Opinion in 1991

The British government seems about to end decades of wrangling over the fate of Britain's hedgerows.

The new director of the NIH defended herself before the Dingell committee last week but also promised self-restraint. But she has a strong case for reforming the OSI.

The new biology has spawned a new industry — that of ethical enquiries into the new biology. But the ethical problems are often neither new nor problematical. Hard heads and plain speaking are the urgent needs.

The Liberal Democrats in Britain have made a worthy but unconvincing pass at putting science to rights.

The British Anglican plan to boycott Nestlé coffee leaves much logic by the wayside.

Contrary to most accounts, last week's summit meeting in London was not a waste of time, but an occasion when several national leaders made promises they can now be asked to keep.

The French government is trying out random (as distinct from anonymous) peer review.

Protests against the proposed space station Freedom continue, but the US Congress is likely to approve the project. The time has come for counter-arguments of a different kind.

The collapse of a British-based bank raises questions about the new world order as well as bankers' probity.

Two large companies, IBM in the United States and ICI in Britain, suddenly look vulnerable. Is the explanation their sheer size or, more probably, their ingrained habits?

There is a danger that the concept of biodiversity will become an aspect of political correctness.

The well-substantiated deviousness of Iraq in attempting to conceal its nuclear facilities should remind the rest of us that there needs to be a durable way of regulating engineering exports.

Last Thursday, Washington D.C. was almost shut down by a computer glitch. But life has continued.

The British government seems reconciled to yet another European meeting when it is in a minority of one, but the whole of Europe needs better preparation for the grand schemes now under way.

A pre-Archaeopteryx animal with wings will have to make its way with difficulty into the world.

The choice of Berlin as the new capital of Germany is good for Germany and for the rest of us.

Science has become a British election issue, but as yet in an unreconstructed fashion.

Efforts to reach agreement on the use of genetic information will be frustrated while the world – and people's capacity to live with truth – is changing as quickly as at present.

Monsanto has won a famous legal battle against a frivolous and irresponsible lawsuit.