A definitive assessment of whether cellphones pose a risk of brain cancer to their users should be put on hold, campaigners are claiming. The mainstream view is that there is no evidence for any such risk.
The thought of wind power brings visions of giant turbines, high-altitude kites and graceful sailboats to mind. But the breeze has a more sinister side, full of turbulence that can wreak havoc with bridges and other structures.
The accident at the Fukushima power plant in Japan has led to much discussion about the future of nuclear power. I believe one important lesson of the accident has been overlooked. Nuclear power is often touted as a solution to climate change, but Fukushima serves as a warning that far from solving the climate problem, nuclear power may be highly vulnerable to it.
TWO months after the explosions and radiation leaks at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan, the prime minister, Naoto Kan, has announced that the country will not build any new reactors. If Kan really means it, the government will have to abandon the plans for expanding nuclear power it adopted only last year.
For more than 1000 years, we have known that the seas off the coast of Sendai in Japan can turn treacherous. An account of how one quake unleashed a flood that swept away a castle town can be found in Nihon Sandai Jitsuroku (The True History of Three Reigns of Japan), completed in AD 901 for the emperor. (Editorial)
