NOV/DEC 2000

FEATURES – THE MIND

Memory and emotion: Two sides of brain function
Pankaj Sah explains how memories are stored in the brain and can be strengthened by emotional experiences.

Smart drugs: Threat or promise?
Memory-enhancing drugs have a legitimate therapeutic use in the treatment of memory deficits in Alzheimer’s disease and schizophrenia. However, Graham Johnston writes that their use to enhance memory for non-therapeutic purposes raises other important issues.

Memory drugs flood the classroom
Students are only too willing to use substances that may stimulate their grades, reports Peter Pockley.

The easy road to learning may be a dead end
Ben Newell questions whether we can we learn without effort and without being aware of what we have learned.

Delusions
Nora Breen explains why some people believe that their spouse is an impostor or has three hands.

Emotion sickness
John Bradshaw explains the neurological basis of behavioural disorders like schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive disorder and depression.

Use it or lose it
John Bradshaw says that an active mind can postpone the onset of dementia.

Creativity and error are only separated by success
Alex Pudmenzky investigates whether computers can ever be truly creative.

BIOSPHERE

Flowering genes bring PM’s praise
This year’s crop of national science prizes is headed by a discovery that could revolutionise agriculture, says Peter Pockley.

Carbon dioxide: Stick it in the ground
Stephen Luntz explores opportunities to bury CO2 emissions underground or in the deep sea.

INSIGHT

Faster, higher, smarter: Olympian effort still needed
In an open letter to government, Australia’s business and S&T leaders call for decisive steps to be made towards innovation.

Nuclear waste: A reactor’s Achilles heel?
Peter Pockley sits in on a Senate inquiry on the nuclear reactor planned for Lucas Heights.

SERIAL

Dangerous Australian Animals: The Sydney Funnel-Web Spider
Struan Sutherland and Guy Nolch profile the deadly funnel-web spider in the final extract from their book, Dangerous Australian Animals.

UPDATE

Authorities react to Creutzfeldt-Jakob threat

Pesticide resistance finds anti-terrorist use

Measure of the Universe in doubt

Parkes Dish’s Unheralded Role in Averting

Apollo 13 Disaster

Breathless Aussie wins Ig Nobel

Is beauty gene deep?

Aiming for AIMS

Bee it ever so bumble, there’s no place like comb

The way to a bee’s heart is through its stomach

Quantum computer nears

East Timor force wages war on malaria

Green wins gold for solar cells

Laser advances for CDs and DVDs

Why the grass is always greener in the other paddock

Maths solutions to water woes

BRIEFS

Drug rejection molecule mapped

Explaining extinction

Australian on W3C advisory board

Fuzzy logic helps mineral exploration

Cancer risk for astronauts

Campus gets conservation park

New homes a menace

Biotech company comes unstuck

Continental interchange