Fear of swine flu is running rampant in Germany as the number of reported cases — and deaths — continues to grow. Doctors’ offices are inundated by people wanting to get the vaccine, which is in short supply. But health professionals are divided over how dangerous the virus really is. Death from swine flu comes unexpectedly, as was the case with six-year-old Kharra Skye Davis from Hot Springs, Arkansas, who spent 20 hours fighting...
Read more »

In a SPIEGEL interview, former US vice president and Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore, 61, discusses Barack Obama’s environmental policies, the endless push by lobbyists to derail reforms and his hopes for a global deal at the climate change summit in Copenhagen next month. SPIEGEL: Mr. Vice President, you write in your new book, “Our Choice,” (to be published in German translation on Nov. 23 as “Wir Haben Die Wahl”) that we have...
Read more »

Three young German architects are designing structures made completely out of living trees, including a pavilion for concerts in downtown Stuttgart. But designing the ultimate treehouse turns out to be trickier than one might expect. Ferdinand Ludwig grows trees on trees. That’s what he does. And he has grafted together — trunk to top, top to trunk — seven young willow trees. At the moment a scaffold supports the young architect’s unusual tree tower....
Read more »

Cattle cloning has long been standard practice in the United States. Now EU agriculture ministers have decided that cloned meat and milk should be allowed onto the European market. Not everyone is pleased. Anyone who considers creation sacred should make sure they never talk to a cattle breeder. In-vitro fertilization, artificial insemination and embryo transfer are the terms of their trade. And now another word from the lexicon of reproductive medicine has joined the...
Read more »

Nuclear power is back in vogue in Russia, with 26 new reactors scheduled for construction by 2030. German industrial giant Siemens has grabbed a piece of the pie. But safety and financial concerns threaten to overshadow the country’s atomic ambitions. Olga Kurochkina can hardly hide her delight at making her German guests squirm. She has just served them caviar and pirogies and is now triumphantly waving a document in their faces. “Our students recently...
Read more »

Is it possible to learn German in just days? Linguistic savant Daniel Tammet managed to do so in the course of a week. Using his own special technique, the 30-year-old, who has a mild form of autism, has learned to speak more than 10 languages. Daniel Tammet likes the German language. It’s “like a clean room with good sharp corners, tidy and straightforward,” he says, yet at the same time it’s “poetic, transparent and...
Read more »

The German Pop Band Kitchen Cowboys present their new CD “Alltagshelden ohne Ruhm”, a tribute to the working hero of everyday life and the perpetual struggle for fame and fortune. There are two types of heroes: those who are famous for spectacular acts, and those who struggle to maintain through everyday life. Of these “working heroes without fame” is the new album of the Hamburg pop band Kitchen Cowboys. Political and poetic are the...
Read more »