The exploration of the Moon and Mars continues apace
Feb 29th 2020THIS WEEK has seen the publication of results collected by probes to two heavenly bodies: Chang’e 4, a Chinese mission to the Moon, and InSight, an American mission to Mars. Chang’e 4 landed in January 2019; InSight arrived the previous November. The Chinese team, bowing to the realities of scientific publishing, have presented…
How to decide in advance who will pass advanced military training
Feb 29th 2020IT GOES WITHOUT saying that to be a marine you have to be tough, both physically and mentally. But which is more important? And, more specifically, which is the bigger obstacle to successful training? Working on behalf of America’s marine corps, Leslie Saxon, of the Keck School of Medicine of the University of…
How to get more innovation bang for the research buck
Feb 29th 2020ABOUT A DECADE ago, a few economists began asking whether the rich world’s prolonged spell of lacklustre growth might have something to do with a shortage of new ideas. Tyler Cowen of George Mason University suggested that when it came to discovery, humanity may well have plucked all of the low-hanging fruit. Robert…
Bank bosses in America stick around longer than those in Europe
IT IS ALL change at the top of Europe’s biggest banks. Many have either recently put in a new boss, or are desperately searching for one. Barclays is reportedly looking for a replacement for Jes Staley. Unicredit’s Jean Pierre Mustier declined to throw his hat in the ring to lead HSBC. Is it surprising? The…
The European Union’s trade policy will involve some tough negotiations
Feb 29th 2020WASHINGTON, DCIF THE TRUMP administration’s America is the bully of the global trading system, the European Union is the finger-wagging school prefect. Instead of threatening tariffs, its leaders have called for countries to play fairly. As a trade war has raged between America and China, the EU suggested a rules-based solution. When the…
Rethinking how we value data
Feb 29th 2020EVERYONE KNOWS that data are worth something. The biggest companies in the world base their businesses on them. Artificial-intelligence algorithms guzzle them in droves. But data are not like normal traded goods and services, such as apples and haircuts. They can be used time and again, like public goods. They also have spillover…
Fewer and fewer Japanese want to see the world
NO FEWER THAN 191 countries admit Japanese visitors without a visa. That is twice as many as wave through Kuwaitis, for example, and five times the number that let in Nepalese without hesitation. By that measure, Japan’s chrysanthemum-decorated passport is the most welcomed in the world. Yet only 24% of Japanese possess one—about half the…
Of all Sri Lanka’s conflicts, the one with elephants is the oldest
Feb 29th 2020AS TROPICAL DUSK turns to night outside Galgamuwa, fireflies are not the only points of light around Lalith’s little rice paddy, the last field in the valley waiting to be harvested. On one side, bonfires are blazing in neighbours’ fields. On the other, Lalith’s nephew is shining a torch out of one of…
A botched power grab leaves Malaysia without a government
Feb 29th 2020KUALA LUMPURTHE PICTURES showed Mahathir Mohamad, the prime minister, working calmly at his desk. “Just another day in the office”, read the accompanying caption, tweeted on February 25th. Yet outside the doors of his office there was pandemonium. The day before, Dr Mahathir had resigned as prime minister and as leader of Bersatu,…
Kazakhstan’s president says democracy is on its way
THE PRESIDENT of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, likes to bang on about political reform. The oil-rich Central Asian country’s rubber-stamp parliament needs an opposition, he says, and its citizens need greater freedom to form political parties and hold peaceful protests. But when Zhanbolat Mamay, a 31-year-old documentary-maker, took Mr Tokayev at his word and tried to…