Never mind stitches—it is possible to solder wounds closed
IF YOU CUT yourself, your options are to reach for a plaster or, if the cut is nasty, to go to a doctor to have it stitched or glued. That seems a rather limited choice. Medical researchers have been trying to develop another way to join the edges of a wound, inspired by something routinely…
Experiments contradicting the Standard Model are piling up
Some bosons, quarks and muons appear not to be behaving as predictedTHE STANDARD MODEL of particle physics—completed in 1973—is the jewel in the crown of modern physics. It predicts the properties of elementary particles and forces with mind-boggling accuracy. Take the magnetic moment of the electron, for example, a measure of how strongly a particle…
China’s two-front fight to quash the virus and revive its economy
Apr 23rd 2022 | HONG KONG THE FORTUNES of the world’s second-biggest economy hinge on two kinds of hesitancy. The first is over vaccines. China’s elderly are surprisingly reluctant to get inoculated against covid-19. That has saddled the country with a vulnerable population that could die in large numbers if the government abandons its controversial…
After getting inflation so wrong, can the Fed now get it right?
Apr 23rd 2022 | Washington, DCIT WAS A simple, stunning admission. “We have had price stability for a very long time and maybe come to take it for granted,” said Jerome Powell, chairman of the Federal Reserve, last month. Many factors explain the latest burst in inflation, with snarled supply chains, tight job markets, generous…
Sri Lanka says it will stop servicing its foreign debt
It may be the first step towards fixing its crisisSRI LANKA has suffered multiple crises and nearly three decades of civil war since it won independence from Britain in 1948. But it had never failed to pay back its debts. That changed on April 12th, when the South Asian island nation’s finance ministry said in…
Shehbaz Sharif is Pakistan’s new prime minister
IT WAS THE old Pakistan that Imran Khan, now the country’s ex-prime minister, railed against. He promised to banish the self-serving political establishment, usher in an era of clean politics and create a new Islamic welfare state. So it was with visible glee that Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, whose mother, father and grandfather have all served…
Israel’s government is being tested by a spate of terror attacks
But it won’t take much to set off an eruptionISRAEL PRIDES itself on having some of the world’s finest counter-terrorism units. But when a lone Palestinian gunman roamed the streets of Tel Aviv on April 7th, it seemed to have too many of them. After a shoot-up outside a popular night spot, which left three…
War-ravaged Yemen gets a truce and dumps a tired president
SOON AFTER iftar, the fast-breaking meal during Ramadan, a group of influential Yemenis was summoned to the Saudi royal court. They were in Riyadh on April 6th for peace talks to help end Yemen’s long war. But there was little to discuss: the Houthis, a rugged Shia group from northern Yemen who have conquered much…
KAL’s cartoon
Apr 9th 2022FacebookTwitterLinkedInWhatsAppDig deeper into the subject of this week’s cartoon:As Russian soldiers retreat, they leave evidence of war crimesDon’t underestimate Xi Jinping’s bond with Vladimir PutinIndia’s vaunted strategic autonomy is a mirageKAL’s cartoon appears weekly in The Economist. You can see last week’s hereThis article appeared in the The world this week section of…
Business
Listen to this story.Enjoy more audio and podcasts on iOS or Android.Your browser does not support the element.Save time by listening to our audio articles as you multitaskElon Musk said he looked forward to making “significant improvements to Twitter” following his appointment to the board. This came after Mr Musk revealed that he had built…