Features

Jaguar’s fastest road car bar the short-lived 1992-94 XJ220 supercar, the F-Type SVR is the full-fat version of the British brand’s now familiar Porsche 911-fighting sports car. Developed by Jaguar’s newly formed Special Vehicles Operations skunkworks division — and first capable of 200mph (322km/h) since the XJ220 — the F-Type SVR’s 2016 arrival comes three years after the first F-Type model hit showrooms.

A classic front-engine rear-drive brute in character, the SVR however employs standard rear-biased all-wheel-drive (AWD) to help manage its huge power and torque output. In essence, it is a more intense development of V8 engine versions of the standard model, rather than a revolution or revelation.

Assertive aesthetic

A curvy and sveltely feline design in standard guise, the F-Type’s design is beefed up somewhat for SVR service. Seemingly little altered from front views, the F-Type SVR’s broad hungry honeycomb grille, wrapover headlights and gaping side intakes are complemented with a sharper lower spoiler lip, while its long bonnet receives twin heat extraction vents. Swooping and sexy from front view, the F-Type’s angled bumper shut-line above the wheel-arch stands out slightly, but detracts little from its aesthetic. 

Its body colour roof outline and dark panoramic roof panel accentuate the F-Type’s graceful lines, while wider 265/35ZR20 front and 305/30ZR20 rear tyres generate more grip necessary for the SVR’s increased power.

Designed with improved airflow in mind, the F-Type SVR features numerous tweaks, from its bumper, body vents and underbody covers to reduce lift and drag, while increasing downforce. Its most obvious aero enhancements are however its large rear venturi air splitter and dramatic active rear tailgate wing mounted above its moody slim rear lights. 

But their overt aesthetics do alter the standard F-Type’s elegant design flow, and also seem to draw attention to, accentuate and visually add weight to the F-Type’s somewhat high and wide rear haunches. Underneath, the F-Type is built on a lightweight aluminium frame, and for SVR service features several revised weight-saving components, making it between 25-50kg lighter than the nearest AWD F-Type R version.

Bellowing brute

Gloriously thundering, bellowing and growling, the F-Type SVR’s supercharged 5-litre direct injection engine is familiar in lesser states of tune from many Jaguar Land Rover vehicles, but is tuned to produce an additional 25BHP and 14lb/ft here. Developing 567BHP at 6,500rpm and 516lb/ft throughout a sledgehammer-like 3,500-5,000rpm mid-range, the SVR is highly responsive from idling and throughout the rev range, owing to its mechanically-driven supercharger and ever-ready boost. 

Leaping off-the-line with an instantaneous alacrity, the SVR rockets through 0-100km/h in 3.7 seconds and tops out at 322km/h. Relative to its size, output and hefty 1,705kg weight, the SVR’s 11.3l/100km combined cycle fuel consumption is moderate, but driven more spiritedly, becomes quite thirsty.

Building power and torque with a brutally progressive fashion, the SVR’s mighty supercharged V8 is nevertheless abundant throughout and allows for effortlessly brisk overtaking and indefatigably confident and quick progress on steep inclines.

Meanwhile, power is channelled through a slick, quick and smooth shifting 8-speed automatic gearbox, which can be operated through steering-mounted paddle shifters for more involvement, and can be set to for a more responsive shift mode through the infotainment screen, which also allows one to mix and match a choice of more ‘dynamic’ aggressive engine, suspension and steering settings. 

Additionally, a more vocal exhaust note can be called up with the press of a button.

Balanced and intuitive

Instant in responses and fulsome in delivery, yet balanced and intuitive, the SVR’s character is that of a front-engine rear-drive sports car crossed with muscle car. Fitted with a rear-biased all-wheel-drive system and electronically controlled limited-slip rear differential to more effectively deploy its huge torque and power within a relatively small footprint, the SVR will instinctively initiate a power-slide when exiting a tight corner with too much throttle too early. 

However, its rear differential actively distributes power to the rear wheel best able to but down to tarmac, while power is also subtly transmitted to the front axle to pull the SVR onto the straight and narrow.

More of a well-sorted brute rather than a scalpel-like Lotus Evora or a tenaciously gripping Nissan GT-R, the SVR’s rear-drive biased instincts lend it intuitive, if somewhat tail-happy handling traits. Meanwhile, with revised dampers, stiffer toe and camber settings, and torque vectoring automatically braking the inside wheel into corners, the SVR turns in with tidy precision and agility.

Meanwhile, its meaty and quick steering delivers good off-centre precision and responsiveness. Reassuring and talented through winding hill climbs, the SVR is also stable and settled at high speed and over imperfections, with buttoned down rebound control. Riding on the firm side, the SVR’s adaptive dampers provide taut cornering body control, especially when set to “dynamic” mode.

Luxuriously sporty

More forgiving and supple in “normal” mode for daily driving, the SVR drives with a high level of refinement for noise, vibration and harshness, while its huge brakes are reassuringly effective and fade-resilient. With its hunkered down driving position, thick steering wheel and peering over its long sculpted bonnet, the SVR’s driving position is easily accessible, alert, well-adjustable and adequately cosy. 

