FEATURES
COVER: Baikal's hidden depths 42
Foreign scientists are joining forces with Soviet
institutes to probe the depths of the planet's oldest,
deepest and most remarkable lake—"sacred Baikal,
the glorious sea"
John Massey Stewart
Will taxonomy go the way of the dinosaurs? 32
Protests are coming in from around the world against
plans to cut research at Britain's Natural History Museum 47
Circles in the corn
Now is the season for crops to be flattened into
strange patterns in fields across southern Britain.
Are they works of the devil, or of atmospheric physics?
Terence Meaden
Magnetism without metals 52
The next generation of magnetic materials could be
based not on metals but on novel organic molecules
Joel Miller and Arthur Epstein
Primate origins up in the air again 57
Extinct creatures finely tuned to life as visual
predators were s thought to have been our earliest
primate ancestors. It now o seems that they were
exquisitely adapted for flying
Pat Shipman
The molecules of outer space 61
Interstellar space is teeming with molecules, many
formed by chemical reactions that rarely occur on Earth
Alexander Dalgarno
NEWS
This Week 25
Government admits concerns over Link / International AIDS
conference begins in San Francisco / Skill shortages hit
British biotechnology / Scheme to save the sphinx / US
promises aid to protect ozone layer / Poison pellets for
rampaging possums
Science 34
Comets could signal their presence around other stars
/ DIY chimps / Waiting for the top quark / The silence
before an earthquake / Homing turtles / Jupiter's sodium
cloud
Technology 38
Faxes and the law / Flat screens / A lick of hot paint
/ Robot surgeons / Operations by remote control /
Eutelsat goes mobile / Fighting fires by plane
VIEWPOINTS
Review 65
Wheeler's journey into gravity and space-time / Current
thinking about chimpanzees / Wildlife in the cities /
Cycles of climate / Beware of power lines / The world's
children at risk Life, the Universe and (almost)
everything 69
Forum 70
An unwholesome message from the heavens / Combating the
greenhouse effect / Junk mail / Computer viruses prove
useful / Thistle Diary / Feedback / Enigma
Letters and Grimbledon Down 75
Ariadne 128
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