Can we detect life on an unresolved Earth-like extrasolar planet? Future space missions will provide us with the first images and low-resolution spectra of exoEarths, and the question of the presence of biogenic spectral signatures in these data will undoubtedly feed an animated debate. Our only reference point at present is our own planet. In this lab you will measure the integrated spectrum o...

There is undoubtedly a huge gap between the level of formality currently in use in mainstream software engineering and the \best practise" advocated by academics and practised by a small sector of industry involved in critical applications. This paper presents some results of recent research which are building bridges between these two approaches: on the one hand, developing formal methods whic...

Of all the hazy and confounding areas in social psychology, leadership theory undoubtedly contends for top nomination. And, ironically, probably more has been written and less is known about leadership than about any other topic in the behavioral sciences. Always, it seems, the concept of leadership eludes us or turns up in another form to taunt us again with its slipperiness and complexity. (B...

Recent years saw a dramatic increase in genomic and proteomic data in public archives. Now with the complete genome sequences of human and other species in hand, detailed analyses of the genome sequences will undoubtedly improve our understanding of biological systems and at the same time require sophisticated bioinformatic tools. Here we review what computational challenges are ahead and what ...

Undoubtedly, every reader has tried to clarify a notion in one source by consulting another, only to be frustrated that the presentations are inconsistent in vocabulary or notation. Recently, this happened to us in a study of conics. While reading Peter Cameron’s Combinatorics: Topics, Techniques, and Algorithms [8], we encountered a definition of a non-singular quadratic form Q = Q(x, y, z) as...

Communications to the Editor patients leads us to believe that percutaneous catheter fragmentation and dispersion ofthe thrombus using conventional cardiac catheters is important in the emergency management of patients who have collapsed or are seriously compromised because of a massive pulmonary embolus. While catheter pulmonary embolectomy by experienced operators undoubtedly has saved lives,...

The British Hang Gliding Association accident report for 1975 reported two deaths. The remaining cases were predominantly limb fractures. The major causes of the injuries were inexperience, high wind speed, turbulence, and stalling. It is contended that the sport is no more risky than is rock climbing, motor-bike racing, skiing, or potholing, yet against these undoubtedly dangerous sports no th...

emerge ' out of the blue ' but in close contact with the momentary strictures " of each fundamental situation. A technique of training applied on the wrong level can be wasted effort or harmful. Time will undoubtedly provide clearer information from those in this county who have themselves become experienced enough in this technique to lay their investigations before a wider circle. The Theatre...

This discussion piece examines the likely epicentre of the influenza pandemic of 1918-1919. Contrary to previous studies that have proposed a Chinese origin, there is documentation that suggests that, in this instance, the virus spread eastwards to China from Europe. Although more recent oubreaks of influenza have undoubtedly had an Oriental origin, the evidence indicates that future outbreaks ...

We would like to draw attention to the fact that the recently published DSM-5 (and also its predecessor, DSM-IV) contains annoying errors that are mainly logical in nature. These mistakes are undoubtedly a result of inadvertence, rather than either conceptual (professional) disagreements between authors/editors or shortage of scientific data for appropriate circumscription of diagnostic categor...