Supportive and comfortable, its seat headrests are however unfortunately not adjustable and seem to bulge from the base of a taller driver’s neck upwards. Front and side visibility is good. However, rear and over-shoulder visibility is somewhat restricted owing to a small glasshouse, heavily sloped roofline, thick rear pillars and high-set and wide haunches.

Well crafted with quilted leather seats and upholstery with contrast stitching, soft textures, metals and suede aplenty and quality materials used throughout, the F-Type is luxurious and unmistakably sporty inside. Its cabin is driver-oriented and features user-friendly, intuitive controls, as well as an infotainment system with remote vehicle monitoring, remote start and climate control, using smartphone connectivity.

Convenience, safety and infotainment equipment levels are extensive. However, and on a more minor note, one does question the necessity of the additional weight of an electric operated opening tailgate hatch system as a standard feature in such a sports car for which Jaguar has otherwise been keen to apply weight-saving measures.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: 5-litre, supercharged, in-line V8-cylinders

Bore x stroke: 92.5 x 93mm

Compression ratio: 9.5:1

Valve-train: 32-valve, DOHC, variable timing, direct injection

Gearbox: 8-speed automatic

Driveline: Four-wheel-drive, electronically-controlled limited-slip differential

Ratios: 1st 4.714; 2nd 3.143; 3rd 2.106; 4th 1.285; 5th 1.0; 6th 1.0; 7th 0.839; 8th 0.667

Reverse/final drive ratios: 3.317/2.56

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 567 (575) [423] @6,500rpm

Specific power: 113.4BHP/litre

Power-to-weight: 332.5BHP/tonne

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 516 (700) @3,500-5,000rpm

Specific torque: 140Nm/litre

Torque-to-weight: 410Nm/tonne

0-100km/h: 3.7 seconds

Top speed: 322km/h

Fuel economy, combined: 11.3 litres/100km

CO2 emissions, combined: 269g/km

Fuel capacity: 70 litres

Track, F/R: 1,585/1,612mm

Suspension, F/R: Double wishbones, adaptive dampers

Steering: Electric-assisted rack & pinion

Brakes, F/R: 380/376mm ventilated discs

Brake callipers, F/R: 2-/1-piston

Tyres, F/R: 265/35ZR20/305/30ZR20

A Word for Love

Emily Robbins

New York: Riverhead Books, 2016

Pp. 290

This is the story of a great love, and of an American girl who becomes part of an Arab family, but it is quite different from most romances or cross-cultural novels, due to the author’s innovative approach to language: Emily Robbins displays an uncanny ability to expand the meaning of words beyond their dictionary definitions.

Partly inspired by Arabic, which produces many associated words from three-letter stems, she creates a lyrical narrative that makes unusual connections between words, and to the feelings they evoke. This is not just a question of style, but thematic. Besides exploring multiple forms of love, the novel focuses on language and words, and their linkage to behaviour. 

“A Word for Love” is set in an unnamed Arab city, easily recognisable as Damascus.

Anyone familiar with the city will find that Robbins’s descriptions ring true. Yet, it is not the famous landmarks that are highlighted. Most of the plot unfolds within the four walls of the apartment of the middle-class Syrian family with whom Bea, the narrator, lives. This is another feature of the novel’s integrated style and theme: Huge human emotions play out in a very compressed space. Love, anger, resentment, jealousy, fear and generosity are expressed in the everyday interaction involved in housework, dress, personal hygiene, meals, child’s play, whispered secrets and shared jokes. If one thinks such things are trivial, think again: Robbins shows how they are related to very basic human values and needs. This is a novel about the beauty of small things. 

There are, however, a few outings. Bea visits the National Library, for she is on a mission, having come to Syria to read “the astonishing text”, a particularly lovely rendition of the Qais and Leila love story, which is said to make even scholars cry. Bea wants not only to increase her Arabic proficiency, but to intensify her feelings. Her partner in this latter endeavour is Nisrine, the Indonesian maid of the Syrian family, who wants to “grow her heart”, so she can like her job and get over her homesickness. Making an Asian domestic worker a main character is another element that sets this book apart.

Another outing, which turns out to be fateful, is when the family goes shopping. Just before reaching home, they face a police blockade. Madame, the mother of the family, makes Bea and Nisrine get out of the car and offer the policeman a bag of apples to speed their passage. Adel, the blonde policeman, is smitten by Nisrine, and she, in turn, spies the chance to grow her heart. As the family’s home is right across from the police station, their love blossoms in the space between. 

