Ms von Lange, who has been dubbed literature's answer to the Spice Girls, saves her novel from sounding too condescending and portentous by injecting a heavy element of comedy into a book intended to upset the grown-ups.

ECONOMIST: Post-wall German fiction

Still, the search for better batteries is an endless one, and Dr Pyykko's discovery might prompt some new thinking about what is possible in this and other areas of heavy-element chemistry.

ECONOMIST: Einstein and car batteries

Mr. DIAMOND: That's true, and we have many different type of wars, and one of them is an insurgency against the new political order with a heavy terrorist element that aims to strike at Europe and the United States.

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