WINTERS IN LIMA, Peru’s capital, are dreary. By now the city is normally enveloped in a cold mist. This year, though, daytime temperatures are around 21°C (70°F). Ice-cream sellers are still doing brisk business at Lima’s beaches. “Will there be a winter this year?” ask headlines in local newspapers.
TopTaiwan is worried about the security of its chip industry
For a brief moment on May 23rd, it seemed as if American policy towards Taiwan had undergone a sudden and dramatic change. Asked if America would “get involved militarily” to defend Taiwan in case of an invasion, President Joe Biden replied that it would.
TopWhy 15,000-year-old art might have been displayed in firelight
THE BRITISH MUSEUM has in its care more than 8m artefacts. Visitors can see a mere 80,000 of them or so on display at any one time. Partly that is a blunt matter of space and variety.
TopSpacesuits are showing their age
FIXING PANELS on the International Space Station (ISS) is a bit like doing car repairs while wearing stiff oven gloves and standing on a skateboard. That, at least, is the way Kate Rubins, an astronaut at NASA, America’s space agency, describes it.
TopHow balls of blackworms avoid the knotty step
MANY ANIMALS find safety in herds, colonies, schools or swarms. But few species opt for the technique of the stringy, water-dwelling blackworm Lumbriculus variegatus, a creature that at a few centimetres in length is far longer than it is wide.
TopA sound way towards reversible vasectomies
THE MOST reliable means of contraception for men—and one that cannot fail or be forgone in the heat of the moment—is a vasectomy. But the procedure is largely irreversible: it involves stopping the flow of sperm from the testes by cutting conduits known as the vas deferens and sealing them or tying them off.
TopTracking ships at sea can help catch sanction-busters
NEVER BEFORE have the activities of ocean-going vessels been under so much scrutiny. So says Ole...
TopRobotised insects may search collapsed buildings for survivors
WHY GO TO all the trouble of designing and building a drone if nature has already done most of the job for you? That is the attitude taken by the small but determined band of researchers who are trying to robotise insects.
TopDevelopers of small modular reactors hope their time has come
NUCLEAR POWER has never quite lived up to its promise. Reactors have proved much more expensive than hoped. Accidents and leaks have given it a reputation for being risky despite its zero-carbon credentials.
Science
The Economist science column will introduce the leading scientific research results which may bene...