“There is a language that develops in love. When the circumstance is extreme… then so can be the language. Theirs was of epic proportion. They talked with their hands across the street and the garden. He stood on the rooftop, she on the balcony. Because they were far apart, it was a language of large movements”. (p. 89)

“When she was on the balcony and he was far away, then he would raise one arm, and if she raised hers, it felt like the sky could connect them”. (p. 100) 

Looking for deeper meaning in the legendary love story of old, Bea finds herself caught up in a contemporary Qais-and-Leila romance. There are many parallels: Adel has a reputation as “a real Qais” and he writes poetry, tossing poems to Nisrine on the balcony wrapped in small plastic bags, or occasionally giving her one when she takes the family’s children to the park by the police station.

The ultimate parallel is that theirs, too, is an impossible love, unacceptable to family and society. By paralleling the two romances, Robbins in effect creates a thematic narrative that spans over a millennium.  

Paradoxes and dualities drive the plot to an uncertain conclusion. While Bea is constrained by living in the family, it also gives her a sense of belonging. The greatest paradox, however, is the policeman’s dual role. Adel is Nisrine’s lover and is supposed to protect, but he is the adversary endangering Baba, the father of the family, who has been a political prisoner and risks being one again, as he is involved in the pro-democracy movement. It is 2005, and unrest is mounting in the country. Adding to her ruminations about language and writing, Bea learns that “here writing could be dangerous”. (p. 48) 

In this, her first novel, Robbins doesn’t romanticise love, but searches for its function in life. As Bea discovers, love is not something one finds or loses, but a component of one’s being: “In the end, it was something you went to in your most painful moments… It lifted you, helped you to become another person, to know another side of yourself”. (pp. 233-4)

The book is also a meditation on people being trapped in pre-assigned roles, and the unforeseen consequences of trying to break out of them. “A Word for Love” will be available at Books@Cafe where Emily Robbins will have a reading in March.

Sally Bland

By Jung Ha-won 

SEOUL — Trying to raise the world’s lowest birth rate is among the missions of South Korea’s welfare ministry — a challenge starkly illustrated when one of its own working mothers died at her office.

The 34-year-old woman was an elite employee who had passed the highest category of the highly competitive civil service entrance exams.

A mother of three, she had only returned from maternity leave a week before her death last month, and immediately went back to working 12-hour days. 

She returned to the office on Saturday. On Sunday, she was there again at five in the morning to finish early and take care of her children later in the day, according to her colleagues. 

Instead she suffered a heart attack and they never saw her alive again. 

Her death has prompted widespread soul-searching over the difficulties faced by overburdened and exhausted working mothers in a deeply workaholic and male-dominated society — which desperately needs to encourage more births.

South Korea’s fertility rate — the number of babies a woman is expected to have during her lifetime — has been declining for years and now stands at 1.2, the lowest in the world in the latest World Bank tally. The global average is 2.4.

Experts call it a “birth strike”.

‘Unimaginable dream’

The civil servant who died has not been named, but Kim Yu-mi, a 37-year-old IT engineer with two young daughters, said she could “totally relate to her”.

“It is exactly the reality for all working mums all across South Korea,” she said.

She was one of the minority of South Koreans who took advantage of the legally available one year of parental leave, which is paid for by the government.

Since 2006 authorities have pumped more than 100 trillion won ($88 billion) into hundreds of programmes aimed at encouraging people to marry young and have larger families. But they have failed to arrest the trend.

Kim describes herself as “extremely lucky” for being allowed to go back to work.

“At least my employer did not kick me out when I asked for a maternity leave,” she said. “In the past, female employees like me were simply told ‘Go home and never come back’.” 

But when she returned to the office after her first maternity leave, she added, she often worked past 9 pm, making reading a bedtime story impossible.

“Sitting with my child to play and eat dinner together was an unimaginable dream.”

Workaholic country

According to official statistics, the average South Korean works 2,113 hours a year, the second-longest among OECD member nations, where the mean is 1,766. Mexico ranks number one.

But local surveys indicate the reality is even longer, and, as in Japan, there are regular reports of “death by overwork”.

At the same time, in double-income families, men spend only 40 minutes a day on house chores or childcare compared to three hours for women. 

The cutthroat corporate culture, and a deep-rooted patriarchy that sees women as the sole family caregiver, are pushing ever more women to shun marriage, said Lee Na-young, sociology professor at Chung-ang University in Seoul.

The vast majority of children are born in wedlock in South Korea, but the marriage rate has steadily declined to hit a record low of 5.9 per 1000 people last year. 

“South Korean women are expected to be modern career women at daytime and traditional housewives as soon as they go home in the evening... so why bother to get married?” Lee said, noting the burden on working women is far heavier in the South than elsewhere. 

“In this environment, I wouldn’t be surprised even if more South Korean working mothers are exhausted to death,” she added.

“This trend among young women, called ‘birth strike’ or ‘marriage strike’, is a very reasonable, rational choice for them to survive socially and economically.”

In the wake of the civil servant’s death, the welfare ministry has banned working on Saturdays and moved to discourage weekday overtime.

Asia’s fourth-largest economy has seen ever more women joining the workforce and increasingly taking the top spots in competitive exams to become lawyers, diplomats, school teachers, accountants and other professionals.

