The scars in the stars

cosmology is one of those sciences where experimentation is rare. The scientist observes the universe and draws his own conclusions. But this might change now with reports of two experiments on the dynamics of phase transition in the early universe. These pioneering experiments, performed in France and Finland, have confirmed several theories about the history of our universe.

Lillehammer

there was a recent joke doing the rounds in Lausanne, the Swiss headquarters of the Olympic Games bureaucracy. Question: "Which would you rather have -- the Winter Olympic Games or a swarm of locusts?" The answer: "A swarm of locusts any time because the year after, the environment will recover."

For a better view

seventeen European countries belonging to Eumetsat, the agency responsible for European weather satellites, met recently at Darmstadt, Germany, to approve a us $2.3 billion-system of weather satellites which will help provide more accurate forecasts. The members have proposed to build three satellites, for launch from the year 2002 , to orbit the globe from pole to pole, providing cloud images and meteorological mea surements from a height of 850 km.

Cowering behind lies

PITY lexicographer. His job is hard as it is. But imagine how difficult it would be if, on defining the word 'up', it was necessary to add that it might just as well mean 'down'. It would be a very Alice-in-Wonderlandish dictionary, which might be worse than no dictionary at all. It has not quite come to that yet, and although people of my age regret the transmogrification of once useful words like 'gay' and 'nice', at least they do not mean quite

Satellite smash-ups

IT TOOK just 66 seconds for US $7 billion and 10 years of hard work put in by European space scientists, to go up in smoke. Ariane-5 - the pride of the European Space Programme - had to be destroyed along with its payload of four scientific satellites by ground control, after it veered off course on its maiden flight, near the launching site at Kourou, French Guiana, on June 4. The failure of Ariane-5 is likely to deliver a major blow to Europe's leadership of the commercial satellite industry. Even as scientists and officials associated with the European Space

Close encounters

A recent study by Fred Spoor, a researcher from University College, London, has given fresh insights illto the lives of Cro-Magllons alld Nealldertals. The study hints at trade alldcultural contacts between some Neandertals and the Cro-Magnons, who ultimately replaced them, Researchers had excavated sophisticated tools and ornaments made from bones from a site which lies 67.6 km south-east of Auxerre, France. The ornaments bear a close resemblance to the jewellery associated with Cro-Magnons and experts feel that the French Neandertals may have gQt them through trade

The first humans

THE study of Neandertal bones discovered in the Vindija Cave, Croatia, in the '70s has provided important clues about the lives of these hunter-gatherers, who occupied this cave some 50,000 years ago. The first Neandertal fossils were named after Neaderthal or Neander Valley in Germany, where they were discovered in 1856. (The silent W in that has been dropped in mpderin German). Fine cut marks and unusual fractures - similar to those made on the bones of

In Focus

Familiarity breeds contempt. This , in a nutshell, encapsulates the oftrepeated statements of various gov- ernmentofficials on the status of the world's natural fish stocks. At the European Union (EU) conference on setting fishing quotas, which began on April 22 at Brussels in the Netherlands, the assertions of the European Commission (EC) members were the same: the stocks of fish, especially in Europe, are depleting. Drastic reduction in fishing by member countries must be executed, they chorused. And finally, they agreed to meet by the end of the year to agree on a new set

Not so fast

FAULTY AIDS test kits manufactured by the Chicago-based Abbott laboratories Incorporated, have forced thousands of Europeans to face the anxiety of undergoing the test all over again. The company had withdrawn the test kit from the market on March 25, following at least four complaints of the test showing negative results in persons known to carry the AIDS virus. Roughly 20,000 people in the UK and 50,000 in the Netherlands would have to check themselves again. The British National Health Service had been using the test, IM HIV-one/HIV-two third

Trouble in the air

OZONE levels have been depleting at the average annual rate of 4.3 per cent every decade in the Northern Hemisphere, and a slightly lower 4.1 per cent in the Southern Hemisphere, since 1979. These figures were disclosed by Rumen Bojkov of the World Meteorological Organization (wmo) in Geneva, Switzerland. The above observations made by two British ozone-monitoring stations have set alarm bells ringing throughout the Northern Hemisphere.