April 2002

• Oldest fossil footprints on land

  Animals may have beaten upright plants to land.

  30 April 2002

• Early birds have big eyes

  Birds that can see better in low light kick off the dawn chorus.

  30 April 2002

• Stars are promiscuous

  Succession of relationships keeps heavenly bodies young.

  29 April 2002

• Big bangs spark row

  Cosmologists claim Universe has been forming and reforming for eternity.

  26 April 2002

• Biodegradable, elastic shape-memory polymers for potential biomedical applications

  Memory could help biodegradable plastic improve stitches and implants.

  26 April 2002

• Stubby new bubbly vine

  Grapevine throwback may improve champagne.

  25 April 2002

• Faeces brings colour to birds' faces

  Endangered vulture eats excrement to attract mates.

  25 April 2002

• Tree-climbing with dinosaurs

  Fossil find hints at life of one of our earliest mammalian forebears.

  25 April 2002

• The police state

  On the surface, beehives and ant nests seem to be model societies, with each individual striving for the common good. But maintaining this social order sometimes calls for brutal tactics.

  25 April 2002

• Pigs at heart

  Sedentary animals may help understand couch potatoes' diseases.

  24 April 2002