Green and blue

Lots of things published recently. If you choose only one thing to read, I would recommend the Clarke obit.

Other recently published items:

Science & Technology section

Gene therapy: Seeing is believing. The prospects for using genes as a therapy may be improving May 1st 2008

Palaeontology: Seeing the light. Palaeontologists can now look inside fossils without damaging them Apr 10th 2008

This is a remarkable story about how intense beams of light, designed to look at the structure of molecules, is being applied in palaeontology to allow scientists to see what lies inside a fossil.

Doping in sport: High hopes. An athlete's genes may help determine the results of his dope test Apr 3rd 2008

This article was picked up by the New York Times (several weeks after we ran it) and run on page 1.

Obituary: Arthur C. Clarke The relentless star-gazer who kept his feet on the ground Mar 27th 2008

Everyone absolutely loved this obituary. Although I can't say I enjoyed all of his books from start to finish, he was a great mind and a novel thinker of our time.


green.view

Paying for Caribbean diversity. May 5th 2008
Having recently traveled to the Caribbean, I was struck by the relatively low levels of environmental awareness on three of its islands: Anguilla, Bonaire and St Marteens. Islands face unique environmental threats yet no effort is made to tap the resources of the wealthy visitors that are in a large part responsible. This is the topic of this week's green.view column for the Economist.

Deciding what to save. Apr 14th 2008
Imagine a housefire. You have to decide what to save, and quickly. This is just the sort of dilemma facing conservationists.

Swimming with jellyfish this summer. Mar 31st 2008
Jellyfish are about to invade the coast of Spain because of overfishing. Maybe its karma.

Evaluating Dubai's island-reclamation project. Mar 17th 2008
New reefs are forming around Dubai's island reclamation project. But that doesn't mean that the project is environmentally friendly.