How female choice creates new species
Mar 27th 2021NATURAL SELECTION, as propounded in Charles Darwin’s master work, “On the Origin of Species”, explains how organisms evolve and adapt to their circumstances. Paradoxically, though, it is a bit hazy on the actual subject of its title, namely how parent species spin off new, daughter species. Darwin recognised that diverse ecological niches encourage…
A route to the much-sought “new physics” may have opened
Mar 25th 2021THE STANDARD MODEL of particle physics is one of the most powerful theories in science. It is, though, incomplete. It describes a suite of fundamental particles and the forces through which they interact, but it fails to include gravity and dark matter (mysterious stuff detectable at the moment only by its gravitational pull),…
The economics of falling populations
Mar 27th 2021BUBONIC PLAGUE killed between one and two thirds of Europeans when it struck in the 14th century. Covid-19, mercifully, has exacted nothing like that toll. Its demographic impact, however, is likely to be significantly larger than the nearly 3m tragic deaths so far attributed to the coronavirus thanks to an associated, worldwide baby…
The Fed and the bond markets
Mar 27th 2021JEROME POWELL does not want you to misunderstand him. The Chair of the Federal Reserve knows that communication is a big part of how monetary policy works. Mr Powell speaks plainly. He is not an economist, but that probably helps, because he is less likely to resort to confusing jargon. His messages at…
India and China are finding vaccine diplomacy tricky
Mar 27th 2021A YEAR AFTER China barred entry to most foreigners as the covid-19 pandemic spread, its embassies in India and a score of other countries have just declared that they will make it easier for expatriates who had been living in China to return. They must be vaccinated first. But there is a bigger…
As it turns 50, Bangladesh is doing well, despite its politicians
Mar 25th 2021IN COLONIAL TIMES the eastern half of Bengal was one of the poorest parts of British India. After independence and partition in 1947, it became one of the poorest bits of Pakistan. And after it declared itself an independent country, Bangladesh, in 1971, it became poorer still, as the rump of Pakistan fought…
Iraqis are getting fed up with Iran
“A STAIN ON Iraq’s sovereignty.” That is how an Iraqi army officer describes the billboard glorifying Qassem Suleimani, a stunningly successful Iranian commander who was killed in an American air strike on Iraqi soil in January 2020. The hoarding looms over Baghdad’s administrative district, known as the Green Zone. Many Iraqis once hailed Suleimani as…
Saudi Arabia is struggling to end its war in Yemen
SIX YEARS have passed since Saudi Arabia declared victory in what it dubbed Operation Decisive Storm, the opening salvo of its war in Yemen. Yet the kingdom is still trying to find its way out of the squall. On March 22nd it offered a ceasefire to its opponent, the Houthis, a Shia militant group that…