But a shortage of affordable, reliable daycare centres also means women are faced with having to give up their careers to stay at home if they become mothers.

The birth rate problem will not be solved without a change in attitudes that see women as “nothing more than tools for making babies”, the major Dong-A Ilbo daily said.

Would women be happy to give birth in a society where “a working mum who just returned from a maternity leave dies like this?” it asked in an editorial. “No, they have become too smart to do so.”

For people with a certain type of migraine headache, regular acupuncture treatments may help reduce the frequency of these debilitating attacks, a recent study from China suggests.

Patients who suffered migraines without aura, and who received five true acupuncture treatments per week for four consecutive weeks had about one less headache per month than similar patients who got the same number of sham acupuncture treatments, researchers report.

“Acupuncture should be considered as one option for migraine prophylaxis in light of our findings,” the authors write in JAMA Internal Medicine. 

About 18 per cent of women and 6 per cent of men in the US suffer from migraine headaches in a given year, according to a 2001 study, making the condition a leading cause of disability. 

Acupuncture is commonly used to treat migraines in China, however, studies of whether it works for migraine prevention have been inconsistent, the study team notes.

Ling Zhao of Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Sichuan, China, and colleagues recruited 249 adults who had an average of two to eight migraines without aura per month from three clinical centres in China. 

For the study, participants kept track of their migraine headache frequency and severity for four weeks before being randomly assigned to receive true acupuncture treatment, sham acupuncture treatment or to be put on a waiting list for treatment.

People in both the true and sham acupuncture groups received 20 treatments with acupuncture needles and electrical stimulation, each lasting 30 minutes. 

The true acupuncture group was treated at four acupuncture points thought to affect headaches and with enough electrical stimulation to elicit a “Deqi” sensation, which includes “soreness, numbness, distention or radiation that indicated effective needling”, according to the authors.

For the sham treatment, the needles were placed in areas not known to be acupuncture points and the deqi sensation was not induced. 

At 16 weeks, the number of migraines reported in the true acupuncture group fell by about three attacks per month, while people in the sham acupuncture group had two fewer attacks per month. 

Among the study’s limitations, about 20 per cent of the participants had previous experience with acupuncture, and it is not known how many may have been able to guess whether their treatments were real or sham. 

“Placebo response is strong in migraine treatment studies, and it is possible that the Deqi sensation... that was elicited in the true acupuncture group could have led to a higher degree of placebo response because there was no attempt made to elicit the Deqi sensation in the sham acupuncture group,” Dr Amy Gelfand writes in an accompanying editorial. 

Gelfand, a neurologist at the University of California, San Francisco, told Reuters Health that the placebo effect is interesting and important, especially in migraine studies, but she thinks about it differently as a researcher and as a clinician. 

“When I’m a researcher, placebo response is kind of a troublesome thing, because it makes it difficult to separate signal from noise,” she said. But when she is thinking as a doctor about the patient in front of her, placebo response is welcome, Gelfand said. 

“You know, what I really want is my patient to feel better, and to be improved and not be in pain. So, as long as something is safe, even if it’s working through a placebo mechanism, it may still be something that some patients might want to use,” she said.

When a patient is interested in a treatment that may have a strong placebo effect, Gelfand added, “There’s a real checklist in my head, with safety being the first thing; and if it seems like it’s safe then I think about things like cost, because often these things are not going to be covered by insurance, but to a certain extent that’s the patient’s decision; and I think about time, because these treatments can be time-consuming.”

It is a good idea to keep your doctor informed of any treatments that you are using, be they over-the-counter supplements or non-pharmacologic behavioural treatments, she said.

“I think that that’s part of the picture, and as a provider, I like to know about all of those things. If for no other reason than it just helps me understand what kind of treatments my patient values and is looking for,” Gelfand said.

As if smartphones were not hazardous enough, the selfie craze is reaching new extremes, new heights, literally. It is turning into a dangerous sport.

Who cares about the technical or the artistic quality? Who minds faces that are horribly distorted in pincushion effect because of the proximity of the phone’s lens? What matters is to be there and to show the world you were there; that you did it. It is by any measure the ultimate form of massive, popular, modern age photo taking.

If candid selfies featuring friends and family in “normal” places or situations will never harm anyone or nothing but the fine art of photography, some people look to boost their adrenaline output and to attract attention by taking selfies in rather unusual settings: preferably dangerous places and situations.

With just an extended arm or better, with a selfie stick (to avoid distortion), daredevils are climbing the highest buildings, like a TV tower in Estonia, or Cheops pyramid in Giza, Egypt, or they go diving with sharks, just for the thrill of taking extraordinary selfies there. It has become a worldwide phenomenon. Last year, German Andrej Ciesielski was arrested for several weeks after performing the trick at the peak of Cheops pyramid.

Some sit at the very edge of a vertiginous cliff, others walk a tightrope over a train railway. The possibilities and the challenges are many. Just don’t forget your smartphone.

