Zoo news

The not very hungry caterpillar

A newly discovered caterpillar may be the world's thinnest. The larval stage of the moth Houdinia flexilissima lives inside the stems of cane rushes. At a few centimetres long but less than a millimetre wide, its discoverers have named it 'Fred the Thread'.

Scorecard

Solar energy

The Internet company Google is planning a solar electricity system for its headquarters in Mountain View, California. With a capacity of 1.6 megawatts, the installation will be one of the largest on any corporate site.

Celebrity genomes

Genomics entrepreneur Craig Venter famously raced the Human Genome Project to sequence the human genome. He has now almost finished a map of his own genome — the first of any individual — and plans to make it public.

On the record

“I doubt there's a scientist in the country who fits the description.”

As Kazakhstan is promised a 25-fold increase in science spending, Tynysbek Kalmenov, director the Centre for Physics and Mathematics in Almaty, is pessimistic about finding world-class researchers to head the resulting institutions.

Credit: K-PHOTOS/ALAMY

“A light bulb goes on in my head, and energizes my hand to begin to sketch out some scribbles.”

Architect Frank Gehry explains the creative process to an audience of neuroscientists.

“Experts: some women perform well in math.”

The Associated Press has trouble summing up a study on the influence of cultural factors on women's mathematics ability.

Sources: Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Electronics Weekly, Sunday Times, IWPR.