A handy tip for those trying to promote science to the public comes this week from New Scientist, which displayed its front covers to a conference in Cambridge and then revealed which had sold the best. The only cute animals that sell, apparently, are parrots, penguins and auks.
Meanwhile one of the magazine's top-selling issues featured a lightly-clad, bronzed man on a beach, introducing an article on the science of BayWatch.