Creature that features in New Zealand folklore really existed, scientists say
A Maori legend about a giant, man-eating bird has been confirmed by scientists. Te Hokioi was a huge black-and-white predator with a red crest and yellow-green tinged wingtips, in an account given to Sir George Gray, an early governor of New Zealand. It was said [...]
Category archive for “Publications”
Maori legend of man-eating bird is true
14 September, 2009 – 00:00
Millions facing famine in Ethiopia as rains fail
30 August, 2009 – 00:00
International aid agencies fear that the levels of death and starvation last seen 24 years ago are set to return
The spectre of famine has returned to the Horn of Africa nearly a quarter of a century after the world’s pop stars gathered to banish it at Live Aid, raising £150m for relief efforts in 1985. [...]
The secret life of sperm is unlocked
2 August, 2009 – 00:00
Infertile couples may be spared years of fruitless treatment with the discovery that the human egg can read the father’s genetic key and screen out failures
Thousands of infertile couples could be spared the pain, anguish and expense of fruitless IVF treatments, thanks to the discovery of a lock-and-key mechanism between sperm and egg cells.
The research [...]
‘The Eagle has landed’: A space geek remembers the moon shot
5 July, 2009 – 00:00
As a 10-year-old ’space geek’, Paul Rodgers was glued to the television when Neil Armstrong uttered the immortal words, ‘The Eagle has landed.’ Forty years on, he looks back at mankind’s giant leap – and the Cold War politics that turned the space race into a mad dash
The first sign of trouble came when the [...]
Europe’s tallest structure to be cut down to size
22 June, 2009 – 00:00
A planned reduction of a Lincolnshire TV mast has prompted protests
It is more than 1,000ft high, but so unobtrusive that most people in the UK never even realised it existed, let alone that it held a European record. Now, Belmont Transmitting Station, one mile west of the quiet village of Donington on Bain, is about [...]
Juries return to Japanese courts after 66 years
19 April, 2009 – 00:00
But 99.5 per cent conviction rate may take time to alter
(Co-written with Kyoko Nishimoto)
Japanese popular culture has few courtroom dramas. There is no Rumpole of the Tokyo Bailey, no Perry Mason in Osaka. Juninin no yasashii nihonjin, a 1991 remake of Henry Fonda’s jury-room classic Twelve Angry Men, is a comedy, its title translating as [...]
From heaven to hell: 18 die as drugs war rages on streets of Vancouver
5 April, 2009 – 10:45
The Canadian city has been named the best place in the world to live. But those halcyon days are over
Once upon a very recent time, Vancouver had a clean, safe image. Nestled between a spectacular bay and snow-capped mountains, this Canadian city, which is twice the size of Birmingham, was described by The Economist as [...]
Fantastic voyage: new-generation imaging heralds revolution in medical treatment
8 February, 2009 – 00:00
From a cluster of Chiltern villages, GE Healthcare is leading the way in detecting and treating diseases
For the lucky, a check-up at the GP consists of nothing more sophisticated than a blood-pressure cuff, an icy stethoscope and a jar to pee in. For those with bigger problems, it can involve medicine’s heavy artillery, from bedside [...]
MRI boost gives view into lungs
25 January, 2009 – 10:49
British scientists have boosted the power of an MRI scanner 1,000,000%, giving doctors a window into living, breathing lungs for the first time. The technique, called hyperpolarisation, makes the signal detected by a standard magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner so strong it reveals details that could only be seen previously by slicing the patient open.
Aegate steals a march in war against counterfeit drugs
23 November, 2008 – 00:00
Aegate, the drug authentication business, will move into Ireland in January, strengthening its position ahead of expected EU legislation to fight the growing threat of counterfeit drugs.
