Green father of earth mother
Once dismissed as heresy, Jim Lovelock's theory of earth as a single organism has become an accepted orthodoxy. Fred Pearce talks to the self-styled father of the environmental movement. Jim Lovelock...
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Do Hawaiian beaches hit your hot button?
A PhD in psychology has given Bill Siegel the edge in advising tourist boards. Adrian Mourby continues our summer series on tourism. In the 1960s, Bill Siegel was intending to do his PhD in...
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A grouse for Mr Bigwiz
V. S. Naipaul treats academics with disdain - and he doesn't think much of arts students either. He tells Andrew Robinson why those who can't deal with the complexities of science shouldn't be...
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Phantom traumas that cause real misery
Much chronic pain is little understood but the key to a cure seems to lie in the brain, argues Ronald Melzack. "Stop pain" has become a rallying cry for people who seek improved care for countless...
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When torment is my agony, your itch and his salvation
If doctors could offer us a world free of pain, would we really want it? Perhaps not, says Geoff Watts. "For all the happiness mankind can gain/ Is not in pleasure but in rest from pain", wrote poet...
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Distinct differences
Although the British Academy celebrated its centenary last month (Features, THES , June 28), its founding charter was granted on August 8, 1902. Of the academy's more than 750 fellows 100 years on,...
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Ageing, underpaid, but still able 1
Where is the evidence that older staff are under-productive ("Age law adds to campus burdens", THES , August 2)? By stating that European Directive 2000/78 on workplace discrimination could keep...
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Ageing, underpaid, but still able 2
As a reasonably productive 40-something researcher, I am wondering at what point I will become "ageing, expensive and underproductive"? Given that most of us start off as youngish ambitious academics...
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Ageing, underpaid, but still able 3
As a 50-year-old entrant to university research and teaching, I am saddened by the hostile response the European Union's anti-ageism legislation has provoked. The law exists to ensure applicants are...
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New but not ignored
Your article about the report from the House of Commons science and technology committee on the government funding of learned societies contained an inaccuracy about the Royal Society ("MPs put...
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Elite given the edge 1
You failed to mention the extra £6 million a year given to elite universities to increase the proportion of state-schooled pupils ("Intake up for state pupils at top 13", THES , August 2). A 4 per...
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Successful scrutiny
The article about the Quality Assurance Agency audit of Luton University in March 2001 lacked balance and objectivity ("Luton told to raise its game in quality row", THES , August 2). The QAA report...
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Elite given the edge 2
While yearning for a lost Arcadia ("Passion dies for bride of the state", THES , August 2), Kenneth Minogue refers to the state "adopting increasing numbers of rather backward children". Assuming he...
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Examine the logic 1
How much time and effort could have been saved if the external-examiner system had been addressed at the beginning of the quality debate rather than at the end, (Editorial, THES , August 8)? As Lewis...
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Examine the logic 2
External examiners enable a department to see how its courses and teaching relate to those of other institutions with which the examiner is familiar. Department members rarely consider their teaching...