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Print edition: February 2002
Features
Car lubricants: fact and friction
Better oils and lubricants could improve efficiency and reduce greenhouse gases
From the big bang to the eureka moment
Peter Rodgers reports from Stephen Hawking's 60th birthday celebrations
Mimicking the brain
Physicists are playing a growing role in attempts to understand information processing in the brain
Nuclear astrophysics: a new era
New facilities promise to shed light on the nuclear processes that control the stellar evolution
Physics in Action
Fusion takes centre stage
Plasma physicists recently reported key advances towards sustained thermonuclear fusion in the laboratory
Fingerprint sensor makes an excellent impression
A new fingerprint sensor works even on sweaty hands
Particles get all dressed up
Terahertz radiation reveals the dynamics of charge screening
Fractals on video
Post-deadline
The beating of the heart
New phase in Bose gases
The Casimir force makes a comeback
News & Analysis
Hot prospects for fridges
Uncertainty in New York
From the big bang to the eureka moment
Keeping a high-tech eye on the planet
Irish build biggest offshore wind farm
Neutron boss takes charge
Finding funding from venture capitalists
UK spin-offs valued highly
Artificial black holes on the research horizon
US backs waste repository
Alexander Prokhorov
Robert Hanbury Brown
George Rochester
Media chief swaps sides
The quantum effects of gravity revealed
Big hole opens up in UK funding
New faces take up top jobs
Editorial
Black holes and beyond
Belief in the existence of black holes is the ultimate act of faith for a physicist
Forum
Dangers of dramatizing science
Robert Marc Friedman warns that historical characters must be portrayed carefully
Critical Point
Horror stories that grow legs
Feedback
Why ISS is not the best abbreviation
Reviews
Quiz questions that need assumptions
Actinium to zirconium and all in between
Hidden Unity in Nature's Laws, John Taylor
200 Puzzling Physics Problems, Peter Gnädig, Gyula Honyek and Ken Riley
Nature's Building Blocks: An A-Z Guide to the Elements, John Emsley