Some countries have started implementing laws that forbid taking selfies in specific places. Several museums have already banned selfie taking; amongst them Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum in the Netherlands. Some put it nicely and try to promote more traditional forms of art by encouraging visitors to use a pencil and to practice hand drawing (on real paper, that is…) instead of taking selfies, while others bluntly instruct visitors not to take selfies at all.

Why the craze? After all, taking pictures in unusual places, in challenging situations is nothing new. There’s an incredible wealth of photos and movies taken by adventurers, moviemakers and researchers that are nothing short of extraordinary. There are TV channels that every day show exclusively incredible photography of everything, from landscape to wildlife and events; if only National Geographic, to name one of the most famous.

The difference is that these people do not take pictures of themselves and they use bulky, professional photo equipment. Selfies, on the other hand, are all about yourself — hence the word “self” — and are taken with the one digital tool that we all carry today, the universal, pocketable smartphone. It’s all about your ego — and portability, of course. It’s about showing that you did it alone, not that you asked someone to take a photo of you here or there; that would be so passé, so boring.

The way things are going, and seeing that the selfie craze is continuing unabated, I would not be surprised to see the makers of smartphones start to improve the front camera of the devices, the one you use to take selfies and that is also referred to as “secondary”, more than the back camera, the one that, in principle, is supposed to be the main camera. Who knows, the front camera may soon surpass the back camera in terms of quality and become the main, not the secondary camera. Technically speaking, it is perfectly doable.

All this because the digital industry’s magicians are able to squeeze megapixel cameras in a mobile phone handset weighing about 150 grams! Let’s see this summer what Apple and Samsung will do about that, when/if they release new models.

PARIS — Most off-label use of antidepressants is not backed by evidence that the drugs will work as intended, scientists said Wednesday.

Many medications approved for the treatment of depression are prescribed by doctors for other problems such as pain, insomnia or migraine headaches.

But only a small fraction of such “off-label” treatments have been tested for efficacy and side effects, researchers reported in the medical journal BMJ.

Giving adult medication to children, or in doses different from those tested in clinical trials and specified by drug makers, are also considered off-label uses.

The study found that about a third of antidepressants are prescribed for conditions other than depression. 

“This is probably the tip of the iceberg,” said lead author Jenna Wong, a researcher at McGill University in Montreal, Canada.

“There is a lot of off-label use going on, but we don’t have good ways of tracking it,” especially when antidepressants are taken to treat other conditions, she told AFP. 

The use of antidepressants — both off-label and for depression — has increased sharply in many countries in recent decades.

In the United States, their use shot up almost fivefold from early 1990s to the 2005-2008 period, when 11 per cent of adults reported taking them in the previous month, according to the US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention.

Women in the US were more than twice as likely as men to take antidepressants.

In Britain, their use increased by nearly 7 per cent between 2014 and 2015 — a sharper rise than any other class of drug.

In the study, Wong and colleagues tracked over 100,000 antidepressant prescriptions written by 174 doctors for 20,000 patients in Quebec, Canada between 2003 and 2015.

Overall, 29 per cent were given for conditions other than depression.

Scientific data supported only 16 per cent of these off-label treatments. 

For the remaining 84 per cent, there was either little or no evidence that the medications would work as intended.

In evaluating safety, most consumers focus on whether a drug has been approved by regulatory agencies such as the US Food and Drug Administration, said Wong. 

“But for physicians and scientists, the greater concern is whether a particular off-label use is scientifically-based or not.” 

The study shows that more research is urgently needed on the prevalence and impact of off-label meds, said Daniel Morales and Bruce Guthrie, both researchers at the Dundee Medical School in Scotland.

“Off-label prescribing matters because it is usually — but not always — associated with substantial uncertainty about the balance of benefit and harm,” they wrote in the BMJ.

It is no secret that Indian films are three hour-long musicals full of mellifluous songs. But with a rapid decline of good lyricists and music composers, sometimes those numbers can make our eardrums aquiver. 

When I was a teenager, going to watch a movie was a planned outing, which my maternal uncles organised, every time I visited them. The only problem was that they would start fixing the date on the day of my departure, in an obvious attempt to make me delay or cancel it. My leaving, that is. 

My relatives were an effervescent lot and celebrated everything with steaming cups of tea, especially when it rained, and a dewy petrichor spread around us. Hot fritters were the illicit add-ons, despite all of them being on a weight reduction diet. The joy they experienced from this was ineffable and was only superseded by a trip to the movies. 

And so, after enticing me suitably and postponing my return, we would flock to the cinemas. 

The moment the lights dimmed and a sonorous voice announced that we should switch off our cell phones; my uncles would push back the reclining seats to an almost supine position. Five minutes into the film, even before the nefarious villain cast his evil eye on the hero and heroine in sudden limerence, my uncles would start snoring.

The speed with which this happened left me stupefied. I looked around surreptitiously, hearing their nostrils bombinate, and as the sound increased, prayed that it would not be the cause of their defenestration. The luminescent screen, the iridescent light, the ethereal cinematography — nothing interrupted their deep slumber. 

