After the success of the genome, scientists have got carried away with the study of 'omics. They all want 'omes of their own

Keep off the red planet

Every year there are at least 500 gamma-ray bursts in the universe. They destroy everything within a few hundred light years of the source. What do these extraordinary explosions mean for intelligent life in the cosmos?

Richard Fortey has written an elegant and informative biography of life on earth. But his preference for the rock over the intriguing idea lets him down

Amid the uproar over Garry Kasparov's defeat by Deep Blue, we forgot one thing. It is not the machines which are brilliant, but the human beings who make them