SHAKESPEARE was wrong when he described Julius Caesar as "constant as the northern star", because the brightness of the North Star is variable, changing by a few per cent every four days. But the

A FAT-RICH diet, widely believed to be unhealthy, acts as an elixir for the Japanese, the world's longest-living people, claim old-age researchers. Before World War II, the lifespan of the

DRUG ADDICTION is not a modern age phenomenon for it seems even the ancients knew the pleasures of junkyism, claim scientists (The Lancet, Vol 341, No 8843). Franz Parsche and his colleagues at

A mathematical theory may result in an objective technique to evaluate both the comfort of a fabric and how it will behave over time

IS THERE a tenth planet in our solar system? Astronomers who have observed Uranus and Neptune deviate from their calculated orbits, attribute such irregularities to the gravitational pull of an

LIFE IMITATES art more than art imitates life, said Oscar Wilde. His statement was borne out recently when US scientists re-enacted in their laboratory the plot of Steven Spielberg's latest film,

WHY DOES popcorn pop and not ordinary corn? Because popcorn has a thicker hull and contains starch with superior puffing quality, say Brazilian scientists who compared four varieties of corn and

Two projects are under way to detect an elusive phenomenon that are thought to be produced by violent events in outer space

Bumble bees infected with the larvae of parasitic flies stay the night out in the cold to hinder the development of the eggs

When did life on earth begin? The question continues to stoke the curiosity of scientists, stimulating the search for fossils that provide the only source of direct evidence of when a particular