To be fermented, cellulose must first be broken away from a plant stiffener called lignin.

FORBES: Companies, People, Ideas

It is Mr Mandelson's loss as an adviser and back-stiffener that Mr Blair will feel more keenly.

ECONOMIST: Politics

The Western European Union, set up in 1948, was a cold war spine-stiffener.

ECONOMIST: Bureaucracies grow faster than they can be pruned