Surprisingly, only when the actors burst into song and dance, would they wake up, rubbing their eyes, blinking through the phosphenes and exclaiming, “What happened? What happened?” 

They even looked around in confusion, like somnambulists, wondering how they got to where they were. It transpired every single time, during an epoch moment, in the middle of the picture. And then I had to patiently explain the plot to them while the smokers in the audience, who trooped outside the hall for the duration of the songs, would throw pitiful looks in my direction. 

However, these breaks were ephemeral because much before the film’s denouement, my snoring uncles disappeared into their favoured state of stupor and oblivion. I often wondered why they bothered to go to the cinema, instead of taking a nap in the solitude of their homes. 

Soon, I got an epiphany and realised that they could not help themselves because this was perhaps a genetic flaw. Like I was irresistibly drawn to old bookstores, where it did not matter if I bought those books or not, just being around them comforted me. 

In a similar manner, my uncles gravitated towards the ancient movie theatres because it de-stressed them, and simply being there, cured their insomnia, albeit for a short duration. They did not have to wait for a syzygy in order to fall asleep. 

Shortly I was so well trained that I supplied the storyline, even before they could prompt me to, and as soon as one of them woke up I would start narrating. 

“The secretary was the murderer,” I explained. 

“There was a murder?” asked the newly awakened uncle.

“Yes,” I nodded my head. 

“What happened? What happened?” exclaimed the other one. 

“And then her car rolled down the cliff,” I continued. 

“She also died? How?” they both chorused. 

“Pure serendipity,” I concluded. 

First launched in 2011 and revised for the 2015 model year, the Peugeot 508 is an elegant, economical, refined and practical mid-size to large saloon that effectively replaced both the French brand’s previous 607 flagship and mid-range 407 models. Reclaiming the “5” prefix designation that served its more distant predecessors so well, the 508 has also proved particularly popular with developing markets, as was the legendarily rugged 504 and 505 models of long past, with China alone accounting for 36 per cent of 508 sales. An altogether more sophisticated and classy European saloon, the 508 represents Peugeot’s more premium leanings within the mainstream mid-range automotive segment.

Elegant appeal

Reflecting its popularity in emerging markets, the revised 508 was simultaneously unveiled at the Chengdu and Moscow auto expos, before its European debut at the Paris motor show back in 2014. A tidier and toned up mid-life revision, the face-lifted 508 is an aesthetically more chiselled and streamlined car with improved infotainment, technology and driveline features. Debuting a new corporate face, the revised 508’s fascia is more upright with a more bulging and horizontal bonnet and chrome-ringed hexagonal grille now housing the brand’s lion emblem, in place of its former position atop the bonnet within a concave groove.

Freshened up and both more assertive and elegant, the face-lifted 508 features more ridged and pronounced sheet metal. Meanwhile, flanking the 508’s grille are new all-LED headlights, including an upper LED strip that neatly bridges the grille to the waistline, and lend creates a moodier and more browed appearance to the headlamp cluster. 

Its lower LED strips sit above deeper fog lights and extend to the lower side character lines. In addition to its more defined bumpers and more horizontal lighting elements, the revised 508’s rear looks fresher and features a more prominent built-in spoiler, while its predecessor’s horizontal upper chrome strip is ditched.

Refined and versatile

More than just an aesthetic facelift, the revised 508 features a new electronically controlled automatic gearbox as will be most popularly available in the Middle East, and enhanced engines, including the THP165 variant, as tested.

Retuned for more power, fuel economy and compliance with tough Euro 6 emissions standards, the revised 508 THP165’s direct injection turbocharged 1.6-litre four-cylinder engine develops 163BHP at 6000rpm — up from 153HP — while its peak 177lb/ft torque output is unchanged and arrives as early as 1400rpm. Quick spooling and with little turbo lag off-the-line, the 508 pulls meaningfully from below 2000rpm and seems to noticeably get perkier by 2500rpm. 

Confidently flexible, the 508’s generous mid-range underwrites top-end power accumulation and allows for versatile overtaking and driving on inclines for a car of its size, weight and efficiency. Refined and quiet, the 508’s engine is coupled with a new electronically controlled 6-speed automatic gearbox with slick, smooth and concise shifts.

It also features a more responsive “sport” mode and fixed steering column mounted sequential paddle shifters for manual mode shifting. With its driveline revisions, the THP165 is able to accelerate from standstill to 100km/h in 8.9-seconds and can achieve a top speed of 210km/h, and yet returns frugal 5.6l/100km fuel consumption on the combined cycle.

Smooth and settled

Carrying over unchanged, the revised 508’s chassis and MacPherson strut front and multi-link rear suspension provides confident and relaxed highway stability, poise and ride refinement, with its suspension and 215/55R17 tyres well balanced between providing the right ride comfort and body control qualities for its segment.

