could outlast Egypt's pyramids. Pages 32-35
- ENDS -
August 27, 1997
Issue cover date: August 30, 1997
For fax copies of full stories or to arrange an interview, please contact Barbara Thurlow at [email protected] or on 202 452 1178. In Europe please contact Lucy Banwell, IPC Press Office Tel: (0171) 261 6415 or e-mail: [email protected] Please remember to credit New Scientist with any resulting stories. Thanks! New Scientist is the recipient of over 23 major awards, including the 1996 UTNE Reader's Alternative Press Award in the "Emerging Issues" category. New Scientist Planet Science provides Internet users with news, features, reviews and comment drawn weekly from the pages of New Scientist magazine, as well as extra material exclusive to the web site. The site can be found at http://www.newscientist.com
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