Fourteen years and more than $20 billion after its conception, the first part of the International Space Station is about to be launched. Unfortunately, there is precious little for it do once it is

China is saddling multinationals with the bill for reforming its corrupt health-care system : a

Central America has suffered the worst natural disaster in its modern history. Recovery could take its two worst-hit countries a generation : a

On November 2nd, policymakers and environmentalists descended on Buenos Aires for a two-week UN conference on global warming. A similar gathering in Kyoto last year resulted in a dramatic, but

The trade in medicines between the West and China is not all one way. Traditional Chinese medicine - acupuncture, herbal mixtures and other remedies - is gaining in popularity. According to Kalorama

Some ideas look good on paper. One notable example, is the magnetic levitation (maglev) train. On the face of it, railways in which the carriages are suspended a few centimetres above the track by a

Clinical trials have proved a valuable medical innovation. But they still have their weaknesses : a

Mountaineers often get stuck. One escape technique : looping nylon webbing around a rock horn, and then passing a climbing rope through the loop and sliding to safety. The rope is pulled through the

The search for ways of preventing Alzheimer's disease is throwing up many candidates-some of them surprisingly prosaic : a

Some environmentalists are up in arms against a WTO ruling on October 12th. It decided that America breaches international trade law by banning shrimp imports from countries which use nets that also