During the relatively short period of time when credit was much easier to come by for the everyday person did it generate increased competition forcing companies to improve their products more often and in imaginative ways and as a result fastrack R&D and are we benefiting from this in an measurable economic way at present or are continuing improvements in technological development basically exponential and would have happened anyway.

If as a species we are still evolving what will happen to our thumbs? the rate at which children text (SMS) today and i asuume will continue to do so surley over time the thumbs will curve slightly inwards....(question asked slightly tongue in cheek) Maybe a broader question is what is technolgy doing to the evoloution of the species or is it actually making us more stupid....we seem to have to think a lot less these days.

In countless films I've seen scuba divers communicating with one another over radio and yet I understand that water absorbs radio waves so how does this work? Or is it just a Hollywood myth?

Simon Forbes

Hove

After a mug of water has been boiled in a microwave, it goes 'off the boil' on removal but then, when a tea bag is added, it all boils up again - why?

Fairly frequently one seems local paper reports of the domestic power distribition system suffering from "a surge" and some part of it being destroyed.

The Guardian 28/9/2010 has "...power surge caused by copper thieves that led to power cuts ... some household appliances caught fire while people were still in their beds and unaware of the danger.... "

I can "believe" that transmission line effects might cause a double size voltage for one cycle or so ( ?) of the 50 Hz but would expect that the output of the generators / transformers distribution system, long enough to destroy a household appliance under even no load conditions would be no more than say, 110% of nominal.

Is this all just journalese ?

I've always been spectical about the principle of "live" TV, I understand that it will be a matter of seconds but how "live" is live TV.

Please excuse my lack of jargon know-how, but the stuff coming out of the bottom of rocket ships looks very hot! Why doesn't this melt or burn the structures erected around it?

History has shown that the Earth's magnetic poles have switched over past history.  How would a modern switch affect such technology as electrical generation, electric motors, and all things magnetic including Compasses and GPS.