On the Record

“You have to admit that evolution theory is not complete.”

Dutch education minister, Maria Van der Hoeven, tells newspaper De Volkskrant why she supports a public debate on intelligent design.

“I am very, very tired of the US signing on to international science agreements that we later come to regret.”

Congressman Sherwood Boehlert (Republican, New York) supports an amendment to stall US involvement in the multibillion-dollar fusion experiment ITER until a clear source of funding can be found.

“We need to ban the sale of long pointed kitchen knives.”

The British Medical Journal on how to reduce knife crime.

Three good reasons...

...to make your next car a hydrogen car

Mileage Last week a prototype hydrogen car achieved a whopping 3,836 kilometres per litre of fuel.

Convenience for Californians. The state has just pledged to open 100 hydrogen-fuel stations around Los Angeles and San Francisco... by 2010.

Looks General Motors is developing a stylish hydrogen-powered Hummer.

Number Crunch

50 — the number of years since the first atomic clock was unveiled at the National Physical Laboratory in Middlesex, UK.

0.16 — the number of seconds by which that original clock would be off if it was still running today.

0.1 — the number of microseconds a modern atomic clock loses each year.

32 — the number of ‘leap seconds’ that have been added to atomic time since 1972 to adjust for a gradual slowing of Earth's rotation.