Driven through a broad range and variety of roads during its global launch in Mallorca, Spain, the 508 was manoeuvrable in town with reversing camera and parking sensors helping out in tight spots. Meanwhile, it rode comfortably supple over road texture imperfections and in most circumstances, only feeling firm or slightly stiff over the sharpest cracks or bumps.

In its element on motorways and sprawling country lanes, the 508 turns into tidily but when turning too fast or abrupt on narrow snaking roads, where there is a slight tendency for understeer. 

However, through corners, rear grip was reassuringly dedicated. Taking dips, crests and rougher textures in its stride, the 508 rides smoothly and feels settled on rebound, while its light steering is comfortably weighted, remains more intuitive feeling than many rivals. Road visibility was good overall, but through tighter corners, one tended to look around the thick nearside A-pillar, while a small retractable smoked screen HUD display presents information easily and prevents distraction.

Stylish accommodation

Well refined from noise, harshness and vibrations inside, the 508’s classy cabin has a distinctly European ambiance and features stylish user-friendly layouts, quality stitched leather upholstery and comfortably contoured yet supportively bolstered seats with lumbar support, and even an optional massaging function.

Cabin material, fit and textures are above the average in its class. Spacious in most directions inside, the 508’s seat and steering adjustability allows for an alert driving position, while non-sunroof models feature improved rear headroom, while console storage box is well-sized. Storage space includes a large 515-litre boot with split-folding rear seats to generously expand luggage room. 

Well-equipped, the 508 features manual side-rear and rear window screens, keyless entry and start, quad-zone climate control and automatic headlight dipping, tire inflation warning, and a blind spot warning system, depending on specification.

If less advanced but more fundamental, the 508 features all-round three-point seatbelts and rear Isofix childseat latches. Meanwhile, an enhanced and intuitive 7” touchscreen allows one access infotainment systems.

Featuring shortcuts, the new screen allows for a less clattered and more streamlined dash and console with fewer buttons than before, while the 508’s enhanced connectivity features include Peugeot Connect Apps.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: 1.6-litre, turbocharged, transverse 4-cylinders

Bore x stroke: 77 x 85.8mm

Valve-train: 16-valve, DOHC, direct injection

0-100km/h: 8.9-seconds

80-120km/h: 5.8-seconds

Top speed: 210km/h

Power, BHP (HP) [kW]: 163 (165) [121] @6000rpm

Specific power: 102BHP/litre

Power-to-weight: 115.6BHP/tonne

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 177 (240) @1400rpm

Specific torque: 150.2Nm/litre

Torque-to-weight: 170.2Nm/tonne

Fuel consumption, combined: 5.6-liers/100km

CO2 emissions: 130g/km

Fuel capacity: 72-litres

Length: 4830mm

Width: 1828mm

Height: 1456mm

Wheelbase: 2817mm

Track, F/R: 1579/1552mm

Overhang, F/R: 1001/1012mm

Headroom, F/R: 897/857mm

Shoulder room, F/R: 1430/1379mm

Luggage, min/max: 515-/958-litres

Unladen weight: 1410kg

Suspension, F/R: MacPherson struts/multi-link

Brakes: Discs

Tyres: 215/55R17

Scientists should be allowed to alter a person’s DNA in ways that will be passed on to future generations, but only to prevent serious and strongly heritable diseases, according to a new report from the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine.

However, tinkering with these genes in order to enhance or alter traits such as strength, intelligence or beauty should remain off-limits, the report authors concluded.

Changing the so-called germline — effectively, editing humanity’s future by altering genes in human reproductive cells — is illegal in the United States. It has largely been considered ethically off-limits here as well, at least while bioethicists and scientists pondered the unforeseen effects and unexamined moral dilemmas of using new gene-editing technologies.

However, scientists have moved forward aggressively to explore the feasibility of altering disease genes in other adult human cells with a revolutionary technique known as CRISPR-Cas9. It is widely believed that gene editing of this sort could treat patients with metabolic disorders, certain cancers and a range of other diseases that arise from genetic mutations — without altering the germline.

Last year, Chinese scientists launched a trial that uses CRISPR-Cas9 in a treatment for lung cancer. While the trial’s outcome is awaited with high anticipation, scientists outside China have expressed concern that ethical reservations in the United States and Europe will put them at a disadvantage.

CRISPR-Cas9 makes gene editing more straightforward, more precise and far more widespread. As such, the national academies’ report acknowledges that changing heritable DNA in eggs, sperm and early embryos is fast becoming “a realistic possibility that deserves serious consideration”.

The 22-member panel of scientists and bioethicists who produced the report completed a comprehensive review of the issues raised by that prospect.

Clinical trials involving germline editing should only be pursued to treat diseases that cannot be improved with “reasonable alternatives”, the committee said. In addition, they added, scientists should convincingly demonstrate they are targeting a gene that either causes or strongly predisposes a carrier to a serious disease or condition, and that they have weighed the likely risks and benefits of altering that gene.

These clinical trials should be conducted under public scrutiny that takes into account issues of societal fairness, personal dignity and scientific integrity, the panel said.

