The despair, and the hope, surrounding Turkey's bird-flu outbreak WAS it yet another conspiracy to sabotage Turkey? That was one explanation dished up by some in Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development Party for the outbreak of bird… more »

Reports from the frontline of the battle between man and bacteria RARELY does a bacterium become the fuel for a national election campaign. Staphylococcus aureus, though, won just such a dubious distinction earlier this year when a drug-resistant… more »

ANYONE who has ever owned a hamster will know that the animal spends an inordinate amount of time sleeping. Depending on your point of view, that might be a good or bad thing. Hamsters are small and, broadly speaking, the smaller the animal, the more sle… more »

Alarm over bird flu has focused attention on preparing for a human version HOWEVER much fear there is over bird flu spreading in Asia and Europe, at present the disease tends to make birds sick and not humans. This may change, and some countries… more »

HIS has been the millennium of the West: first Europe, later its offshoots too, above all the giant one in North America. It has exported worldwide its soldiers, missionaries and empire-builders, its religion and its ideas, its arts and its sciences, its… more »

Prizes for the elimination of stomach ulcers, an explanation of light, a better clock and a better way of making chemicals IT IS one of the paradoxes of the Nobel prizes—at least of those awarded for science—that while everyone agrees… more »