Finally, scientists should conduct long-term follow-up studies to discern how gene editing affects subsequent generations. Public debate and discussion about the technology should continue, the panel added.

“Genome editing research is very much an international endeavour, and all nations should ensure that any potential clinical applications reflect societal values and be subject to appropriate oversight and regulation,” said Massachusetts Institute of Technology cancer researcher Richard O. Hynes, who co-chaired the panel with University of Wisconsin-Madison bioethicist R. Alta Charo. “These overarching principles and the responsibilities that flow from them should be reflected in each nation’s scientific community and regulatory processes.”

Dr J. Patrick Whelan, an immunologist and bioethicist who was not on the panel, said the group “has asked the compelling questions”, sparking a conversation that must keep up with a rapid pace of scientific discovery in this field. He called the report’s release “a fantastic development”.

“What they’re saying is, let’s start the conversation, maintain ethical structures along the way and hopefully do this the right way,” said Whelan, who serves on the advisory board of the University of Southern California’s Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies.

The international panel included members from the US, China, France, Israel and Italy. Their report was underwritten in part by the Department of Defence’s Advanced Research Projects Agency and the US Food and Drug Administration.

One day, gardeners might not just hear the buzz of bees among their flowers, but the whirr of robots, too. Scientists in Japan say they have managed to turn an unassuming drone into a remote-controlled pollinator by attaching horsehairs coated with a special, sticky gel to its underbelly.

The system, described in the journal Chem, is nowhere near ready to be sent to agricultural fields, but it could help pave the way to developing automated pollination techniques at a time when bee colonies are suffering precipitous declines.

In flowering plants, sex often involves a threesome. Flowers looking to get the pollen from their male parts into another bloom’s female parts need an envoy to carry it from one to the other. Those third players are animals known as pollinators — a diverse group of critters that includes bees, butterflies, birds and bats, among others.

Animal pollinators are needed for the reproduction of 90 per cent of flowering plants and one third of human food crops, according to the US Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service. Chief among those are bees — but many bee populations in the United States have been in steep decline in recent decades, likely due to a combination of factors, including agricultural chemicals, invasive species and climate change. Just last month, the rusty patched bumblebee became the first wild bee in the United States to be listed as an endangered species (although the Trump administration just put a halt on that designation).

Thus, the decline of bees is not just worrisome because it could disrupt ecosystems, but also because it could disrupt agriculture and the economy. People have been trying to come up with replacement techniques, the study authors say, but none of them are especially effective yet — and some might do more harm than good.

“One pollination technique requires the physical transfer of pollen with an artist’s brush or cotton swab from male to female flowers,” the authors wrote. “Unfortunately, this requires much time and effort. Another approach uses a spray machine, such as a gun barrel and pneumatic ejector. However, this machine pollination has a low pollination success rate because it is likely to cause severe denaturing of pollens and flower pistils as a result of strong mechanical contact as the pollens burst out of the machine.”

Scientists have thought about using drones, but scientists have not figured out how to make free-flying robot insects that can rely on their own power source without being attached to a wire.

“It’s very tough work,” said senior author Eijiro Miyako, a chemist at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology in Japan.

Miyako’s particular contribution to the field involves a gel, one he had considered a mistake 10 years before. The scientist had been attempting to make fluids that could be used to conduct electricity, and one attempt left him with a gel that was as sticky as hair wax. Clearly this would not do, and so Miyako stuck it in a storage cabinet in an uncapped bottle. When it was rediscovered a decade later, it looked exactly the same — the gel had not dried up or degraded at all.

“I was so surprised, because it still had a very high viscosity,” Miyako said.

The chemist noticed that when dropped, the gel absorbed an impressive amount of dust from the floor. Miyako realised this material could be very useful for picking up pollen grains. He took ants, slathered the ionic gel on some of them and let both the gelled and un-gelled insects wander through a box of tulips. Those ants with the gel were far more likely to end up with a dusting of pollen than those that were free of the sticky substance.

The next step was to see if this worked with mechanical movers, as well. He and his colleagues chose a four-propeller drone whose retail value was $100, and attached horsehairs to its smooth surface to mimic a bee’s fuzzy body. They coated those horsehairs in the gel, and then manoeuvred the drones over Japanese lilies, where they would pick up the pollen from one flower and then deposit the pollen at another bloom, thus fertilising it.

The scientists looked at the hairs under a scanning electron microscope and counted up the pollen grains attached to the surface. They found that the robots whose horsehairs had been coated with the gel had on the order of 10 times more pollen than those hairs that had not been coated with the gel.

“A certain amount of practice with remote control of the artificial pollinator is necessary,” the study authors noted.

Miyako does not think such drones would replace bees altogether, but could simply help bees with their pollinating duties.

“In combination is the best way,” he said.

There is a lot of work to be done before that is a reality, however. Small drones will need to become more manoeuvrable and energy efficient, as well as smarter, he said — with better GPS and artificial intelligence, programmed to travel in highly effective search-and-pollinate patterns.